Anastasia - The Ringing Cedars Of Russia series 1-10
ANASTASIA
THE RINGING CEDARS OF RUSSIA
"I exist for those, for whom I exist".
According to Anastasia, special combinations of letters and words
are inserted into the text, which influence a man beneficially:
"You can feel these influences while reading it,
when your hearing is not disturbed by sounds
produced by artificial things and mechanisms.
Natural sounds like: the singing of birds, the sound of rain,
the rustling of leaves in the trees help to produce positive influences."
Translator:
Larisa Malgosheva-Bartone +1(732)249-8772
12 Suydam Sfc
New Brunswick, NJ 08901 US
e-mail: Larisa7777@aol.com
Official Websites:
"Anastasia" is Book 1 of The Ringing Cedars Book Series.
This series of nine books tells the story of a remarkable woman named Anastasia,
discovered in 1995 by a Siberian trader, Vladimir Megre, while he was plying the waters
of the remote Ob River. Anastasia was born in the forest in 1969 to parents who died
tragically when she was just a baby. Living for the most part without warm clothes, food
cultivation or man-made shelter, she has survived on fruit, nuts, berries and mushrooms,
brought to her by "wild" animals with which she lives in peaceful harmony. Megre
initially spent three days with Anastasia, during which time she displayed such
astounding knowledge, power and wisdom that he abandoned his business and, at her
request, began writing this series. She told him she would encode the books with an
energy that would cause them to sell in the millions. Despite his lack of writing
experience, this is exactly what happened. It is Anastasia's ability to strike a chord in the
heart of the reader that makes these books so very unusual. The purity and power of her
words is provoking an outpouring of joy and hope in people from all walks of life. The
series has sold over 11 million copies and has been translated into 20 different languages.
This is not the authorized English Edition.
Vladimir Megre
Author of The Ringing Cedars Series
Vladimir Megre, born in 1950, was a well-known entrepreneur from a Siberian city of
Novosibirsk.
In 1994, during a stop on a trading trip along the mighty Ob River, a Siberian elder told
Vladimir Megre about the existence of "ringing cedars" — sacred trees which can heal
bodily diseases and elevate the human spirit. The elder told him of such a cedar growing
in the Siberian backwoods.
Intrigued, but committed to his present venture, Vladimir Megre later began to delve into
literature on Siberian cedar trees and became one of the first Russian businessmen to
rediscover the tremendous folk medicinal, nutritional and commercial value of virgin oil
pressed from Siberian cedar nuts. It seemed that knowledge of the secret techniques of
pressing the oil had been lost.
In 1995, determined to rediscover this secret and launch a highly lucrative production of
cedar nut oil, Vladimir Megre organized a second expedition along the River Ob. On this
trip however, an encounter with the elder's granddaughter, named Anastasia, transformed
him so deeply that he abandoned his commercial plans, his trading business and
temporarily even his family, and instead went to Moscow to fulfill his promise to
Anastasia to write a book about what she had shared with him. Anastasia had reassured
him that his books would sell in the millions.
True to her promise, Anastasia's messages in the Ringing Cedars Series have spread like a
raging wildfire across Russia and Europe, where news reporters are now writing about a
"new dawn" unfolding and an "eco-village revolution" taking place, which may change
the country's — and the whole world's — destiny.
Vladimir Megre could not have known that his 1994-95 trade trips would change his
entire life and affect the whole of humanity. Yet this appears to be the inevitable impact
of his discovery of Anastasia and her remarkable messages for the world as chronicled in
the Ringing Cedars Series.
Now English readers are excitedly devouring these books — with more than 100,000
copies sold already — and bookstores claiming "these books are flying off the shelves!" A
wave of excitement is now sweeping the English-speaking world as everyday 100's more
readers discover his books.
Vladimir Megre presently lives near the city of Vladimir, Russia, 240 km (150 miles) east
of Moscow. He can be contacted by e-mail at megre@online.sinor.ru (Please note that he
doesn't read or speak English.)
Anastasia
Remarkable woman of the Siberian forest.
Anastasia is considered to be a surviving member of an ancient Vedic culture, whose
powers and knowledge far exceed anything known today. She is the inspiration for the
Ringing Cedars Series. According to Megre’s account, she was born in 1969, in the
Western Siberian taiga (boreal forests) not far from the city of Surgut on the river Ob.
Her parents died tragically in a forest accident when she was just a baby. She lives in the
wilderness — for the most part without warm clothes, food cultivation or man-made
shelter — and survives on fruit, nuts, berries and mushrooms, brought to her by "wild"
animals with which she lives in peaceful harmony.
She consistently displays the most developed psychic and mental powers including
remote viewing and healing, mind reading and seemingly perfect memory. When
challenged to solve some of society's most complex social, health and environmental
problems, after only a few minutes lying on her back on the ground, with eyes closed and
just her fingertips twitching, she has provided answers in such incredible detail, that
witnesses have been left flabbergasted.
She says these powers are natural to Mankind and in these books she describes exactly
how they may be regained by any one of us.
Most of all she is a beautiful mystery — one who has changed the landscape of
metaphysical thought with her foresight and innate wisdom.
Overview
There is so much mind-blowing material in these books it's almost impossible to give you
an overview! What we can tell you is this. . .
This real-life story begins in 1995. . .
A trader prepares his ships to embark on the most remarkable trip of his life — a trip that
will change the course of millions of human lives. Ahead of him lies the mighty Ob River
— winding and snaking for 3,500 miles through the Siberian taiga — the vast boreal forest
— that stretches across Northern Europe, Alaska and Canada.
A warning! Nothing you have ever read before can prepare you for the journey you are
about to take.
You are about to meet Anastasia — a beautiful young woman — discovered by the author,
living alone deep in the remote wild forests of Siberia. She is considered to be a surviving
member of an ancient Vedic civilisation whose extraordinary powers and knowledge far
exceed anything known today.
Anastasia's powerful, myth-shattering messages reveal a profound wisdom grounded in
ancient knowledge; they expose suppressed secrets and hidden historical facts that will
completely change your understanding of our past, and offer a whole new paradigm for
our planet's future.
Anastasia will lift you up and hurl you into a future that is. . . well. . . everything you
imagined life could and certainly should be!
The twist is. . . it's here NOW!
Anastasia will have you dancing with delight and squealing with excitement as you re-
discover YOU. . . in all your glory!
Anastasia's messages will simply blow your mind!
Her soft-spoken words go straight to your heart — like nothing you have ever read!
And the more you read them. . . the better you’ll feel.
Anastasia will restore your hope for the future and re-ignite your passion for life. After
reading these books — nothing will be quite the same. . .
This page intentionally left blank
(Just to piss you off)
ANASTASIA
AND THE RINGING CEDARS OF RUSSIA
Reviews:
reviewed by Donald J. Supkov, PhD, Professional Hydrologist
For uncounted eons of time, humanity has been traveling on a road of exploration,
encountering the wonders of Mother Nature while benefiting from the uncounted gifts
provided freely by Mother Nature. During this voyage of exploration humanity started
out as hunter-gatherers to obtain nourishment to sustain itself along the way. In this phase
of the explorative journey, humans had very intimate contact with Mother Nature in order
to learn the ways of Mother Nature in order to survive.
In the course of time, humanity developed agriculture and animal husbandry and further
reaped the benefits provided by Mother Nature. As agriculturalists, humans became more
tied to a specific location because of the requirements needed for agricultural crops which
are attached to the ground and thus are not prone to wander around the land as their
human caretakers are able to do.
But a blessing provided by Mother Nature to humanity through the gift of agriculture was
the ability to provide a surplus of food, far beyond the needs of the people actually
remaining fixed in the places of crop production. This allowed the development of
civilization a wide diversity of job descriptions, seemingly unconnected to Mother Nature
compared to the hunter-gatherers and the agriculturalists.
Because of the bounties provided by Mother Nature through the agriculturalists, some
individuals became free to continue the voyage of exploration to view first hand what
Mother Nature had to offer in more distant and remote locations. This has given rise to
the hero adventurer who travels to distant places and returns to his native land with
stories relating his voyage of exploration. These adventure exploration stories frequently
have associated with them descriptions of some fabulous gift or treasure provided by
Mother Nature. Examples come to mind such as Jason and the Golden Fleece, Ponce de
Leon and the Fountain of Youth, Marco Polo and the stones that burn (coal) from China.
As civilization developed and spawned the industrial revolution, humanity accelerated
the exploitation of these gifts from Mother Nature such as coal, oil, natural gas, iron,
various minerals, lumber, waterpower, while at the same time becoming detached from
the source of these gifts.
While the non-food raising members of agricultural society became more and more
dependent on only a few crops as a food supply, such as corn, wheat, and rice, they
became afflicted with various ailments that characterize modern society. This condition is
contrasted with the Hunzas in northern Pakistan who thrive disease-free to ripe old ages
solely by eating organically grown crops and by drinking “glacier milk”, the milky
glacial melt water loaded with finely pulverized rock.
The indigenous people from around the world seem to have within each tribe a “medicine
man” or shaman, who is most intimately connected with Mother Nature. The shaman
collects various herbs from Mother Nature's storehouse and uses them to help heal any
member of the tribe who becomes afflicted with some sort of ailment.
Perhaps there is some sort of inner knowledge deep within the human psyche that keeps
reminding us that somewhere Mother Nature has provided a gift, hidden in plain view,
that will prove to contain a cure for any ailment that afflicts humans. Perhaps this inner
knowledge is what makes the game of Easter Egg Hunt so popular among children.
Maybe this is why older children and young adults enjoy the game of Treasure Hunt so
much. But even though mature adults are no longer tied to the soil in a civilized agrarian
society devoted to supporting the growth of industrialization, most of us still can not
travel to far and distant places to explore the wonders and gifts of Mother Nature. So we
provide the where with all to allow surrogates to do the adventuring for us.
Perhaps the best example is of humans collectively sending a few astronauts to the Moon.
What a grand adventure all humanity was able to participate in via the wonders of
television! That is big time adventure! These explorer adventurers, who flew to the moon,
have taken on hero status along with Marco Polo, Columbus and Magellan who merely
made long trips on the surface of the Earth. But there are other explorer adventurers who
made very short trips and discovered other gifts from Mother Nature. Consider Loenhoek
who made a microscope and then traveled no farther than to the inside of a drop of water
and there discovered a whole new world of living organisms. Microbiologists have since
explored inside common soil samples and there discovered more gifts from Mother
Nature consisting of antibiotics such as penicillin. Biologists are continuing to explore
the tropical rainforests for more gifts from Mother Nature, hoping to find more cures for
human ailments.
Perhaps one of the least likely places for an adventurer to explore for gifts from Mother
Nature from the perspectives of an American reader is Siberia. Now that is a place that
could use a little bit of public relations work! What comes to mind at the mention of the
name Siberia? Snow, ice, frigid cold, remoteness, desolation, prison camps? Perhaps
some frozen mammoths still locked in a deep freeze from the time of the last ice age? I
think you will have a pleasant surprise when you accompany Vladimir Merge in his
exploration of Russia and share in his discovery of more wonderful gifts from Mother
Nature: the Ringing Cedars of Russia, and Anastasia, a modern day shaman from the
wilds of Siberia. When I say wild, it is really an understatement! Leam about the many
precious gifts from Mother Nature that are hidden in plain view which Anastasia desires
to reveal to the entire world, including the great healing powers of the Ringing Cedars of
Russia. If you find that the healing powers of the Ringing Cedars are beyond belief, you
may still benefit from reading what Vladimir Megre has to say, since you will find that
this is also a very readable love story like none other you have ever read.
Although, the story was originally written in Russian, you will find that the English
translation made by Larisa Malgosheva-Bartone reads like any story written in English
and shows that humans are basically the same everywhere, no matter where they live and
no matter what language they speak.
28 Sefton Circle Piscataway, N.J.
08854, 08854, USA
Phone: (732) 752-3189 Date: February 4, 2001
Maureen Jordan, M. A.
Education, College of New Jersey, USA
Teacher of Art and English
On Larisa Bartone's request I have recently read her translation of Vladimir Megre's
Anastasia, The Ringing Cedars of Russia. Larisa has a very good command of English
that was why my corrections were very insignificant.
I found the book to be written in fluent everyday English that was quite easy to
understand. The story has a nice flow. It held my interest throughout, and I think it would
do the same for the general reading public in the USA. I recommend it highly.
Maureen Jordan 52 Linden Lane Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA Phone: (609) 799-8266
Dr. Fred L. Kingsbury,
Chiropractor
As an American physician who has a natural/ holistic orientation, and a spiritual seeker
for over 30 years I found Anastasia — The Ringing Cedars of Russia a grand journey into
wonder, mystery, and Truth. A truly fascinating read which I recommend highly to all
conscious beings.
I believe that Larisa Bartone has done a great job translating it from Russian into English.
The book reads well and requires no comments or explanations.
Fred L. Kingsbury, D. C.
25 Clyde Road, Suite 102
Somerset, N.J. 08873, USA
Phone:(732)873-1020
Fax:732-873-1999
E-mail: dr.fred@worldnet.att.net
Jean Munzer,
Director,
Metaphysical Center of New Jersey, USA
ANASTASIA, THE RINGING CEDARS OF RUSSIA is a mind and spirit-expanding book
about Anastasia, a pure soul living in perfect harmony with Nature in the wilds of Siberia.
She wishes good to everybody and has much to teach all who are willing and able to
learn from her. She says:
“I exist for those for whom I exist”.
Reading about her is an innately rewarding experience for all of us. As people encounter
this book their mind and hearts will be opened to the Truth that Anastasia teaches. Larisa
Malgosheva-Bartone's translation of the book into English is excellent. I believe it will
open Anastasia's teachings to English speaking readers all over the world. Larisa is the
right channel to convey the energy, which has been instilled into the Russian variant of
this book by Anastasia.
Jean Munzer
10 Pequot Rd.
Oakland, New Jersey
07436, USA
Phone: 1(201)337-6276
DEDICATED TO Anastasia N. L. Briditskaya
From the book I've learned, — in Siberia a girl is living in the woods — Anastasia. She is
gathering the forest gifts and brings them to the crowed cities.
In your clean Siberian forests you are a flowing brook. Your loving fire is burning evil
down giving us a beam of light thoughts.
Stay in the woods, our precious, don't come out to the bustling world. As it has lots of
evil and darkness stay away for your sonny-boy's sake.
You are a sister in our God's image creation of good is your only wish. To save your son
and you, our sweetness, is the only problem for us in existence.
In your virgin forest as in the Lord's house You are drinking the morning dew from
flowers. Our souls are rejoicing now just because you exist, you are there.
You've come to us, Anastasia,
To open our eyes to the world,
So our souls could shine in the light,
To teach us to create what's good and right!
To live in peace with the entire universe, To let only pure thoughts flow, To find our way
in the midst of existence, To let the wings of God’s Spirit grow carrying us home.
The only thing we need is love and patience To learn to create the Good! That's why we
should ask the blessings from our God-Father in heaven.
To be like you, Anastasia, —
It is not given to all of us.
We are to work hard with a lot of efforts
To find our way into the world of yours.
And let you radiate the warmth with that God's beam of yours. You've come to us filled
with love to create only kindness and what is right.
Your beauty is special and unique, you've deserved Our Father's gift. You've become a
beloved to everyone. The stroke of darkness will never touch you.
Stay warm and be protected by our love always dwell in our thoughts, may you never
suffer from malice Be saved by God and our spirits.
Just loving you is to save you. You are in our hearts and dreams We are with you, our
dear, to help you to overcome the darkness. God bless you!
This page intentionally left blank
(Again, just to piss you off!)
Contents
Chapter 1 RINGING CEDAR
Chapter 2 MEETING
Chapter 3 A BEAST OR A HUMAN BEING?
Chapter 4 WHO ARE THEY?
Chapter 5 FOREST BEDROOM
Chapter 6 ANASTASIA 'S MORNING
Chapter 7 ANASTASIA 'S BEAM
Chapter 8 CONCERT IN TAIGA
Chapter 9 WHO LIGHTS A NEW STAR
Chapter 1 0 HER FA VORITE DA CHNIKS
Chapter 1 1 DOCTOR SEED
Chapter 1 2 WHO IS BEING STUNG BY BEES
Chapter 13 HELLO, MORNING!
Chapter 1 4 EVENING PROCED URE
Chapter 1 5 IT WILL PREPARE EVERYTHING BY ITSELF
Chapter 1 6 SLEEPING UNDER YOUR STAR
Chapter 1 7 YOUR CHILD 'S HELPER AND EDUCATOR
Chapter 18 FOREST GYMNASIA
Chapter 19 ATTENTION TO MAN
Chapter 20 A FLYING SA UCER? NOTHING SPECIAL
Chapter 2 1 THE BRAIN - SUPER COMPUTER
Chapter 22 “THERE WAS LIFE IN HIM AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF PEOPLE”
Chapter 23 IT IS NECESSARY TO CHANGE ONES OWN WORLD OUTLOOK
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
MORTAL SIN
GETTING IN TOUCH WITH PARADISE
WHO WILL BRING UP OUR SON?
AFTER A WHILE
A STRANGE GIRL
TINYBUGS
DREAMS - FUTURE CREATION
ACROSS THE SPACE OF TIME OF THE DARK FORCES
POWERFUL PEOPLE
WHO ARE YOU, ANASTASIA?
Chapter 1
RINGING CEDAR
In the spring of 1994 I chartered three river motorboats on which I accomplished a four
months expedition up the Siberian river Ob. We started from Novosibirsk, moved up to
Salekhard and downwards. The aim of the expedition was to regulate the economic
connections with the regions of the Extreme North.
The expedition ran under the name of Merchantman. The largest passenger motorboats
was named after Patris Lumumba. (I believe that in the Western Siberian River Steam-
Navigation, they give strange names to the ships like: Mariya Ulyanova, Patrice
Lumumba, Mikhail Kalinin or some-thing like that, as if there were no other historically
prominent personalities in Siberia).
Our headquarters, the exhibition of Siberian entrepreneurs and a store were located on
this ship. The caravan was to go to North for about 3,500 kilometers. We were to visit
relatively large cities such as: Tomsk, Niznevartovsk, Surgut, Khant-Mansiysk, Salekhard
as well as small settlements which are possible to reach with cargo only within a limited
period of the navigation season. In the daytime the caravan's ships usually stopped at
settlements. We were trading and negotiating establishing permanent economic
connections. We moved on at night. When it was rather stormy, we preferred to moor at
any settlement and organize evenings of recreation with dancing for the local youths.
Such kind of recreation has very rare lately as all kinds of clubs and Houses of Culture
have become very dilapidated. Cultural and educational work is almost neglected there.
Sometimes we were floating for 24 hours without stopping as there were no settlements,
only taiga (virgin forest) all over. The only means of communication for many, many
kilometers around was the river. At that time it did not occur to me since it was outside
my province, that at one of those kilometers fortune had prepared for me a meeting which
would change my life completely. Here at a tiny village consisting of just a couple of
small houses, far removed from the nearest big settlement which was hundreds of
kilometers away, I ordered the leading ship to be moored to the bank. I planned to dock
there for three hours, just to let my people relax while walking around the village. At the
same time it was an opportunity for the native population to buy some goods from us and
in exchange to purchase fish and wild herbs at a low price. While there, two local old
men addressed me as the leader of the caravan with a very strange request. One of them
looked older than the other. The older one was quiet and the younger one started to speak.
He tried to convince me to lend them at least 50 men from the crew. I should like to
mention that our crew consisted of only 65 people. They proposed to lead us into the
taiga, 25 kilometers away from the riverbank where we were docking. They wanted to cut
down, what he called, a Ringing Cedar. The cedar, according to his estimations was
almost 40 meters high. He suggested that we saw the tree 'into pieces so it would be
possible to carry it by hand to the mother ship. Then they wanted us to cut those pieces
into smaller ones so each of us could take a piece for ourselves and a few more to give to
our relatives, friends and anybody who would like to receive them as a gift. The old man
said that the cedar was not an ordinary one. A piece of it was to be carried as a pendant on
a string. Moreover, while putting it on the chest it was necessary to stand barefooted on
grass, pressing it to one's naked chest with the left palm. In a minute one would feel a
very pleasant warmth coming from the cedar piece, then one would experience a
sensation of a light flash flowing through the body. On occasion, when one felt the desire,
it was recommended to rub it with the linger tips on that side of the cedar piece which
was not touching the body. While polishing it, one should hold the piece by pressing the
thumbs to the opposite side which does not face the body. In three months the owner of
the Ringing Cedar piece will feel considerable improvement in one's health, and may
experience healing from many diseases. “Even from AIDS?” I asked, trying to explain
the symptoms of this disease, telling them what I knew myself from past reading. The
man answered confidently with firm belief, “From any illness!” According to his
affirmation that was the least of it. Most important was the fact that the owner of such a
piece of cedar would become more kind, more successful and more talented. At that time
I did not know much about the healing power of cedar, but its abilities sounded to me
absolutely unrealistic. Then I told the old men that over there on “the big land” (the
industrial areas with big cities) the women preferred to decorate themselves with gold
and silver jewelry to attract the attention of other people. “ They are wearing them
because they don't realize that gold is dust compared to one piece of this cedar,” he
responded confidently. Trying to avoid argument and paying respect to their age, I said,
“Well, may be... If a great wood carver would apply his skill and create something
extraordinarily beautiful..”.
“One can carve, of course, but it is better to polish it by oneself, with one's own fingers,
when one's soul chooses to do it. Then the piece of cedar will look beautiful outside”.
While saying this he hurriedly unbuttoned his worn down jacket and shirt and showed
something which was hanging on his chest. It was a round, protuberance or, rather, an
oval thing. There was a fancy, inconspicuous design on it in violet, crimson and reddish
brown. The fibers of wood looked like tiny brooks. I am not an expert on works of art,
though I have visited a variety of galleries and museums. The world famous masterpieces
did not excite me as much as this fascinating object hanging on the old man’s chest. It
touched my feelings and emotions much more strongly than my visit to the famous
Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. “How long have you been polishing your piece of cedar?”,
I asked. “Ninety three years”, was the answer. “Well, and how old are you?”, I asked
again. “One hundred and nineteen”, he said. I did not believe his answer at that moment.
He looked not more than seventy five or so. He did not pay any attention to my doubts.
The old man, being a bit excited, started to convince me that a piece of cedar would look
as beautiful on anyone in three years only. Eventually it would get better and better,
especially on women. The body of the owner would produce a wonderful aroma,
incomparable to any perfume created by man. I was aware that the scent which was
emanating from both men was very pleasant indeed. Even though I am a smoker yet I
could smell it. They say that the smoker's sense of smell is usually weaker. I also noticed
that his vocabulary differed from those of the native population. The phrases and word
combinations he used were certainly not characteristic of the inhabitants of the far North.
Some of these are still reverberating in my ears, even the melody and intonation. The old
man spoke like this: “God has created the cedar as an accumulator of cosmic energy. A
man, when he feels love, is producing radiation. Within a fraction of a second, this
radiation comes back to the earth after being reflected from the planets above and gives
life to everything living. The sun, one of the heavenly bodies, is reflecting an incomplete
spectrum of this radiation. Only light radiation from a man goes to the cosmos and comes
back to the Earth again solely as a benevolent, positive one.
A man who possesses malicious feelings emanates only dark radiation. It can't ascend so
it goes deep down inside the Earth. Having been reflected from the planet's depths, it
comes back to the surface in the form of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and wars. The
highest achievement of reflected dark radiation is its direct influence on man. It increases
the malicious feelings in him.
The lifetime of cedar is 550 years. Day and night it catches and accumulates all spectrum
of light energy through millions of its needle leaves. During the cedar's lifetime, all kinds
of objects are passing over it, reflecting this energy. Even a tiny piece of cedar contains
more energy than all manmade energy producing units taken together. Cedar receives the
emanation from man's energy through the Cosmos. It preserves and gives the energy back
to the Cosmos when its level goes down and accordingly it goes down in man too. This
includes everything living and growing on the Earth. It happens, though very seldom,
that cedars just accumulate but don't give back the accumulated energy. When such
cedars are five hundred years old they start to ring, thus they are trying to communicate.
They give a welcome sign, inviting man to use their energy on Earth for good purposes.
Such a cedar produces a vibrating ringing sound for three years if it does not come in
contact with people. After these three years, if it fails to give its energy accumulated via
the. Cosmos directly to man, it loses the energy by burning it within itself. The torturous
process of burning-dying lasts for twenty seven years. Recently, we have found this kind
of cedar. According to our estimation it has been ringing for two years already, it means
that only one year is left. It is necessary to cut it and give it to people”. The old man had
been speaking for a long time, his voice filled with a quiet assurance. When he became
excited, he polished his piece of cedar with his finger tips very quickly, as if he were
playing a musical instrument. It was pretty cold; a fresh wind was blowing from the river,
but his worn jacket and shirt were still unbuttoned. A member of our firm, Lidiya
Petrovna, came down and told us that the crew was ready to leave and they were waiting
for me. So I had to say “Good bye” to the strange old men and went on board. It was
impossible for me to fulfill their request: three days' delay would cost us great losses.
Everything I had been told by those men I took as an extreme superstition or as one of the
local myths. The next day during our business planning meeting I noticed that Lidiya
Petrovna was rubbing a piece of cedar hanging on her chest. Later on she told me that
after I had left she saw that the old man I was talking with looked very confused and
unhappy while watching me leave. Then he addressed his companion speaking very
excitedly, “How come... I absolutely can't speak their language... I have failed to
convince them. I could not! I've failed! Nothing has come of it”. The one who looked
older told him, “You did not sound convincing, my son. You did not reach their
consciousness” “When I was already walking up the steps”, Lidiya Petrovna went on,
“the old man, the one who was speaking to you, suddenly rushed to me, caught my hand,
led me down the steps to the grass, took out of his pocket a string with this piece of cedar
wood. He put it on me, pressed it to my chest with my palm by putting his hand on mine.
Immediately I felt a trembling sensation all over my body. When I was leaving, he kept
saying, "Happy voyage! Be happy, all of you! Come next year. All the best to all of you.
We shall be waiting for you. Happy voyage!"
I recalled that when our motor boat was casting off, I could see the old man waving his
hand. Then all of a sudden he sat down on the grass. After a while I looked at them again
through binoculars. The old man was sill sitting on the grass. His shoulders were
shuddering... The one who was older was bending over him soothing his head.
On our arrival back to Novosibirsk I felt sick with acute pains. The diagnoses were:
duodenal ulcer and osteochandrous of the thoracic spine, I was admitted to a hospital.
While in the hospital I was shielded from the everyday routine of the outer world by the
quietness of the hospital room. It was a nice room, deluxe' for one person, which
provided me with a nice opportunity to analyze the results of the four month expedition
and make a draft of a business plan for the future. Memory was bringing me again and
again to my meeting with the strange old men and the subject of our discussion. Upon
my request friends and family members supplied me with all kinds of literature on cedar.
By comparing all the reading I became more and more amazed. Eventually I started to
believe everything the old men had told me. “Maybe they are right to some extent, or,
maybe they were one hundred percent right”, I thought to myself. The books on folk
medicine tell much about the cedar's healing power. Everything, starting with the needle
leaves to its bark has highly efficient healing qualities. That was what the books said
repeatedly. They reported that the texture of cedar wood looks very beautiful and it is
widely used by craftsmen. I learned that it is good for furniture. It is also used for the
resonance boards of musical instalments. The cedar's conifer has highly fitocidic
properties and the ability to disinfect environmental air. The cedar timber has a special,
very pleasant balsamic flavor. If you put a small piece of cedar wood in a house, it will
keep moths away.
Popular scientific literature also points out that the quality of cedar growing in Northern
areas is much higher than those in the South. Back in 1792 academician P. S. Pallas wrote
that the Siberian cedar nuts rejuvenate man’s power. They also bring back youthfulness,
stimulate the immune system considerably, increasing the physical body's resistance
against many diseases. World history knows a great number of historical phenomena
directly or indirectly connected with cedar. Here is one of them.
A half literate countryman, Gregory Rasputin, from a remote Siberian village, was from
the region where Siberian cedar grows. He came to Moscow in 1907 when he was
already 50 years of age. He startled the royal family, where he was heartily welcomed,
because of his prophecies; He was sexually involved with many distinguished ladies.
Those who were trying to kill him were shocked by the fact that having been hit by many
bullets, he was still alive. His vitality was amazing. The secret was that he had been
brought up in the region where cedar grows and he had been fed on cedar nuts.
The journalists of that period summarized his endurance: “At 50 years of age, he could
start an orgy at noon, continuing his drunken ordeals till 4 a. m.. After erotic involvement
and drinking heavily he went right to church for morning services where he prayed till 8
a.m.. After returning home, he drank a lot of tea as if nothing had happened before,
Grishka received visitors till 2 p.m. Then accompanied by a group of ladies, he went to a
Russian bathhouse with a steamer and then went directly to a suburban restaurant. There
he repeated the previous night's performance. No ordinary man could possibly stand up to
that kind of routine”.
Today, the several times world and Olympic champion in wrestling Alexander Karelin,
currently unbeatable, is also a Siberian, again from the region where Siberian cedar
grows. The strong man has eaten cedar nuts all his life. Is this by chance? In Russia
people usually wish you a “Siberian health”. I am just giving you the facts which one can
find in press issues or popular science literature or what living witnesses can prove. One
such witness is the previously mentioned Lidiya Petrovna, who had received the piece of
Ringing Cedar wood from the old man. She is thirty six now, married, a mother of two
children. Her colleagues who are in touch with her have noticed the great changes which
have happened to her. She has become more benevolent and smiles more often. Her
husband, whom I know also, has told me that lately they have more mutual
understandings. By the way, he mentioned that his wife had even become younger
looking and has stimulated more feelings in him, and, to add to it, more respect and even
love had appeared in their relationship.
Yet, all these facts and proofs are nothing in comparison to the most important ones
which anyone can find in the Bible. After reading the Holy Scripture all my doubts
disappeared like morning fog. The third book of Moses in the Old Testament teaches how
to heal people and disinfect houses with cedar, “... the priest shall order that two ritually
clean birds be brought, along with a piece of cedar wood, a red cord, and a sprig of
hyssop” (Leviticus 14,4).
When I compared all the facts and information collected from different sources, the
world's wonders fade compared to this one. Namely that the great mysteries which keep
exciting human minds seem insignificant compared to the mystery of a Ringing Cedar.
Now there are no doubts for me as far as its existence is concerned. Popular science
literature and ancient scripts have scattered all doubts. The Bible mentions cedar forty
two times in the Old Testament. Moses from the Old Testament, evidently knew about
cedar much more even than the Old Testament records.
We are used to the fact that Mother Nature provides us with different plants capable of
healing different human diseases. Popular science literature proves the healing abilities of
cedar. In addition, many serious and authoritative explorers such as the academician P. S.
Pallas concur. At the same time they all agree with what the Old Testament says.
Now, I would like you to pay attention to the following facts:
The Old Testament, pointing out cedar and only cedar, does not mention any other trees
but cedar alone. Doesn't this mean that cedar is the most powerful of plants existing in the
realm of Mother Nature? What is it? Is it a medicinal organic unit?
Yet, that is not all. The following story from the Old Testament reveals much more
enigmatic things. King Solomon was building a temple of cedar which had been
transported from Lebanon. He asked King Hiram a favor: “... So send your men to
Lebanon to cut down cedars for me. My men will work with them, and I will pay your
men whatever you decide. As you well know, my men don't know how to cut down trees
as well as yours do So Hiram supplied Solomon with all the cedar and pine logs that
he wanted, and Solomon provided Hiram with 100,000 bushels of wheat and 110,000
gallons of pure olive oil every year to feed his men” (1 Kings 5; 6,7,9,10).
What kind of people were they? What kind of secrets did they know? I've heard that
even now in the remote villages, deep in the taiga there are old men who somehow can
choose cedar trees for construction purposes. But at that time, more than two thousand
years ago, I believe, everybody must have known this.
However, even at that time very special people were required for construction work with
cedar. The temple was constructed; they started inauguration services and see what
happened: “... when all the leaders had gathered, the priests lifted the covenant box and
carried it to the Temple... and put it in the Most Holy Place... There was nothing inside
the covenant box except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed there at Mount
Sinai, when the Lord made a covenant with the people of Israel.... As the priests were
leaving the Temple, it was suddenly filled with a cloud shining with the dazzling light of
the Lord's presence and they could not go back in to perform their duties...” (1 Kings
8,5,6,9,10,11).
What kind of a cloud was it? How and from where did it enter the temple? What did it
represent? Was it an energy? A spirit? What kind of phenomenon was it and how was it
interconnected with cedar?
The old man spoke about a Ringing Cedar as an accumulator of some kind of energy...
What kind of energy? What cedar is more powerful: a Lebanese or a Siberian one?
Academician P. S. Pallas has told us that the healing qualities of cedar increase as one is
moves closer to the border of forest tundra. This means that the Siberian one is more
powerful. The Bible reads: “... judge it accordingly to the fruit”. Which means, that the
Siberian one wins again! Why is this not more widely known? The Old Testament, the
science of the previous century and modem texts are of the same opinion about cedar, no
contradictions exist!
The Mother of Agni Yoga Teaching or Living Ethics, Helena Roerich, has said: “... At the
kings' inauguration rituals of ancient Khora-Sana a cedar tar chalice was always present
Druids called a chalice of cedar tar a "Chalice of Life" and only later on, when they had
lost their spiritual consciousness was it replaced by blood. The Zoroastrian Fire came as a
result of burning down the cedar tar in the chalice”.
Specifically what did our forefathers know about cedar? Has its properties and actions
been hidden till now? Could it be nothing? Does it belong to so called “lost knowledge”?
What do the old people know about it? Then suddenly something came to the surface of
my memory, the age old event which produced shivering all over my body, though, at that
time, I did not give any meaning to it.
At the beginning of our perestroyka (the period which followed the crash of communism)
I, being a president of the association of entrepreneurs of Siberia, got a call from
Novosibirsk oblispolkom (the regional executive committee). At that time the executive
committees and regional committees of CPSU still existed. So I was asked to come to the
meeting with a highly recognized western businessman. He had a letter of
recommendation from our government. Some of the entrepreneurs and the members of
the staff from the regional executive committee were present at the meeting. The western
businessman looked like “a white shark”. He had oriental features. He was wearing a
turban, his fingers were decorated with expensive rings.
We were speaking, as usual, during these meetings about possibilities of cooperation in
different fields. Then all of a sudden he said, “We could buy cedar nuts from you”. While
he was saying it, some kind of tension overwhelmed him, his sharp eyes stared,
examining the reaction of those present. I have remembered this situation very well
because even at that time I was surprised, thinking to myself, “Why has he changed like
this? What does it mean?” After the meeting was over the lady interpreter from Moscow
who was accompanying him came up to me and told me that he would like to talk to me.
The businessman said confidentially that if I organized absolutely fresh cedar nut
delivery, I could have, besides the official price, considerable personal benefits. It would
be necessary to deliver the nuts to Turkey, where they produce some kind of oil from
them. I promised him to think the proposition over.
Now, I've made up my mind to investigate this issue and find out what kind of oil it was.
I've managed to discover that at the London Stock Market, which is a world price
standard, cedar nut oil costs, up to five hundred American dollars per kilogram. We were
asked to deliver cedar nuts approximately at a price of two to three dollars per kilogram
for cedar nuts.
I called one of my colleagues in Warsaw and asked him to investigate whether it was
possible to reach the consumer directly as well as to get the technology of its production.
In a month I got the answer that it was impossible either to reach the consumer or to get
any information about the technology. Generally speaking, in this field the Western forces
that were involved would rather stay away from it and forget about it. After that I turned
to a good friend of mine who works at the Novosibirsk Institute of Potrebcooperatsiya
(consumer cooperation) K. Rakunov. I purchased cedar nuts, financed the labor expenses
and in the institute laboratory they produced one hundred kilograms of cedar nut oil. I
also hired people who have discovered some interesting papers in the archive documents,
which revealed that in pre-Revolutionary Russia and for a while after, there was an
organization in Siberia under the name of Siberian Cooperator. The members of this coop
were trading all kinds of oil including cedar nut oil. They had representatives in
Khabarovsk, London and New York. They had a lot of money in Western banks. After the
revolution the organization fell apart and many of its former members left Russia.
Krasin, a member of the Bolshevik government, had a meeting with the former chief of
this orga-nization and suggested to him to come back to Russia. But he answered that he
would help Russia even more if he was out of the country.
The archive materials read that the cedar oil was produced with the help of wooden
presses (no metal should be involved) in many remote Siberian villages. These were
located deep inside the taiga. Its quality depended on the time of harvesting and nut
processing. However, we failed to determine the particular time of harvesting: neither the
archive nor research institutions could find out this information. The secret has been lost.
The cedar oil's healing properties have no comparison. But could it be possible that the
secret has been sold somewhere in the West by somebody who immigrated from Russia?
How do they explain the fact that the greatest healing remedy, the cedar nut which is
growing in Siberia, and the unit which is producing its oil is situated in Turkey?
And what kind of forces in the West did my colleague from Warsaw mention? Why is it
impossible to touch this issue? Aren't these forces pulling from the Russian Siberian taiga
the healing remedy of unbelievable power? Why, having such healing wealth of the cedar
products, which is so powerful and has been proved by centuries, even millenniums, are
we instead spending millions or even billions of dollars buying Western medications and
swallowing them like crazy? Why are we losing the knowledge which belonged to our
quite recent ancestors, those who lived in our century?
Do we need to speak about the Bible's precious readings which describe the events of
ages long ago? What kind of strange forces are trying so hard to erase from our memory
the knowledge of our forefathers? Moreover, they recommended to us “not even to stick
our nose in it” as if it is not our business. They are trying to erase these things from our
memory... and they have managed to do it! Somehow this realization made me so angry.
“Well” I told myself, “whatever it will cost me, eventually I will fry to find out
something”. I decided to repeat the expedition along the Ob river to the North, using for
this purpose only the leading motor boat Patrice Lumumba. I loaded the holds with
different goods. The movie hall was modified as a store. I had to employ new people. For
some reason I did not want to take people from our company. While I was distracted from
my regular business, the financial situation got worse.
Within two weeks after our departure from Novosibirsk my security guards reported to
me that the talks about Ringing Cedar had been overheard. According to the security
service guys, among the newly employed staff there were speaking intelligently “strange
people”. I started to call to my office some of the people from the crew, talked to them
about the forthcoming campaign into the taiga. Some of them were ready to go even for
free. Others asked big amounts of money as the journey into the taiga had not been
commissioned by the agreement which they had signed. Of course there was a great
difference between staying at the comfortable motor boat and hiking into the taiga for 25
kilometers and carrying luggage on one's back.
By that time I was completely short financially. I was not going to sell cedar, as the old
man had said that it was necessary to give it as a gift. Moreover, the most important thing
for me was not the Ringing Cedar itself but the secret of producing not just cedar oil but
the healing one from regular cedar. Generally speaking, I was interested in any kind of
information on this issue. Eventually, with the help of information from the security
guards I became convinced that somebody was watching me. Especially when I came off
board, though their goal was uncertain. Who was behind those who were watching me? I
thought hard and decided to avoid doubts and mistakes. The best way was to outwit all
of them.
Chapter 2
MEETING
Giving no explanation to anybody, I ordered the crew to moor the motor boat not far from
the place where a year ago I had had a meeting with the old men. I got to the village by a
small motorboat. I gave orders to the captain of the motor boat to proceed with the
commercial route further on up the river.
My hope was to find those old men with the help of local people, to see the Ringing
Cedar with my own eyes and discuss the manner of its delivery to the motor ship. Having
fastened my motorboat to a stone, I planned to walk to the nearest house. However, I
noticed a lonely woman standing on a hillside and I made up my mind to talk to her. The
woman was wearing an old quilted jacket and a long skirt. High rubber galoshes were on
her feet. They were the kind the great majority of the local population wear in the far
Northern regions. She wore a shawl that covered her forehead and neck. It was difficult
to tell her age.
I said “Hello”, and asked her about the two men I had met there the previous year.
“You were talking to my grandpa and great grandpa last year, Vladimir”, answered the
woman.
I was astonished: her voice was young, her articulation was very distinct, she was on
familiar terms with me, using “thou” instead of “you”. Moreover, she had called me by
my name. I could not remember the names of the old men and the bottom line was that I
was not sure whether I had ever heard their name or told them mine. I thought for a while
and then concluded that evidently, I had told them my name if she knew it. Therefore, I
decided to follow her example and be on familiar terms with her too.
“And what is your name?”, I asked.
“Anastasia”, was the answer. She stretched out her hand, the palm facing down, as if
waiting for a kiss. This kind of gesture for a village woman dressed in a quilted jacket
and galoshes, standing on a deserted bank and trying to behave as if she was a lady of
society, made me laugh. I shook her hand but I did not kiss it. Anastasia gave an
embarrassed smile and suggested I go with her to the taiga where her family lived.
“Although, you know, it is necessary to walk for twenty five kilometers. Does that disturb
you?”
“Well, sure it's pretty far away. Will you be able to show me the Ringing Cedar?”
“I shall”.
“Do you know everything about it? Will you tell me?”
“I'll tell you what I know”.
“Well, then let's go”.
While we were walking Anastasia told me that their family lived in the cedar forest for
many generations. According to her, her forefathers had been living there for thousands
and thousands of years. They don't get in direct contact with the people of our civilization
very often. These contacts take place far away from the places of their own dwelling but
happen when they come to where larger settlements pretend to be hunters or residents of
other
villages.
Anastasia herself has visited two large cities: Tomsk and Moscow. She stayed there only
for a day. She did not even spend a night there. The aim of the other trips was to see with
her own eyes whether her visualizations about the way of life of modem city dwellers
were correct. By selling berries and dry mushrooms she managed to get clothes and
money for her trips. One local woman gave Anastasia her own passport for this purpose.
She did not share her granddads' idea of giving the Ringing cedar to many people. When
I asked her “Why?”, she said that its pieces could get to good as well as to bad people
and, as she believed, the greater portion of it would get to negative persons. She believes
that finally it would bring more harm than good. The main thing to do, according to her,
would be to help good people who are leading society towards the light, not into a dead
end. If one were to try to help everybody, the imbalance between good and evil would
remain the same or it could even get worse. After my meeting with the old men, I had
managed to look through popular science literature and some historical and scientific
works, which related the unusual properties of the cedar tree. That was why I was trying
to get to the root of the matter Anastasia was talking about. I wanted to learn more about
the way of life of the people of the cedar forest. I was thinking it over again and again,
then I tried to visualize it. I tried to compare them with the Lykovs, the family well
known to many readers of Komsomolskaya pravda. V. Peskova, a reporter on this
newspaper published a series of articles under the headline: Taiga's Dead End. It was
about the family which lived for a long time in the taiga. My impression about the Likovs
was that they knew how to live in peace with nature but they were absolutely ignorant in
their knowledge and understanding of modern civilized life and it actually ruined them
when they got in contact with it.
In this case the situation was quite different. Anastasia impressed me with her perfect
knowledge of our civilized life and even more, with something else which was not quite
clear to me yet! She was discussing with ease our urban life as if she knew it perfectly
well.
We had walked deep into the forest for about five kilometers, when she suddenly took off
her quilted jacket, shawl, long skirt and put it into a hollow tree and only a short light
dress was left on her. I was astonished by what I saw. If I believed in miracles I would
categorize it as a miraculous transformation, a kind of metamorphosis. I was facing a
very young woman with long golden hair and a splendid shape. Her beauty was
extraordinary. She was an exceptional model. It was hard to imagine anybody who could
possibly compete with her among the winners of the most prestigious beauty contests.
Also, as it was revealed later on, her intellect was extremely sharp, too. Absolutely
everything was appealing about her and she was full of charm. “Are you tired?”, she
said, “Do you want to have a rest?”
We sat down right on the grass and I had an opportunity to examine her face closer: no
cosmetics at all, very regular features, well treated, perfect skin. These had nothing in
common with the skin of common people of the Siberian remote places. She had large,
kind gray eyes and smiling lips. Though she was wearing a light short dress, it looked
rather like a night-dress.
There was the impression that she did not feel cold and it was not higher than 12-15
degrees Celsius. I decided to have a snack and took a sandwich and a flat bottle of cognac
out of my bag. I offered a drink to Anastasia but she refused it. While I was enjoying my
meal she stretched out on the grass as if exposing herself to the caressing sun rays. These
being reflected from her turned up palms, were illuminating golden light. She was almost
half naked. That woman was delightful!
I examined her thinking to myself: “Well, why do women through out history always try
to strip themselves without limitations. They show their legs, then breasts, then all of
them together using low cut and mini dresses? Do they try their best to attract
everybody’s attention? “Hello! Look at me! Look how wonderful I am, how open and
accessible” What else can a man do? If he resists the temptation of the flesh it appears
that he is holding a woman in low esteem. If he is attracted to her it appears that he is
breaking the law given by God”.
I asked her how she was not afraid to be alone in the forest. “I have nothing to be afraid
of here”, was the answer.
“I wonder, how would you defend yourself if you happen to come across two or three
men, let's say geologists or hunters?”, I asked. She did not say a word, just smiled back.
I thought to myself, “How could this young beauty, with extraordinary seductive abilities
not feel scared of anything or anybody?” Then, you would never imagine what happened
next! Even the memory of it brings back uncomfortable feelings. I put my arms around
her shoulders and pulled her to me gently, giving her a hug. She did not resist much
though one could feel that her resilient body was very strong. I did nothing else. The last
thing I remember, before losing consciousness, were her words: “Don’t do it, calm
down”. And yet before I did it, I remember perfectly well that I was terror-stricken. It was
an unrealized fear, the kind one can experience in childhood when home alone and
everything scares you.
When I regained my consciousness, she was in front of me standing on her knees. Her
hand was on my chest and with another one she was waving to somebody, who was
somewhere above, as if expressing a negative answer. Who surrounded us invisibly? She
was trying to show someone that nothing wrong had happened to her. Anastasia looked
into my eyes.
“Calm down, everything is over already”.
“But what was it?”, I asked.
“Harmony's unreceptiveness of your attitude regarding me, I mean the desire which came
to you for me. Later on you will make it out yourself’. “What does it have to do with
some kind of harmony? It was you who started to resist”.
“That's right, me too. I did not welcome it It was not pleasant for me”.
I sat down, pulled my bag closer to me.
“Unbelievable! Look at her! "She did not welcome it Unpleasant..." Ha! You, women, the
only thing you are all after is to seduce a man. You show your legs, expose your breasts,
walk on spiked heels, though they are uncomfortable but still you wear them. You twist
all of your private parts and as soon as it comes too close to the point... You start to talk
like this: "Ah! I don't need it, I am not that kind of woman. What do you take me for?'
Hypocrites! That's what you are! Now, look at yourself why have you taken your upper
clothes off? It is not hot at all. Then you stretched yourself, got quiet and even more, you
were smiling that way...”.
“First of all I am not comfortable wearing any kind of clothes. I put it on only when I
come out of the forest to meet people, just to look like everybody. And I laid down in the
sun to rest not to disturb you while you were enjoying your meal”, she said.
“Oh, yeah! You did not want to disturb me... But you did disturb me!”
“Of course, any woman would like to attract a man's attention, but not only to her legs and
breasts. It is desirable that the right one, who is the only one in the world for her, could
see much more than her physical body and would not pass her by”.
“But right now, right here nobody was passing by! Or what is that "much more" that one
has to sec if right in the foreground the legs are sticking out? Somehow you women are
illogical!”
“Yes, you are right, to my great regret, it comes out exactly as you say... Shall we go,
Vladimir? Have you finished your meal? Have you had a rest?” A thought crossed my
mind, “Should I go further on with such kind of a lady philosopher?” Though I said, “All
right, let's go”.
Chapter 3
A BEAST OR A HUMAN BEING?
We proceeded on our way to Anastasia's house. Her clothes were left in a tree trunk as
well as her galoshes. Only a short light dress was left on. She offered her help carrying
my bag. Being bare footed, she was walking with an extraordinary ease and graciousness
taking the lead, swinging my bag with such ease as if it were empty.
We were talking all the way. It was fun to talk to her on different subjects. Sometimes
Anastasia spun around while walking, then she would turn and walk backwards facing
me. Being very much involved in our discussions, she did not watch her steps; it was
unbelievable, but she never stumbled. She never pricked her bare feet from a knot of a
dry twig. Sometimes she touched or gave a quick stroke to a leaf or a shrub twig. Now
and then she bent down picked some blade of grass and ate it. “Just like the young of a
wild animal”, I thought to myself. When she came across some berries, she offered them
to me, I snacked together with her. Her body did not show any particular muscular
system.
Generally speaking, she was of medium build, neither skinny, nor stout. Her body was
well nourished, resilient and very beautiful. Though I could tell that she was rather strong
and her reactions were good too. When I stumbled, stretching my arms forward, she
turned around with lightning speed, stretched her unoccupied arm and I fell down. My
chest was right on her palm with widely spread fingers, so I did not even touch the
ground with my hands. While doing it, she did not even interrupt herself from telling me
something. When she helped me back on my feet, we moved on as if nothing had
happened. At that time a thought crossed my mind about a gas pistol, which I had in my
bag- While talking we had already covered a pretty good distance. Suddenly Anastasia
stopped, put my bag under a tree and announced with joy, “Here we are! We are home”.
I looked around. It was not a big well shaped clearing. There were flowers amidst
majestic cedar trees but no hint of any constructions, I could not see even a shelter of
branches.
“Well, and where is your house? Where can we sleep, eat, get protection from rain?..”. I
tried to clarify the situation.
“This is my home. Everything is available here”. I was seized by a vague feeling of
uneasiness.
“Where is it all? Will you give me a kettle, at least, to boil some water over a campfire
and an axe?”
“Sorry, there is no kettle and there is no axe. We would manage better without starting a
campfire...”. She replied.
“What do you mean? How do you like that? She does not even have a kettle! I have run
out of bottled water and you know it perfectly well. Do you remember, when I had
finished my snack, I threw away the empty bottle? Now I have just two sips of cognac
left. It will take a day to get to a river or the nearest settlement. I am awfully tired and
thirsty. Well, can you tell me, where do you get drinking water?”
On watching me getting nervous Anastasia got anxious too. She took me by my hand,
pulling me across the clearing into the forest and tried to calm me down by saying, “Calm
down, just don't worry, Vladimir! Please, don't get upset. I shall take care of everything.
I'll do everything. You will have a rest, a nice sleep, you will not be cold. Do you want to
drink? It is all right. There is no problem at all, I'll take care of it”. Ten or fifteen meters
away from the clearing, behind the shrubs, right before my eyes I could see a small lake.
Anastasia quickly scooped some water with her cupped hands and brought it to my Lips.
“Here is water. Please, drink it”, she said.
“What's the matter with you? Are you crazy? How is it possible to drink unboiled water
from a forest puddle? Did you not see that I was drinking Borjomi, bottled mineral
water? On our motorboat we use only filtered river water then we chlorinate and
oxygenize it not only for drinking but for washing purposes too”.
“It is not a puddle, first of all. This is clean and alive water. It is not the half dead one
which you use. You can drink it. Look”. She moved her hands to her mouth and drank
some water from it. And I don't know how the phrase had escaped my lips: “ Anastasia,
you are a beast”.
“But why "a beast"? Because my bed is not like yours? Because I don't have a car and all
the kinds of equipment that you use?”
“Because you live in the forest like a beast, you have nothing but yet you seem to be
happy”.
“Yes, I enjoy living here”.
“You see, you are not denying it”. I tried to behave reasonably.
“Do you believe that the main distinction of a man from anything living on the Earth is
the availability for him of artificially made articles?”, She asked.
“Yes, I do believe that. To be more precise, that is the civilized mode of life”. “Do you
consider your way of life more civilized? Oh, of course, you do! You do believe it. But I
am not a beast. I am a human”.
Chapter 4
WHO ARE THEY?
Later on after I had spent three days in her company, I understood something about her
way of life. At the same time some vexing questions occurred to me concerning our own
way of life. Especially one question, which stayed in my mind relentlessly.
“Well”, I thought to myself, we have created a vast and complicated educational system.
Being guided by the system, we are teaching our children and one another: at
kindergartens, schools, colleges and postgraduate study. This system gives us an
opportunity to create, invent, fly to the cosmos and investigate. On following the system,
we are, accordingly, creating our way of life. We are striving to get to know the cosmos,
the atom, and all kinds of abnormal phenomena which we enjoy discussing and
describing in sensational articles and popular science publications. Yet there is one
phenomenon which, somehow, we are trying to evade. It looks as if we are afraid to
speak about it. Maybe, we are afraid to do it simply because, it can easily break our
system of education and scientific conclusions. Because it laughs at the objective reality
of our existence. We are trying hard to pretend that this phenomenon does not exist.
Though it does and will exist, no matter how hard we try to ignore it by turning our backs
or trying to bypass it. Isn't it high time to take a closer and more attentive look at it. Who
knows, maybe, by joining the efforts of the human mind as a whole, we'll manage to
answer the question: Why have all, without exception, great thinkers of all times who
have created different religious teachings, before creating these teachings had to go away
from the civilized life to forests or deserts and live as hermits?
"Put a mind to it, please, - they did not go to a | world famous library or a super academy,
—just to a forest! Now the great majority of humankind follows or tries to follow these
teachings. Why did Moses from the Old Testament go to Mount Sinai to write the
famous Ten Commandments.
Why did Jesus Christ seclude himself even from his disciples, when he left for the desert?
Why did Siddhartha Gautama (later on they started to call him Buddha), the man who
lived in India in the middle of the 6-th century B. C., seclude himself in a forest for seven
years and after that came out and brought to the people his great Teaching? Hence it
became stimulating, opening and extending human minds and is known as Buddhism.
Or why not take our close predecessors who lived not long ago, prominent historical
personalities: Serafim Sarovskey or Serge Radonezskey?
They also went to a forest and shortly after that they managed to perceive such depths of
universal wisdom that the mundane Tsars had to take the impassable roads just to get a
piece of good advice from them.
After a while at the place of their hermitages people constructed cloisters and majestic
cathedrals. For example, theTroyitse-Serguievskaya Lavra in the city of Sergiev Posad in
the Moscow region keeps attracting throngs of people. Can you believe it that everything
had started just from a hermit?!
Why? What or who was helping those people to get wisdom, giving them knowledge and
pushing them closer to comprehension on the essence of existence? How did they live
there? What were they doing? What were they thinking about staying alone, far away
from human society?”
These questions continued to bother me like an obsession soon after my contact with
Anastasia. Therefore after I left the forest, I started to read everything I could find about
hermits, though I have failed to get any answer. Strange as it may seem, nothing is
available about their lives as hermits.
This is my story, but now I am trying my best to describe the events of my three days stay
in the forest at Anastasia's. I am describing my feelings and impressions which were
influenced by my communication with her since I hope that some of my readers will
manage to comprehend the essence of this phenomenon.
Right now, after having drawn a bottom line under everything I had seen and heard, one
thing is beyond any doubt. The people who are living a lonely life in the forest, as
hermits, including Anastasia, can see everything which is taking place in our everyday
life from an absolutely different perspective.
Some of her notions and affirmations are diametrically opposed to those which we call
“universally acknowledged” ones. Who is closer to the truth? Who can be a judge? My
duty is just to describe everything exactly the way I had seen and heard it. By doing so I
hope to give an opportunity to others to determine the answers on their own.
Anastasia lives in the forest absolutely all by herself. She does not have any dwelling, she
hardly wears any clothes and does not store any food to nourish herself. She is a
descendant of those who have been living there for thousands and thousands of years and
it looks like a different civilization. Anastasia was born there and is an inseparable part of
Mother Nature.
The phenomenon which looks extraordinary at first sight (remember, when I was
overwhelmed by strong fears while I was trying to take possession of Anastasia and lost
my consciousness) happens becomes very simple later on. For instance, a man tames a
cat, a dog, an elephant, a tiger, an eagle and what not. In this particular case
EVERYTHING around is tamed. And this “EVERYTHING” can't allow anything bad to
happen to her. Anastasia told me that when she was quite a little baby her mother could
leave her all by herself just on grass under a tree.
“Why didn't you die of starvation?" I asked. The response was just a snap of her fingers.
A squirrel appeared by her side and jumped right on her hand. Anastasia moved her hand
with the animal close to her mouth and the squirrel passed a kernel of a cedar nut from its
mouth right into Anastasia's. I did not take it as a miracle, because I remembered that in
Novosibirsk Academy Township I saw a lot of squirrels. They are not afraid of people
and even beg food from passers by, moreover they even get angry when they are not
treated. Though in this case I had an opportunity to watch a radically opposite process.
We know of numerous cases from fiction, press and TV programs in which babies were
brought up by wild animals like wolves, for instance. In this particular case we can see
that generation after generation are living permanently in close contact with Mother
Nature and their relationship with the wild world differs from ours or any other known
native tribes on Earth.
“Why don't you feel cold while I need to wear a jacket?” I asked her. “Because”, she
answered, the people who are covering themselves with clothes, hiding themselves from
heat and cold in shelters eventually lose more and more of their abilities to adapt to
environmental fluctuations. I have not lost this ability, that's why I don't need much
clothing”.
Chapter 5
FOREST BEDROOM
I was not prepared at all to sleep outdoors in a wild forest. Anastasia had put me to bed in
a spaciously dugout. When I woke up, I had a feeling of felicity and comfort as if I were
on a wonderful, cozy bed.
The den was rather spaciously paved with small, fluffy cedar twigs and dry herbs
producing a very pleasant aroma. When stretching myself out I touched some fluffy fur
and noted to myself that Anastasia was, evidently, hunting somehow. I moved closer to
the fur, pressed my back against its warmth and decided to doze for a bit longer.
Anastasia was standing at the entrance and when she saw me awaken, told me right
away,” Please, don't get scared”. Then she clapped her hands and the “fur” moved...
Being terribly horrified I realized that it was not a fur. A wild bear started to crawl very
cautiously out of the den. After receiving an encouraging pat from Anastasia the beast
left. It turned out that she had put some sleeping herbs in the den and then made the bear
lie by my side to keep me warm during the night. She, herself, was sleeping outside
rolled up into a ball.
“How could you do it to me? The he-bear could kill or press me down!” “It is not a "he",
it is a she-bear. She could do nothing wrong to you”, answered Anastasia, “she is very
obedient. The greatest fun for her is to get a job and fulfill it in the best way. She even did
not move during the whole night long. She pressed her nose to my feet and stood still in a
great bliss. She only startled a bit when you in your dreams were stretching your arms
giving her slaps on the back”.
Chapter 6
ANASTASIA’S MORNING
Anastasia goes to bed at one of her shelters as soon as it gets dark. More often she spends
a night in her den. When it is warm she sleeps outside right on the grass. The first thing
that she does on awakening is the rising sun salutation which is exceptionally joyous.
Then she welcomes newly born sprouts and shoots which are appearing on the branches
and coming out from the ground. She touches them with her hands, sometimes fixing
something. Then she runs up to small trees and claps and taps on their trunks, producing a
wonderful shower of pollen. These are mixed with early morning dew which falls on her
from the shaking crowns of the trees. After that she lies down on grass and for about five
minutes stretches and twists herself in the state of blissful happiness. All her skin gets
covered with a kind of moistening cream. Then, having taken a ran, she jumps into a
small lake where she splashes and dives.
The problems of food or clothes don’t exist for her at all; most of the time she is naked or
half-naked. She lives on cedar nuts, different kinds of herbs, berries and mushrooms. By
the way, she eats only dry mushrooms. She never bothers herself harvesting mushrooms
or nuts, or laying in store any kind of provision even for winter. The numerous squirrels
living nearby take care of these problems. It is not extraordinary or unnatural that
squirrels make their stocks for winter. It is instinctive behavior. I was astonished by the
fact that the squirrels which happen to be around, on Anastasia's sign (snapping of her
fingers), run right towards her and racing one another try to jump on her stretched out
hand and give her a peeled kernel of nut.
When Anastasia slaps her bent knee, the squirrels produce a peculiar sound, as if calling
or informing their comrades. They start to bring and put before her dry mushrooms and
other provisions. They are doing it with great joy. I thought that Anastasia was training
them, but she told me that their behavior was instinctive. The mother squirrel by doing it
was teaching her children: “Watch me, follow me, behave like me”.
“Maybe, they were trained by some of my ancestors long, long ago, but to my mind, most
likely, it is their predestination. Each squirrel usually lays in store several times more than
it could use itself’. Anastasia commented on the behavior of her adorable providers.
Answering my question, how she manages not to get frozen in winter without proper
clothes, Anastasia asked me, “Don't you know any examples which demonstrate the
ability of a human body to withstand cold without any clothes, in your world?”
I recalled a book titled Detka (a child), by Porfiriy Ivanov, who wore only shorts and was
always barefooted in all seasons. The book also relates that during the World War the
fascists decided to test his great endurance by pouring water over him. The outside
temperature was 20 degrees Celsius below zero and that after that they drove him in a
motorcycle. No need to say that the man was absolutely naked...
In her childhood Anastasia was fed not only on her mother's breast milk but also on the
milk of different animals. They freely let her suck their milk. She does not make any
ritual out of the meals procedure as she never sits down to eat. She merely picks a berry
or a plant sprout without interrupting herself from her main occupation of whatever she is
doing at that time.
By the end of my stay there I could not help changing my attitude towards the woman,
from what it was at the very beginning of our meeting. After everything I had seen and
learned, Anastasia had turned into a different being but never a beast. Her intellect was
extremely superb. Sometimes it seemed to me that it was beyond the understanding of an
ordinary person.
In contrast to many well recognized personalities with extraordinary abilities who
surround themselves with a mysterious halo, assuming a secretive look, Anastasia tried to
explain the mechanics of her abilities and proved that there was nothing mysterious or
supernatural about it or her. She always affirmed that she was a human being, a woman.
She constantly reminded me about that again and again, asking me to realize it. I did try
to realize it, doing my best to find explanations for all those extraordinary phenomena. A
human mind in our civilized world is working in one direction: using all possible and
impossible ways to build one's mode of living, to provide oneself and one's family with
food and to satisfy sexual instincts. Anastasia doesn't waste time bothering herself with
all this stuff. The people who happen to get in a similar situation, as the Lykovs family
(above mentioned), for example, have to watch constantly that their life supporting
provisions, dwellings and what not are taken care of. Mother Nature doesn’t help them
the way it does in Anastasia's case. All kinds of native tribes living apart of our civilized
world, as far as I know, lack this kind of contact and harmony with Nature. Anastasia
explains it as follows:
Their thoughts and intentions are not pure enough. Nature and the animal world can feel
it.
Chapter 7
ANASTASIA’S BEAM
The most unusual and mysterious thing for me while staying at Anastasia's seemed to be
her ability to see some people at a great distance and watch their lives. Maybe other
hermits also have this kind of ability. She did it with the help of an invisible beam. She
claims that everybody has it at their disposal but people don't know about its existence
and they can't use it.
She affirms that till now man has invented nothing | at all which doesn't exist in nature.
The technique, S which makes television work, is just a poor similarity to the great
potential of this beam.
Just because the beam is invisible, I refused to believe in it, in spite of the fact that she
was trying repeatedly to demonstrate how it worked. She tried hard to explain the
principle of its operation and to find intelligible explanations.
“Now, tell me, Vladimir, what is your definition of a waking dream? Are many people
able to dream?”
“I believe, many people can dream. A dream is when a man imagines himself in the
desirable future”.
“All right. So you don't deny that a man has an ability to model his future and different
situations?”
“No, I don’t”.
“Well, what’s an intuition?”
“Well, intuition... Probably, it's a feeling when a person is thinking without analyzing
how and why something could happen, just goes with a flow. Some kind of feeling tells
him the right way to act”.
“So, you don't deny the existence of something inside a man which helps him besides
common analytical reasoning to define his own as well as somebody else's actions?”
“Supposedly I don't”.
“Perfect,” exclaimed Anastasia, “now a dream! What are dreams, which almost all people
have?”
“Well, a dream is ... To tell the truth, I don’t know what it is. A dream is just a dream”.
“All right, all right. Let it be "just a dream". Anyhow, you don't deny its existence. You
and others know that when a person is sleeping, when his body is almost out of control of
his consciousness, he can see people and different events?”
“Well, nobody will deny it”.
“Yet, in a dream people can communicate, talk, go through emotional experiences”
“Yes, they can”.
“Well, what do you think, can a man control his dreams, provoke desirable images and
events which he/she would like to see?”
“I don't think so. A dream comes somehow by itself’.
“You are wrong. A man can control everything. A man has been created to control
everything”
“The beam I am talking about consists, precisely, of existing information, imagination,
intuition, soul feelings and, as a result of it visions, just like a dream.
These are consciously controlled by a man's will power”.
“How is it possible to control a dream while you are sleeping?”
“ Not only while sleeping. One can do it while being wide awake. You see, it is as if you
are programming in advance and without failure. With people like you it occurs while
sleeping and chaotically. Man has lost his ability to control it. That's why he decided that
a dream is just an unnecessary product of a tired brain. In reality... Well, do you want me
to try to help you to see anything at a distance right now?”
“Well, sure I do”, I answered eagerly.
“Lie down on the grass and relax, so your body would use less energy. It is necessary that
you feel comfortable. Does anything disturb you? All right. Now think about a person
you know well enough. Let's say, your wife. Recall her habits, her way of walking, her
clothes, the place you think she could be right now and in general, try to imagine
everything possible, using the power of your imaginations.
I recalled my wife, bearing in mind that at that moment she could be at our country
house. I visualized the house, some things and furniture. Then many things came to my
mind in details but I could see nothing... I told Anastasia about it and she answered,
“Because you can't relax completely. Try to relax as if you are falling asleep. All right.
Don't worry. I'll help you. Close your eyes. Put your arms aside”.
Then I felt the touch of other lingers on mine and I started to fall asleep or into a kind of
drowsiness...
...My wife was standing in the kitchen of our country house. She had a knitted jacket over
her house coat. “It means that it is cool in the house”, I thought to myself, “again there
are problems with the heater”. My wife was cooking coffee on the gas stove and
something else was boiling in the dog’s pot.
Her face looked sad and unhappy. Her movements were slack and slow. All of a sudden
she raised her head and moving lightly and easily she went to the window. She looked
through it at falling rain and smiled. The coffee on the stove came over the edges, she
seized the coffee pot with the spilling coffee but she did not frown and was not irritated
by it, as she usually would be in such a case. She took off her j jacket..
I was wide awake.
“Well, did you see?”, asked Anastasia.
“Yes, I did. But maybe it was a regular dream?”
“Why "regular"? You had planned exactly to see her!”
“Yes, I did, and I have seen. Where is the proof that she was exactly there, I mean at the
kitchen at the very moment I was watching her?”
“Will you memorize this day and time. When you come back, ask her. That's all. Didn't
you notice anything else which looked unusual about her?”
“Well, nothing else, I guess”.
“Didn't you see her smile, when she came to the window and the fact that she was not
irritated by the spilt coffee?”
“Oh, yes. I did notice that but maybe she saw something good through the window and
she liked it”.
“She could see only rain. Rain, which she never enjoyed. Right?”
“Then, why did she smile, according to you?”
“Well, because I was looking at your wife with my beam and warmed her”.
“So, it means that your beam had warmed her and what about mine? Was it cold?”
“You were just watching her with interest, you did not put your feelings into your beam”.
“Does it mean that your beam can warm a person at a distance?”
“Exactly”.
“What else?”
“It can get and send information, try to improve a mood and partially heal some
sicknesses. The beam can do many other different things, it depends on the available
energy, power of feelings, will power and desire”.
“Can you see the future and the past, Anastasia?”
“Of course, I can! The future and the past, they are almost the same. The only difference
is in outside details. The main thing always remains unchangeable”
“How come? What can be "unchangeable"?”
“For example, one thousand years ago the people were wearing different clothes. They
were using different equipment in their everyday life. Also one thousand years ago the
people had exactly the same feelings and emotions as now. Feelings are timeless: fear,
joy, love... Yaroslav the Wise, Ivan the Terrible or a pharaoh could love a woman with the
same feelings as you or anybody else today”.
“Well, it's quite interesting but not completely comprehensible. What does it mean? You
claim that everyone could have such a beam?”
“Sure, Vladimir. Everyone. Even now people still have feelings and intuition, the ability
to dream, assume, program and design certain situations, to watch dreams. They did not
absolutely lose their abilities, only that these processes have become chaotic and
uncontrolled”
“Maybe it is necessary to train people somehow, to develop some kind of exercises?”, I
asked.
Anastasia's world outlook is very unusual and amazing:
“What is God, Anastasia? Does He exist? If He does, then why has nobody ever seen
Him?”
“God is Interplanetary Mind or Intellect. He is not a single whole mass. One of His
halves is out of the material world of the Universe. He is a complexity of all kinds of
energies. His second half is spread all over the Earth in the form of small particles as well
as in every human being”.
“What do you think about the future of our society?”
“In perspective the realization of all the destructive nature of the technocratic way of your
development will come and you will start to move back towards the Origins, the Primary
Source”.
“Do you mean that all our scientists are undeveloped creatures who are leading us into a
dead end?”
“I would like to say that through them the process is being accelerated and, accordingly,
the realization of the wrong way is coming true”.
“Does it mean that all the machines and buildings we are creating are just in vain?”, “Yes,
it is”.
“Isn’t it boring for you to live here all by yourself without television and telephone?”
“Such primitive things you have mentioned, Vladimir! All these things man had from the
very beginning, only in a much more perfect way. I have it at my disposal too”.
“Do you mean a television set and a telephone?”
“Well, what is a television set? — It's an instrument with the help of which some
information gets to the human atrophied imagination where the pictures and plots are
being arranged. With the help of my imagination I can draw upon any plot or any picture,
arrange the most unbelievable situations. Even more to that, I can also take part in them
myself and even influence the plot on my own. Oh, sorry! I have expressed myself
incomprehensibly, I suppose, haven't I?”
“All right and what about the telephone?”
“A man can communicate with anybody without a telephone. The only required things
are:
Willpower the wish of both parties and a developed imagination.
Chapter 8
CONCERT IN TAIGA
I suggested her that she should to go to Moscow and present herself on television.
“Just imagine, Anastasia, being such a beauty, you could become a cover girl, a world
famous model”. I said. That was it! It was of exactly that point, when I realized that she
was an earthly woman and, like any woman, she was happy to be a beauty. Anastasia
started laughing.
“The most beautiful, is it? Do you really mean it?” She asked me to repeat it and walked
along the clearing as if she were a model putting one foot in front of the other while
walking and demonstrating imaginary finery. I made an announcement,
“Now, ladies and gentlemen, highly respected audience, you are going to see a second to
none, a wonderful gymnast, the incomparable beauty A-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-y-a!”
My announcement made her cheer up even more. She ran into the center of the clearing
and produced an incredible somersault forward and then backward. Then to the left and
to the right, then she jumped up very high, caught at a bough of a tree, swung herself for
a couple of times and found herself in another tree. Then she repeated her acrobatic feat
with somersaults, ran into the center of the clearing again and started bowing before the
imaginary audience being accompanied by my loud cheers. Then she ran away from the
stage clearing and having hidden herself behind the imaginary wings. She was peeping
out smiling waiting impatiently for another announcement.
Then the idea of my favorite collection of pop singers crossed my mind. Once in a while
in the evenings being alone in my cabin I enjoyed watching video tapes with my favorite
songs. One of those tapes came to me. So, without a shade of doubt, that she could do it, I
announced, “Dear ladies and gentlemen, to much respected audience, now you are going
to meet the best modern variety performers who will perform their best songs. Let's
warmly welcome them!”
Oh, how wrong I was to doubt her abilities! Later on ... it was absolutely something
unbelievable and unpredictable!... Anastasia, on having hardly taken one step from
behind the “wings”, started to sing. It was the voice of a famous modern singer Alla
Pugachova. Don't take me wrong, she was not imitating Alla's voice. She was singing
with such an ease reproducing not only the voice itself but its specific timbre. The
manners, the way she was expressing her feelings and emotions were astonishing. It was
great!
Though the most exciting thing was something else. It was when Anastasia was
accentuating some particular words and phrases, adding to the song some new meaning.
Alla Pugachova's performance of this song, which had been recognized by the great
majority of people as a perfect one, now, in Anastasia's interpretation, was turning to
produce a whole scale of new emotions. She was giving more light to the images. For
instance, in the perfect lines of the song:
“Once there was an artist,
He had a small house and canvases
But he was in love with an actress,
The one who loved flowers.
And he sold his house,
Sold his pictures and canvases
And he spent all his money
On a great sea of flowers-Millions, millions of scarlet roses...” she had accentuated the
word “canvases”. She had screamed out this word, putting into it inexplicable emotions
which were a mixture of astonishment and fright. Yes, canvases! Exactly! As they are the
most precious things for an artist. Without them it is impossible to create. The artist gives
away his most valuable treasure for his beloved's sake... Then, when Anastasia was
pronouncing the following words:
“... the train took her away” she expressed the artist's feelings, the pain of a man who was
deeply in love. She also expressed his despair and confusion watching the departing train
which was taking away his beloved forever. Oh, it was great!
Being under the influence of everything I had seen, heard and experienced, I did not
applaud when the song was over. Anastasia bowed, waited for a while for the
appreciation of the “audience”. Then without any invitation and announcement, she
started another song and this time she was trying even harder than before. She was
performing all my favorites one after another, everything which was recorded for me in
my order on my video tape.
Each song, which I used to enjoy many times before, sounded in her reproduction
brighter, containing much more meaning, provoking more emotions.
The last song was over. Anastasia waited in vain for the cheering. So, she went away
behind her “wings”. I was still in a state of a shock. I sat for a while, being under the
influence of that extraordinary impression. Then I jumped up and started to applaud
shouting out, “Great, Anastasia! Bravo! Encore! All the performers, welcome on the
stage, please!” Anastasia came out cautiously and bowed slowly. I could not help yelling
all the way, “Bravo! Encore!”, I was clapping and stamping with my feet. She also got
excited, started clapping and asked, “ "Bravo", does it mean "more"?”
“Yes, more! And more! And more!”
Then I became quiet and started to take an all around view of Anastasia and a thought
crossed my mind: how amazingly many sided her soul was, as she had managed to bring
into the performance such amount of novelty, brightness and beauty! She was quietly
looking at me inquiringly. Then I asked her, “Well, Anastasia, do you have a song of your
own? Could you perform anything which belongs only to you?”
“Yes, I could. But my song is wordless. Would you like it?”
“Oh, please, Anastasia, will you sing your song?”
“All right”.
So, Anastasia started her unusual song. At first she screamed out as a newly born baby,
then her voice became very soft, delicate and affectionate. She was standing under a tree,
pressing her hands against her chest, her head being bent a bit as if she was rocking a
baby to sleep, singing a lullaby song. She was caressing the baby with her voice and was
telling something loving to it. Because of that soft, amazingly clear voice, everything
stood still even the birds and the chirring in the grass. Then she became very happy
watching her baby waking up. New sounds of exaltation appeared in her voice,
unbelievably high sounds now were flying over the earth and then flushing up into the
heights of eternity. Now Anastasia's voice was pleading to somebody, then it was fighting
and then it was again caressing a baby, giving the gift of joy to everything around.
The feeling of joy embraced me too and when the song was over I screamed joyously,
“And now, ladies and gentlemen, my dear friends, you will watch a unique, inimitable
performance of the world famous, the most skilful, brave and charming lady trainer who
is capable of taming any beast. Welcome her, watch
and be thrilled!” Anastasia even squealed in exaltation, jumped up clapping her hands
rhythmically, gave a cry and whistled. Something unbelievable started happening in the
clearing A she-wolf was the first to appear. It jumped out from behind the bushes and
stood still by the edge of the clearing, looking around incomprehensibly. The squirrels
were skimming up the trees jumping from branch to branch. Two eagles were flying very
low in circles. Some kind of small wild animals were moving in the shrubs, then a sound
of the snapping of dry twigs came to us. A huge bear was making its way through the
bushes moving them apart and pressing them. It ran out on the clearing, came very close
to Anastasia and stood as if rooted to the spot. The she wolf grumbled at the bear
disapprovingly. Evidently, the bear had approached their lady too close without getting a
special invitation.
Anastasia ran towards the bear, patted its muzzle, gripped its front paws and made the
bear stand on its back paws vertically. One could tell that while doing it she did not apply
any efforts at all as the animal was fulfilling her commands willingly. This was done in
accordance with its own interpretation and understanding of them. The beast was
standing motionless, trying hard to understand what she wanted it to do. Anastasia took a
run, jumped up high, gripped the bear by its paw and started bending herself backward.
She was pulling the bear trying to show that she was going to throw the beast over
herself.
This kind of trick would be impossible if the bear did not do it willingly by itself and
Anastasia was just directing its actions. Evidently, the bear was doing its best trying not
to cause any harm to its mistress by supporting itself on its paws. The she- wolf was
getting more and more restless so it could not help but rush from side to side growling
and snarling. A couple of other wolves appeared in the clearing and Anastasia repeated
the trick with the bear again and again throwing it over herself. She even tried to make
the beast accomplish a somersault and the poor thing suddenly tumbled down on its side
and stood still.
Being overexcited and baring its teeth in anger, the she-wolf made a jump towards the
bear. With the speed of lightning Anastasia blocked the wolfs way and the latter, slowing
down with its four paws, made a somersault over its back and hurt itself against
Anastasia's legs. Anastasia took a very quick grip on the wolfs mane making the beast
press itself to the ground obediently. With the other hand she waved exactly the way she
did in my case, when I had tried to give her a hug without her permission.
The forest around us was murmuring excitedly but not threateningly. One could sense of
excitement in the behavior of big and small wild animals. Some of them were jumping or
running, some were becoming quiet. Anastasia started to reduce the agitation: first of all
she flattered the she-wolf then patted its mane and sent the beast away from the clearing
by giving it a smack as people usually do to a dog. The bear was still lying on its side in a
very uncomfortable position. Evidently it was waiting for another “job”. Anastasia came
to the bear, made it rise, stroked its muzzle and in the same way as she did with the she-
wolf, sent it away from the clearing.
Anastasia blushing sat down next to me, took a deep breath and slowly breathed out. I
noted that her breathing normalized very quickly and became as smooth and regular as if
she had never done all her incredible exercises.
“They don't understand theatrical performance and they don't need to understand it
becauseitnot very good for them”, remarked Anastasia and then asked, “Well, what about
me? Can I get any place in your world? I mean, can I find a job”.
“It was great! But all of these have already existed. The trainers in the circus show many
interesting tricks with all kinds of animals, so you will not be able to force your way into
such a job because of bureaucratic red tape. There are a great number of conventions and
intrigues. You are not well versed to stand them”.
We proceeded with our game trying all kinds of versions whereby Anastasia could find a
job in our world and how she would overcome the existing formalities. Although we had
failed to find an easy solution as Anastasia did not have papers to prove her education, an
identification or the right of permanent residence. Nobody would believe her stories
about her origin without a birth certificate. Her wonderful skills and abilities would not
count much.
Anastasia got more serious and said, “Of course I would like to visit, at least once again,
one of your large cities, let's say Moscow, just to get more proof concerning the exactness
of my modelling of some situations from people's lives. For example, I can't understand
how the dark forces manage to fool women to such an extent that they, without even
realizing it, are trying to attract men with the help of their physical charms. By doing so
they don’t give the men an opportunity of making the right choice, the one which is right
for the soul. Then they are both suffering because of this as they can't create a proper
family”. Then she started her amazing reasoning about sex, family, bringing up children,
and I thought to myself, “The most incredible of all that I've seen and heard was her
ability to speak about our way of life, her precise and detailed knowledge of it”.
Chapter 9
WHO LIGHTS ANEW STAR
The second night, being afraid that Anastasia would again put into my “bedroom” her
favorite she-bear to keep me warm or some other foolish things and I refused
categorically to go to bed. I told her that I would not do it if she did not lie down by my
side. I had figured it out that if she was close to me, she would not play any tricks.
“That's what you call having a guest staying at your home? I was sure that here there
would be at least some construction. You don't even let me make a campfire and on top of
this you are slipping in all kinds of beasts in on me! If you don't have a decent house you
should not invite guests to stay there”.
“All right, Vladimir, don’t worry, please and don't get scared. Nothing bad will happen to
you. If you wish, I shall lie down near you and keep you warm”.
This time there were even more cedar twigs scattered in the den dugout; the bunches of
herbs were put very neatly. The walls were also decorated with twigs. I took off my
clothes, put my pants and sweater under my head, lay down and covered myself with my
jacket. The cedar twigs were producing the phytoncideous aroma about which popular
science literature tells us how whereby it disinfects the surrounding air. Although in the
taiga the air is clean, anyhow. I could breathe with ease. The dry herbs and flowers added
some kind of extraordinarily delicate flavor.
Anastasia kept her promise and lay down with me. Honestly, I could tell that the aroma
which her body was producing exceeded all other scents. It was much more pleasant than
the most delicate perfume which I had ever smelled while being close to a woman.
However, it never came to my mind to take possession of her. After my attempt to hug
her when we were on our way to her place of dwelling, after that fear which I had
experienced and the losing of my consciousness, I did not imagine any kind of sexual or
romantic feelings towards her. That was true even when I saw her absolutely naked.
I was dreaming quietly about a son whom my wife had never given birth to: “It would be
great if my son could be born from Anastasia! She is such a beauty. She is healthy and is
capable of great endurance. That means that the baby would also be healthy and in my
likeness. Of course, my son may look like her though he still should be much more like
me. He would become a strong and smart personality. He would be happy, talented and
intelligent”
I imagined my baby son clinging to the nipples of her breast and involuntarily I put my
hand on Anastasia's resilient breast. At that very moment a quiver ran all over my body
and in a moment it was gone. Though it was not a fearful shivering, it was a different,
extraordinary and pleasant one. I did not draw my hand back but only held my breath
waiting for what would follow. The next moment I felt her soft palm on my hand. She did
not push my hand away. I raised myself a bit and started looking at her gorgeous face.
The white northern night was making it even more beautiful and attractive. I could not
move my eyes away from her face.
Her caressing gray bluish eyes were looking at me. I just could not help bending and
touching slightly, quickly and carefully with my lips her half opened mouth. Again the
same pleasant quiver occurred! My face was getting shrouded in the aroma of her breath.
Her lips did not utter her regular: “Don't do it, calm down”. There were no fearful
feelings. The thoughts about my son did not leave me. When Anastasia embraced me
gently, caressed my hair and moved herself towards me, I felt something unbelievable!..
Only in the morning on awakening did I realize that never in my life had I experienced
these kinds of feelings, — absolute bliss, exaltation and satisfaction. Then there was
another thing which seemed very strange: usually a physical tiredness comes after a night
with a woman. In this case everything was quite the opposite and, moreover, there was a
feeling of a great accomplishment There was a feeling that something great had been
created. The satisfaction was not just a physical one. There was something more to it,
something still unrealized, unknown, never experienced before, extraordinarily wonderful
and joyous!
An idea flashed across my mind: “Just because of a moment like this one life is worth
living”. I knew, I had never experienced anything like that, even close to it! However, I
had met different women in my life who were beautiful, some of whom were rather
experienced in love affairs and I had loved them.
Anastasia was a virgin, a timid and tender girl. Still there was something in her that none,
among those I knew, had possessed.
“What? Where is she now?”, I wondered. I moved towards the trap door of the cozy den
and sticking myself out. I looked around. The clearing was situated a little bit below my
wonderful night dwelling place. It was covered with a layer of the morning fog. It was
about two feet thick. In that fog having stretched her arms with her palms opened,
Anastasia was spinning around. She was creating a small cloud of fog around herself.
When it was wrapping all over her, Anastasia jumped up easily, stretching her legs into
splits like a ballerina. She flew over the fog layer, landed in a new spot and started
spinning again and while doing it she was laughing, rolling herself into another piece of
cloud. The rising sun rays were making then-way trying to penetrate through the fog and
comfort her. I tell you, it was something! It was charming and exciting and I yelled at the
top of my voice being overwhelmed with emotions:
“A-a-n-a-a-st-a-a-s-i-i-ya-a! Good morning, to the fairy
of the forest! Anastasia-a-a!”
“Good morning, Vladimir!”, She shouted back gaily. “It is so nice, so beautiful now!
Why do I feel like this?”, I was shouting at the top of my voice putting in it all my power.
Anastasia raised her arms greeting the rising sun, laughed with her happy, alluring
laughter and shouted back to me and to somebody else above in a singing voice.
“Only for a man the only one out of all living beings in the entire Universe it has been
given to experience something like this! Only for a man and a woman, who had wished
sincerely to have a baby together! Only a man who is experiencing this kind of feeling
can light a new star in the sky! Only-y f-o-or a m-a -a-n striving towards creation! Thank
you-u-u!” Then she turned to me and added addressing only me: “Only for a man, who is
striving for a creation and not for satisfaction of his flesh needs”.
She had an outburst of laughter again with her catchy laughter, jumping up, stretching
herself into the splits, she started to hover over the fog. Then she ran up to me and took a
seat next to me at the entrance of the den She started to comb her golden hair with her
fingers.
“So, you don't believe that sex is a kind of sin?”, I asked her. Anastasia was quiet for a
while then looked at me with surprise and replied, “Do you think that it was the kind of
sex they mean when using precisely this word in your world? If not, then what is more
sinful: to give in and let a man come into this world or abstain from it and don't let a man
be born into the material world? A real man?”
Well, well, I went deep into thinking. Really, that night's intimacy with Anastasia was
impossible to classify by a habitual word “sex”. What was it then? What is the proper
word to use? I asked her again, “Why has nothing of the kind ever happened to me before
and, I guess, to many other people?”
“Well, you see, Vladimir, the dark forces are trying hard to develop in man vile, mean
motives and lust of flesh just to prevent him from experiencing the divine grace, the gift
of God. They are trying hard using all possible ways to make him/her believe, by
suggesting the idea of effortlessly getting satisfaction, just thinking of satisfaction. By
doing it they are leading a man away from the Truth. The poor, deceived women, who
not even realizing it, for all their lives are getting only suffering, trying to find their lost
grace and bliss. They are looking for it in the wrong direction. No woman will be able to
keep a man from lechery if she gave herself up to him only to satisfy his carnal desires. If
something like this happened, their joint life will never be a happy one. Their union, a
poor illusion of togetherness, is a lie. It is a falsehood though widely recognized by
conventional society.
As for the woman herself, she turns into a loose one right away, no matter whether she is
married to the man or not. Oh, humankind has invented so many kinds of laws and
conventions trying to strengthen this false union by artificial reanimation: ecclesiastic and
secular ones, but they don't help! They just make a man play, to get adjusted to them,
trying to make a show of the existence of a union and create an imitation of a marriage.
The inner intentions were always unchangeable and never depended on anybody or
anything. Jesus Christ had realized it. Then he tried to emphasize it by saying that anyone
who was looking at a woman with lust is already committing adultery with her in his
heart. Then all of you, taken together recently tried to hold up to shame the one who had
left a family... Although nothing in any kind of situation could stop man from searching
intuitively for this grace, once experienced. He/she is looking persistently for this great
satisfaction in spite of all kinds of obstacles.
A false union is horrible because children are involved! Do you understand, Vladimir?
Children! They feel artificiality, the mendacity of such a union. Children start to doubt
everything their parents say to them. Children can sense a lie subconsciously when they
are still in their conceptual stage. Because of it they feel bad things.
Tell me, and who would not? What kind of a man would like to appear in this world as a
result of carnal pleasures? Everyone would like to be created by a great impulse of love
striving for a real creation.
Those who joined a false union later on will seek a real satisfaction secretly, away from
one another. They will be longing for possession of new bodies all the time or use only
their own bodies ordinarily and they are doomed. Only intuitively being aware that the
real grace of the real union is moving away from them farther and farther”.
“Anastasia, wait a minute. Could it really be true that men and women are doomed to
such an extent if they happened to have just regular sex at first? Is it possible that there
would not be any way out, no opportunity left to correct the situation?”
“Why, there is an opportunity. Now I know for sure what to do. Where and what kind of
words should I find to express it, to put it into words? I am searching for such kinds of
words all the time. I was looking for them in the past and in the future but I've failed to
find them. Maybe they are quite near, somewhere here? They are about to appear, new
words are ready to be born with the ability to reach the heart and mind. The new words to
express the ancient truth of the Original Sources”.
“Well, don't get frustrated, Anastasia. Try to tell me using those words which are
available at least approximately. What else is necessary for real satisfaction besides two
bodies?”
“Awareness! Mutual striving for creation. Sincerity and purity of striving”.
“Where do you get all this knowledge from, Anastasia?”
“I am not the only one who knows it. The enlightened souls like Vales, Krishna, Rama,
Shiva, Christ, Allah, Buddha were trying to explain to people the essence of all
existence”
“Now, what's that? Did you read about them? Where? When?”
“I did not read about them. I just know what they have said, what they were thinking
about and what was their mission, what they wanted to accomplish” “So, according to
you, is it bad just to enjoy sex?” “Very bad! It leads a man away from the truth, destroys a
family and a huge amount of energy goes nowhere”. “Then why do they publish such a
great number of magazines with naked women in erotic poses and produce movies with
sensuality and sex? They are a great success and in great demand. The demand gives rise
to supply. What do you mean? Do you want to say that our humankind is absolutely
wicked?”
“Humankind is not wicked but the mechanism of the dark forces, eclipsing the
spirituality provoking carnality, is very strong. It brings a lot of troubles and suffering to
people. It works through women using their beauty, the destination of which is to awake
and support the spirit of a poet, an artist and a creator in man. Because of this very
purpose a woman herself should be pure. If there is no purity of feeling, then an attempt
of attracting a man with the help other sexual charms comes forward. The purpose of it is
just to get a man with the outside beauty of an empty vessel. By doing this she tricks a
man. It is inevitable that she is going to suffer for this trickery all her life”.
“How come? Couldn't mankind manage to overcome this "mechanism" of dark forces
through the millennia of its existence? It has failed to overcome this in spite of all the
calls of "the enlightened souls"? Does it mean that it is just impossible to overcome
them? Maybe, there just is no need to do it?”
“It is possible and necessary by all means!”
“Then how could it be done?”
“Women again! Those who have managed to realize the truth and their predestination will
get changed and eventually men will change too”.
“No way, Anastasia, I doubt it. A normal man will always be excited by a beautiful
woman's legs and breasts... Especially when on a business trip or on vacation he happens
to be far away from his woman. That is the way. It just happens. Nobody can change
anything in this case. So it's one way traffic”.
“But I have already done it for you”.
“What have you done?” “From now on you will not be able to be involved with
pernicious sex”. A horrifying thought struck me like lightning and started to reverse the
wonderful feeling which was born inside me the previous night. “What have you done to
me, Anastasia? Tell me! What? I am now... What am I now... Impotent?”, I uttered.
“On the contrary, you have become a real man now. Just regular sex will be repulsive to
you. It will not bring you the feeling you have experienced that night as this kind of
feeling could be possible only in the case of a desire to have a baby. The woman should
have the same desire too. She should really love to desire a baby from you”.
“Love me? Well, under such conditions... During a life time it could happen only a couple
of times. That's it...”.
“It is quite sufficient to be happy within your entire life, trust me. You will realize it”.
Anastasia stretched her arms towards me and tried to move closer. I jumped quickly away
from her into the den's comer and shouted out, “Stay away from the exit, please. I ask
you nicely!”, She stood up. I crawled out and backed up from her a couple of steps.
“You have deprived me maybe of the main pleasure in my life. Everybody is longing for
it, everybody is thinking of it, even if they don't speak aloud about it”.
“It is just an illusion, Vladimir, all these so-called pleasures you are talking about. I've
helped you to get rid of a terrible, pernicious, sinful attraction
“Whether it is illusion or not, who knows? Anyhow, it is a pleasure universally
acknowledged. Don't you dare make me rid of it just because you take it as a "pernicious"
inclination. Otherwise when I get out of here, I will forget about any relationship with a
woman. No drinking! Having a nice snack! No smoking! Thank you! The great majority
of people in everyday life are absolutely unaccustomed to these conditions”
“Well, what is good in hard drinking, smoking, senseless and pernicious digesting of a
great amount of animal meat since there has been plenty of vegetation created especially
for man to live on?”
“Now look here, why don't you live on your "vegetation" if you like it and leave me
alone. For many of us it's a pleasure to smoke, to drink liquor, to enjoy a nice meal. It is
recognized and accepted by everybody. Do you understand it? Accepted! This is the
bottom line! That's it!”
“Look, Vladimir, everything you've mentioned is bad and pernicious”.
“"Bad"? "Pernicious"? All right! What if my invited guests come to my house to
celebrate some special occasion. They sit down at the table and I would tell them, "My
dear friends, will you help yourselves to some nuts, have a bite of an apple, enjoy a glass
of water and no smoking." Then it will be really bad!”
“When you invite your friends and as soon as they come, is it the most important thing to
do right away to invite them to sit down at the table and start drinking, eating and
smoking?”
“It does not really matter whether it is the most important or not. It is just universally
acknowledged all over the world, by all people. In some countries there is even a special
traditional dish like a roast turkey for a certain holiday or occasions
“It is not recognized by everybody in your world”. “Well, maybe not by everybody but as
for me, I am live among normal people”.
“Why do you believe that your surroundings consist of the most normal people?” “Just
because they are the majority”. “It is not a weighty reasoning”. “It is not a "weighty" one
for you because it is impossible trying to explain anything to you”. My anger towards
Anastasia was vanishing. I recalled everything I had heard about new medical remedies. I
remembered about doctors sexopathologists and a comforting thought came to my mind:
“If she has done something which somehow caused me any damage, the doctors would
be able to help correct my problem”. So, I said, “All right, Anastasia, let's make a
bargain, I am not angry any more. Thank you very much for the wonderful night! Only in
future you had better not try to get rid of my habits and addictions. As far as sex is
concerned, I'll fix it with the help of our doctors and modern medicine. All right? Now
let's go bathing”.
I walked to the lake, enjoying the morning forest.
A good mood was returning to me again and as for her... It's unbelievable! Can you
imagine?! — She followed me and said all of a sudden. “Medicine and doctors will not
help you. To change you back, the -a- way it was before, first of all they would need to
erase from your memory file everything that had happened and the memory of
experienced feelings”. Being shocked by this news I stopped and screamed at the top of
my voice, “What? Then why don’t you undo it?”
“Sorry, I can't undo it either”.
And again the feeling of blind fury overwhelmed me. “You... You are an insolent woman!
You are interfering in and messing my life! Here you are! You are ready to make dirty
tricks but correct them by deleting them, "I can't! Isn't it something?!”
“But I haven't done any dirty trick. Didn't you want to have a son of yours so much?
Although many years have passed by and here you are, you still don't have a son. There is
no woman in your life who could give birth to your long awaited son. A desire to have a
child from you also a son, has come to me too. Even more to it, I can... Then why do you
think beforehand that you will not be well? How do you know? Maybe you will realize it
sooner or later... Don't be afraid of me, please, Vladimir. I am not interfering into your
psyche. It happened all by itself. You have got what you had wished for. Your wish has
come into the material. If there is one thing which I would like to help you with very
much, it is to get rid of, at least, one mortal sin”.
“Now again! What kind of sin, I wonder?”
“Pride”.
“Well, I tell you! You are a strange woman! Your philosophy and way of life are
inhuman”.
“What do you see in me which is not human, that scares you?”
“First of all, you are living in this forest all by yourself, communicating with plants and
animals. There is nobody in our world whose life can come even close to yours”.
“How come, Vladimir, why...”, Anastasia started to speak excitedly, What about
dachniksl? They also communicate with plants and animals but yet they do it
unconsciously, without being aware of it. Later on they will realize it. The process of
realization has already started with many of them”.
“Well, and here we go! She is already a dachnitsa, and this beam of yours... You don't
read books but you know a lot. It is a kind of mysticism”.
“Just a minute, I'll explain to you everything but take your time, not all of a sudden. It
takes time, you know. I am trying hard but I can't find the proper words, the
understandable ones. Please, trust me. Everything I do is quite absolutely human in
distinctive features. It was given to humans long, long ago. It is their primordial bond. It
is in our primordial source files. Everybody can do it. Well, anyhow, sooner or later
people inevitably will return to it again. The process will slowly take place when the
Light Forces overcomes
“What about your concert? You were singing with different voices, imitating my favorite
singers and, moreover, it was done in exactly the same consecutive order that is recorded
in my video tape”.
“It just happened, Vladimir. Once I saw the tape, listened to the songs. I'll tell you later
on how it happened. All right?”
“And what do you mean, did you memorize right away the words and the melodies of all
those songs?”
“Yes, I did. What is complicated about it or mystic? Oh, what have I said and showed
you! You got scared of me, didn't you? I guess, evidently, I am a muddle-headed
chatterbox. I don't know how to restrain myself. Once my grandpa called me this name. I
thought that he had done it just because of his love for me. Now I believe that I am really
a muddle-head. Please... Vladimir...”.
Anastasia was talking excitedly and evidently it was the reason why my fear of her was
almost gone. The thoughts of my son filled up all my feelings.
“Well, I am all right, I am not afraid any more-Only, please, do restrain yourself a little
bit. You see, even your grandpa has told you about it”.
“Yes, he has. My great-grandpa... and I am talking on and on... You know, I can't help it
because there is so much to say and I want to say it all! Am I a chatterbox? Yes, sure I
am. I'll try to do my best. I'll try to say only the things which are understandable”
“So, you mean that you will give birth, Anastasia?”
“Of course! Only it will not be in prime time”.
“What do you mean by saying "not in prime time" ?”“ You see, it is necessary to do it in
summer, it is an indispensable condition, when nature helps to bring a baby up”.
“Then why did you make the decision if it is so risky for you and the baby?”
“Don't worry, anyhow, the son will live”.
“And you?” “And me too. I'll try to stay till spring comes and then everything will come
its way”.
She said that without a shade of sadness or fear for her own life. Anastasia took a run and
jumped into the water of the small lake. A shaft of sprays sparkling in the sun raised like
fireworks and descended on the clean and smooth surface of the lake. In about thirty
seconds her body slowly started coming up to the surface. She was lying on the water
with her arms wide apart and smiling. I was standing on the bank watching her and
thinking: “Will the squirrel hear the snaps of her fingers when she is lying together with
her baby in other shelters? Will any of her four-footed friends help her? Will there be
enough warmth in her body to give to the baby?”
“If my body is getting cold and the baby needs food, it will cry”, said Anastasia in a low
voice on coming out of the water. Its dissatisfied cry will wake up the pre-spring nature
or at least a part of it and then everything will be fine. They will bring the baby up”.
“Did you read my mind?” “No, I just assumed that you were thinking about it. It is quite
natural”.
“Anastasia, you have told me that your relatives live near by. Could they help you?”
“They are pretty much occupied and they could not be bothered”.
“What is it that they are so occupied with? What are you doing all day long if practically
the whole surrounding nature is serving you?”
“Well, I am occupied with... And I am also trying to help the people of your world, those
whom they call "dachniks" or gardeners”.
Chapter 10
HER FAVORITE DACHNIKS
Dacha: a small piece of land about 0.04-0.12 hectares (sometimes bigger) with a
hut or a summer house surrounded by a kitchen garden, flower beds and fruit
trees; it is usually outside of a city; people go there for weekends or vacations.
Some people have luxurious residences with a big property but Anastasia does
not mean them. A dachnik is the owner of a dacha. (Comment by the translator).
She told me a lot very excitedly about the possibilities which could be opened for people
who communicate with plants. In general Anastasia usually speaks on two subjects with
special excitement and even some feeling of love. These are children and dachniks. If I
tell you everything she says about dachniks and what kind of meaning she puts into them
then everybody would kneel before each dachnik. Can you believe it? She thinks that
they have saved everybody from disaster and starvation. They are sowing Good in our
souls, and they are bringing up our future society... I tell you, it's almost impossible to
enumerate all the credits she gives them. It would be necessary to write a special book on
this subject. Moreover, she proves all in her argument.
“You know today the society you live in can comprehend a lot through communication
with plants which they grow at their dachas. Only at the dachas, where you know every
plant of your small plot but not in the depersonalized vast fields, where machines are
crawling like stupid monsters. The people who work at dachas feel much better and to
many of them this is the way to prolong their life and be healed from many sicknesses.
They become more kind. It is the dachniks who are capable of stimulating society's
awareness of the fatal consequences of the technocratic ways of our developments
“Well, Anastasia, whether you are right or wrong, it does not really matter right now.
What do you have to do with all these things? What are you helping with?”
She gripped me by my hand pulling me down on the grass. We were lying on our backs
with arms aside each other and palms up.
“Close your eyes, relax and try to imagine everything I am going to speak about. Now I'll
find with my little beam and watch from a distance somebody from the people whom you
call "dachniks".
She was silent for a while, then she started to speak in a low voice: “An elderly woman is
unrolling a cheesecloth in which she was soaking cucumber seeds. The seeds have
already sprouted a lot, one can see tiny sprouts. She took one seed in her hand. Well, right
now I've prompted her that it is not good to soak seeds this way as the sprouts are
becoming deformed while planting. This kind of water is not good enough for nourishing
a seed and it will get sick. She believes that she has guessed about it on her own, just by
herself. Though, to some extent she is right, as I've tried only a little bit to help her to
understand, to reach awareness. Now she will share her new idea with other people. Well,
that's it. A small business has been done”.
Anastasia told me that usually she was modelling in her consciousness all kinds of
situations concerning people's labor, rest and relationship with each other as well as with
plants. When the situation she modelled was the closest to reality, the contact had been
installed whereby she could see a person, feel his/ her sickness and sense their feelings.
It looks as if she gets into someone's consciousness and shares her knowledge with the
person. Anastasia said that plants respond to man, they can love him/ her or hate and
influence his/ her health positively or negatively.
“In this field I've a lot of work to do. I am busy handling the dachniks' plots. The
dachniks go to their plots, to their plantations as if they are visiting their children but
unfortunately their attitudes are only intuitive now. They are not supported by the purity
of awareness of the real purpose of this interconnection. Absolutely everything on Earth,
every herb, every insect has been created for man. They have their special tasks and
predestination to be at man's service. The great variety of medicinal herbs are the best
proof of it. Although a man of your world knows very few in order to use the given
opportunity to the fullest
extent”.
I asked Anastasia to show the usefulness of realized communication by certain examples
and, moreover, the way that it could be possible to verify, to see and test it scientifically.
Anastasia became thoughtful for a while and then she beamed with joy and exclaimed,
“Dachniks! But of course! My favorite dachniks! They will prove and show everything
and make your science puzzled. How did it not come to me before? Why couldn't I
understand, I wonder?”
Any newly bom idea provoked a stormy joy in her. Generally speaking, I've never seen
Anastasia sad. She can be serious, thoughtful, concentrated but most of the time she is
joyous. This time she was expressing a stormy joy. She jumped up, then started clapping
and it looked to me as if it became much brighter in the forest and the forest started
moving. It responded to her by the rustling of the tree tops and a very special chattering
of birds. She was spinning as if in a dance and then, shining and illuminated all over.
Then she took her seat next to me again and said, “Now they will believe. Here they are,
my dear dachniks. They will explain the world; she still seemed to be an unreal being,
though she was sitting next to me and I could reach and touch her easily. My
consciousness, having been used to operate with different criteria of evaluation?” rejected
taking her as the one who is existing in reality. Although, at the beginning of our meeting
I was attracted to her but later on I did not experience former emotions towards her. I
asked, “So, it means you think that the new feelings which appeared in you were
occasional
“They are longed for”, answered Anastasia, “they are even pleasant but in return, I would
like you to love me the same way I do. Though I have realized that on learning about me
and about my world better, you would not be able to perceive me as a regular person.
Maybe you could even get scared of me sometimes... You know, actually it has happened
that way. It is all my fault. I have made a lot of mistakes. I don't know why but all the
time I got nervous. I was rushing, trying to explain and failed to do it. Everything looks
foolish, doesn't it? I need to correct myself’.
While saying those words she was smiling with a shade of sorrow. She pressed her hand
against her breast and I recalled right away something that had happened one morning
while I stayed at Anastasia s.
Chapter 11
DOCTOR SEED
Anastasia stated:
“Every seed planted by someone contains within itself a great amount of cosmic
information. Its volume is incomparable to anything manmade. Thanks to this
information the seed knows exactly, up to milliseconds, the time when it is supposed to
return to life. It knows when to sprout, what kinds of juices to extract from the ground,
how to use the energy generated by cosmic bodies like the sun, moon and stars. It also
knows what specific type of plant to become and what kind of fruit to bear. The various
fruits are meant for man's life-support. These fruits can fight and resist any disease of a
human physical body very effectively and even more powerfully than the best manmade
medications existing now and those which will be in the nearest future. In order to fulfill
this job a seed has to know everything it could saturate the fruit with and bring them into
proper correlation with the necessary substances for the healing process. It has to know
precisely for a certain person concerning his specific sicknesses in case they have them or
there is a pre-disposition towards sickness.
To load this kind of information into a cucumber, tomato or any other kind of seed which
is supposed to grow in a certain piece of land it is necessary to act as follows:
Before planting or sowing a dry seed (don't soak it) it should be taken into the mouth and
kept not less than nine minutes. Then take it in your hands (in-between your palms), hold
it for thirty seconds. While doing it one should stand barefooted on the very plot where
the seed is supposed to be planted. After that open your palms, bring your hands close to
your mouth, exhale the air out of your lungs right on the seed (or seeds). After that keep it
in the open air in the sun for thirty seconds. Now the seed is ready to be planted, so put it
into the ground. Never water it right away after planting! You can water it only three days
after planting.
Of course don’t forget about the proper time for planting or sowing. The day should be
chosen in accordance with the well known moon calendar. Every gardener knows that
there are especially preferable days for each kind of crop. It is advisable to plant early
without watering when the ground has enough moisture in it. A late planting could be
fatal for the seed. Don't destroy around this plant all the weeds when it is developing and
growing. It is necessary to leave at least one kind of each weed. You can cut the weeds
without pulling them out so you will not disturb the roots of your plant”.
According to Anastasia, this is the only way for a seed to accumulate, file and process the
infor-mation about a person. In the process of bringing up its fruit the plant will be
getting the most out of the required energy from the Cosmos and the Earth specially for
that person. You can't remove all the weeds around the plant because they are playing
their special role as well. Some of them are protecting the plants from sicknesses. Others
are supplying them with additional information. While the plant is growing it is necessary
to communicate with it and at least once, approach it when the moon is full and touch it.
Anastasia confirmed that the fruits, which had been grown that way from a seed and
consumed by the person taking care of it, are capable of healing him/her absolutely from
any kind of disease. It decreases to a great extent, the process of ageing, gets rid of
pernicious habits and addictions, greatly increasing mental abilities and bringing peace to
the soul. This kind of fruit will give the most beneficial effect if consumed within three
days after harvesting, not later. All the procedure described above can be done with any
kind of crop which you grow on your plot. There is no need to sow or plant the whole bed
of cucumbers or tomatoes this way. It is quite sufficient to have only a couple of plants
for healing purposes.
Before you plant a sapling it is necessary to crumple the soil in the hole with your fingers
and the toes of your bare feet and after that spit into it.
On answering my question, “Why with toes?” Anastasia explained that toxic substances
are coming out of a human body through the feet sweating. These are containing the
information about an organism which had been sick. The young plant would get this
information and process it to the fruit, which would be able to fight the sickness.
Anastasia strongly recommended walking on the plot bare footed at least once in a while.
“What kind of crop is it preferable to grow?”, I asked. “It is quite sufficient to grow the
variety which the great majority of the gardeners do: raspberry, black currant, gooseberry
canes, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries and any kind of apple tree. It is advisable to
have a cherry or sour cherry tree and flowers. The quantity of the crops or the area they
occupy does not really matter.
There are compulsory crops without which it is hard to imagine a complete energetic
microclimate at a plot. They are: sunflower (at least one), cereals should occupy an area
of about 1.5-2 square meters, then rye and wheat. It is absolutely necessary to leave a
space not less than 2 square meters for various grasses. This island of motley grass should
be only natural. It should not be artificially sown and if you, for some reason have failed
to preserve a piece of earth with motley grass in your plot, then it is necessary to bring
some turf from a forest. This way you would be able to create a kind of a tiny wild,
nature
island”.
I asked Anastasia whether it was necessary to plant the compulsory crops if your next-
door neighbor had already had those crops at his/ her plot. If right behind your fence
there was a motley grass island or even a whole field of it and her answer was, “It is
important not only to create a variety of plantings but it is very important the way they
were planted and direct communication with them is advisable. Because through it a
saturation of information is taking place. I've already told you about one way of planting
and it is the main one. The most important thing to do is to saturate the surrounding piece
of nature with information about oneself.
Only in that case the healing effect and the life support of your physical body would be
much higher than just fruit growing. In "wild nature", as you call it, though it is not
"wild" at all, it is just strange and unknown to you. There are a great many plants which
are able to heal all kinds of existing diseases. They exist only for this purpose! Man has
lost or almost forfeited the ability to recognize and determine them”.
I directed her attention to the fact that we had many specialized pharmacies which are
dealing with medicinal herbs. There were doctors, quack-doctors or even witch —
doctors who were healing with herbs, but...
“There is only one main doctor and it is your own organism!”, replied Anastasia. “From
the very beginning it has been given to man to know exactly what kind of herb to use and
when. Anyone was able to do it subconsciously. Nobody else can substitute you as your
private doctor. This ability has been given to you by God. I am telling you the way to
bring it back. A well organized interrelationship with the plants' organic complex at your
plot will heal you. It will take great care of you. The plants will diagnose your condition
very precisely on their own and produce the most effective remedy specially destined for
you”.
Chapter 12
WHO IS BEING STUNG BY BEES
“At each plot it is necessary to have one bee family”, said Anastasia. I was trying to tell
her that only a few people managed to communicate with bees. Some people joined
special schools to learn how to take care of bees and even they did not always manage to
handle that matter properly.
“A lot of that which you are doing for a bee family's life sustenance only leads you away
from success. Within the last thousand years only two men on Earth have managed to get
closer to understanding and realizing this unique life mechanism”, she replied.
“Who were they?”, “They were two monks and they have been canonized. Anyone can
read.
“They were two monks and they have been canonized. Anyone can read about them in
the books which are being preserved in the monastic depositories”
“Well, all right, and what is the right way to maintain
bees at a plot?”
“It is simply necessary to make a nest for them, exactly the same one they have in natural
conditions. That's it! Then the only job is to take a part of their honey, beeswax and other
substances produced by them”.
“But they can sting people, can't they? What kind of peace would there be if man is going
to be in a constant state of fear?”
“Bees sting only when man abuses them and behaves aggressively, waving hands, and, in
general, if a person is full of aggressive feelings and it is not necessarily towards bees but
just for anybody. They feel or, rather, they don't accept radiation of any dark feelings.
Those of anger, irritation, frustration, etc. are not accepted. Also they can bite at those
parts of the body where there are endings which are connected and lead towards the
internal organs. They dislike any kind of disharmony, as well as those areas where the
protective coat is broken. Also if there is some kind of disorder. It is well known how
effectively bees can heal the illness which they call radiculitis but it is still far from being
the only thing they are capable of doing.
If I start telling you about everything and, moreover, try to prove it the way you want me
to, then you would have to stay here not for three days but for many weeks.
A lot has been said about bees in your world, I've just tried to make some corrections
concerning their maintenance and believe me, please, they are quite substantial. It is very
easy to put a bee family into a beehive. It is just necessary to pour out a swarm of bees
into it. I've forgotten to say that before, one should put a piece of beeswax and
melliferous herb into the beehive. All kinds of home made frames and honeycombs are
not required. Later on, when bee families appear at neighboring plots, bees will start
swarming by themselves and after they have swarmed they will occupy vacant blocks”.
“How would you take honey from them?” “Just open the bottom cover, fracture the
hanging combs and withdraw some of the packed honey and pollen. Only man should not
be greedy as it is necessary to leave a certain portion of honey for the bees to survive the
winter”.
Chapter 13
HELLO. MORNTNG!
Anastasia tried to adapt to the conditions of a dacha plot with her own morning procedure
and it has come out as follows:
“In the morning, preferably at sunrise, one should go out to the plot bare footed, come to
the plants of one's own choice, at random. You may touch them and there is no need to
follow any stereotyped patterns or strictly repeat a certain ritual day after day. Just follow
your own gut feeling. One should do it before washing oneself. So, don't touch water.
This is very important as the plants are able to sense the smell of the substances which
are being excreted from a body while man is sleeping. They are coming to the surface
through the skin pores. If it is warm and there is a small space covered with grass (it is
very important to have such), you should lie down and enjoy stretching yourself for three
or four minutes...
If any insects crawl over your body don't push them off. Many insects can do a wonderful
job of unplugging the pores of the human body and cleaning them. As a rule, those pores
are getting plugged through with toxins. They are coming out bringing to the skin surface
all kinds of internal sicknesses and in this way giving man an opportunity to wash them
off.
If there is any pool at the plot it is necessary to dip into it. If it is not available you can
just pour a bucket of fresh water over yourself. While doing it one should be bare footed
standing near the beds of plants. It is even better to stand in between the beds or, for
example, one morning you can stand near a raspberry cane and next time it could be a
blackberry bush and so on. After the bath in the open air you should not wipe yourself
with a towel right away. Wait! It is necessary to shake off the drops of water from your
palms on the nearby plants. The drops of water from the rest of your body should be
shaken off with your hands exactly the same way. Only after that can you proceed with
your regular morning procedures which you are used to”.
Chapter 14
EVENING PROCEDURE
“In the evening, before you go to bed, it is absolutely necessary to wash your feet. Add to
the water some drops of goose-foot or stinging nettle juice. Though you can use both of
them but no soap or shampoo should be present. As for the water in which you have
washed your feet, pour it out on the beds of your plot. After that, if it is necessary, you
may wash your feet with soap. This kind of evening procedure is very important for two
reasons. First of all, as it has been mentioned above, through your feet sweating, the
toxins are getting out bringing all kinds of internal diseases. That's why it is absolutely
necessary to wash them off, to cleanse the pores. The juice of goose-foot and stinging-
nettle helps and stimulates the process. By pouring the water on the beds of your plot you
are providing the micro-organisms of the environment and plants with additional
information about your state of health now. Even more than that, which is also very
important, the visible and invisible surrounding world can manufacture everything
required for your organism to function properly. It will select these from the Cosmos and
the Earth”.
Chapter 15
TT WTLL PREPARE
EVERYTHING BY ITSELF
I was very interested in one thing, “What would she say about nutrition”, I wondered.
She herself was eating rather peculiarly. I asked her, “Anastasia, tell me, please, what do
you think about man’s nutrition? What should one eat. When, how often and in what
quantities should he eat? Lately, everybody is very fascinated about this subject. All kinds
of literature have been written advertising different formulas of medical nutrition and
giving recommendations on weight loss”.
“Well, it is difficult even to imagine that the life of man in the technocratic world could
be different. This world has been given to man from the very beginning but the dark
forces have been always trying to change this healthy, natural mechanism into their very
complicated, bulky, artificial systems which are contradicting human nature”.
I asked Anastasia to be more specific and speak more understanding^ avoiding her
philosophical fabrications and she proceeded:
“You see, nothing but your own organism itself is able to give you a better answer to your
questions:
"what, when and how much food is man supposed to eat?" The senses of hunger and
thirst have been given to man by nature exactly for this purpose. These signal to each
human being, in particular, what is the right time for him / her to have food. This exact
moment is the most favorable for him/her. The technocratic world can't provide a man
with an opportunity to satisfy his/ her sense of hunger and thirst at the very moment when
the organism requires it. That was the reason why man started to push his/her own
organism into the pattern which has been conditioned by his own helplessness. Moreover,
trying to justify it by a certain advisability is what man needs.
Just imagine, somebody is sitting idly, almost sleeping and of course he is saving his
energy. Another one is working hard physically or simply running, sweating, losing,
dozens of times more energy and they must have their meal at the same time.
Well, man must eat at that time when the physical body tells him/her to do it and the
second advisor does not exist. I understand that in the conditions of your existence it is
almost impossible to accomplish all my suggestions but for those who have their dacha
plots such a possibility does exist! Why not use this wonderful opportunity, putting aside
all those unnatural, artificial directives!
I am going to tell you exactly the same thing while answering your question, "what is
necessary to eat"? Anything, at hand at the very moment you feel hunger. Your organism
will choose by itself what is necessary for it. I can give you some untraditional advice:
If you have a pet in your house (a cat or a dog) try to watch it carefully as you can learn
something from it. From time to time the animals choose a certain kind of herb from a
great multitude and eat it. It is advisable to take at least a couple of them and add them to
your meal. Not necessarily everyday. It is quite sufficient to do it once or twice a week. It
is also necessary to harvest grains of cereals, thrash them, mill, make flour and bake
bread. It is extremely important! A person who eats such bread only once or twice a year
gets the reserve of energy which is capable of activating not only one's inner forces but
also influencing the internal state of health. It also effects mood and bring peace to the
mind and soul. You can give this bread to your relatives or close friends. It will also
influence them beneficially. It is very useful for man's good health, at least once, in
summer time to eat only the fruit and vegetation from your plot. Although you can add to
it bread, sunflower oil and a minimum quantity of salt”.
I have already mentioned how Anastasia eats. While speaking, for example, on the
subject of nourishment she, just by the way, picked up a blade of grass then another one,
started chewing and gave me one. I decided to try it. It's taste was not impressive though
it was not disgusting either. The process of nourishment and life sustenance of Anastasia's
organism makes the impression that it just relies upon nature. It never prevents her from
her thoughts or actions and her mind is always preoccupied by different kinds of
problems, that's for sure.
As a matter of fact, her health is an inseparable part of her extraordinary external beauty.
According to Anastasia, the human organism, since it has established such a relationship
with the vegetable kingdom and the Earth, has an opportunity to get rid of all kinds of
sicknesses. This shows up right away.
Disease itself occurs because Man is moving away from the natural mechanisms which
have been designed to watch his/ her health and life-sustenance. It is no problem at all for
these mechanisms to fight any disease just because it is namely the essence of their
existence. The benefits which man can enjoy once he creates informational contact with a
small space of Mother Nature is much greater than just a help in the struggle against
diseases.
Chapter 16
SLEEPING UNDER YOUR STAR
I have already mentioned the way Anastasia becomes inspired when she speaks about
plants and people who are communicating with them. I thought that she, living in a
natural environment, had studied perfectly only nature. However she also acquired
information about planetary structure. It looks as if she has a feeling for it. Dear readers,
it is up to you to judge the idea of sleeping in the open air under the starry sky and the
way she speaks about it.
The plants, having received the information about a certain person, enter the information
exchange with cosmic forces, but they are only intermediaries. They are fulfdling strictly
specialized tasks. These are pertaining to the flesh only and never touch complicated
processes which are only characteristic of man's brain out of all the animal and vegetable
kingdoms on the planet. Once being established, the information exchange allows a man
to do something which he alone is empowered to do. That is to get in touch with Cosmic
Intellect and, to be more precise, to exchange their information. A very simple procedure
makes it possible to do and experience the solitary effect of such an influence. Anastasia
sets it forth as follows:
“On one summer night when the weather is nice, arrange your lodging for the night
outdoors, right under the starry sky. It is recommended to make up your bed not far from
raspberry or black currant canes or a space with cereals. You must be alone. Lie down on
your back facing the stars and keep your eyes open. Just gaze for a while mentally along
with the cosmic bodies. Relax, don’t strain yourself while thinking about them. The
thoughts should be light, free and peaceful. Get into a silent gap.
First of all, try to think about those celestial objects which are easily visible. Then you
may dream for a while of something which is for you the innermost:
About your loved ones and those to whom you wish all the best. Don't ever try to think
about any kind of vengeance or bear somebody ill will at that very moment. Otherwise
the effect could be unpredictable, a very unfavorable one for you. This simple procedure
will bring back to life some cells of the great multitudes of sleeping ones in your brain.
The great majority of which never wake up during man's life time.
Cosmic forces will join and help you to accomplish the most inconceivable light dreams,
to find peace of mind, regulate favorable relationships with loved ones and your dearest.
It will increase or call forth their love towards you. It is very wholesome to carry out this
procedure several times. Though it will be effective only at the places of your constant
contact with Mother Nature. You will feel the effect the very next morning. It is
especially important to do such kinds of procedures every time on your birthday eve. It
would take a lot of time to explain how the whole mechanism works and, to be
completely honest, there is no use in doing that right now. First of all, you will not
believe a certain part of my explanations and, secondly, some of them you will not simply
be able to understand. It could be much easier with no time to speak about this subject to
those who had tried and experienced this influence by themselves. The information they
could get would favor the perception of subsequent experiences.
Chapter 1 7
YOUR CHILD'S HELPER AND
EDUCATOR
I inquired into how a piece of land with plantings, if it were planted in a special way,
being in contact with man could benefit the education of children. I expected to hear from
Anastasia something like: “It is necessary to cultivate in children a love for nature and so
on...”. Although I'd been mistaken. I was shocked by the simplicity of her argument as
well as the depth of her philosophical sense.
“Nature and the universal mind created us such that each newly bom man comes into the
world as a master, a king. He is just like an angel in his purity and innocence. The top of
the head, being still open, is receiving a huge flow of universal information and the
abilities of each newly born allow him to become the wisest being in the Universe,
created in God's likeness. The baby needs a very short period of time to present its
parents with a gift of happiness and bliss. This is the time within which it realizes the
essence of the Universe, the reason for man's existence. This happens within only nine
years of earthly life. Everything he needs already exists”, says Anastasia.
“The only thing the parents should do, is not to distort the natural cosmic creation, but the
techno-cratic world does not allow this. What does a baby see with its first intelligent
look? — It can see only a ceiling, an edge of its cradle, some rags, walls and other
treasures of an artificial world created by modern technology. In this world its mother and
her breasts exist. "Evidently, this is the way it should be," the baby thinks.
The smiling parents are presenting the baby with clanging and squeaking things. The toys
are presented in such a way as if they are the greatest treasures in this world. Why? What
for?... The baby will be clanging and peeping with them for a long time trying to realize
everything with its subconscious.
Then again the same smiling parents will swaddle it with rags and it feels terribly
uncomfortable. The baby will try to get rid of these; fighting for its freedom but
everything is just in vain! The only way to resist is to cry! Here comes the cry of protest
and indignation, asking for help. From that very moment an angel and master turns into a
beggar, a slave begging for charity.
They present the child with all kinds of attributes of the artificial world without a break,
one after another. Every new toy, new clothes is given as a proper thing, almost like a
blessing. They are lisping the baby and in that way involuntarily treat the baby man as an
imperfect being and even at those establishments which are meant, as everybody
believes, to be for educational purposes, the children are being taught the merits of the
same artificial world.
And only by the age of nine do they tell him/ her, just by the way, about the existence of
Nature as an appendix for something else, something very important and again bearing in
mind the same handmade stuff.
The great majority of people are not able to realize the Truth to the end of their lifetime.
One would think of the question as being a rather simple one: "What is the meaning of
life?" Still, this dilemma has never been solved. The whole point is: in Truth, Joy and
Love. A nine year old child, having been educated by the natural world, has more
opportunities for realizing the Cosmic Creation than the best educational establishments
can provide in your world”.
“Stop, Anastasia! Evidently you mean "the knowledge of nature" bearing in mind that a
child's life would pass by just like yours? Sorry, I can't take it. I believe that a modem
man has to live one's life right there where he is, in our technocratic world, as you call it.
Whether it is good or bad there is no way out and this is the bottom line. One will know
and feel nature but as far as other things are concerned, he is going to be an absolute
profanity. There are such kinds of sciences as mathematics, physics, chemistry and it is
absolutely necessary to know life with its social phenomena”.
“Everything you've mentioned are just trifles for the one who has once got to know the
essence of Cosmic Creation. If one shows interest for something and manifests oneself in
a certain field of science then it will be easy for him to surpass other people”.
“Just like that?”
“A man of the technocratic world has not till now invented anything that does not exist in
Mother Nature”.
“Fine! Let everything be as it is. Remember, you have promised to explain how a child
could be educated in our conditions, how to develop his skills and abilities. While
speaking on this subject, please express yourself clearly and try to give specific
examples, will you?”
“I'll try to do my best”, answered Anastasia, ’’I've already modelled such kind of situations
and tried to prompt one family with what exactly was necessary to do. They had a
problem in realizing the key moment and asking their child the right questions. The
parents go with their three year old child to their dacha and they carry with them his
favorite toys to keep him busy. They should not do it. The child could be involved and
preoccupied with something more interesting instead of the senseless and even harmful
communication with handmade items.
First of all you can ask him to help you. Only you should do it for real, without kidding
and lisping and, believe me, he will really help. If you are going to sow ask him to hold
the seeds or rake aside the ground on the bed or put a seed into a hole. While doing it try
to comment on your actions explaining to him what you are doing. For example, you may
do it this way: "We are going to put the seed into the hole and then cover it with earth.
When the sun shines and warms the ground the seed will get warm and start growing, it
will wish to see the sun and a green sprout will come out, just like this one," and at that
moment you should show him any new sprout. "If the tiny sprout likes, it will become
bigger and bigger and eventually it can grow into a tree, just
like that or a smaller one. I would like it to bring us a tasty fruit and if you like it you will
enjoy eating it".
Any time when you come to your plot with your child or, in case you are staying there, in
the morning when he wakes up, the first thing you should do is suggest that the child
check up whether a new sprout has come out. When you see a newly born sprout express
a real joy, get happy. When you are planting tomato seedlings let your child fetch you
stems one by one. If by chance he breaks any of them, take the broken one and say: "I
think, this one is not going to live, it will not bring us any fruit, it is broken, but,
nevertheless, let's try and we’ll see. Then plant at least one broken sprout together with
the healthy ones.
In a couple of days when you come to the tomato bed again, he will see the healthy stems
which had become stronger and the broken one which is fading. Remind the child that it
had been broken while planting. Mind, please, at that moment you should not speak to
the child in a didactic tone of voice. Speak and treat him as your equal. You should
realize on the level of your consciousness that in a certain way he is superior to you. For
instance, he is superior in purity of thoughts. A child is an angel and if you manage to
comprehend this then later on you would be able to act intuitively. No doubt, he will be
the very person who will bring you happiness.
When you are going to sleep under a starry sky, take your child with you, put him by your
side, let him see the starry sky. Don't try to tell him the names of the planets or to explain
their origin and destination the way you understand it Because in reality you don't know
it yourself.
The dogma which exists in your mind will only mislead him away from the truth. His
subconscious mind knows the truth and it will get into the child's consciousness
automatically, by itself. The only thing you can do is just to tell him that you like to
watch the shining stars and ask your child which of the stars he likes best of all. In
general it is very important to know how to ask a child questions.
The following year you should suggest to your child to take care of a small piece of your
plot, let him do whatever he likes. You can help, but before you do, ask the child's
permission to work together with him. When you sow cereals let him sow seeds too”.
“All right”, I said, “really this way a child will develop an interest in the vegetable
kingdom and he could become a good agronomist. How would he gain knowledge in
other fields?”
“Well, what do you mean by saying "where from"? The point is not only what he will
know and feel about how everything is growing. The bottom line is he will start to think,
analyze and in his brain the cells will wake up which are going to work during his total
life time. These cells will make the child smarter, more talented than those people whose
cells are still sleeping.
As far as your existence is concerned (that which you call "progress"), your child could
become second to none in any field of knowledge and his purity of thoughts, being
greater than those others have, will make him more happy as well. The adjustment with
his planets will give him the possibility not only to receive new information, permanently
again and again but to exchange it also. His subconscious will receive all of these and
pass it to the consciousness as new thoughts and discoveries. Outwardly he will be a
regular man but inwardly.. You would call such people "geniuses"“.
Chapter 18
FOREST GYMNASIA
“Please, tell me, Anastasia, was your upbringing exactly the way you are describing
everything now?”
She answered only after a short pause evidently trying to recall her childhood.
“You know, to tell the truth, I almost completely don't remember my daddy and mummy.
I was brought up by my grandfather and great-grandfather approximately the way I’ve
just described to you. "The point is that somehow I was feeling nature and the animal
world surrounding me very well. Maybe I was not realizing all its mechanisms up to the
end but it is not important when one feels it. Granddaddy and great-granddaddy used to
visit me from time to time and asked questions and asked me to answer them. It is a rule
with us that the elders treat babies and little children as a divine being and through a
child's answers they are checking their own purity”.
I asked Anastasia to recollect any specific question she was asked and the answers she
gave to it. She smiled and told me this story:
“Once I was playing with a snake, the next moment I turned around and saw them
standing watching me and smiling. I was very happy to see them because it
was usually fun to spend time with them. Only they could ask me questions and,
moreover, their hearts were beating at the same rhythm as mine and the animals'
heartbeats were absolutely different. I ran up to them, great-granddaddy bowed to me and
granddaddy took me on his lap. I was listening to the beating of his heart and while doing
it I was running my lingers over of his beard examining it. We were silent for a while.
Everyone was thinking to himself and I felt so good. Then my granddaddy asked me a
question:
“"Now, tell me, Anastasia, why does my hair grow here?" He pointed to his head and
beard. "But why don't they grow here?", pointing to his forehead and nose.
I touched his forehead, then his nose but no answer came to my mind. I could not speak
hastily. It was necessary for me to comprehend the subject by myself. When they came
the next time granddad started again:
"Well, you see, the same problem is bothering me. I am still thinking about it. Why do I
have hair growing right here and not here?" Then again he pointed to his forehead and
nose.
My granddaddy was looking at me very intently and seriously. Then I thought, that
evidently it was really the most serious problem for him and asked him in return:
"Well, granddaddy, do you really want so much hair to grow all over you including your
forehead and nose?"
My great- granddaddy became very thoughtful and granddaddy answered:
"No, I don't want it to".
"There you are, that's why they don't grow, because you just don't want them to". Then he
asked thoughtfully stroking his beard as if he was asking himself:
"All right, do you think that right here they grow just because I like it?" Then I confirmed
saying:
"Of course, grandpa, you and me and the one who has invented you". At that very
moment great grandpa became very excited and asked:
"Can you tell me who? Who has invented him?"
"The one who has thought of everything", I answered.
"All right, and where is he, can you show him to me?", asked my grandpa bowing before
me.
I could not answer right away at that moment but the question stayed inside me and I
started thinking about it since that time”.
“Did you find the answer later?”, I asked her.
“I answered it in about a year and then received new questions. You see, they did not ask
me a new question before I gave them the answer to the previous one. Believe me, I was
having a very hard time as it was bothering me”.
Chapter 19
ATTENTION TO MAN
I asked Anastasia who had taught her to speak if she almost could not remember her
mother and father. Her grandfather and great-grandfather visited her very seldom. I was
astonished by the answers I got and I believe that only qualified people should try to find
the meaning and essence in them. That's why I'll try my best to reproduce the issue the
best way I can. As for me, the essence of it started to clarify only later on. Instead of
answering my question she asked me in return:
“Do you mean the ability to speak the languages of different peoples?”
“What does it mean "different"? You can speak different languages, can't you?”
“Yes, I can”, answered Anastasia.
“Can you speak German, French, English, Japanese, Chinese?”
“Yes, I can”, repeated she and added, “Don't you see I am speaking your language?”
“Do you mean Russian?”
“Well, it is generalized greatly. I am speaking, at least, trying to speak, using the words
and word combinations which you are using in your speech. It was a little bit difficult for
me at the beginning as your vocabulary is poor and you repeat very often the same speech
patterns. Your senses are also feebly expressed. It is rather difficult for me to express
precisely enough everything I would like in using this kind of languages
“Wait a minute, Anastasia, now I am going to ask you something in a foreign language
and you will answer me if you can”. So, I said “How do you do” in English then in
French. She responded immediately. To my great regret I don't know foreign languages. I
was taught German at school and I had only a satisfactory mark. A whole German phrase
came to my mind which we had to leam by heart and I reproduced it for Anastasia. She
stretched her hand and replied in German:
“I am giving my hand to you”. I was so surprised that I could not believe my ears and I
asked her:
“So, what of that? Do you mean that any man could be taught all kinds of languages?”
Intuitively I felt that there was a very simple explanation to this extraordinary
phenomenon and I just had to realize it and to bring it to people of our world.
“Go ahead, Anastasia, tell me in my language and, please, try to bring understandable
examples”, I asked her getting a little bit excited.
“All right, all right only you should calm down. Relax or otherwise you will fail to
comprehend. Let me teach you first of all how to write”.
“I can write. You would better tell me about teaching foreign languages, will you?”
“It is not just how to write. I'll teach you how to become a writer, a talented one. You will
write a book”.
“Oh, no, it's impossible”.
“Quite possible, it's so simple”.
Anastasia took a stick and drew on the ground all the letters of the Russian alphabet
together with punctuation marks and asked me how many letters
there were.
“Thirty three”, I answered.
“Well, you see, there are quite a few letters. Can you call my drawing a book?”
“No”, I answered, “it is a regular ABC, that's it.
Just regular letters”.
“But all books in Russian consist of these letters”, noted Anastasia. Do you agree with
this? Do you understand how simple everything is?”
“Yes, but in the books they are placed in different ways”.
“That's right, all books consist of multitudes of these letters' combinations. Man puts
them in order automatically being guided by his feelings. It means that, first of all, not
just combinations of letters are being born but feelings, being depicted by his
imagination. The one, who is going to read it will experience approximately the same
feelings and they will stay in memory files for a long time. Can you recall any image or
situation from the books you have read?”
“Well, I hope I can”, I answered after pondering for a while. A Hero of Our Time, by M.
Lermontov came to my mind somehow and I started to describe it to Anastasia.
She interrupted me saying:
“Well, you see, you can describe the characters of this book, speak about their feelings
though it was long ago since you had read it. If I ask you to tell me
the order of the 33 letters of which the combinations were arranged, could you reproduce
them for me?” “No, I can't. It is impossible”
“It is really very difficult to do. So, it means that the feelings of one person have been
transmitted to another with the help of all kinds of combinations of these thirty three
letters. You were looking at those combinations and forgetting them right away but the
feelings and images have remained and been memorized in your long-term memory...
So, it turns out that if a soul's feelings are connected directly with these symbols without
thinking about all kinds of conditional characters, the soul will arrange the symbols by
changing their combinations. It does this sequence and later on the reader would be able
to feel the soul of the writers
“Wait a minute, Anastasia, please, speak simply, more understandably. Will you specify
and give me any example of a method of teaching foreign languages. You will try to
make a writer of me later on, all right. Go ahead, tell me who and how they were teaching
you to understand different languages?”
“My granddad”, replied Anastasia.
“Can you give me an example”, I asked trying my best to realize and comprehend
everything as soon as possible.
“All right, but you should not worry, somehow I'll find the way to make you understand
and if it is so important for you I'll also try to teach you all languages. It's so simple”.
“"Simple" for you but for us, it's unbelievable, Anastasia, that's why, please try to explain.
By the way, will you tell me how long it will take for you to teach me a foreign
language?”
For a while she was looking at me thoughtfully and then said: “Your memory has already
become poor, all kinds of everyday problems have weakened it It will take more time
with you”.
“How much?”, I was impatient as I was anxious to get the answer.
“Well, for everyday essentials, the phrases like:
"How do you do", "Hello", "Goodbye" and so on I think it will take not less than four or,
maybe, even six months”, answered Anastasia.
“Only? Now, Anastasia, go ahead, tell me how todo it”.
“He played with me”.
“How did he play? Tell me”.
“You just calm down and relax. Honestly, I can't, for the life of me, understand why you
are agitated so much?” She continued quietly: “My great-grandpa used to play with me as
if he was making fun. When he came to visit me alone without granddaddy, he used to
approach me making a deep bow. He would stretch his hand and I stretched mine. He
would shake my hand then stand on one knee, kiss it and say: "How do you do,
Anastasia". Once he came, performed his regular ritual and, as usual, his eyes were
looking at me tenderly but his lips were speaking a kind of abracadabra. I was looking at
him with surprise. He started to speak something different and again there was absolutely
no sense in his speech at all. I could not stand it any longer so I asked him: "What's the
matter with you, did you forget what is necessary to say?" My great- grandpa answered:
"Yes, I did." Then he moved away for a couple of steps then came to me again, stretched
his hand, I did exactly the same. He kneeled before me on one knee and kissed my hand.
His look was very tender and sweet. His lips were moving but he did not utter a word,
nothing at all! I tell you, I even got scared and tried to help him:
"How do you do, Anastasia".
"That's right", affirmed my great-grandpa smiling and I realized that it was just a game.
We were playing previously something like that. At the beginning it was easy but later the
game started to get more complicated though it was becoming more interesting to play.
This game starts at the age of three and is over by the age of eleven. That is the time for a
kind of examination. The essence of it is that while watching attentively one should
understand him without words and it doesn't matter what language one is speaking, trying
to express oneself.
Such kind of dialogue is more perfect than a vocal one and moreover the speed is higher.
You call this phenomenon "transmission of thoughts at a distance," considering it almost
unreal. This belongs to the realm of fantasy but this is just an attentive attitude towards a
person, highly developed imagination and good memory. Behind it stands simply a more
perfect means of information exchange.
Although it is much more a cognition of a human soul, the vegetable kingdom and animal
world and, generally speaking, the whole Cosmic Creation”.
“Come on, Anastasia! What does it have to do with a plant growing in a plot?”
“Well, what do you mean by "what does it have to do?" Simultaneously a child is getting
to know the vegetable kingdom as a particle of the Universal mechanism. With their help
it gets into contact with the parents, and then with the help of the parents the child gets to
know the truth fast, very fast. At the same time the child is developing intensively in the
field of psychology, philosophy and the natural sciences. All kinds of sciences of your
world have been developed. While this kind of game is being carried out, any kind of
handmade object of the artificial world, even as an example, should not be used. It will
mess a child up and no help from the forces of nature or the cosmos could be given to
him”.
“I've already told you before, Anastasia, that after all, this child can become an
agronomist, and where is he going to get knowledge in other fields of the sciences?”
Anastasia started to confirm that if a person had been educated exactly that way he
would acquire the abilities for quick knowledge in any sphere of our sciences.
Chapter 20
A FLYING SAUCER? NOTHING
SPECIAL
When I asked Anastasia to demonstrate her knowledge in the field of engineering she
asked:
“What do you want me to do? Shall I tell you how all kinds of mechanisms work in your
world?”
“Will you tell me about something involving what our greatest scientists are only getting
some hints at or just approaching. Well, lets say on which they are trying to make some
kind of discovery”.
“That is exactly the thing I am doing for you all the time”.
“Please, don't try to do it for me. Do it for our scientific world, so that they would be able
to recognize this discovery. Do it in the field of engineering, outer space flights, atomic
study, machine fuel or rocket propellant since you keep saying that "everything is very
simple"“.
“These fields you've mentioned in comparison with those ones I am trying to explain to
you, well, how to be more precise, they could be compared to those in a stone age or
something like that”.
“Fine! In your opinion, they are very primitive but on the other hand, at least it would be
understandable. You will be able to prove your righteousness and confirm that your
intellect is superior to mine. Tell me, for instance, what do you think: our air and space
crafts are perfect mechanisms or not?”
“They are extremely primitive and, moreover, they are a confirmation of the primitivism
of the technocratic way of developments
I tell you, such kind of answer pricked up my ears because I realized that she knew for
sure immeasurably more than I could possibly imagine by my ordinary consciousness.
Although, I was persistent:
“What exactly is so primitive about our rockets and aircrafts?”, Anastasia replied after
making a short pause, as if she was trying to give me an opportunity to realize what she
had said before:
“The motion of your mechanisms, absolutely all of them, is based on explosive energy.
Just because you don’t know more perfect natural sources of energy, you are using this
primitive and bulky one with unbelievable obstinacy. Even the consequences of its usage
can't stop you. Your aircrafts and rockets have absolutely ridiculous ranges of flight. They
manage to rise over the earth only a little bit on a universal scale, meanwhile, this
method, perhaps, has already reached it's absolute limit. This is ridiculous! Just think, an
explosive or burning substance is pushing some bulky construction, the one which you
call a "spacecraft". The largest part of this spacecraft is preoccupied only with the
problem of pushing it”.
“Could other principles of moving in space exist?”
“Sure, for example the one which a flying saucer possesses,” she answered.
“What! ! ! Do you know about flying saucers and the principle of their motion?”
“Of course I do. It is a very simple and rational one”. I tell you, even my throat became
dry, I started pressing her for an answer, “Go ahead, Anastasia, tell me everything quickly
and clearly”.
“All right but you should not worry, while being excited it is difficult for you to perceive
anything. The principle of a flying saucer motion is based on the energy of vacuum
generation”
“What? Please, speak more plainly”. “Sorry, Vladimir, your vocabulary is poor but in
order to make myself clear I have to use it”.
“Just a minute, I'll add to it”. Being very excited I started to burst out the words: “ajar, a
cover, a tablet, air...” trying to name quickly all the words which were coming to my
mind at that moment and even harsh words came out of my lips.
Anastasia interrupted me by saying, “Stop it. Ifs enough. I don't need it. I know all the
words with which you can express yourself, but the bottom line is that there are other
words. In general, a different form of information transmission exists. By using it I can
explain everything within a minute. Otherwise it would take me two hours to do it. It is
too much for you. So, I would rather speak about something else, which I believe is even
more significant”
“Oh, no way, Anastasia, speak about flying a saucer, the principle of its motion and
energy supply sources. I am not going to listen to anything else till I grasp it”.
“All right”, she proceeded. “An explosion is a state when a hard substance turns very fast
into a gaseous state under some kind of influence or during some
kind of reaction. It occurs when two denser substances are changing into lighter ones. “Is
it clear to you?”, she asked?
“Yes, it is”, I replied, “Gun powder, if you set it on fire, will turn into smoke and gasoline
changes into gas”.
“Yes, something like that. If you or anybody else of your world would have pure
aspirations and intentions and based on the knowledge of natural mechanisms then you
would have realized long ago that if such kind of substance, which is capable to expand
greatly within a moment, does exist. It explodes turning into another state, so then a
reverse process should also exist! It's inevitable. In Nature these are live micro-organisms
which are changing gaseous substances into hard ones. Generally speaking, all plants are
doing it only at a different speed, degree of hardness, density and solidarity.
Just look around, everything is drinking the earth juice, breathing the air and then
creating from it a hard and solid body. Let's take wood or, even a more solid and hard
thing, a nut or a plum pit. Invisible to the regular eye a micro-organism is doing it at an
extremely great speed and it looks as if it is being fed only by air.
These very micro-organisms are the motion power of a flying saucer. They look like brain
micro cells. Only functionally, they are narrowly directed. Their only function is a motive
one. They perform it to the peak of perfection. They are under the outside layer of a
flying saucer's cover and occupy the space in between its double walls. The space
between the walls is approximately three centimeters. The upper and bottom surfaces of
the outer walls are porous, with micro holes. Through these holes the microorganisms
absorb air and in this way they create a vacuum around a saucer.
The tiny air jets become solid before they get in touch with a saucer's surface. As soon as
they go through these micro-organisms they turn into tiny balls. Then these balls start to
grow, getting enlarged and reach approximately 0.5 centimeter in diameter. After that
they get softer and roll from the space they had occupied in-between the walls down into
the bottom part of a saucer and there they get changed again into gaseous substances. One
can eat them before they get decay”.
“What are these bacteria eating up in the vacuum?”
“In the Universe an absolute vacuum doesn't exist”.
“What are a flying saucer's walls made of?”
“They are grown”.
“How come?”, I asked suspiciously.
“Why are you getting astonished at it instead of thinking more carefully. Many people
grow a special kind of mushroom keeping them in different vessels. You know, the one
which gives the water a special sour taste. This mushroom takes the shape of the vessel.
By the way, this mushroom looks very much like a flying saucer and it also creates
double walls. If they put into its water one microorganism more, the process of hardening
will take place. This, socalled, micro-organism could be produced or, to be more precise,
it should be conceived mentally. It is using man's will power and a kind of very vivid and
bright imaginations
“Can you do it?”
“Yes, I can, but my efforts alone are not sufficient. The joint effort of dozens of persons
are required. Those who have the same abilities. It would be necessary to work at the
project for about a year”.
“Is there everything necessary on our Earth to create or grow, as you say. this flying
saucer including these micro-organisms?”
“Sure, on the Earth there is everything that exists in the Universe”.
“How could these micro-organisms be placed inside a saucer if they are so tiny and
invisible?”
“When the outside wall is being grown it attracts and accumulates them by itself and in
large quantities, just like a beehive attracts bees. Though for this very purpose the efforts
of scores of people are also required. Well, there is no sense in continuing this issue,
especially to go into details, since you will not be able to grow it, because now no people
exist with the proper will power, intellect and knowledge
“And what about you, can't you help somehow?”
“I can”.
“So, do it”.
“I've done it already”.
“What have you done, Anastasia?”, I asked as I did not understand her answer.
“Well, I've told you already about the proper way of children's upbringing. I'll tell you
even more later on. You will tell people about it. Many of them will realize it and their
children, while being raised and educated this very way will possess the required
intellect, knowledge and will power. Which would provide them with the ability and
opportunity to create not only a primitive flying saucer but much more...”.
“Anastasia, how do you know everything about a flying saucer?”
“They landed here and, well, I was in a certain way helping them to repair it”.
“Are they much smarter than we are?” “Not at all, they are immeasurably far away from
man, they are afraid of him. They are keeping their distance, though they are very
inquisitive. At the beginning they were afraid of me. They were trying to send paralyzing
thoughts. All of them were trying hard making this effort. They were trying to frighten
and surprise me. I did my best to calm them down and comfort them”.
“Well, what do you mean by "not smarter" if they can do the things which man is not yet
able to?”
“What makes you so surprised? Bees are also constructing unbelievable things by using
natural materials. They build ventilation and heating systems but it does not mean that
their intellect is superior and stronger than man’s in the whole Universe. Just God's is!”
Chapter 21
THE BRAIN - SUPER COMPUTER
The possibility of creating a flying saucer awoke an interest in me. If one takes into
consideration only the principle of movement as a hypothesis, still it is a new one.
Though a flying saucer is a very complicated mechanism, for us terrestrial people, it is
not a matter of top priority.
That was why I decided that I would rather hear from Anastasia about something that I
could understand right away. That “something” should not require any kind of scientific
research or investigations. It could be applied in practice as being very helpful and
beneficial for all people. I asked Anastasia to solve some kind of problem which our
society is facing right now as a matter of top necessity. She agreed but asked, “Can you
specify somehow? I mean this problem. How can I solve a problem if I don't even know
what exactly you want?”
So I tried to think of the most urgent problem of today and the following terms of the task
came to my mind, “You know, Anastasia, in our large cities one of the most urgent
problem of today is environmental pollution. It's difficult to breathe the air there”. “But
you are polluting it yourselves”. “Of course, we do. Please, listen to what I am going to
say. Let me finish. Only don't start your
philosophical talk trying to debate the subject as you always do, by saying: "you should
take good care of yourselves, don't pollute, plant more trees and so on and so forth". Just
accept everything as it is now and think of something.
For instance, something which could purify the air in large cities, let's say, by fifty
percent and moreover it would not need any expense from the state treasury. The thing
which you are going to invent should be the most visible of all kinds of variants which
anyone could think of and it would be applicable, understandable for me and everybody”.
“I'll try”, answered Anastasia. “Are you sure you have mentioned all the conditions?”
Trying to make the task more complicated, I had some kind of gut feeling that her mind
and abilities could be more powerful and advanced than our conscious mind could
possibly assume. That was why I added, “Let the innovation you are going to think of be
profitable”
“For whom?”, she asked.
“For me and my country as well. Since you live on a territory which belongs to Russia,
let it be beneficial for all Russia”.
“Does it mean money?”
“Yes, it does”.
“How much?”
“You know, Anastasia, as far as profits and money are concerned, it is never enough. I
need just enough to cover my expenses for this expedition and another one and also for
Russia...”.
I became thoughtful... What if I would try somehow
to arouse in her some kind of interest in the material wealth of our civilization? So, I
asked, “What about you? Do you want anything for yourself?”
“I've got everything I need”, she responded. All of a sudden a great idea came to me, I've
realized what could arouse interest in her.
“You know, let the thing you are going to think of bring enough money so all your
favorite dachniks, well, I mean gardeners, all over Russia can get seeds free of charge or
on preferential terms, at reduced prices”.
“Sounds nice!”, exclaimed Anastasia. “What a wonderful idea! I'll start processing it right
now if you have nothing else to add. I just love it! Are you sure you have nothing else to
add?”
“Yes, I am sure, Anastasia. That's it for the presents I could tell that she was excited by
the task itself and especially the idea of helping the dachniks by providing them seeds for
free.
Although at that very moment I was absolutely sure in spite of her extraordinary ability
that the problem of air purification was an insoluble one. Otherwise our numerous
scientific establishments would have solved it by now.
This time Anastasia lay down on the grass rather vigorously. Usually she did it very
quietly, spreading her arms wide apart. The pads of her slightly curved fingers were
upwards. Sometimes she was moving them, then they were absolutely still, the eye lashes
of her closed eyes quivered once in awhile. She stayed in that position for about twenty
minutes, then she opened her eyes, sat down and announced:
“I have determined it. But I tell you, what a nightmare it is!”
“What have you determined? What is the "nightmare"?”
“The greatest damage you are getting is from so called vehicles. As their number in large
cities is tremendous. Each of them is producing extremely unhealthy toxic gas and
dangerous substances for the human organism. The most awful thing is that these
substances are getting mixed up with earth particles or, dust as you call it, so the dust gets
saturated with it. While the vehicles are moving the saturated dust gets into the air and
people are breathing in this terrible mixture. Also these particles are scattered all over
covering grass, trees and everything around. This is very bad!”
“Sure it is bad. Everybody knows about it only nobody is able to do anything about it.
There are washing machines but they can't cope with this task. You, Anastasia, have
discovered absolutely nothing new. You have not thought of an original solution of the
purification problems
“I've just determined the main source of harm, now I'll start analyzing and think it over.
Now I need a long time for concentrating, maybe, an hour, because I have never been
involved in something like this before. To kill time, you can go for a walk in the forest
or...”
“Please, mind your own business and don't worry about me. I'll find what to do”.
Anastasia went deep down into herself. When I came back after a half an hour's walk, I
found her, it seemed to me, rather unsatisfied and I said, trying to comfort her:
“You see, Anastasia, in this case even your brain is helpless. Please, don't get upset. Many
research institutes are working on this problem but all of them, just like you did, are only
able to ascertain the fact of pollution. Yet they have managed to do absolutely nothing till
now”. Her reply sounded guilty:
“Well, I've tried, I guess all possible variants, to solve it quickly and by 50 percent...
Sorry, I've failed”. I pricked up my ears for, evidently, she had found some answer.
“What amount did you get?”, I asked.
She sighed and said, “I've not reached a lot. My percentage is only 35-40 percent
improvements
“What?! Are you kidding?”, I could not restrain myself.
“Very poor, isn't it?”, she asked. My throat got dry. I felt that Anastasia could not lie,
exaggerate or underestimate.
“All right, let's change the conditions of the problem. Now tell me quickly what you have
thought of?”
“It is necessary that all these vehicles should not only scatter this disgusting dust but
should be able to collect it”.
“What is it necessary to do? Tell me! Hurry up!”
“What is it that sticks out in front of the vehicles, what do you call it?”
“A bumper”, I prompted.
“So, it is a bumper. Right inside or under it they should fix a box with holes on the top
cover of it. The back cover should also have holes from the which air could get out.
While these vehicles are moving the flow of dusty, toxic air can go through the front
holes. It would get purified and get out through the back ones. The air will get purified by
20 percent”.
“What are the 40 percent I've been promised?”
“Right now this road dust is not being removed and while using this method it's amount
would be getting less and less as it will be removed every day and everywhere. I've
calculated that within a month with the help of these kind of boxes, providing that they
were installed on all vehicles, the quantity of polluted dust could be reduced by 40
percent. Though the air pollution percentage would not continue to go down as there are
other factors which prevent it”.
“What is the size of the box? What should they contain? What is the number of the holes?
What is the supposed distance in between the holes?”
“I say, Vladimir, maybe, you would like me to fix all these boxes to each vehicle”.
It was the first time that I realized that Anastasia had a sense of humor. I burst out
laughing when I tried to visualize Anastasia fixing her boxes to the vehicles. She also
started to laugh and spin around the clearing. Really the idea was very simple and our
technique could take care of the rest. I tried to imagine on my own how everything could
be done. A couple of special decrees on behalf of the leading administrative authorities,
proper control of State Automobile Inspections, filter exchanges at gas stations and
control tickets would be needed”.
“Wait a minute, Anastasia, will you stop, please”. I was trying to attract her attention as
she was spinning in a dance.” What is supposed to be inside these boxes?”
“Inside... inside of the boxes? Well, for a change you should think for yourself. It is so
simple”, she replied without stopping her dance.
“All right, and where will the money come from?”, I asked her again. She stopped
dancing:
“Well, what do you mean "where from"? You have only asked me for the most rational
idea and here it is. I've thought of exactly the one you had programmed. They will use it
all over the world in large cities and pay Russia for this idea. This will pay the amount of
money just sufficient to cover the costs of seeds for dachniks and you will get paid too.
Only your money would come to you under certain conditions”
At that time I did not pay attention to her words “certain conditions” as I was too busy
trying to figure out something different:
“So, do you mean it is necessary to patent it? Who will pay voluntarily ?”. “Why not?
They will, just a minute, I'll set the percentage Russia will get from the boxes' production
by 2 percent and 0.01 percent for you”.
“What is the use of your settings? You are smart in some fields but as for business
matters you are a complete layman. Nobody will pay voluntarily. They don't even pay
according to signed agreements. If you knew only know the number of non payments!
The courts of arbitration are overloaded. Do you know what an arbitration tribunal is?”
“I suppose. In this case they will pay meticulously. The one who refuses to pay will get
ruined. Only honest ones will prosper”.
“How would they be ruined? Is it you who is going
to ruin them?”. “Oh, good for you! What else? It's unbelievable. Anyhow, they will do it
on their own and be more precise, circumstances will happen to make it unfavorable for
the deceivers and eventually they will be ruined”.
At that moment an idea crossed my mind: taking into consideration the fact that
Anastasia could not lie and as she had said herself, the natural mechanisms would not
allow her to make any mistake. Before making that kind of statement she evidently had
processed in her mind a tremendous volume of information and colossal mathematical
calculations had to be made. At the same time it was necessary to take into consideration
a great mass of psychological factors. These are caused by the people who would be
involved in her project. Actually to interpret everything into our language, Anastasia had
not only solved the most difficult problem of our time, air purification, but created and
analyzed a business plan. Moreover, she had done it within only half an hour. As I wanted
to specify some details I asked her, “Tell me, Anastasia, had you made any calculations in
your mind, before giving me the percentage numbers of the air purification. Then what is
the expected income and benefits from the production of your boxes for the vehicles,
filter changing and so on?”
“Very detailed calculations have been done and not only with the help of my own
brain...”.
“Stop, will you! Be quiet! Let me finish. Tell me, could you compete with the most
powerful and perfect modern computer, let's say, a Japanese or an American one.
“But I am not interested in it”, was her reply. Then she added, “It's so primitive and to
some extent even humiliating for me. To compete with a computer is just like... well, how
can I explain it to you by a simple example? Well, it's equivalent to competing with an
artificial limb and, to be more precise, not exactly with a complete prosthetic appliance
but only a certain part of it. A computer is lacking the main thing and this main thing is
feelings”.
I started to debate trying to prove a quite opposite opinion, telling her that the people who
play chess with a computer are considered to be very smart and highly respected in our
society. Having failed to convince her after trying all kinds of reasoning, I asked her to do
me a favor and also, for the good of other people, to prove a human brain's abilities and
possibilities. She agreed and I did my best to specify the issue, “Do you mean that I can
announce officially your willingness to compete with a Japanese super computer in
solving problems?”
“Why precisely a Japanese one?”, asked Anastasia. “Because they are believed to be the
best in the world”. “Are they? I would rather compete with all of your computers
together. So you would not ask me to get involved into any other kind of competition in
the future”.
“Fine”, I felt very happy, “Let's do it with all computers, let's formulate the task now”.
“All right”, agreed Anastasia, “but to begin with, without wasting time on the task
formulation, let them solve the problem which you had suggested to me and let them
prove or decline my solution. If they disprove of mine, let them make their own
suggestions. People and life itself will judge us”.
“Wonderful, Anastasia! Good for you! It's a constructive design. What do you think, will
it take a long time to solve this problem? I guess, an hour and a half will not be sufficient
time for them. Let's give them three months”.
“All right. Let it be three months”.
“I proposed to take as referees all those who are willing to do it. If their number is great
nobody will be able to influence their estimations mercenarily”
“Let it be. I would like to tell you more about children and then education...”.
Anastasia believes that the education of children is the most important issue of today. She
usually speaks about it with great joy. My idea of competing with our computers did not
provoke in her any special interest. However, I was glad to obtain her consent and right
now I am calling upon the firms which produce modem computers, inviting them to
compete with Anastasia in solving the problem mentioned above. To summarize and call
it a bargain I asked, “What about a winner's prize?”
“I need nothing!”, was her answer.
“Why do you speak on your behalf? Are you absolutely sure of your victory ?”
“Of course, I am sure! Because I am human”.
“Well, all right. Anyhow, what would you suggest for a firm which could be second after
you?”
“Well, I'll try to give them some ideas about how they could modify their computers”.
“Sounds fine! Let's call it a bargain!”
Chapter 22
“THERE WAS LIFE IN HIM AND THE
LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF PEOPLE”
The Gospel of John
Once on my request Anastasia took me to see the Ringing Cedar, the one her great-
granddad and granddad had spoken about. It was not far away from the clearing. It was
approximately a forty meter high tree which towered a little above the neighboring ones.
The distinctive feature of it was its crown. It looked as if it was illuminated, producing a
halo around itself exactly like those they depict around the images of saints on icons,
though its halo was pulsating. At the very top of the tree one could see a beam which was
directed into cosmic infinity. The sight was extraordinarily fascinating and it cast a spell.
I followed Anastasia's suggestion and pressed my palm against its trank. I felt vibration
or crackling which could be compared with that which we can hear when under a high
voltage line, though this one was more resonant.
“You know, it was me who had found out, only by chance, how to send its accumulated
energy back to the Cosmos and after that to send it back scattering it all over the Earth”.
Anastasia reported to me, “Do you see the marks on the trank? At the very places it was
debarked by the she bear which was dragging me climbing up the tree. I tell you, I could
hardly manage to make her do it taking me to the first branches. I took a strong grip on
the back of her neck. She was climbing up and howling, howling and climbing. That was
the way I had managed to reach the first branches and then it was easy for me to climb
moving up from branch to branch.
So I went on till I reached the top of the cedar. I stayed there for two days. I tried
everything possible. Whatever came to my mind: now I was comforting the tree by
stroking it's trank. Then I started to shout, directing my sound upwards, but nothing
seemed to work.
Then my granddaddy and great granddaddy came. Can you imagine what kind of show
was happening here at that time? They were standing under the tree speaking strictly to
me demanding me to climb down. I, in turn, was demanding from them instructions on
what to do, how to handle the problem but they would not. My granddaddy, can you
imagine, he decided to trick me by promising his help in establishing a contact with a
woman with whom I had failed to contact. I did want to help her very much. I realized
that before he used to get irritated and even angry at me because, as he stated, I was
wasting my time on her instead of minding my own business and doing something else. I
knew for sure that he was not able to help me because my great granddaddy had tried
twice and failed too. Although my granddaddy did not know about it, as we kept it secret
from him.
Then my granddaddy completely lost his temper, a twig, started running around the
Cedar, switching the twig and screaming at me that I was the most stubborn muddle-
headed one in the family. He said that my behavior was illogical. I could not perceive
wise advice and he would "educate" by beating me with twigs on my behind. All those
speeches and actions he accompanied by whipping the air with his twig. It was so funny
and even my great granddad could not help but laugh. I was shouting with laughter too.
At that moment somehow I broke the top branch and luminescence came out of it. I heard
my great-granddaddy's voice become very serious with a shade of demanding and at the
same time pleading: “Please, don't touch anything else, my grandchild, come down, be
careful, take your time, you have done it already”. I followed his advice and came down.
My great-granddaddy hugged me silently. I could feel that he was trembling then he
pointed to the Cedar and one could see that all its twigs were starting to illuminate light.
Then a small beam was created and went away high up into infinity. My great-
granddaddy explained to me that the beam had been created at the very place I was
shouting upwards, creating a kind of channel for the energy. Then he told me that if I had
touched that small beam which was coming out of the broken twig my brain would have
exploded. It happened because that tiny beam had a lot of powerful energy and
information and that was why my dad and mamma had perished...”.
For a while Anastasia was silent and then she continued her story:
“They had found a similar Ringing Cedar. Only my mamma was doing everything
differently because she did not know. She climbed a nearby tree which was smaller,
reached the bottom branch of the Ringing One, half broke it and accidentally lighted
herself with it. The branch was directed downwards and the beam went into the earth. It
is very bad; it is very harmful when this kind of energy gets into the earth...
When my dad came he saw the beam and my mamma hanging on one hand having a
death grip on the branch of the regular cedar. The branch of the Ringing Cedar was in the
other grip. Evidently my dad realized everything. He climbed the Ringing One and
reached its top. My grand-daddy and great-granddaddy were watching him breaking the
top twigs but they would not illuminate. Meanwhile the lower ones were illuminating
brighter and brighter.
Later on my great-granddad told me that my dad had understood that if he had only
stayed a bit longer he would have never been able to come down but the long awaited
beam which should have gone upwards with its pulsating illumination would not appear.
Although the tiny beams which were directed downwards were growing in number. The
beam directed upwards appeared only when my dad had half broken a big branch directed
upwards. It did not start illuminating right away so he had to bend it directing it towards
himself. When it flashed out he could not manage to unclasp his hands and the beam of
the straightened out branch was directed into the sky.
Then a pulsating halo was created. The great-granddaddy said that dad's brain was able to
receive a huge flow of energy and information at the very last moment of his life.
Somehow that energy could clean his brain from all kinds of information which had been
loaded in it before. That was why it was possible for him to gain time just enough to
unclasp his hands before the brain explosion had taken place and direct the branch
upwards”.
Anastasia rubbed the Cedar’s trunk with her hands, pressed her cheek against it and stood
still smiling, trying to catch the tree's vibrating sound.
“Anastasia, is the oil from cedar nuts stronger or weaker than the pieces of the Ringing
Cedar wood?”
“The same. If the nuts are harvested at the proper time and in a certain proportion to a
cedar tree, when it gives them of itself’.
“Do you know how to do it?”
“Yes, I do”.
“Will you tell me?”
“All right. I will”.
Chapter 23
IT IS NECESSARY TO CHANGE
ONE'S OWN WORLD OUTLOOK
I asked Anastasia about the woman who caused the conflict between Anastasia and her
granddad. I asked why she could not make contact and establish a relationship with that
woman and what did she need it for?
“You see”, Anastasia started her explanation, “it is very important when two persons join
their lives into one on the basis of spirituality, bondage and attraction. Unfortunately,
most of the time, everything starts from carnal desires. Well, for example, you had seen a
beautiful girl and a desire of intimacy came to you. Although it does not mean that you
have seen a real personality, the soul itself. Very often people join their destinies led only
by carnal attraction. This does not last long. So they switch over to another one. What
connects people then?
It is not a very complicated task at all to find your soul mate with whom you can find real
happiness. Although in your technocratic world there are a lot of obstacles to it. The
woman, I am seeking contact with, lives in a large city, regularly goes to the same place,
evidently to work.
Over there or, maybe on her way to that place, there is a man who is her soul mate. They
are very closely related spiritually. She could be really very happy with him and, what is
of most importance, they could have a child who would be able to bring a lot of good to
the world. You know, Vladimir, they would be able to create it in the same impulse we
did. This man can't find the way to express his feelings to this woman and to some extent
she creates the problem. Can you imagine, when he is looking at her face he recognizes
subconsciously his soul mate.
On her part, as soon as she feels somebody's gaze she strains trying, as if by chance, to
pull her skirt higher or something like that. By doing it she provokes a carnal desire but
he doesn't know her well enough or maybe they have never been introduced to one
another. Anyhow this is the reason that he goes to the one who is more familiar, closer to
him and available for him to satisfy his carnal feelings.
I would like to prompt this woman on how to behave but I can't get through to her. Her
brain is never opened, even for a moment, to realize the message and information
involved. It is completely preoccupied with everyday problems. Can you imagine, I was
watching her once all day and night long. It's terrible! My granddaddy was blaming me
for ignoring my work with dachniks and in general for scattering myself. He said that I
was wasting my time and poking my nose into something that had nothing to do with me
and my business.
The first thought which would come to her on awakening in the morning:
“What to eat”, instead of being happy and welcoming the coming day. She gets upset just
because the food she would like to have is not available. Then she gets frustrated as she
does not have enough of something that women usually put on their face in the morning
(maybe it is cream or colors). Her mind is always busy trying to figure out the way to get
it. She is always late and in a hurry. She is always afraid to miss this or that means of
transportation.
At the place where she comes usually her mind is absolutely overloaded and, to be more
precise, to my mind, by all kinds of nonsense. She is trying to keep the appearance of
being preoccupied with business matters and minding the job she is supposed to do.
Nevertheless she is thinking evidently about her girlfriend or just an acquaintance and she
is having a feeling of irritation towards her. At the same time she is trying to listen to
everything they are talking about. Can you believe, this is her regular routine which is
repeated from day to day as if she were a clockwork toy.
When she is back at home and if somebody can see her, she keeps the look of a woman
but really she is thinking again about all kind of colors. When at a store she takes a good
look at the clothes and mainly that kind which recover her alluring charms, assuming that
they would work a miracle though in reality in her particular case everything goes quite
the contrary.
When back home again she starts house cleaning. She believes that she is enjoying a rest
while staring at a television set. Se messes about with food and the most important thing
of all is that she thinks about something good only for a moment. She goes to bed and
again, she can't just leave her troubles alone. Isn't it something! She never lets them go! If
she could only try to let them go only for a minute during the daytime and try to think...”.
“Wait a minute, Anastasia, will you explain, please, what do you imagine her appearance
should look like. I mean her clothes and what exactly should she think at the very
moment when that man is near by? What does she need to do in order that he would be
able to open his heart to her?”
Anastasia told me everything in detail though I am going to tell you only the main idea as
I see it. Anastasia said, “She should wear a dress a little bit below her knees, not a low
necked one with a white collar and be almost without make up. She should learn to listen
to the speaker who is communicating with her with great attention and interests
“Is that all?”, I asked, being surprised to hear such a simple explanation. And Anastasia's
reply sounded like follows:
“There is a lot behind these simple things. In order to choose the right dress, put on her
make up differently and look at a person without false interest she should change her
world outlook”.
Chapter 24
MORTAL SIN
“I need to speak to you, Vladimir, about the conditions under which you would be able to
get your money from banks when you have a lot in your account”.
“Oh, it's interesting! Go ahead, Anastasia, tell me, it's a pleasant procedure” I remarked.
Though the next moment the words I heard made me burst out... It's unbelievable! Just
read and be my judge...
Anastasia proceeded, “Whenever you decide that you need to get money from your bank
account you should do the following procedure:
“First of all, three days before going to a bank to get your money you should not drink
alcohol. When you arrive at the bank, the bank senior official is supposed to carry out the
inspection, in accordance with this condition, using an instrument specially designed for
this purpose, in the presence of not less than two witnesses. As soon as you are through
with the above mentioned procedure you are ready to start with a second one.
You should drop curtseys not less than nine times in front of the bank senior official and
those two witnesses present there...”.
When the sense of these conditions had reached my consciousness, though I would rather
say the senselessness. I jumped up and she stood up too. I could not believe what heard
and asked again, “First they will check me regarding the presence of alcohol and after
that I am supposed to drop curtseys in the presence of witnesses not less than nine times,
am I right?”
“Exactly”, was her reply, “for each drop they can give you a sum of money not more than
one million in your currency in accordance with the up-to-date value”.
I was overwhelmed with feelings of madness, anger and frustration.
j “Why have you said this? Just tell me why? I was || so happy I trusted you. I have even
started to believe that you are right on many things, that there is logic in your
conclusions. But you... Do you realize that men do not curtsey? They bow. Only women
curtsey. Now I am absolutely convinced that you are a schizophrenic, a forest fool, a
crazy one. You have crossed over by your last statement. It is absolutely senseless and the
bottom line is there is no logic in it at all. You know what, it is not only my personal
opinion. Any clear thinking man can prove it to you. Ha... Maybe you would like me to
put these conditions of yours down into the book you want me to write?”
“Yes, I would like you to do it”.
“Well, well, I am quite sure now that you are absolutely not in your right mind. Are you
going to write a special instruction or maybe an edict for banks?”
“No, I am not. They will read the book and all of them will act accordingly. Otherwise
they will face bankruptcy”
“Oh, God! ! ! I can't believe that I am still listening to this creature the for third day in a
row! Maybe you would like the senior officials to drop curtseys also together with me in
the presence of the witnesses?”
“It would be a good idea for him to behave exactly the way you will. It would be of great
use for all of them though I did not put them on these kinds of terms as I have done in
your case”.
“Does it mean that you have demonstrated such favor only for me? Do you have any idea
what kind of a laughing stock you have made of me? Now anyone can see what could
result if one is loved by a crazy hermit. Just remember, nothing will come out of your
tricks. Not a single bank will ever agree to serve me under these kinds of terms. It does
not matter how much you try to model your situations. Look at her! She is lost in her
daydreams. I tell you, right here, where you belong, you can drop curtseys as much as
you like”.
“The banks will agree and, even without your consent, will open accounts for you,
though I should add, only those which are willing to work honestly. Moreover, people
will trust them and become their customers”, continued Anastasia holding her ground.
Anger and irritation were accumulating in me more and more. I was becoming rude and
nasty, to say the least. She was standing leaning her back against a tree trunk, her head
slightly bent forward, one hand was pressed to her chest with the other one which raised
up as she was waving slightly. I recognized that gesture. She used to do did it when she
was trying to calm down the environment. She was protecting me that way, so I would
not get scared and I realized why she was calming down at that time... Any rudeness or
offensive word directed towards Anastasia was hurting her like a whip, making her body
wince.
I shut my mouth, sat down on the grass again turning my back to Anastasia. I made a
decision that I would calm down, then go to the shore and never speak to her again. That
was why when I heard her speaking behind my back I was very surprised as there was no
outrage or reproach in the tone of her voice.
“Don’t get me wrong, Vladimir, all bad things which are happening to man are being
attracted by man. This happens only when he is violating the laws of spirituality and
losing contact with Nature.
The dark forces are trying to mislead man's attention by the momentary attractiveness of
your technocratic being. To make you forget the simple truth and the commandments
which were set forth for humankind long ago through the Bible. They do succeed very
often. One of man's mortal sins is arrogance and a great majority of people are prone to it.
Right now I am not going to speak about the great baneful influence of this sin on man. If
you would like to leam more about this subject when you come back home you will be
able to understand it yourself or with the help of enlightened people who will come into
your life.
Right now I have to say only that the dark forces, as opposed to the light ones, are using
every moment in trying to cultivate sin so it could stay with man and the most important
instrument of their efforts is money. Actually they invented money and now money exists
as a high voltage zone. The dark forces are very proud of their invention. They even think
that they are stronger than the lights just because they had managed to think up money.
The great opposition has been lasting for thousands of years and man is in the center of it.
I don't want you to be held liable for this sin since I do understand that nobody can
manage to overcome it. All kinds of explanations which have been given to humankind
have not worked out, as man has not recognized the right way to resist this sin. You too
would not be able to realize it naturally by yourself. I would like to help you to get rid of
this mortal danger of spirit spoiling and that was why I had thought up especially for you
a special situation in which this mechanism of the dark forces looks as if it breaks down
and moreover it works quite the contrary, it eradicates the sin.
That's why they had become so mad at me. Their anger moved into you and that was why
you started to shout at me using insulting words and expressions. They wanted me to get
angry at you but I’ll never do that. I've realized that my invention had just hit the mark
and now it is quite evident to me that it is possible to break their perfectly adjusted
mechanisms. These were working without a hitch for millennia. It was my first
experience till now. I have done it only for you but I shall also think up something for
other people... Well, what's wrong if you drink less of this intoxicating potion and not
become an arrogant and obstinate person? What has made you so excited ? Surely it was
the arrogance which had leaped inside you”. She became quiet and I became thoughtful.
It was unbelievable and absolutely extraordinary or better to say a comical situation.
Whatever one can call this squatting or curtseys at banks, which her brain could invent.
“Anyhow her mind has logged a very deep meaning into it and, to tell the truth, there
could be a logic to it... Of course, it requires one to take a closer look at it”, I thought to
myself.
All kinds of ill feelings towards Anastasia were gone. They were replaced by a feeling of
vague guilt though I did not apologize at that time. I only turned towards her seeking
peace.
Chapter 25
GETTING IN TOUCH
WITH PARADISE
“Your brain has been tired by the effort of understanding me yet I would like to tell you a
lot more. Right now, Vladimir, you need a rest. Let's sit down for a while”, said
Anastasia. So we did. We sat down on the grass. Anastasia attracted me to her taking me
by my shoulders. The back of my head touched her breast and I experienced a feeling of
pleasant warmth.
“Don’t be afraid of me, relax”, she said quietly and lay me down on the grass helping me
to relax and feel comfortable by dipping her lingers into my hair as if combing it and
with the linger tips of another hand she started to give me quick touches to my forehead
and temples. Occasionally she pricked me with her nails at different points on my head.
All these manipulations gave me feeling of comfort, peace and enlightenment. After that
Anastasia put her hands on my shoulders and said, “Now, please, listen attentively and try
to distinguish the surrounding sounds”.
I followed her suggestion and I could catch a great variety of sounds which differed in
tone, rhythm and duration. I started to enumerate them aloud, “The singing of birds in the
trees, chirping and clicking of insects in the grass, rustling of leaves and the flapping of
wings”. Having enumerated everything I had heard I stopped and tried to lend an
attentive ear to the natural sounds and while doing it I was experiencing a great joy. It
was a pleasure mixed with an awakened interest. “You have not named something else”,
remarked Anastasia. “Why? What else? That's all. Well, maybe I've missed something
insignificant or I just can't distinguish it”.
“Vladimir, don't you hear my heart beating”, asked Anastasia. To tell the truth, I really
did not pay attention to that sound.
“Oh, yes, I do”, I announced hurriedly, “sure, I do. I hear it. I can hear it very well. Its
beat is calm and smooth”.
“All right. Now try to remember the intervals between the sounds you can hear. In order
to do it you should select the main ones and memorize them”. So I did. I picked out the
rattling of an insect, a crow croaking, the babbling and splashing of water in the brook.
“Now I shall accelerate my heart beating and you listen attentively to everything that is
going to take place around you”.
Her heart beats were becoming more frequent and the rhythm of the nearby sounds
followed the changes. Their tone turned into a higher one.
“It is amazing. It's just unbelievable !”I exclaimed. “Does it mean that they are so
sensitive and can react to the rhythm of your heart beating?”
“Exactly. Absolutely all of them. From a tiny blade of grass to a large tree and even a tiny
bug. They can respond to any change of a heart rhythm. The trees accelerate their inner
processes, they start to produce more oxygen...”.
“Is it the way all plants and animals react when they are near people?”, I asked.
“No, it is not. In your world they don't recognize whom they should react to because
people are not trying to contact them. People do not realize the destination of this contact.
They don't give them sufficient information about themselves. Such kind of contact can
take place between plants and people who are working at their garden strips, but only
when they behave the way I've already described to you. First of all, they have to saturate
the seeds with information about themselves and start their communication to the plants
more deliberately. Do you want me to show you what kind of feeling man could
experience if he were enjoying this kind of contact?”
“Of course, I do. How will you do it, I wonder?”
“Right now I am going to adjust the rhythm of my heart beating to yours and you will
feel it”.
She pushed her hand under my shirt. Her warm palm was slightly pressed against my
chest. Her heart was slowly adjusting to my heart beating and soon it started to work in
unison with mine. A miracle happened. I experienced an extraordinarily pleasant feeling
as if my beloved relatives and my mother were nearby A wonderful feeling of softness
and healthy well being spread all over my body; my soul was full of joy, freedom and a
new understanding of the Universe.
The whole range of surrounding sounds was caressing and telling me the truth. Although
I had not realized that feeling completely yet it was felt intuitively. All kinds of joyous,
mellow and pleasing feelings which I had never experienced before were merging into
one wonderful feeling. Maybe that kind of feeling they call happiness.
As soon as Anastasia started to change the rhythm of her heart beat that wonderful feeling
began to fade. It was leaving me. I asked her, “Oh, please, Anastasia, not yet, leave it for a
while”.
“Sorry, I can't do it for a long time, I have a rhythm of my own”.
“Please, keep it a little bit longer”, I was begging her. Anastasia gave me the gift of
happiness just for a couple of moments more and then everything vanished. Although a
tiny particle of that heavenly pleasure and bright feeling, as a recollection about it, was
left inside me. For a while we kept silent and then a desire to hear Anastasia's voice again
came to me and I asked her, “Did the first people on the Earth feel as good as I did? Well,
I mean, did Adam and Eve feel the same way? Isn't it something! Just lie down, enjoy
yourselves and experience a mellow and pleasing feeling. Here you are, everything is at
your disposal... Though it would become boring”.
“Will you tell me, Vladimir, are there many of those who think exactly the same way you
do, about the first man, Adam?”, Anastasia asked me in return.
“Well, I guess a large majority of people do. But really, what had they to do over there in
Paradise? It was later on when man started to develop himself
trying to think up all kinds of stuff. Labor has developed man. Only through labor has
man become smarter”.
“It is true. It is necessary to work but the first man was immeasurably cleverer than today
and his labor was more significant. It required great intellect, comprehension and will
power”.
“All right, what did Adam do, staying in Paradise? Did he cultivate a garden? Well, it is
not a big deal. Nowadays every gardener can do it. The Bible tell nothing else about
Adam's activities”
“If they would have put into the Bible everything in detail then one would not be able to
read it within a whole lifetime. It is necessary to understand the Bible, behind each line of
the Holy Book there is a huge amount of information. Do you want to know what Adam
was doing? All right, I'll tell you about it.
To begin with, just try to recall what the Bible says. It is exactly right there. God had
entrusted Adam to determine the destination of each creature living on the Earth and give
names to them. He has done it. He has done something that till now all the scientific
establishments in the world taken together have not managed to perceive”.
“Anastasia, and what about you, do you appeal to God, do you ask from Him anything
for yourself?”
“What else can I ask for? I have already been given a lot. I must be thankful to Him and
help Him”.
Chapter 26
WHO WILL BRING UP OUR SON?
On our way back, when Anastasia was accompanying me to my motorboat, we stopped
for a rest exactly at the place where she left her outer clothing and I asked her,
“Anastasia, how shall we bring our son up?”
“You, Vladimir, try to realize one thing. You can't yet bring him up. When his eyes are
ready to look at the world intelligently for the first time you should not be near him”.
I gripped her by her shoulders and gave her a good shake, “What are you talking about?
You know, you are taking too many liberties. I don't understand where are you getting
these distinct conclusions from? Generally speaking, the fact of your existence itself is
inconceivable. Although it does not give you any right to decide everything your way
against all laws of simple logic”.
“Please, Vladimir, calm down. I have no idea of the kind of logic you mean but try to
realize everything quietly”.
“What do I need to realize? This is not only your child but mine also and I want him to
have a father, I want him to be provided with everything he may need and properly
educated”.
“Please, try to understand, he does not need any material welfare the way you understand
it. He will get everything primordially. While yet in his infancy
he will get and realize such amounts of information that education, as you understand it,
is absolutely ridiculous. It would be almost the same as if they try to send a great
mathematician to learn the program of the first grade at a primary school. You would like
to bring to the baby some senseless trinket but it is absolutely useless. The baby doesn't
need it. You need it for self-satisfaction. "Oh, how nice and thoughtful I am! Everybody,
look at me!" If you believe that by providing your son with a car or anything else that you
believe to be "a good thing of life", you are doing a great blessing for him. You are
wrong.
If he would like he will get it on his own. Just try to remain calm and think what exactly
you can say to your son or teach him? Have you done anything great that he would like to
follow?” She continued her speech saying it in a very soft and quiet voice but the words
were plunging me into tremors. “Try to understand, when he starts to understand the
Universe and you, if you happen to be by his side, it will look just like an undeveloped
being. Do you want your son to think his father is a dunderhead? The only thing that can
bring you more close to him is the degree of pure thinking. This purity can be reached
only by a few people in your world”.
I realized that it was absolutely useless to argue with her and shouted at her giving myself
up to despair: “So, it means that he will never know about me?!”
“I'll tell him about you and your world when he is ready to realize everything intelligently
and make his own decisions. I don't know what he will do, it is up to him to decide”.
Pain, despair, offence and terrible guesswork, everything got mixed up inside me. An
unbearable desire to smash that beautiful, intellectually hermitic face of hers awoke
inside me. I realized everything my own way and it made me short of breath because of
what I had realized! I started my tirade:
“Well, everything, I guess, is evident? Now I have realized what you are... Well, you
could find nobody around to "have a bad fall" (Russian vulgarity for "to have dirty sex")
in order to have a baby of yours. At the beginning you were even putting on airs, but you
are a poor plotter. You were trying to pretend to be a nun. You just needed a baby. You
even went to Moscow for this purpose. Look at her, she had sold her berries and
mushrooms! Why? You would rather become a street- walker. You only had to take off
your shawl and quilted jacket and somebody would bite your hook. Then you would not
need to spin your web involving me into it.
Oh, yes! Of course. But of course! You needed a man who was dreaming of having a son
too and here you are! You have achieved that goal of yours! I wonder, did you think about
a child, a son, whose predestination was to be a hermit? He is supposed to live his life
according to your modelling, what is right for you? Isn't it something that you were
talking so much about the Truth. You talk too much of liberty and allow too much to
yourself, poor hermit woman. Are you thinking of yourself as the highest stage of Truth
itself? And what about me? Did you think about me?
Yes, that's right, I did dream about a son! I was dreaming about leaving to him my
business, teaching him to live right. I wanted to love him. And now! What am I going to
do now? How shall I live? What kind of life would it be when one knows that his tiny
baby son is somewhere in a wild taiga crawling helplessly and unprotected? Without a
future! Without his father! Well, one would have a heart break because of it. You can't
understand it, you are a forest female!”
“Maybe, your heart will become intelligent and everything will turn to be good. This kind
of pain will purify your soul, accelerate your thinking, calling upon...” she pronounced
quietly.
Such an anger was storming inside me that I could not control myself any more. I gripped
a stick, ran away from Anastasia and started whipping against a small tree with all my
might till it was broken.
Then I turned towards Anastasia and when I saw her... Although it could sound strange
but my anger started to vanish away. A thought crossed my mind:
“What's the matter with me, I have lost control of myself again and become stormy”.
Exactly the same way as it was at that time when I was abusing her before, she was
standing pressing herself against a tree trunk with one hand raised up and her head was
slightly bent forward as if she was withstanding a hurricane wind. My anger was gone
completely. I came closer to her and started to examine her.
Her hands were pressed against her chest, her body was trembling, she was silent, only
her kind, as kind as usual, eyes were looking at me tenderly. We were examining each
other for a while. I was thinking to myself: “No doubt, she is not able to say an untruth.
She could keep to herself everything she had said but she... She knows that she is going
to suffer and yet she speaks... She just can't help it. Of course, it is also a kind of an
extremity. One can't live always telling only the truth, just the things one is thinking
about. Well, there is nothing to be done if she is the way she is and she just can't be
different. Everything had happened the way it was supposed to. Whatever had to happen
had just happened? It was just inevitable”
I tried to comfort myself by positive thinking: “Now she is going to become the mother
of my son, surely. No doubt she will, since she has told it. It is true that she will be a
strange mother, not a regular one because of her way of life... her thinking... Well, there is
nothing I can do about it. I can't change her. On the other hand, she is physically strong.
She is kind; she knows a lot about nature and animals. And she is smart, though her mind
is a rather peculiar one. Nevertheless, she knows a lot about the way to bring up and
educate children. Wasn't she trying to speak all the time about children? She will nurse
my son. A woman like her will manage to do it. She will go through cold and
snowstorms. For sure, it is just child's play to her. She will nurse him and bring him up. It
is just necessary for me somehow to adjust myself to the situation. I will visit them in
summer just like coming to a dacha. It is impossible to come in wintertime, as I will not
be able to stand it. In summer I would be able to play with my son. When he grows up I
shall tell him about the people who live in large cities. Right now it is necessary at least
to apologize for my behavior. So I said, “Sorry, Anastasia, I got nervous again”.
And she started to speak right away, “It is not your fault, Vladimir. You should not punish
yourself. Don't worry. It is quite natural because you are troubled and anxious about your
son. Who would not be? You were getting concerned that he will not be happy here. That
your son's mother is just a regular female. She is not able to love with a real human love.
Please, don't you worry, don't get upset. You have told me everything just because you
did not know, you knew nothing, my beloved about my love”.
Chapter 27
AFTER A WHILE
“Anastasia, if you are so smart and powerful, then maybe you would be able to help me
too?”, I started again.
She looked up at the sky then looked at me again and said, “There is no being in the
whole Universe which could be able to develop itself stronger than man as well as at the
same time to enjoy more freedom. All other existing civilizations bent their knees before
man. All kinds of other civilizations are able to develop and perfect themselves only in
one direction and they are not free.
The greatness of man is beyond their understanding. God, the Great Mind has created
man that way. He has given to nobody more than He has given to Man...”. I could not
comprehend or, rather to realize at that time what she had said and asked her again the
same question. I was asking for help, not even realizing what kind of help I needed.
She asked me back, “Well, what do you mean? Do you want me to heal all your physical
illnesses? It is easy for me to do. Moreover, I did it half a year ago. However, I did not
manage to achieve any results at the most important level. I could not reduce the quantity
of the pernicious and dark things in you. They are the distinctive features of the people of
your world. All kinds of sicknesses are trying to come back again. "A witch, a crazy
woman hermit, it's necessary to get away from here,
the sooner, the better". Those were the thoughts which crossed your mind, weren't they?”
“Yes, that's right”, I answered with great surprise. “Those were exactly the thoughts. Are
you reading my mind?”
“I am just assuming what you may think. It is written on your face. Tell me, Vladimir,
don't you remember me, just one a bit?”
Her question surprised me very much and I started to peer into the features of her face.
Yes, her eyes! A vague feeling that I had already seen these eyes somewhere came to
me... but where could it be?
“Anastasia, haven't you told me that you were living in the forest permanently? Then,
how could I see you?”
She smiled and ran away. In a while Anastasia came out from behind bushes. She was
wearing a long skirt, brown knitted jacket with buttons. Her head was covered by a shawl
which was hiding her hair. Though she did not have the quilted jacket I saw her wearing
when I met her for the first time on the bank of the river. The shawl also was tied around
her head in a different way. The clothes were clean but old fashioned, the shawl was
covering her forehead and neck and finally, I recognized her...
Chapter 28
A STRANGE GIRL
It was a year ago, the main steamboat of our caravan moored in a small village. Not far
from that place we were planning to buy meat for our restaurant and stay for a while at
the shore. About sixty kilometers ahead there was a dangerous space on our route up the
river as the navigation lights were not working there and that was the reason why we
could not move at night. We decided to organize an evening of recreation at our
steamboat for the local youths. We started advertising through our broadcasting system of
communication loudspeakers and the local radio.
The alluring white steamboat, shining with multitudes of lights, the sounds of modern
music always worked to attract local youths. In the evening almost all the young people
of the village moved one after the other towards our luxurious steamboat. Usually our
visitors at the beginning, especially the newcomers, like to go sightseeing. After a walk
along the middle and upper decks they usually move towards our bar and restaurant. As a
rule the girls enjoy dancing and the guys drink spirits.
The exceptional atmosphere of the steamboat together with nice music and spirits always
excites them. Although sometimes it causes some trouble for our crew as there is never
enough time for the young people and they started collective appeals asking to prolong
the pleasure for at least half an hour, then again and again.
At that time I was in my cabin alone. I could hear the sounds of music from the restaurant
and was trying to adjust the future schedule of our caravan movement. Suddenly I felt
somebody's intent look. I turned and saw her eyes behind the glass of the window. At that
time it did not surprise me as the visitors were always eager to see the steamboat cabins. I
stood up and opened the window. She did not move and continued to look at me though
she seemed a bit embarrassed. I felt like I should do something for that lonely woman
who was standing in front of me. A thought crossed my mind: “Why isn't she dancing
with all the rest, maybe she is troubled?”, I suggested I would be her guide and show her
our steamboat. She bent her head silently as a sign of agreement.
I took her sightseeing. I showed her our office which used to impress our visitors by its
carpeting, soft leather furniture and computers. Then I invited her to my private cabin
which consisted of a bedroom-study and a living room which was also furnished with a
beautiful set of furniture. There was a TV set, a video player and also wonderful carpets
on the floor.
Apparently, at that time it was fun for me to impress a country girl from a remote area
with the articles of a civilized way of living. I opened a box of chocolates for her. I also
filled two fine crystal glasses with champagne trying my best to impress her completely
with the ostentatiousness, turned on the video tape where Vika Tsiganova, a famous
modern variety show singer, was performing Love and Death. There were many other
songs on that tape which were performed by my favorite singers. She took a sip of
champagne, looked at me attentively and asked, “It is very difficult, isn’t it?”
I could expect any other question from her but that. The voyage was really a very difficult
one. Because of the very complicated navigation situation on the river, the crew consisted
mostly of the students of the River Vocational School. Some of them were smoking
"herbs" and also from time to time stealing some stuff from our store.
Very often we ran out of our schedule and could not manage to be on time at some
settlements where people had been informed beforehand about our arrival. All those
anxieties deprived me of the opportunity not only to enjoy the environmental beauty but
also of time enough for a good sleep.
I told her something like that: “It's all right, never mind, we shall overcomes Then I
turned towards the window having my drink of champagne. We were talking about
something else, watching videotapes almost till the end of our outing when our steamboat
moored to the bank. I saw her to the ladder.
On my way back to my cabin I noted to myself, “There was something strange about that
woman and at the same time she left inside me some kind of light and bright feeling”.
That night, for the first time after many days in a row I slept like a baby.
“Dear me, so, it was you, Anastasia?”
“Yes, that's right. Over there, in your cabin I had memorized all the songs I sang for you
in the forest. While we were talking they were being played. Now you can see how
simple everything is”.
“How did you get on the steamboat?”
“It was interesting for me to see the way everything was taking place, your way of life.
You see, I usually took care only of my dachniks. I ran to the village, sold the dry
mushrooms collected by the squirrels and bought a ticket for your outing. So, now I know
a lot about the category of people you classify as entrepreneurs and I know you well
enough too. I am sorry, I am feel, very guilty towards you. At that time I did not know
that things would develop like that. That I could change your life and your destiny so
much. I just couldn't help it as they have started accomplishing this plan. They are
dependent only on God Himself. Now, for a while, you and your family are going to go
through great difficulties and misfortunes but later on everything will be fine”.
I did not realize what exactly Anastasia was talking about. Although at that time
intuitively I felt that something was going to happen which would go beyond the realms
of our regular imaginations. That something would have something to do with me. So I
asked Anastasia to specify and tell me exactly what she had in her mind. I tell you, at that
time while I was listening to her I could not even suspect the exactness on her prediction
and that it would start to come true. Anastasia's story had brought me back to the events
which took place a year ago.
“At that time on the steamboat you showed me everything, even your cabin, treated me to
chocolate, suggested champagne then accompanied me to the ladder. I did not leave the
bank of the river. I was standing there behind the bushes and I could see through the
lighted windows of the bar the dancing youths who were having fun. You took me
sightseeing all over the boat except the bar. I guess the reason was my clothes. They did
not correspond to the situation. I was twisted around into the shawl. I had my simple
knitted jacket on and too long a skirt. Although I could take my shawl off, my jacket was
clean and tidy, my skirt had been carefully pressed with my hands before I came to the
boat”.
She was right, I did not take her to the bar because of her strange looking clothes under
which as it has now come out this young girl was hiding her dazzling beauty. This kind of
beauty would have singled her out from the other people. I said to her, “Well, Anastasia,
did you really need that bar, would you have danced there in those galoshes of yours?
And don't tell me you know how to dance modern dances”.
“Sorry, but at that time I was not wearing galoshes. When I was changing mushrooms for
money to buy a ticket, I also took from that woman a pair of shoes. Although they were
rather old and tight for me but I had polished them with grass and as far as dancing's
concerned... you know, I just need to have one glance at those who dance, — that's all.
Believe me, I can dance better than you can imagine”.
“Sorry, did I hurt your feelings?”
“No, you did not. Although if you had only invited me to the bar, I don't really know for
sure whether it would have been good or bad, but the events could have taken a different
course. Everything that has happened would never happened. Anyhow, right now I am
not sorry. Whatever happened, just happened”.
“Well, what exactly has happened? Has anything terrible happened?”
“After having seen me off you did not return to your cabin. You called to the captain and
you went to the bar together. When both of you came in, the audience was very
impressed. The captain was wearing his uniform and he looked very smart. You also
looked very elegant and respectable. You were well known to many people in the
environs, the famous Megre, the owner of an exceptional caravan. Both of you realized
perfectly well the impression you were producing on the surrounding people.
You sat down at the table where three country girls were sitting. They were only eighteen
years old, they had just finished school. The waitress brought you right away chocolate,
champagne and crystal glasses of better quality than those the rest of the people were
using. You took one of the girls by her hand, bent towards her and started to tell her
something into her ear as far as I could understand... they call it "compliments".
Then you danced a couple of dances with her and never stopped telling her something
sweet. The girl's eyes were shining. She had an impression of being in wonderland. You
took her out on deck and showed her the steamboat, exactly the way you did to me. You
took her to your cabin, treated her to the same stuff you did to me: chocolate and
champagne. Although your behavior was a little different, I mean not exactly what you
did with me. While with me you were serious and even a shade of sadness was present. In
her company you were full of joy. I could see it perfectly well through the lighted
windows of your cabin. Maybe, at that time I wished I were her”.
“Oh, did you feel jealous, Anastasia?”
“I don't know what kind of feeling I was experiencing at that time but it was unfamiliar to
me...”.
I recalled that evening, those young country girls who were trying their best to look older
and stylish. Next morning the captain of the steamboat Alexander Ivanovich Senchenko
and I were laughing together at our night adventure. At that time when the girl was in my
cabin I realized that she was in the state of mind when one is ready for anything... I did
not mean to take possession of her, so I told Anastasia about it and she replied, “Still you
had taken possession of her heart. You came out on deck, it was drizzling. You threw your
jacket on the girl's shoulders and accompanied her back to the bar”.
“What about you, were you standing all that time behind the bushes, in the rain?”
“It was all right. The rain was very light and comforting though it was preventing me
from watching. I did not want my shawl and skirt to get wet. You know, they belonged to
my mammy. I was lucky to find a plastic bag on the shore so I took them off, put
everything into it and hid it under my jacket”.
“Anastasia, why didn't you come back to the steamboat since you did not go home and,
moreover, it was raining”.
“I couldn’t as you had seen me off and yet you had other worries so I did not want to
bother you. The bottom line was that everything was coming to an end. When the party
was over and the time came to say "Good-by", you at the request of the girls and mainly
at the request of that girl who was with you on the steamboat, allowed the crew to stay by
the shore a little bit longer.
Everything was in your power including their hearts and you were intoxicated by that
power. The local youth were thankful to the girls and the girls in turn felt themselves
gifted by the power through you. They forgot absolutely about the young people who
were also in the bar and though the same time they were their friends and former
schoolmates. The captain and you accompanied the girls towards the ladder. Then you
went to your cabin and the captain went to his bridge; the steamboat gave a hooting
sound and slowly, very slowly started to cast off.
The girl you were communicating with was standing on the shore among her girlfriends
watching the beautiful white steamboat moving away. Her heart was beating strongly as
if it was ready to break away. Her thoughts and feelings were messed up. Behind her back
there were the dark shapes of the country cottages without lights. Before her there was
the steamboat of her dreams leaving the shore forever. It was shining with multitudes of
lights lavishly pouring charming music all over the river and the dark quiet shore-Over
on that magic boat there were you. The one who told her so many beautiful words which
she had never heard before, such alluring and charming words. All that magic was
moving away from her forever. A decision came to her and in front of everybody... the
girl squeezed her fingers into her fists
and screamed desperately: "I love you, Vladimir!" Then again and again. Did you hear
her screaming?”
“Yes, I did”, I replied.
“It was impossible not to hear it and the people from your crew could hear it too. Some of
them came out to the deck and were laughing at her. I did not want them to laugh at her.
And then as if they had realized something they stopped laughing. You did not come out
on the deck and the steamboat was moving slowly away. She thought that you did not
hear her and continued chanting, "I love you, Vladimir!" Then her girlfriends joined
trying to help her. It intrigued me, I wanted to know what kind of feeling was the one
which they call "love". Because of that feeling man could lose control over himself or
maybe I wanted to help that girl. Anyhow I shouted together with them, "I love you,
Vladimir."
Somehow, at that moment I forgot that I could not pronounce words like that without
meaning it. The words should always be supported by feelings, awareness and
trustworthiness of natural information. Now I know how strong this feeling can be.
Sometimes even the mind is not able to control it. Later on that country girl started
wasting away, drinking spirits and I could hardly manage to help her. Now she is married
and involved in everyday routine. I had to add her love to mine”.
The story about the girl touched my feelings a little. Anastasia's words brought back the
memory of that evening very clearly and in detail. Everything had happened exactly the
way she had described. It was so real. Though Anastasia's rather peculiar declaration of
love did not occur to me at that time. Even later on when I had learned and seen a lot of
her way of living and got acquainted with her world, she still seemed to be an unreal
being, though she was sitting next to me and I could reach and touch her easily. My
consciousness, having been used to operate with different criteria of evaluation rejected
taking her as the one who is existing in reality. Although, at the beginning of our meeting
I was , attracted to her but later on I did not experience former emotions towards her. I
asked, “So, it means , you think that the new feelings which appeared in you were
occasional?
“They are longed for”, answered Anastasia, “they are even pleasant but in return, I would
like you to love me the same way I do. Though I have realized that on learning about me
and about my world better, you would not be able to perceive me as a regular person.
Maybe you could even get scared of me sometimes... You know, actually it has happened
that way. It is all my fault. I have made a lot of mistakes. I don't know why but all the
time I got nervous. I was rushing, trying to explain and failed to do it. Everything looks
foolish, doesn't it? I need to correct myself’.
While saying those words she was smiling with a shade of sorrow. She pressed her hand
against her breast and I recalled right away something that had happened one morning
while I stayed at Anastasia's.
Chapter 29
TINY BUGS
That very morning I made up my mind to join her morning procedure. At the beginning
everything ran smoothly. I was standing under a tree touching different shoots. She was
speaking about herbs. Then I lay down on the grass next to her. We were absolutely naked
but I did not feel cold evidently, because it was after a good run which both of us had
enjoyed before. I was in a perfect mood. There was a feeling of some kind of lightness
and the sensation was not only in my physical body but somewhere inside me.
Everything started when I felt something on my hip was nipping, biting or pinching me. I
lifted my head and looked, there were some kind of bugs, ants and a beetle on my leg and
hip. I swung my arm to smash them off but did not have time enough to do it as Anastasia
intercepted my hand.
“Don’t touch them”, she said.
Then she stood on her knees before me, bent over and pressed my other hand to the
ground. I was lying on the ground as if I had been crucified. I tried my best to get free but
alas, I realized that it was absolutely impossible. Then I pushed with all my might but she
was retaining me easily and while doing it she was even smiling. I was feeling the
increasing sensation of crawling, bilking, biting and pinching all over me and my
conclusion was that they had started to eat me. I was in her hands in the literal and
figurative sense of the words so I was trying my best to appraise the situation. “Well,
nobody knows where I am, nobody will drop in here by accident and if somebody would
happen to come, they could see only my picked bones if there were any left”. Many other
thoughts crossed my troubled mind within a moment.
Evidently, they were the reason why my instinct of self-preservation prompted the only
one possible solution at that time. So, I applied all my strength and desperately clenched
with my teeth her unprotected breast. While doing it I started to move my head from side
to side. As soon as Anastasia screamed from pain I unclenched my teeth. She set me free,
jumped up, pressing her one hand against her breast and waving with the other one. This
was raised up and she was trying to keep smiling. I jumped up also and shouted
feverishly shaking off all those crawling creatures. I produced a howl of despair:
“You wanted to feed me to the skunks, you forest witch, but I am not going to yield to
you so easily!”
Anastasia continued waving her hand and forcing tier-self to smile at the watchful
surrounding. She glanced at me and slowly, not running as usual, went to the lake with
her head drooped.
For a while I was pondering what to do. I wondered whether to go back to the steamboat,
and how would I find my way to it? “Should I follow her, but what for?”
So, I went to the lake. Anastasia was sitting by the water, rubbing in her palms some kind
of herb and rubbing its juice into the injured spot on her breast where one could see a
huge black and blue spot, the result of my bite. I stayed for a while marking time near her
in silence and then asked, “Does it hurt?” Without turning her head she said, “I would
rather say that it pains me”.
She continued to rub in the herb's juice.
“Why did you decide to play this trick on me?”, I asked. “I wanted to do the best of my
ability. Your skin's pores are completely blocked. They don't breath. The tiny bugs could
clean them; it is not painful at all, rather, it is pleasant”.
“What about the snake, it was sticking its forked tongue in my foot?”
“It was not doing any harm to you and if it did let its poison out, it would be only on the
surface of your skin and I could rub it in right away. The muscles and the skin on your
heel are growing numb”.
“Well, it is the result of the accident I've been involved in”. I commented. For a while we
were quiet. Then feeling ill at ease without even realizing what I was saying, I asked,
“Well, why didn't He help you? Well, I mean somebody invisible as it had happened
before when I had lost consciousness”
“He did not help because I was smiling. Even when you were biting me I was trying to
smile”.
I felt a kind of shame for my behavior. I gripped the bunch of the herbs which was near
by, vigorously crushed them in my palms, kneeled before her and started to rub the black
and blue spot with my wet palms.
Chapter 30
DREAMS-FUTURE CREATION
Now having learned about Anastasia's feelings and her desire to prove that she was a
natural and regular human being, though seeming to be non ordinary from my own
perspective, I have realized what kind of pain I had caused her soul that morning. I
apologized again and Anastasia answered that she was not angry. Although she was
worried about me because of everything she had done for me.
“What is it so terrible that you could have done to me?”, I asked her and again she told
me a story which a person who would like to look as normal as everybody living in our
world, would never reproduce in earnest.
“Well, when your steamboat left”, Anastasia proceeded, “and the local youths went to the
village, I stayed for a while on the shore all by myself and I felt very well. Then I ran
away into my forest. The next day went by as usual and in the evening when the stars
came out in the sky, I lay down on the grass and started my dreaming and it happened
exactly at that time when the plan of mine had been formed as it was”.
“Now what? What kind of "plan"?”
“You see, what I know, different people of the world you belong to also know. Although
they know it in parts but all together they know almost everything but the bottom line is
that they don't understand the mechanism up to the end. So, I started to dream that you
would come into a big city and tell many people about me and everything I had explained
and am going to tell.
You would accomplish it the way you usually spread all kinds of information in your
world. Yes you would write a book. Many people would read the book and the truth
would open slightly. They would reduce their sicknesses, change their attitude towards
children and work out new methods of teaching and education. People would start to love
everything and everybody more and eventually the Earth would emanate more light
energy.
Artists would paint my portraits and it could be the best they had ever done before. I
would try my best to inspire them. They would produce the thing you call "cinema" and it
would be the most wonderful film that had ever been created. It would bring memories of
me while you watch it. Many scholars would be attracted to you, those, who can
understand and appreciate everything I have said to you. Moreover, they would explain to
you a lot which you can't embrace right now. You would trust them more than you do me
and you would realize that I am not a kind of witch but a regular human being only more
informed than other people.
The things you are going to write about would arouse great interest and it would make
you rich. You would have bank accounts in 19 countries of your world. You would visit
the holy places which would help you to get purified from the darkness that dwells in
you. You would keep gour memory of me. You would fall in love with me and the desire
to see your son and me again would come to you. My dream was very bright and vivid
and, yes, maybe it was a bit pleading... Evidently, it was the reason why everything had
happened exactly that way.
They have accepted it as an apian for action and made a decision to transfer people over
the space of time of the dark forces.
It is acceptable if the detailed plan is being born on the Earth in the soul and mind of an
earthly man. Evidently, they had perceived this plan as a great one or maybe they added
to it something of their own. That is why the dark forces have activated their activities to
such a great extent.
It had never happened before. I have realized it only through the Ringing Cedar. It's beam
became a great deal thicker. Now it is vibrating stronger as it rushes to give it's light, it's
energy away”.
I was listening to Anastasia and at that moment the thought that she was a crazy one was
growing inside me, getting stronger and stronger: “Well, who knows, maybe long ago she
had escaped from some kind of a hospital for the mentally sick. Now she is living here in
this forest and moreover I had sexual intercourse with her. As a result of it a child can be
brought into the world... Isn't it something!”...
However watching her speaking seriously and emotionally I did my best to calm her
down by saying:
“Don’t you worry, Anastasia, your plan is wittingly unrealizable and that's why there is no
need for the Light and Dark forces to fight. As a matter of fact nowadays they publish
plenty of books but even the works of famous writers are not in great demand. I am not a
writer anyhow and, to begin with, I have no talent for writing at all. Nor do I have any
ability and special education and this is the bottom line”.
“That's right, everything you have mentioned you did not have before but now you have
got it”, she replied.
“All right”, I was trying to comfort her by saying, “suppose I do try but nobody will
publish my stuff, they will not believe in your existence”
“But I do exist. I exist for those for whom I exist. They will believe and help you in
exactly the same way I am going to help them later on”.
At that time I did not realize the meaning of her words and I was trying my best to calm
her down again and again:
“But I am not going to try to write anything. Try to understand that there is not any sense
in it, that's it”.
“But, you will! It is evident that they have already created the whole system of
circumstances which will force you to do it”.
“Am I a tiny screw in somebody's hands according to you?”
“You know, a lot depends also on you. The Dark Forces will try their best to interfere and
to prevent you from accomplishing everything you are supposed to do. They may push
you hard even to suicide by creating an illusion of hopelessness”.
“It’s enough, Anastasia, I am bored to death with listening to your fantasies”.
“Do you consider it to be fantasies?”
“Yes, yes, I do! Fantasies...”. And at that point I had to stop short.
A thought had flashed in my head commeasuring time and I realized, — everything
Anastasia was telling me about her dreams and her son she had conceived in her mind a
year ago. She did it when I did not know her as much as I do now. Here you are, a year
later it has happened.
“So, does it mean that everything is interconnected with what is happening now?”, I
asked her.
“Of course. If it was not because of them and a little bit of my efforts too, your second
expedition would never be possible. As you know, you could hardly manage to make
ends meet after your first voyage and to add to it you had no rights to the steamboat”.
“Does it mean that you had influenced the steamship line and the firms which were
involved?”
“Yes, it does”.
“You know, you have ruined me and caused great damage to them. What kind of right do
you have to interfere like that? Now here I am, I have left my steamboat again because of
messing with you. Maybe right now they are robbing me in every possible way. Evidently
you have a kind of power to hypnotize people or, even worse, you are a witch. That's it!”
“I have never done anything wrong to anybody and moreover, I just can't do it. I am a
human being! If you are worried so much about material well being and money, you
should just wait a while and everything will come back to you. I am sorry. I feel guilty
towards you because I have dreamed that way. I dreamed that you would have a hard
time for a while but at that very time I could think of nothing else. You don’t accept logic.
You have to be forced by your world life circumstances”.
“Here it is! 'To be forced", that's it! It is you who is forcing me and you are trying to
pretend to be a regular human being”.
“I am a human being, a woman!”, Anastasia was excited and it was evident when she
exclaimed, “I have always wanted only good and light. It is my only wish. I wanted you
to get purified. That's the way I had modelled that you would visit the holy, secret places
and write a book. They have accepted it. The Dark Forces have been always lighting
them though they never managed to win with the main things”.
“What about you, Anastasia? Are you going to keep aside, to be just an observer having
all this intellect, information and energy of yours?”
“At such an extent of opposition of two great sources the effect of my effort is going to
be insignificant. The help from other people of your world is required. I shall be looking
for them and I am going to find them. I am positive. I'll do it the same way as I had done
it before, when you were staying at the hospital. Only you, yourself should acquire more
awareness. Let it be just a little bit at least Try to overcome all evils inside you”.
“Now what? Will you specify? What is evil inside me? What was I doing wrong while at
the hospital? How could you heal me being far away from me at that time?”
“You simply did not feel my presence but I was near you. When I was on the steamboat, I
had a small twig of the Ringing Cedar which my mama had broken before she perished...
I left it in your cabin. You had already been sick at that time. I felt it. Do you remember
the twig?”
“Yes, I do”, I answered.
It was true, the twig was hanging in my cabin for a long time, many people of my crew
saw it; I brought it to Novosibirsk but I never attached any importance toil
“You simply have thrown it away”.
“But I did not know”.
“Yes, you are right. You did not know... You have thrown it away... My mama's twig did
not manage to overcome all your sic kn ess. Then you got to the hospital. Just try to recall
and look very carefully through the report of your sickness. The report reads that in spite
of applying the most powerful medication there was no improvement in your case. After
that they gave you a cedar oil injection. The doctor who was following very strictly all
required procedures should never have done it. She has done something that does not
exist in any of your medical journals. In general it had never been done before. Do you
remember it?”
“Yes, I do”.
“The lady doctor”, continued Anastasia, “who was healing you was the head of a
department of one of the best hospitals in your city. That department had nothing to do
with the disease you had. She accepted you though the department which was supposed
to
treat that kind of disease was on the next floor of the same building. Am I right?”
“Yes, you are”.
“She was applying the needles to you while nice music was on. The room was half
darkened. Anastasia described everything exactly the way it had happened to me at that
time”.
“Do you remember that woman?”
“Sure, I do. She was the head of the department of the former regional hospital”.
All of a sudden looking at me seriously Anastasia said some phrases which produced a
shocking effect on me. It made me feel creepy all over my body.
“What kind of music do you like?... All right... Is it good? Isn't it too loud?”, Anastasia
was speaking exactly the way the lady doctor had spoken to me, -the same voice, the
same intonations... It was amazing!
“Anastasia!”, I exclaimed.
She cut me short saying, “For God's sake, listen to me and don't be surprised. Will you,
please, try! Try to realize, after all, what I am saying to you. Will you try to mobilize your
mind just a bit at least”.
Then she continued: “That lady doctor was very nice. She is a real doctor. It was very
easy for me to work with her. She is kind and candid. It was I who did not want you to be
moved to another department, though her department did not correspond to the type of
disease you had. She asked her bosses, "Let him, please, stay here, I'll heal him”. Because
she simply knew that she could. She also knew that your weak spots were the result of
something else, there was more to it. She was trying her best to fight that "something
else". She is a real doctor. Look at yourself. How did you behave?! You did not only
smoke, you were drinking spirits as much as you wished. You used spices, pickles and all
that was while you were suffering a very severe ulcer. You refused nothing, no
restrictions "enjoying yourself.
Somewhere in your subconscious mind a fearless idea was trapped that nothing would
happen to you. You even did not realize it in your consciousness. I did nothing good but
rather vice versa. The darkness in your consciousness was not reduced. The awareness
and will power did not increase. When you were at last safe and sound you sent your
greetings on the occasion of a holiday through your lady coworker to the woman who had
saved your life... Although, you know, she was waiting your call, she had fallen in love
with you just like...”.
“Had she or you, Anastasia?”
“We had, if it is more clear to you”.
I stood up and without realizing it made a couple of steps away from Anastasia who was
sitting on a fallen tree. My thoughts and feelings were messed up and it made my
uncertainty towards her grow even more.
“Here you are! Again you don't understand how I had managed to do it. You are getting
scared and it is so simple to guess just using your imagination and precise analysis of
possible situations. Again you were thinking about me...”. She became quiet bending her
head over her knees.
I was standing silently thinking to myself: “Why does she keep speaking about all kind of
incredible things. While speaking she is getting upset because
they are incomprehensible? Evidently she does not realize that any normal man would
never understand them and therefore she also will never be accepted as a normal human
being”.
Then I came to her, parted her falling locks away from her large blue-gray eyes and saw
the drops of tears rolling down her cheeks. She smiled and uttered a phrase which was
not characteristic others.
“A woman is a woman, isn't she? Now you are startled to doubt my existence as a fact
and, as they put it in your language, you can't believe your eyes.
You absolutely don't believe me. You can't realize what I am saying to you. The fact of
my existence, my abilities and aptitudes seem astonishing to you. You have stopped
perceiving me as a normal human being but I am, trust me! I am a human and not a kind
of witch.
Why does it not seem to you as astonishing and paradoxical that people have recognized
and accepted the Earth as a cosmic body? It is the greatest creation of the Highest Mind,
every mechanism of which is the greatest achievement of His.
Now this mechanism is being tormented and the people are creating a tremendous
amount of effort to break it down. You take for granted a handmade spaceship or an
airplane but all these mechanics have been made of broken and melted parts of the
greatest mechanism.
Can you imagine a creature which is breaking an airplane in flight just to make a regular
hammer or scraper of its parts. It is getting very proud of itself when it manages to make
a primitive tool. Poor thing,
it does not realize that it is impossible to break a flying aircraft without limits. Well,
really! Why don't you understand that it is impossible to torment the Earth like that.
A computer is an achievement of the human mind but there are few people who can even
suspect that a computer can be compared to a prosthetic appliance of a human brain. Can
you imagine what could happen to a man if he uses crutches while his own legs are in
good shape? No doubt that the muscles of his legs will become atrophied. A machine will
never surpass a human brain if it was trained constantly...”.
She wiped a rolling tear from her cheek with her palm and continued setting forth her
incredible conclusions. At that time I could not even assume that everything she had said
would agitate many people. She would stir up the minds of scientists and even if it were
taken as a hypothesis it would have no analogies in the known world.
According to Anastasia, the Sun is a kind of a mirror. It reflects the radiation coming
from the Earth which is invisible to regular vision. Actually this radiation is coming from
the people who are experiencing joy or any other light feelings. Being reflected from the
Sun it returns back to Earth as sunlight giving life to everything earthly Anastasia's
speech is full of proofs and examples though it is not very easy to understand them.
“If the Earth and other planets would only consume sunlight benevolence”, she said,
“then, inevitably, it would have to fade away, burning unevenly and its luminescence
could not be uniform. A unilateral process does not exist in the Universe, it could not
exist as everything is interconnected”
Then she quoted from the Bible: “... and the life was the light of the men...”. Anastasia
also stated that one man’s feelings, after being reflected from cosmic bodies are being
transmitted to another one.
She tried to prove it by examples:
“Nobody among earthly people can deny the feeling anyone is experiencing when being
loved. This sensation can be felt even more when you are near the person who loves you.
You call it "intuition". But in reality a loving person is illuminating invisible waves of
light. Though when the person is not by your side, if his love is strong enough it also can
be sensed. With the help of this feeling and moreover, when you understand its origin, it
is possible to perform miracles. It is exactly the thing which you call "miracles,
mysticism, extraordinary abilities". Now, tell me, do you feel a little bit better in my
company? Well, somehow easier or warmer?”
“Yes, I do”, I answered.
“Now watch, what is going to happen to you when I concentrate on you even more”, she
said.
Anastasia lowered her eyelashes, made a couple of steps backward and stopped. A very
pleasant warmth started flowing all over my body. The sensation was growing. Although
it burned, it did not make me hot. Anastasia turned and slowly moved away. Then she
disappeared behind a thick trunk of a high tree. Yet the sensation of the pleasant warmth
flowing on me did not diminish and even a new one appeared as if something was
helping my heart to
stimulate the blood to flow in my veins. With each beating of the heart the sensation was
as if the blood streams were reaching each tiny vessel of my body within a moment. My
feet were sweating a lot and became wet.
“Well, do you see now? Do you understand everything?” asked Anastasia coming out
from behind the tree with the triumphant look of a conqueror being absolutely confident
as if she had managed to prove something to me.
“You were feeling everything, weren't you, when I was behind the trunk? Your sensations
had become even stronger when you did not see me, hadn't they? Go ahead, tell me about
them!”
I told her and asked in my turn what the tree trunk could prove...
“You see, before, the light and information waves were moving from me to you directly.
When I disappeared the trunk of the tree had to distort my waves greatly as it has the
information and illumination of its own. It did not happen. The waves of feelings were
coming to you after being reflected from cosmic bodies. To add more to that, they were
even reinforced. Then I did something that you may call a "miracle". Your feet became
sweaty, didn't they? Why didn’t you tell me about it?”
“As a matter of fact, I did not pay attention to it. What kind of miracle could it be when
your feet are sweating? What is special about it?”
“I have pushed toxins out of your organism through your feet, a lot of junk and
sicknesses. You should feel a lot better now. Anyone can tell that your round —
shoulderedness reduced signifi-cantly”.
To tell the truth, I felt much better around the shoulders. So I asked her, “Does it mean
that when you concentrate, thinking of something then your wish comes true?”
“Well, something like that”.
“Does it always work even when you are dreaming about something else besides
healing?”
“Always! If my dream is not an abstract one. It should always be specified, worked out in
detail up to the smallest events, very precisely and without any contradiction to the
spiritual laws of existence... You know, this kind of dream is not always possible to
create. It is required that a thought should rush very fast and at the same time the
vibration of feelings should satisfy the specific requirements. Then it will be incarnated
for sure. It is natural and it happens very often in regular life with many people. Ask your
friends. Maybe among them there are those who had dreams and their dreams became
true completely or partially “.
“"Working out the details... The thoughts should fly..." Will you tell me, please, when you
were dreaming about poets, artists and the book, did you work out everything in detail?
Did your thoughts fly?”
“Yes, extremely fast. Everything was specified, worked out in details even trifles, very
scrupulously”
“Now, do you believe that it will come true?”
“It will come true, I am absolutely positive about it”.
“Did you dream about anything else at that time? Have you told me everything about
your dreaming?”
“No, I did not tell you everything about my dream”.
“Why don't you tell me everything?”
“You... Do you want to listen to me, Vladimir? Am I right?”
“Yes, I do. Go ahead”.
Anastasia's face was lit up, as if it was illuminated with a ray of light. She produced her
incredible monologue with great emotion and inspiration.
Chapter 31
ACROSS THE SPACE OF TIME
OF THE DARK FORCES
The space occupied by the negative thoughts created by people during the whole
history of their existence. Later on Anastasia will explain: “Any thought which is
created by Man doesn 't disappear into nowhere ” (Comment by the translator).
“During that night of dreaming I was thinking how to transfer people across the space
of time of the dark forces”, started Anastasia. “My plan and awareness were so real and
efficient that they had accepted it.
The book you are going to write will contain non obtrusive word combinations and
formulas so that they will stir up the great majority of people. They will waken up their
light and kind feelings. These types of feelings are able to suppress physical and
emotional sicknesses. They will stimulate the birth of a new consciousness which will be
the distinctive features of the people of the future. Believe me, Vladimir, it is not a
mysticism, it agrees with Universal laws.
Everything is so simple. You will be writing this book being guided exclusively by your
feelings and listening to your soul. This is the only possible way for you as you have
never mastered the art of writing.
Everything is possible with feelings. These feelings are already inside you. They are
yours and mine too.
Although, they are not yet realized by you now, they will be understood by a lot of
people. Being embodied into signs and combinations they are going to become stronger
than Zoroastrian's Fire. You should hide nothing of what is going to happen to you even
those secret. Get yourself emancipated from any shame and fear. Don’t be afraid to look
funny. Your should suppress your arrogance.
I have opened myself to you completely: my body and soul. I belong to you. Now let me
open myself to all people through you because they have allowed me to do it. I know that
a huge amount of dark forces are going to attack me. They will resist my dreams coming
true but I am not afraid of them; I am stronger than they are and I will live to see
everything I have conceived in my mind happening: to give birth to my son and bring
him up, our son, Vladimir.
My dream will break many mechanisms of the dark forces which were influencing people
in pernicious ways for many millennia. It will make many of them start working for the
good of mankind.
I know you can't believe me right now as all kinds of conventions and postulates are
blocking you. They were implanted in your mind by the conditions of the life style of the
world you belong to. You consider the time transference as an impossible reality. Your
notions and ideas about time and space are conditional. Only the degree of willpower and
awareness can characterize its quantity, not "seconds" and "meters".
The purity of intentions, feelings and sensations, which should be characteristic features
of the great majority of people, determines the location point in Time and in the Universe.
You believe in horoscopes, in, your absolute dependence on the planetary positions. This
belief has been achieved with the help of the dark forces' mechanisms. This very faith is
an obstacle which is hampering the time of the parallel of light giving the opportunity for
the dark one to come forward and to change their quantity. This faith leads you away
from realizing the Truth, the essence of your earthly existence. You are trying to analyze
everything very carefully. Just think, Man was created by God in His image and likeness.
Man has been given a great freedom, the freedom to chose between darkness and light. A
soul has been given to man. Everything visible is under Man's power and he is free even
with respect to God Himself: to love or not to love Him. Nobody and nothing can control
man but his own will. God wants nothing from man but love in response to His great
love. Although God wants the love of a free man. He wants the love of a perfect man, just
like He Himself is. He needs a companion, not a slave.
God has created everything visible including the planets. They serve to provide order and
harmony in everything living: plants, the animal world. They exist only to help the
human flesh but they are absolutely powerless with respect to man's soul and mind. It is
not they who are directing man but man through his subconscious is ruling all the planets.
If only one man decides that he wants a second sun to appear in the sky, it would never
happen. It has been organized this way to prevent planetary catastrophes. If people all
together express a desire for a second sun, — it will appear!...
While compiling a horoscope one should take into consideration the main values: the
level of the person's time awareness, willpower and the power of her spirit, the soul's
striving and the degree of its participation in the moment of today's presence.
They can easily conquer beneficial and non beneficial days, magnetic storms, high and
low pressure; willpower and awareness.
Really, didn't you see a happy and joyous man even when the weather is nasty or vice
versa, a sad and depressed one on a sunny and most benevolent day?
Do you think that I am letting my imagination carry me away as a crazy person when I
am talking about the word combinations and formulas of letters which are going to heal
and enlighten people? You don't trust me because you don’t understand... Really, it is so
simple.
Right now I am speaking your language using your patterns of speech and sometimes I
am even trying to use your intonation. It will be easy for you to memorize everything I
have said because it is your native language which is characteristic of you only and it is
understood by many people. It does not contain incomprehensible words, rarely used
turns of speech in regular everyday communication. It is very simple and that's why it is
understandable to the great majority of people. Although I am changing a bit, well,
in a certain way I am replacing some words just slightly. Now I see that you are in a state
of excitement. That's why in the future on recalling this state you will recall everything I
have told you. You will write it down. This way my combinations of letters will get into
your writings, everything you are going to write.
These combinations are very important They can perform miracles exactly the way a
prayer does.
Many of you already know that prayers are definite combinations and matches of letters.
These combinations and matches have been built up by enlightened people with God's
help.
The dark forces were always striving to take away from man the possibility of using the
benevolence which comes from these combinations. Because of this they even changed
languages introducing new words to replace the old ones, twisting their essential
meanings. For instance, long, long ago your language had 47 letters and now there are
only 36 left. They introduced absolutely different combinations and formulas of their
own, agitating brutish and dark instincts. They always tried to carry people away by
carnal desires and passions.
I have transferred the primordial combinations from the Sources, activated them, using
modern letters and symbols. Now they will act. I tried so hard to find the right ones and I
have managed to do it. I have collected the best ones from different times and there are a
lot of them. I have installed and concealed them in what you are going to write.
As you see, it is simply an interpretation of the combinations of symbols of the depth of
Cosmic infinity and eternity/which are precise in sense andgoals.
You should write about everything you have seen, hiding nothing, — neither bad nor
good nor secret and they will be preserved.
You will be convinced of this by yourself so, please, trust me. You are going to be
convinced as soon as you finish the book. The feelings and emotions will be provoked in
many of those who will read your writings, though at the beginning their emotions will
not be completely realized and comprehended by them. You'll see, they will confirm it to
you. You'll hear that they will do it. The light feelings will come to them. Later on, many
people will realize on their own with the help of these feelings much more than you will
be able to write. Do write, at least a little! Then you will see that people are able to feel
these combinations. When ten thousand, one hundred thousand people confirm it then
you will believe and write everything. Only, you should believe. Believe in yourself.
Believe in me.
Later on I shall be able to speak even more meaningful things and they will understand
and feel it. That more meaningful one is the Upbringing of Children. It was interesting
for you to know about flying saucers and mechanisms, rockets and planets. I was very
anxious to tell you as much as possible about the education of children and I shall do it.
I'll tell it when I install a great awareness inside you.
Only one should bear it in mind that it is advisable to read all these when the sounds of
handmade, artificial mechanisms are not interfering, not with drawing your attention.
These sounds are harmful. They are leading man away from the Truth. Let the natural
sounds, created by God stay with you while you are reading my messages. They are
carrying within themselves the information of Truth and Benevolence. They are helping
the Awareness to grow too. Then the healing process would be much stronger.
I am sure, you are full of doubts and don't believe in the healing power of the Word. You
are thinking about me... Although in this, again, there is not any kind of mysticism,
fantasy or contradictions to the laws of spiritual existence. When light feelings appear in
man they start to influence beneficially upon all fleshy organs, absolutely all of them. It is
beyond all question. Verily, the light feelings are the most powerful and effective
remedies which can resist any sickness. God healed using these kinds of feelings. The
saints also did the same.
Read the Old Testament and you will see for yourself. With the help of these feelings
some people of your world can heal too. Many of your doctors know about it. Ask them if
you don't trust me. It is easier for you to believe them. The more powerful and brighter
this feeling is the stronger influence it can produce upon the one to whom it is directed.
I could always heal with my small beam. My great-grandpa taught me when I was at a
tender age. He explained everything to me. I did it many times with my dachniks.
Now my beam is more powerful than great-granddad's and granddad's. They have
explained the reason why. It is the feeling which had appeared in me, the one that you
call Love. This feeling is so great and pleasant though it bums a little. I would like to give
it as a gift to all people and also to you. I wish everybody the best. Let everything be all
right exactly the way God wanted everything to be.
She delivered her monologue with extraordinary inspiration and confidence, as if she had
launched it into space and time. Then she became quiet. I was looking at Anastasia,
having been startled by her passion and confidence. Then I asked her, “Anastasia, is that
all? Are there any other peculiarities in your plans? Well, I mean in your dreams?”
“The rest are just meaningless trifles. I have produced them in passing as "twice two is
four". Though there was only one complication concerning you I have solved it also”.
“Right here and right now you should speak in details. Please, specify what kind of
complications exist concerning me?”
“You know, I have turned you into the richest man on Earth. Moreover I have made you
the most famous too, a number one celebrity. It will happen in a while. When I was
processing my dream, I was working it out, polishing the details... You know, before it
took off by the light forces... The dark forces... They are always striving to introduce
something of their own, something harmful, all kinds of their own side effects,
influencing perniciously the person whom it concerns and other people.
My thoughts were dashing very, very fast, but all the same the dark forces still managed
to follow me.
They had to leave many of their earthly things and were trying their best to activate their
mechanisms around my dream. Then... Guess what I did? I just outwitted them and made
all their mechanisms work for the good. The dark forces were at a loss for less than a
moment, but it was just sufficient time for my dream to get picked up by the light forces.
My dream speeded away into the light infinity which is unreachable for them”.
“What have you thought of, Anastasia?”
“Quite unexpectedly for them I prolonged the space of dark forces time during which you
will have to overcome different hardships. To add to this I deprived myself of the
possibility of helping you with my small beam. I tell you, they were confused a lot as
they could see no logic on my part. Meanwhile I was directing my beam sending my light
to the people who will associate with you in the future. I was doing it as fast as I could”.
“What does it all mean?”
“It means that people will help you and my dream. They will do it with the help of their
tiny almost uncontrolled beams. There will be many of them and taken together, they and
you will manifest the dream into material reality. You will transfer yourselves across the
space of time of the dark forces. You will carry other people across it. And you are not
going to be arrogant and greedy when you become rich and famous. You are going to
realize that the main thing is not money, as you will never get the warmth and sincere
sympathy of the human soul with money.
You will understand all these things while passing through that space of time. This is
when you will see and meet those people. They also will understand it. As far as the
making of curtseys... Your interrelations with banks I have thought up just because you
absolutely neglect your body. This way you will at least exercise a little before you get
money in the bank. Some of the bankers will do it too, which is beneficial for both sides.
Let it look a bit funny, but in exchange you will get rid of sinful arrogance.
The result is that all difficulties and obstacles which had been created by the dark forces
during their space of time are going to temper you and the people around you too. It will
be making you more and more aware. Later on they will save you from the dark
temptations for which the dark forces are very proud. Their own actions will save you.
That was why they had been messed up for a bit of a moment. From now on they will
never manage to catch up with my dream”.
“Oh, Anastasia! You are my dear dreamer, my visionary”.
“Oh! How wonderful you've done it. Thanks! Thank you. You have said it so nice, "My
dear"“.
“You are welcome. I've also called you a "visionary" and a "dreamer". Do you felt
offended?”
“Not at all. You don't know yet how precisely my dreams are always coming true when
they happen to be bright and detailed. This one is going to come true for sure. I am very
positive about it. It is my favorite and the brightest one. Your book will come out perfect.
Non ordinary feelings will come to people and these feelings will call them towards...”.
“Wait a minute, Anastasia, you are getting enthusiastic again. Calm down, please”.
It was not long after I interrupted her passionate speech which seemed to be only a
fantasy. The meaning of Anastasyia's monologue was not completely understandable to
me at that time. Everything she said seemed to be too fantastic. Only in a year Michael
Firnim, a reporter from the magazine Miracles & Adventures having read my manuscript
containing this monologue, was very excited when he handed me the fresh issue of the
magazine (May, 1996).
I also became excited after looking through it. Two Russian scientists, academicians:
Anatoly Akimov and Vlayil Kaznacheyev spoke in their articles about the existence of
the Highest Mind. They spoke about close interconnection between man and the Cosmos,
about invisible rays coming from man. These rays had been traced and tracked by special
kinds of instruments. Two photos depicting these rays which come from people were also
in that issue.
However, official science has only started to speak about something that Anastasia had
not only known about since her childhood, but had been effortlessly using in her
everyday life, trying to help people.
How could I know a year ago that Anastasia, the one who was standing in front of me at
that time, in her old and only skirt, wearing those clumsy galoshes, being nervous and
fingering the buttons of her hand knitted jacket, could possess colossal knowledge and
ability to influence peoples' destinies. Her soul impulses really could resist everything
which is dark
and pernicious for humankind and later on the famous Russian folk healer, the chairman
of the Healers of Russia Foundation, V. A. Mironov would call his staff together and tell
them: “We are all bugs in front of each other”. Then he would add that the world had yet
never known any one as powerful as she was. He would be sorry for me because I had
not been able to understand her and realize what she really was for such a long time.
What a shame!
Many people will feel the energy which is coming from the book. The poems will pour
like a spring rain, washing away the mud, right after the first small edition of the book.
She is the author of it as well as me. Now, dear reader. You are holding in your hands this
book. You are reading it. Whether it wakes up any feelings in your soul, it is up to you to
decide. What do you feel? What is it calling to you?
Anastasia alone, over there, in the taiga, on her clearing will persistently, using her tiny
beam of kindness scatter all obstacles away from the highway all other dreams. She will
be putting together and inspiring more and more people to her dream.
So it will happen that three Moscovite students will stand by my side at the moment of
hardship. Without being rewarded for their work and moreover even helping me
materially. Trying to get any kind of extra job, wherever they could, especially Alyosha
Novichkov. They will type the text of this book on their computers by night. They will
not stop doing it even during the most difficult time for them, the period of tests and
examinations.
The book will be published by the Moscow Printing House #11, edition of two thousand
copies. They will do it passing the publishing house test. Even before that a lady
journalist Evgueniya Kvitko from the farmers' newspaper Krestyanskiye Vedomosty
(Peasants " Gazette) will be the first to tell about Anastasia in the press. Then Katya
Golovina from Moskovskaya Pravda (Moscow Truth), then Lesnaya Gazeta (Forest
Newspaper), MirNovosty (World News) and the radio of Russia. Miracles and
Adventures, where famous leading lights of academic science are usually published, by
ignoring their tradition would dedicate to Anastasia several issues reading the following:
"In their most audacious dreams our academicians are not reaching Anastasia's
enlightenment. She is a wonderful enchantress from the Siberian taiga. The purity of his
intentions makes Man an omnipotent and an omniscient being. Man is the summit of
Creation.
Only the prominent Moscow press will publish Anastasia. As if Anastasia herself were
selecting them passing over the gutter press, carefully guarding over the purity other
dream's intentions. Although all these have become evident only a year after I met her, at
first I did not understand her. Having a lot of doubts and with my peculiar attitude
towards everything which was happening, 1 tried to change the topic of our talks to the
one which was more familiar to me, — entrepreneurs.
Chapter 32
POWERFUL PEOPLE
The highest estimation of your personality is the one given to you by the surrounding
people.
She spoke a lot about the people whom we call "entrepreneurs". She spoke about their
influence upon the spirituality of our society. Then picked up a twig and drew a circle on
the ground. Inside the circle she drew a lot of smaller ones putting dots inside them. Then
she depicted other circles around the first one. It was a kind of a planetary map inside the
terrestrial world. She added a lot of different things to it and said:
“The big circle is the Earth, the planet of the people. Small circles are small people
collectives which are somehow interconnected. The dots represent the people who are at
the head of these collectives. The way these leaders treat the people, what they make
them do, what kind of psychological climate they create using their influence, — all these
things, will determine whether it is good or bad for the surrounding people. If the great
majority of people feel good then everyone produces light illumination and when they are
all taken together as a whole, produce a nice light illumination. If it is bad, — it gets
dark”.
She shaded some circles, making them look dark, then proceeded:
“Sure, there are many other factors which also influence people's inner state but during
that very space of time when they belong to that community the main factor is their
relationship with the one who is at the head of them. It is very important for the Universe
that only light radiation could come from the Earth as a whole; the radiation of love and
goodness. The Bible reads: "God is Love"
I am sorry, very sorry for the people whom you call "entrepreneurs" as they are the most
miserable ones. I wish I could help them a lot, but it is hard for me to do it on my own”.
“You are wrong, Anastasia. In our society the pensioners are considered to be the most
miserable ones. The people who are unable to find a job, provide themselves with proper
dwelling, food and clothes, to pay their living are the most miserable. An entrepreneur is
a man who has all these things to a greater degree than the rest of the people. He can
afford some pleasures which many people can't even dream about”.
“Like what? Give me an example, please, will you?”
“Well, if you take just an average entrepreneur, he has a modem car, a nice apartment or a
house and as far as food and clothes are concerned, there is no problem at all...”.
“And what about joy? What does he find satisfaction in? Look! I'll show it to you”.
Anastasia carried me along again to the grass and, the way she did before when she was
showing me a woman dachnitsa, she started to show me different pictures.
“Here, do you see it? Here, he is sitting in the car which you call a luxurious one. Do you
see him? He is alone on the back seat. A micro climate is being contained inside the car.
A driver is behind the wheel. He is driving very smoothly. Look at the boss. Do you see
how strained and thoughtful his face is? He is thinking hard, creating some kind of
projects. He is afraid of something. Just watch. Now he has gripped a thing which you
call a "telephone". He is troubled... Well, he has got some information... Now he has to
evaluate it very quickly and make a decision. He is all strained... He is thinking. He is
ready. The decision has been made. Now watch, watch: he looks quiet but on his face one
can read doubt and anxiety. There is no joy at all”.
“Well, this is work, Anastasia”.
“This is a way of life and there is no break in it from the moment of his awakening in the
morning till he falls asleep. Even during his sleep he is not free. He can see neither the
newly arrived leaves in the trees nor the joyous spring brooks... He is surrounded only by
ever envious people who are eager to take possession of everything he has. Trying to
protect himself from them with, as you call it "security". To turn a house into a castle
does not really bring complete peace as the fear and worries never leave him and so on
and so forth till he comes at last to the very end of his life. The feeling of regret embraces
him because he has to leave everything...”.
“An entrepreneur has his joys. They come to him when he achieves a desirable result,
accomplishes his project. It is the joy of fulfilment.
“It is not true. He has no time to enjoy anything he achieves because a new and even
more complicated project is coming to replace the previous one and everything begins all
over again though with greater difficulties”
The forest beauty was depicting for me a very gloomy and sad picture of a rather
successful, if to look at it externally, layer of our society and I did not feel like accepting
it as a true one. I made a remark as a disproving argument:
“Anastasia, you forget to mention their ability to achieve the desired goal and get the
good things of life. For instance, he gets the admiring looks of women, who adore this
kind of man and respect on the part of the surrounding people”. Her response was:
“Illusion! Maya! None of these exist. Tell me, where did you see a respectful or an
admiring look of a person who is gazing at the passenger of a splendid car or an owner of
a most expensive house? There is no man who would agree with you. Those are the gazes
which are full of envy, carelessness and irritation. Even women are not able to love these
people because their feeling gets mixed up with the desire to take possession of not only
that very man himself but everything he has. In their turn these men are not able to love a
woman properly as they can't afford to leave enough space for such a great feeling”.
There was no sense in arguing, trying to find more proofs, as everything she had said
could be proved or rejected only by those about whom she was speaking. Being an
entrepreneur myself, I had never had an opportunity to stop and think over the subject
Anastasia had touched. I had never analyzed the duration of my joy and moreover I could
not do it concerning somebody else. Somehow we are not used to complaining and
snivelling in our midst. Each of us is trying to portray himself as a successful
businessman who is quite content with his life. Evidently therefore the image of a man
who is getting only good things from life has been adopted by the great majority of
people.
Anastasia could sense not only the outer manifestation of feelings but even more delicate
ones which are hidden deep down inside us. She was determining a person's state by the
quantity of light radiating from him. To my mind the pictures and situations which she
had seen, I was able to see through her voice. I told Anastasia about it. She responded:
“I'll help you, just a minute. It's so simple. You just close your eyes. Lie down on the
grass. Put your arms aside and you must relax. Mentally visualize the Earth as a whole,
try to see its color and blueish luminescence which is coming from the planet. Then start
to make the beam of your imagination narrow. Only now don’t embrace the Earth as a
whole any more but make it more and more narrow till you see specific details. Look for
the people over there where the blueish light is more intensive. The people are there. You
try to make your beam even more narrow and then you will see one or a couple of
persons. Let's try again with my help”.
She took my hand placing her fingers against mine and touching my palm with hers. Her
other hand was lying in the grass with the palm facing upwards. I did everything she told
me to do. Using my imagination I was trying to visualize. Soon I saw a vague picture of
three men sitting at a table talking excitedly. I couldn't understand the words, actually I
did not hear the words.
“No”, said Anastasia, “these are not entrepreneurs. Just a minute, we shall find them”.
She was moving her beam getting into large and small office rooms, closed private clubs,
parties and bordellos. Sometimes the blueish luminescence was very weak or couldn't be
seen at all.
“Look! It is night time over there and he is still sitting all by himself in his office room
full of tobacco smoke. That one ,look, he is so pleased with himself, in the pool enjoying
the company of young girls. He is intoxicated with alcohol but there is no illumination
around him. He is just trying to forget his troubles though his self-satisfaction is
artificial...
This one is at home right now. Here is his wife, his child is asking him about something,
telephone... Here he is! He is serious again even his loved ones are being moved away to
the background...”
Again one by one, all kinds of situations in a row were picked up. Some of them looked
good at first glance but not really nice till at last we came across that horrifying scene. All
of a sudden a room appeared before my vision. Evidently it was an apartment which was
a rather respectable one, but... The next moment I saw a naked man was lying on a round
table, his arms and legs were fastened to the table legs. His head was hanging off the
table. His mouth was covered up with a brown plastic strip. Two young men were sitting
at the table. One of them was solidly built with a short haircut, another one, less well
built had smoothed down hair.
A young woman was sitting in an armchair away from the table under a standard
lampshade. Her mouth was glued up too. Under her breast there was a flex linen rope
fastening her to the armchair. Her feet were fastened to the armchair’s legs. She was
wearing only torn underwear. An elderly, slim man was sitting near her drinking
something, evidently it was cognac. On a small table in front of him there was a box of
chocolates.
Those who were sitting at the big round table, were not drinking. They were pouring on
their victim's chest some kind of alcohol or vodka and then they were setting it on fire. “It
is a kind of "gaining an understanding' 44 , 1 told to myself.
Anastasia moved her beam away from that scene, but I exclaimed, “Come back! Do
something!” She brought the scene back again and answered, “There is no way to do
anything. Everything has already happened. It is impossible to stop it. It was necessary to
do something before. Now it is late”.
I was looking at it as if being hypnotized and suddenly I saw the woman's eyes very close
and so clearly. They were filled with horror and did not appeal for mercy.
“Then, at least, do something if you are not heartless!” I screamed at the top of my voice
at Anastasia.
“Sorry, it is beyond my power. It has been programmed by somebody before, not by me. I
can't interfere directly just like that. They are more powerful right now”.
“Where has your kindness gone? Where are your great aptitudes?”
Anastasia was silent for a while. The terrible scene faded a little. Then the elderly man
who was drinking cognac disappeared. All of a sudden I felt weakness spreading all over
my body and my hand, which Anastasia was touching, started to grow numb. I heard her
weakened voice. She could hardly utter the words trying to speak, “Take away your hand,
Vladim...” she could not even finish my name. I pulled my hand away from Anastasia
and got up. My hand was hanging as if it was numb. The way it happens when one
"makes it numb by sitting" ones arm or leg turned absolutely white, all over. I tried to
move my fingers, the numbness started to leave me.
I looked at Anastasia and was horrified by her appearance: her eyes were closed, her face
was pale. It looked as if there was no blood left under her skin as her hands and face
turned dead pale. She was lying as if she were breathless. The grass around her for
approximately three meters in radius turned white and faded.
I realized that something terrible had happened and screamed being scared to death:
“Anastasia!”, I gripped her by the shoulders and shook her already non resilient, but
somehow softened body. Her absolutely white, bloodless lips were motionless.
“Do you hear me, Anastasia?”
Her eye lashes moved a little bit and her dimmed eyes were looking at me expressing
nothing. I gripped my flask, lifted her head and tried to give her some water but she could
not swallow it. I was looking at her thinking feverishly what to do. At last her lips moved
slightly and she whispered, “Take me to another place... under a tree...”.
I picked up her limp body, carried it away from the circle with white grass and put her
under the nearest cedar tree. After a while, very slowly she started to come to her senses
and I asked her, “What happened to you, Anastasia?”
“I tried to fulfill your request”, she answered in a low voice and added after a pause, “I
guess, I've manage to do it”.
“But you don't look well”.
“Because I have violated the natural laws. I've interfered into something that I must not
get into. It has drained all my power and energy. I hope that something is still left”.
“Why did you run the risk if it was so dangerous?”
“I did not have a choice. You wanted me to do something, didn't you? I was afraid not to
carry out your request. As I was afraid that you would not respect me any more if I
wouldn't do something and you would decide that I was just a chatter box who is talking
too much about everything but in reality could do nothings Her eyes were looking at me
with a pleading look, her low voice was trembling a bit. “I just can't explain to you how
things get done, how this natural mechanism works. I can feel it but I can't explain it
properly, the way you would be able to understand, evidently, your scientists will fail to
do so also”.
She lowered her head being quiet for a while as if she was summoning up her strength.
She looked at me again with her pleading eyes and pronounced, “Now, even more than
before you are going to think of me as a crazy one or a witch, aren't you?”
All of a sudden, I was overwhelmed with a desire to do something good for her, but
what? I wanted to say that I was thinking about her as a normal, ordinary human being, a
beauty, a smart woman but I did not feel exactly that way. I did not feel a regular attitude
towards her. I knew that she would sense my lie and would not trust my words because of
that incredible and powerful intuition others.
Then I recollected the story she had told me about her childhood, the way her great
granddad used to greet her when visiting her. He was kneeling before her on one knee
kissing her hand. So I kneeled to Anastasia on one knee, took her still pale and cold hand,
kissed it and said, “If you are not normal then you are the best, the kindest, the cleverest
and the most beautiful of all non normal ones”.
Thank God! At last Anastasia's lips were touched by a smile. Her eyes were looking at me
with appreciation. Her cheeks were turning pink again.
“Anastasia, you know, the picture looked rather gloomy. Were you choosing them on
purpose or at random?”
“I was looking for something good but I failed to find it. They are all in the clutch of their
troubles. They are face to face with their problems. They almost don't have a spiritual
relationships
“So what is it necessary to do? What can you suggest besides feeling pity for them? I
would like to note-that they are strong people, I mean the entrepreneurs”
“No doubt, they are very strong”, she agreed, “and they are very interesting. They are
living two life times within one period. One is known only to them and nobody else, even
their intimate ones. Another is an outside one for the surrounding people, a social mask. I
guess it is possible to help them by strengthening their spiritual and sincere relationships
with each other. An open minded striving towards the purity of thoughts is required”.
“Anastasia, I believe I'll try my best to write a book and to organize an association of
entrepreneurs with pure intentions but only the way I understand it”.
“It will be difficult for you. I'll not be able to help as much as I would like to as I've got
only a small amount of strength left inside me. It will take time to rehabilitate my power.
For a while I'll not be able to see with my small beam at a distance. Right now I can't
even see you properly with my regular vision”.
“Are you getting blind, Anastasia?”
“I think everything is going to return to normal. I am just sorry that for a while I'll not be
able to help you”.
“You don't need to help me. You had better try to save yourself for our son and to help
others”.
I had to leave to catch my steamboat. I waited till she would look better at least in her
outward appearance. When she looked almost the way she did
before, I got into my motorboat. Anastasia took hold of the handles at the front of the
motorboat, pushed it off from the shore and it was picked up by the river flow. Anastasia
was standing in the water which was almost reaching her knees. The hem of her long
skirt was wet and swaying on the waves. I pulled the ignition rod. The motor produced a
roaring sound tearing apart the silence which had become quite common for me during
those three days of staying there and the motorboat rushed forward abruptly accelerating
speed.
Suddenly Anastasia came out of the water and ran along the bank trying to catch the
motorboat. Her hair flying in the wind looked like the tail of a comet. She was trying to
run as fast as she could. Evidently she was using all her strength trying to do something
impossible, to catch a speeding motorboat. Still the distance between us was increasing
slowly. I was sorry for her useless efforts and wishing to cut short the painful farewell
moments so I pressed down the accelerator lever with all my might. A thought crossed
my mind: “Maybe Anastasia may think that I was scared again and now I am trying to
escape from her”.
Roaring at an extreme volume the motor made the front of the motorboat move upward
with a jerk moving forward making the distance between us increase even more... and
she... Oh, my God! What was she doing?! — Anastasia dashed off her wet skirt which
was preventing her from running, cast aside her torn clothes. The swiftness of her running
increased and something unbelievable happened. The distance between her and the
motorboat started slowly to reduce. I could see that a little bit ahead of her there was an
almost vertical slope.
I was still pressing the accelerator lever though it did not give way any more. I thought
that it would help to stop her and bring that painful scene to an end. “She could not lose
her vision to a such an extent that she was not able to see that slope”, I was thinking to
myself. Anastasia did not slow down at all, having run up on to the top of the slope she
fell down on her knees. She raised her arms up towards the sky with a slight bend in my
direction and shouted. I could hear her voice through the wild roaring of the motor and
the noise of the splashing water, it was like a whispering:
“Sh-a-a-l-l-o-o-w wa-ter is a-h-e-a-d, sh-a-a-l-l-ow w-a-t-er, sun-ken 1-o-o-gs”.
On turning my head very fast, without even realizing completely what was happening. I
turned the wheel so abruptly that the motorboat rushed aside and was about to scoop up
water over the tilted side. A huge sunken log one end of which was resting onto a sand
bank and another one, which was hardly seen sticking out of the water, slightly struck my
motor-boat's side. If it had been a direct blow it could easily have broken its thin
aluminum bottom. When I had reached the river fairway I turned back towards the slope
and whispered addressing my thanks to the lonely figure standing on her knees who was
becoming a diminishing spot.
“Thank you, Anastasia!”
Chapter 33
WHO ARE YOU. ANASTASIA?
The steamboat was waiting for me in Surgut. The captain and crew were waiting for my
instructions. I could not concentrate and make any definite decisions concerning our
future route so I told them to stay in Surgut. Meanwhile I organized recreations, dancing-
parties, exhibitions of consumer goods and services for the local population.
My mind was processing the events connected with Anastasia. I was busy buying at the
local book I. stores a lot of popular science literature, books about extraordinary
phenomena and people's extraordinary abilities. Also I bought a history of that region.
Locked in my cabin, I tried to find explanations and answers.
Among other things I was particularly interested in: was it really possible that a feeling of
love could be bom in Anastasia only because she was trying to help that country girl by
shouting those words: “I love you, Vladimir”. Why had the simple words, which we
pronounce very often without putting into them sufficient feelings and meaning,
influenced Anastasia, in spite of our disparity in age, and the differences of our ways of
thinking?
Popular science literature did not give any answers to this subject. Then I took the Bible.
And right there I found the answer, at the very beginning of the holy blessing by John it
reads:
“Before the world was created, the world already existed; he was with God, and he was
the same as God. From the very beginning the world was with God. Through him God
made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him. The world was the
source of life, and this life brought light to mankind...” (John 1,1-5, The Word of Life).
Again I was startled, exactly the way it had happened many times before. How laconic
and exact are the definitions of this amazing book!
Everything became clear to me right away. Anastasia, for whom any kind of slyness and
cheating are not known, can't utter a word for no particular reason. Her words came to
my mind: “At that moment it was as if I had forgotten that I can't pronounce words for no
particular reason at all, behind them should always stand feelings, awareness or
trustworthiness of natural information”
Oh, dear Lord! ! ! What bad luck she has! Why had she addressed those words to me,
being not a young man any more, the one who has a family, liable to our world's multiple
temptations, as she used to call them, "dark and pernicious"? With all her inner purity she
deserves absolutely a different person. Who would fall in love with her, who is living her
unusual life or having her uncanny intellect, or cast of mind?
At first sight she might appear to be an ordinary one. However, she is a extraordinary
beautiful and appealing young girl, although, still later on when one starts to
communicate with her she turns into a kind of being who is living beyond the reach of a
reasonable mind.
Maybe these kinds of feelings were aroused inside me, one who does not have sufficient
knowledge and understanding of the essence of our being. Evidently, other people would
perceive her differently.
I recalled that even while we were parting I did not experience any desire to kiss or hug
her. I don't know whether she wanted it also. Generally speaking what did she really
want? I recalled the way she was speaking about her dreams. What a strange philosophy
of love she has: to organize an association of entrepreneurs in order to help them; to write
a book with her advice for people; to carry people across the space of time of dark forces.
The bottom line is that she believes it! She is one hundred percent positive that
everything is going to happen this way. Isn't that something? ! I had given her my word to
try to organize an association of entrepreneurs and to write a book. Evidently by now she
is dreaming about it even more. Why has she not thought up something which is simpler
and closer to reality?
Some kind of a pity towards Anastasia arose inside me. I imagined her staying in her
forest waiting and dreaming that everything would happen exactly that way in reality. It
would be nice if she could simply be waiting for it, simply dreaming about it. What if
she, God forbid, starts to make an attempt and direct her small beam of kindness, wasting
a colossal amount of her soul's energy believing in something which is really impossible.
Although she demonstrated to me the possibility of her beam, tried to explain its
mechanism, my consciousness could not grasp it as reality.
Dear readers, judge for yourselves. According to her she directs her small beam to a
person, lights him with invisible light, giving as a gift her own feelings, striving for good
and light.
Right now I can recall her saying, “No, no, please, don't think that I am interfering with
their psyche, trying to constrain their souls and minds. Man is free to take or reject
anything. One can take as much as he is able to contain these feelings within oneself if, of
course he likes them. They are to his liking. Then he becomes lighter in outward
appearance and all kinds of diseases will start to retreat from him partially or completely.
My granddad and great granddad can do it and I could always do it. My great granddad
taught me while playing with me in my childhood. Now my small beam has become
much stronger than great granddad's and granddad's ones are, as they say. It is because of
this non ordinary feeling which has been bom in me, the one which you call Love. It is
very bright and even burns a little. I have so much of it inside me and I wish to share it
with everybody, to give it as a present”.
“To whom, Anastasia?”, I asked her.
“To you and the people, to everybody who can accept it. I wish good to everybody. I
would like everybody to feel good. When you start to do the things I was dreaming about,
I shall bring to you many of those people and all of you taken together...:*.
Recalling all those things and visualizing her, I have realized all of a sudden that I just
can't, at least not try to accomplish the things she wanted me to do. Otherwise doubts
would torture me till the end of my life. The feeling of betrayal regarding Anastasia's
dream is going to stay with me, though the dream seems to look very unreal but still it is
desired by her so passionately.
I came to that decision and the steamboat went straight ahead towards Novosibirsk. I
asked the executive director of my firm to take care of the steamboat's unloading and
dismantling of the exhibiting equipment. Having explained something haphazardly to my
wife, I left for Moscow...
I set out to Moscow to make - or at least try to make - Anastasia's dream come true.
-to be continued
iMMl
English translation byjohn Woodsworth
e Book i Anastasia
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-0-2)
® Book 2 The Ringing Cedars of Russia
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-1-9)
0 Book 3 The Space of Love
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-2-6)
0 Book 4 Co-creation
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-3-3)
• Book 5 Who Are We?
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-4-0)
® Book 6 The Book of Kin
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-6-4)
0 Book 7 The Energy of Life
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-7-1)
0 Book 8, Part 1 The New Civilisation
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-8-8)
• Book 8, Part 2 Rites of Love
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-9-5)
Published by Ringing Cedars Press
$$ 0 ) www.RingiiigCedars.com
Anastasia herself has stated that this book consists of words
and phrases in combinations which have a beneficial effect on the
reader. This has been attested by the letters received to date
from thousands of readers all over the world.
If you wish to gain as full an appreciation as possible of the
ideas, thoughts and images set forth here, as well as experience
the benefits that come with this appreciation, we recommend
you find a quiet place for your reading where there is the least
possible interference from artificial noises (motor traffic,
radio, TV, household appliances etc.). Natural sounds, on the
other hand — the singing of birds, for example, or the patter
of rain, or the rustle of leaves on nearby trees — may be a
welcome accompaniment to the reading process.
Ringing Cedars Press is an independent publisher dedicated
to making Vladimir Megre’s books available in the beautiful
English translation by John Woodsworth. Word of mouth is
our best advertisement and we appreciate your help in spread-
ing the word about the Ringing Cedars Series.
Order on-line www.RingingCedars.com ordering
call /fax toll-free 1-888-DOLMENS details
or call /fax 1-646-429-1986 see last page
Generous discounts are available on volume orders. To help
spread the word as an independent distributor, or to place the
books in your bookstore, or to be kept up to date about future
book releases and events, please email us at:
info@ringingcedars.com
orwrite to the Publisher, Ringing Cedars Press, 120 HanaHwy
#9-230, Paia, HI 96779, USA. We also welcome reviews,
poetry and artwork inspired by the Series.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia by
Vladimir Megre
Translation, Translator’s Preface and footnotes by
John Woodsworth
Editing, Editor’s Afterword, footnotes, design and layout by
Leonid Sharashkin
Cover art by
Alexander Razboimikov
Copyright © 1997 Vladimir Megre
Copyright © 2005 Leonid Sharashkin, translation
Copyright © 2005 Leonid Sharashkin, cover art
Copyright © 2005 Leonid Sharashkin, design and layout
Copyright © 2005 Leonid Sharashkin, preface, afterword,
footnotes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, except for the
inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2005901794
ISBN: 978-0-9763333-1-9
Published by
Ringing Cedars Press
www. RingingCedars . com
Translator’s Preface vii
1. Alien or Man? i
2. A money-making machine 19
3. Healing for hell 24
4. A confidential conversation 27
5. Where are you, my guardian angel? 31
6. The cherry tree 36
7. Who’s to blame? 43
8. The answer 50
9. Dachnik Day and an All-Earth holiday! 64
10. The ringing sword of the bard 73
11. A sharp about-turn 80
12. Who sets the course? 84
13. Money from scratch 85
14. A destructive force 90
15. ‘Herbalife’ entrepreneurs 98
16. Free holidays in Hawaii 102
17. The beginning of perestroika 104
18. Fellowship of Russian entrepreneurs 108
19. Suicide? 112
vi Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
20. The Ringing Cedars of Russia 116
21. Untitled 134
22. Unravelling the mystery. 136
23. Untitled 137
24. Father Feodorit 139
25. The Space of Love 154
26. Anastasia’s grandfather 161
27. The anomaly 171
28. Illusory people 183
29. Why nobody can see God 186
30. Dawn in Russia 193
31. How to produce healing cedar oil 199
32. Title! 205
33. Your sacred sites, O Russia! 212
In Anastasia’s Ray. Editor’s Afterword 236
About the Ringing Cedars Series 244
Most readers of this present volume will have already mar-
velled at the euphoric and mind-boggling revelations con-
tained in Megre’s first book, Anastasia (published in English
translation by Ringing Cedars Press in February 2005).
In addition to offering the reader fascinating glimpses into
the story of the publication of the first book, this second
volume, The Ringing Cedars of Russia, delves deeply into the
ethical and metaphysical concepts behind Anastasia’s sayings
presented so dramatically in the ‘series opener’. The chapter-
titles associated with these concepts range from the mystical
(“The Space of Love”) to the mysterious (“Illusory people”)
to the theological (“Why nobody can see God”) to the down-
right practical (“How to produce healing cedar oil”). They all
ring a chord of response in the reader’s heart and soul and at
the same time call upon the thinker in each reader. And out
of concepts such as these pop up at least as many questions as
answers — questions that may well cause the reader either to
re-examine or re-affirm his or her basic concepts of life.
My own involvement with The Ringing Cedars of Russia did
not pass without a personal effect on me (independently of
the actual translation process, in which I take special care to
be guided by objective professional standards). In no small
measure the opportunity to work closely with the book not
only reconfirmed much of what I already believed, but also
helped me rediscover my own faith, allowing me a fresh look
at a number of concepts I had been brought up on from
childhood (like moving around a three-dimensional object
viii Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
and seeing it from a different angle). It also caused me to re-
examine the reasons for believing in what I had long believed
(including the practical understanding and application of a
spiritual approach to healing), and for this I am grateful.
Indeed, it is hard for me now to believe that at this time
last year I had never even heard of a Siberian recluse named
Anastasia, or a Russian writer named Vladimir Megre, or a
Russian-American forester named Leonid Sharashkin, or the
mysterious ‘Ringing Cedars’. Yet these are names that, since
entering my field of awareness in September 2004, have not
only become a significant focus of my professional activity as
a translator but also figured prominently in my daily thought,
conversation and life experiences.
Within four months I had not onlv read the first three
j
books of Megre’s Ringing Cedars Series but also completed
the translation of Book 1, Anastasia. And now, less than four
months after that, the translation of Book 2 is ready to go to
press and I have already started work on Book 3.
Translating the ‘cherry-tree’ chapter brought back a par-
ticular memory of my initial read of the three books. This
had taken place back in September and October, when our
Ottawa weather still allowed a pleasant outdoor afternoon sit
on our front porch. With its south-west exposure and view
of nothing but the fields and trees across the road, the porch
made an ideal spot in which to absorb this brand new liter-
ary adventure into the delights of a summer glade in the far-
off Siberian taiga. The afternoon sun was bright and warm
enough to permit me to dispense not only with heavy outer
clothing (which had already sprouted on the backs of many
pedestrians on downtown sidewalks here) but also with my
eyeglasses, which I am accustomed to make use of during any
indoor reading.
During the same period I was especially struck by the fol-
lowing incident. On the porch, right in front of where I was
Translator’s Preface ix
sitting, stood a clay pot containing several red geraniums my
wife had planted earlier in the year. My reading prompted me
to look at them — and one flower in particular (the one closest
to me) — through new eyes. I began to regard it with warmth
and affection (I would even say love ) every time I saw it.
Of course I had known from news reports about the ef-
fect of people’s thoughts and attitudes on growing things, but
it was not until my reading of Vladimir Megre that I had re-
ally seen anything like this in practice. My newfound feelings
for the geraniums remained strong throughout the month of
October, and as the days gradually grew colder, most of the
flowers in our garden (as well as other geraniums on the same
porch) faded and expired for the season. But the geraniums
in this pot, especially the one closest to me, refused to fade or
even droop with the cooling of the air. Even toward the end
of October, when I finished my reading of Book 3, it was still
standing proud and just as bright red as when my attention
was first drawn to it. And even when I saw it months later,
all bent to the ground by winter snows, its vivid red hue had
scarcely faded.
Two other extraordinary coincidences occurred in our
home during this period. In mid-November, just after I had
finished translating the “Concert in the taiga” chapter in
Anastasia and was working on the description of Anastasia’s
dance routine in the morning mist in the following chapter
(“Who lights a new star?”), my wife Susan, who had not read
any of the text at this point, presented me with a poem she
had recently written. The poem was entitled Gracefully, the
dancer... and described a dance of ayounggirl “where all move-
ment conforms to poetry” and whose “life itself had become
a never-ending dance” — rather close indeed to Megre’s own
expression.
Three months later, shortly before the first print-run of
Anastasia rolled off the presses in February 2005, Susan, an
X
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
amateur artist as well as a poet, showed me a coloured-pencil
drawing she had just been working on of a nude figure in her
twenties with blonde hair, her hands upstretched to the heav-
ens, the parts of her body drawn with colours of Nature in-
stead of the flesh, and with a face very similar to the illustra-
tion of Anastasia on the cover of the Russian edition. The
remarkable thing is that at that point my wife had not read
any of the text about Anastasia, nor even seen a portrait of
her, and did not have her consciously in mind as she was doing
the drawing.
In his Afterword, editor Leonid Sharashkin will be shar-
ing with you similar ‘coincidences’ from his own experience
connected with the publication of the English translation of
Anastasia in America. These and the hearty welcome of the
book in the English-speaking world are indeed reminiscent of
the surprising reaction of thousands of readers to the book’s
initial appearance in Russia in 1996.
Hearing the impressions shared with me by the first read-
ers of Anastasia in English — by people from quite different
walks of life — I have come to appreciate just how far-reach-
ing and universal Anastasia’s message is in its scope. For one
thing, it does not limit itself to any formulated creed. It is
not a new religion with a new set of doctrines for which we
must necessarily abandon whatever we believed in previ-
ously in order to follow. It speaks to the hearts and minds
of people of many different religions as well as, equally, to
those who profess no religion at all. It speaks to the hearts
and minds of many scholars and students of the physical sci-
ences — especially those who are reaching out to explore the
more holistic dimensions of their fields and to find answers
that lift them beyond the confines of their specialist train-
ing and into an understanding of how their investigations
relate to the universal aspects of Man, Nature, the Cosmos
and even God.
Translator’s Preface
xi
In addition to a deeper exploration of these universal con-
cepts, Book 2 offers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at
how Book i finally came to be written and published. Like all
great mind-stirring works of history, the birth-throes attend-
ing its emergence into light came at a considerable price to
the author. Just how high the price was — indeed, the whole
chain of extraordinary circumstances that led from the wilds
of Siberia to the book’s appearance on Moscow street-corners
and its eventual inclusion in national best-seller lists — is part
of the fascinating adventure you will now share with the au-
thor as you journey from the mental heights of a taiga glade
to the urban depths of Russia’s capital city, passing indeed
“through the valley of the shadow of death ” 1 en route, along
with a surprising encounter in a completely different tree-
lined setting and a final stop in the foothills of the Caucasus
mountains for yet another amazing discovery
While the book’s message is indeed universal in its scope and
applicable to individuals the world over, there is no escap-
ing the fact that its original expression, in terms of not only
words but concepts, draws in significant measure upon the
Russian tradition, and this fact, as with its predecessor in the
series, presented its share of challenges to the English transla-
tor. Two of these deserve particular mention here.
First, the Russian word sviatyni (derived from sviatoi = holy
or sacred) has no direct equivalent in English. It refers not
only to holy places such as sanctuaries, tabernacles, shrines
and crypts, but also to sacred objects (including icons, stat-
ues and relics), sacred texts (e.g., the Bible or the Koran)
and even trees. Having the same root as the Russian word
for light’ (svet), sviatyni may also be used to designate sacred
concepts such as spirit ox grace. None of these alternatives by
Psalm 23: 4 (Authorised King James Version).
xii Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
itself would be sufficient to compass the range of the original
Russian term. Since most of its occurrences relate to what
we call ‘locations’, it was eventually decided to use the awk-
ward but more or less accurate combination sacred sites as a
general equivalent and employ alternative translations where
the context required.
Another Russian word whose translation engendered con-
siderable discussion was pervoistoki — derived from two ba-
sic roots: perv- (first, primary, primal) and istok- ( origin , source,
spring — as in describing the headwaters of a river, for exam-
ple). The compound term, especially as used in this book, un-
mistakably conveys the sense of a pure, uncontaminated source,
and this eventually led to the selection of the particular com-
bination pristine origins. Other specific translation challenges
are documented, where appropriate, in the footnotes.
Again, as in Book 1, the footnotes are also used to give
background information on specific people, places and events
unfamiliar to most English-speakers.
And now, dear readers, I need only invite you once again
to find yourselves a comfortable reading-place — preferably
one shielded from the possible intrusion of artificial sounds
(a quiet outdoor setting would be ideal!) — and join with me
in exploring the second instalment of the author’s adventure
through both the geographical space of Russia’s vast distances
and the mental space of the spiritual essence of the Universe,
as revealed by The Ringing Cedars of Russia.
Ottawa, Canada
April 2005
John Woodsworth
Chapter One
Before telling about further happenings connected with
Anastasia, I should like to thank all the leaders of religious
denominations, scholars and journalists, along with ordinary
readers, who sent in letters, religious literature and comments
regarding the events recounted in my first book. Anastasia
has been called many things. The press has referred to her as
Mistress of the taiga, 1 a Siberian wizard-girl, a fortune-teller, a
divine manifestation, the girl from outer space. And so when
one Moscow journalist asked me: “Do you now love Anasta-
sia?”, I replied to her: “I can’t really tell what my feelings are.”
And all at once the rumour started flying around that I was
incapable of grasping anything at all because of my immatu-
rity in spiritual matters.
But how can one love when it’s not yet clear just who is
there to be loved? After all, no one has yet been able to come
up with a single definitive description of Anastasia. On the
basis of her assertion: “I am Man, a human being — I am a
woman!” 2 I’ve been trying to come up with some sort of ex-
planation for her extraordinary abilities. Initially everything
seemed to be falling into place.
1 taiga — the Russian name given to the boreal forest that stretches across
much of Siberia and northern Canada.
"The word Man (with a capital M) is used throughout the Ringing Cedars
Series to refer to a human being of any gender. For details on the word’s us-
age and the important distinction between Man and human being please see
the Translator’s Preface to Book i.
2
Book 2 : The Ringing Cedars of Russia
Who is Anastasia?
A young woman, born and living as a recluse in the remote
Siberian taiga, brought up after the death of her parents by
her grandfather and great-grandfather, who have also been
living the life of a recluse.
Can one consider the loyalty of wild animals to her some-
thing unusual?
Even this is nothing out of the ordinary Many animals in
peasant farmyards get along peacefully with each other and
treat their human masters with respect.
A much more difficult task is determining the mechanism
whereby she is able to see things at a distance and can know
details of various events, even those that occurred thousands
of years ago, and to be completely conversant with our con-
temporary way of life. How does this ray of hers work when
it heals people far away, when it penetrates the depths of the
past or peers into the future?
Philosophy professor Kim Ivanovich Shilin , 3 who is also a
Corresponding Member of the International Academy of In-
formatisation (MAI), has written a number of articles analys-
ing Anastasia’s sayings. In one of them he wrote:
Anastasia’s creative potential is a gift of God, a gift of Na-
ture, which is universal, not merely a personal gift to her.
All of us collectively, and each one of us in particular, are
connected with the Cosmos.
3 Kim Ivanovich Shilin — Doctor of Social Sciences, senior researcher at
Moscow State University’s Institute for Asian and African Studies, known
for his interdisciplinary research in philosophy, ecology, sociology, cultural
and Asian studies, aimed at a synthesis of Eastern and Western cultural
principles. He has authored numerous articles and several books on ecoso-
phy (the interpretation of cultural and social phenomena on the basis of a
culture’s relationship to and perception of Nature).
Alien on Man?
3
The means of escaping an approaching catastrophe lie
in a harmonious synthesis of our cultural principles. The
development of this type of harmoniously pure childhood
culture results in a “feminine” cultural type. This cultural
type has been expressed most fully and clearly in Bud-
dhism, but also in our Anastasia. It may be formulated in
the following identification chain:
Anastasia = Tara = Buddha = Maitreyad
Anastasia is in the fullest sense Man in the likeness of
God.
Whether this is true or not is not for me to decide. Only
I can’t understand why, then, she hasn’t written down any
teachings, like all other enlightened people in the likeness of
God, and instead has concentrated, all during her two dec-
ades of conscious awareness, on dachniks ?
Nevertheless, in reading what various scholars have to say, I
have been able to conclude that she is not some kind of crazy
person, inasmuch as there are at least hypotheses in the scien-
tific world about what she has talked about, and experiments
are being conducted on certain aspects of her sayings.
So, for example, to the question: ‘Anastasia, by what means
do you discern and depict all the different situations of thou-
sands of years ago and even decipher the thoughts of the great
thinkers of the past?” she replied:
4 Tara — a female Buddha, a deity capable of removing interferences and
putting things in perfect order. Maitreya (literally, ‘the loving one’) is de-
scribed as the future Buddha, associated with friendliness, success and
prosperity.
1 dachniks — people who spend time (their days off, especially summer holi-
days) at their dacha, or cottage in the country Unlike most cottages in the
West, a dacha is invariably accompanied by a garden where fruits and veg-
etables are grown to feed the family all year long (for further details, please
see the Translator’s Preface to Book i in the Ringing Cedars Series).
4
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“The first thought, the first word was the Creator’s. His
thoughts still live today, surrounding us unseen and filling uni-
versal space, reflected in material, living creations produced
for the number one creation, Man! Man is the child of the
Creator. And, like any parent, He could wish for His child
no less than what He has Himself. He has given him all. And
even more — freedom of choice! Man can create things and
perfect the world by the power of his thinking. No thought
produced by Man disappears into oblivion. If it is a thought
of radiant brightness, it will fill the space of light and rise on
the side of the forces of light. A dark thought, however, will
fall on the opposite side. And today any Man may make use
of any thought produced at any time either by people or by
the Creator.”
“Then why doesn’t everybody use them?”
“Everybody does, but in varying degrees. To use them, one
is obliged to think, and not everybody succeeds in doing this
because of the vanity of daily life.”
“So, all you have to do is think, and the ability comes to you?
And you can even discern the thoughts of the Creator?”
“In order to discern the thoughts of the Creator, one must
attain a purity of thought appropriate to Him, as well as the
pace of His thinking. To discern the thoughts of enlightened
people, one must possess their purity of thought and the abil-
ity to think at the same rate. If a given Man has insufficient
purity of thought to communicate with the dimension of the
forces of light — the dimension in which radiant thoughts
dwell, — then Man will draw his thoughts from their dark
counterparts, and will end up suffering himself and causing
others to suffer.”
I’m not sure whether this is directly or only indirectly ex-
plained by Academician Anatoly Akimov , 6 Director of the
International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics at
the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, in his article in the
Alien on Man?
5
magazine Chudesa i prikliuchenia (Wonders and Adventures) enti-
tled “Physics recognises a Supermind”. He writes as follows:
There have existed, and there exist now, two schools of
thought, two models of perceiving Nature. One model
is associated with Western scholarship — i.e., knowledge
gained on the methodological basis prevalent in the West:
evidence, experiments, etc. The other is the Eastern ap-
proach, wherein knowledge is received from an external
source through esoteric means in a state of meditation.
Esoteric knowledge is not something acquired, it is con-
sidered a gift to Man.
As it turns out, at some point this esoteric approach
was lost and a different route was embarked upon — one
extremely slow and complex. Following this route, it has
taken us over a thousand years to arrive at a level of knowl-
edge which was common in the East three millennia ago.
Anatoly Evgenevich Akimov — first introduced in Book i, Chapter 7: “Anas-
tasia’s ray”. Though it is not commonly known, the USSR maintained an
extensive research programme on psychic phenomena (for details please
see the well-researched book Psychic discoveries behind the Iron Curtain by
Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder). Anatoly Akimov headed one of
the many groups of scientists charged by the KGB and the Soviet Defence
Ministry to find a scientific explanation for paranormal phenomena and
some people’s extraordinary abilities in clairvoyance, telepathy and tele-
kinesis (moving solid objects by mental power alone) with a view to their
applications to intelligence and military purposes. Akimovs and other
teams’ experimental observations of these phenomena — in particular the
direct control of human mind over physical objects — indicated that on a
deeper level consciousness and matter have essentially the same nature, and
led to the study of torsion fields. Many “traditional” scientists, jealous of
the generous funding his group was receiving, were quick to label Akimov
as a ‘pseudo-scientist' and ‘charlatan’, and charge him with “fraud and fal-
sification of scientific research”, even though they themselves still cannot
explain such phenomena, let alone answer even more basic questions such
as What is matter? and What is energy?
6
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
I have the intuitive feeling that those are right who say
that the matter filling the whole Universe on a field level'
is some kind of interrelated structure. In his book The sum
of technologies, in a chapter entitled “The Universe as super-
computer”, Stanislav Lem s proposed the existence of a gi-
gantic computer-like Universal brain. Imagine a computer
the size of the observable Universe (with a radius some-
where in the order of 15 billion kilometres), filled with ele-
ments taking up a volume of between 10 and 33 cubic cen-
timetres each.
And here this brain which fills the whole Universe is
naturally endowed with powers which we are incapable of
imagining or even fantasising. But if you take into account
that in reality this brain functions not according to any
computer principle but on the basis of torsion fields, 1 * * * * * * * 9 then
it all becomes clear: the manifestations of the Absolute
1 field level (Russian: polevoy woven) — the level of a number of ‘fields’ (such
as electromagnetic and gravitational fields) filling the Universe but not di-
rectly observable by the material senses.
8 Stanislav Lem — Russian science-fiction writer best known for his novel
Solaris, first made into a film by Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972
and thirty years later in a Hollywood version by Steven Soderbergh. Inci-
dentally, Lem’s Solaris appears to be the inspiration behind the plot of Gene
Roddenberry’s first Star Trek feature-length film (1979).
9 torsion fields — the term first introduced in 1913 by a prominent French
mathematician, Elie Cartan (1869-1951), to refer to a hypothetical field
generated by a rotating object. This term later became used to signify the
‘original’ field permeating the whole Universe, a spinning field considered
to have formed the physical vacuum and given birth to all matter. If matter
can be thought of as ‘frozen energy’, then energy can be equated to ‘frozen
torsion fields’. While modern physics still lacks the appropriate technology
to detect torsion fields, the notion that everything in the Universe is born
from a spinning void is one of the oldest concepts in virtually all traditional
cultures (note its ages-old symbolic manifestation in the rotating cross (or
swastika) — a symbol found in all cultures on all continents).
Alien on Man ?
7
proposed by Schelling 10 or the Shuniat 11 of ancient Vedic
literature — these in essence constitute a computer. And
there is nothing in the world apart from this computer.
Everything else is some form or other of the Absolute.
This is what Academician Vlail Kaznacheev,' 2 Active Mem-
ber of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, wrote about
the Ray in his article “Living rays and a living field”' 3 in Chnde-
sa i prikliuchenia (Wonders and adventures) of 3 May 1996:
IO Friedrich Wilhelm von Schelling (1775-1854) — German philosopher, who
developed a dialectic of Nature as a living organism and an unconscious,
spiritual, creative principle.
11 Shuniat — the Buddhist concept of the Void’, or the space in which all
exists.
l ~ Vlail Petrovich Kaznacheev (1924-) — a prominent member of the Russian
Academy of Medical Sciences from Novosibirsk, specialising in the inter-
relationship between Man and Nature, including bio-systems and informa-
tion processes. A decorated World War II veteran, Dr Kaznacheev has re-
ceived numerous awards for his research and publications.
' 3 In America pioneer research on the fields surrounding living organ-
isms was carried out by Dr Harold Saxton Burr (1889-1973), Professor of
Anatomy at the Yale University School of Medicine. Dr Burr discovered
“that man — and, in fact, all forms — are ordered and controlled by elec-
trodynamic fields which can be measured and mapped with precision... the
‘fields of life’ are of the same nature as the simpler fields known to mod-
ern physics and obedient to the same laws. Like the fields of physics, they
are part of the organisation of the Universe and are influenced by the vast
forces of space. Like the fields of physics, too, they have organising and
directing qualities which have been revealed by many thousands of experi-
ments. Organisation and direction, the direct opposite of chance, imply
purpose. So the fields of life offer purely electronic, instrumental evidence
that man is no accident. On the contrary, he is an integral part of the Cos-
mos, embedded in its all-powerful fields, subject to its inflexible laws and
a participant in the destiny and purpose of the Universe” — quoted from
E.F. Schumacher’s A guide for the perplexed (New York: Flarper & Row, 1977),
pp. 116-17, an d use d by permission of the Random Flouse Group Ltd. For
more information see Burr’s Blueprint for immortality: The electric patterns of
life (London: N. Spearman, 1972).
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
Vernadsky 14 was probably right in asking the question: how
does the ideal, which is mental, translate the planet Earth
into its new evolutionary phase? How? If you say: only
through labour, only through explosions or only through
technogenic activity, such a primitive answer will not do.
There is factual evidence showing that Man is capable
of exerting a remote influence on many electronic equip-
ment readings. ITe can throw the measuring device out of
whack, and that from far away. Here in Novosibirsk exper-
iments are taking place on telepathic communication with
Norilsk, Dikson, Simferopol and Tiumen, I: ’ as well as an
American centre in Florida, and the remote links between
Man and Man as well as between the measuring device and
the operator register accurately and reliably.
We are confronted with an unknown phenomenon —
the interaction of living substance over huge distances.
These articles, unfortunately, contain many unfamiliar
terms, along with references to works of other scholars. It
would be quite a task just to read them all, let alone make
sense of them.
^Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945) — a Russian scientist compared
to Charles Darwin for his scope of contribution to the biological sciences.
Vernadsky’s prime interest was researching how the human mind influenc-
es the development of life on the planet. He viewed human intelligence as
a powerful evolutionary force capable of transforming the whole biosphere
onto a new level. Vernadsky introduced the term noosphere (literally, ‘sphere
of Intelligence’) to refer to the incipient state of biosphere controlled by
human intelligence — the new evolutionary stage transcending the conflict
between technology and Nature.
15 Norilsk — one of the most northerly cities in the world, close to the 'Yeni-
sei River, and a major mining centre. Dikson — a port in Russia’s Far North,
on the Kara Sea. Simferopol — capital of the Crimea (now part of Ukraine).
Tinmen — the oldest Russian city in Siberia, founded in 1381, which long
served as a centre for the Russian colonisation of Siberia.
Alien on Man?
9
Still, I have found out that scientists are aware of Man’s
capability to make contact at a distance. They are aware, too,
of the universal data bank used by Anastasia. She calls it the
dimension of the forces of light, home to all thoughts ever pro-
duced by mankind. Modern science also speaks about this
phenomenon, which it refers to as a supercomputer.
I then had to figure out how I, who had never practised any
literary art, having never been trained for it, managed to write
a book which continues to excite so many people.
When I was in the taiga, Anastasia told me: “I shall make
you a writer. You will write a book, and many people will read
it. It will have a beneficial influence on the readers.”
Now the book has been written. And one might suppose
that it was all due to her involvement. But then one would
have to figure out how she influences other people’s creative
abilities. However, nobody has yet managed to figure this
out.
It might make things easier, of course, to pretend that I
myself possessed at least a little talen t and was simply setting
forth the interesting information I had learnt from her. Then,
it seems, everything would fall into place. Everything would
be explained. There would be no need to waste any further
time on reading scientific or religious literature or badgering
specialists with questions. And here Anastasia presented a
new phenomenon for which neither I nor any of the people
who have been helping me can find an explanation to date.
You may remember me writing in Book i what she said two
years earlier: “Artists will paint pictures, poets will write verse
and they will make a movie about me. You will see all this and
think of me....”
To my question “What do you mean, can she predict the
future?” Anastasia’s grandfather replied: “Vladimir, Anastasia
does not predict the future, she visualises it and turns it into
reality”
IO
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
Words, just words. Words come cheap. And to be hon-
est, I didn’t pay too much attention to these words, dismiss-
ing them as mere metaphor, since I had absolutely no way
of even imagining how accurately everything Anastasia said
would turn out to be true in real life. But the incredible does
happen!
Anastasia’s words are starting to come true in reality.
First there was the flood of poems. A few of these poems I
published at the end of Book 1. Next, Anastasia clubs started
springing up in various cities. The first of these was in the
city of Gelendzhik, where they held an exhibit of paintings by
the Moscow artist Alexandra Saenko, all dedicated to Anasta-
sia and Nature.
I visited the clubhouse and looked at the walls hung with
large pictures. The surrounding space seemed to change in
appearance before my gaze.
From the many pictures Anastasia looked out at me with
her kindly eyes. And the scenes! I couldn’t get over it —
some of the pictures showed scenes from this second book,
which hadn’t been published yet. And there was this glowing
sphere, sometimes appearing right next to Anastasia. Later
I learnt that the artist painted not with a brush but with her
fingertips. Most of the pictures had already been sold, but
left hanging for the duration of the exhibit, since more and
more people were coming to see them. The artist presented
one of them to me as a gift, depicting Anastasia’s mother and
father. I couldn’t take my eyes off her mother’s face.
Offers started coming in from various film studios about
making an Anastasia movie. And this was now something I
was already accepting as a matter of course.
As I touched the paintings and sheets of poetry with my
hands, as I listened to the songs and looked at stills from a
film which had already been made, I tried to make some sense
of what was going on.
Alien on Mail?
ii
And now there is a Moscow Research Centre devoted to
investigating Anastasia phenomena, which has concluded:
The greatest spiritual teachers known to mankind for their
religious teachings and philosophical and scientific investi-
gations, cannot match the fantastic pace of Anastasia’s in-
fluence on the human potential. Their teachings have had
a noticeable manifestation in real life only centuries and
millennia after their first appearance.
In some inexplicable way, over a matter of days and
months Anastasia has managed, without the aid of written
doctrines and religious teachings, to directly influence peo-
ple’s feelings, provoking emotional outbursts and causing a
surge of creativity manifest in artistic creations on the part
of a whole lot of people who have been mentally touched
by her. We are able to perceive them in the form of works
of art and inspired impulses toward goodness and light.
How is it possible that this lonely recluse, all alone in the
remote Siberian taiga, has at the same time managed to soar
over our lives in real time and space?
How does she bring artistic creations into being through
other people’s hands? They are all about light, about good-
ness, about Russia, about Nature, about love.
“She will cover the world with her great poetry of love. Po-
ems and songs will shower the whole planet like a spring rain
and wash away its accumulated filth,” Anastasia’s grandfather
told me.
“But how does she do it?” I asked.
And the answer:
“She gives off inspiration and illumination by the energy
of the impulse of her own aspirations, by the strength of her
dreams.”
“What kind of power is hidden in her dreams?”
12
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“The power of Man as a Creator.”
“But Man should receive some sort of compensation for
his creations — honours, money, titles. And here she is giving
them away and asking nothing in return. Why?” I asked.
“She is self-sufficient. Her highest rewards are her own
satisfaction and the sincere love of at least one person,” re-
plied Anastasia’s grandfather.
But so far these answers are not something I’ve been able
to make complete sense of. In attempting to grasp who Anas-
tasia really is and my own relationship to her in particular, I
have continued to seek out various opinions about her, and
read as much as I can in the way of religious literature.
In fact, I’ve read more over the past year and a half than in
all the previous years of my life taken together. But what has
come of it? I have managed to come to only one indisputable
conclusion: a number of ‘learned’ books claiming to be histor-
ically accurate, religious and sincere, are nothing but a pack
of lies. This conclusion arose out of a situation connected
with the historical figure of Gregory Rasputin.
In Book 1 I cited a passage from Valentin Pikul’s 16 histori-
cal epic novel U posledmi cherty (At the last frontier).
10 Valentin Savvich Pikul (1928-1990) — one of the most popular Soviet
prose writers of the 1970s and 1980s. His famous novel, At the last fron-
tier — published in 1979 in the major literary magazine Nash sovremennik
as an abridged version of the novel Nechistaya sila (The demonic forces) —
significantly strengthened the popular image of Rasputin as a corrupted
immoral debaucher. Pikul’s extensive use of documents of the period, in-
cluding journalistic accounts, to give his works an authentic ‘historical’ feel,
contributed to the popular perception of his novels as ‘historical chroni-
cles’ (although this is not generally supported by historians and literary crit-
ics, who tend to dismiss them simply as adventure novels with an historical
context). In 1981 At the last frontier was made into the ‘historical drama’
movie Agonia (Agony), directed by Elem Klimov (1933-2003), which won
the prestigious International Federation of Film Critics award at the 1982
Venice Film Festival and became a must-see cinematic experience through-
out the USSR. The passage below is quoted from Pikul’s At the last frontier.
Alien on Man?
13
Pikul’s narrative tells about a semi-literate peasant named
Gregory Rasputin from the remote wilds of Siberia where
the Siberian cedar grows. In 1907 he came to St. Petersburg,
then the capital of the Russian empire. He not only endeared
himself to the imperial family, impressing them with his pre-
dictions of the future, but ended up sleeping with a good
many of the most prominent women in the capital. When a
group of officers tried to kill him, they were amazed to find
that even after swallowing the cyanide poison slipped into his
drink, he was still able to get up from the table and make his
way outdoors, where Prince Yusupov fired shots at him point-
blank from his pistol. Even after being riddled with bullets,
Rasputin would not die. His wounded body was thrown off a
bridge into the river, then fished out and burnt.
The mysterious and enigmatic Gregory Rasputin, who im-
pressed everyone with his stamina, grew up amidst the cedars
of the Siberian taiga.
This is how a contemporary journalist described his stay-
ing power:
“At age fifty he could begin an orgy at noon and go on ca-
rousing until four o’clock in the morning. From his fornica-
tion and drunkenness he would go directly to the church for
morning prayers and stand praying until eight, before heading
home for a cup of tea. Then, as if nothing had happened, he
would carry on receiving visitors until two in the afternoon.
Next he would collect a group of ladies and accompany them
to the baths. From the baths he would be off to a restaurant
in the country where he would begin repeating the previous
night’s activities. No normal person could ever keep up a re-
gime like that.”
As with many other people, such descriptions also shaped
my impression of Rasputin as a hopeless debaucher. But fate
threw my way a different concept, as though trying to induce
me to reconsider.
14 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
This is what the Pope of Rome, John Paul II, had to say
about Rasputin:
“Today from the river comes unscathed the body (never
found) of a holy monk. And his secret offspring will enter
into the ark with prayer.”
What’s going on here? On the one hand he’s referred to
as a debaucher, on the other — a holy monk. Where is the
truth? Where is the lie?
There’s more. The text of some of Rasputin’s notes, writ-
ten during a trip to the Holy Land, happened to fall into my
hands (they were brought to Paris by a refugee from the USSR
named Lobachevsky). This is what Rasputin himself wrote:
The sea effortlessly comforts. When you awake in the
morning and the waves ‘speak’ — they dance and make glad.
And the sunlight glistens on the sea, it seems to rise ever
so quietly, and at that moment Man’s soul forgets all about
mankind and fixes its gaze on the glow of the sun; and a
happiness kindles in Man, and he feels in his heart the book
of life and the higher wisdom of life — indescribable beauty!
The sea awakens him from the dream of earthly vanities, and
many thoughts arise all by themselves, quite effortlessly
The sea is a vast space, but the mind is even more spa-
cious. There is no end to Man’s higher wisdom, no philoso-
phy can possibly contain it. Another moment of stupen-
dous beauty comes when the sun sets over the sea and its
rays fill the western sky.
Who can estimate the beauty of the sun’s twilight rays?
They warm and caress the soul and offer healing com-
fort. The sun disappears behind the mountains minute
by minute, and Man’s heart grieves a little at its amazing
twilight rays. And then it grows dark.
And oh, what silence falls! Not even the sound of a bird
is heard. Lost in thought, Man begins to pace the deck of
Alien on Man?
i5
the ship, involuntarily recalls his childhood and all of life’s
kerfuffle, and begins to compare the silence around him
with the bustle of the world, and quietly talks with himself,
desiring company to stave off the tedium inflicted upon
him by his enemies...
So, who were you, you Sibiriakf* A Russian named Gre-
gory Rasputin? Where is the truth written about you, and
where the lie? How to make sense of it all? What can one rely
upon in trying to fathom the essence of one’s being, one’s des-
tiny? What great works can help one discern between truth
and falsehood? Where is the spiritual and sincere, as opposed
to a mere pretence of omniscience? Perhaps one should try
probing one’s own heart? I have never written poetry before,
but I want to dedicate my very first poem to you, Gregory
Rasputin.
People read Anastasia and come up with sincere, original
poetry. I have tried, too. And this is the result — for you. My
apologies if the rhyme doesn’t always work out.
Dedicated to
Gregory Rasputin
“So you’re semi-literate?” “Why yes, semi-literate.
From the cedar forests — well, those are my roots!”
‘And barefoot?!” “Walking all the way from Siberia,
You’re bound to wear out more than one pair of boots!
“I am going to the Tsar, to help our dear Batiushka 18
Hold on just a little bit longer out there.
l 'Sibiriak — the Russian word denoting a resident of Siberia.
18 Batiushka (pronounced BAH-tioosh-ka, lit., ‘Father’) — an affectionate
name used (especially by Russian peasants) in reference to the Tsar.
1 6 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
I am going to our Russia, our dear Russia-Matushka ’ 9
To give her a taste of our pine-forest air!
“What about it, hussars? You dashing rogues, freely
Debauching the ladies, making bold in a brawl?
Just look at trie, look, and see how one really
Debauches — you scum, thinking you know it all!”
Peter’s city in fine Paris garb is assembling.
But watch, lest your corsets too tight squeeze your hearts!
The Sibiriak enters, and ladies are trembling
At the sight of this peasant from far eastern parts.
But as he went off to the morning-prayer service,
For others’ redemption from error to pray,
He heard his land calling — She spoke in a whisper,
The only one telling him this: “Go away!
“The flesh-eating age of the beast is upon us,
All drunken and growling, it leads men astray
While your fiery soul has been keeping it from us,
It can no longer do so. You must go away
“You can’t hold the savagery back for much longer.
Just a moment, that’s all you will last — it’s too strong.
I am Russia! You cannot imagine my sorrow!
I know now: you never will finish your song.
“Go back to your cedars. My rebounding is certain!
And then you may ask whatsoever you will...”
19 Russia-Matushka (pronounced in Russian: Ras-SI-ya hlA-toosh-ka ) — an
endearing term signifying ‘Mother Russia’.
Alien on Man ?
17
“Oh how I’d love us to go to the banya!'"
I’d beat you with besoms of birch, even pine,
My profligate Russia — for you I am longing!
I shall stay with you, Russia, for ever — you’re mine!”
The age of dark madness with fury came howling:
Grishka 21 stumbled, his breast full of bullets that day
While the blackness stood mocking, its dark visage scowling,
Saying “Crawl, you Sibiriak! Go on, crawl away!
“You can hold me back only a half-second longer,
And then from the depths of my pit you’ll be shown
A punishment frightful, more painful and stronger
Than ever the world in its history has known!
“A hero you are, but you’ll be called a blasphemer.
From bottles of poison 22 your image will peek.
And the scions you save will curse you as a schemer
And spit on your soul, you Siberian muzhik . 11
“Crawl away. It is I who now have all the power!
Fly away, if you like, to your heaven on high!
But a moment is left, see? Not a day, not an hour.
So give me my moment! You’re still going to die.”
20 banya — Russian baths or a bath-house, similar to a Finnish sauna, where
boiling water is poured over hot stones to increase the temperature and bath-
ers beat each other with birch besoms (brooms made of twigs tied around a
stick) to stimulate blood circulation. Braver participants sometimes prefer
besoms made of sharp-needled conifers (e.g., pine) instead of birch.
21 Grishka — a diminutive form of the Russian name Grigory (Gregory).
bottles of poison — referring to the Rasputin brand of vodka, popular all over
Russia, with a picture of Rasputin’s face on the label.
1 muzhik (pronounced moo-ZHIK) — a Russian word for a peasant, espe-
cially one who lacks the refinem ent of an urban dweller.
18 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Bring on the Madeira, let’s head for the banya!
And there I shall show you what’s real and what’s crass.
A Sibiriak, you say? I’m a down-to-earth peasant!
So what’s all the babble and gab about, ass?”
His body was shot through and drowned in the river,
Then burnt in a courtyard midst rubble and sand.
Today as spring winds blow their way over Russia,
They carry his ashes across the whole land.
“Well, muzhik said the blackness, still standing there mocking,
“Where on earth is your tombstone, and where are your eyes?
You can never bring back now the days of your living,
And your scions will see but an image despised.
“Show them the debt they owe! I give you power!
Show them the bills for your service unpaid,
Or is it your wish just to weep and to cower?”
Grishka spit a lead bullet: “You, Satan, are foolish!
As if I could care about either weeping or loans?
Come now, my muzhiks — how’s the banya, dear fellows?
Time for more boiling water to be poured on the stones?!”
Gregory Rasputin from the cedar forests of Siberia stepped
into the life of pre-revolutionary Russia in an attempt to head
off the storm of revolution, and perished.
Anastasia also lives amongst the cedars and is also trying to
do good for people, also trying to head off something before
it happens. But what fate has our society prepared for her?
Chapter Two
During my first days of talking with Anastasia I saw her as
a recluse with her own unique way of looking at the world.
Now, after all that I have heard and read about her, after all
her subsequent penetrations into our lives, she has become
a kind of an anomaly. My head has started to swirl in confu-
sion. It is with great effort that I am trying to let go of the
incoming tide of information and conclusions and get back
to the simplicity of my first impressions. And to answer the
oft-repeated question: “Why didn’t you bring Anastasia out
of the taiga?”
I wanted very much to bring Anastasia out of the taiga.
But I realised it couldn’t be done by force. I needed to try and
show her how useful and appropriate her stay in our society
would be. I reflected on which of her abilities could be used
by people — and my business in particular — with benefit ac-
cruing to her as well. And suddenly I realised something: this
Anastasia standing before me would be a real money-making
machine !
For one thing she is easily capable of healing people from
any disease. And she does this without making any kind of
diagnosis, but simply chasing out of the body any pains and
sores that have invaded it. And she doesn’t even have to
touch the body I experienced this for myself. She becomes
utterly concentrated, looking out with her kind, unblinking
bluish-grey eyes. And the body seems to warm up from her
look, and even one’s feet begin to perspire. All sorts of toxins
escape through the perspiration.
20
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
People pay big money for medicines and operations. If one
doctor can’t help, they go to another, or go to psychics, or bio-
energy therapists, just to get cured of a single disease, some-
times spending weeks or months or even years in their search
for a cure, while Anastasia’s method takes but a few minutes.
I calculated that if she spends even fifteen minutes on one
patient and charges just two hundred fifty thousand roubles
for that (although many healers charge a good deal more),
that would make one million roubles an hour. But that’s by
no means the limit. Operations, for example, can cost up to
thirty million roubles . 1
It seemed as though a sound business plan was taking
shape in my head. I decided to work out some details and
asked Anastasia:
“So, that means you can rid a person’s body of any and
all ills?”
“Yes,” replied Anastasia. “I think I could eliminate any
and all.”
“How much time do you need to spend on a single patient?”
“Sometimes quite a lot.”
£ A lot — that’s how long?”
“Once it took me more than ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes — that’s nothing. Some people take years to
get better.”
“Ten minutes is a long time, considering the fact that I have
to concentrate, as it were, and decrease my sense of conscious
awareness.”
“That’s not a problem, conscious awareness can wait. You
know so much as it is. I’ve thought of something, Anastasia.”
1 two hundred fifty thousand, one million, thirty million roubles — equivalent
to approx. US$50, 200 and 6,000 respectively at the June 1995 exchange
rate. With an average Russian’s monthly income of under $100 at the time,
those figures were truly astronomical.
A money-making machine
21
“What have you thought of?”
“I’ll take you with me. In a big city we’ll hire a decent office
for you, I’ll advertise and you can treat people. You’ll be of a
great help to all sorts of people, and we’ll have a right good
income.”
“But I sometimes treat people right now as it is. When I
visualise various situations with the dachniks, to help them un-
derstand the world of plants around them, my Ray also elimi-
nates their diseases, only I try not to eliminate all diseases...”
“But they don’t even know that you’re the one that’s doing
it, they don’t pay you any money for it, or even say ‘thank you’!
You don’t get anything for your labours?!”
“I do.”
“What?”
“I feel happy.”
“Well, that’s fine then. You can be happy, and delighted,
and the business will have an income as well.”
“But what if somebody does not have any money to pay for
treatment?” she enquired.
“Now why are you jumping into trifling matters like that?
You don’t have to think about that. You’ll have secretaries,
and an administrator. All you need think about is treating
people, perfecting yourself and attending seminars to share
your experience and exchange ideas with other healers. Do
you know yourself how your method works, your Ray, and
what the underlying principle is?”
“Yes, I know. And this method is known in your world too.
Doctors and career scientists know about it. Or at least they
feel its beneficial effect. In hospitals they try to talk with
their patients cheerfully, so as to uplift their spirits. Doctors
have long noticed that if someone is in a state of depression,
it is difficult to cure their disease, and medicines do not help,
while if you treat a patient with love, the disease will go away
more quickly”
22
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“So why has nobody tried learning this method and devel-
oping it to the degree you have?”
“Many scientists are trying to learn it. And many people
you call folk healers also use this method, and they are having
some success. This is the same method Christ Jesus healed
by, as well as the saints. Much is said about love in the Bible,
because this feeling has a beneficial influence on Man. It is
the strongest feeling of all.”
“Why do healers and doctors have so little success, and you
have so much?”
“Because they live in your world, and they, just like every-
one else in that world, have taken in harmful feelings.”
“What kind of harmful feelings, and what do they have to
do with it?”
“Harmful feelings, Vladimir, are anger, hatred, irritation,
jealousy, envy... and others. They and other similar feelings
make Man weaker.”
“You mean to say, Anastasia, that you hardly ever get an-
gry?”
“I never get angry”
‘All right, Anastasia. It’s not important how this effect
comes about, it’s the final result that’s important, and what
benefit can be derived from it. Tell me, would you agree to go
with me and get involved in treating people?”
“Vladimir, you see, my home is here — this is my moth-
erland, the place where I belong. It is only by staying here
that I can fulfil my purpose. Nothing gives Man greater
strength than his motherland, the Space of Love created by
his parents. Treating people, delivering them from physical
ailments — I can do that right here from a distance, with the
help of my Ray.”
“Well, all right. If you don’t want to travel, you can do your
treating from a distance. You and I can set up an arrangement
as to where those wishing treatment can come. They will pay
A money-making machine
23
their money, and you will heal them at a specific time. We’ll
draw up a schedule. Would you agree to that?”
“Vladimir, I know you want to make a lot of money. You
shall have it. I shall help you. Only that is not the way to do
it. In your world people charge for treatment — there is no
other way in your world. But I would rather do that without
any question of money Besides, I cannot treat everybody in-
discriminately, since I have not fully realised in which cases
healing will be helpful, and in which ones harmful. But I shall
try to become aware of this and understand. And as soon as
I can decipher — ”
“What drivel is that?” I broke in. “How can healing or
treating a person be harmful? Or do you mean harmful to
yourself?”
“Healing of physical ailments can often bring harm to the
one healed.”
“It seems, Anastasia, your sophistications have given you a
somewhat inverted concept of good and evil. Doctors have
always been held in high regard by society, even though they
have not performed their services free of charge. And, since
you cite the Bible so much, you’ll find that is not forbidden
even there. So cast those doubts out of your head. Curing
someone is always a good thing!”
“You see, Vladimir, I know this from experience. My
grandfather showed me an example of the harm that healing
can bring when it is not thought through, when the patient
himself does not participate in the healing.”
“What kind of strange philosophy you have here! I offer
you a joint business venture. What have such examples got
to do with it?”
Chapter Three
Healin
“One day I saw with my Ray a lonely old woman working on
her garden plot,” Anastasia began. “She was spritely, slim and
always cheerful. She caught my interest right away She had a
very small plot, and a lot of different things growing in it, and
they grew very well, because she tended them with love.
“Then I learnt that the old woman would put everything
she grew into a basket and take it into town and sell it. She
tried not to eat the early fruits of her labours, but sell them
when they would still fetch a high price. She needed the
money to help her son. She had given birth to him late in
life, and soon afterward she was left without a husband. Her
relatives never communicated with her. Her son liked to
draw as a child, and she had dreams that he would become
an artist.
“Several times he tried to get in some place where he could
pursue his studies. Finally he made it. And once or twice a
year he would come to visit his elderly mother. These visits
were the highlight of her life, and each time she would save up
her money and prepare a whole supply of food for him. As the
time for his visit approached, she would pack vegetables into
glass jars, put their lids on tight and give the whole supply to
him when he arrived.
“She loved him very much, and kept dreaming about her
son becoming a top-notch artist. She lived on that dream.
The woman was kind and cheerful.
“Then for awhile I did not watch her. The next time I saw
her she was very ill. She had a hard time bending over to work
Healing for hell 25
on her plantings — each time she bent over, a sharp pain ran
right through her body
“But she proved to be very resourceful. She made her beds
long and narrow. Each time she went out to her plot she would
take with her the seat from an old stool (minus the legs) and
use it to sit on while she did her weeding, and that way she
was able to move around the whole plot without having to
bend over. She dragged the basket along on a string. And she
was looking forward to a good harvest.
“It really looked as though the harvest that year would be
quite plentiful, since the plants felt her state of mind and react-
ed accordingly The woman sensed that she would soon pass on,
and to make things easier for her son, before she died she bought
a coffin and a wreath and made all the funeral preparations.
“But she still wanted to bring in one last harvest, and pre-
pare the winter’s food supply for her son before she died. I
did not pay much attention then to why she was still sick even
after such close contact with the plants. I thought perhaps it
was because she herself ate almost nothing from her plot. She
sold what she grew and then used the money to buy things she
needed on the cheap.
“I decided to help her, and one night when she lay down to
sleep I began warming her with my Ray, removing the pains
from her body I could feel some kind of resistance to the
Ray, but I still kept on trying. I did this for about ten minutes
until I succeeded in healing her flesh.
“Then, when Grandfather came, I told him about the old
woman. And I asked him why the Ray had met some resist-
ance. He thought about it, and then told me I had done the
wrong thing. It made me very distraught.
“I began asking Grandfather to explain why. At first he did
not say a word. Then he said, ‘You healed the body.’”
I was amazed. “What harm could you have possibly
brought to the woman’s soul?” I asked.
2 6
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
Anastasia sighed and went on:
“The woman’s health got better and she did not die. Her
son came to see her earlier than usual. This time he came
only for two days and told his mother he had quit his studies
and did not want to be an artist any more. He was now in-
volved in some other work that brought in more money He
had got married. Now he would have a lot of money And he
no longer wanted her to prepare ‘those insipid food jars’ for
him, since transporting them would now cost more.
‘“Y>u can eat better yourself, now, Mother,’ he said.
“He left without talcing anything. That morning the wom-
an sat on her porch, looked at her plot, and her eyes were filled
with such emptiness and depression — they looked as though
she did not want to live. You see, her body was healthy, but it
was as if there were no life left in it. I saw, or rather felt, the
terrible emptiness and hopelessness in her heart.
“If I had not cured her body, the woman would have died at
the right time, she would have died peacefully with her beau-
tiful dream and hope intact. Now here she was, still alive, but
in great despair, and this was many times more frightening
than physical death.
“Two weeks later she passed on.”
Chapter Four
conversation
“I realised,” Anastasia continued, “that physical disease is
nothing compared with mental torments, but at the time I
was not yet able to treat the soul. I wanted to know how I
could do this or even if I could do it at all. Now I know — it
is possible!
‘And I found out something else — that physical diseases
appear in Man not just as a result of his self-withdrawal from
Nature around him, and not just as a result of the dark feelings
which he allows himself to take in. They (the diseases) can
also be a means of warding off or even deliverance from con-
siderably greater torments. Diseases are one of the devices or
means of communication between the Supreme Intelligence
(God) and Man. Man’s pain is His pain, too. But it could not
be otherwise. How else could you get the message, for ex-
ample: ‘Do not keep throwing into your stomach all sorts of
harmful stuff.’ You tend not to listen to words of reason, after
all. That’s why the message comes through pain. But instead
you swallow pain-killers and go back to stubbornly doing your
own thing.”
“So,” I countered, “it follows then, in your opinion, that
there’s no need to treat people at all? No need to help them
with their ailments?”
“Help there should be, but first of all to gain a proper un-
derstanding of the origins of the disease.
“Man needs help in discerning what the Supreme Intelli-
gence, God, desires to say to him. But that is a most difficult
task. One can make mistakes. Pain, after all, is a confidential
28
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
conversation between two beings who know about each oth-
er. Interference from a third party often harms Man instead
of helping him.”
“Well, why then did you rid me of my diseases?” I asked
Anastasia. “Does that mean you’ve harmed me in some
way?”
“All your diseases will come back to you if you do not
change your lifestyle, your attitude to things around you
and to yourself. If you do not change some of your habits.
They are the causes of your diseases. I have done no harm
to your soul.”
It became clear to me that it would be impossible to per-
suade Anastasia to make money out of using her healing abili-
ties until she had sorted things out for herself. My business
plan had fallen apart. Anastasia must have noticed my irrita-
tion, for she said:
“Do not be upset, Vladimir. I shall try to grasp everything
as quickly as possible. And now, if you really want to help
others and yourself and not just make money, I shall tell you
about the means by which Man can cure himself from many
diseases without undesirable side-effects, as might happen
when outsiders try to interfere in his destiny If indeed you
want to listen to this...”
“What choice do I have? I’m not going to change your
mind, in any case. Tell me.”
“There are several main causes underlying the diseases of
the human flesh, namely: harmful feelings, emotions, an arti-
ficial dietary regime — an unnatural meal schedule and food
composition, the lack of short-term and long-term goals, and
a misapprehension of one’s essence and purpose in life. Posi-
tive emotions, a variety of plants and a reappraisal of one’s
essence and purpose in life — all these are capable not only
of counteracting diseases but also of significantly enhancing
one’s physical and mental or emotional state.
A confidential conversation
29
“As far as bringing back — under the conditions of your
world — Man’s lost connection with plants, I have already
told you about that. After Man has established a direct per-
sonal contact with these plants, it is much easier to make
sense of everything else.
“The Ray of Love, too, is capable of curing many diseases
of one’s fellow-Man and even prolonging his life by creating
around him a Space of Love.
“But Man himself, once he has managed to arouse positive
emotions in himself, can use them to extinguish pain and cure
the diseases of the flesh — even the effects of poison.”
“What does that mean — ‘arousing positive emotions?”
I queried. “How can one think good thoughts if one has a
toothache or a stomach-ache?”
“Pure, clear moments of life, positive emotions, like guard-
ian angels, will overcome pain and disease.”
“But what if someone doesn’t have enough pure and clear
moments to arouse the positive healing emotions — what
should he do then?”
“lie should create at once something to make them appear.
They appear when people around you treat you with genuine
Love. So you must create a situation along those lines, create
it by your actions in respect to those around you, otherwise
your guardian angel will not be able to help you.”
“I wonder whether I have ever had them myself, and if so,
how strong they were. How does one call them forth?”
“This can be done through reminiscing. For example, let
us recall something good, something pleasant from your past.
With the help of that image try to feel the soft and pleasing
state of mind you experienced back then. Do you want to try
it now? I shall help you. Try it.”
‘All right, let’s give it a try”
“Please, lie down on the grass and relax. You can remem-
ber starting from this point in your life right now going back
30 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
into the past. Or you can start with your childhood and pro-
ceed up to the present day Or you can jump at once to the
most pleasant moments and feel the sensations connected
with them.”
I lay down on the grass. Anastasia lay down beside me and
pressed her fingers against mine. I thought her proximity
might prevent me from concentrating on my reminiscences,
and I said:
“Perhaps I’d better be alone.”
“I shall be very quiet. When you start remembering, you
will forget about me. And you will not feel the touch of my
hand. But I can help you remember everything more quickly
and vividly”
Chapter Five
are
9
The chronicle of my life-story took me back to my child-
hood. My reminiscences continued up to the point where I
was playing in the sand with the country kids, and then broke
off. At that moment my soul was overwhelmed with an inex-
plicable sense of alarm. Not a single event in my whole life
aroused positive emotions or feelings comparable to those I
experienced that morning after spending the night with Anas-
tasia. Or with those that arose in me after she brought the
rhythms of surrounding Nature in tune with the beating of
my heart (I described this experience in the chapter “Touch-
ing Paradise”). But I considered these marvellous feelings to
be something created in me by Anastasia — they weren’t my
own. They were artificial, a gift from Anastasia. Involuntari-
ly, I compared them with those of my previous life, and found
no analogy whatsoever.
Again and again I hunted down recollections of my life, as
though running a movie reel, backward and forward. Every-
thing I saw was related to my efforts to get or achieve some-
thing. Sure, I got what I wanted, one thing after another, but
there was no great feeling of satisfaction. Instead, some new
desire merely appeared. And the most recent years of my life,
when those around me thought how splendidly everything
was turning out for me, aroused an even greater feeling of
confusion and chaos. The cars I had acquired, the women,
the banquets, the gifts and congratulations I had received —
all seemed empty and pointless.
32
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
I quickly got to my feet and said, with some irritation, ei-
ther to myself or to Anastasia:
“There are none of these healing sensations in Man’s life!
At least, not in mine. And I would say there are many lives
where they can’t be found.”
Anastasia also rose to her feet and calmly observed:
“Then you should create them as quickly as possible.”
“ What do I need to create? Tell me, what?”
“First you must understand what holds the greatest mean-
ing, or significance, for you. You have just been looking over
your past life. But even with the opportunity to analyse it,
to look at it objectively, as it were, you still were not able to
notice what was really significant. You kept latching on to the
usual values, as you saw them. Tell me the situations where
you felt you came closest to a sense of happiness.”
“There were two situations, but each time something pre-
vented me from feeling truly happy in them.”
“What kind of situations?”
“Back in the early days of perestroika 1 1 managed to acquire
a long-term lease on a steamship. This was the best passen-
ger ship in the Western Siberian river fleet — the Mikhail Ka-
linin.
‘After the lease agreement was drawn up, I went to the har-
bour and there she stood. What a beauty! I remember the
first time I stood on the deck of my very own ship.”
‘And did your feelings of happiness greatly increase when
you stood on the deck?”
“ You know, Anastasia, our lives are filled with all sorts of
problems. As soon as I had climbed aboard, I was met by the
1 perestroika — the policy of restructuring the economic and political system
of the Soviet Union, initiated by Gorbachev in 1985, which eventually led
to the collapse of communism and the break-up of the USSR in the early
1990s.
Where are you, my guardian angel?
33
captain. We went to his cabin and had a bottle of champagne
together. During our conversation the captain advised that
all the water pipes needed cleaning at once, or the health au-
thorities would not allow us to set sail. And there were other
things he told me...”
‘And so, Vladimir, you immersed yourself in all the prob-
lems and cares involved in the running of the ship.”
“Yes, that’s right. There were a lot of them.”
“It is inherent in the nature of artificially created matter
and various mechanical devices, Vladimir, that they bring
more problems than pleasures. Their benefit to Man is quite
illusory”
“Well, I don’t happen to agree. Maybe in themselves
these mechanical devices have problems — they need con-
stant repair and maintenance. Still, they help us get a lot of
things.”
“What, for example?”
“Even love.”
“Genuine Love, Vladimir, could not possibly be under the
control of artificially created objects. Even if you owned all
the objects in the world, you would not be able, just with their
help, to gain access to the true Love of even one woman.”
“Well, you simply don’t know our women. You’re spinning
theories, that’s all. I managed to get it.”
“What did you manage to get?”
“Love. I quite simply succeeded. There was one woman I
loved a great deal. I loved her for many years. But she didn’t
really want to go off with me anywhere alone. When I got
my ship, however, I invited her aboard, and she accepted.
Can you imagine how great that was?! Here we were sitting
alone at the ship’s bar. There was champagne, first-class wine,
candlelight, music — and nobody else around. Here we were
alone in the empty bar on my ship. She was the only one there
with me.
34
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“I had the ship set sail without taking on any other pas-
sengers, just so we could be alone. The ship proceeded down
the river. There was music playing in the bar. I invited her
to dance. Her figure was fantastic, especially her breasts. I
hugged her tight, my heart was pounding for joy, and I kissed
her on the lips!
“She didn’t run away, she even hugged me back. Do you
see? There she was right beside me, and I could touch her,
and kiss her. All this was because of the ship, and you say it
can only bring problems.”
‘Amd then, Vladimir, what happened?”
“Nothing much.”
“Please try to remember, anyway”
“I tell you, it was nothing important.”
“Can I tell you what happened there, on the ship, between
you and that young woman?”
“You can try.”
“You had a lot to drink. You made a deliberate effort to
drink as much as possible. Then you put the keys to your cab-
in — your luxury apartment — on the table in front of her,
and you yourself went down to the lower decks. You slept al-
most twenty-four hours in the cramped crew’s quarters. And
do you know why?”
“Why?”
“The moment came when you noticed a strange expression
on the face of that beloved young woman of yours — a pre-
occupied smile. Intuitively, even subconsciously, you realised
that she, your beloved, was thinking how happy she would be
if only it were her own beloved that was sitting across from her
in this bar, instead of Megre. Your precious girl was dreaming
of someone else, someone she really liked. She fantasised that
it was he, and not you, who was master of the ship. You were
at the mercy of inert matter, to which you had tied your living
feelings and aspirations, and were choking them to death.”
Where are you, my guardian angel?
35
“Don’t go on, Anastasia!” I pleaded. “These recollections
aren’t happy ones for me. In any case, the ship did play its
role. It was thanks to the ship that you and I met.”
“The happenings of the present are the result of previous
feelings and impulses of the soul, and it is only they that de-
termine the future. And it is only their momentum, only the
beating of their wings, that is clearly reflected in the heavenly
mirrors. And only their impulses and aspirations will be re-
flected in happenings here on the Earth.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked in some bewilder-
ment.
“Our meeting may well be the culmination of many aspira-
tions of the soul on both your part and mine — perhaps on the
part of our immediate or even more distant forebears. Per-
haps it came from a single impulse of the cherry tree growing
in the garden of your country home. Only not the ship.”
“What has the cherry tree in my garden got to do with it?”
“In all your many glances back at your life, you failed to pay
any attention to this cherry tree and your feelings connected
with it, yet those feelings have played a leading role in your
life in recent years. The Universe did not react to your ship.
Just think, what could a primitive, run-down material device,
incapable of either thinking or restoring itself, possibly mean
to the Universe?
“But the cherry tree... a little Siberian cherry tree, which
you could not even make room for in your recollections, ex-
cited the cosmic expanses and changed the course of time
and history — and not only yours and mine. Because it is a
living being, and, like all living beings, has an inseparable con-
nection with creation as a whole.”
Chapter Six
The cherry tree
“Remember, Vladimir, everything within you associated with
this little tree. Remember, starting right from the moment
you first made contact with it.”
“I shall try to remember, if you think it’s important.”
“Yes, it is important.”
“I was riding in my car, I don’t remember where I was go-
ing. We stopped near the Central Market. I asked my driver
to get out and buy some fruit. I stayed in the car and watched
people leaving the market carrying all sorts of saplings.”
“You watched them and were surprised. Why?”
“You see, their faces were happy and contented. Even
though it was cold and rainy out, here they were hauling away
some kind of saplings with their roots all bound in cloth.
These saplings were heavy to carry, but the people’s faces were
content, and here I was sitting in my warm car and I was sad.
“When the driver returned, I got out and went over to the
market myself. I kept walking up and down past the mer-
chants’ stalls and bought three cherry saplings. As I was toss-
ing them into the baggage compartment, the driver said that
one of the saplings wouldn’t survive, since its roots had been
cut too short, and I’d better throw it out right off, but I de-
cided to keep it. It was the most graceful of the three. Then
I went and planted the saplings in the garden of my country
home.
“I threw in extra topsoil around the tree with the short
roots, and a sprinkling of peat moss, along with a bit of fer-
tiliser.”
The cherry tree
37
“In trying to help it, you burnt two more little roots of the
sapling with the fertiliser,” Anastasia added.
“But it survived! In the spring, when the buds started
coming out on the trees, its branches came to life, too. Lit-
tle leaves began to appear. Then I set out on my commercial
expedition.”
“But before that,” Anastasia observed, “every day for a pe-
riod of more than two months you would drive out to your
country house and the first thing you did was go and see
how the little tree was getting on. Sometimes you stroked
its branches. You were so happy to see the leaves, and kept
watering the tree. You drove a stake into the ground and
fastened the trunk to it with twine all around so the wind
wouldn’t break it.
“Tell me, Vladimir, do you think that plants react to people’s
attitude toward them? Do you think they feel good and bad
thoughts?”
“I’ve heard, or read, somewhere that house-plants and
flowers do react that way They can even become all withered
when their care-giver goes away. I’ve heard about scientific
experiments where they attached sensors to various plants,
and the needles jumped one way when the plants were ap-
proached aggressively, and the other way when someone ap-
proached them with thoughts of gentleness and kindness.”
“So, Vladimir, you know about plants reacting to the ex-
pression of human feelings. And, according to the Grand
Creator’s design, they strive to do all within their power, all
that they can, to meet Man’s needs — they bring forth fruit,
and try to arouse positive emotions in Man with their flowers
beautiful and fair — indeed, they put oxygen into the air so
that we can breathe.
“But plants have been granted yet another function which
is no less important. Plants which come into direct contact
with an individual Man create for him a Space of true Love. The
38 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
kind of Love without which life for the human race would be
impossible.
“Many dachniks are in a hurry to get out to their plots be-
cause it is there that such a Space has been created for them.
And this little Siberian cherry tree you thought to plant, the
one you cared for yourself, it tried to do the same as all other
plants and perform its assigned function.
“If there are a lot of them, plants can create for Man a sig-
nificant Space of Love — if they are of different varieties and
Man communicates with them, and approaches them with
Love. All together plants can create for Man a significant
Space of Love which enhances the soul and makes the body
whole.
“You see, Vladimir — all together, when there are a lot of
them. But you looked after just one sapling. And so this one
little Siberian cherry tree began aspiring to do what only a
number of plants acting together can do.
“Its aspiration was aroused by your special relation to it. It
was something you yourself realised only intuitively — in all
your surroundings only this one little tree was not asking any-
thing of you, it was not being hypocritical, it only aspired to
give of itself — and then you came along. You were tired after
a busy day. You went over to the tree, stood and pondered.
You looked at it, and it responded.
“Before the first ray of dawn appeared in its perfection,
the leaves of the tree tried to catch that ray’s reflection in the
brightening sky. And when the Sun went down afar, it tried
using the light of a bright star. And as it persisted, something
transpired by and by, just a wee bit of something transpired.
“Its roots, twisting themselves around the burning ferti-
liser, were able to take in what they required from the Earth.
And the Earth’s juices began turning and running through
the veins of the tree a little more quickly than usual. And
then one day, in an early morning hour, you came and saw the
The cherry tree
39
little flowers to which the tree’s delicate branches had given
birth. The other saplings were devoid of flowers, but this
one, thanks to your gift of caring, had already blossomed.
You were overjoyed. Your spirits were uplifted and then...
do you remember what you did, Vladimir, after seeing the
flowers?”
“I really was overjoyed. For some reason my mood was on
a high, I felt a lightness in my head. I went and stroked its
branches with my hands.”
“You gently stroked its branches. And you said, ‘Well now,
my beauty, you’ve blossomed!’
“You see the trees, Vladimir, and you see the leaves, and
the fruit borne thereof. But more than that, the trees create
a Space of Love. The little cherry tree very much wanted you
to have this Space. But where was the place for the tree to
find the strength to give back to Man what it had received
from him? It had tried and tried and had already given eve-
rything that was in its power, but it had received something
extraordinary besides — a showing of tenderness toward it-
self and the flowers it bore. And then it had the desire to do
more! All by itself!
“You went off onyourverylong expedition. And then, com-
pleting your journey and returning, the first thing you did was
go to the garden plot to see your little cherry tree. But along
the way you were eating cherries you had bought at the mar-
ket. As you approached it, you noticed that there were three
red cherries growing on your tree. You stood there beside it,
all tired out, eating the bought cherries and spitting out the
stones. Then you tore one of the cherries off your tree and
tried it. Indeed, it was just a little bit more sour, a little less
sweet than the market cherries you had decided to eat, and
you did not touch the other two.”
“I had had my fill of the other cherries. And this one was
indeed more sour.”
4 o
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Oh, if only you had known, Vladimir, how much pow-
er those little cherries contained on their own that was so
beneficial to you! How much energy and Love! From the
depths of the Earth and the expanses of the Universe and
more, the tree had gathered everything helpful for you and
poured it into these three cherries. It had even let one of its
branches wither in order to make these three cherries ripen.
One of them you tried, but you left the other two on the tree
to die.”
“I had no idea. But still, I was happy that it was capable of
bearing fruit.”
“Yes, you were happy. And then... do you remember what
you did this time?”
“Me? Well, I stroked the tree’s branches some more.”
‘And you not only stroked them. You even bent over and
kissed the leaves on the branch which was resting on the palm
of your hand.”
“Yes, I did. Because I was in such a good mood.”
‘And something incredible happened with the tree. What
more could it do for you, since you had not taken the fruit
thereof that had been grown with so much Love? What could
it do?
“It trembled from the kiss of Man, and the thought and feel-
ings inherent only in Man but produced by this little Siberian
cherry tree took flight into the Universe’s space of light — to
give back to Man what it had received from him. To give back
to Man its kiss of Love, to warm him with this — the bright
feelings, the Space of Love. And against all laws that thought
swept across the Universe but could not find a resting-place, a
means of manifesting the breath — the life — of itself.
“Knowing that one cannot find a resting-place means
death.
“Then the forces of light returned to the cherry tree the
bright thought it had produced, so that it might destroy the
The cherry tree 41
thought within itself and not perish. But the tree did not
pick it up!
“The little Siberian cherry tree’s burning desire endured
unchanged, extraordinarily pure and trembling.
“The forces of light did not know what to do. The Grand
Creator was not about to change the established laws of har-
mony for you. But the cherry tree did not perish. It managed
to endure because the thought, aspiration and feelings there-
of were extraordinarily pure, and by the laws that constitute
creation as a whole nothing can destroy pure Love. And it
circled over your soul and dreamt of finding a resting-place, a
place to thrive. Alone in the Universe, it was striving, aspiring
to create for you a Space of Love.
“I came to your ship to at least try to be of some help and
fulfil the cherry tree’s desire to find this resting-place, to
manifest its love. Even though I did not know to whom it
was addressed.”
Anastasia paused.
“You mean to say,” I queried, “that your relationship to me
arose out of your desire to help the tree?”
“My relationship to you, Vladimir, is simply that: my rela-
tionship. It is difficult to say who was helping whom here —
the cherry tree me or I the tree. Everything in the Universe
is interrelated. To perceive what is really going on in the
Universe one need only look into one’s self. But now, by your
leave, I am giving an embodiment to this, to what the cherry
tree desired. May I give you a kiss from the tree?”
“Of course you may Since it’s the right thing to do. And
when I get home, I shall eat all of its fruit.”
Anastasia closed her eyes. She pressed her hands to her
breast and quietly whispered:
“Feel this, little cherry tree. I know you can feel it. I shall
now do what you wished. This will really be your kiss, little
cherry tree.”
42
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
Then Anastasia quickly placed her hands on my shoulders
and, without opening her eyes, drew near, touched her lips to
my cheek and held them there.
It was a strange kiss, just the touch of her lips. But it was
not like any I had ever received before. It aroused an extraor-
dinarily pleasing sensation, one I had never felt up to now.
The technique of moving the lips or tongue or body probably
had nothing to do with it. What counted, most probably, was
what was hidden in the inner Man that was manifesting itself
in the kiss.
But what was hidden inside this taiga recluse? Where did
she get so much knowledge from, so many unusual abilities
and feelings? Or maybe everything she said was simply the
product of her imagination? But then where did the ex-
traordinarily tender, charming and heart-warming sensations
come from — the ones I could most certainly feel within me?
Perhaps our joint efforts will manage to unravel the mystery
through the aid of the following situation which I had the
good fortune to witness.
Chapter Seven
Who’s to blame?
Once when Anastasia was trying to explain something to me
about lifestyles and faith, but couldn’t find suitable, under-
standable words — which she no doubt very much wanted to
find — a curious incident took place.
Anastasia quickly turned to face the ringing cedar, pressing
the palms of her hands against its trunk. But then something
inexplicable began happening to her. Lifting up her head and
addressing either the cedar or Someone way up high, all at
once she started speaking passionately and with concentrat-
ed attention in a combination of words and sounds.
She was evidently trying to show or explain something,
or plead for something. From time to time her monologue
seemed to be infused with tones of persistent demanding.
The resonant ring of the cedar increased in volume. Its ray
became brighter and thicker. And then Anastasia demanded
sharply:
‘Answer me! Answer! Explain! Give it to me, give it to me!”
she said, shaking her head and even stamping her bare feet.
All at once the pale glow of the ringing cedar’s tree-top be-
came focused into a ray, and the ray suddenly broke off from
the cedar and flew upward and dissolved into thin air. But at
this point another ray appeared, coming down to the cedar
from above. It seemed to consist of a bluish mist or cloud.
The needles of the cedar, pointing downward, were illu-
minated with similar misty rays, almost unnoticeable. And
these rays pointed toward Anastasia, but didn’t touch her —
they seemed to disappear and dissolve in the air. And when
44
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
she insistently stamped her feet and even slapped the ringing
cedar’s huge trunk with the palms of her hands, the glowing
needles began stirring and their rays joined to form a single
Ray of bluish mist. It aimed itself downward toward Anas-
tasia, but didn’t touch her. The Ray dissolved in the air, liter-
ally dissolved — at about a metre away from Anastasia at first,
then at just half that distance.
I suddenly recalled with horror how Anastasia’s parents
had perished — very likely from just such a Ray.
Anastasia continued her stubborn pleading and demand-
ing, much like a spoilt child insisting on some desired favour
from its parents. And suddenly the Ray made a dash for her, as
it were, illuminating her whole body like a flashbulb.
A cloud first formed around Anastasia and then began dis-
sipating, ever so slowly. The ray from the Cedar dissolved,
the rays from the needles were extinguished. The cloud
around Anastasia continued to dissipate. It was either en-
tering into her or dissolving in space.
Now radiant with a joyous smile, she turned and took a
step in my direction. Then she stopped and began staring
past me at something beyond. I turned around to see Anasta-
sia’s grandfather and great-grandfather coming into the glade.
The tall, grey-bearded great-grandfather walked slowly, just
ahead of his son. He was leaning on a stick that looked some-
thing like a shepherd’s staff. Upon reaching my position, he
stopped and fixed his gaze on me, as though staring into emp-
ty space. I couldn’t even tell whether he actually saw me or
not. Great-Grandfather stood silently for a moment. Then,
after bowing ever so slightly, without uttering so much as a
word of greeting, he headed over to Anastasia.
Even though Grandfather was a bit of a fussbudget, he was
a very simple man. His whole demeanour pointed to a most
kind and cheerful fellow. As he approached the spot where
I was standing, he at once stopped and offered me a simple
Who’s to blame?
45
shake of his hand. He started to say something, but I can’t
recollect exactly what he said. For some reason both of us felt
our attention and concern suddenly drawn to what was going
on at the base of the cedar.
Great-Grandfather had stopped just a metre from Anas-
tasia. They stood there for a while, silently staring at each
other. Anastasia was standing before the bearded old man,
her hands lowered to a vertical position, as though she were a
schoolgirl or university applicant being confronted by a strict
examiner. She looked like a child caught being naughty, and
her anxiety was most evident.
The tense silence which had come over the scene was bro-
ken by the deep, clear, velvety tones of Great-Grandfather’s
voice. Fie did not say hello to Anastasia but proceeded at
once to a stern questioning, every word slowly and distinctly
pronounced:
“Who can make an appeal directly to Him without going
through the light and rhythm that have been bestowed upon
us?” Whereupon Anastasia responded without hesitation:
‘Any Man can make an appeal to Him. From time imme-
morial He Himself has taken great pleasure in talking with
Man. And this is what Fie wills right now:”
‘Are all paths outlined by Him in advance?” Great-Grand-
father continued. ‘Are there many Earth-dwellers capable of
discerning them? Are you capable of seeing these paths?”
“Yes. I have seen what has been outlined for mankind. I
have seen how future events are dependent on the conscious
awareness of those who are living today”
“Have His Sons and their enlightened followers who have
perceived His Spirit, done enough to bring enlightenment to
those living in the flesh?”
“They have done and are doing everything, not even taking
thought for their own life. They have borne witness to the
truth and are still bearing witness.”
4 6 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Can one who has seen the truth have any doubt about His
intellect, kindness and magnificence of Spirit?”
“He has no equals! He is One! But He does wish to com-
municate. He wants people to understand and love Him as
He loves.”
“In communicating with Him, is it permissible to be inso-
lent and demanding?”
“He has given a particle of His Spirit and Mind to everyone
living on the Earth. And if a small particle — His particle —
in Man, does not agree with what is generally accepted, that
means He — and I mean He — is not satisfied with every-
thing as it has been outlined for the future. He is reflecting
on it. Could one term His reflections insolence?”
“Who is permitted to hasten the pace of His reflections?”
“Only the One who gives permission.”
‘And just what are you asking for?”
“I am asking how to give understanding to those who do
not understand, how to inculcate feeling in those who do not
feel.”
“Has the lot of those who fail to perceive Truth been
determined?”
“The lot of those who fail to perceive Truth has been de-
termined. But who is to blame for the lack of acceptance of
truth — the one who does not accept the truth or the one
from whom he receives it?”
“What? You mean, you...” Great-Grandfather said in agi-
tation, and then fell silent.
He stood silently for a while, looking at Anastasia. Then,
with the help of his staff-like cane, he got down on one knee
and took Anastasia’s hand. Inclining his silvery-grey head to-
ward her, he ldssed her hand and said:
“Hello, Anastasia.”
Anastasia herself at once knelt down before her great-
grandfather, and exclaimed with excitement and surprise:
Who’s to blame?
47
“What do you mean, Grandpakins, treating me like a child?
I’m grown up now.”
Then she put her arms around his shoulders, snuggled her
head against his beard-covered chest and held still. I knew
she was listening to his heartbeat. That was something she
had loved ever since her childhood.
The oldster continued kneeling, one hand resting on his
cane, the other stroking Anastasia’s golden hair.
Grandfather got excited, and rushed over to his father and
granddaughter who were both still kneeling. He began strut-
ting around them, throwing up his arms in some bewilder-
ment. Then all of a sudden he too got down on his knees and
embraced them both...
Grandfather was the first to rise to his feet. He then helped his
father up. Great-Grandfather was still staring intently at Anas-
tasia. Then he slowly turned around and started walking off.
Grandfather in the meantime started muttering away, though
it wasn’t clear whether he was addressing anyone in particular:
‘All the same, they’re all spoiling her. Even He spoils her.
Dear me, just look at where she’s got to! She pokes her nose
in wherever she feels like it. There’s nobody to teach her a les-
son. Who will now help the dachniks? Who, I say?!”
Great-Grandfather stopped in his tracks. He slowly turned
around and said distinctly, in his deep velvety voice:
“Granddaughter dear, follow the dictates of your heart and
soul. I myself shall help you with the dachniks.”
Turning away once again, the majestic greybeard started on
his way out of the glade.
“Do you see what I mean? — they’re all spoiling her,”
Grandfather broke in again.
Picking up a short switch, he strutted over to Anastasia.
Waving the switch about his head, he threatened: “I’m going
to teach her a lesson, right now!”
4 8
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Oh, oh!” Anastasia threw up her hands in feigned fright.
Then she gave a laugh and ran off, trying to elude her pursuing
grandfather.
“So, she’s even taken it into her head to run away from me.
As if I couldn’t catch up!” he muttered under his breath.
With unaccustomed ease and speed he intensified Inis pur-
suit. Anastasia ran laughing, weaving her way across the glade.
And while Grandfather did not relax his pace, he was still un-
able to catch up to her.
Suddenly Grandfather gasped and sat down, grasping his
leg. Anastasia quickly turned about, her face full of concern.
She ran over to her grandfather and held out her hands to
him. And all at once she stopped. Her infectious peals of
laughter filled the glade. I paid particular attention to her
grandfather’s pose and realised the source of her mirth.
Grandfather was squatting down on one leg, holding his
other leg out in front, not touching the ground. And here he
was stroking the very leg he was squatting on, as though it had
been injured. He had outsmarted Anastasia, but she was not
deceived.
As it turned out later, she was supposed to have noticed
right off the comic discrepancy in his pose. While Anasta-
sia was laughing, Grandfather managed to seize her by the
arm. He raised his switch and gave her a light spanking, like
a child. Anastasia squealed, trying to pretend it was painful.
And in spite of the endless laughter she was trying so hard
to restrain, Grandfather put his arms around her shoulders
and said:
“All, right, that’s enough. Don’t cry You’ve learnt your les-
son? You’ve got what was coming to you. You’ll be more obedi-
ent in future.
“Listen, I’ve started training the eagle. It may be old, but
it is still strong and remembers many things. And here she’s
insolently poking her nose into everything.”
Who’s to blame?
49
“Grandpakins! My dear, sweet Grandpakins! The eagle!
That means you already know about the baby?!”
“The star, don’t forget!...”
Anastasia didn’t let her grandfather finish. Putting her
arms around his waist, she lifted him off the ground and spun
him around. When she returned him safely to the ground,
Grandfather staggered a bit, and said, trying to appear strict:
“So that’s the way you treat your elders? Tou see what I
mean — you’re spoilt!” And, continuing to wave the switch,
he hurried to catch up with his father. As he reached the trees
at the edge of the glade, Anastasia called after him -
“Thank you, Grandpakins, for the eagle. Thank you very
much!”
Grandfather turned around and looked at her.
“Only just be, my dear child... please remember to be
more — ” His voice was too gentle. Breaking off his sentence,
he added with a bit more severity:
“Watch out, or else...”
And he disappeared into the forest.
Chapter Eight
Once we found ourselves alone, I asked Anastasia:
“What’s all the big excitement about some kind of eagle?”
“The eagle will be very much needed for the little one,” she
answered. “For our baby, Vladimir!”
“To play with?”
“Yes. Only play has a considerable significance for his fu-
ture learning and feelings.”
“I see.”
I said this, even though I didn’t fully understand this busi-
ness of playing with a bird, even an eagle.
“But what were you doing with the cedar? Were you pray-
ing, or talking with someone? What happened with you and
the cedar, and why did Great-Grandfather seem so severe
when he talked with you?”
“Tell me, Vladimir, do you think there is, well, some kind
of intelligence out there? Does there exist a Mind in the invis-
ible world of the cosmic — in the Universe? What do you
think?”
“I think it’s true. You know, even scholars talk about that,
as do mediums, and the Bible.”
‘And this something — what would you say is the best word
to describe it? I need to know this so that you and I can agree
upon a definition. Say, for example, Mind, Intelligence, Being,
Forces of Light, Vacuum, Absolute, Rhythm, Spirit, God...?”
“Well, let’s say ‘God’.”
‘All right, then. Now tell me, does God attempt to com-
municate with Man, what do you think? I do not mean by a
The answer
5i
voice from heaven, but through people, through the Bible, let
us say — to offer a hint on how to be more happy?”
“But the Bible was not necessarily dictated by God.”
“Well, by whom, then, would you say?”
“People could have done that — people who wanted to in-
vent religion. They sat down and wrote it collectively”
“You think it is that simple? People just sat down and
wrote a book, and thought up narratives and laws? A book
that has lasted for millennia and is the most popular and
widely read book that has existed to date?! Over the centu-
ries a whole multitude of other books have been written, but
few of them can compare with the Bible. What does that
mean to you?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. ‘Ancient books, of course, have
been around for a long time, but most people today prefer
contemporary literature — novels, detective stories and all
sorts of inferior stuff. Why is that so?”
“Because reading them hardly requires any thinking. In
reading the Bible one is obliged to think at a faster pace and
there are many questions one must answer for one’s self.
Only then will it become clear. It unfolds itself, so to speak,
to one’s consciousness. If one looks upon the Bible merely
as a statement of dogma, then reading and memorising a few
commandments is sufficient. But any dogma imposed from
without and not grasped by one’s inner being precludes taking
advantage of the opportunities afforded Man as Creator.”
“What questions do we need to answer when we read the
Bible?”
“To begin with,” replied Anastasia, “you might try to figure
out why Pharaoh was unwilling to allow the children of Israel
to leave Egypt.”
“Well, what’s there to think about? The Israelites were
slaves in Egypt. Who would want to let his slaves go? They
worked hard and brought Pharaoh a good income.”
52 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“The Bible says that more than once the Israelites brought
a plague over the whole land of Egypt. They even killed peo-
ple’s first-born offspring, along with those of animals. Sorcer-
ers were later burnt at the stake for such acts, but here Phar-
aoh simply refused to let them go. Now answer the question:
where did the Israelite slaves get enough goods and cattle to
spend forty years travelling? Where did they get the weapons
to seize and destroy cities along their route?”
“What do you mean, where? Didn’t God give them everything?”
“Do you think that was only God’s doing?”
“Then who?”
“Man, Vladimir, has full freedom. He has the opportunity
to make use of all the bright resources God gave him origi-
nally, but he can make use of other resources too. Man rep-
resents a union of opposites.
“See, Vladimir, how the Sun shines. That is God’s creation.
It is for everyone. For you and me, for the snakes, the grass
and the flowers. But bees use the flowers to get honey, while
the spider’s power is to draw poison. Each of them has its own
function and no bee and no spider can do otherwise. Only
Man has a wider scope, only Man can act in more than one way!
One Man can rejoice at the first rays of the Sun, while another
might curse. Man, you see, can be both a bee and a spider.”
“Does that mean God wasn’t the only one helping the Is-
raelites? How can you tell, then, what God actually did, as
opposed to what was merely attributed to Him?”
“When something significant is created through Man,”
Anastasia explained, “there are always two opposites at work.
Man exercises freedom of choice. Which he will accept more
of depends upon his purity and conscious awareness.”
“Well, all right, let’s accept that. So, you were attempting to
talk with Him when you were standing at the base of the cedar?”
“Yes, I wanted Him to answer me.”
‘And Great-Grandfather objected?”
The answer
53
“Great-Grandfather thought that I was speaking too irrev-
erently, that I was too demanding.”
“You really were demanding, I saw it. You were stamping
your feet, and pleading. What on earth did you want?”
“I wanted to hear an answer.”
“What sort of answer?”
“You see, Vladimir, God’s essence is not in the flesh. He can-
not yell down to everyone from heaven, telling them how to
live. But He wants things to be fine and whole with everyone,
and so he sends His Sons — people into whose mind and soul
He has been able to break through at least to some extent.
“His Sons then go and talk with other people, they speak
different languages. Sometimes through words, sometimes
with the help of music or pictures, or various actions. Some-
times they are listened to, at other times they are persecuted
and lolled. Like Christ Jesus, for example. And still God is
sending forth His Sons. But as always, it is only some of the
people who pause and listen to them, while others who are
called do not get the message at all. And they violate the laws
of a happy existence.”
“I see. And that’s why God will punish mankind by a global
catastrophe — some kind of fearful judgement?”
“God never punishes anyone, and He does not need catas-
trophes. God is Love. But that is the way it was planned from
the very beginning. Created that way from above. When
mankind reaches a specific point, one might say, in its unwill-
ingness to accept the essence of truth. Once the elements of
darkness manifest in Man reach that critical point, in order
to avert total self-annihilation, a global catastrophe rushes in
which takes away a great many people’s lives and crushes the
destructive life-support system of artificial creation. The ca-
tastrophe serves as a lesson to those who are left alive.
“Following a catastrophe there is a window of time in
which mankind seems to go through a fearful hell. But it is
54
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
a hell of their own making. It is those who are left alive that
fall into this hell. Then for a while their children survive as
in a pristine, original state, and they eventually reach a stage
one could call Paradise. Then they fall away again, and it all
starts over again in tears. This has been going on for billions
of earthly years.”
“If all this has been inevitably repeating itself for billions of
years, what then were you asking for?”
“I wanted to find out how and by what means people could
be made wiser without subjecting them to a catastrophe. You
see, I have figured out that a catastrophe can be blamed not
only on those who do not accept truth, but also on the ab-
sence of a sufficiently effective means of making the truth be
seen, of making people alert to the truth. I was asking Him to
find such a means. To reveal it, either to me or someone else.
To whom, I feel, is not really important. What is important
is that it is there to be seen, and that it works.”
“And what did He tell you? What kind of voice does He
have?”
“Nobody can tell what kind of voice He has. His answer
takes form, as it were, in Man’s discovery of a thought spon-
taneously occurring to himself. After all, He can speak only
through His particle that is present in every Man, and this
particle is already relaying information to every other part
of the individual with the help of the rhythm of vibration.
Hence the impression arises that Man is doing it all by him-
self. Though Man himself can actually do a great deal. After
all, Man is God’s likeness. In each Man there is a tiny particle
breathed into him by God right at birth. He has given half of
Himself to mankind upon the Earth. And the forces of dark-
ness try by whatever means they can to prevent this God-
reflected particle from acting out its high purpose, to distract
Man from communication with it, and, through it, with God.
It is much easier to fight with a small particle when it is all
The answer
55
alone, especially if it is not connected to the Basic Force of
the Universe.
“But if these particles unite amongst themselves in bright
aspirations, it is much more difficult for the forces of dark-
ness to hinder them. Even if one single particle, living in just
one single Man, is in full contact with God, then it is impos-
sible for the forces of darkness to overpower him, to defeat
his spirit and mind.”
“That means,” I surmised, “you appealed to Him so that the
answer would be given birth in you as to what to say to people,
and how to say it, in order to avert a global catastrophe?”
“More or less.”
‘And what answer was given birth in you? What words
must be spoken?”
“Words... just words alone, pronounced in the usual way,
are not sufficient. So many words have been spoken already.
Yet humanity on the whole continues to move toward its own
perdition.
“You have no doubt heard words to the effect that smok-
ing is bad, that alcoholic drinks are bad. And this is repeated
by a number of sources, including your own physicians, in the
language you best understand, yet you still go on doing it. You
go on doing it without regard for the deterioration in your
own health, and even painful sensations will not restrain ei-
ther you or many other people from these destructive habits.
God says to you: ‘You should not do that.’ And the message
reaches you through pain. And it is not just your pain, but His
too, and yet you take painkillers galore and go on doing your
own thing as before. Again, you are not interested in thinking
about what produces the pain.
‘And all the other higher truths are known to mankind,
but they are not being acted upon. Time after time they are
rejected in favour of momentary illusory gratifications. It
means another way must be revealed to allow them not only
5 6 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
to know but also to feel other kinds of pleasure. Once Man
has learnt of these, he can compare and realise everything for
himself, he will unblock access to the God-bestowed parti-
cle within him. It is no good simply threatening Man with a
catastrophe, it is no good simply blaming those who do not
accept truth. Everyone who brings the truth to others must
understand how needful it is to seek a more perfect method
of explaining it. Great-Grandfather agreed with me.”
“But that’s not what he said.”
“There was a lot that Great-Grandfather said that you did
not hear.”
“If you were able to communicate with each other without
words, why then did you say the words that I did hear?”
“Would you not consider it offensive if people conversed
using foreign words you could not understand, given that
they knew your language too?”
Various thoughts ran through my mind: Either I believe eve-
rything she tells me or I don’t. She herself, of course, believes.
And it’s not just that she believes it, she acts upon it. She takes it
all so intensely — maybe I should try to somehow restrain her
enthusiasm. So I tried to dampen her fervour by saying:
“You know what I think, Anastasia — maybe you don’t
need to take it so to heart and get so stirred up with your de-
mands, as you were doing at the cedar tree. Even the blue
glow or vapour from the cedar came crushing down on you.
Your grandfather and great-grandfather were right to be con-
cerned. It’s probably very dangerous. If God has not given
the answer to any of His Sons as to how to explain everything
to people most effectively that means there is no answer. It
means that a global catastrophe is the most effective way of
getting His message across. Maybe He’s even annoyed with
you for poking your nose in too far and will punish you so you
won’t do it again, just like your grandfather said.”
“God is kind. He will not punish.”
The answer
57
“But He isn’t speaking to you either. Maybe He’s not in-
terested in listening to you, and meanwhile you’re wasting so
much energy.”
“He is listening and He is answering.”
“What is He answering? Is there something new you know
now?”
“He has hinted at where to find the answer, where to search
for it.”
“He’s ‘hinted’? To you?! So, where is it?”
“In the union of opposites.”
“ What does that mean?”
“It happens, for example, when two opposite extremes of
human thinking in the Avatamsaka commentary merge into
a new dynamic whole. This was behind the philosophies of
Hua-yen and Kegon, 1 which offer a world-view of even greater
perfection, not unlike the models and theories in your mod-
ern physics.”
“What was all that?”
“Oh, please do excuse me. I do not know what came over
me. I completely forgot myself.”
“What are you apologising for?”
“You must forgive me. I used words which are completely
unfamiliar to you.”
“You’re right. They are unfamiliar. I have no idea what
they mean.”
“I shall try not to do that again. Please, do not be angry
with me.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not angry. Only explain in ordinary words
where and how you will go about searching for this answer.”
1 Avatamsaka Sutra (also known as the Flower Garden Sutra) — considered
to be the most profound of the Buddhist sutras (sets of aphorisms), which
holds that all manifestations of existence are self-created and mutually
identical. It gave rise to the philosophical school known as Hua-yen in Chi-
na and Kegon in Japan.
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“I certainly cannot do it alone. It can only be known
through the joint effort of the divine particles to be found
in various people living on the Earth — people with opposite
modes of thinking and comprehension. Only through a joint
effort will it be seen, and then in a dimension invisible to the
eye — the domain of thoughts. One can also call it the di-
mension of the forces of light. It exists between the material
world, in which Man lives, and God.
“I shall see it, and many others will, too. Then it will be
easier to attain a universal conscious awareness. It will be
easier to bring mankind through the dark forces’ window of
time. And the catastrophes will not be repeated.”
“Specifically, what do people need to do right now to make
the answer appear?”
“It would be fine if a lot of people could wake up in the
morning at a set time — six o’clock, say — and think about
something good. What specifically they think about is not
important. It is important that they come out with bright
thoughts. They can think about their children, about their
loved ones, about how to make everyone happy If they could
only think fifteen minutes like that. And the more people
that do that, the quicker the answer will come. The Earth’s
time zones may be different, since the Earth is turning, but
the images created by these people’s bright yearnings will
merge into a single, clear, fulfilled image of conscious aware-
ness. The simultaneity of bright thoughts will intensify each
person’s ability many, many times.”
“Oh, Anastasia, how naive you are! Who in their right mind
would wake up at six o’clock in the morning just to think for
fifteen minutes? People will only get up that early if they have
to go to work, or have a plane to catch, or are going on a busi-
ness trip. Anybody else will decide: ‘Leave the thinking to
others, I’m going to get some more sleep!’ I doubt you’ll find
many helpers that way.”
The answer
59
“But you, Vladimir — could not you, at least, help me?”
“Me? I don’t wake up that early unless I have to. But if
I should somehow find myself waiting up then, what good
tilings should I think about?”
“Well, for example, you could think about the little son I
will be giving birth to. Your son! Think how delighted he will
be to be kissed by the Sun’s rays, to see the pure and magnifi-
cent flowers all around him, and have the bushy-tailed squirrel
play with him in this glade. Think how good it would be if all
the other children in the world could forever be kissed by the
warm Sun — then nothing would make them sad. Then think
about who you might say something glad to or give a smile to
during the day ahead. And how good it would be if this mar-
vellous world lasted forever, and what you could do — you in
particular — to bring this about.”
“I’ll think about our son. And I’ll try to come out with
other good thoughts. Only what’s the point? You’ll be think-
ing here, in the forest, while I’ll be in an apartment in the city
That’s only two of us. You say many people are needed. So
until we get a lot of people involved, isn’t it pointless for just
the two of us to try?”
“Even one person, Vladimir, is more than none. Two to-
gether are more than two apart. Later, after you write your
book, more people will come along. I shall feel them and de-
light in each one. We shall learn to catch each other’s feelings
of the heart, understand and help each other through the di-
mension of the forces of light.”
“Everything you say still has to be believed. I myself don’t com-
pletely believe in this ‘bright dimension’, this ‘domain of thoughts’.
You can’t even prove it exists, because you can’t touch it.”
“Yet your scientists have come to the conclusion that
thought is something tangible.”
“They have, but since you still can’t actually touch it, it’s not
something you can get completely set in your mind.”
6 o
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“But when you write your book, people will be able to touch it,
they can hold it in their hands. Like a materialised thought.”
‘Again you’re carrying on about that book! I’ve told you,
I don’t believe in it either. Even less in your claim that you,
with the help of certain combinations of letters known only
to you, can arouse feelings in the reader — bright feelings yet,
that will help the reader make some sense of it all.®
“I told you how it works.”
“Ees, you told me. But it still doesn’t make me believe. If
I try to write, I shan’t tell everything all at once. People will
laugh at me... You know something, Anastasia, can I tell you
in all honesty?”
“Yes, tell me in all honesty”
“Only don’t be offended, okay?”
“I shall not be offended.”
“Everything you’ve talked up to me I’m going to have to
verify with our scholars, and see what they say about it in vari-
ous religious and modern teachings. There’s a lot of different
courses out there now, a lot of preachers.”
“Go ahead and verify, by all means.”
“And still, I feel you’re a very kind person. Your philosophy
is interesting, quite unusual. But if you compare your actions
with those of others who are concerned about the soul, about
ecology, well, frankly, you’re way behind the rest.”
“Why should you conclude that?”
“Think about it. All the enlightened people, as you call
them, have gone off by themselves at some point. Buddha
went off for seven years into the forest and set up a whole
doctrinal platform, and he has a lot of followers throughout
the world. Christ Jesus wen t off just for forty days, and even
now people are excited about his teachings.”
“Christ Jesus went off by himself more than once,” Anas-
tasia pointed out. ‘And he did a lot of thinking when he was
travelling about.”
The answer
61
“So let’s say more than forty days, let’s say a year even. The
elders, who are now considered saints, were ordinary people
who went into the forest to live in isolation for a time, then
later monasteries were built on these sites, and a lot of follow-
ers arose, right?”
“Yes, Vladimir, you are right.”
“And here you’ve been living twenty-six years now in the
forest, and you don’t even have a single follower. You haven’t
come up with any platform. And here you’re asking me to
write a book. You’re grasping at that like a straw. You dream
of laying out your own combinations of signs in it. Well,
if things aren’t working out for you like with other leaders,
maybe it’s not even worth trying. There are others more
capable than you who may well think up something with-
out your input. Come on, why not get real and live more
simply? I’ll help you adapt in our world. Now, you’re not
offended, eh?”
“No, I am not offended.”
“Then I’ll tell you the whole truth, right to the end. To
help you get a hold of yourself.”
“Go on.”
“You have some extraordinary abilities, Anastasia, there’s
no doubt about that. You can pick up any information you
want as easily as counting one-two-three. But tell me now,
when did you first become aware of that Ray of yours?”
“It was given to me right at the start, as it is to everybody
Only my awareness of it, and how to use it — that was some-
thing Great-Grandfather taught me by the time I was six.”
“So. That means at six years of age you were already able
to see what was going on in our lives? You could analyse situa-
tions, help people — even treat illnesses at a distance?”
“Yes, I could.”
“Now, tell me, what have you been doing all the twenty
years since?”
6 2
Book v. The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“I have been telling you and showing you. I have been work-
ing with the people you call dachniks. Trying to help them.”
‘All these twenty years, day in and day out?”
“Yes, sometimes even at night, if I was not too tired.”
“So, you’ve been acting like an obsessed fanatic, stubbornly
holding on to the dachniks all these years? Who made you do
this?”
“Nobody can make me. I did it of my own free will. After
Great-Grandfather suggested it to me, I realised for myself
what a good thing, how important it was.”
“You know, I think your great-grandfather suggested the
dachniks to you because he felt sorry for you. After all, you
grew up without your parents. He gave you the very easiest
and simplest task. Now that he’s seen you’ve begun to under-
stand something greater, he’s given you permission to work
with other things. And to drop the dachniks.”
“But this other is connected with the people you call
dachniks. And I shall continue to help them. I love them
very much and I shall never abandon them.”
“Now that’s what I call fanaticism. There’s something in
you that you don’t have enough of to be a normal person.
You must understand that. The dachniks are far from being
the most important people in our society. They have abso-
lutely no influence at all over social development. Dachas
and vegetable gardens — they’re just small subsistence plots.
It’s where people go to relax after their hard work or when
they go into retirement. And that’s all. You understand?
That’s it! And if you, with all your colossal knowledge and
phenomenal abilities, are only interested in dachniks, then
you must have some kind of psychological disorder. I think
I ought to take you to a psychotherapist. If you can get that
disorder cured, then just maybe you’ll really be in a position
to help society.”
“I very much want to help society”
The answer
63
“So then, let’s go — I’ll take you to a practising psycho-
therapist at a good private clinic. You yourself said a global
catastrophe could happen. This way you’ll be able to help
ecological movements, you’ll be able to help science.”
“But I shall be an even greater help if I stay here.”
‘All right, you can come back here later and start getting
involved in more serious issues.”
“What do you mean, ‘more serious?”
‘You decide. Probably something connected, for example,
with heading off an ecological disaster or a global catastrophe.
By the way, do you have any idea when the latter might occur?”
“There are localised disasters happening even now in vari-
ous parts of the Earth. Mankind has been preparing every-
thing and more for its own destruction for a long time now”
“But when will it happen on a global scale — when will the
apocalypse come?”
“It might occur in 2002, for example. But it can be pre-
vented, or delayed, as happened in 1992.”
“You mean to say it might have come to pass in 1992?”
“Yes, but they delayed it.”
“Who are ‘they? Who averted it? Who delayed it?”
“A catastrophe on a global scale in 1992 was averted thanks
to the dachniks.”
“Wha-a-at?!”
“There are all sorts of people all over the world who are
working against global disaster. The 1992 catastrophe did not
happen mainly thanks to the Russian dachniks.”
‘And you... that means you!... Even at six years old you
were aware of the dachniks’ significance? You foresaw it? You
worked non-stop. You helped them.”
“I understood the dachniks’ significance, Vladimir.”
Chapter Nine
“But why Russian dachniks in particular? What’s the connec-
tion here?”
“You see, Vladimir, even though the Earth is very large, it
is very, very sensitive.
“Think of how big you are by comparison with a tiny mos-
quito. And yet, when a mosquito lands on you, you feel it
through your skin. And the Earth also feels — everything.
When people pave it over with concrete and asphalt, when
they cut down trees and burn the forests growing on it, when
they pick and poke at its innards and sprinkle it with powder
called fertiliser, it feels the hurt. And yet still it loves people,
as a mother loves her children.
‘And the Earth tries to absorb into its depths all humanity’s
anger, and only when it no longer has the strength to hold it
back, that anger explodes in the form of volcanic eruptions
and earthquakes.
“The Earth needs our help. Tenderness and a loving atti-
tude give it strength. The Earth may be large, but it is most
sensitive. And it feels the tender caress of even a single hu-
man hand. Oh, how it feels and anticipates this touch!
“There was a time in Russia when the Earth 1 was deemed
to belong to everyone and therefore nobody in particular. So
l the Earth (Russian: Zemlid) — in this case denoting the land, especially ar-
able land. The reference here is to the early Soviet period of Russian his-
tory, when the Bolshevik government took the country’s farmland out of
Dachnik Day and an All-Earth holiday l
65
people did not think of it as their own. Then changes came in
Russia. They began giving out tiny private plots to people to
go with their dachas.
“It was no coincidence at all that these plots were extremely
small, too small to cultivate with mechanised equipment. But
Russians, yearning for contact with the Earth, took to them
with joyous enthusiasm. They went to people both poor and
rich. Because nothing can break Man’s connection with the
Earth!
‘After obtaining their little plots of land, people intuitively
felt their worth. And millions of pairs of human hands be-
gan touching the Earth with love. With their hands, you un-
derstand, not with mechanised tools, lots and lots of people
touched the ground caressingly on these little plots. And the
Earth felt this, it felt it very much. It felt the blessing touch
of each individual hand upon it. And the Earth found new
strength to carry on.”
“So, what now?” I queried. “Should we erect a monument
to every dachnik as the saviour of the planet?”
“Yes, Vladimir, they are saviours indeed.”
“But that would be far too many monuments! I have it! Why
not set up a one- or two-day national holiday? Dachnik Day, or
an All-Earth Day, it could be designated in the calendar.”
“Oooh, a holiday!” Anastasia threw up her arms in elation.
“What a terrific idea indeed! A celebration! A happy and
cheerful holiday — that is something we definitely need!”
‘And you with that Ray of yours can suggest to our govern-
ment, to our deputies in the State Duma , 2 that they pass the
required legislation.”
the hands of its individual peasant owners and declared it state property. It
was not until 1993 that the right to private ownership of land was restored
in Russia’s new Constitution.
” Duma (pronounced DOO-ma) — Russia’s national parliament.
66
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“I cannot get through to them. They are too busy with their
daily routine. They have so many decisions to make, they
have absolutely no time to think. Besides, there is not much
point in my attempting to raise their conscious awareness. It
would be difficult for them to accept a complete conscious
picture of reality They are not allowed to make any better
resolutions than those they are passing at the moment.”
“Who can stop the government or the president from so
doing?”
“You. The masses. The majority. As for correct decisions,
they are what you call ‘unpopular measures’.”
“Yes, you’re right. We have democracy The most impor-
tant decisions are taken by the majority The majority is al-
ways right.”
“The greatest conscious awareness is always achieved first
by individuals, Vladimir. It always takes the majority a space
of time to catch on.”
“If that’s true, then why do we need democracy, referen-
dums?”
“They are needed to serve as a shock-absorber, to avoid
sudden jerks. When these shock-absorbers do not work, rev-
olution occurs. A revolutionary period is always a challenge
for the majority”
“But zDachnikDay? — that’s not revolution. What’s wrong
with it?”
‘A holiday like that is fine. It is needed. Definitely needed.
It should be set up as quickly as possible. I shall think about
how it can be done as quickly as possible.”
“I’ll help you. I know better which levers to pull in our
world for the most effective results. I’ll write to the papers...
No, better still, I’ll write about the dachniks in that book of
yours and ask people to send telegrams to the government
and the Duma, requesting the establishment of a Dachnik
Day as an All-Earth holiday Only what date should it be?”
Dachnik Day and an All-Earth holiday !
67
“The 23rd of July:”
“Why the 23rd?”
“It is an appropriate day. Also because it is your birthday
Vladimir. After all, this fantastic idea is all yours!”
“That’s great. So, we’ll ask people to send telegrams asking
for legislation setting up the 23rd of July as Dachnik Day and
an All-Earth holiday And as soon as the telegrams start arriv-
ing at the Duma and people begin to wonder why people are
sending them, you burst in with your Ray!”
“Burst in I shall! I shall burst in with all my might! And
it will be a fine, bright and beautiful holiday! For everyone!
Everyone will have such a good time and the whole Earth will
rejoice in its light!”
“Why does everybody have to have a good time? This holi-
day’s only for dachniks, isn’t it?”
“We must see that everyone has a good time. This holiday
will indeed begin in Russia. But then it will become the most
fantastic holiday for the world as a whole. A marvellous holi-
day for the soul.”
‘And how will it be celebrated the first time in Russia?” I
enquired. “Nobody will know what to make of it.”
“Each one’s heart will suggest on that day what he should
do and how: I can visualise a general outline right now.”
Then Anastasia began talking, clearly enunciating each
word. She talked with both speed and inspiration. It was all
most extraordinary — the rhythm of her speech, the arrange-
ment of her phrases, the pronunciation of her words:
May all of Russia wake that day at dawn. May people alone,
or with friends and family, come to the land and stand upon it
with bare feet. Those who have their little plot of land, let them
greet with praise the first rays of the Sun amidst the shoots and
seedlings they have planted. And touch each species with caress-
ing hands.
68
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
As the Sun rises in the sky, let them pick and taste the fruit of their
plantings, one from each variety, and that should suffice them, up ’til
the mid-day meal.
Before the meal let them tend their plots anew. Let each one pon-
der, their life and joy, and what they are destined to do.
Let each remember their family and friends with love. And pon-
der why their planted seeds are growing and designate the purpose
of every plant.
And even before the mid-day feast everyone should spend at least
an hour by themselves. It is not important how or where or exactly
when, but they should be alone for a spell. To spend at least an hour
in an effort to look within themselves.
Let the whole family gather for the meal in the middle of the day.
Those living at home and those who have come from far away. Let
dinner be prepared from what the Earth has borne for the hour of
repast. Let every one bring to the whole table whatever is desired
by his heart and soul. Let all the family members look each other
lovingly in the eye. And let the eldest bless the table together with
the youngest. And let the table all around with quiet conversation
resound. There should be good words spoken. About all those who
sit beside you.
The scene Anastasia described was so extraordinarily vivid
that I could feel myself sitting at the table, with people all
around. I found myself caught up in the celebration — I was
believing in it or, rather, I was participating in it. And I felt
led to contribute a feature of my own:
“There should be a toast before dinner. Everyone raise
their glass. Let’s drink to the Earth, let’s drink to love!”
I actually felt I was holding the glass in my hand.
Then suddenly she broke into my reverie:
“Vladimir, please let there be no alcoholic poison on the
table.”
The glass vanished from my hand.
Dachnik Day and an All-Earth holiday !
69
“Stop it, Anastasia! Don’t spoil the celebration!”
“Well, since you have your mind set on it, let there be some
wine from berries, but this must be imbibed in very small
sips.”
‘All right, wine it is, then. Just so as not to change our hab-
its all at once. And after the dinner, then what shall we do?”
Let the people return to the cities and towns, having gathered the
fruit they have grown on their little plots of ground. Let them bear
it in baskets and share it with everyone at home who do not have
plots of their own.
Oh, how many positive feelings will come from this day! They
will bring about healings of many peoples diseases. Diseases which
threatened with death and those not erased by time will simply
vanish. Let those who are incurably or even slightly ill go out and
meet the flood of dachniks returning from their plots. The rays of
Love and of good, along with the fruits of their labours will heal
diseases.
Look and see! Look at the city’s main railway station, where
floods of people are arriving with baskets of flowers. Look and see
the people’s eyes glimmering with kindness, joy and peace.
Anastasia was virtually glowing with a radiance, as she be-
came more and more inspired with the idea of the holiday.
Her eyes were no longer merely shining with joy, they were
literally sparkling with a pale-blue luminescence. The ex-
pression on her face was changing, yet still remained joyful,
as though a mighty flood of images of this celebration were
rushing through her brain.
All at once she fell silent. Then, bending one leg at the
knee and lifting up her right arm, she sprang from the ground
with a tremendous recoil, virtually taking flight like an arrow
shot from the Earth. She leapt almost as high as the bottom
branches of the cedars. Upon landing, she waved her arm,
7 o
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
clapped her hands, and a bluish glow flooded the glade. All
the words Anastasia now uttered seemed to be echoed by
each tiny bug and blade of grass and each majestic cedar. Her
voice sounded as though it were being reinforced by a hidden
power. Even though her words were not that loud, it seemed
as though they could be heard by every vein running through
the unfathomable expanse of the Universe.
Mother Russia will greet crowds of guests on that day ! They are
all of the Earth as Atlanteans born! As prodigal sons they shall re-
turn.
On that day, all over Russia, let everyone awake and greet the
dawn. Let all the strings of the harp of the Universe make cheerful
melody and swell with resonant sound. Let all the bards sing and tell
with joy fid tongue and play guitars in all the streets, in every yard
around. And he who is too old will once again be young as many,
many years ago.
‘And I, Anastasia, will I be young once more?”
Both you and I, Vladimir, shall be young and people will feel
young for the very first time. And the old shall write letters to their
children. And children to their parents. And infants taking their
very first steps on Earth shall enter a better world of joy and mirth.
And on that day no child shall feel insulted. For adults shall treat
children as their equals.
And all the gods on high will to the Eatth descend. And will com-
mend themselves to take on simple forms.
And God Himself the Universal God will be delighted. May Ton
rejoice too in Love, making all the Earth so bright!
Anastasia was really getting carried away with images of the
holiday She was whirling around the glade in a fiery dance,
becoming more and more inspired at every step.
Dachnik Day and an All-Earth holiday !
7i
“Stop! Stop!” I cried to Anastasia, suddenly realising that
she was taking it all too seriously. She was not merely uttering
words. I now realised her every word and novel turn of phrase
was actually a visualisation! She was visualising images of the
celebration! And with her typical stubbornness she will go on
visualising and dreaming about it until the dream turns into
reality. Like a diehard fanatic she will dream! She will give her
all to those dachniks, just as she has done for the past twenty
years. And I cried out to stop her:
“What’s going on? Don’t you understand? All that stuff
about a holiday — it’s all just in fun! I was just teasing!”
Anastasia suddenly stopped in her tracks. No sooner did I
catch a glimpse of her than I felt a big lump in my throat from
the look on her face. Her face looked bewildered like that of
a child. She looked at me with pain and pity, as though I were
an unremitting attacker. And almost in a whisper she started
saying:
Vladimir, I took it seriously. I have already visualised it all.
And to life’s chain of events people’s forthcoming telegrams have al-
ready interwoven a link. The order of events will be broken without
thetn, I have accepted your words, believed them, and brought them
to pass. I perceived you were speaking of the holiday and telegrams
sincerely. Do not take back the words that you have spoken. Just
help me with the telegrams, so that I may, as you said, offer assistance
with my Ray.
“Okay, I’ll try, only don’t panic, — maybe it’ll end up that
nobody will even want to send the telegrams.”
There will be people who will comprehend. They will feel it in
the government and in your Duma as well. And a holiday there will
be! It will arise ! Time will tell! Look here!
72
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
And once again celebration images passed before my eyes.
There ! — I’ve written about it. Now you can go and do as
your heart and soul dictates . 3
3 In 199S, one year after this book was first published in Russian, the gover-
nor of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Yakovlev, instituted a Gardeners’ Day, giving
the residents of St. Petersburg and the surrounding region an additional
day off to spend on their garden-plots. Since then this example has been
followed by many regional authorities and A while not yet instituted on
the national level — the holiday is officially celebrated in dozens of cities
and regions throughout Russia. The date of the holiday varies from region
to region.
Chapter Ten
“What do you mean, Anastasia, by such extraordinary turns
of phrase in speaking about the holiday? You pronounced
each word in such a tone that every sound was crystal clear
on its own!”
“I tried to reproduce a picture of the holiday with preci-
sion, to use detailed images.”
“But what about the words? What particular significance
do they have?”
“Upon each word was borne a multitude of happy pictures
and events. And now they will all come true. For thought
and word, you understand, are the principle instrument of
the Grand Creator. An instrument bestowed not on all that
grows with flesh and bones, but just alone to Man.”
“Then why doesn’t everything that people say come to pass?”
“When the thread between the spoken word and the soul
is broken, when the soul is found empty and the image dulled,
then what is said, though it be plenty, is as empty as chaotic
sound. And nothing can it betoken.”
“That’s sheer fantasy! Come on now, you let yourself be-
lieve in everything, like a naive child.”
“How can it be a fantasy, Vladimir?! After all, I could give
hundreds of examples from the world you live in, and even
from your own life, as to what power a word has when it
projects the image connected with it!”
“Then give me an example I can understand.”
‘An example? Here is one. A person is standing on the
stage before an audience and speaking words. An actor, for
74 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
instance. He will repeat the same words people have heard
many times before, but there is only one actor people will
listen to with bated breath. Another they will not adore.
The words are the same, but there is avast difference in how
they are declaimed. What do you think? Why does that
happen?”
“Well, that’s actors for you. They spend years studying at
drama school — some are outstanding in their profession,
others just so-so. They memorise their lines at rehearsals so
that they can say them with expression.”
“They are taught at drama school, Vladimir, how to get
inside the image that underlies the word. Then they try to
reproduce that image during rehearsals. And if an actor suc-
ceeds in projecting even ten percent of the invisible images
underlying the words he utters, the audience will then listen
with their whole attention. And if he should succeed in pro-
jecting the images behind half of his words, you will indeed
call that actor a genius. For his soul is speaking directly with
the souls of those sitting or standing in the auditorium. And
during the play people will laugh or cry as they feel in their
soul what the actor desires to convey Such is the instrument
of the Grand Creator.”
‘And you, whenever you speak, with how many words can
you project the corresponding image — ten percent, or fif-
ty?” _ i ,
“With all of them. That is the way Great-Grandfather
taught me.”
‘All of them? Really?! All the words?!”
“Great-Grandfather said it is even possible to project the
images contained in the letters of the alphabet. And I learnt
how to come up with an image for each letter.”
“Why letters? Letters don’t mean anything.”
“Letters do mean something! Behind every letter in San-
skrit, for example, there are words, even whole phrases.
The ringing sword of the bard
15
There are letters there too, and beyond them many written
words, so that infinity is hidden in every letter.”
“Well isn’t that something?! And we just splutter out our
words.”
“Yes, that is what happens to words that have been passed
down to us over thousands of years. They have passed through
and penetrated time and space. And the forgotten images un-
derlying them still today are once more attempting to knock
on the door of the human race. And they watch out for our
souls, and even go to war on their behalf.”
‘And what kind of words are these? Is there at least one
that might be familiar to me?”
“Of course there is. At least as a sound you have heard. But
people have forgotten what underlies these words.”
Anastasia lowered her eyelids and sat silent for a while.
Then, very quietly, almost in a whisper, she asked me:
“Vladimir, please pronounce the word bard.”
“Bard,” I said.
She shuddered, almost as though in pain, and said:
“Oh, the indifference and banality in your pronunciation
of that majestic word! You blew a cold gust of emptiness and
neglect upon the candle’s restless flickering flame. A flame
that has been connected through the centuries and possibly
even addressed to you or someone else living today by a dis-
tant forebear. Forgetfulness of our derivation is the cause of
our modern devastation.”
‘And just what didn’t you like about my pronunciation?
What should I be remembering in connection with that
word?”
Anastasia fell silent. Then in a quiet voice she began utter-
ing phrases straight out of antiquity:
“Long before Christ’s birth there lived certain people on
the Earth — our forefathers, who were called Celts. Their
wise teachers were known as Druids. Many peoples inhabiting
7 6
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
the Earth at that time knelt before the Druids’ knowledge of
the material and spiritual worlds. Not a single Celtic warrior
would dare unsheathe his sword in the presence of a Druid. To
be awarded the title of Druid even at the starting level, they
had to undergo at least twenty years of arduous training at
the hands of a spiritual teacher — a Druid priest. Those who
were consecrated in this domain were known as Bards. They
alone had the moral authority to go out among the people and
sing about and inculcate the light and truth contained in their
song, using words to project images and heal people’s hearts.
“The Celts fell subject to attacks by Roman legions. Their
last battle took place at a river. The Romans noticed that there
were women walking among the Celtic warriors — women
with long, flowing hair. Experienced Roman commanders,
though knowing what this meant — that they would have to
outnumber the Celts six to one in order to defeat them, were
unaware of the reason why Nor do modern historians and
researchers have a complete explanation. It all had to do with
these unarmed women with their long, flowing hair.
“The Romans surged in with a mighty force, outnumber-
ing the Celts nine to one. Aligned with their backs up against
the river, the last family of fighting Celts was on the verge of
defeat.
“They stood strong in a semicircle. Behind them was a
young woman, breast-feeding a wee baby girl, and singing.
The young mother sang a bright and cheerful song, so as
not to instil doleful fear in the little one’s soul — so that she
would be left with images of light.
“Whenever the little one tore herself away from her moth-
er’s breast, their eyes would meet. The woman would cease her
singing and each time tenderly utter her baby’s name: Barda.
“Soon there was no longer any semicircle to defend the
pair. All that stood between the nursing mother and the flood
of Roman legionnaires making their way along the narrow
The ringing sword of the bard
77
path was a young and blood-gored Bard armed only with a
sword. He turned to look at the woman, their eyes met and
they smiled at each other.
“The wounded Bard managed to stave off the Romans while
the woman went down to the river and put her wee baby girl
into a little boat and pushed it away from the riverbank.
“With one last great effort of will-power, the bleeding Bard
threw down his weapon at the woman’s feet. She took up his
sword, and fought for four hours straight with the legion-
naires on the narrow path, preventing them from reaching
the shore. Their strength became spent and they spelled each
other off on the narrow path.
“The Roman commanders looked on in silent astonish-
ment, but could not understand how strong and experienced
soldiers could not come close enough to even scratch the
woman’s body
“For four bruising hours she fought the flood of Roman
attackers. Then the woman’s lungs gave out, dried up with
dehydration as no liquid had touched her tongue, and drips of
blood began oozing from her cracked, beautiful lips.
“Slowly sinking to her knees, her strength waning all the
while, she still managed one more faint smile in the direction
of the little boat carrying away her wee Barda, a future song-
stress, downstream with the current. And one more gleam
of the word and its image which have been carried down
through the millennia for the benefit of many living upon the
Earth today
“Man’s being is not only in the flesh. Man’s invisible feel-
ings, aspirations and sensations are immeasurably sharper
and greater than what can be discerned by the eye or ear. As
in a mirror, they are but partially reflected in the visible mate-
rial state.
“The baby Barda grew into girlhood, and later became a
woman and a mother. She lived on the Earth and sang. Her
78 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
songs imparted to people only bright feelings and, like the all-
healing Ray, helped them chase away the gloominess of the
heart. Many of life’s afflictions and deprivations tried to ex-
tinguish the source of this Ray. The hi dden forces of darkness
tried to break through to it, but could not overcome the one
obstacle in their way, the Bard and his wife who stood loom-
ing before them on the narrow path.
“Man’s essence is not in the flesh, Vladimir. The Bard’s
bleeding body projected into eternity the smile of his soul’s
blessed light, reflecting the unseen essence of Man.
‘And the lungs of the young mother holding the sword gave
out after awhile, blood dripped, then poured from the cracks
in her lips, which had caught the Bard’s bright smile.
“And now, Vladimir, believe in me. Understand and see!
And you will hear the ring of the invisible sword of the Bard,
beating back the attack of the dark and angry forces on the
path to the hearts of his descendants today.
“Now, please pronounce the word Bard once again,
Vladimir.”
“I can’t. Not until I can say it with the proper meaning.
Then I shall most certainly pronounce it.”
“Thank you for not attempting it, Vladimir.”
“Tell me, Anastasia — after all, you are able to tell. Who
among those living today are the direct descendants of that
nursing mother and the girl — the songstress Barda? Of the
Bard-warrior who stood on the narrow path? Who can forget
something as important as his ancestry?”
“Tell me, Vladimir, why this question came to your
thought.”
“I want to get a good look at that person or persons who
have forgot such things. Those who do not remember where
they came from. Those without feeling for the same.”
“Perhaps you want to make certain that you are not the one
who is forgetting?”
The ringing sword of the bard
79
“Now what does that...? Never mind, Anastasia, I’ve got
it now You needn’t give it another thought. Let each person
figure it out for themselves.”
“Fine,” she replied and fell silent, looking at me.
And I too kept silent for a time, reflecting on the pictures
Anastasia had painted, and then I asked her:
“Why did you choose that particular word as an exam-
ple?”
“To show you how the images underlying it in the real
world will soon take visible form. Guitar strings in swarms
are now vibrating under the fingers of today’s Russian bards.
Even back when I was dreaming about it all in the taiga, these
bards were the first to feel the images. Their hearts and their
souls...
‘At first it was only in one of them that flared a flickering
burning flame and the delicate resonance of a guitar string,
but then the souls of others caught the rhythm and joined
in. Soon their songs will be heard by many both near and far.
These are the bards who will help us behold the new dawn.
The dawn of enlightenment of human hearts and souls. You
shall hear their songs. And these will be new songs, songs of
the awakening dawn.” 1
’Since this bookwas first published in 1997, Russian bards have written hun-
dreds of songs inspired by Anastasia. Numerous song festivals have taken
place throughout Russia, and multiple song albums have appeared. Many
of the bards have become wanderers, travelling in groups of up to fifty sing-
ers and giving free concerts all over Russia, spreading the message of light,
happiness and the healing of the Earth.
Chapter Eleven
A sharp about-turn
Returning to the ship after my three-day stay with Anasta-
sia, it was some time before I was in a frame of mind to take
charge of company business. At first I was unable either to
decide on the ship’s next destination or answer the many radi-
ograms coming in from Novosibirsk. And the hired workers,
and even some of my crew, apparently sensed my inattention
to the daily routine and began stealing. They were arrested by
the police from Surgut (the town where the ship was docked)
working with my bodyguards, and detention papers were
drawn up, but even this was not something I felt like delving
into at the time.
It’s hard to say at the moment just why my talks with Anas-
tasia had such a strong effect on me.
Before this my firm had received many visits from rep-
resentatives of all sorts of religious denominations. They
claimed they wanted to do something good for society and al-
ways asked for money Sometimes I would oblige just so they
would go away, without looking too deeply into the cause they
were collecting for. And what was the point of asking them
more questions if the conversation always ended up with a
request for money?
In contrast to all these so-called ‘religious’ people, Anas-
tasia never asked for money In any case, I couldn’t even im-
agine what I could give her. Outwardly it seemed she had
nothing, and yet I gradually got the impression that she had
everything. I gave orders for the ship to proceed full speed to
Novosibirsk and holed myself away in my cabin to think.
A sharp about-turn
81
My more than ten years’ experience in business and team-
management had taught me a lot. The highs and lows I had
gone through had given me the skills I needed to seek and find
a way out of all sorts of tricky situations. This time, however,
I felt I was at rock bottom. All the troubles imaginable came
upon me simultaneously. The failure of the firm appeared
imminent. One of the so-called ‘well-wishers’ had already
started a rumour, now increasing in currency, that something
had happened to me and that I was no longer capable of mak-
ing sound business decisions. So, people concluded, it was
sauve qui pent, every man for himself. And that’s exactly what
happened. Upon my return I saw how people were saving
themselves. Even my relatives had their hand in it, pilfering
what they could from the company “It’s all going to go broke
anyway!” they figured.
There was just one small group of my long-time employees
who had tried to withstand the onslaught. But after the ar-
rival of the lead ship, upon seeing what kind of literature I
had my nose into, even they became worried about my mental
state.
I myself had a perfectly clear and sober perspective on
what was happening. I was fully aware that I was no longer
in any position to manage this team effectively Even those I
had earlier trusted as my tried and true supporters were now
starting to cast doubt upon any decision I took.
Even though I very much wanted to tell everyone who
would listen about Anastasia, it hardly seemed possible to
count on anybody’s understanding. It might even land me in
the loony bin. My family were already starting to talk about
what kind of treatment I needed.
Without saying so in so many words, those around me were
demanding I get back down to earth and come up with a busi-
ness plan, and a successful one at that. They dismissed my
latest distraction as either madness or a nervous breakdown.
82
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
I had really begun thinking about all sorts of things in this life
of ours.
“What’s going on here?” I thought. “You hustle through
one commercial operation and even earn big money, but
where’s the satisfaction? You immediately want more. And
it’s been going on like that for over ten years now! Where’s
the guarantee that this race won’t last my whole life long with-
out so much as a whiff of satisfaction?! One person gets upset
because he doesn’t have enough money for a bottle of vodka.
A billionaire gets upset because he doesn’t have enough for
some major acquisition or another. Maybe it’s not the amount
of money that counts?”
One morning two old acquaintances of mine — both en-
trepreneurs in charge of big commercial firms — came to see
me at my office. I started talking with them about setting up
a commonwealth of pure-minded entrepreneurs, about the
purpose and goals of our business activities. After all, I just
had to share all this with somebody. They played along, nod-
ding now and then in agreement. It was a long conversation,
and I ended up thinking to myself: can it be that they actually
grasped it? — they did spend a lot of time discussing it, after
all! Later my driver told me:
“You know, Vladimir Nikolaevich , 1 they were asked to come
and see you. By people concerned about your health. They
wanted to know what you’ve been preoccupied with all this
time, what’s been on your mind. In short, to make sure you
haven’t lost your mind. They wanted to know whether they
should call in a psychiatrist or simply wait and let it pass.”
l Nikolaevich (most often pronounced ni-ka-LIE-yitcb} — Vladimir Megre’s
patronymic (a middle name derived from one’s father's first name). In
Russian the combination of the first name and patronymic is the stan-
dard polite form of address among business acquaintances, especially to
a superior.
A sharp about-turn
83
‘And what do you think of my mental state?”
He fell silent for a while, and then said quietly:
“For ten years your work’s gone along just great. Many
in the city have said you’re a successful businessman. But
now all your employees are afraid they may be left without a
paycheque.”
It was only then I realised the extent of people’s concern
about me, and I said to the driver:
“Turn the car around.”
I went back to the office. I called an emergency staff
meeting. I appointed supervisors for the company’s various
activities and gave them full authority to act in my absence. I
then told the driver to pick me up early the next morning and
take me to the airport. Just as I was about to go through the
boarding gate, he handed me something wrapped in a towel.
It was warm. I asked:
“What is it?”
“Pirozhki. ” 2
“So, you’re giving me these out of compassion for a cra-
zy person, eh?”
“They’re from my wife, Vladimir Nikolaevich. She couldn’t
sleep, and baited all night. She’s never baked anything before,
she’s still a pretty young woman, but last night she plunged
right in. She insisted I give them to you. She wrapped them
in a towel — they’re still warm. She says... you won’t be back
for awhile. If you come back at all... This is good-bye.”
‘All right, then. Thank you very much.”
He resigned from the firm a few days later.
~ Pirozhki ( ptonouncedpee-rash-KEE ) — Russian pastry with a filling, akin to
Ukrainian pierogies. A quintessential^ home-made dish ,pirozhki are often
the highlights of family gatherings and celebrations. A gift of pirozhki de-
notes a loving attitude on the part of the giver.
Chapter Twelve
Seated on the airplane I closed my eyes. The plane’s course
was set with precision. It was headed for Moscow. The course
of the rest of my life was still to be set. But I was thinking
more about entrepreneurs.
Many people today still tend to regard entrepreneurs as
people who are constantly working out business deals, having
amassed their initial capital by some illegal means and mul-
tiplying it at the expense of those around them. Naturally,
just as in any other segment of our society, there are entre-
preneurs and then there are entrepreneurs. However, having
been right at the centre of entrepreneurial life in our country
from the very beginning of perestroika, I can tell you that the
majority of the first wave of post-communist entrepreneurs
made their initial capital by looking for unorthodox solutions
for producing new merchandise or goods which had been in
short supply, and finding more efficient ways of structuring
manufacturing operations.
It was a peculiar characteristic of Soviet and Russian en-
trepreneurs to make money from scratch — i.e., starting
with nothing, not even credit. After all, the first wave of
entrepreneurs had no access to privatised factories that the
next wave enjoyed. They had to fly by the seat of their pants
and hope they would be lucky. And they did make money
from scratch. By way of proof, let me cite an example from
my own experience.
Chapter Thirteen
Back before perestroika I was in charge of a small unit in a pho-
tographic collective. It included lab technicians and a number
of roving photographers. Everyone had both a salary and ad-
ditional perks, which allowed us to make a fairly decent living
for the time. Each member of our unit received a percentage
of the total profits. Naturally we wanted more. But for that
we had to find more clients. I managed to hit upon a solution.
Anyone who wishes is free to copy it, even today.
One day while I was travelling on a highway in my hump-
backed Zaporozhets 1 1 got a tyre puncture. While getting the
tyre repaired I watched the cars passing by one after another
and thought to myself: “If only we could give all these driv-
ers a chance to have their photo taken, there would be huge
profits to be made!”
It took but a few minutes to formulate a plan of action in
my head — a plan whose realisation in practice would soon
quadruple our unit’s profits. It worked this way: one of our
photographers would stand at the side of the highway with
a camera. He had two assistants with green armbands bear-
ing the SB 2 insignia and brandishing batons like those used
1 Zaporozhets — a popular and (relatively) inexpensive car manufactured dur-
ing the Soviet period in the Ukrainian city of Zaporozhye. Its small size,
low power, old-fashioned design and proclivity to break-downs have given
it a reputation as an “inferior” vehicle, and both the car and its owners have
become the butt of numerous jokes.
~SB — Initials for Sluzbba byta, the common designation for service indus-
tries in Russia.
86
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
by the traffic police. Motorists would stop, thinking it was
the “Green” or some other patrol . 3 Upon learning that it was
simply a photo service being offered and that nobody was
about to pounce on them or fine them or inspect their vehi-
cle, drivers were happy to stand in front of their car (next to
the licence plate) and have their picture taken. They gave the
addresses where they would like the photos to be sent C.O.D.
The licence-plate had to be showing just in case there was a
mix-up in the addresses.
We ended up offering this service on all the major highways
leading to Novosibirsk over a six-month period. Then more
and more we started encountering motorists who had already
used the service. But during these six months our unit man-
aged to realise a fairly decent income.
Later I thought of starting a photo campaign to take pic-
tures of residential houses, adding postcard phrases like “I
live here”, “Home sweet home”, etc.
People from our unit took pictures of thousands of houses.
The demand turned out to be enormous. It got so that the
photographers didn’t bother asking which residents wanted
it — they would simply walk along and take pictures of every
house on the street. A few days later the postal service would
deliver the photos to each dwelling and collect payment. Peo-
ple would send these snapshots to their children. Many said
the pictures inspired the kids to come home for a visit.
Before long the collective started having problems paying
the members of our unit their salaries which, in the opinion
of the management of the day, had exceeded all reasonable
bounds. But there was little they could do about it, since eve-
ryone in the collective was entitled to an equal share of their
unit’s profits.
3 Green patrol — referring to teams of environmental control officers, set
up to help abate air pollution in Russia’s largest cities, and responsible for
checking automobiles’ exhaust emissions (CO, CO,, CH, NO etc.).
Money from scratch
8?
During the early days of perestroika, our unit detached itself
from the collective and formed an independent co-operative.
I was chosen its first chairman.
This way we enjoyed greater freedom of movement. We
had the opportunity to gather some seed money together and
expand the scope of our operations. I began to think about
new ventures to increase company profits.
One day I happened to have a conversation with an ac-
quaintance of mine who worked at the Institute of Theoreti-
cal and Applied Mechanics. He was complaining that wages
were being delayed or not paid at all, and that the lab unit
was being threatened with dissolution. Where could they
go, what could they do? They weren’t needed by anyone, it
seemed.
“What did your lab do before?” I asked him.
“We made thermal gauge tape. Nobody needs it any-
more.”
“What was it used for?”
‘All sorts of things,” he replied. He took a piece of a black
tape out of his pocket and handed it to me.”
“See for yourself,” he said.
I took the piece in my hand, and all at once it turned green
as I fingered it. I even threw it on the ground.
“What kind of junk is that? It turns green! Now I’ve got to
wash my hands,” I told him. To which he replied:
“Don’t worry, it simply changed colour from the warmth of
your hand. It’s supposed to react to changes in temperature.
If the temperature of your hands had been above normal, it
would have turned red. The green colour indicates a normal
temperature.”
The concept took off quickly. Our company began pro-
ducing flat thermometers and stress-indicators.
A piece of the tape was stuck onto a sheet of cardboard
with bright coloured squares, each with a number beside it
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
indicating degrees of temperature, and , presto! — a new prod-
uct was born. We had it distributed through the state ware-
housing agency to many regions of the old Soviet Union (this
was before the collapse of the USSR in 1991).
Our production staff increased and everyone made a fairly
decent living. Our seed capital was growing. The lab also
came out of the red, since a share of the profits accrued to
the Institute.
Our co-operative acquired new equipment along with two
vehicles. And then something happened which gave us an in-
credible boost.
One afternoon I arrived at the company office and noticed
both our telephones in use. My secretary was on one of them,
listening and taking down notes. The other telephone was
being manned by the cleaning lady. No sooner had one of the
phones been hung up than it started ringing again. At one
point my secretary managed to tell me:
“They’ve been ringing off the hook for over two hours
already! One call after another non-stop! Everybody’s ask-
ing for our thermometers and stress-indicators. One fellow
cursed us, calling us pr e-perestroika dimwits. If we were will-
ing to raise our prices, he said, he would buy them from us
wholesale — at the higher price. They’re all placing bulk or-
ders. They’re even ready to give us advance deposits.”
During the early days of perestroika in our country, if you
remember, there was quite a proliferation of manufactured
kitsch on the market — plastic clip-on earrings, posters and
calendars featuring semi-nude girls. Everyone snapped these
things up like crazy.
Against that background what we produced looked like a su-
per novelty But after six months of production, sales suddenly
took off with a bang. Something had happened, but what?
It turned out that on a TV broadcast the previous
night, foreign-affairs correspondent Vladimir Tsvetov was
Money from scratch
89
commenting on how innovative the Japanese were, and
showed a Japanese stress-indicator as an example. It looked
just like ours. It was then that I realised for the first time the
power of advertising and the nature of this beast called luck!
Our staff began working three shifts a day round the clock.
We hired workers to do the packing, trimming and finishing
in their own homes. Profits steadily increased. We acquired
a small passenger ship. I also decided to manufacture seeding
equipment for independent farmers. I even chartered a large
cruise ship to organise business tours and trade expeditions
to the regions of the Russian Far North.
Chapter Fourteen
As head of my very own co-operative I got to know first-hand
what a destructive force — one capable of crushing any ma-
terial state of well-being — impatience toward each other
and the break-down of mutual understanding can be. Later I
learnt that this is the very reason behind the failure of many
collectives. And it can all start over a trifle.
Indeed, that’s how it happened with my first co-operative.
Not only was it torn apart itself, but several families were de-
stroyed in the process. Even today I still don’t know how to
counteract this force which erupts spontaneously and is not
subject to common sense!
It all began when I decided to procure for our firm a country
house with its own estate. I entrusted the details to our act-
ing inventory and supply manager Alexey Mishunin. He drew
up all the necessary sale-purchase documents, while I went to
take a look at the property It included a large house, a fifth
of a hectare of land, a bath-house, garage and greenhouse. We
even got a cow and a flock of sheep in the bargain — not ex-
actly a priority, but Mishunin said the owners had to go away
and wanted to sell everything all at once. There was feed for
the cow, and he had already arranged for a woman from the
village to come in and do the milking.
A couple of days later I called a meeting of the members
of the co-operative to tell them about our acquisition. I ex-
plained it was intended for entertaining guests, as well as be-
ing a place where the members of the co-operative could relax
and celebrate special occasions. We would all have to work
A destructive force 91
together to fix up the place, do some renovations and mod-
ernise the kitchen.
The male half of the co-operative greeted the idea with
great enthusiasm. But the women began whispering among
themselves. It wasn’t clear who the ringleader was, but my
wife took on the role of spokesperson, saying the men had
overstepped all recognised bounds of decency in respect to
the women.
“We work with you as equals here,” she declared. ‘After
that we go home every day and clean house, cook meals and
take care of the children. Does that seem trifling to you? And
now you want us, in addition to all that, to work our asses off
at this country house of yours, do renovations, and then be
cooks and waitresses for your receptions and drinking par-
ties?!”
That was when all hell broke loose. The women poured
out on the men all their personal and family grievances and
other pet peeves. I realised this when one of them cried out:
‘All you do is fool around with dominoes and stare at the
tube the whole evening long!”
I knew that none of the men at the co-operative played
dominoes. It was her husband, a firefighter, who played. He
didn’t even work for us. But wives of the co-operative work-
ers were especially ‘pissed off’. One of them stupidly blurted
out to her husband in front of everyone:
“You always smell of sweat and cheap cigarettes,” — he was
especially fond of the Prima brand — “and now you’re going
to be smelling of cow-dung too?!”
A silence hung over the room. The husband took a deep
gulp of air, blushed and retorted:
“I shall especially smell of cow-dung. Especially so that
you won’t come near me, you slut!”
At this she burst into tears. The women gathered around to
console her. And it made them even more ‘pissed off’. They
92
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
started hurling all sorts of insults. One of our workers was
named Zhenya Kolpakov — he’d invented all sorts of devices
to increase productivity, and could fix anything that needed
fixing. But now they told him:
“We have inventors here, but it takes a whole year to clean
up after them!”
Then the discussion turned to politics:
“Gorbachev goes on television, but it’s Raisa Maximovna'
who makes all the decisions.”
I declared a recess. I thought everyone somehow might
come to their senses. After the break they all took their seats
again, the outward restraint barely masking the inner tension.
Once again my wife spoke in the name of the women. With a
contrived tranquillity she threw out a venomous ultimatum:
“Of course, if you really want a country residence, go ahead,
but not one of us women will step foot in it. In other words,
it’ll be yours alone. And since we share our funds in common
and you have no right to spend them without our consent,
as compensation we demand you give us one of the company
cars with a driver, specially for our household use. Well take
turns using it.”
“Great,” came a chorus of male voices, “go ahead and choke
yourselves! Well give you anything you like as long as you
promise not to show up there!”
“They’re bound to find some farm hussies out there,” one
of the women observed.
“Let them look,” retorted another. “Those hussies’ll soon
make themselves scarce. Who needs them?”
'Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva {nee Titorenko; 1932-1999) — wife of the last
Soviet leader (General Secretary of the Communist Party and President of
the USSR) Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev (1931-). In contrast to the wives of
Gorbachev’s predecessors, Raisa Maximovna played an active role in the
political life of the Soviet Union and was rumoured to ‘run the country’
from behind her husband’s back.
A destructive force
93
None of the men whose wives worked at the co-operative
went home that night. It was Friday, and we headed out to
our ‘hacienda’.
We took a good look around, and started making plans for
settling in. The next day we heated up the bath-house. At
Mishunin’s request the village woman came to milk the cow.
We watched how she did it. It was a pleasant time. The cow
was quiet, not restless. She was ours now. The woman ad-
vised that she wouldn’t always be able to come to do the milk-
ing. We’d need to look up somebody else.
After an early-evening cleansing at the bath-house, we
cooked ourselves supper. It turned out we had quite a feast!
Mishunin fried some fish. We put out bottles of beer and vod-
ka, and sat down at the table. And all at once: “Moo-o-oo!”
It was the cow We got up and headed for the barn. It was
milking time, and there was no milkmaid around. We stood
there — eight men — in front of the cow and had no idea
what to do.
In any case, who can explain what sometimes happens to
people at the sight of an animal? You live your life day after
day without the slightest thought for non-human creatures.
And then all at once you find yourself in a situation where one
of them’s in your home: a cat, or a dog, or some other animal,
and you find you have the same kind of feelings come over you
that you’d have in the presence of a child. You’re nervous, you
worry Why is that? Maybe it’s really true that the first man,
Adam, when God gave him the job of naming all the creatures,
looked upon each one with love, and this love is something
we’ve all inherited — it hides for the most part deep down
inside us and makes an appearance only from time to time.
Nobody can say for certain whether that’s true or not. Only
each one of us, I’m telling you, had some sort of feeling for that
cow, and I’m positive it felt something for us, too.
And this is what came out of it. Seryozha Khodokov said:
94
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“The milk’s likely bursting her udder. We’ve got to do
something.”
We started in pestering Mishunin. Why on earth, we said,
did you buy a cow? And yet at the same time we felt bad about
selling it — it had only been one day but we had somehow
taken to it like one of our own.
The cow looked at us with her sorrowful eyes, silently.
Then she stretched her head out toward me and let out a loud
“Moo-o-oo!” She was mooing so pleadingly, and I told Mis-
hunin:
“Better get to the milking right away, since you were the
one who bought her!”
Mishunin quicldy fetched the milk-pail, tied the kerchief
around his head (the kerchief the milkmaid had left behind),
and climbed into the cow’s stall. He asked us not to leave, as
God knows what this cow might do. She let him approach
and start milking her. We brought the cow some water to
drink, put fresh hay into her stall and gave her some bread.
Mishunin went on milking. At first he wasn’t very success-
ful — only very thin streams of milk came out and even they
sometimes missed the pail, but then it got a little better. Af-
ter fifteen minutes the milk was still coming. Mishunin said,
whispering for some reason:
“Sweat. My sweat’s getting in the way.”
“We gathered up handkerchiefs from whoever had them,
and Seryozha Khodokov climbed into the stall to wipe the
perspiration from Alexey’s forehead. He squatted down be-
side him to see how the milking was going, from time to time
wiping the sweat from Alexey’s face. And suddenly we could
hear Seryozha’s agitated whisper:
“What are you doing? You’re hurting her! You’ve got a
good stream coming from your right hand, but only a third of
that from your left. You can permanently damage her udder
that way”
A destructive force
95
“It’s my fingers,” Mishunin whispered. “It’s ’cause my fin-
gers have gone numb on my left hand. Maybe you’d better
help.”
Seryozha Khodokov approached the cow from the other
side and they began milking together simultaneously
After half an hour, maybe more, they had milked a whole
pailful.
That night at supper we drank fresh milk, and I swear it
was the best-tasting milk we’d ever had in our lives.
Early the next morning we were awakened by the milkmaid,
who told us with some astonishment that she had tried milk-
ing the cow that morning, but for some unknown reason the
cow wouldn’t let her anywhere close to her.
Once again we trotted off to the barn. We did everything
just the way we had the night before, and the cow started
milking.
“Well ain’t that the limit!” exclaimed the woman. “Since
the cow seems to like you so much ,you can milk her from now
on. Elappens that way, /know A cow can let some people
come close, but others she jolly well won’t.”
Our cow, it turned out, was quite picky. Not only did she
not let any of the hired milkmaids near her, whenever she was
milked she demanded that one of us stand by her muzzle and
feed her, and talk to her, while the milking had to be a joint
effort on the part of two men together. That meant three
of us had to go for each milking session. So that’s how we
drew up the schedule — three at a time. At least until we sold
the cow, we thought. But it wasn’t long before the rumours
about our picky cow began flying around. Buyers would come
and try milking her themselves, and nothing happened. And
they’d refuse to take her, even for a pittance. Granted, I did
make one condition — that she wasn’t to be slaughtered
for meat.
9 6 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
We called in a veterinarian, and he told us:
“That does happen, fellows. An animal gets used to some-
one, and may reject others for a long time. But tell me, what
on earth possessed you to domesticate her that way?”
He didn’t have any real advice to offer us, apart from tell-
ing us that our cow was calving — meaning she was pregnant.
When the time came we would have to prepare for the birth-
ing. The vet indicated the approximate date. We would know
when the time was near when she stopped giving milk.
Since the men were obliged to keep watch three at once,
we ended up spending a lot of time at our ‘hacienda’ — even
staying overnight there.
Our wives had a hard time accepting that we were really
having problems with the cow, since they had sworn never to
set foot in our ‘hacienda’ themselves, and looked upon this
whole story of the cow as a convenient excuse. The wom-
en and wives working at the co-operative completely lost all
sense of self-control. They started telling obscene jokes. The
one who complained about her husband’s bad smell said:
“Only a sexual pervert could attract such a perverted cow!”
To which he retorted:
“I’d rather spend my whole life milking a silent cow than
listening to your dumb remarks.”
Soon afterward he moved out completely to live in the ‘haci-
enda’ and later got a divorce from his wife. He married ayoung
country girl with a child and became quite a decent farmer.
Then the day came when the cow stopped giving milk. On
the vet’s advice we got everything ready for the birthing. But
the cow gave birth all by herself and without incident. She
bore a little bull-calf. A handsome son-of-a-gun. When we
called the vet, he took one look at the pair and said:
“Well, that’s great! Nothing more to be done here. She’s
taken care of it all by herself. Just keep the place clean. Make
sure she’s well fed.”
A destructive force
97
Some time later we managed to find a good home for both
the cow and her bull-calf. One day we went over to see what
a handsome creature he’d turned into, our little bull. And
everything was arranged nicely for his mother. Even now I
still think of her. I wonder whether she remembers us. But
while we got things settled for the cow, we didn’t manage to
restore a sense of harmony and mutual understanding in the
co-operative.
So I ended up dividing the co-operative in two, reorganis-
ing part of it under a different name. I began using the char-
tered ship to make long trading voyages to the North along
the River Ob. In between such voyages I conducted business
cruises for Russian and foreign entrepreneurs.
I took the lesson home that one indispensable condition of
success, among others, is a sense of mutual understanding and
respect in a collective. You must have faith not only in your
own abilities but in everyone’s. Any kind of abilityyou have is
multiplied by your faith in the people around you.
Chapter Fifteen
It was only upon arriving at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport that
I realised my funds were rather low — I had only 5 million
roubles (Si, 000) left, and I did not even have a specific plan
of action. It was hardly likely that either my employees or
my family would be able to cope with my accumulated debts;
they would have to sell the company’s assets, meaning I could
not look to home for any assistance. Had I remained in Nov-
osibirsk, of course, I could have worked things out. But that
would have meant concentrating all my attention on the daily
affairs of my business — something that was impossible after
what had happened in the taiga and the promises I had made
both to Anastasia and to myself.
Indeed, by this time it was hard to determine whether my
actions were being guided by my own awareness and desire or
by Anastasia’s influence.
One thing was crystal clear: I was bankrupt. Having wit-
nessed countless similar situations among my colleagues, I
knew there was nobody I could turn to — either friends, rela-
tives, or former employees. They would all avoid you like the
plague. You can spend ten years of your life being a hero and
then just one little mistake can put you in the doghouse and
make you a non-person, despised by everyone you know. It’s
happened to a lot of prominent entrepreneurs. In a situation
like this you can only hope in yourself and your own ability to
find a way out of a dead-end predicament.
After leaving my bag (containing a sweater, some shirts and
a few other trifles) at a hotel, I started tramping around the
Herbalife’ entrepreneurs
99
streets of Moscow. I tried figuring out what it all meant —
everything Anastasia had said about Russia’s entrepreneurs.
The first thing that struck my eye in Moscow this time was
the activity of the so-called ‘Herbalifers’.
Neatly dressed people stood in the tunnels leading to met-
ro 1 stations in the city centre, haranguing passers-by with job
offers. “With a foreign firm,” as they said. They were lur-
ing them with promises of huge earnings and opportunity for
promotion. The word Herbalife wasn’t even mentioned —
probably because almost every classified advertisement in
the papers posted by a job-seeker ended with the words: “No
Herbalife offers.”
Still they stood there, wearing “Work for you” buttons and
handing out flyers from some foreign firm, stubbornly urg-
ing people to at least come for an interview. Later I learnt
that those responding were subjected to intense psychologi-
cal conditioning, with special emphasis on two points dear to
the heart of the average Russian.
First, seminar speakers would make a big thing of telling
how they or their relatives, for example, received a fantastic
healing with the help of this ‘Herbalife’ from overseas, with
the implication that any potential distributor could also en-
gage in the noble practice of treating people’s ailments. The
system was so miraculous, they declared, that no medical
courses were needed, just two or three training sessions, even
if you were a simple painter or plasterer, and, presto, you are
qualified to act as a consultant to ailing consumers.
Secondly, they made a point of telling stories with examples
of how one could get rich through promoting and distributing
‘Herbalife’ products. This meant buying at least one package
for starters (with your own money), then finding someone
1 metro — i.e., the Metropolitan, referring to the underground or subway sys-
tem operating in Moscow and many other Russian cities.
IOO
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
else and convincing him in a one-on-one conversation of the
fantastic benefits of using ‘Herbalife’, then selling it to him at
a slightly higher price. At the same time you needed to keep
recruiting more distributors, getting a percentage from each
new recruit. The more recruits you attracted, the higher you
would rise in the hierarchy and the more money would accrue
to you. You would reach a point where you yourself wouldn’t
have to do any of the actual distribution work.
As an entrepreneur, I soon realised one thing very clearly:
money did come showering down in a rain of gold, but only
for the person at the very top of this pyramidal system and his
closest collaborators. The whole long chain of distributors,
divided into so-called levels, survived only thanks to each lev-
el benefiting from its own price mark-up, and it was all paid
for by the one at the very bottom — the consumer who be-
lieved in the miracle properties of the product.
In some cases the price increased by twelve times!! The
actual distribution keeps rolling along non-stop, thanks to
the huge number of agents using their own accounts of heal-
ing to win the trust of their fellow-Russians and make them
believe in the miracle properties of ‘Herbalife’. A system like
this is capable of selling even the ashes from one’s stove. Any
complainers are simply told that they have somehow misun-
derstood the instructions on the label or not followed them
closely enough.
This system is especially effective in our country, where
people are accustomed to getting the most reliable infor-
mation from trusted friends and acquaintances rather than
through official channels.
There is no point whatsoever in discussing the advantages
or disadvantages of the ‘Herbalife’ products themselves. That
is a long story I can say only one thing with absolute certain-
ty: all the fervour of the distributors telling about their own
healings disappears as soon as they realise they’re not going
‘Herb alife’ entrepreneurs
IOI
to get any money from you. In that case you’ll start hearing a
whole string of counter-examples, such as “It’s nothing but a
load of crap!”
This distribution system was invented in the West. Man-
aged from the West, it lures in all sorts of unemployed Rus-
sians. But these are not our entrepreneurs. And now I shall
tell you of yet another gimmick invented by Western busi-
nessmen.
Chapter Sixteen
Free holidays in Hawaii
If you should be stopped on a crowded Moscow street by
smartly dressed young people (some of whom speak with an
accent) inviting you to a presentation by a foreign firm with
your own reserved table and free lottery tickets, offering you
the opportunity to win a gold watch or even a free trip to Ha-
waii, you can be sure that you will be guaranteed a free trip.
But it is best to bear in mind the old saying: “The only free
cheese is in a mousetrap.”
It’s not hard to figure out just how this particular mousetrap
works.
What you get ‘for free’ is the opportunity to stay in elegant
lodgings. Upon arriving you discover that they really do look
like the photos in the brochures. The catch is, you have to
pay for the airline ticket, your food and all the ‘incidentals’.
A few days into your stay you realise that this ‘free’ vaca-
tion is ending up costing you quite a bit more than the full
price of a stay at some other comparable resort. It’s all very
simple: your ‘free stay 5 is paid for by a host of surcharges on
a range of food and other services. These surcharges cover,
by the way, the agents standing on the street-corners and the
so-called ‘free’ presentation, the colour brochures they hand
you, not to mention the company’s profit.
Of course, for those with lots of money to spare, it doesn’t
make too much difference. The only bad thing you might feel
is the unpleasant sensation of being made a fool of. It is quite
a different matter when an average Russian wage-earner of
modest means, one who has spent a whole year saving for such
Free holidays in Hawaii
103
a trip, takes the bait and, instead of going to see his mother or
for a holiday at a Russian resort, hands over his hard-earned
savings to these foreign smart-asses and like a fool spends two
weeks in lodgings designed for fools like him.
Gentlemen from abroad, where did this attitude of disre-
spect for us Russians come from? As I was looking at the sales
kiosks on our streets filled with imported goods, even import-
ed bottled water, I remembered how it had been the same way
on my ships, but back then I had never really thought about
what was behind it. I was listening to radio reports about the
suspicious quality of the chicken legs on sale all over the coun-
try, as well as about bottled water with fancy labels promoting
its healing mineral properties, belying the fact that this stuff,
sold in our stores, was simply tap water with suspicious ad-
ditives. I was noticing the huge number of signs advertising
how you could refresh your strength with a ‘hot dog’, as if all
of Moscow and even all of Russia had suddenly made these
rubber sausages their national dish, and wondering why this
had never struck me before as it did now.
I remembered the respect and enthusiasm with which we’d
greeted visiting entrepreneurs from abroad at the beginning
of perestroika. I remembered how I’d organised business cruis-
es down the River Ob for them on my ship, and how the Sibe-
rian entrepreneurs tried as hard as they could to provide them
with the highest-quality service. Of course not all the visitors
were the same, but what did we gain in the long term?
So, where are you, entrepreneurs of Russia? The ones that
should be making our country flourish?!
Chapter Seventeen
At the very beginning of perestroika, when the first law on co-
operatives in the USSR was enacted, many saw it as a call to
action. And a lot of young people, as well as many not so young
but invariably full of energy and desire to really do something
for themselves and their country literally threw themselves
into the fray And immediately found themselves surrounded
by a hostile, pestering crowd.
“Down with them!” the crowd shouted. “Bourgeois smart-
asses! What did we fight for, anyway?”
And even though many of Russia’s pioneer entrepreneurs
ended up working round the clock, pouring in a colossal amount
of energy not to mention their unique wit and inventiveness,
hardly any of their efforts met with so much as a ‘thank you’.
The modicum of support they required was usually provided
only by intercommunication and interaction with each other.
Then a concept was born — it literally came out of thin
air — the idea of creating a Union of USSR Co-operators. I
was part of the pilot group initiating the project, along with
the well-known Russian entrepreneur Artem Tarasov . 1
'Artem [pronounced: art-YOM} Mikhailovich Tarasov (1950-) — a promi-
nent Russian entrepreneur, one of the first Soviet ‘co-operators’. An engi-
neer by profession, in 1989 he proclaimed himself the first legal millionaire
in the USSR, and the following year he was elected as a deputy of Russia’s
Supreme Soviet (nominal Parliament). He founded dozens of business ven-
tures, including Russia’s leading business newspaper Kommersant and the
Transaero airline. After years of suppression by the state, Tarasov emigrated
to London, In 2004 he published a book of memoirs entitled The million-
aire , exposing the corruption of Russia’s ruling elite.
The beginning of perestroika
105
Most of us at the time were Communists. At the first en-
trepreneurs’ congress I was elected secretary of the congress’s
Party Committee. I tried to explain to our overseer from the
Communist Party Central Committee, Comrade Kolosovsky,
that it was incredibly difficult for entrepreneurs to work un-
der such pestering. We needed first and foremost the Party’s
moral support. But I soon realised that we were going to be
facing hostility and pestering from a segment of the ordinary
public, as well as high- and low-ranking officials, for a long
time to come. We could not look to the higher echelons of
the Central Committee for any outward show of support,
since they were afraid of losing popularity — already their
power was greatly diminished compared to the heyday of So-
viet communism. An internal struggle had apparently begun
and was now in full swing.
In addition, entrepreneurs had begun to feel mounting
pressure from a tax squeeze. And today, with maybe one or
two exceptions, not a single business can keep afloat if it duti-
fully pays all the required taxes. Realising this, many of them
have managed to escape the tax squeeze by using all sorts of
tricky loop-holes. But in doing this they have landed them-
selves in an even more precarious situation — being outside
the law Attempt after attempt to make officials on various
levels see the absurdity of the prevailing tax system have not
exactly been crowned with success. Indeed, they could not
be, since the ones who initiated the system (and this is my
own personal assumption) understand better than anyone else
the impossibility of paying all the taxes, but this was exactly
what they needed. Needed for what? For power, of course!
For extortion!
One false step and you can be instantly ground to powder,
outlawed by tax police and inspectors.
I felt sorry for the first entrepreneurs of perestroika, as well
as for Russia’s current crop of businessmen. I decided to do for
io 6 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
them whatever lay within my powers. I went to the League of
Russian Co-operators and Entrepreneurs, originally headed
by Vladimir Alexandrovich Tikhonov , 2 whom we had elected
to the post in perestroika ’ s early days. The League’s executive
Presidium still maintained a headquarters, but many of the
offices were empty. Vladimir Alexandrovich had died a year
and a half earlier. I was told that the Chairman of the Russian
Business Round Table, Ivan Kivilidi , 3 had been poisoned, to-
gether with his secretary, just six months ago. Artem Tarasov
had resigned from the League, and the organisation’s mem-
bership was only a shadow of its former self.
Thanks to my acquaintance with one of three remaining
League executives, my request for space in one of the empty
offices was granted, along with two telephones, a computer
and a fax machine. Since the League had no organisational
funds available, I was pretty much on my own. To save time
and hotel expenses, I used the office for my sleeping quarters
as well. I was awakened every morning at six o’clock by the
arrival of the cleaning lady, and the absence of a TV allowed
me to work most evenings right up ’til midnight. This sudden
shift in living conditions — from a luxury ship’s cabin (where
anything I wanted to eat or drink was only a bell ring away) to
a drab office not designed for living accommodation — in no
way embarrassed me. In many respects it actually afforded
me greater opportunities to pursue my work.
vladimir Alexandrovich Tikhonov (1927-1994) — academician of the Lenin
Agricultural Academy and co-author of the innovative legislation on Rus-
sian co-operatives mentioned above.
3 Ivan Kbarlampievich Kivilidi (1949-1995) — an entrepreneur of Greek de-
scent, at one time said to be the richest man in Russia. Kivilidi was an out-
spoken advocate of political and economic reform. In 1993 he founded an
influential “Russian Business Round Table” to forward the interests of Rus-
sian entrepreneurial elite in the political arena. The poison which killed
him and his secretary was delivered by a breath-activated substance placed
in his office telephone receivers.
The beginning of perestroika 107
I spent my time thinking out and drafting a constitution
for a Fellowship of Entrepreneurs, along with compiling let-
ters of appeal — these I sent out by fax in the early hours of
the morning, when the communication lines weren’t as busy
By hook or by crook, malting use of both newspaper adverts
and chance encounters, I gathered together a secretariat of
various Moscow professionals who shared my enthusiasm for
the project and realised its significance.
The secretariat also included three Moscow university
students. First there came Anton Nikolaikin, who had been
called in to fix a broken computer. Later, after learning of our
work on organising the Fellowship, he brought along two of
his friends, Artem Semenov and Alexey Novichkov They im-
mediately began work on encoding the electronic version of
the Golden Catalogue of Russia f for which they were able to put
together a highly professional computer programme.
4 Golden Catalogue of Russia (in Russian: Zolotoi katalog Rossii) — a reference
to the Fellowship’s proposed directory of member enterprises.
Chapter Eighteen
The idea of a Fellowship meant that it would be open to any
entrepreneurs who had been active in the Russian market for
at least a year, and were sincerely striving to develop honest
relationships not only with each other but with their clients
and employees. Representatives of various non-profit socie-
ties tried to persuade me that today’s entrepreneurs were cool
to the idea of any form of organisation, that the age of faith-
based euphoria had passed, and that membership in societies
one could join simply by paying a modest fee had diminished
catastrophically. They argued, furthermore, that the idea of
organising a Fellowship with additional requirements involv-
ing the ethical standards of both the entrepreneur and the
enterprise was simply absurd.
My old friend Ar tern Tarasov, having heard about my arrival
in Moscow and what I was up to, came to one of the ‘round ta-
bles’. He set to work on drafting documents, including an ap-
peal to entrepreneurs. He laid out several thousands of dollars
so I could make up glossy brochures to give out to delegates at
a small-business congress' being organised in Moscow.
1 small-business congress — a reference to the First All-Russian Congress of
Small Business Representatives held on 19-21 February 1996 in the pres-
tigious Kremlin Palace of Congresses in Moscow. This high-profile event,
organised by several government agencies and the Chamber of Commerce
of the Russian Federation, featured an address by Russian president Bo-
ris Yeltsin. To the entrepreneurs’ disappointment, however, many of the
promises of government support to small business voiced during the con-
gress were never fulfilled.
Fellowship of Russian entrepreneurs 109
But the congress organisers decided not to allow any bro-
chures on the Fellowship to be handed out, no doubt fearing
competition from us. As a result, secretarial staff and stu-
dents positioned themselves just outside the entrances to the
Rossiya Hotel, 2 trying to hand delegates folders containing
the brochures. They stood there withstanding both the cold
and attempts to chase them away by the militia, who thought
some kind of illegal selling might be taking place. Artem
Tarasov still managed to take a package of brochures into the
Kremlin Palace of Congresses, where the congress was being
held — though, unfortunately, only a rather small quantity
The operation we had placed so many of our hopes on end-
ed in failure. Organising the Fellowship was proving to be an
impossibility The difficulty was that getting the necessary
information out to all the entrepreneurs across the country
required a huge outlay of roubles on printing and postage
costs, since favourable responses were coming in from only
ten percent of the people we managed to reach. The required
funds were simply not available.
Besides, the League executive kept back a portion of the
membership fees as office-space rent, as they had no other
source of funds. Sensing some sort of snag, the League
stopped giving out money for organisational expenses alto-
gether, in spite of the fact that the membership fees had been
specifically earmarked for organisational expenses.
The League needed to use the entrepreneurs’ membership
fees just to cover operating costs, they explained. Then they
began holding back wage payments for the secretarial staff. I
was obliged to vacate the League’s premises, leaving behind
my second computer which had been purchased with funds
from the entrepreneurs who had joined the Fellowship.
~ Rossiya Hotel — a large hotel complex in downtown Moscow, across from
the Kremlin and Red Square, overlooking the Moskva River.
no Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“How come?” queried the students in bewilderment — stu-
dents who had spent hours working out computer programmes
at their own expense. “We’ve been doing the work which this
non-profit organisation, according to its own constitution, is
supposed to carry out, and here they’re treating us like ten-
ants, and spitting on the entrepreneurs in the process.”
The League executive argued: “The office rent must be
paid.”
With what was left of the secretarial staff, I tried to carry
on the work out of one of the entrepreneurial trades union
offices, but the same situation repeated itself there.
After getting to know the leaders of several non-profit or-
ganisations, I suddenly realised that they all had titles, but
no membership, something like the so-called ‘sofa parties’, 3
existing only for the benefit of their executives. While this
was not true of the Farmers and Peasants Association, headed
by Vladimir Bashmachnikov (and there may be other excep-
tions), this was the general state of affairs at the time.
Even today there is no non-profit organisation in Russia
bringing together any significant number of entrepreneurs,
and those that do exist are of the ‘sofa party’ variety. Why?
Among the possible causes I would include the anonymity of
membership fees.
For some reason it always happens that once an executive
body is created, it starts making decisions on behalf of entre-
preneurs without consulting the majority.
Walking away from the trades-union office, I now found
myself without any means of communication and without an-
ything to live on. Artem Tarasov had by this time emigrated
to London. He had tried to get himself on the ballot for the
3 sofa parties (in Russian: divannye partii) — political parties (or non-profit so-
cieties) with the trappings of a registered organisation, but created merely
to advance the interests of one individual or a small group.
Fellowship of Russian entrepreneurs
hi
Russian presidency and had spent billions of roubles collect-
ing the required signatures, but when the Central Election
Committee invalidated most of those signatures, Artem was
obliged to look after repairing his own financial affairs.
The local residents working in the secretariat, not receiv-
ing any pay, were obliged to quit.
I was left all alone. Or rather, I thought I had been left all
alone. But three Moscow students weren’t about to abandon
the work they had started: Anton, Artem and Lyosha. Anton
actually used his own holiday savings to pay the monthly rent
on an apartment for me. They were willing to wait until I
sought and found a way out of my present circumstances and
could continue my work on creating the Fellowship. They
had got caught up by the whole idea. They believed in it. But
I could see nothing ahead but a dead end.
It was right at this time that some news arrived from Nov-
osibirsk.
Chapter Nineteen
One evening a man from Novosibirsk dropped by to see me.
He was in Moscow on some business of his own. He brought
along a bottle of vodka and some light snacks. We sat in the
kitchen of my one-room flat, and he told me about how things
stood with my family and my company
The situation was indeed deplorable. My firm had had to
give up one of its offices in the centre of the city for lack of
funds to pay the rent. Our automobile spare-parts store had
had to close. The workers there tried selling shoes, but their
debts only increased. The entire responsibility fell on my
shoulders.
‘And here you’re up to goodness-knows-what. A lot of people
are saying you’ve gone mad. You should have worked out things
at the company first and then gone off and done your own thing,
whatever it is. Nobody there has faith in you any more.”
As we were finishing off the bottle, he asked me:
“You want me to tell you my honest opinion — what they
expect of you?”
“Go ahead,” I replied.
“They would like you to do away with yourself, or at least
disappear for good. You be the judge — it’s impossible to start
anything now without any seed capital, and here not only do
you not have any seed capital, you don’t even have enough to
live on. And your debts have been building up like crazy.
“You know, nobody’s ever heard of someone climbing out of a
hole like that. But with you out of the picture, your death will set-
tle everything, and they can divide up what’s left of your estate.
Suicide ?
”3
“Your wife says that according to the horoscope you’re a
Leo, and you’ve just been wasting your whole life away, so you
should die in poverty, just like in the horoscope.
“Come on, now, why did you undertake that second expe-
dition? Nobody can figure it out.”
In spite of the fact that we were both pretty drunk, when I
awoke the next morning I had a clear recollection of the whole
conversation. His arguments were forceful and convincing.
Novosibirsk was a dead end; there was a dead-end situation
here in Moscow too. People who had worked alongside me
were suffering, my family was suffering. I couldn’t possibly
find a way out and fix everything — there was simply no way
out. Only my death could put an end to the suffering.
Of course suicide is never the right thing to do. But accord-
ing to the logic of events, my suicide would relieve the suffering
of others, and if that was the case, then he was right, and I had
no right to live. And so I decided to do away with myself. The
thought of it even brought comfort to me. I was freed from
the need to undertake a torturous search for a way out of my
present situation, since I agreed that death was the way out.
I cleaned up the apartment a bit and wrote the landlady a
note to say I wouldn’t be back. I decided to go to the trades-
union office to put the Fellowship files in order. Someone —
okay, maybe not now, but later, perhaps — would carry on
with the work.
The only question was: how would I do away with myself
when I didn’t even have enough money to buy the poison?
Then I really began thinking: maybe it shouldn’t look like sui-
cide... Maybe I’ll go take a dip in the river, just like the ‘wal-
ruses’,’ and I’ll jump through a hole in the ice and drown. So
I headed off toward the Moskva River.
'walruses — the name given to the many hardy souls who brave the icy wa-
ters of Russia’s lakes and rivers in the middle of winter (akin to ‘Polar Bears’
in Canada and America).
1X4 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
As I was making my way through an underground passage-
way at the Pushkinskaya metro station, my ear all at once
caught a familiar melody It was being played by two young
girls on their violins. An open violin-case lay on the pave-
ment in front of them and passers-by were tossing in money
Alot of buskers make extra money like that at metro stations.
But the way these two girls were playing their sweet melody
amidst the bustle of noisy pedestrians and the screeching of
trains in the background caused many a passer-by to slow
down and listen. As for me, I couldn’t help but stop dead
in my tracks. The violin bows were echoing a melody I had
heard only once before — in the Siberian taiga — a melody
sung by Anastasia.
Back there in the taiga, I had once asked her to sing some-
thing of her own — a song I’d never heard before, and she came
out with this extraordinary, unusual captivating melody with-
out words. She started by screaming like a newborn baby. Then
her voice began sounding ever so quiet and tender. She stood
beneath a tree, her hands clasped to her breast, and it seemed
as though her voice was a lullaby, gently caressing a little baby,
trying to tell him something. Her voice was so quiet it caused
everything around to be still and listen. Then she seemed to
be filled with delight at the little one waking from sleep, and
her voice took off with rejoicing. The incredibly high-pitched
sounds and cascading trills soared and took flight to the heav-
ens, radiating through space and delighting all around...
I asked the girls:
“What were you playing?”
They exchanged glances and one of them said:
“I was just sort of improvising.”
And the other chimed in:
“And I was just playing along.”
Here in Moscow, caught up as I was with the idea of set-
ting up the Fellowship of Entrepreneurs, which had become
Suicide ?
115
the main focus of my life, I had almost completely forgotten
about Anastasia. And now, on the last day of my life, as though
to say farewell, here she was reminding me of her existence.
“Please, play some more, the way you were playing before!”
I asked the girls.
“Well try,” the older one replied.
And there I stood in the metro station passageway, listen-
ing to the captivating melody of the violins and remembering
the glade in the taiga and thinking:
Anastasia! Anastasia ! Its much too complicated to make all that
you thought up come true in real life. It’s one thing to dream — quite
another to turn the dream into reality. Some son of mistake must
have crept in as you were working out your plan: organise a fellow-
ship of entrepreneurs, write a book...
I felt as though a flood had hit me. Repeating these last
two phrases over and over again, I felt there was something
out of place there, something wasn’t right. Back there in the
taiga — in the taiga... the words had been spoken not quite
the same way, but how? How else could they have been said?
As I continued repeating them, I happened to switch the
word order and heard myself saying: “Write a book, organise
a fellowship of entrepreneurs.”
But of course! The book should have been written first!
The book was supposed to settle all these questions and, most
importantly, spread information about the fellowship! Yikes,
how much time I realised I’d wasted and, in the meantime,
look at how complicated my personal life had become!
All right, then. I’ll get busy, I thought. At least nowit’s clear
just what I should be busy at. It’s absurd, of course — some-
one who doesn’t know how to write, writing a book, espe-
cially one he expects people to actually read! But Anastasia
had faith it would work out. She kept trying to convince me.
Okay That means I’ve really, really got to try now And I’ve
got to see it through to the end!
Chapter Twenty
I decided to go back to my apartment. Moscow was already
feeling the touch of spring. All that remained in the kitch-
en was half a bottle of sunflower-seed oil and some sugar. I
needed to replenish my larder and decided to sell my winter
shapka, 1 which was made of mink. It was a real mink hat, not
imitation, and cost a great deal.
Of course, the winter weather was almost over now, but I
thought I might get at least something for it, so I headed for
one of Moscow’s many outdoor markets. I went up to various
merchants selling fruit and other goods. They looked at the
shapka, but were in no hurry to buy it. I had already decided to
lower the price when two men approached me. They turned
the shapka over in their hands, feeling the fur.
“I need to try it on. Go see if you can borrow a mirror
somewhere,” one of them said to his companion and suggest-
ed I follow him off to one side.
We reached a secluded spot at the end of a row of stalls and
stopped to wait for his companion with the mirror. We didn’t
have to wait long. He crept up stealthily from behind, and
the blow on the back of my head first caused me to see stars,
then my whole vision went blurry. I managed to grab hold of
a fence to stop myself from falling to the ground, but when
I came to, my ‘buyers’ were nowhere to be seen. The shapka,
1 shapka — a warm fur hat, often with ear-flaps (tied up on top when not too
cold); the commonest form of headgear during Russian winters.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“7
too, was gone. Only a couple of women were there, making
sympathetic oohs and ahs.
‘Are you okay? Awful bastards, those. Here’s a crate — you
can sit down for a bit.”
I stayed standing against the fence for a while longer and
then slowly made my way out of the market area. A spring
drizzle was falling. I was about to cross a street and stopped
on the kerb to look both ways. There was a painful ringing
in my head. I wasn’t watching, and a passing car sprayed me
with water from a puddle, thoroughly wetting my trousers
and windbreaker flaps.
I was trying to figure out what to do next when a truck
whizzed by, covering me with more spray from the same pud-
dle, and this time the spray flew right into my face. I stepped
back from the kerb and took refuge from the rain under the
awning of one of the commercial kiosks, and tried to think
my next plan of action.
There was no way, I realised, I could get into a metro sta-
tion looking like this. It was three stops to my apartment.
Sure I could walk it, but the way I looked I still might get
picked up by the police, thinking 1 was a drunk, or a tramp,
or just a suspicious person. Then you stand there, trying to
explain and justify yourself while they investigate your case.
What could I tell them anyway? Who am I now?
And then I saw this man.
He was shuffling slowly along the sidewalk, carrying two
cases of empty bottles. He looked like one of those tramps
or boozers who often circulate among kiosks that sell spirits
on tap. Our eyes met. He stopped, put down his cases on the
sidewalk and struck up a conversation with me.
“What are you standing there looking at? This is my terri-
tory On your way!” he said quietly, though not without an air
of authority.
Not wanting to argue with him or cross him — indeed, not
n8 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
having the strength to do so, I replied:
“I don’t need your territory I’ll just gather myself together
and leave.”
But he continued:
‘And where will you go?”
“None of your business where I’m going. I’ll just leave.
That’s it.”
‘And will you make it?”
“I’ll make it, if I’m not interfered with. Leave me alone!”
“The way you look you won’t either stand very long or walk
very far.”
“What’s that to you?”
“You haven’t got a home to go to?”
“What?”
‘A novice, eh? Okay, wait here a moment.”
He picked up his cases and walked off. He came back a
moment later with a wrapped parcel and again started speak-
ing to me.
“Follow me.”
“Where are we going?”
“To a place where you can rest for a couple of hours, or
maybe ’til morning. You can get yourself dried out. Then you
can proceed on your way”
Following after him, I asked:
“Is your apartment close by?”
Without turning his head he responded:
“You couldn’t get to my ‘apartment’ if you walked your
whole life long. I don’t have any apartment. I have my ‘de-
ployment quarters’.”
We walked up to a door leading to the basement of a multi-
storey block of flats. He told me to stand over to one side
while he looked around, waiting until none of the tenants
were to be seen, then stuck something that looked like a key
in the lock and opened the door.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia 1 19
It was warmer in the basement than on the street. Heat
came from hot-water pipes which had been deliberately
stripped of their insulation, probably by tramps. On the floor
in one corner stood a pile of rags, illuminated by a dim light
filtering in through a dust-covered basement window. But we
went on past them into a far corner which stood empty
He unwrapped the parcel and brought out a bottle of min-
eral water and uncapped it. Taking a swallow of water in his
mouth, he sprayed it all around, as though from an atomiser.
“That’s to keep the dust down!” he explained.
Then he slightly moved a divider standing in the corner to
one side. From the narrow space between the divider and the
wall he took out two sheets of plywood covered with plastic,
along with several pieces of plastic-covered cardboard. He
used them to lay out two makeshift bunks on the floor. Taking
an old food tin from the corner, he lit the candle it was holding.
The lid of the tin was not completely detached; it was clean
and bent slightly upward in a semicircle to serve as a reflector.
This primitive device illuminated the edges of the bunks and
the half-metre of space between them. Here he spread out a
sheet of newspaper, on which he started laying the contents of
the parcel — cheese, bread and two packages of kefir . 2
Neatly slicing the cheese, he issued an invitation:
“What are you standing there for? Come on, sit down.
Take off your jacket, hang it over the pipe. When it dries
out, well clean it. I’ve got a brush. Your trousers will dry out
without taking them off. Try not to wrinkle them.”
Then he brought out two drams 3 of vodka, and we sat down
to eat. In contrast to the dirty basement floor all around us,
the corner my companion had managed to set up for himself
had an air of cleanliness and coziness.
‘ kefir — a popular drink made of thick fermented cow’s or goat’s milk, often
sold in cardboard packages.
120
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
After we clinked glasses, he introduced himself:
“Call me Ivan. Nobody here bothers with patronymics.”
The way he improvised the bunks and set out the food on
the newspaper, despite the dirty floor, created a clean and
cozy atmosphere in his basement comer.
“I don’t suppose you have anything softer to lie on?” I asked
after supper.
“You can’t even keep rags down here — they only get dirty,
and then they start to smell... I’ve got neighbours over in
that corner. Two of them... they show up from time to time.
They’ve made one hell of a dirty mess.”
We got involved in conversation. I started answering his
questions, and in doing so I ended up inadvertently telling
him about my meeting with Anastasia — her lifestyle and her
abilities — about her ray, her dreams and aspirations.
He was the first person I had talked with about Anastasia!
I myself don’t know why I told him about all her eccentrici-
ties, about her dream and how I promised to help her. I had
indeed tried to set up a fellowship of pure-minded entrepre-
neurs, but had made a major mistake. I should have written
a book first.
“Now I’ll set about writing one and try to get it published,”
I affirmed. ‘Anastasia said the book would be needed first.”
‘Are you really confident you can write it and get it pub-
lished without any funds?”
“I don’t know whether I’m confident or not. But I shall
certainly work in that direction.”
“That means you have a goal, and you’re going to go for it?”
^In the mid-1990s ‘drams’ of vodka were actually sold in what appeared to
be plastic yoghurt cups, complete with a metal foil cover. This packaging
enabled heavy drinkers to dispense with the need for a glass or to find a co-
drinker to split the cost of a bottle, and thereby gained tremendous popu-
larity
The Ringing Cedars of Russia
121
“I’m going to try.”
‘And you’re sure you’ll make it?”
“I’m going to try.”
“Yeah, a book. You’ll be needing a good artist to do the
cover. Someone who can do it with heart. In line with the
meaning of the book, with the goal. And where’re you going
to find an artist if you haven’t got any money?”
“I’ll have to do without an artist. Without a fancy cover.”
“You should do it up brown, with a cover that really fits in
with the book. If I had good paper, brushes and paints, I’d
help you. Only those things cost a lot now.”
“You mean to say you’re an artist? Professional?”
“I’m an officer. But I’ve loved drawing and painting since
childhood. I joined various art groups. Whenever I could
steal some time, I’d paint pictures and give them to friends.”
“Well, why did you go and become an officer if you still
wanted to paint all these years?”
“My great-grandfather was an officer, my grandfather and
my father too. I loved and respected my father. I knew — I
felt — what he wanted me to be. So I tried to be that. And I
made it all the way to colonel.”
“Where did you serve?”
“Mainly in the KGB. That’s where I resigned from.”
“Through attrition or were you forced out?”
“It was my decision. Just couldn’t take it any more.”
“What couldn’t you take?”
“You know the popular song: Oh officers, officers, your
heart is underfire. ” 4
4 0 /j officers, o fficers, your heart is under fire (in Russian: Ofitsery, ofitsery, vashe
serdtse pod pritselom ) — from an extremely popular song written by singer-
songwriter Oleg Gazmanov (1951-) in 1994, which stayed several years at
the top of the charts. The song extols the virtue of soldiers defending their
country, and takes note of the challenges faced by Russian officers in a post-
communist era.
122
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“They tried to kill you? They made an attempt on your life?
Did they shoot at you, maybe to settle some kind of score?”
“Officers often get shot at. It’s an age-old story, officers
meeting up with bullets. Going to the defence of those be-
hind them. Going along, not suspecting their own hearts
were under fire, not suspecting the fatal shot to come from
behind. An accurate shot. An exploding bullet. And straight
to the heart.”
“How so?”
“Remember the pr e-perestroika times? The celebrations —
First of May, Seventh of November ? 5 Huge columns of peo-
ple crying “Hurrah!”, “Glory to...!”, “Long live...!” Me and the
other officers, not just those from the KGB, were proud of
the fact that we were the defenders of our people. We were
protecting them. For most officers, this was their whole rea-
son for living.
“Then came perestroika, and glasnost . 6 Other shouts began
to be heard. And it turned out that we, the KGB officers,
were bastards, executioners. We were defending the wrong
people and the wrong things. The ones that earlier marched
in Soviet columns under red banners had gone over to march
-’First of May, Seventh of November — two of the biggest Soviet holidays: 1
May : International Workers’ Solidarity Day, a communist version of Labour
Day, originally commemorating the Chicago General Strike of 1886; first
celebrated in Russia (St. Petersburg) in 1S91. 7 November: the date of the
Bolshevik Revolution. Parades on these days featured huge banners with
communist slogans such as “Glory to the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union!” and ‘Long live the brotherhood of nations of the USSR!”; these
slogans would be shouted out on cue by the parading masses of workers
and soldiers.
6 glasnost — literally, ‘openness’, ‘transparency 1 , meaning greater freedom of
speech and especially greater availability of information on socially impor-
tant matters, access to which had previously been reserved for the ruling
elite. This and perestroika (‘restructuring’) became universal buzzwords to
describe Gorbachev’s liberal policies.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia
123
in other columns under different banners, and we got left to
take the blame.
“I had a wife, nine years younger than me, a real beauty I
loved her. Still do. She was so proud of me. We had a son,
an only child. He came along... rather late, how shall I say it?
Now he’s seventeen. In the beginning he too was proud of
me, he respected me.
“Then, after this whole business started, my wife became
very quiet. She wouldn’t look me in the eye. She began to
be ashamed of me. I handed in my resignation and took a
job as a security guard at a commercial bank. I hid my KGB
uniform where nobody would find it. But there were unasked
questions still hanging in the air over my wife and son. You
can’t answer questions which haven’t been asked. They saw
the answers in the papers and on TV screens. Turned out, we
officers were involved in nothing but our dachas — and, of
course, oppression.”
“But,” I interjected, “they showed on TV some pretty fancy
dachas of the military elite — and they showed the real thing,
not just faked pictures.”
“Yeah, they showed the real thing, not just faked pictures.
Only those dachas were sleazy chicken-houses compared to
what many of those who accused their owners have themselves
today Look at you — you had a whole ship at your disposal.
That’s a lot bigger than a general’s dacha. And don’t forget, that
general was once a cadet, he dug trenches. Then he became a
lieutenant, got shifted about from barracks to barracks. And
naturally he wanted to have a house and a dacha for his family,
just like everyone else. And who knows how many times he
had to jump out of his warm bed in the middle of the night in
that same dacha, to go out on an emergency mission.
“Officers used to be respected in Russia. They were reward-
ed with an estate. Now it’s been decided that a simple dacha
with 1500 square metres of land is too much for a general!”
I2 4
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Everybody lived differently before,” I observed.
“Differently... Yes, everybody... But you can’t tell me it
wasn’t the officers who were singled out for blame ahead of
everyone else.
“It was the officers who demonstrated on the Senate
Square.'' They were thinking of the people. These officers
were later sent either to the scaffold or to the mines in Sibe-
ria. Nobody stood up to defend them.
“Later Russian officers fought for the Tsar and the Father-
land in the trenches against the Germans. And back home
‘revolutionary patriots’ were already getting bullets ready
for their hearts more terrible than the leaden ones. White
Guards , s Monsters — that was what they called the officers re-
turning from the war — officers who were simply trying to
maintain order. There was chaos all around, everything was
falling apart. All our former values, both material and spiritu-
al, were being either torched or trampled upon. It was so hard
for them, those White Guard officers. So they put on clean
underwear under their uniforms 9 and went on a psychological
attack. You know what’s meant by ‘psychological attack’?”
“It’s when you try to scare the hell out of your opponent.
I’ve seen It in films. In Chapaev , 10 for example, the White
Senate Square , now known as Decembrists’ Square — a large square not far
from the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, where a significant number of
military officers demonstrated (unsuccessfully) against the Tsarist govern-
ment in December 1825. The officers were either exiled or executed for
treason.
s
’ White Guards — the name given to military personnel who fought against
the Bolshevik Revolution and during the subsequent Civil War (1918-23).
The pro-Bolshevik soldiers were known as the Reds.
9 clean underwear under their uniforms — a sign that the officers expected to
be killed in battle that day
10 Chapaev — a classic Russian film, made in 1934, telling the story of Vasily
Ivanovich Chapaev, a Red Army hero of the Russian Civil War.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia
125
Guard officers are advancing in formation, and they get
strafed by machine-gun fire. Some fall, but the others close
ranks and keep advancing.”
“ Yeah, that’s it. They fall and still keep advancing. But the
thing is that they weren’t really ‘attacking’ to begin with.”
“How so? What was the point of advancing then?”
“In military practice the whole reason for, the goal of any
attack is either the capture or the physical annihilation of the
enemy — preferably with the least possible loss in the ranks
of the attackers. To keep advancing against strafing from
machine-guns concealed in trenches — that was only done
when there was another goal set, either consciously or subcon-
sciously”
“What goal?”
“Maybe, and this goes against the logic of the art of war,
it was to demonstrate something to the enemy even at the
cost of one’s own life — to make the soldiers firing the guns
and killing the advancing marchers stop and think, to realise
something and not fire at others.”
“So, in that case their death would be something like Jesus
Christ’s death on the cross?”
“Something like that. We still manage to remember Christ,
somehow The young cadets and generals who advanced
against their attackers, we’ve forgotten. Maybe even now
their souls, dressed in clean underwear under their officers’
uniforms, are standing in front of the bullets we’re firing, and
pleading with us, calling on us, to stop and think.”
“Why would they be calling to us? When they were being
fired on, we weren’t even born.”
“No, we weren’t. But bullets are still flying around today.
New bullets. Who, if not us, is doing the firing?”
“Indeed. Bullets are still flying around today And just why
have they been flying around all these years? Why did you
leave home?”
126 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“I couldn’t stand the way he stared at me.”
“The way who stared at you?”
“We were watching TV one night. My wife was in the
kitchen, and my son and I were watching together. Then
one of those political programmes came on, they started
talking about the KGB. You know, a real smear campaign. I
deliberately picked up a newspaper and made it look like I
was reading, as though I wasn’t interested in what they were
saying. I was hoping my son would switch to another pro-
gramme. He’s never been interested in politics. He likes
music.
“But he didn’t change the channel. I rustled my paper,
stealing glances at him out of the corner of my eye. And I saw
him sitting in the chair, his hands gripping the arms of the
chair so tight they turned white. He didn’t move a muscle. I
realised he wasn’t going to change the channel. I held on as
long as I could, hiding behind the paper. Then I couldn’t take
it any more. I smashed the paper into a ball and threw it to
one side, got up sharply and yelled: ‘Are you going to turn the
damn thing off? Are you?'
‘My son also got up. But he didn’t go over to the TV. He
stood opposite me, stared me in the eye and said nothing.
The TV programme was still going. But my son just kept on
staring at me.
“Later that night I wrote them a note. I said I was going
away for a while — had no choice. And then I left for good.”
“Why for good?”
“ Because
For a long time neither of us uttered a word. I tried to
make myself a bit more comfortable on the bunk so I could
drift off. But then the colonel started talking again.
“So, you tell me Anastasia said she’d bring people through
‘the dark forces’ window of time’? She’d bring them through,
and that’s it?!”
The Ringing Cedars of Russia
127
“Yeah, that’s what she said. And she herself believes that
she can make it happen.”
‘Ah, she should have a hand-picked regiment. I’d become
a soldier again to serve in that regiment.”
“What’s this about a regiment?” I retorted. “You didn’t get
it. She rejects the use of force. She wants to persuade people
by some other means. She’s trying to do that with her Ray.”
“I think, or rather I feel, that she’s going to do it. There’s a
lot of people that will want to be warmed by her Ray But not
many of them will understand that they themselves will have
to put in something from their own brain-power. Anastasia
needs help. She’s all alone. She hasn’t got even a single pla-
toon at her command. So, you see, she’s recruited you, she’s
commissioned you — and here you are lying in a basement
like a tramp. And you call yourself entrepreneur after that?”
“Well, you KGB-er, you’re lying here, too.”
“Okay, go to sleep, soldier.”
“It’s rather cold in your ‘barracks’.”
“Well, that’s the way it is, isn’t it? Curl up into a ball, con-
serve your heat.”
Then he got up and took out from behind the divider yet
another plastic bag. He got something out of it to cover me
with. In the dim light of the candle I could see shining right
under my nose three stars on the epaulet of a greatcoat. It
was warm under the coat, and I fell asleep.
I was half asleep when I heard the tramps come in and
head for their rag corner. They demanded the colonel hand
them over a bottle for my overnight stay. He promised to set-
tle it in the morning, but they insisted, threateningly that he
better pay up now, or else. The colonel then moved his bunk,
placing it between me and the newcomer tramps, declaring:
“You touch him only over my dead body!” And he lay down
on his bunk, shielding me from the new arrivals. Then every-
thing went quiet again. I felt warm and peaceful.
128
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
I was awakened by the colonel’s shaking my shoulder.
“Get up. Turnout! We gotta get outa here.”
The first rays of dawn were barely beginning to show them-
selves through the dim basement window I sat up on my
bunk. Not only did I have a splitting headache but I found I
had trouble breathing.
“It’s still early The dawn hasn’t even broken,” I observed.
“Alittle longer and it’ll be too late. They’ve lit some cotton-
wool with powder. It’s an old trick. A little longer and we’ll
be suffocated.”
He went to the window and started working the window-
frame loose with an iron bar. The tramps had locked the door
from the outside. Taking out the frame, he broke the glass
and crawled through the aperture. The basement window
opened into a concrete well, covered with a grating. The
colonel began fiddling with the grating, trying to dislodge it,
but somehow it wasn’t working.
I stayed leaning against a wall. My head was spinning. The
colonel stuck his head back through the window opening and
ordered:
“Squat down. Less smoke near the floor. Try not to move.
Breathe in less air.”
He forced the grating out with his shoulders. He moved it
off and helped me clamber out.
We sat on the cement kerb outside the basement window,
silently filling our lungs with the pre-dawn air of an awaken-
ing city The spinning in my head gradually lessened. The air
started feeling cold. Each of us sat there, thinking his own
thoughts.
Then I said:
“Your neighbours aren’t very friendly They’re the ones in
charge here?”
“Everyone’s in charge of himself. They got their own busi-
ness. They bring in a new homeless person, and make him pay
The Ringing Cedars of Russia
129
for staying overnight. If he refuses to pay they slip something
into his drink or suffocate him in his sleep, like they tried to
do to us, and then they take whatever they like from him — if
he’s got anything worth taking, that is.”
‘And you’re telling me that you, a KGB-er, are indifferent
to it all? You could earn yourself some pretty points by giv-
ing chaps like that the once-over. Or were you just a pencil-
pusher, sitting in an office all day? Maybe you didn’t know
how to work the street?”
“I worked in an office and I worked outside the office. I
knew what to do. But to know the moves — that’s not the
same as applying them. A criminal, an enemy — that’s one
thing. But here we’re dealing with human beings. I might
calculate wrong, use too much deadly force.”
“You call those human beings? While you’re rationalising
away, they’re out there robbing people blind. They’re even
ready to commit murder!”
“Yeah, they’re ready to commit murder. But you won’t stop
them by physical means.”
“You sit there philosophising, but we almost died. We
barely managed to escape, others might not be so lucky”
“Yeah, others might not be so lucky...”
“There, you see? Then how come you’re philosophising
and not acting?”
“I can’t use violence on people. You see what I mean, I
could calculate wrong... You may as well get going to your
own ‘deployment quarters’. It’s dawn already.”
I got up, shook his hand, and left.
I had gone but a few steps when he called after me:
“Wait! Come back here a moment.”
I approached the homeless colonel sitting on the concrete
kerb. He was just sitting there, his head lowered, not saying
a word.
“Hey, why did you call me?”
130 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
After a moment’s pause he spoke:
“So, you think you’ll make it okay?”
“I think I can. It’s not far. Three metro stops, that’s all. I’ll
make it.”
“I meant, d’you think you’ll reach your goal? Are you sure?
Writing a book, getting it published?”
“I’ll give it a try First I’ll try writing.”
“So, Anastasia said it should work out for you?”
“That’s what she said.”
“Then why didn’t you do that right off?”
“The other seemed more important.”
“So, that means you’re not good at following orders prop-
erly?”
‘Anastasia didn’t order me, she asked me.”
“She asked you... So, she worked out the tactics and strat-
egy herself. And you thought you’d do it your way and you just
loused things up.”
“That’s how it turned out.”
“That’s how it turned out... You gotta pay closer attention
to your orders. Here, take this.”
He held out something wrapped in a small plastic package.
I unwrapped it and saw, through the clear plastic, a golden
wedding band and a silver cross on a little chain.
“A dealer will give you half-price for these. Let him have
them for half-price. Maybe it’ll help see you through. If
you’ve got nowhere to stay, come back here. I’ll take care of
them"
“What are you talking about? I can’t take these!”
“Don’t rationalise. It’s time for you to go. So go. Look to it!
Just go!”
“I’m telling you, I can’t take them.”
I tried to give him back the ring and the little cross, but I
was met by an authoritative and, at the same time, pleading
stare.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia
131
‘About— face! Forward— march!” he commanded in a
whisper that was restrained, yet brooked no contradiction. A
moment later came another plea:
“Just be sure you make it.”
Arriving at my flat, I felt like going to sleep and even got
to the point of lying down. But I couldn’t get the homeless
colonel out of my head.
I got dressed in some clean clothes and went to see him.
Along the way I thought: Maybe he’ll agree to move in with
me. He’s adaptable to anything. He’s practical and he’s neat.
Besides, he’s an artist. Maybe he’ll do a picture for the book’s
cover. And it’ll be easier to find some rent money if we’re to-
gether. I had no money for the next month’s rent.
As I approached the basement window we had climbed
out of earlier that morning, I saw a group of people — tenants
from the building, a police car and an ambulance.
The homeless colonel was lying on the ground, his eyes
closed and a smile on his face. His face and body were splat-
tered with wet dirt. One dead hand was clenched around a
piece of red brick. A broken wooden crate stood against the
wall.
A court medical assessor was writing something down on a
notepad. He was standing beside the corpse of another man,
dressed in shabby, rumpled clothing, with a disfigured face.
In the little crowd that had gathered, no doubt comprised of
the building’s tenants, one woman was rattling on excitedly:
“...I was walkin’ me dog an’ I saw him, the one smilin’,
perched on the crate, his face to the wall, an’ the three of
’em — tramps, by the look of it — two men an’ a woman
with ’em — comes at him from behind. The man gives the
crate a kick an’ he falls off the crate to the ground. They
starts kickin’ him, cursin’ all the while, they did. I yells at
’em. They stops kickin’ him. Old ‘Smiley’ here, he gets up,
see. He has a pretty hard time gettin’ up too. An’ he tells
132 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
’em to sod off an’ not show their faces around here again.
They starts cursin’ again, an’ then they comes at him full
force. As they gets closer, he gives a straight chop with the
back of his hand right to the throat of the bloke what kicked
the crate. It’s not that he’s wavin’ his arms about or anythin’,
he just lands the other bloke a chop so’s he doubles up an’
can’t breathe. I yells at ’em again an’ two of ’em runs straight
off, see. First the woman, then the man after her. ‘Smiley”s
now clutchin’ at his heart. Fie oughtta sit down or lie down
straight off, if it’s his heart what’s givin’ out, but no, he goes
back to his crate. Moves ever so slowly, he does. Puts his
crate back against the wall. Then he gets back up on it. I
can see he’s in a really bad way. Fie starts failin’. An’ he slides
down, still drawin’ on the wall with that red brick of his, an’
keeps on drawin’ ’til he lands himself on the ground. An’ he’s
lyin’ there face up, right against the wall. I runs over, looks,
an’ he ain’t breathin’. Not breathin’. But he’s sniilinV
“Why did he climb up on the crate?” I asked the woman.
“Yeah, why did he climb up if his heart were givin’ out?”
echoed a voice from the crowd.
“He wanted to keep on drawin’. And when those three
blokes came at him from behind, he was drawin’, that’s what
he was doin’... That’s prob’ly why he didn’t see ’em cornin’.
I’d been walkin’ me dog for a long time, an’ there he is, stan-
din’ on his crate an’ drawin... He didn’t turn ’round, not even
once... You can see what he drew — up there, on the wall!”
And the woman pointed to the building.
On the grey brick wall of the building could be seen the cir-
cular outline of the Sun, and in the middle of it a cedar branch
and, around the perimeter of the Sun-circle, some letters
printed rather unevenly
I went closer to the wall and read: RINGING CEDARS
OF RUSSIA. Apart from that, there were rays emanating
from the Sun. There were only three of them. The homeless
The Ringing Cedars of Russia
133
colonel didn’t manage to draw any more. Two of the rays were
short and straight, while the third was wavy and fading away,
and extended right down to the base of the wall, where the
dead homeless colonel was lying on the ground, s milin g
I looked at the smiling face smeared with dirt and thought
to myself: Maybe in the last moments of his life Anastasia man-
aged to touch him with her Ray, and warm him up. At least
warm his soul up a little and carry it off to a bright infinity
I watched as the corpses were loaded into the ambulance.
‘My colonel was thrown carelessly in the process, his head
striking the floor of the ambulance. I couldn’t take it. I tore
off my jacket, ran over to the ambulance and started demand-
ing they put my jacket under his head. One of the orderlies
swore at me, but the other took the jacket without a word and
placed it under the colonel’s greying head. The vehicles drove
off. Everything was empty, just as if nothing had happened.
I stood there a while, looking at the drawing and inscription
illuminated by the morning sun. My thoughts began getting all
mixed up. I had to do something, at least something for him, for
this KGB-er, a Russian officer who had perished on this spot!
But what? What, indeed?
Then it came to me: I’m going to put your drawing my dear
officer, on the cover of my book. The book I most definitely will
write. Even though I don’t yet know how to write, I’ll still
write one, and not just one. And on all of them I’ll put your
drawing — it’ll be my emblem. And in the book I’ll tell all
Russians:
“My fellow Russians, don’t shoot at the hearts of your of-
ficers with invisible exploding bullets, bullets of cruelty and
heartlessness.
“Don’t shoot from behind at any soldiers — be they White
or Red, or even blue or green, ensigns or generals. The bullets
you fire at them from behind are more terrible than the lead-
en ones. My fellow Russians, do not shoot at your officers!”
Chapter Twenty-One
I wrote quickly; From time to time Anton, Artem or Lyosha,
the student programmers, would drop by and bring me a bite
to eat. I still had not told them about Anastasia. But I ex-
plained to them that the organisation of the Fellowship could
be facilitated with the help of the book I was to write. And
so they set about keyboarding the text of the book into the
computers. It was mainly Lyosha Novichkov who worked on
this. He showed up every three days, bringing a print-out of
his latest keyboarding and talcing home a new chapter of the
manuscript. This went on for about two months.
One day Lyosha showed up with the last printed chapter
of Book i, a diskette with the full text, two bottles of beer,
frankfurters and some other kind of food, along with a little
money, and set it all down on the kitchen table.
“Where did you get all this bounty, Lyosha?” I asked in
amazement.
He lived alone with his mother, on very limited means. He
didn’t always have enough money to buy metro tokens or even
sandwiches.
“It’s exam time, Vladimir Nikolaevich,” Lyosha responded.
“I do drafts for some of the students, I make up computer
programmes for them. For students who can’t do them them-
selves or are too lazy; They pay me for them.”
‘And will you make it through the exams yourself all
right?”
“Will do. I’ve got just one exam left, and in a couple of
days I’ll have to go off for a month on military training, to
Untitled
H5
Kineshma . 1 It’s good you managed to get Anastasia finished.
If there are any corrections to be made now, Artem will take
care of them. Anton’s already off on training.”
“Tell me, Lyosha, how did you possibly manage to sit ex-
ams, do drafts and make up computer programmes for others,
and still keyboard and print out Anastasia every day?”
Lyosha didn’t respond. I turned to the kitchen table to
serve up the steamed frankfurters. Lyosha’s head and arms
were resting on the table, on top of the printed pages contain-
ing the Anastasia text. He was fast asleep.
1 Kineshma — an industrial centre and port on the Volga River.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Standing in the kitchen of my small Moscow apartment,
standing next to the table with the frankfurters getting cold
and Lyosha Novichkov’s head resting on the pages containing
the text of Anastasia, I made a promise to myself: to find away
of regaining my capital and getting back my ship with a view
to taking it on the same journey as last year when I first met
Anastasia. But not on a trade mission, as before. I wanted
to go there during the ‘white nights’ of summer, so that Lyo-
sha, Anton and Artem — as well as all those who had worked
like dogs, in spite of all the setbacks and often to the neglect
of their own material well-being, to organise a fellowship of
purer-minded entrepreneurs — could enjoy a decent holiday
aboard my ship in the most luxurious quarters.
And what was this grand idea all about, in any case? What
kind of hold did it have on people? Why was I, too, drawn
into it so closely? What kind of mystery did it conceal? I just
had to figure this out, in concrete detail, and unravel its mys-
tery and purpose. And why are people so turned on by this
dream of a taiga recluse? What lies hidden there? How can I
unravel the mystery?
Moskovskaya Pravda correspondent Katya Golovina tried
unravelling it by asking the students to explain what moti-
vated them, what their personal stake was in all this. But they
couldn’t give a definitive answer, saying only that it was some-
thing worth doing. In other words, they were working on in-
tuition. But what was behind this intuition?
Chapter Twenty-Three
At Moscow Printshop Number Eleven two thousand cop-
ies of the first slim volume about Anastasia were printed at
the shop’s own expense. Why did the manager, Gennady
Vladimirovich Grutsia, decide to print a book by an unknown
author? Why would he do this and, in spite of the printshop’s
current financial difficulties, use offset paper instead of the
usual newsprint ? 1
The first books I sold myself near the entrance to the Ta-
ganskaya metro station. Then I got some help from some of
the book’s first readers. An elderly woman would daily stand
and sell copies outside the Dobryninskaya metro station. She
would take great pains to explain in detail to anyone inter-
ested what a wonderful book it was. Why?
Then readers began selling it as well in vacation centres on
the outskirts of Aloscow They would print out announcements
and organise readers’ gatherings for people holidaying there.
Then the business manager of the Moscow Publishers’
Clearance House, Yuri Anatolievich Nikitin, suddenly de-
cided to ofter the printshop an advance on an additional two
thousand copies. His actions were strange and unexpected.
l ie drove over to see me in his car and told me:
“My son and I are leaving the country today to go to a ten-
nis tournament. Our plane goes tonight. I need to hurry to
get my payment in.”
newsprint — This has long been the norm for printing most paperback
books in Russia.
138 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
He paid for the second print-run in full. When the time
came for him to pick up his books, Nikitin told me:
“You know, during the summer we don’t do a lot of book-
selling. I’ll take several packages, the rest you take care of
yourself. When money starts coming your way, you can reim-
burse me.” Again, why?
Right from the moment I started working on the manu-
script there have been many whys? associated with the book,
even to this day. It’s almost as though the book were alive,
drawing people unto itself and using their help to break
through into life. I used to think that the events connected
with it were pure coincidence. Only those ‘co-incidences’
started tying themselves together into a pattern. Now I have
no idea, in all that has happened, just what is coincidence and
what is in conformity with a law. The two have become ex-
ceedingly difficult to tell apart.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The moment arrived when I finally managed to pay a visit to
Father Feodorit. Back in the taiga, in response to my ques-
tion as to whether there were any people in our world with
knowledge and abilities similar to hers, only living closer to
home, Anastasia had replied:
“There are people in various corners of the Earth whose
lifestyle is not caught up in the prevailing technocracy
They all have different abilities. But in your world there
is also one person whom you will find it easy to approach,
whether it be winter or summer. The power of his spirit is
very great.”
“Do you know where he lives? Can I see him and talk with
him?”
“Yes, you can.”
“Who is he?”
“He is your father, Vladimir.”
“What do you mean? Oh, Anastasia, Anastasia! I so much
wanted to hear proof that you’re right about everything, and
here it’s all coming out the wrong way! My father died eight-
een years ago and was buried in a little town in the Briansk
region.”
Anastasia sat on the grass, her back leaning against a tree,
her knees drawn up close to her chest, and silently looked me
in the eye. She seemed a little sad, as though she were tak-
ing pity on me. Then she lowered her head to her knees. I
thought she might be feeling upset over her mistake regard-
ing my father, and I tried to comfort her.
140 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Don’t get too upset, Anastasia. It’s probably because, as
you said yourself, you don’t have that much strength left .” 1
Anastasia didn’t speak for a while, then raised her head
and, once more looking me right in the eye, said:
“My strength has indeed lessened, but not to the point
where I could be mistaken.”
She then proceeded to relate events that had taken place
twenty-six years ago. She recounted the past not only with
great accuracy and in minute detail, but was even able to con-
vey nuances of inner feelings.
It is understandable how one can pick up clues from the
outward appearance: a barely noticeable facial expression, a
body position, even the eyes, can all give clues as to what an
interlocutor is thinking. But how she was able to discern the
past as though it were simply a documentary newsreel is still
a mystery to me.
Anastasia herself was not able to explain this phenomenon
in a standard, comprehensible manner. But this is what she
had to say:
“Not far from Moscow is the Trinity-Sergiev Monastery
complex in the town of Sergiev Posad. Behind Trinity-Ser-
giev’s massive, ancient walls there is a seminary, an academy
and several cathedrals, in addition to the monastery proper.
The cathedrals are open to the public, and anyone who wish-
es can come and pray in this holy place of Rus . 2 It was not
destroyed even during the campaigns of persecution against
believers; indeed, right through this period, the institutions
'Author’s note: This conversation took place after she lost consciousness in
saving the man and the woman from being murdered. I described this
situation in my first book.
1 Rus (pronounced: ROOS) — the name of the Old Russian territory, which
by the 9th century A.D. was centred around Kiev. From Rus came the Rus-
sia, Ukraine and Belarus we know today.
Father Feodorit
141
behind these walls continued to function uninterrupted, pro-
viding a place where the monastic brethren could serve God.
“Twenty-six years ago, on the very day I came into this
world,” she continued, “a young man in his late teens walked
through the gates of the Trinity- Sergiev Monastery. He toured
the museum, and then proceeded to visit the main cathedral,
where a sermon was being read by a tall, grey-haired monk.
Both the monk’s height and his rank were well above aver-
age. This was Father Feodorit, archimandrite of the Trinity-
Sergiev Monastery. The young man listened to his sermon.
Later, when Father Feodorit withdrew, he followed him into
one of the treasury-rooms, unhindered by the temple staff.
Going up to Father Feodorit, he started talking to him about
the sermon. And Father Feodorit spoke with him for a long
time. The young man had been baptised, but did not have
much inner faith. He did not observe the fasts, did not take
communion, and did not attend church regularly But that
day marked the beginning of a friendship between Father
Feodorit and the young man.
“The young man started paying visits to the monastery. Fa-
ther Feodorit would talk with him and show him the sanctu-
aries normally off-limits to ordinary parishioners. The monk
gave him books, which he lost. The monk placed a little cross
on a chain around his neck, and it was lost as well. The monk
gave him a second cross, a most unusual one — it opened like
a tiny case, but it too was lost.
“The monk would even take the young man into the refec-
tory and seat him at the same table as the monks. Each time
he would give him a little money. He never rebuked him for
anything and always looked forward to his arrival.
“This went on for a whole year. The young man visited the
monastery every week, but one day he left and did not return
the following week. He did not come after a month, even
after a whole year. The monk still waited. Now twenty-five
142 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
years have passed already. The monk is still waiting. Twenty-
five years, Vladimir, your spiritual father has been waiting for
you — that great Russian monk, Father Feodorit.”
“I went far away from the monastery To Siberia. I some-
times thought of Father Feodorit,” I responded, as though
justifying my actions to myself or to someone else.
“But you did not write him even one letter,” observed Anastasia.
“I want to see him.”
“And what will you tell him? Perhaps about how you made
money, were happy in love and simply went astray? How
many times were you at death’s door, but at the last moment
you were delivered from your woes? He will see all that for
himself, just by looking at you. He prayed for forgiveness of
your sins and time after time saved you through his prayers.
He still believes, just as he did twenty-five years ago. He was
hoping for something different from you.”
“What was it, Anastasia? What does Father Feodorit know,
what does he want?”
“I cannot comprehend it, at least not now. It was some-
thing he felt intuitively. Tell me, Vladimir, do you remember
the conversations you had with him, do you remember what
you saw in the monastery treasury-room?”
“It’s all very fuzzy in my mind. After all, it was so long ago.
I can only remember isolated scenes.”
“Try to remember them. I shall help you.”
“Father Feodorit would talk with me each time in vari-
ous places in the monastery. I remember some underground
rooms — at least they were partially underground. I remem-
ber the refectory, the long table where the monks took their
supper, and I had supper with them. It was during a time of
some sort of fast. The food was especially prepared for the
fast, but I liked it.”
“Did you have any unusual impressions or feelings during
your visits to the monastery?”
Father Feodorit
143
“Once after supper I left the refectory and went through a
passageway to an inner courtyard of the monastery complex,
heading for an exit. The gate was already closed to parish-
ioners. The courtyard was empty Those massive high walls
blocked out the noise from the city beyond. All I could see
around me were the cathedrals. Everything was completely
silent. I stopped. It seemed as though I could hear solemn
music playing. I needed to leave. There was a monk on duty
at the gate to let me out and bolt the gate shut after me. But
I just stood there and listened to that music, and eventually,
slowly, made my way over to the gate.”
“You never heard that music again? You never experienced
the same impression?”
“No.”
“Did you ever try to hear that music — to call up the im-
pression of it from within?”
“Yes, but I never managed to. I even tried standing on that
same spot the next time I came, but, alas...”
“Try thinking of something else, Vladimir.”
“Now you’re interrogating me. You recounted everything
so accurately — everything that happened to me twenty-six
years ago — you tell me how I felt back then.”
“That is not possible. Father Feodorit did not formulate
any specific plans, he was hoping for something intuitively
But he did do something great and significant for you. Some-
thing known only to him. I can only feel it intuitively myself:
he thought up something significant and did a lot toward this
end. A great deal, in fact. But why he associated his desire
with you — you who did not have the basic abilities to come
quickly into the faith — remains a mystery And why he has
not broken this faith even after twenty-five years of your prof-
ligate life — that too is a mystery. And why are you, who have
received so much, still sitting on your hands? Why? I can-
not understand that. After all, nothing in the Universe ever
144 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
disappears without a trace. Please see if you can remember
even isolated scenes from your meetings and conversations
with your spiritual father.”
“I remember a salon, or perhaps it was some sort of treas-
ury-room, in the academy or seminary, or maybe it was one of
the underground rooms in the monastery itself. Some kind
of monk opened the door for Father Feodorit, but didn’t go
in himself. The Father and I went in alone. There were some
pictures on the walls, and things standing on little shelves.”
“You experienced two surprises there. What were they?”
“Surprises? Yes, of course, it did surprise me. Astounded
me...”
“What did?”
“A particular picture. It was black and white, as if drawn
with a pencil. It was a meticulously executed portrait of some
person.”
“So, what surprised you about it?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Think, Vladimir! Please, try to recall it — I shall help you.
There was the small salon, you were standing alone there with
Father Feodorit in front of this picture. You were standing
just a little way in front of him, and he told you: ‘Step a little
closer to the picture, Vladimir.’ You took one step forward,
then another...”
“I remember! Anastasia!”
“What?”
“This picture of a person was drawn with a single line. A
fluctuating spiral line. It was as though the artist had put his
pencil or whatever in the middle of a blank sheet of paper, and
without talcing it off the paper, had made it go in a spiral, alter-
nately pressing hard on it to make the line thicker and easing up,
barely touching the paper, to make a fine, delicate line, but still
continuous. The spiral fine ended at one edge of the page. The
result was an amazing picture, the portrait of a person.”
Father Feodorit
H 5
“This picture,” Anastasia advised, “should be put on public
display for all to see. Someone will be able to decipher the
information concealed in it. That pulsating line portraying a
person has something to say to people.”
“How?”
“I do not know yet. You are aware, for example, how dots
and dashes can represent an alphabet or musical notation. I
can only guess it could be one or the other of those, or some-
thing else besides. When you return, ask them to put it on
public display or to publish it somewhere. Someone will turn
up who is able to decipher that spiral line.”
“But who will listen to me?”
“They will listen to you. But back then you experienced a
second most unusual feeling. Can you recall what it was?”
“It was in the same room or in the next room. .. Yes, it was a
rather small room where a beautiful carved wooden chair was
standing on a raised platform. Perhaps it was an arm-chair,
something like a throne. Father Feodorit and I stood and
looked at it. The Father said that nobody ever touched it.”
“But you touched it. And even sat on it.”
“It was Father Feodorit himself who suggested I sit on it.”
‘And what happened to you when you did?”
“Nothing. I sat there, looking at Father Feodorit, and he
stood there silently looking me in the eye. Just looked, that’s
all.”
“Please remember, Vladimir, try to recall your inner feel-
ings. They are most important.”
“Well, there was nothing special... It was just that, you
know, some thoughts began running through my head lickety-
split, like an audiotape in fast-forward mode, and the words
all blurred into a stream of unintelligible sounds.”
‘And you never tried deciphering them, Vladimir? Did you
ever have the desire to stop that tape so you could listen to it
at normal speed and understand what it was saying?”
146 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“How could I?”
“By pondering the essence of your being.”
“No, never tried that. You’re not malting any sense.”
“And the things that Father Feodorit told you, did you un-
derstand everything? Can you recall precisely even a single
phrase, even a phrase without any connection to the rest?”
“Yes, but I really can’t remember what it was connected
with.”
“Tell me what it was.”
“ . . . You will show them ...”
At this point Anastasia, who had been sitting under the
tree, suddenly sprang up, her face beaming. She put her hands
on the trunk of the cedar, and pressed her cheek against it.
“Yes, of course!” she exclaimed, waving her arms with joy
and delightedly crying out:
“You are truly great, Monk of Russia! You know, Vladimir,
there is one thing I can tell you for certain about Father Feo-
dorit. He has made a mockery of a lot of the world’s teachings
by showing what is the most essential thing.”
“He and I never discussed any teachings. We talked about
everyday things.”
“Yes, of course! Everyday things! Father Feodorit spoke
about things you were interested in. Fie showed you sacred
creations, and treated them with veneration, but avoided
making a big show of it. Even though he had risen to a high
rank, he was a very simple man, most importantly, a think-
ing man — perhaps he was even meditating during the time
you were with him. And he was not one to expound dogmas.
Flow silly the preachers of conventional dogmas that flocked
to Russia from abroad look by comparison with him! They
only distract one’s attention from the most essential tiling.
He was so successful at protecting you from dogmas that you
see me too as a naive recluse. It does not matter who I am.
What matters is that you stick to the most essential thing.”
Father Feodorit
H7
“What most essential thing?”
“The thing that is in every Man.”
“But how can every Man know the teachings of the gurus
of the West and the East, India and Tibet, if he has never even
heard of them?”
‘All essential information has been included in Man,
Vladimir, in every man right from the start. It is something
he is given on the day of his creation, just like arms, legs, hair
and a heart. All the teachings of the world, along with all dis-
coveries, are taken exclusively from this Source. Just as par-
ents try to give their child everything, so the Grand Creator
gives everything to each one right off. Nothing man-made.
Not a multitude of books, nor the latest computers and the
computers of the future all taken together, can ever encom-
pass even a part of the information contained in a single Man.
One has only to know how to use it.”
“Then why doesn’t everybody make discoveries? And why
doesn’t everyone formulate teachings?”
“Let us say one person manages to extract a grain of truth
from the whole. And he keeps talking about it enthusiasti-
cally, thinking it was given to him alone. And that it con-
tains the most essential thing. He talks it up to others, try-
ing to make them see it as the one and only important thing.
But by talking like this, he is blocking the basic complex
network of information already existing within himself.
Knowledge of the truth consists not in proclaiming it but
in living it.”
‘And what way of living it is characteristic of those who
best know the truth?”
‘A happy one!”
“But to know the truth, one must have a conscious aware-
ness and purity of thought?!”
“That is visionary! Fantastic!” Anastasia shrieked with
laughter, and merrily added: “You read my thoughts?”
148 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Nothing visionary there, it is simply an attentive attitude
to Man. You’re always relating everything to purity of thought
and conscious awareness.”
“Visionary! Visionary!” she repeated, still laughing. “You
read my thoughts. Oh, how fantastic!”
Upon hearing her cheery laughter, I too could no longer
restrain myself and broke into peals of merriment. Later I
asked:
“What do you think, Anastasia, will my spiritual father, Fa-
ther Feodorit, receive me if I go see him? Will he talk with
me? He won’t be upset?”
“Of course he will receive you! He will be most happy to see
you there! He will accept you any way you are. Only he will be
even happier to see you if you have done at least something us-
ing the information within you, if he perceives some indication
that you are aware of it. Stop the fast-forward, Vladimir, and
you shall understand a great deal.”
“Does my spiritual father still live in the same place? At the
Trinity-Sergiev Monastery?”
“Your spiritual father, that great elder of Rus, is now living in
a small monastic priory in the forest, not far from the Trinity-
Sergiev Monastery. The priory’s regulations are stricter than
those in the monastery, and your spiritual father is the prior
there. The priory is situated in the forest, in a compellingly
beautiful setting. There are just a few little houses there, each
with its own monastic cell.
“This priory situated in the green forest has a small wood-
en church. It is not ornately decorated and it does not have
a gilded dome, but it is very, very beautiful, cosy and clean,
heated by two stoves. Candles are not bought or sold there,
as in most other churches. In fact nothing is bought or sold
there. There is nothing and nobody to desecrate it, and pa-
rishioners are not allowed access. Even to this day your spir-
itual father, Father Feodorit, is praying in this church. He is
Father Feodorit
149
praying for the salvation of everyone’s soul, including yours.
He is praying for children who have forgotten their parents,
and praying for parents forgotten by their children. Go to
him and bow before him. Ask for forgiveness of your sins.
The power of his spirit is very great. And give my deepest
respects to Father Feodorit.”
“Fine, Anastasia. I shall do that. And, you know, I shall
first try and do what you have asked me to.”
Upon arriving at Sergiev Posad, the town outside Moscow
which used to be called Zagorsk, I entered the gates of the
Trinity- Sergiev Monastery just as I used to do twenty-seven
years ago. I first headed for the gate to the active part of
the monastery Before, all I had to do was introduce myself
and ask for Father Feodorit. But this time the monk on duty
replied that the archpriest was no longer Father Feodorit.
There was a Father Feodorit at the monastery, living in the
forest outside the monastery grounds — but parishioners
did not go there.
I told the monk that I was an acquaintance of Father Feo-
dorit’s, and in proof of this I named the monastery sanctuar-
ies which the Father had showed me so many years ago. Then
I was told where the forest priory was situated, and with an
inexplicable shiver of excitement I approached the little
wooden church in the forest. It was indeed extraordinarily
beautiful, and blended in harmoniously with the natural envi-
ronment. There were paths leading to the church from sev-
eral little wooden cell-houses situated around it.
150 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
Father Feodorit met with me on the small wooden porch
of the forest church. I was a bit at a loss for words. I remem-
bered Anastasia’s counsel: “Only do not be embarrassed and
try not to act surprised when you meet your spiritual father!”
Still, I couldn’t get over an inexplicable feeling of trepidation.
Father Feodorit was old and grey, but no older than he had
appeared twenty-seven years ago.
We sat on some blocks of wood on the porch of the little
forest church without a word between us. I tried to speak,
but couldn’t manage to come up with the right thing to say
It seemed as though he already knew the whole picture and
there was no sense in uttering words. It was as if the twenty-
seven years since we last met had not gone by at all. It seemed
as though we had parted only yesterday.
I had brought along a copy of my book on Anastasia to give
to Father Feodorit, but I felt reluctant to actually hand it to
him. I had been showing the book to various clerics. Some
just took one look at it and said they didn’t read books like
that. Others asked what it was about, and after my brief ex-
planation pronounced Anastasia an infidel. I didn’t feel like
upsetting Father Feodorit and certainly didn’t want him to re-
ject her out of hand. Each time someone had tried to speak
ill of Anastasia, a feeling of resistance had welled up in me. I
even had a row about it with the deacon of the Novospassky
Monastery 3 Fie pointed out two women wearing dark cloth-
ing and black head-scarves and said:
“That is how God-fearing women should be.”
I responded:
“If Anastasia is happy and enjoying life, that may well be
pleasing to God. It is more pleasant to see people enjoying
life than being dull and downcast like that.”
3 Novospassky Monastery — claimed to be the oldest monastery in Moscow,
dating back to the founding of Moscow in 1147 by Prince Yury Dolgoruky.
Father Feodorit
151
So it was with some trepidation that I finally got out my
book and handed it to Father Feodorit. He took it quietly
and held it in the palm of one hand.
He began gently stroking it with his other hand, as though
feeling something with his palms, and asked:
“Do you want me to read it?” And, without waiting for an
answer, added: “Fine, leave it with me.”
Two days later, I paid a morning visit to Father Feodorit.
We sat there in the forest on a tiny bench near the Father’s
cell. And we talked about all sorts of things. While his man-
ner of speaking was pretty much the same as twenty-seven
years ago, one thing bothered me: why did Father Feodorit
look just a bit younger than twenty-seven years ago? And all at
once he broke off his train of thought and said:
“You know, Vladimir, your Father Feodorit has passed on.”
At first I was speechless, but then managed to ask:
“Then who are you?”
“I am Father Feodorit,” he replied, looking at me with just
a faint trace of a smile. I then asked him:
“Tell me, where is his grave?”
“In the old cemetery”
“I’d like to see it. Can you tell me how to get there?”
Fie didn’t say anything about the grave, only:
“Come and see me again whenever you have the time.”
And then an incredible experience began taking place.
“Time for dinner,” said Father Feodorit. “Come, I’ll give
you something to eat.”
In a small hut which served as a refectory I sat down to
table. The table was set out with a tureen of borsch, mashed
potatoes, fish and a drink with stewed fruit. He poured some
borsch into a bowl for me, and I began eating. The Father
himself did not eat. He simply sat at the table.
As soon as I started in on the potatoes, I felt a delightful
taste in my mouth. It brought back memories. The potatoes
152
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
tasted exactly as they had done in the monastery refectory
twenty-seven years ago. I had remembered it all my life since
then. My head began spinning. On the one hand, here was
a different Father Feodorit sitting beside me; on the other
hand, he talked and behaved exactly as I remembered from
before.
I recalled how one time, many years ago, when we were to-
gether in one of the rooms of the monastery, Father Feodorit
had suggested I have my picture taken with him. I agreed.
He called over one of the monks who had a camera and he
took our picture. Now I decided to use this to introduce
some clarity to my present situation. I knew that monks did
not like to pose for pictures. And the thought came to me to
ask Father Feodorit if he would mind if I had a colour picture
taken of us and that I also wanted to take one of the little
forest church. If he refused, that would mean he was not the
same Father Feodorit, not my Father Feodorit. And so I sug-
gested:
“Let me have my picture taken with you.”
Father Feodorit did not refuse, and we had our picture tak-
en. And I also took a snapshot of the little church. It turned
out rather well, even though I had a very simple camera.
As I was leaving. Father Feodorit gave me a small travel
Bible. It was not laid out in verses, like all the other Bibles I
had seen, but simply in running text, as in an ordinary book.
He advised me:
“When you cite the Bible in your book, you should indi-
cate the precise chapter you are quoting from .” 4
I asked him whether he would be open to receiving and
talking with people who wished to meet with Anastasia, so
4 The Russian edition of Anastasia includes no chapter-and-verse referenc-
es; those in the English edition of Book i were added by the translator and
editor.
Father Feodorit
153
they wouldn’t have to travel such a long distance to the Sibe-
rian taiga. To which he replied:
“You know, I still haven’t fully understood myself. So, for
now, just come alone, whenever you have the time.”
I was disappointed by Father Feodorit’s refusal to see other
people, but I wasn’t about to press the matter. My conversa-
tion with him on a variety of subjects led me to the follow-
ing conclusion: in Russian monasteries there are to be found
certain elders whose wisdom and simplicity of expression far
surpasses the art of countless numbers of denominational
preachers, either of the home-grown or imported variety
But why are you silent, you elders of Russia that have been
endowed with such wisdom? Is this something to which you
have been led on your own, or are there dark forces of some
kind that are preventing you from speaking out? People
come to a church service, and it turns out to be in a language
they don’t understand . 5 And then people flock in droves and
even pay money to hear preachers talk in a language they can
understand. Maybe that is why so many Russians flock to for-
eign holy places and ignore their own.
I always felt a sense of peace in my heart after speaking
with Father Feodorit. The way he talks is a lot simpler, clear-
er and more understandable than the vast majority of the
preachers I went to hear after meeting with Anastasia in my
efforts to make some sense of what she said. I want others
to have a good experience, too. But when will you speak out,
wise elders of Russia?
’Russian Orthodox services are conducted in Old Church Slavonic, which
is an ancient distant relative of Russian but barely comprehensible to to-
day’s Russian speakers.
Chapter Twenty-Five
if Love
After the sale of the first print-run of the book about Anas-
tasia I received a royalty payment. I went to VDNKh, 1 now
known as the All-Russian Exhibition Centre. For some rea-
son, I always enjoyed being there. This time I walked past
the multitude of snack bars and shashlik buffets, tempting
me with their delicious aromas, and fought against my incli-
nation to buy all the delicacies in sight. Even though I had
money in my pocket, and a fair amount at that, I decided I
would now spend it more wisely. And all at once, another in-
credible thing happened. It wasn’t loud, but, unmistakably
and distinctly, I heard Anastasia’s voice.
“Buy yourself something to eat, Vladimir. Buy whatever
you like. You do not have to scrimp on food any more.”
I kept on walking a few steps past the open snack bars, and
again came the voice:
“Why are you walking on past? Please, have something to
eat, Vladimir.”
“Come on now, I’m having hallucinations!” I thought.
I walked over to a bench alongside a broad pathway, where
there was hardly anyone else around. I sat down and whis-
pered quietly, bending over so people wouldn’t think I was
talking to myself.
1 VDNKh (pronounced veb-deb-en-KHA) — the Russian initials denoting
the former Economic Achievements Exposition, a huge exhibition and
recreational complex (complete with a large park, fountains and unusual
architecture) covering 140 hectares in the north-east sector of Moscow
The Space of Love
155
‘Anastasia, am I really hearing your voice?”
And I heard the answer distinct and clear:
“You are hearing my voice, Vladimir.”
“Hello, Anastasia. Why didn’t you talk to me earlier? So many
questions have been piling up. Questions people have been ask-
ing at readers’ gatherings, including a lot I can’t answer.”
“I have been talking to you. I have been trying all this time
to talk with you. But you have not been hearing me. Once,
when you decided to do away with yourself, I even cried out, I
was so worried, but to no avail. You did not hear me. I figured
out what I needed to do and started singing. It was this song
that the two girls picked up and played on their violins at the
metro station. They heard it and started playing. As soon as
you recognised the same melody you had heard me sing in the
taiga, you remembered me. I was so worried at the time, I
thought my milk was going to give out.”
“What milk, Anastasia?”
“My breast-milk. The milk for our son. After all, I did bear
him, Vladimir.”
“Did bear... Anastasia!... Was it hard? How are you doing
there all alone in the taiga? How is he? You told me — I re-
member your saying — it wouldn’t be at the right time.”
“Everything is fine. Nature awakened early and is now
helping me. And our son is fine. He is a strong lad. He is al-
ready smiling. Only his skin is a little dry, just like yours. But
that is nothing, it will pass. Everything will be fine. You shall
see. It is more difficult {or you now than for us. But take one
more step. Finish the writing. I know how hard it has been
for you, and it will not be so easy in the future either. But
keep going. Keep going on your own path.”
“But Anastasia...”
I wanted to tell her that writing a book is harder than run-
ning a business. I wanted to tell her about how things stood
with my family and the firm. About all the ups and downs of
156 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
the past year. About how I no longer have a home and family,
and almost ended up in the loony bin. I wanted to give her a
good talking to about those dreams of hers, so she wouldn’t
aim too high with them, wouldn’t keep on tempting people.
But then I thought: why upset a nursing mother? — her milk
might indeed turn bad.
And so I said:
“Don’t you worry about trifles, Anastasia. I don’t have any
particular difficulties at the moment. What’s the fuss? I’ve
written a book. And it was easier than drawing up a business
plan. When you draw up a business plan, there are a lot of
different factors you have to foresee in advance. But here you
simply sit down and describe what’s already happened. Just as
in the jokes about the Chukchi: ‘I sing what I see .’ 2
‘And besides... you know something, Anastasia? Those
dreams of yours, which I thought were sheer fantasy, they’re
starting to come true. It’s incredible, but they are coming
true. Look, the book is finished. You dreamt about it, and
now it exists. People are really reading it enthusiastically
The Moscow papers are already writing about it. Readers are
writing poetry about you, about Nature, about Russia.
“I found the picture we talked about in the archives of the
Trinity- Sergiev Monastery. The picture has been preserved,
it’s entitled “The One and Only by a Single Line”.’ I shall
publish it.
2 J sing what I see — a reference to a song of the Chukchi (the native people
of the Chukotka Peninsula in Siberia), where the singer sings about what-
ever he happens to see. This particular phrase has given rise to many Rus-
sian jokes. In this case the author is light-heartedly applying the phrase to
his own writing activity
J The One and Only by a Single Line — this picture in the private collection of the
Trinity-Sergiev Monastery is a copy of a famous engraving by Claude Mellan
(1598-1688), Veil of St Veronica (1649). It represents the face of Christ Jesus
(‘the One and Only 1 ) surmounted by a crown of thorns and is executed by a
single spiral line in 166 revolutions.
The Space of Love
157
‘‘Arid, can you imagine, the bards... you remember telling
me about the bards?”
“Yes, I remember, Vladimir.”
“Surprising as it is, this too is starting to come about. I
was at one readers’ conference where I was approached by
this chap with dark blond hair. He handed me an audiocas-
sette and said, in terse, military fashion: ‘Songs lor Anastasia.
Please accept.’
“The journalists, readers and two of the staff of the Mos-
cow Research Centre, Alexander Solntsev 4 and Alexander Za-
kotsfcy. who had come to the conference — they all listened in
silence to the tape. Later a number of people began making
copies of it. They made copies and at the same time tried to
track down the man who had given it to me — whose looks,
apart from his dark-blond hair and short stature, didn’t have
much to say for themselves. He had appeared, it seemed, out
of nowhere, and disappeared just as mysteriously He turned
out to be a submarine officer from St. Petersburg, a scientist
by the name of Alexander Korotynsky . 5 He later told me how
the submarine he was on managed to rise to the surface after
an accident. How he had been confidently led by a series of
coincidences in connection with this cassette. Led to hand
4 Alexander Vasilievich Solntsev (1951-) — a Siberian entrepreneur, a former
acquaintance of Vladimir Megre’s. After spotting a small book with Meg-
re’s name on the cover, Solntsev (who by this time had relocated with his
family to Moscow and lost sight of his former colleague) contacted the au-
thor and in March 1997 became founding director of the Moscow-based
“Anastasia” Research Centre, managing the publication of Megre’s books,
organising readers’ conferences, clubs, trips to dolmens, etc. More recently
Solntsev has devoted himself to setting up an eco-village in the Smolensk
Oblast and reinvigorating the tradition of cultivation of flax. He has also
authored a book on the Caucasus, entitled Dolmens.
’Since this book was published Alexander Korotynsky has released several
song albums inspired by the Ringing Cedars Series.
158 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
it to me. Not only that, but Korotynsky turned out to be
a bard as well. And his song Khram (The Church) contains
whole phrases which you said to me. Remember these, for
example?
Believe not others’ words —
Once said, they’re gone as wind.
Many will see the Church
But few will enter in.
Our life may be a race:
From floor to floor we’re thrown.
But every one must face
The choice he’s made his own.
“Besides, Korotynsky doesn’t really have a singing voice.
He practically recites when he sings. But that very fact goes
to prove what you said about the power of the word connect-
ed to the soul by invisible threads. Korotynsky the Bard is a
living example.”
“For all the bright joy you have been giving to people, for
the purification of souls, I thank you, Bard, I thank you,” said
Anastasia.
“Just think — another officer!” I mused. “Grutsia, who
first printed the book — he was an officer. And the home-
less colonel who drew the picture for it. And then there was
a pilot, a regimental commander, who’s been helping me sell
the books. And now the first one to bring me songs turns out
to be an officer. What is it about your Ray that seems to set
officers’ hearts afire in particular? Do you shine your Ray on
them more than others?”
“Many have been touched by my Ray, Vladimir, but it
sparks aspirations only when there is something there to set
aflame.”
The Space of Love
159
“Your dream, Anastasia, is indeed turning more and more
into reality. People are grasping hold of it, they understand
it. The homeless colonel understood. He was a chance ac-
quaintance — pity he’s gone. I saw him lying dead there. His
face was all smeared with dirt, but he was smiling. Dead, but
still smiling. Did you do something there with your Ray?
What does that mean, when someone dies with a smile on
their face?”
“That Man that was with you... he is now with the Bard,
treading the invisible pathway. His smile is saving many
hearts from bullets more terrible than the leaden ones.”
“Your dream, Anastasia, is entering upon our world, and
it really seems as though our world is beginning to change.
There are certain people who feel and understand you — they
show evidence of new strength coming from somewhere, and
that is changing the world. The world is becoming just a little
better.
“But you, Anastasia... there you are as before, in the taiga,
in your glade. I would not be able to live in such conditions,
and you would not be able to live in our world. What then is
the point of your love? Your love is meaningless, and I still do
not understand my relationship to you. But what’s the point
since it’s so clear we can never be together? Never close.”
“We are together, Vladimir. Close.”
“Together?! Where are you? When people love each oth-
er, they strive to be always close to each other. To embrace
and caress each other. You’re too different. You don’t need
that.”
“I do need it. Just like everyone else. And I am making it
happen.”
“But how?”
“Right now, for example. Can you not feel the gentle touch
of the breeze, feel its caressing embrace? And the warm
touch of the Sun’s glistening rays on your face? Can you not
160 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
hear the birds singing so cheerfully and the leaves rustling on
the tree you are sitting under? Listen — it is a most unusual
rustling!”
“But that — everything you just mentioned — that’s for
everyone. In any case, are you responsible for all that?”
“Love dissolved in Space for one can touch the hearts of
many”
“Why dissolve Love in Space?”
“So that close to a loved one there will always be a Space
of Love. This is the essence of Love, this is its designated
purpose.”
“It’s all pretty confusing to me. And your voice... Before, I
never heard anything at a distance, but now I do. Why?”
“It is not the voice that you hear at a distance. You need to
listen not with your ears, but with your heart. You need to
learn how to listen with your heart.”
“Why should I bother learning? You can just talk with me
the way you’re doing right now, with your voice.”
“I shall not be able to do that indefinitely”
“But you’re doing it right now After all, I can hear you.”
“Grandfather is helping us at the moment. You go have
a talk with him. I need to go feed our son, and there are so
many other tilings to do. I do want to get them all done.”
“So, it works with your grandfather, but not with you.
Why?”
“Because Grandfather is somewhere in your vicinity right
now. Very close to you.”
“Where?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Anastasias
I looked about me. There was Anastasia’s grandfather, stand-
ing right close to the bench, using his walking-stick to push
a piece of litter someone had thoughtlessly tossed on the
grass toward a rubbish bin. I jumped up. We shook hands.
His kindly eyes were sparkling with cheer, and he talked in
simple terms. Not like his father. When I saw Anastasia’s
great-grandfather back in the taiga, he hardly said a word, and
his eyes kept staring into space, as though they were looking
right through you.
Grandfather and I sat down on the bench, and I asked
him:
“How did you get here? How did you find me?”
“It wasn’t much of a problem getting here and finding you
with Anastasia’s help.”
“She’s really something, eh?! She’s had a child! She said she
would have one, and she did. Alone, out there in the taiga,
not in any hospital. It must have been painful for her. Did
she cry out?”
“Now why would you think it was painful for her?”
“Well, women, when they give birth — it’s painful. Some
of them even die during childbirth.”
“It’s painful only when a child is conceived in sin. As
a result of fleshly lusts. Women pay for this with pain in
childbirth and torments afterward in life. If the conception
takes place with higher aspirations, the pain only intensifies
the feeling of the great joy of creation on the part of the
mother.”
162
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Where does the pain go, then? How can it intensify joy?”
“When a woman is raped, what does she feel? Of course
she feels pain and revulsion. B ut when she gives in of her own
free will, that same pain is transformed into different sensa-
tions. The same is true in regard to childbirth.”
“Does that mean Anastasia experienced a painless child-
birth?”
“Of course it was painless. And she chose a suitable day, a
warm and sunny day”
“What do you mean, she chose? Childbirth happens quite
unexpectedly.”
“Unexpectedly, if the conception simply takes place by
chance. A mother is always capable of delaying or accelerat-
ing her baby’s appearance by a few days.”
“But weren’t you aware of when the baby was due? Didn’t
you take steps to help her?”
“We did feel something happening on that day It was a
splendid day We walked over to her glade. Saw the she-bear
sitting at the edge of the glade, moaning because her feelings
were hurt. She kept moaning and pounding her paw on the
ground with all her might. Anastasia was lying on the same
spot where her mother had given birth to her, and there was
this little ball of life lying on her breast. The she-wolf was
licking him.”
‘And why was the bear moaning? How had her feelings
been hurt?”
‘Anastasia had called the wolf over instead of her.”
“She could have gone to her on her own.”
“They do not approach Anastasia without an invitation.
Just think what would happen if they all came uninvited,
whenever they felt like it.”
“I wonder how she’s managing with the baby now.”
“Why don’t you go and see for yourself, if you’re inter-
ested?”
Anastasia s grandfather
163
“She told me I shouldn’t communicate with him until I
purge myself of something. First of all I have to go ’round to
the holy places. But I don’t have enough money for that.”
“Don’t go by what she said — she doesn’t always make
sense. You’re the father, after all. You should do what you
think best. You could buy a whole bunch of rompers and oth-
er baby clothes, packages of diapers, a little jacket, a rattle
maybe, and demand that she dress the baby normally, and not
make him suffer. He’s all naked out there in the forest.”
“I’ve been wanting to do that ever since I heard about my
son. I will do it. As for not making sense, I think you hit the
nail right on the head. That’s probably why I don’t really un-
derstand my feelings toward her. First it was amazement, now
some kind of feeling of respect has appeared, and something
else besides which I can’t grasp hold of. But not on the order
of love for a woman. I still remember the kind of feelings
I had when I loved a woman before. This here’s something
quite different. It’s quite possible that she cannot be loved
in the ordinary sense of the word. Something gets in the way.
Maybe it’s her illogicality, her failure to make complete sense
all the time.”
“Don’t take Anastasia’s illogicality, Vladimir, for stupidity.
It is her seeming illogicality that is drawing forgotten laws
out of the depths of the Universe, and possibly creating new
laws.
“The forces of both light and darkness are occasionally as-
tounded at her apparent illogicality, and then all at once the
simple truth of being that everyone knows starts flaring up
more brightly. Even we don’t always comprehend our Anas-
tasia. Even though she’s our own granddaughter and great-
granddaughter. She grew up under our very eyes. And since
we don’t always understand, we are not always able to be of
significant help. And so she’s often left alone with her own
aspirations. Very much alone.
i6 4 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Take you, for example. Here she’s gone and met with you,
opened up her whole self to you, and to others, thanks to the
book. We wanted to stop her. We wanted to stop her from
loving. To us her choice of you seemed incomprehensible,
even absurd.”
“I still don’t understand her choice myself,” I admitted.
“My readers, too, wonder. Who are you? they keep asking.
Why did Anastasia choose you?’ I can’t give them an answer.
I realise that, according to all logic, she should be in the com-
pany of some kind of intellectually- or spiritually-minded
person. He would no doubt be able to understand and love
her. They could be more useful together. But me, I have to
change my whole life, I have to deal with a whole lot of ques-
tions which for other more educated people have long been
clear and comprehensible.”
“Do you regret now how your life has changed?”
“I don’t know I’m still trying to make sense of it all. As
to why she picked me out in particular, I can’t answer that. I
look for an answer but can’t find one.”
‘And how are you looking for an answer?”
“I’m trying to understand things within myself — who I
really am.”
“Maybe there’s something special there, eh?”
“Could be there’s something there. After all, they say: like
attracts like.”
“Vladimir, did Anastasia talk to you about pride and self-
conceit? Did she speak about the consequences of this
sin?”
“Yes, she said it was a mortal sin, leading people away
from the truth.”
“Well, she didn’t pick you out, Vladimir. She didn’t pick
you out, she picked you up. She picked you up like a worn-out
good-for-nothing. We didn’t realise that ourselves at first. I
hope you’re not too offended?”
Anastasia s grandfather
165
“I don’t entirely agree with you. I had a family — a wife and
a daughter, and my business wasn’t doing too badly. So, I may
not have been anything special, but I wasn’t at the bottom of
the heap, either — not someone to pick up like a tramp or a
useless piece of garbage.”
“You haven’t been in love with your wife for quite a while.
You have your own life and interests, she has hers. It was only
the daily routine that kept you together, or rather, the inertia of
past feelings, which have been getting weaker and weaker over
time. Neither have you had anything to talk about with your
daughter. She’s not interested in your business dealings. That’s
something that seemed important only to you. It brought in
a financial income. But today’s income may well be nothing
tomorrow, or a loss, or a bankruptcy even. And then you were
ill. You practically killed your stomach. With that dissolute
lifestyle of yours there was no way you could climb out of your
hole of disease. It was all over. And nothing was left.”
“So what’s it to you people? What am I to her? An experi-
ment? Is she looking for some kind of fringe benefit?”
“It’s simply that she’s fallen in love, Vladimir. Genuinely,
sincerely, just as with everything else she does. And she’s
happy that she hasn’t taken anyone out of your world capable
of bringing happiness to another woman. She has not placed
herself in any privileged position. She’s glad to be just like
other women.”
“So, it’s just a whim of hers, eh? She wants a typical hus-
band from our world — one who smokes, goes out carousing...
Well, I must say that’s quite a self-sacrifice just for a whim!”
“Her love is genuine. It’s not a whim, she’s not looking for
any fringe benefit. Even though she appeared illogical, at first,
to the forces of both light and darkness, to us and to others, in
reality she clearly illuminated the whole concept and meaning
of Love. Not with words, doctrines or moral teachings, but
with actual achievements in the lives of people in your world,
1 66 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
including your own personal life. The forces of light, the
forces of the Creator, speak through her Love. And not only
do they speak, they show clearly as never before: ‘Look and
see, see the power of a woman, the power of pure Love.’ At
the very last moment before death it is capable of giving new
life. Capable of lifting up any Man, rescuing him from the
tenacious paws of darkness and carrying him into the bright-
ness of infinity. Capable of surrounding him with the Space of
Love and giving him a new life, which is life eternal.
“Her Love, Vladimir, will restore to you the love of your
wife, the respect of your daughter. Thousands of women
will look at you with fervent glances of love. You will have
complete freedom of choice. And if, from all the varied mani-
festations of the external appearance of love, you succeed in
catching sight of that special one, Anastasia will be very hap-
py In any case you will be rich and famous, there will be no
possibility of bankruptcy for you. The book you have written
will circulate all over the world and bring you a return — and
not just a monetary return, it will give you and others a power
greater than mere physical or material strength.”
“I must say,” I observed, “the book is really starting to sell
quite well. But I did write it myself, even though some people
say Anastasia helped me in some way. What do you think — is
it just my book, or did she have a hand in writing it?”
“You did everything a writer is supposed to do. You got the
paper, your hand controlled the pen and you described what
happened. You put down all your deductions in your own
language. You saw to the publication of the book. What you
did was no different from a writer’s usual course of action.”
“So, the book is mine alone? Anastasia didn’t do anything?”
“No, she did not. She did not manipulate the pen on the paper.”
“But you talk as though she still facilitated its appearance
in some way If so, explain in more detail. What exactly did
she do?”
Anastasia’s grandfather 167
“To make it possible for you to write this book, Vladimir,
Anastasia gave her life.”
“Okay Now everything’s got obscured again. How come?
How is it possible for her, living in the forest, to give her life
for some book? Who is she? She herself says: Man. Other
people call her an alien, or a goddess. Now that all ends up in
some serious confusion. I really want to straighten this out
for myself.”
“It’s all very simple, Vladimir. AFan is the only creature in
the Universe who can live on all planes of existence at once.
In their earthly existence most people see themselves only as
an earthly, materialised manifestation. But there are those
who perceive other levels of being, levels invisible to the ma-
terial senses.
“Calling Anastasia a goddess is not a sin against the truth.
The main difference between Man and all other forms of ex-
istence lies in Man’s ability to create the present and the fu-
ture by his thoughts, inventing forms and images which are
afterward materialised. The clarity, harmoniousness, pace of
thinking and mental purity of Man as a Creator is what de-
termines the future. And in this sense Anastasia is a goddess.
For the pace at which she thinks, the clarity and purity of the
images she formulates, are such that she alone has proved ca-
pable of withstanding the whole dark mass of opposing forc-
es. She alone. Only there is no way of telling how long she’ll
be able to hold out. She’s still waiting, believing that people
will realise what is happening and will help her. Believing that
they will cease producing darkness and hell.”
“Who’s producing darkness and hell?”
“Prophets who believe in and talk about the end of the
world — they themselves are producing mental visualisations
of the end of the world. The whole mass of teachings foretell-
ing the ultimate doom of mankind, are hastening the day with
their visualisations. There are a lot of them, a whole lot of
168 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
them. And these people have no idea, while they seek salva-
tion for themselves and search for the Promised Land, that a
hell is being prepared specifically for them.”
“But the people that are talking about the Last Judgement
or a global catastrophe, they actually believe in it, they’re sin-
cerely praying for the salvation of their souls.”
“They are motivated not by faith in the light, in the Love
that is God, but by fear. And this fearful scenario is some-
thing they are fashioning for themselves. Think, Vladimir!
Try to imagine. Here we are, you and I, sitting on this bench.
You see lots of people before your eyes. All at once some of
them start to go into fits of convulsion from terrible pain, as
though they were sinners. All around us on the Earth millions
of corpses are rotting, while you and I sit here untouched by
it all and watch. It’s as though we are sitting on a bench in
Paradise. But doesn’t it wrench your heart to see all the hor-
rifying images of what’s going on? Wouldn’t it be better to die
or fall asleep the moment before witnessing such tragedy?”
“What if all the righteous who are saved,” I wondered
aloud, “are in the Promised Land, where there are no rotting
corpses around, no frightful images?”
“When you get news, even from the other side of the
world, about the death of a loved one, or a relative, don’t you
feel grief and sorrow in your heart?”
‘Anyone in a situation like that would surely be distressed.”
“Then how can you imagine Paradise for yourself, realising
that most of your fellow-countrymen, your friends and rela-
tives, have already perished, and others are dying in frightful
torment?! How hardened must a heart become, how deep a
pit of gloom must it fall into, to feel pleasure under such cir-
cumstances? Such souls are not needed in the kingdom of
light. For they themselves are the creatures of darkness.”
“But why do the great teachers of mankind,” I queried,
the ones who’ve put or are now putting various doctrines down
Anastasia ’s grandfather
169
on paper — talk about the end of the world, the Last Judge-
ment? Who, then, are they ? Where are they leading people?
Why do they talk that way?”
“It’s difficult to define precisely what they’re getting at.
It’s possible they will bring about a change in people’s con-
scious awareness simply because the crowds of people they
draw find their ideas so attractive.”
“Those who are alive today can effect such a change,” I ob-
served. “But what about those who came before and left their
teachings for us as a legacy?”
“They might have indeed prepared the way for a change, in
the hope that their followers would make the change happen
and discover the truth. Perhaps they’re waiting for the course
of history to show the vast majority of mankind the hopeless-
ness of their present path, and counting on ensuing events to
help them turn their followers and believers to the light.”
“If you people knew all this before, why did you sit there
in the forest and remain silent all these years? Why didn’t
you try to explain it to somebody earlier? Anastasia said your
people have been living this way of life for generations, over
thousands of years, preserving the truth about Man’s pristine
origins.”
“In various corners of the Earth,” the grandfather replied,
“there are people who have preserved a way of life apart from
technocracy, making use of capacities which are inherent only
in Alan. From time to time they have made attempts to share
their conscious awareness with others. And each time those
who tried perished before they could say anything substantial.
Even though they presented powerful thought-forms and im-
ages, they were resisted by the vast majority of mankind.”
“You mean to say they would trample on Anastasia and
crush her?”
‘Anastasia has somehow managed to stand up to them. At
least so far. Maybe it’s because of her illogicality!”
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
170
The old fellow fell silent, thoughtfully tracing the point of
his walking-stick on the ground to form incomprehensible
symbols.
I sat there, deep in thought. Finally I asked him:
“Then why did she keep repeating to me all the time: I am
Man! I am a woman! — if she’s really a goddess, as you say?”
“In her earthly, materialised sense of existence she is simply
Man, a human being, a woman. And even though her lifestyle
is somewhat unusual, she is still capable, just like anyone else,
of experiencing feelings of joy and sorrow, loving and wanting
to be loved.
“But all the abilities she has are inherent in Man, in every
Man — that is, in Man in his pristine state. The abilities she
had which seemed so extraordinary will no longer seem so
exceptional to you once you learn what your modern science
has to say about them. And as to the other abilities she has
which are still not understood, rest assured an explanation
will be found. And it will all go to show that she is simply
Man, a female of the human species.
“There is one phenomenon you will soon encounter, how-
ever, which you won’t be able to understand. Nor will your
scientists be able to explain it. Even my father doesn’t know
exactly what kind of phenomenon it is. Your world calls such
things anomalies. But I beg of you, Vladimir, don’t identify
this phenomenon with Anastasia. It will appear right beside
her, but it is not in her. Try to find the inner strength to see,
to feel in her what is simply Man.
“She tries to be like everyone else. For some reason, she
feels it’s important — she feels a need — a need to prove that
she is Man. This is difficult for her, since in doing so she must
still keep her principles intact. But, then, don’t we all have
principles that are sacred to us?”
“But what kind of phenomenon are you talking about —
this thing you won’t define and which science can’t explain?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
anomaly
“When we buried Anastasia’s parents, she was still very
young,” Anastasia’s grandfather began. “She wasn’t yet able
to walk or talk. My father and I dug a hole in the ground,
with the animals’ help. We placed branches at the bottom,
put the bodies of Anastasia’s parents in the hole and covered
them over with grass and earth. We stood there a while on
the burial mound without saying a word. Little Anastasia sat
a short distance away in the glade, watching a bug crawling
along her arm. We thought it was just as well that she wasn’t
yet able to be fully aware of the misfortune that had befallen
her. Then we quietly walked away”
“What do you mean, you walked away? You just walked
off and abandoned this poor, ignorant little girl to her own
devices?”
“We didn’t abandon her. We left her in the same spot where
her mother had given birth to her. You have a concept known
as Shambala, 1 or Motherland. The meaning of these words is
becoming more and more abstract. Motherland — that is lit-
erally MOTHER-LAND . 2 Mother! In anticipation of their
1 Shambala — a Tibetan word indicating 'the source of happiness’ in Ori-
ental religions, and signifying the legendary ‘land of the gods’ — a place
through which the Earth is connected with the Divine.
Motherland — the closest English equivalent of the Russian word Rodina,
derived from the name of God the Creator Rod in the ancient Slavic tradi-
tion (the word rod also signifies ‘origin’, ‘derivation’ or ‘birth’) and the root
na signifying ‘mother’. In the original Russian text, the word is printed as
‘ROD I NA’.
172
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
child’s appearance in the world, parents ought to create a
Space for him. An environment of kindness and love. And
to give him a piece of the Alotherland, which, like a moth-
er’s womb, both preserves the body and caresses the soul. It
imparts the wisdom of creation and assists in obtaining the
truth.
“And what can a woman give her child who is born amidst
stone walls? What kind of world has she made ready for him?
Or has she given any thought at all to the world in which her
child is to live? In that case the world will do with him as it
likes. It will strive to subject this little human being unto it-
self, making him a mere cog, or a slave. And the mother will
simply become an observer, as she has not made ready for her
child any Space of Love.
“You see, Vladimir, Nature — the Nature surrounding
Anastasia’s mother, the creatures large and small — treated
her as they would treat any Man who lived the way she did: as
a friend, as a wise and good deity, one who had created around
her a world of Love. Anastasia’s parents were happy and kind
people, they very much loved one another, loved the Earth,
and the Space around them responded to them with Love.
Little Anastasia was born into this Space of Love and at once
became its centre.
“ Man y creatures will not touch a newborn. A mother cat
may nurse a puppy, or a mother dog a kitten. Many wild ani-
mals are capable of nursing and taking care of human offspring.
But these animals have become wild to people in your world.
To Anastasia’s mother and father they played quite another
role. The creatures treated them entirely differently. Anasta-
sia’s mother gave birth to her in the glade, and many creatures
were witness to the birth. They saw how the woman they re-
vered became a mother and bore another Man, another human
being. When they witnessed the birth, their feelings toward
their human friend, their love for her, intertwined with their
The anomaly 173
own parenting instincts, giving birth to a new exalted manifes-
tation of light.
“Everything, absolutely everything in that surrounding
Space, from the tiniest bug and blade of grass to the seem-
ingly ferocious beast, was ready, unhesitatingly, to give its life
for the sake of that little being. And there was nothing in that
surrounding Space of Motherland, created and bestowed by
its mother, that could possibly have threatened that being.
Everything would look after and cherish this human being.
“To Anastasia the little glade is literally a mother’s womb.
The glade is her living Motherland. Powerful and kind. And
inextricably tied by a natural, living thread to the whole Uni-
verse. To the whole creation of the Grand Creator.
“The little glade is her living Motherland. It came from
her mother and her father. And from the One and Only, the
Original Father. We could never be a substitute for it. That is
why, after burying her parents, we walked away.
“Three days later, while we were approaching the glade, we felt
a tension in the air, we heard wolves howling. Then we saw. . .
“Little Anastasia was sitting quietly atop the burial mound.
One of her cheeks was smeared with earth. We realised she
had been sleeping on the mound. Tiny tears were streaming
from her eyes and falling onto the ground. She was crying,
noiselessly, with only an occasional sob. And she kept strok-
ing and stroking the burial mound with her little hands.
“She wasn’t able to talk, but she did say her first words on
this mound. We heard them. At first she simply uttered syl-
lables: Ma-tna, then Pa-pa. She repeated this several times.
Then she added a syllable to each: Ma-moch-ka, Pa-poch-ka,
Ma-moch-ka, Pa-poch-ka ? I amAna-sta-SI-ya. I now have you no
more. Eh? Only my grand-pas? Eh?
3 Mamochka , Papochka — in Russian, common diminutives of Mama and Papa
respectively
174 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“My father was the first to realise it: even as we were bury-
ing her parents, little Anastasia, sitting there in the glade and
watching the bug, was fully aware of the whole depth of the
misfortune that had befallen her. She used her will-power to
refrain from showing her feelings. With her mother’s milk she
had been imbued with the wisdom and strength of her pris-
tine origins. Nursing mothers have that capacity, Vladimir.
The capacity to pass along to their baby, together with moth-
er’s milk, the conscious awareness and wisdom of the ages,
right back to their pristine origins.
‘Anastasia’s mother knew how to do this, and used this
method to full advantage. To the fullest possible advantage.
“Since Anastasia didn’t want us to see her crying, we didn’t
go out into the glade, and didn’t approach the mound, but we
couldn’t tear ourselves from the spot. So we just stood there,
observing what was going on.
“Supporting herself on the burial mound, little Anastasia
attempted to stand on her little feet. She didn’t do it on
the first try, but still, she managed to stand up. She stood
there swaying back and forth, stretching her arms out a lit-
tle to each side, and finally took her first timid step away
from her parents’ grave, then a second step. Her little feet
got mixed up in the grass and her little body lost its balance
and started to fall. But the fall — well, that was something
quite unusual.
‘At the moment she fell, a barely noticeable bluish glow
came flooding over the glade, and changed the Earth’s laws
of gravity just on that particular spot. It touched us too with
some kind of mellow languor. Anastasia’s body didn’t fall, but
gradually and smoothly descended to the ground. Once she
got up on her feet again, the bluish light disappeared, and the
normal gravitation field was restored.
“With careful and hesitating footsteps, Anastasia went
over to a little branch lying in the glade and was able to pick it
The anomaly
i75
up. We realised she had started cleaning up the glade, as her
mother had done many times. This wee little girl then carried
the dry branch to the edge of the glade. But once again she
lost her balance, began to fall and dropped the branch.
“During her fall, once more the bluish glow sparked into
life, changing the Earth’s gravitational field, and the branch
flew over to the little pile of dry branches lying at the edge of
the glade.
‘Anastasia got up, looked around for the branch but couldn’t
find it. Then, throwing up her little hands, with shaky steps
she slowly made her way over to another branch. No sooner
had she started bending over to pick it up than the branch
itself began rising from the ground, as though a breeze had
blown it to the edge of the glade. But there wasn’t enough of a
wind around to do this. Some invisible presence was carrying
out little Anastasia’s desires.
“But she wanted to do everything herself, as her Mama had
done. And, no doubt in protest against this help from her
invisible ally, she thrust her little hand into the air and waved
it gently above her head.
“We looked up and saw it. Over the meadow we saw hang-
ing a small spherical mass, pulsating and glowing with a pale-
blue light. We could see a whole multitude of fiery discharges
inside its transparent covering, giving the effect of multi-col-
oured lightning. Indeed, it was very similar to large ball-light-
ning. But it was intelligent!
“We couldn’t tell what it was made of and what kind of in-
telligence we were dealing with.
“We could feel some kind of unknown and unseen power
in it. But there was no sense of fear of this power. On the
contrary, it seemed to be radiating a pleasant, languid grace.
We didn’t feel like moving. We just felt like being.”
“But what made you think it possessed untold power?” I
interrupted.
176 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“My Papa noticed that. Even though it was a bright sun-
ny day, the leaves on the trees and the petals on the flowers
turned in its direction. In its bluish glow there was more
power than in the Sun’s rays. And it could change the Earth’s
gravitational field at the moment Anastasia fell — just in the
right place and at just the right time. The change was so pre-
cise that her body descended smoothly, but yet was not torn
away from the Earth.
‘Anastasia spent a long time collecting branches. Some-
times she would crawl, at other times walk all over the mead-
ow with slow steps, until she had cleared them all away. And
the fiery sphere, still pulsating, hovered over the wee little
one. But it no longer helped her pick up the branches. The
powerful fiery sphere seemed to understand the gesture of
her little hand and obeyed it.
“Expanding and dissolving in Space, contracting and pro-
ducing internal discharges (like flashbulbs) of some kind of
energy from goodness-knows-where, the sphere would mo-
mentarily disappear and then reappear, as though it were
somehow excited, and this excitement caused it to sweep
through space at incredible speed.
“The time came when Anastasia normally lay down to
sleep. We never compel our children to sleep, rocking them
back and forth until they become dizzy. At this time Anasta-
sia’s mother would simply lie down herself in the usual spot
and pretend to doze off, to show her child by example. Lit-
tle Anastasia would crawl over to her, snuggle up against her
warm body and peacefully fall asleep.
‘And this time Anastasia went to the spot where she was
used to sleeping during the day with her mother. She stood
and looked at the place where she had always slept with her
Mama at this time, but now there was no Mama around.
“It was not clear just what she was thinking at that mo-
ment, only once again a tiny tear glistened in a sunbeam on
The anomaly
*77
Anastasia’s face. And right away the bluish glow came pulsat-
ing across the glade, flashing at irregular intervals.
‘Anastasia raised her little head, saw the pulsating mass of
light, sat down on the grass and began staring at it continu-
ously. It remained still under her gaze. For some time she just
sat there staring like that. Then she held out both her little
arms in its direction, as she was wont to do when summon-
ing one of the creatures to her side. At that point the fiery
sphere sparked up in a multitude of powerful lightning bolts,
reaching out beyond its blue covering, and... made a dash for
her little arms like a fiery comet. Looking as though it had
the ability to sweep away everything in its path, it took only a
split second to reach Anastasia’s face, start rotating and with
one of its lightning flashes wipe away a tiny tear glistening on
her cheek. And at this point it extinguished all the discharges
and became a pale blue, faintly glowing sphere in the arms of
the little one sitting on the grass.
“For a time Anastasia sat there holding it, examining it and
stroking it with her hands. Then she got up, lifted up the blue
sphere, and with careful steps carried it over and put it down
on the place she used to sleep with her mother. And again she
caressed it gently
“The sphere took up a position on the ground and pretend-
ed to doze off, just as Anastasia’s mother had done. And the
little girl lay down beside it. She fell asleep. She slept there
on the grass, all curled up into a ball. The sphere took flight,
disappearing into the heavenly heights, then spread itself low
over the glade, as though it were a blanket. Later, once more
contracting into a small, pulsating ball, it took up a position
next to Anastasia, who was still sleeping on the grass, and be-
gan stroking her hair. It was a strange and unusual caressing.
With the most delicate luminescent and flickering threads of
lightning, it took each individual strand of hair, lifted it and
caressed it.
178 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“On subsequent visits to Anastasia in her glade, we saw it
again on several occasions. We realised that to Anastasia it
was something quite natural, just like the Sun, or the Moon,
or the trees and animals around her. And she had conversa-
tions with it, just as she did with everything else around her.
But it was evident she made a distinction between it and the
other things in her environment. The distinction wasn’t too
noticeable in terms of outward expression, but there was a
definite impression that she treated it with just a little more
respect than other things, and sometimes she would even play
up to it. She never played up to anyone else, but for some rea-
son she allowed herself to behave this way with the sphere. It
reacted to her mood and even played along.”
“The morning Anastasia turned four,” Grandfather contin-
ued, “we were standing at the edge of the glade waiting for
her to wake up. We wanted to quietly watch and see how she
would delight in the new spring day that was unfolding.
“The sphere appeared just a moment before she woke up.
It glistened faintly with its bluish glow, either spreading itself
in a shower of light or dissolving over the whole Space of the
glade. And we beheld a natural living picture made by no hu-
man hand — it was charming and magnificent.
“The whole glade was transformed — the surrounding
trees, the grass, even the bugs. The needles of the cedars
began shining in a host of soft hues. Behind the squirrels
springing from branch to branch could be seen rainbow-
trails sparkling and dissolving. The grass was lit up in a soft
green glow. An even more pronounced multicoloured glow
emanated from the multitude of bugs scurrying through the
grass, forming an unusually vivid and beautiful carpet spread-
ing its way across the glade, constantly morphing itself into
new intricate and marvellous patterns. Upon awakening,
Anastasia opened her eyes to behold an extraordinary living
The anomaly 179
panorama, full of enchantment. She jumped up and gazed
all ’round.
“She smiled, as she always did in the morning, and every-
thing around her responded to her smile with an even brighter
glow and accelerated movement. Then Anastasia carefully
knelt down and began meticulously examining the grass and
the shining, multicoloured bugs scurrying about. When she
lifted up her head, the slightly worried expression on her face
betrayed a measure of concentration. She looked up and, even
though nothing was visible up there, stretched her little arms
to the sky. All at once the still air stirred, and in her hands ap-
peared the bluish sphere. She held it up to her face, then put
it down on the grass and tenderly stroked it. And we could
hear their conversation. Anastasia was the only one who actu-
ally spoke, but we had the distinct impression that the sphere
was understanding her and even silently responding. Anasta-
sia spoke with it tenderly, with just a touch of sadness:
‘“You are good. You are very good. You wanted to delight
me with your beauty. Thank you. But change it back, please
change it back to the way it was before. And do not ever
change it again.’
“The blue sphere emitted another pulse, then lifted slight-
ly off the ground, and the lightning discharges flashed from
within. But the glowing scene did not fade. Anastasia fixed
her gaze upon it and spoke to it once again:
‘“Every little beetle, bug and ant has its Mama. Everyone
has a Mama. All Mamas love their children just the way they
were born. It does not matter how many legs they have or
what colour they are. You have changed everything. How
will the Mamas recognise their children now? Please, make
everything as it was before!’
“The sphere gave a faint flash, and everything in the glade
was restored to the way it looked before. Once again it de-
scended to Anastasia’s feet. She stroked it and offered a
180 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
‘Thank you!’. She stared silently at the sphere for a while, and
when she spoke to it again, her words really impressed ns. She
told it:
‘“Do not come to see me again. I like being with you. You
are always trying to do only what is good for everyone, always
trying to help. But do not come visit me. I know you have a
very large glade of your own. But you think very fast, so fast
that I cannot understand all at once. Only later shall I un-
derstand a bit. You move faster than everything else. Much
faster than the birds and the breeze. You do everything very
fast and very well, and I know that is how you must do it to
get everything done, to do good in your own very large glade.
But when you are with me, it means you are not there. So,
when you are with me, there is no one to do good in the other
glade. Go away. You need to take care of the large glade.’
“The blue sphere contracted into a little lump, and took
off way up high. It began sweeping through Space, sparkling
more brightly than usual, and once more plunged down like
a fiery comet to Anastasia, who was still sitting in the same
spot. It stayed still by her head for a while, then a multitude
of tiny flickering rays reached out to Anastasia’s long hair and
stroked each strand individually, right down to the tip.
“‘What are you talcing your time for?’ Anastasia said qui-
etly ‘You should get going back to those who are waiting for
you. I’ll make everything all right here myself. And I will be
happy to know that everything is all right in the large glade
too. I shall be able to feel you. And I want you to think of me
too, but just occasionally’
“The blue sphere began ascending, but not with its usual
carefree bounce. It rose from Anastasia in fitful bursts, and
finally disappeared into space. But it left something invisible
all around. And each time when something happened that af-
fected Anastasia negatively, the surrounding space would grow
still, as though paralysed. That is why you lost consciousness
The anomaly
181
when you tried to touch her without her consent. She paci-
fies this phenomenon by waving her hands in the air when-
ever she can. Just as before, she wants to do everything all by
herself.
“We asked our little Anastasia:
‘“What was that glowing thing that was hovering over the
glade, what do you call it?’
“She thought for a bit, and answered briefly:
‘“I would call it Good, Granpakins.’”
The oldster fell silent. But I still wanted to hear about how
little Anastasia lived in the forest, and I asked him:
“What did she do after that, how did she live?”
“The same way,” the old fellow replied. “She grew up just
like anyone else. We suggested she help the dachniks. By
the time she was six she was already able to see people at a
distance, to discern their feelings and help them. She got
involved with the dachniks. Now she believes that the phe-
nomenon of the dachniks offers an easy transition to making
sense of what constitutes our earthly existence. Here she’s
been continually shining that ray of hers for twenty years now.
She’s given warmth to plants on the small plots of land. She’s
treated people’s illnesses. She’s tried to explain to people,
without imposing on them, how one should handle plants,
and she’s had terrific results. Then she started observing oth-
er aspects of human life. And destiny brought her together
with you. And now she’s come out with the idea of carrying
people through the dark forces’ window of time.”
‘And what do you think, she’ll be successful?” I asked.
“Vladimir, Anastasia knows the power of thought inherent
in Man as a Creator. Otherwise she would never have let her-
self make such a statement. From now on she will not deviate
from this path — she’ll stick to it. She’s a stubborn lass. It
comes from her father.”
182 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“So, she’s taking concrete steps,” I observed. “She’s trying
to make her thought-forms into reality, and here we are just
sitting and rationalising about the spiritual. Like kids wip-
ing their noses... You know, there’s quite a few people that
still ask me: ‘Does Anastasia really exist, or did I just dream
everything up myself?”’
“That’s not a question people can actually ask. People
touched by the book will feel her right away. She is in the
book. Questions like that can only be asked by illusory peo-
ple, not real people.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
i
“But I’m talking about very real people — like those two girls
over there, for instance. D’you see?” I pointed in the direc-
tion of two teen-age girls standing about five or six metres
away from our bench.
The old man fixed his gaze upon them and said:
“I think one of them — the one that’s smoking — is unreal.”
“What d’you mean, unreal? If I went up to her and gave her
behind a good slap, you’d hear a scream and curses that’d be
more than real!”
“You know, Vladimir, what you are now seeing is simply an
image before your eyes. An image created by the dogmas of
the technocratic world. Look closely. The girl has on very
uncomfortable high-heeled shoes. Besides, they’re a little too
tight for her. She wears them precisely because someone else
is dictating what shoes women should be wearing these days.
‘And she’s wearing a short skirt of material made to look
like leather but it isn’t leather. It’s harmful for the body, but
she’s wearing it according to the dictates of society’s current
fad. Look at all her gaudy make-up and how arrogantly she’s
behaving. Outwardly she’s independent. But only outwardly
Her whole appearance is at odds with herself, her real self.
She’s been ‘smitten’ by an image of someone else’s thought-
forms, a soulless, illusory image has eclipsed her living soul
and taken it captive.”
“You can say what you like about the soul, captivity and the
dictates of some image or other,” I interjected. “But how can
one tell whether that’s actually true or not?”
184 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“I’m already an old man, you see. I can’t get in tune with
the slower pace of your thinking. I can’t express myself con-
vincingly, the way Anastasia does.” The oldster sighed and
added: “Do you mind if I try showing you?”
“Showing me what?”
“I shall now attempt to destroy, at least for a time, that illu-
sory, lifeless image and free the girl’s soul. You watch closely.”
“Go ahead.”
The girl holding the cigarette was in the midst of arrogantly
berating her companion. The old fellow watched them close-
ly and intently. And when the girl turned her glance away and
fixed it on some of the passers-by, the oldster’s eyes followed
her gaze. Then he got up and, gesturing to me to follow him,
headed toward the girls. I went after him. He stopped about
a half metre from them and fixed his eyes on the girl with the
cigarette. She turned her head to look at him, blew a puff of
cigarette smoke in his face and said with some irritation:
“Hey, what’s with you, Gramps? Begging for money, eh?”
The oldster paused, probably to recover from the cloud of
smoke enveloping his face, and said in a soft and tender tone:
“Put the cigarette, dear girl, into your right hand. You
should try holding it in your right hand.”
And the girl obediently put the cigarette into her right
hand. But there was much more to it than that. Her face
suddenly became completely altered. Her arrogance had van-
ished. In fact everything about her was different: her face,
the way she stood. And in a completely different tone of
voice she said:
“I’ll try, Grandfather.”
“You should have your child, dear girl.”
“It’ll be hard for me. I’m all alone.”
“Let him come to you. You go and think about that hand
of yours, think about your child, and he will come. Go along
now, dear girl, you must hurry”
Illusory people
185
“I’ll go.” The girl took a few steps, then stopped and called
back to her companion in a calm, quiet voice, with no sign of
her former irritation: “Come along, Tanya... come with me.”
They left.
“Wow! Can you tame any woman like that?” I said, when
we had regained our seat on the bench again. “That’s terrific!
Some sort of super-hypnosis, eh? Far out!”
“It’s not hypnosis, Vladimir. And there’s no far-out mysti-
cism here. It’s simply an attentive attitude to one’s fellow-
Man. And I mean to the Alan, not to the dreamt-up image
which obscures the real Alan. And Alan responds instantly to
this, he finds his strength, when you appeal directly to him,
ignoring the illusory image.”
“But how did you manage to see the invisible Man behind
the visible image?”
“It’s all very simple, really. I watched them a bit. The girl
was holding her cigarette in her left hand. She was also rum-
maging about in her purse with her left hand. Which means
she’s left-handed. And if a small child holds a spoon or does
something else with the left hand, his parents try to get him
to use his right. She got along fine with her parents. I realised
this when I saw the way she looked at the man and woman
walking along with a little girl in tow. I spoke to her the way
her parents might have when she was little. I tried to use the
same tone of voice her parents might have used. Back when
she was little, unaffected, not under someone else’s image.
That little girl was the real Man, and it responded right off.”
“But you were talking to her about childbirth — what was
that all about?”
“She’s pregnant, you see. She’s been pregnant more than a
month now. That alien image doesn’t want the child. But the
girl’s inner being wants the child very much. They’re strug-
gling with each other. Now her inner being will win out!
Chapter Twenty-Nine
‘Anastasia told me, when I talked with her in the taiga,” I recalled,
“that nobody can see God because His thoughts work with great
speed and concentration. But I’m thinking, why doesn’t He slow
them down so people can get a good look at Him?”
The old man raised his walking-stick and pointed it at a
passing cyclist.
“Look there, Vladimir. Look how the bicycle wheels turn.
The wheel has spokes, but you can’t see them. They are there,
and you know it, but the speed of rotation does not allow you
to see them. Or put it another way: the pace of your thinking
and your visual perception does not allow you to see them. If
the cyclist goes slower, you will see the spokes of the wheel,
albeit blurred. If he stops altogether, you will see them clearly,
but the cyclist himself will fall off. He won’t get to his desti-
nation because of his stopping, and for what? Just to let you
see that the spokes are there? But where does that take you?
Has anything changed in you? Or around you?
“The only thing you’ll know for certain is: the spokes exist.
And that’s it. The cyclist, of course, can always get up and
continue his journey, but others may want to see, which means
he’ll have to stop and fall again and again. And for what?”
“Well, so I can get a good look at him just once.”
“And what will you see? After all, a cyclist lying on the
ground isn’t a cyclist any more. You will have to imagine what
he looked like.
“Just so, a God who changes the pace of His thinking is
no longer God. Wouldn’t it be better for you to learn how
Why nobody can see God
187
to accelerate your own thinking? Imagine yourself talking
with someone who has a slow time getting what you’re say-
ing — doesn’t that irritate you? Isn’t it a pain slowing down
your own pace of thought to his level?”
“kou’re right, if you adapt yourself to a fool’s pace, you
might become a fool yourself.”
“So in order for us to see God, He would have to slow down
His own thinking to our pace, and become as one of us. But
when He does this, sending us His sons, the crowd looks at
them and says: ‘You aren’t God, you’re not even the son of
God, just a pretender. Perform a miracle or we’ll nail you to
a cross.’”
“But why shouldn’t God’s son perform a miracle?” I ques-
tioned. ‘At least so the non-believers would back off, and not
crucify him.”
“Miracles do not convince non-believers, they only tempt
them,” came the reply. ‘And those who perform miracles are
burnt at the stake under cries of ‘Burn the manifestation of
the dark forces!’ Besides, just look around you. God’s mira-
cles abound in countless numbers. The Sun rises every day,
and then there’s the Moon at night. An insect on a blade of
grass is a miracle, after all, not to mention a tree...
“Here we are, the two of us, sitting under a tree. Who
could think up a more perfect mechanism than a tree like
this? These are particles of His thought. All the material-
ised, living forms scurrying beneath our feet, living above
our heads in the ethereal blue, singing for us, caressing our
bodies with a ray of warmth — these are all His, they are all
around us, made for us. But are there that many people who
are able not only to see, but to feel and realise the significance
of all this? Maybe not even to improve, but simply to use and
keep from distorting or destroying these living marvels of
creation? As for His sons, they have one purpose — to raise
people’s conscious awareness by their words, slowing down
i88
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
their own thinking, even at the risk of being misunderstood
themselves.”
“But Anastasia emphasised that just speaking words was
not enough to raise Man’s conscious awareness to a meaning-
ful level. I too think that mankind has uttered an enormous
number of different words, but what do they mean? The
Earth all around is full of unhappy lives, and it may even suf-
fer a global disaster.”
“Quite right. When the words do not come from the heart,
when the threads linking them to the soul are torn apart, then
the words are empty, imageless, faceless. Our granddaugh-
ter Nastenka 1 is capable of creating images not just in every
word, but in the sound of every letter of the alphabet. Now
the Earth-dwelling teachers, His sons that are in the flesh to-
day, will attain such a degree of power that the human spirit
will outshine the darkness.”
“Sons, teachers? What have they got to do with it? Aren’t
the abilities hers alone?”
“She will share them, in fact she is already sharing them.
Look here, you’ve even been able to write a book, readers
have flooded the world with poems, and new songs have been
sung. Have you heard the new songs?”
“Yes, 1 have.”
“So this will be multiplied many times with your religious
teachers, just as soon as they come into contact with the book.
And where you see simply words, they will feel the living im-
ages, and the power will be magnified multifold in them.”
“They will feel it, but what about me? What am I, com-
pletely devoid of feeling? If so, why did she talk with me and
not with them?”
“Because you are incapable of distorting what you hear,
and there is nothing you have of your own already that you
1 Nastenka (pronounced NAH-sten-ka ) — a diminutive form of Anastasia.
Why nobody can see God
189
can mix with it. On a clean sheet of paper the word is set
forth more clearly. But not to worry, your thought will accel-
erate too.”
“Okay, let it accelerate in me too, so I don’t lag behind the
others. I guess everything you say must be right. Here in
Russia there’s the leader of one religious community — the
community settlers refer to him as their teacher — who told
his followers to read the book about Anastasia. ‘It will set
your hearts on fire,’ he told them. And many of his followers
went out and bought the book.”
“So, that means he understood, he felt something, and that
is why he helped Anastasia and you. And did you ever thank
him for his help?”
“I’ve never met him.”
“You can say ‘thank you’ in your heart.”
“Silently, you mean? Who’s going to hear that?”
“The one who listens with his heart will hear it.”
“There’s another element here. He said the book was re-
ally good, Anastasia too, but he went on to say that I wasn’t a
real man, that I wasn’t a true male of the species. Anastasia
didn’t meet with a real man,’ he said. I saw this myself on TV,
and then read it in the papers.”
‘And what would you say you were — Mr Perfection?”
“Well, ‘perfection’, I admit, is stretching it.”
“Then you need not be offended. You can work toward be-
ing perfect. My granddaughter will help you. Those whom
Love is capable of uplifting can rise to the heights. It’s not even
meant for everyone to grasp the whys and the wherefores. An
extraordinary speed of thinking is required for that.”
“What about yoz/r thought? What speed does it operate at?
You don’t find it tiresome talking with me?”
“The thinking speed of anyone who leads a lifestyle such
as ours is always significantly greater than that of people in
the technocratic world. Our thought is not encumbered by
190 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
constant concerns about clothing, food and a lot of other
things like that. But I don’t find it tiresome talking with you,
thanks to my Love for my granddaughter. She wanted me to
talk with you. And I am glad to do something for her.”
‘And what is the pace of Anastasia’s thinking? The same as
yours and your father’s?”
‘Anastasia’s is greater.”
“By how much? By what ratio? What she can process in
ten minutes, let’s say, how long would that take you?”
“To make sense of what she can process in a second, we would
require several months. That is why she sometimes seems to
us illogical. That is why she is utterly alone. That is why we
can’t be of any significant help to her — why we can’t grasp
right off the logic behind her actions. My father has com-
pletely given up conversation altogether. He keeps trying to
match her pace of thinking so he can help her. He wants me
to do the same. But I don’t even try My father thinks that’s
because I’m lazy But I love my granddaughter very much and
simply trust that she is doing everything correctly And if she
asks me to do something, I’m delighted to do it. That’s why I
came to see you.”
“But how then did Anastasia manage to talk with me for
three whole days?”
“We wondered how, too — for a long time. After all, con-
stantly making that kind of an adjustment could drive one
crazy It was just recently that we discovered the answer. You
see, when she was talking with you, she did not slow her think-
ing down. On the contrary, she made it work even faster. She
accelerated it and transformed it into images. Now, like your
computer programmes, these images will play themselves out
for you and for anyone who reads the book. They will expand
and accelerate the pace of human thinking by leaps and bounds,
bringing it closer to God. When we realised that, we conclud-
ed that in thinking up such a thing, she had created a new law
Why nobody can see God
191
in the Universe. But now it’s clear that she was simply using
the opportunity afforded by pure and sincere Love, which we
hadn’t known about before. Love, after all, has remained one
of the Creator’s grand mysteries. And look how she has now
opened up one of its great opportunities and powers.”
‘And does the pace of her thinking allow her • to see God?”
“Hardly After all, she lives in the flesh too. God is in the
flesh as well, but only partly And His flesh is all the people of
the Earth. As one small particle of this flesh, Anastasia occa-
sionally grasps something. It is possible that when her thinking
reaches such incredible speeds, she feels Him more than others
do, but this happens with her only for short periods of time.”
‘And what does it give her?”
“In a matter of a second she is able to comprehend the truths,
the essence of being, the conscious awareness that the wisest
people of your world have spent a lifetime perfecting and shar-
ing with each other.”
“And that means she has the knowledge of our Oriental la-
mas, the wisdom of Buddha and Christ, and knows yoga too?”
“That she does. She knows more than is said in all the trea-
tises passed down to your world today. But she still considers
them to be insufficient, since there is no universal harmony
among those living on the Earth today, and the march toward
global disaster continues.
“This is why she is working out her incredible ‘combina-
tions’. She is saying: ‘Enough of teaching people dogmas,
enough of tempting them with Adam and Eve’s apple. They
must be enabled to feel — really feel — what Alan once felt,
what he was capable of and who he was.’”
“So,” I said, “what you’re trying to tell me is that she has a
real possibility of doing something good for all mankind? If
that’s so, then when will it begin — this ‘good’?”
“It has already begun. Just little sprouts so far, but that it is
only for the time being.”
192 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Where are they? How do I see them? Or feel them?”
‘Ask the people who read the book — the ‘sprouts’ are in
them. Indeed, the book is awakening bright feelings in many
people. That’s something that can no longer be denied —
many will attest to it. She’s succeeded with those combina-
tions of hers. Incredible, but she’s done it.
‘And you, Vladimir, think about who you were and who
you’ve become. What has been happening, Vladimir, is that a
programme of thought-images has been unfolding in you, and
her soul has been unfolding in people’s consciousness. The
world is starting to change in you, and by doing so is chang-
ing the thought-images all around you. We cannot fathom
completely how she manages to do that. What is evidently
real on the surface is something we can still manage to deci-
pher. What helps her to bring about this new reality remains
a mystery.
“Naturally one can make vigorous efforts to delve into it,
but we should be wary of taking away from the marvellous
reality that is unfolding before our eyes. A breathtaking dawn
of a new day is something to be admired. Once you begin
analysing the whys and wherefores, instead of elation all you
get is excavation, which doesn’t lead to anything and doesn’t
change anything.”
“Golly I didn’t realise it was so far out, so complex! I was
still hoping that Anastasia was just a simple recluse, only ex-
traordinarily kind, beautiful and a little naive.”
“You see what I mean, you mustn’t go digging around and
knocking your brains out. If it’s all too complex, then let her
remain for you a kind and beautiful recluse, since that’s the
image you have of her. Others will see something different.
You’ve been given what you’ve been given. That’s all your
consciousness has room for at the moment, and that is per-
fectly well and good. Just try to admire the dawn, if you can.
That’s the most important thing of all.”
Chapter Thirty
“The dawn will begin in Russia,” I observed, “when everyone
will be better off financially. When the economy as a whole
improves, and individuals see a rise in their incomes.”
‘All the material things you see around you depend on
Man’s spirit and conscious awareness,” Anastasia’s grandfa-
ther responded.
“Okay, maybe. But what’s the point in erudite philoso-
phies, if people can’t afford to feed or clothe themselves?”
“They need to think about why that has been happening.
Each one needs to figure it out for themselves. And stop try-
ing to find a scapegoat. Only by changing themselves within will
they change anything around them, including their financial
situation. I agree with you that people will not be able to ac-
cept this all at once. But Anastasia said, after all: ‘You have to
do without moral preaching. You have to show people how,
that’s all.’ And she showed how
“Now it’s up to you to carry out what she outlined. Then,
within the space of three years, many communities through-
out Siberia — large, small, forgotten and neglected, where
there are only old people still living whose children don’t even
come for a visit, will become richer, many times richer. Their
life will bloom abundantly, and many children will return.
‘And she will have much more than that to offer. She will
reveal many secrets, she will restore people’s abilities and the
knowledge inherent in our pristine origins. Russia will be
a most wealthy land. And she will do this to prove that the
spirituality and knowledge inherent in our pristine origins are
194
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
more significant than the futile efforts of technocracy. Russia
will herald a new dawn over the whole Earth.”
‘And what do / have to do to bring it about?”
“You can start by revealing the first secret related to you by
Anastasia. You should write in your book how to produce heal-
ing oil from the cedar nut. And don’t hold anything back.”
I suddenly felt everything boiling up inside me. The wind
was literally knocked out of me. I couldn’t sit, and jumped to
my feet.
“Why? Tell me why! Why should I suddenly turn around
and do that? For everybody For free. Any sane person would
think I was an idiot...
“I set up an expedition, and I put into it everything I had.
Now my firm’s been ruined. Anastasia asked me to write a
book, and I wrote it. And now we re even. Your aspirations,
your philosophy — that’s not something I can readily com-
prehend. All I did was put it down on paper, as I promised
Anastasia I would...
“But the oil — well, that’s something that’s completely
clear to me. I know now how much I can get for it. And
I’ll never share the technology with anybody I’ll scrape to-
gether a little money from selling the books and then I’ll start
producing it myself. I’ve got to put everything back together
again. I’ve got to get my ship back, the company too. I need
to buy a laptop so I can keyboard the next book...
“I don’t have a home any more. No place to live. I want
to buy a trailer home. And when I’m rich, I want to erect a
monument to Russian officers — the ones physically alive but
with mortally wounded hearts. Our indifference keeps tear-
ing their hearts apart, and their honour and conscience have
been spat on by people — the same people officers in all ages
have gone into battle to defend...
“While you people sit nice and quiet there in the forest,
here people are perishing. The country all around is full of
Dawn in Russia
195
various ‘preachers’. They all just talk about spiritual matters,
but don’t really feel like doing anything. At least I’m going
to do something. But here you’re telling me I should give
valuable know-how away just like that! To everyone! Not on
your life!”
“Anastasia did determine a percen tage for you too,” Grand-
father interjected. “I know — three percent from the sale of
the oil.”
“Sure, what’s a miserable three percent to me, when I can
get three hundred for the oil?! I know what the world prices
are now. And as for its healing properties, what they’re sell-
ing out there is considerably less effective. I did some check-
ing. They don’t know how to produce it properly Now I’m
the only one who knows how to do it. Everything she said
checked out. There’s nothing in the world that can compare
with its healing impact. Besides, scientific studies confirm it.
Pallas 1 said that it could even restore a person’s youth. And
you want me to go give it away just like that.
“You must take me for a fool. I’ve looked through so much
literature, even sent people into the archives to confirm what
she said. And they did. A lot of money went to that too.”
“You checked into everything — which means you couldn’t
bring yourself to trust Anastasia right off. That lack of trust
is what cost you the time and money.”
“Yes, I did do the checking. I had to, you see. But now I’m
not going to be a sucker any more. You talk about a ‘dawn for
everyone’. Come on now — ■ ‘dawn’? In that dawn of yours I’d
still be a sucker. I wrote a book. I did everything just the way
she asked me to. I remember her telling me: ‘Don’t hide any-
thing, either the bad or the good. Humble your pride. Don’t
1 Pallas — a reference to Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811), a member of the
St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and a prominent pioneer explorer of
the Siberian taiga.
196 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
be afraid to look ridiculous, don’t be afraid to be misunder-
stood.’ I haven’t hid anything. And what’s come of it?
“The book makes me look like a complete idiot. People
stand there and say that to my face. That I haven’t got a spir-
itual ounce in my body, that there’s a lot I still don’t under-
stand. They say I’m coarse and uncivilised. And even a thir-
teen-year-old girl from Kolomna 2 wrote me to say I’ve been
doing things the wrong way And a woman from Perm 3 came
to see me, right to my doorstep, and said: T wanted to see
what Anastasia saw in him.’
‘“Don’t hide anything, either the good or the bad. Humble
your pride. Don’t be afraid to look ridiculous, don’t be afraid
to be misunderstood.’ She knew everything, didn’t she? She
comes out pretty good in the book — that’s what people say —
and how do I look? It’s all her fault. If it weren’t for the child, I
could easily slap her one for what she did. Just think! I wrote
everything down in good faith, just as she asked me to. And
for that people tell me I’m insensitive and a coward to boot.
“Of course I’m a complete idiot. I’ve made myself into
one. I obeyed her. I’ve written all that about myself, and now
I’ll never live it down the rest of my days. And after I’m gone
they’ll still make fun of me. The book’s got a life of its own,
as it’s turned out. It’ll outlive me! And even if I stop print-
ing it, what difference will it make? The underground press is
already grinding out more copies. They’re trying to run it off
on photocopy machines.”
All at once I stopped short and looked at the old man. A
little tear could be seen slowly making its way down his cheek.
'girl from Kolomna — The reference is to a young girl also named Anasta-
sia, whose letter to Vladimir Megre is reproduced in Book i, Chapter 30:
“Author’s message to readers”.
: Perm — a major city of over a million inhabitants 1,500 km east of Mos-
cow.
Dawn in Russia
197
I sat down beside him. He was still silently looking at the
ground. Then he spoke.
“You see, Vladimir, my granddaughter Nastenka is capa-
ble of foreseeing a lot. It’s not that she wanted anything for
herself. She didn’t want fame, didn’t want money By taking
part of the fame upon herself, she put herself in danger, but
she saved you. And the fact that you come out the way you
do in the book — well, that’s her doing. You’re right about
that. But that was not to humiliate you — that’s how she was
able to save you. By taking upon herself a whole mass of dark
forces. All by herself. And you respond to her with the pain
of misunderstanding and irritation. Think — is it easy for a
woman who creates out of love to hold on like that?”
“What kind of a love is it,” I countered, “when her beloved
is counted among fools?”
“Calling somebody a fool doesn’t make him one. A fool is
one who mistakes flattering words for the truth. Think for a
moment of how you would like to be seen by others. As a fig-
ure exalted above all? As a brilliant intellect? And you could
have made yourself a reputation like that with your first book.
But then... pride and selfishness would have destroyed you.
“There are not even that many enlightened people who
could hold out against sins like those. Pride creates an un-
natural image of Man, it obscures the living soul. That is why
the philosophers of the past and the geniuses of today can
create so precious little. Because even after the first stroke of
their pen they are so overwhelmed by a sense of self-conceit
they lose right off what was given to them in the beginning.
“But Nastenka was smart enough to set up a protective
barrier against flattery and worship which lead to pride. They
won’t touch you now. She is saving you from a multitude of
ills. And is protecting both your spirit and your flesh. You
will write nine books straight from your heart. The Earth will
be radiant with its Space of Love. And then, once you have
198 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
dotted the final i in the ninth book, you will be able to under-
stand who you are.”
“Come on! Isn’t it possible to tell who I am right now?”
“Who you are right now — that’s pretty obvious. You are
who you are at the moment. You are who you feel yourself
to be. Whoever you will become, only Anastasia, possibly,
knows. And she will wait, living each moment by Love. The
fact that people sitting in their comfortable apartments call
you a coward — that’s nothing. You should take it with a
grain of salt. And suggest they try heading off into the taiga
for three days with no gear. Let them try sleeping with a bear
in a cave. To get the full sensation, let them take a mentally
deranged girl along — after all, wasn’t that how Anastasia
seemed to you at first?”
“More or less.”
“Let any man who accuses you try sleeping with his mental-
ly deranged companion. Out there in the backwoods, where
they can hear the wolves howling. Could he really do that?
What do you think?” the old fellow asked slyly.
And no sooner had I pictured to myself the scenario he de-
scribed than I burst out in a hearty laugh. And the two of us
had a good laugh together. Then I asked him:
“Can Anastasia hear what we’ve been saying?”
“She will learn about all your deeds.”
“Then tell her not to worry I shall explain to everyone how
to extract healing oil from cedar nuts.”
“Fine, I’ll tell her,” the old man promised. “But do you re-
member everything Anastasia told you about the process?”
“Yes, I think I do.”
“Right, tell it to me.”
Chapter Thirty-One
It’s not that difficult a task. The modern technology involved
is already familiar and it needs no setting forth here. But
there are some rather unusual nuances I should point out.
When gathering the cones 1 one should not beat against the
cedars with logs or wooden bats, as the harvesters do today.
This greatly weakens the healing properties of the oil. One
should use only the cones which the cedar itself gives off. Ei-
ther they fall with the wind, or you can knock them down with
the resonance of your voice, as Anastasia does. They should
be collected by people whose thought is free from evil. And
it is especially good when the cones are picked up by children’s
hands. In any case, all the steps which follow should be car-
ried out with kind and bright thoughts.
“Such people may be found in Siberian villages even now,”
Anastasia affirmed. Whether this really makes a difference is
difficult to tell. But it also says in the Bible that King Solo-
mon sought out people “skilled in felling timber ”. 2 Only it
doesn’t say how these people differed from anyone else in
other respects.
The nuts obtained after the shelling of the cones must have
their oil extracted within a three-month period; after that the
'cones — Note that the term cedar (Russian kedr) is used throughout the
Ringing Cedars Series to refer to either the Siberian cedar (or Siberian pine,
Pinus sibirica) — as in this case — or to the Lebanese cedar (cedar of Leba-
non, Cedrtis libani).
"I Kings 5: 6 ( New Internationa! Version).
200
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
quality will significantly deteriorate. The kernel should not
come into contact with any metal during the extraction proc-
ess. In any case, the oil should never come into contact with
metal.
The oil can be used to treat any diseases without diagno-
sis. It can also be used as a food product and added to salads.
Or it can be taken one spoonful a day, preferably at sunrise,
although the afternoon is also a good time. But definitely in
daylight, not at night. That’s the main thing.
“Only people may be offered a counterfeit,” I voiced my
concern to the old fellow. But he responded slyly and with
just a touch of humour:
“Well, then, you and I will make a device to screen out
counterfeits. And we’ll work out those commissions of yours
at the same time.”
“How do we do that?”
“Have to think about it. You, after all, are the entrepre-
neur.”
“I was one, but right now I’m not sure who I am.”
“Let’s think together, then. You correct me if something’s not
right.”
“Okay,” I agreed.
“The final product should be tested with measuring instru-
ments by competent technicians. Doctors, scientists — in a
word, professionals.”
“That’s right, they can issue certificates.”
“But instruments can’t catch everything. A taste test will
also be needed.”
“Possibly Tasters determine the quality of wine, for exam-
ple. There’s no substitute for that. But the wine-tasters are
acutely aware of the taste of different vintages. They have a
superb sense for both fragrance and taste. But who will be
tasting the oil?”
“7ou can check it.”
How to produce healing cedar oil
201
‘And just how am I supposed to do that? I’ve only tasted
the usual sort of oil. When we made it ourselves, we didn’t
follow the technological procedures Anastasia recommend-
ed. Besides, I’m a smoker.”
“For three days before checking the oil quality, you should
abstain from smoking and alcohol. And don’t eat meats or
fats. And you shouldn’t talk with anyone for those three days.
Then you can check it and determine from the taste whether
it is good or an imitation.”
‘And what do I compare it with?”
“With this.”
Whereupon the old fellow put his hand into his canvas bag
and drew out a small hollow stick approximately two fingers
in width. Another stick protruded from one end, like a cork.
“This is genuine oil. Once you’ve tasted it, you won’t mis-
take it for anything else. But first let me rid you of what has
built up in you from smoking and other quirky habits.”
“How are you going to get rid of it? The way Anastasia
did?”
“Yes, more or less.
“But she said that only one who loves is capable of elimi-
nating ailments in a loved one with the Ray of Love. And of
warming his body, so that even his feet start perspiring.”
“With the Ray of Love. Quite correct.”
“But you cannot love me. Not the way she does.”
“But I love my granddaughter. Let’s try it.”
“Go ahead.”
1 he oldster screwed up his eyes and began fixing an un-
blinking gaze on me. I could feel a sense of warmth flow
through my body. But quite a bit weaker than what I felt from
Anastasia’s gaze. Nothing happened. But he still kept trying.
To the point where his arms were trembling. I could feel a
little more warming in my body, but only a little. Still, the
old fellow didn’t give up, and I waited. And all at once my
202
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
feet broke out into a sweat, after which a feeling of freshness
permeated my head, along with fragrances. I could feel the
fragrances in the air.
‘Ah, we’ve succeeded,” he said, wearily leaning against the
back of the bench. “Now give me your hand.”
He opened the stick cork and from the hollow stick poured
cedar oil onto the palm of my hand. I licked it off with my
tongue. The warmth spread across my palate and through my
mouth. And I suddenly caught a whiff of the cedar. And it
was, indeed, hard to mistake for anything else.
“Think you’ll remember it now?” asked Anastasia’s grand-
father.
“I’ll remember. What’s so hard about that? I ate potatoes
once at the monastery. I remembered that for ages. Twenty-
seven years later I still remembered the taste. Only how will
people know that it has been checked? That it is genuine
cedar nut oil? Right now it’s too expensive on the market.
For just one gram of the raw oil, diluted with something, they
charge thirty thousand roubles . 3 I saw it myself. It’s pack-
aged as an import. With prices like that it’s all too tempting
to sell fakes.”
“You’re right — money’s the master of ceremonies at the
moment. We’ll have to think of something.”
“You see? A dead end.”
“Anastasia said that this money can be turned to a good
purpose,” Grandfather observed. “Let’s think of something
along that line.”
“They’ve been trying to work out for some time now, for
example, how to guarantee the quality of vodka against imita-
tions. But... They’ve changed the labels and corks, they’ve
come up with excise labels, but all to no avail. There were
3 thirty thousand roubles — approximately US$6 at the then current exchange
rate.
How to produce healing cedar oil
203
imitations on the market before, and there still are. What
with photocopiers and all, any label can easily be copied.”
“What about money, Vladimir — can it be copied too?”
“Money — that’s more difficult to fake.”
“So let’s stick money onto the back side of our bottles,
like labels, so that these snivelling bits of paper can actually
do some good for once.”
“What d’you mean, stick money on bottles? What kind of
nonsense is that?”
“Give me a banknote, please. Any banknote.”
I gave him a iooo-rouble note.
“Well, then, it’s quite clear. You take the note and cut it in
half. Stick one half on the box or something else. The other
half you hide away in a file. You’ll think of a suitable place.
Or put it in a safety deposit box at your bank. You see, on
each half of the note there are identical numbers, and so any-
one wanting to confirm the authenticity of the oil, can simply
verify the number.”
Well, Gramps, I thought to myself, you’ve got a good head
on your shoulders. And out loud I said:
“There’s no better defence against imitations. Way to go!”
He laughed. Still laughing, he added:
“So, give me a percentage, too. Come on, cough it up!”
‘A percentage? What kind of a percentage? How much do
you want?”
“I want everything to be just right,” said the old fellow,
all at once serious again. Then he added: “Besides the three
percent, take an additional one percent — in kind, as oil al-
ready packaged. And offer it for free to whoever you feel you
should. Let that be a gift to people from you and me.”
“Right, I’ll do it. You’ve really thought of everything to a T.
Way to go!”
“ToaT? That means Nastenka will be very happy for us. And
my father still thinks I’m lazy So you think I’ve done a good job?”
204 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Of course you have!” And we both had another good
laugh. And I added: “Tell Anastasia I say you would make an
excellent entrepreneur.”
“You mean it?”
“Certainly! You could become one of those ‘New Rus-
sians ’ 4 — and a great one, too!”
“I’ll tell her. And the fact that you’re telling everyone about
the cedar nut oil, I’ll pass that along, too. No regrets?”
“What is there to regret? It would be a tiresome process,
anyway I’ll dash off the third book, as I promised, and then
I’ll get going with my business again, trade... or something
else, something normal.”
4 New Russians — the name given to a class of Russian nouveaux riches who
acquired considerable wealth after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They
were popularly perceived as intellectually limited individuals, notorious for
their criminal background, uncultured manners, offensive jargon and os-
tentatious display of wealth, all of which has given rise to a host of jokes.
Chapter Thirty-Two
(I don’t know what to call it; whoever can,
come up with a title yourselves)
I decided to tell Anastasia’s grandfather about my new as-
sistants:
“A lot of articles are now being written about Anastasia.
She’s being talked about in both academic and religious
circles. One production team, made up of very religious
and considerate people, offered me a deal to grant them,
in return for payment, the exclusive right to interpret
and comment on Anastasia’s sayings in the mass media. I
agreed.”
‘And for what amount, Vladimir, did you agree to sell them
Anastasia?”
The tone of his question and what he was getting at left a
rather bad taste in my mouth. And I answered:
“What do you mean, ‘sell? I told them more about Anas-
tasia than I wrote in the book. I told religious people so that
they could offer their exclusive comments as well as their
explanations of what she said. They want to meet with her.
They’re even ready to finance an expedition. I agreed. What’s
wrong with that?”
The old fellow didn’t respond immediately Since no reply
was forthcoming, I added:
“They offered me money for an exclusive right — that’s the
way we do things — people offer services for money. They
will earn even more from their publications.”
The oldster lowered his head and remained silent for a
while. Then, as if thinking things over aloud, he said:
206 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“So, you, in your enterprising way, sold Anastasia and they,
assuming themselves to be the most religious and competent
people in the world, decided to buy her.”
“Well, that’s a pretty strange way of putting it. So, when it
comes right down to it, what did I do wrong?”
“Tell me, Vladimir, didn’t it ever enter your head or the
heads of those ‘religious’ people to think of asking, finding
out or realising just who Anastasia herself wished to talk to
and when — and how? And do people in your world go vis-
iting without so much as an advance request to the host? I
don’t recall her asking anybody to visit her.”
“If she doesn’t want to talk with them, she doesn’t have to.
She didn’t sign any deal.”
“But you did. 1 She is ready to share what she knows with
everyone, but it is her right to determine how she’s going
to do this. And if she’s chosen to set it forth in a book and
with your expression, who has the right to dictate or demand
another? She made the choice herself, but somebody wants
to change that, and the reason behind the effort to alter her
choice is clear. She will not talk with people who put them-
selves ahead of everyone else. With people whose self-right-
eousness, she knows, will distort, overturn and adjust to their
own way of thinking the truths she holds sacred.”
“Why paint such a dark picture ahead of time? These peo-
ple are interested in many different teachings. They are very
religious.”
“It is they who have determined that they are the most re-
ligious of all. Religious self-righteousness is the apex of the
most deadly of sins — pride.”
I began to be overwhelmed with an inexplicable sense of
anger at myself. I had not yet received payment for the deal
and so I was able to break it. And shortly afterward, not see-
ing anything amiss, I signed another deal with one of the re-
ligious centres for the exclusive right to my own interviews.
Title!
207
Once again I was taken in by their considerate attitude and
the religious knowledge they displayed. Especially since this
deal concerned me alone, and I could do with myself what I
pleased. But once again both they and I fell into a trap, and
once again it turned out that I had indirectly sold Anastasia,
and they had bought her.
And this time it was not Anastasia’s grandfather but a Mos-
cow woman journalist who, after reading the new agreement,
flustered:
“Boy how stupid can you get? You’ve sold Anastasia real
cheap. Take a closer look and see what the fine print says.
You’ve signed over the right to others — an exclusive right —
to exploit and use as they see fit, over the most powerful in-
formation channel there is, everything you said relating to
Anastasia. You’ve denied yourself the right even to question
their opinion, no matter what it is.”
To what degree that’s true it’s hard to say Maybe I’d better
cite a few of the points of the agreement here:
1. Subject of agreement:
1. 1 The AUTHOR gives exclusive rights to all videotaping
of himself as well as to the use of any other video materials con-
nected directly or indirectly with the production of “Anastasia”
television programmes (hereinafter referred to as “programmes”).
The abovementioned transfer of rights to the CONTRACTOR
extends to all countries of the world.
1.2 The CONTRACTOR undertakes, at his own expense, to
prepare one copy each of three programmes — of between 30 and
40 minutes each — on a professional BETACAM recorder.
1.3 By mutual agreement between AUTHOR and CON-
TRACTOR, any interaction with video- or film-studios, television
(including cable TV), as well as the shooting of any video on any
equipment, as well as the use of video materials on the given subject,
is to be e ffected only and exclusively by the CONTRACTOR.
2o8
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
While this Agreement is in force the AUTHOR waives the
right to give video interviews and prepare any audio materials
using the concepts or terms that are in the programmes, either di-
rectly or indirectly.
After analysing all the events connected with the writing,
publication and distribution of the Anastasia book, I came
to the conclusion that people who call themselves “strongly
religious” have a dark side which they themselves fear, and
thus keep trying to assure others and persuade them of their
religiosity They are probably afraid that people will discover
their dark side.
It’s so much simpler with entrepreneurs. Their actions and
goals are more open, less obscured, and consequently they
are also more honest both to themselves and to those around
them, to society It’s possible I am mistaken. But you can’t
get away from the facts.
Three Moscow students keyboarded the text of Anastasia.
They had no expectations of compensation any time soon.
They never talked about any religious matters.
The book was published by the manager of Moscow Print-
shop Number Eleven, a retired officer by the name of Gennady
Vladimirovich Grutsia, at his own expense. The print-run
was small and there wasn’t even a thought of breaking even.
Grutsia, an entrepreneur, never talked of religious matters ei-
ther. The next run was paid for by the business manager of
the Moscow Publishers’ Clearance House, Yuri Anatolievich
Nikitin, but then it turned out he wasn’t dealing in books at
the time. He gave me the greater part of the print-run to sell.
He set no deadline for getting a return on his investment.
And he, too, never talked about religious matters.
And then the ‘religious’ people began putting in their two
cents’ worth. And a print-run of 45,000 was released by an un-
derground press. When this ‘religious’ firm was discovered,
Title!
209
they started proclaiming their religiosity and desire to pro-
duce bright things, and even promised to pay author’s royal-
ties. They still keep promising that. And that’s not the only
case. ‘Religious’ people generally seem to be very neglectful of
accounts, especially when they’re the ones who owe money
As to the transfer of exclusive rights, I have decided to
make it clear on the pages of this book: I shall no longer give
exclusive rights for the interpretation of Anastasia’s sayings
to anybody. And if anybody challenges me on that, let people
know that I have not given anything voluntarily!
Why do I say voluntarily? The Moscow journalist who
helped me break the contract soon became the target of
anonymous threats. Who made them? What did they want?
What kind of ‘religion’ do they profess? They support their
religion by extortion. Well, I know what the extortion racket
is all about; after all there are human beings there too. And I
want to warn them: be extra careful around ‘religious’ people.
And before getting into anything, consider calmly and care-
fully where these ‘religious’ people are taking you.
There’s more. In the first book I wrote that I had invited
Anastasia to come to Moscow herself and appear on our TV,
but she refused. I couldn’t understand why at the time. But
now it is clear to me what she foresaw Even after the book
came out, there have been many interpretations of what she
said. Many quite different interpretations. Some are inter-
esting, some are controversial, but among others one could
clearly trace the desire on the part of certain people to inter-
pret her in a manner that would serve their own interests.
Direct challenges were thrown my way, for example:
“So you think you alone have the right to talk with her?”
“You don’t understand everything, let others speak with
her, more will come out of it.”
But she is not an object to hand over to someone. She is
Man! And she herself has the right to decide how she will
210
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
act, whom, she will speak with and what she will say. Now it’s
become clearer than ever that Anastasia is really being sub-
jected to attack by a visible and invisible throng of dark forces
in the guise of fanatics and self-seekers.
Back in the first book I quoted Anastasia as saying:
“I know what a terrible mass of dark forces will descend
upon me... but I am not afraid of them. I will succeed in raising
my son. I will succeed in seeing my plan come true. And peo-
ple will be carried across the dark forces’ window of time.”
In Anastasia’s world they instruct their children up to
eleven years of age. In other words, she has at least another
ten years she can hold out.
‘And then what?” I asked her grandfather. “Is she bound to
perish?”
“It’s hard to say,” the old fellow answered. “They all died
quite a bit earlier, compared to her, and more than once she
has embarked on a journey foretelling physical death, but each
time, at the last moment, the law has flared up — forgotten it
maybe, but it is still strong enough to overrule anything else.
It has illuminated the essence of the truth about earthly ex-
istence. And it has caused life to remain in her earthly body.”
The old man fell silent and once again, preoccupied in
thought, began tracing some sort of symbols on the ground
with his stick. I too began thinking, wondering how on earth
I got myself involved in a situation like this! But the thing
was, I couldn’t very well walk away from it now. It might have
been possible earlier, but not now, because of the child.
Anastasia had given birth to a son. Even though she’d rath-
er devote herself to caring for the child and raising him, she is
not going to abandon her dream — to carry people across the
dark forces’ window of time. And she will not. Because she’s
really very stubborn. Someone like her will not walk away.
And who will help her, naive as she is? If I should renege
on my promise, she’s got nobody left. She’d go to pieces. And
Title!
211
that’s something that should not happen to a nursing mother.
She’s got to finish her breast-feeding, at the very least. And so
I asked her grandfather:
“Is there anything I can do for Anastasia?”
“Try to figure out, for a start, what she’s talking about and
what she wants. Then aimless wandering will give way to un-
derstanding, and a wave of warmth will cheer the heart, and
over the world will be unfurled a new dawn.”
“Can you make it anymore specific?” I asked.
“It’s hard for me to formulate it in any more specific way
The whole important thing is sincerity in all. So start by do-
ing what is dictated by your heart and soul.”
“She told me about a particular Russian provincial town,” I
remarked. “Said something about it possibly becoming richer
than Jerusalem or Rome. Because all around there are many
sacred sites of our forebears. Sites more significant than the
temples at Jerusalem. Only the local people do not have suf-
ficient conscious awareness to discern them. I want to go
there, and change their conscious awareness.”
“That’s not something that can be done quickly, Vladimir.”
“Well, you see, I didn’t know it couldn’t be done, and so I
promised Anastasia. And there must be some way of bringing
about a change.”
“Since you didn’t know it couldn’t be done, you shall change it
indeed. More power to you! And now it’s time for me to go.”
“I’ll see you off.”
“Don’t waste your time. No need to see me off. Think
about what you have to do.”
The old fellow got up and offered me his hand.
I watched Anastasia’s grandfather recede into the distance
along the tree-lined boulevard, and thought of my forthcom-
ing trip to the city of Gelendzhik, remembering what Anas-
tasia had told me about it. And it was no mere chance con-
versation.
Chapter Thirty-Three
f
I asked Anastasia:
“Do your people often come across ringing cedars?”
“Very, very rarely,” she replied. “Perhaps two or three in a
thousand years. Right now, apart from this one that has been
saved, there is one more, and it can be sawed up and used for
its designated purpose.”
“What does that mean: ‘used for its designated purpose’?
What is its purpose?”
“The Great Intelligence of the Universe, God, Who cre-
ated Man and his environment, no doubt had the foresight to
give people the opportunity to restore their lost abilities, to
use the wisdom accumulated in the non-material world. This
wisdom has existed right from the start, but Man’s ability to
perceive it has been lost through sinfulness.
“My grandfather and great-grandfather told you about the
ringing cedar and its extraordinary healing properties. What
they did not explain was that its pulsations and rhythms are
close to that Great Intelligence.
“If they are merged and combined, as it were, with the
rhythms already present in many people , then a Man who plac-
es the palm of his hand on the warm trunk of a ringing cedar
and runs his hand over it as though caressing it, thereby attains
the possibility of communicating with the infinite expanse of
wisdom. Such a Man is capable of becoming aware of many
things in the scope of his thinking at the moment of contact
or thereafter. This happens in varying degree with each indi-
vidual. I am telling you about the highest manifestation.”
With its hundreds of dolmens, Northern Caucasus (Russia) is a
region with one of the highest concentrations of preserved mega-
lithic sites in the world. Over the millennia, many of the dolmens
were vandalised or destroyed. After Vladimir Megre’s The Ringing
Cedars of Russia raised public awareness of their momentous spir-
itual importance, millions of people have visited these formerly ne-
glected and forgotten sites. Photos © 2004 by Alexey Kondaurov,
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
ielendzhik
Black
A map of the ‘dolmen country’ — Russian Northern Caucasus and
the Black Sea coast (above) and a view of this region (below). Photo
© 2006 by Olga Chernyshova, Sarov, Russia.
Above: a dolmen complex in the process of restoration, Northern
Caucasus, Russia. Photo © 2004 by Dmitry Samusev
Below: a dolmen near the settlement of Pshada, with its front van-
dalised and covered in modern graffiti. Photo © 2004 by Alexey
Kondaurov, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
The cedar of Lebanon planted some ioo years ago by the hand of
Vladimir Korolenko, near the city of Gelendzhik. For details please
see Chapter 33: “Your sacred sites, O Russia!”.
Photo © 2006 by Olga Chernyshova, Sarov, Russia.
Above: eight women employees of Drazhba Sanatorium on a trip to a
dolmen near Pshada in the Caucasus mountains, 26 November 1996
(see Chapter 33: “Your sacred sites, O Russia!”)- The picture was tak-
en by Vladimir Megre himself as these women were preparing to lay
flowers in honour of their distant forebear. Below: Vladimir Megre’s
photo of Father Feodorit’s church (see Chepter 24: “Father Feodor-
it”). Both photos appeared on the inside cover of an early Russian
print-run of The Ringing Cedars of Russia. © 1996 by Vladimir Megre.
The One and Only by a Single Line — this picture in the private col-
lection of the Trinity-Sergiev Monastery (Sergiev Posad, Russia) is
a copy of a famous engraving by Claude Mellan (1598-1688), Veil of
St Veronica (1649), above. The face of Christ Jesus (‘the One and
Only’) surmounted by a crown of thorns is executed by a single
spiral line in 166 revolutions. For details on Vladimir Megre’s ex-
periences connected with this image, please see Chapter 24: “Fa-
ther Feodorit” and Chapter 25: “The Space of Love” in the present
volume.
The Dachnik Day holiday — honouring the millions of gardeners and
celebrating Man’s connectedness to the Earth — is now celebrated
on 23 July throughout Russia and beyond. Celebrations at the Rod-
me eco-village, Vladimir Region, Russia, 2006 (above) and in Licking,
Missouri, USA, 2005 (below). Photos © Leonid Sharashldn.
Vladimir Megre arriving at the Ringing Cedars of Russia movement
conference held in the city of Vladimir on 5 June 2004. The con-
ference brought together over 400 delegates from 150 eco-villages
from all over Russia and beyond. Photo © 2004 by Alexey Kondau-
rov, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
Tour sacred sites, O Russia!
213
“But why does it happen differently? Does the cedar
choose to give its power to one person and not to another?”
“Its operation is identical in each case. Its rhythm and vi-
bration are always the same. But some people can tune into it
and feel it all to the full, while others detect just a light touch.
Many people don’t feel anything at all to start with. But con-
scious awareness will gradually come even to those without
feeling. At least they have a greater possibility of feeling it.”
“I still don’t quite understand what kind of selection takes
place.”
“Vladimir, please try to ‘read my lips’: the difference is not
in the power of the tree, but in the Man. Hmm... all right,
I have found it — an example: music! You know, when mu-
sic is playing... Music too, after all, consists of vibration and
rhythm. But some people listen to it attentively, they begin to
have feelings from it, sometimes even tears of joy and tender-
ness. Others listen to the same music but feel nothing, or do
not care about listening to it at all.
“The same with the cedar. Only those who are capable
of feeling and understanding will hear anything much at all.
And this ‘much’ is something that will gradually unfold itself
to them. It comes during the moments when Man feels like
pondering it.
“Women can gain the strength and wisdom of their pris-
tine origins, they can fulfil their designated purpose and make
both themselves and their chosen men happy, as well as their
children they give birth to in Love. And here the miracle is
not in the cedar, but in human aspirations. The cedar sim-
ply assists them — it is not the major contributor to noble
deeds.”
“That’s incredible! It’s like some kind of tempting, beautiful
legend!”
“You do not believe me? You think what I am saying is only
a legend? Why then did you make such an effort to come here
214 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
and why were you so eager to have me show you the ringing
cedar?”
“Well, I don’t think it’s all a legend. At first I too didn’t be-
lieve what your grandfather and great-grandfather said about
the cedar. Later, after I returned home from the expedition,
I read the popular scientific literature and got to know what
scientists were saying about its healing properties, and I was
struck by the fact that the scientists and the Bible were on
the same wavelength. But I never found a hint anywhere of
the cedar being used to feel a link with the Great Intelligence
or God, as you describe it.”
“Either you did not pay close enough attention to what the
scientists or the Bible were saying, or you missed the main
point — otherwise you would not be doubting my words.”
“Then what could I have missed? There are only two refer-
ences to cedars in the Bible: when God teaches how to treat
people with their help, and then how to disinfect one’s home.”
“But the Bible also talks about King Solomon as one of the
wisest rulers that ever lived, one revered by his people. King
Solomon, you will agree, is an historical personage — he was
no legend.”
“So?”
‘And the Bible also says that this king built God a temple
of cedar, and a house for himself beside it also made of ce-
dar. And in order to get the cedar, he hired more than thirty
thousand workers to bring it from another country. And to
get the cedars cut down, Solomon asked another king named
Hiram to give him people “skilled in felling timber ”. 1 Getting
this cedar cost Solomon twenty cities of his kingdom. Think:
why did the wisest of all rulers need to go to such expense
and build his temple and house out of material which was less
sturdy than what he had on hand already?”
I Kings y: 6 ( New International Version).
To ur sacred sites, 0 Russia!
215
“Why?”
“You can find the answer to that, too, in the Bible, where
it says: ‘And it came to pass, when the priests were come out
of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord,
So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the
cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the
Lord .’ 2 You can find indirect proofs of this in the works of
your prominent scientists.”
“That’s great. Something, I think, I can believe in. It
means the cedar will reveal many secrets to people. Show me
the ringing cedar that can be sawed up. I’ll bring it to a city
with easy access for people from all over the world wishing to
touch it.”
“Where will you find a city on the Earth where the inhabit-
ants will not simply desecrate this sacred cedar, but actually
ensure its protection and provide a suitable exhibition space
and access for visitors?”
“I’ll try to find one. Tell me, why have you concluded that
it’s going to be such a difficult task?”
“People’s consciousness today is too bound up with the
programmes of the technocratic world. They are becoming
biological robots.”
“What kind of biological robots?”
“The technocratic world is structured in such a way that
Man keeps on inventing all sorts of mechanical devices and
social orders supposedly to make his life easier. But in fact,
any saving of labour is an illusion.
“Man himself is becoming a robot of the technocratic
world. He never has enough time to contemplate the essence
of being or listen to what another is saying, and no time, either,
to reflect on his own destiny He is literally a programmed
robot. Here you are seeing everything with your own eyes,
2 I Kings 8 : 10, 11 {Authorised King James Version).
21 6
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
and hearing it with your own ears, and you still find it hard to
believe.”
“Anastasia, with me it’s a different story. I cannot call my-
self a strong believer. I believe... in general. But probably not
the same way other people do. In our world right now there
are a lot of people who truly do believe. Many read the Bible.
They will grasp it immediately they see how much the Bible
talks about the cedar. They will believe and take good care of
your little piece of cedar.”
“There are different kinds of belief, Vladimir. It often hap-
pens that a Man will hold in his hands the Koran, or the Bible,
or another book containing the wisdom of the ages, and say
that he believes, and even try to teach others, whereas in fact
he is simply attempting, as it were, to make a deal with God:
‘Look here, I believe in You. Remember that in case anything
happens.”’
“What then is belief, or faith?” I enquired. “How should it
be expressed?”
“In one’s way of life, in one’s perception of the world, in
the understanding of one’s essence and designated purpose,
in one’s corresponding behaviour and relationship to the en-
vironment, in one’s thinking.”
“So, just believing is not enough?”
“Just believing is not enough. Imagine an army All the sol-
diers, down to the last one, believe in their commander. But
they do not go into battle. They have such strong faith in
him that they trust he will win in any case. So the soldiers sit
back and watch as their commander goes up alone against the
enemy forces. They sit there in a state of frenzy and call out:
‘Go, go, go! We believe in you, we know you can do it!”’
“That’s no help, Anastasia. You didn’t make a real analogy
Those kinds of absurdities simply don’t happen.”
“Those kinds of absurdities do happen in real life,
Vladimir.”
Tour sacred sites, O Russia!
217
“Then give me an example from the concrete realities of
our life, and not something made up.”
“Fine. There is a city in Russia called Gelendzhik. It has
a noble purpose — to be a place where people can go to relax
from their daily grind, a place to meditate and touch sacred
sites.
“There are many sacred sites in and around this city, which
are more significant than those found in Jerusalem, more sig-
nificant than the pyramids of Egypt.
“This city could be one of the richest cities in the world.
Richer than Jerusalem or Rome. But the city is dying. It is
a resort town. All its houses and hotels are becoming empty
and decaying. The materialistic consciousness of the local au-
thorities prevents them from seeing the treasures which are
capable of making the city flourish. When they talk about the
city, they emphasise the sea, the artificial treatment facilities
available, and the fact that the local hotel rooms are equipped
with bedside tables and fridges. They do not even mention
the sacred sites. They know little about them themselves,
and do not want to know. Their priorities lie elsewhere.
“There are many people living in this city who call them-
selves believers. People of many different denominations.
Some of them actively engage in proselytising. What faith do
they proselytise? With their attitude to their surroundings
they have been and still are violating the very commandments
contained in their sacred books. In the Bible, for instance,
where it says: ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself .’ 3
“But you have to know your neighbour before you can love
him. You cannot love whom you do not know. But they, the
ones who call themselves believers, do not know their neigh-
bours, or even their forebears who lived in that sacred land
3 Matth. 22: 39 {Authorised King James Version).
2l8
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
and left them the inexhaustible treasure of the sacred sites as
their legacy. Our ancestors have carried with them over the
millennia waves of wisdom and the light of their own soul.
Many people call themselves believers yet do not notice what
is sacred around them. The sacred sites which have been left
them by their ancestors to help them.”
“What kind of sacred sites could possibly be found in a
city like that?”
“You see, Vladimir, near the city of Gelendzhik can be
found growing the Lebanese cedar mentioned so many times
in the Bible. And this living, direct creation of God, talked
about so much even before Christ Jesus’ coming to Earth, is
located right next to this city It is only a hundred years old.
It is still but a stripling, though already very beautiful and
sturdy
“It has grown there because it was planted by a worthy
Man. He was a writer named Korolenko . 4 Thanks to his
erstwhile popularity, the cedar has been protected with a sur-
rounding hedge. But today the house where he lived is in a
state of decay and people are not paying attention to the tree
he planted.”
‘And what about the believers?”
“Many of the people in the city who call themselves believ-
ers pay no attention either to the tree or the other great sa-
cred sites of their forebears. They are destroying them. And
the city is dying.”
“That means God’s punishing them in some kind of venge-
ance, eh?”
4 Vladimir Galaktionov ich Korolenko (1853-1921) — a Russian writer known
for his short stories and his autobiographical narrative “The story of my
contemporary”. His writings, permeated with ideals of democracy and hu-
manitarianism, were critical of both the tsarist and communist regimes.
Tour sacred sites, O Russia!
219
“God is good. He is never vengeful. But what can He do
when His creations are ignored?”
“That’s amazing! Can such a tree really exist? I must look
into that.”
“It exists. And there are many other sacred sites around
the city. But people treat them from a technocratic point of
view, like the pyramids of the wise pharaohs.”
“What? How do you know about the existence of the
Egyptian pyramids?”
“Thanks to generations of my forebears the ability has
been preserved within me to communicate with the dimen-
sion where thoughts and wisdom reside. This communica-
tion gives one the opportunity to learn anything one might
wish to know, anything that captures one’s interest.”
“Hold on a moment. Let me test you. Answer me, do you
know the secrets of the Egyptian pyramids?”
“I do. Just as I know that those who investigated those pyr-
amids were constantly working from a material standpoint.
They were basically interested in how they were constructed,
the dimensions and relations of the sides to each other, what
treasures were hidden inside, what things were to be found
there. They considered people living at the time the pyramids
were built to be superstitious. They regarded the pyramids
only as a means of preserving the pharaohs’ valuables, their
bodies, their glory. Thus they distanced themselves from what
was fundamental, from what was consciously designed.”
“I don’t understand you, Anastasia. What conscious de-
sign where they distancing themselves from?”
Anastasia didn’t speak for some time, staring, it seemed,
somewhere off into infinity And then she began telling her
remarkable story:
“You see, Vladimir, way back in ancient times people living
on the Earth had the capacity to use wisdom and intelligence
far surpassing the abilities of modern Man. People at the time
220
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
of the Earth’s pristine origins enjoyed ready access to all the
information in the entire database of the Universe. This in-
formation filling the Universe was created by the Great Intel-
ligence, God. With contributions both from Him and from
people themselves — their thoughts. It is so superb that it
is capable of answering any question, unobtrusively. The an-
swer would appear instantaneously in the subconscious of the
Man asking the question.”
‘And what did it give these people?”
“These people needed no spaceships for travelling to other
planets. All they had to do was wish for it, and they could see
what was happening there.
“These people needed no television, telephone or commu-
nication wires ensnaring the Earth — not even literacy since
all the information you derive from books they were able to
obtain instantaneously by other means.
“These people needed no industries producing medicines
or drugs, they could get all the best remedies possible simply
by a gentle wave of the hand, since whatever they needed is
available in Nature.
“These people needed none of your modern transporta-
tion devices. They did not need cars or food-processing com-
plexes, for everything was supplied to them.
“They knew that a change in climatic conditions in one
part of the Earth was a signal to them to move to another
part, so that the part they were leaving might refresh itself.
They had an understanding of the Universe along with their
own planet. They were thinkers and knew their designated
purpose. They worked to bring the planet Earth to perfec-
tion. They had no equals in the Universe. In terms of intel-
ligence they were second only to the Great Intelligence of the
Universe, or God.
‘Approximately ten thousand years ago, in the human civi-
lisation that then populated what is now Europe, Asia, the
Tour sacred sites, O Russia!
221
northern part of Africa and the Caucasus, individuals arose in
whom the link with the Intelligence of the Universe was par-
tially or wholly deadened. This point marks the beginning of
mankind’s movement toward a disaster of global proportions.
The exact nature of the disaster is immaterial — ecological,
nuclear or bacteriological, either as forecast by scientists or
foretold allegorically by ancient religions.”
“Hold on, there, Anastasia! I don’t at all see how the ap-
pearance of such ‘invalids’ can be related to a global disaster.”
“Your choice of that modern term invalids is very apt. Yes,
they were invalids, handicapped people. Now when someone
is deprived of sight, what do they need?”
“Someone to guide them.”
‘And someone deprived of hearing?”
‘A hearing apparatus.”
‘And someone with no arms or legs?”
“Prostheses.”
“But there was something much greater that they lacked.
They did not have a link to the Intelligence of the Universe.
Hence the loss of the knowledge which would help improve
the Earth and govern it.
“Imagine what would happen if the crew of a super-mod-
ern spaceship suddenly lost ninety percent of their mental ca-
pacity Not comprehending anything, they might start taking
apart the panelling and building a fire in the cabin, or pull in-
struments out of their consoles to use for toys or decoration.
“Well, these people can be compared exactly to a dement-
ed crew like that. And these were the people, these were the
‘handicapped invalids’ who first invented the stone axe, then
the spear, then... And it is their thoughts that ‘progressed’
over time to the invention of nuclear warheads. It is their
thoughts that even today continue with incredible stubborn-
ness to tear down already perfect creations and substitute
their own primitive artifacts.
222
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“Their descendants started inventing more and more,
and in doing so kept tearing apart the super-modern, natu-
ral mechanisms of the Earth and creating all sorts of artifi-
cial social structures. Then people started fighting with each
other.
“These mechanisms, these machines, were incapable of
existing all by themselves, like natural ones. Not only could
they not reproduce themselves, but they could not restore
themselves after a breakdown as a tree can, for example. And
then they, the technocrats, required a vast army of workers to
service these mechanisms, virtually transforming a segment
of the general populace into biological robots. These biologi-
cal robots, lacking as they do, any individual capacity to learn
the truth, very easily lend themselves to manipulation.
“For example, they were all too easily injected, through
artificial information media, with the programme ‘We must
build communism’ — symbols were created for it, including
lapel pins and flags of a certain colour. Then later, through
these same media, the programme ‘Communism is bad’ was
inculcated in another segment of the populace, and other
symbols and colours were brought to the fore. And then
these two groups with different programming end up hating
each other, right to the point of physical annihilation.
“But this all began ten thousand years ago, at the time of
a significant increase in the number of people deprived of a
link to the Great Intelligence. Indeed, you could even call
them demented, since there was not a single living creature
capable of polluting the Earth the way they did.
“In those far-off times a few people were still left who had
free access to the wisdom of the Universe. They hoped that
when mankind reached the point that the polluted air made
it difficult to breathe and the water became dangerous to
drink, and all its artificially created life-support systems —
technological and social — proved themselves too awkward
Tour sacred sites, O Russia!
223
and more and more often only led to disastrous imbalances,
mankind would start having second thoughts.
“People standing on the edge of an abyss will start think-
ing about what being is all about, they will start pondering
the meaning of their existence and purpose. Then many of
them will desire to understand the truth of their pristine ori-
gins, and this is possible — but only under the absolute con-
dition that the abilities inherent in Man’s pristine origins be
restored.
“Few of the people who lived ten thousand years ago still
possessed these abilities. It was basically those heading up
social groups, leaders of tribes. They began — or rather, at
their behest people began — to construct special facilities
made of heavy stone slabs. These enclosed an interior cham-
ber about one-and-a-half by two metres in area and two me-
tres in height — sometimes more, sometimes less. The slabs
were placed at a slight angle, leaning toward the centre at the
top. Occasionally these chambers would be hewn out of a sin-
gle monolith. Other chambers might be hidden underground
and covered over by mounds of earth. On one of the walls of
the chamber, a cone-shaped opening was cut into the slab, ap-
proximately thirty centimetres in diameter and covered with
a specially fitted stone plug.
“Into these tomb-chambers would go people who had not
lost the ability to communicate with the wisdom of the Uni-
verse. Those still alive and even those who might be born
thousands of years hence would be able to go to them and
obtain answers to any questions that were of interest to Man.
This required sitting beside the chamber and meditating.
Sometimes the answer would come right away, sometimes af-
ter a delay, but it would definitely come, since these structures
and those that retreated into them served as an information
receiver. Through them it was easier to communicate with
the Great Intelligence of the Universe.
224 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
“These stone structures are the prototype of the Egyptian
pyramids. Only the pyramids do not constitute nearly as pow-
erful a receiver, even though they are far greater in size. Their
essence and function, however, is pretty much the same.
“The pharaohs who were buried in the Egyptian pyramids
were also thinkers, and at least partially preserved the abili-
ties inherent in Man’s pristine origins.
“But in order to obtain an answer to a question using the
pyramids, those still living had to come to the pyramid not
individually, but in large numbers. They had to stand along
each of the four sides, and direct their physical and mental
gaze upward, as though slamming over the pyramid’s oblique
sides right to its top.
“There at the top, people’s gazes and thoughts focused on a
single point, consequently forming a channel facilitating con-
tact with the Mind of the Universe.
“Even today it is possible to do the same thing and obtain a
desired answer. At the focal point of everyone’s mental gaze
an energy forms, an energy not unlike radiation. If a measuring
device were placed at the top of the pyramid, right at the focal
point, it would record the intensity of this energy The people
standing at the base, too, would feel strange sensations.
“Oh, if it were not for the sinful pride of people today, the
prevailing public opinion, the false perception that past civi-
lisations were less advanced! People today would then be able
to find out the real purpose of the pyramids. With all the at-
tention modern researchers have paid to how they were built,
they still have not been able to figure this out.
‘And it is all so simple: in constructing the pyramids, apart
from physical strength and various pieces of equipment, they
always used mental energy to reduce the force of gravitation.
Whole groups of people with this kind of an ability 7 would as-
sist the builders. There are people alive today who are able to
move small objects with their will.
Tour sacred sites, O Russia!
225
“But of immeasurably greater significance than the pyra-
mids in terms of contact with the Mind of the Universe were
the smaller stone structures which preceded them.”
“Why, Anastasia?” I asked. “Because of the way they were
constructed, their shape?”
“Because, Vladimir, living people retreated there to die.
And their death was a most unusual one. They went into eter-
nal meditation.”
“What do you mean, living people? What for?”
“To create for their descendants the possibility of bring-
ing back the power of their pristine origins. An elderly per-
son — as a rule, one of the wiser leaders or founders of a tribe,
sensing his end was near, would ask his relatives and family to
place him in a stone chamber. If he were considered worthy,
they would grant his request.
“They would push away the heavy massive slab covering
the top of the chamber. He would go into the stone cham-
ber and the slab would be pushed back into place. Inside, the
Man would be completely isolated from the external mate-
rial world. His eyes would see nothing, his ears would hear
nothing. Such complete isolation, the impossibility of even
entertaining a thought about going back, but not yet having
crossed into the next world, the deactivation of the usual or-
gans of feeling, sight and hearing, would open up the oppor-
tunity for full communication with the Mind of the Universe
and the comprehension of many phenomena, as well as of
many of the actions of Earth-dwellers. Most important of all,
they would be able to subsequently transmit what they had
discovered to those still alive, as well as to succeeding genera-
tions. Today you would call an approximation of such a state
of mind meditation. But that is merely child’s play in compari-
son with meditation in eternity
‘Afterward, people would come to this stone chamber,
pull out the plug covering the opening, and begin thinking,
226 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
mentally consulting with the thoughts lingering in the cham-
ber. The spirit of wisdom was always there.”
“But, Anastasia, by what means can you prove the existence
of such structures to those of us living today, let alone the fact
that people went into them for ‘eternal meditation?”
“I can! That is why I am telling you.”
“Then how?”
“It is very simple. After all, these chambers made of
stone — they still exist today Today you call them dolmens?
You can see them, and touch them. And you can verify every-
thing I have told you.”
“What??? Where? Can you pinpoint their location?”
“Yes, I can. In Russia, for example, in the Caucasus moun-
tains, not far from the cities you now call Gelendzhik, Tuapse,
Novorossiysk and Sochi.”
“I can verify that. I’ll make a special trip there. I still can’t
believe such things exist. I’ll definitely check to see.”
“Do verify, by all means. The local inhabitants know about
them, but they do not pay any attention to them. Many dol-
mens have already been plundered. People do not understand
their true purpose. They do not know about the possibili-
ties they afford for contact with the wisdom of the Universe.
Those who have entered into eternal meditation can never be
re-embodied in anything material. They have sacrificed eter-
nity for the sake of their descendants, and now it turns out
their knowledge and opportunities have gone begging. This
has caused them great sorrow and anguish.
‘As for proof that in the past living people went into these
dolmens to die, this may be confirmed by the position of the
5 dolmens — see Book 1, Chapter 30: ‘Author’s message to readers”.
6 Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Novorossiysk, Sochi — cities on the eastern shore of the
Black Sea.
Tour sacred sites, O Russia!
227
skeletal bones discovered in them. Some were found in a re-
clining position, others sitting in a corner or semi-reclining,
leaning against one of the stone slabs.
“This fact has been attested by people today It has been
described by your scientists, but they still have not attrib-
uted any special significance to it. No serious studies of the
dolmens have been undertaken. The dolmens are being laid
waste by the local inhabitants. Some of them have been using
their stone slabs for construction of new buildings.”
Anastasia sorrowfully lowered her head and fell silent. I
promised her:
“I will tell them what you said. I’ll explain everything to
them so they won’t go on plundering and laying waste. They
won’t mock them any more. They simply didn’t know...”
“Do you think you will manage to convince them?”
“I’ll try I’ll go to these places and try to explain. I don’t
know quite how at the moment. I’ll find these dolmens, pay
my respects to them, and explain it all to the people.”
“That would be good. Then, if you are going to those plac-
es, please pay your respects to the dolmen in which my fore-
mother died.”
‘Astonishing! How do you know that your foremother
lived in these places and how she died?”
Anastasia replied:
“How could one not know, Vladimir, how one’s ancestors
lived and what they did? How could one not be aware of their
desires and aspirations? My ancient foremother certainly de-
serves to be remembered. All the mothers in my family since
then have learnt of her wisdom. And she continues to help
me today.
“My foremother was a woman who had perfect knowl-
edge of how to inculcate in her child, through breast-feeding,
the ability to communicate with the Mind of the Universe.
Even back in her time people were starting to ignore the
228
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
significance of this, just as people ignore it today; In breast-
feeding an infant the mother should never allow herself to be
distracted by random thoughts, but concentrate all her atten-
tion on her child. My foremother knew what to think about
and how, and consequently wanted to share her knowledge
with everyone.
“She was not yet that old when she started asking the
leader about being placed in a dolmen. This was because the
leader was getting old and she knew his successor would not
accede to her request. Women were rarely permitted to go
into a dolmen. The old leader revered my foremother and
had great respect for her knowledge, and he gave his consent.
Only he could not compel any menfolk to push back the dol-
men’s heavy stone slab and then reseal it once my foremother
had entered. Consequently this task had to be carried out by
women, and women alone.
“But nobody comes to visit my foremother’s dolmen any
more. People are not interested in what she knows. And she
so desperately wanted to share it with everybody. She wanted
children to be happy and a joy to their parents.”
‘Anastasia, if you wish, I shall go visit this dolmen and ask
her how to breast-feed infants — ask her what to think along
this line and how. Just tell me where it’s located.”
“Fine, I shall tell you. Only you will not be able to compre-
hend her response. You are not a nursing mother, after all.
You do not know what a breast-feeding mother feels. Only
women, nursing mothers, are in a position to understand.
Just go to the dolmen, go up to it and touch it. Think some
good thought about my foremother — she will like that.”
For some time neither of us said a word. I was amazed at
how detailed her explanations were regarding the exact loca-
tion of the dolmens — enough information for me to subse-
quently verify, and I was not about to raise any further doubts
about their existence. I did ask her, however, to show me
Tour sacred sites, O Russia!
229
some proof of the possibility of contact with the invisible and
still incomprehensible (to me) ‘wisdom of the Universe’. To
which Anastasia responded:
“Vladimir, if you keep on doubting everything I say, any
proof I have to offer will seem incomprehensible and uncon-
vincing to you. And I shall have to spend a great deal of time
explaining.”
“Don’t be offended, Anastasia — it’s just that your unusual
lifestyle as a recluse...”
“How can you call me a recluse when I have the opportuni-
ty to communicate not only with everyone and everything on
Earth but with significantly more? So many on Earth are sur-
rounded by utterly lonely people just like themselves. These
are real hermit-recluses. It is not that frightening to be alone.
It is much more frightening when one is lonely even when
surrounded by people.”
“But still,” I persisted, “if one of our prominent scientists,
let’s say, could talk about that dimension — the one where,
as you say, thoughts produced by human civilisations reside,
people would be more inclined to believe than just on your
say-so. That’s the way people today are — they look to formal
science as an authority”
“There are such scientists — I have seen their thoughts. I
cannot tell you their names. But no doubt they are renowned
scholars by your standards. They have the capacity for prolif-
ic thought. You can hunt down the proofs you need when you
get back, and compare them with everything I have said.”
230
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
Upon arriving in the Caucasus, I located the dolmens in the
mountains near Gelendzhik. I took some colour photos of
them. They knew about the dolmens at the local history muse-
um, only they didn’t attach any particular significance to them.
I also managed to find the dolmen where Anastasia’s fore-
mother was buried. Paying my respects, I laid flowers on the
moss-covered stone portal.
As I looked at the dolmens, I realised that here was vis-
ible and tangible proof of Anastasia’s words. By that time I
had read the account from I Kings in the Bible about King
Solomon and his relationship to the cedars of Lebanon. Not
being much of a scholar myself, I wasn’t about to leaf through
a whole lot of scientific works trying to find confirmation of
Anastasia’s words. But by extraordinary coincidences this
young recluse from the remote Siberian taiga seemed to be
able to confirm — from a distance — the truth of everything
she said, and in the language of modern science. People took
it upon themselves to bring or send to me scientific studies
dealing with the existence of the Mind of the Universe.
At the beginning of the book I cited the conclusions of two
academicians — Vlail Kaznacheev, member of the Russian
Academy of Medical Sciences and director of the Institute of
Clinical and Experimental Medicine, and Anatoly Akimov of
the International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Phys-
ics in the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences — published
in the May 1996 issue of Chudesa i prikliuchenia ( Wonders and
adventures ).
'See I Kings, Chapters 4-10.
Tour sacred sites, 0 Russia!
231
I have been writing this chapter about the sacred sites of Ge-
lendzhik right in the city itself. The text has been keyboarded
into the computer by an employee of the Druzhba (Friend-
ship) Sanatorium, Marina Davydovna Slabkina. Prior to its
publication in the book it was gone over by employees of the
sanatorium. And something interesting has happened.
On 26 November 1996 at 10:30 in the morning (Moscow
time) an event occurred which did not have any obvious claim
to significance, although I am certain that it will prove to be
of planetary proportions.
A group of women were making their way toward one of
the dolmens in the mountains near the settlement of Pshada s
in the Gelendzhik district. They were all employees of the
Druzhba Sanatorium: VT. Larionova, N.M. Gribanova,
L.S. Zvegintseva, T.N. Zaitseva, T-N. Kurovskaya, A. G. Taras-
ova, L.N. Romanova and M.D. Slabkina.
In contrast to the tourists that sometimes visit these
places to admire their natural beauty and gawk at this lonely
mountain dolmen, these people, possibly for the first time in
a millennium, came to the dolmen for the specific purpose of
honouring the memory of their ancient forebear. To honour
the memory of a person who lived more than ten thousand
years ago. A wise leader of his people who, at his own initia-
tive, was sealed into this stone crypt. Alive, so that over the
millennia he could share the wisdom of the Universe with his
descendants.
It is difficult to say for just how many millennia his efforts
went begging. Traces of our own era’s atrocities are seared
into the ancient slabs in the form of modern graffiti and the
forcibly enlarged aperture in the dolmen’s portal. Visitors to
Pshada — the name not only of a settlement, but also of a river and its
valley The seventy-plus Pshada dolmens are considered to be the prime
examples of megalith architecture in the whole Caucasus.
232 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
the dolmen, at least over the past century, have thought lit-
tle about its significance — about the person buried here, his
wisdom, his desire and aspiration to sacrifice his life for the
living. This is all eloquently attested in a number of pre-revo-
lutionary as well as more recent monographs I have seen.
Scientists, researchers and archaeologists have been more
interested in the dimensions of the dolmen itself, amazed and
eager to determine how the multi-tonne slabs were prepared
and put in place.
And now... I looked at the women standing by the dol-
men with the flowers they had brought to lay at the portal,
and thought to myself: How many centuries or even millen-
nia have passed since you last received flowers, O illustrious
ancestor?! What does your soul feel now? What is happening
this very moment in the astral world? Have you, our distant
and yet so close forebears, taken these flowers as the first sign
that your efforts were not in vain? And among people today,
your descendants, there is an aspiration toward living one’s
life with greater conscious awareness. These are but the first
flowers. No doubt there will be more and more. But the first
ones are the most desirable, and you will be helping those
who are now living attain the wisdom of the Universe and the
conscious awareness of being. You are our distant forebears.
Participants in this visit to the dolmen included the sanitary
inspector of the Gelendzhik health service E.I. Pokrovsky
He had been invited by Valentina Larionova, in her capacity
as local tour guide and museum curator, to accompany them
and measure the dolmen’s radioactivity
Ms Larionova told me that once on an excursion she had
led to this dolmen, a tourist had brought along a Geiger coun-
ter, which had showed a significant level of radiation. This
individual later took her aside (so as not to alarm the other
tourists), showed her the counter and told her about the pres-
ence of radioactivity at the dolmen.
Tour sacred sites, O Russia!
233
This time the health service inspector had brought along
a fairly accurate radiation meter in its own special case. He
began measuring radiation levels even before we got close to
the dolmen, and continued his readings right up to the dol-
men itself and even inside.
While Ms Larionova was giving her talk to the group of
women, I was seized by the fear that now this medical inspec-
tor would announce the results of his measurements for all to
hear, and as this would not just be a tourist’s observation, but
an official conclusion, people might stop coming to visit the
dolmen once they learnt of the elevated radiation levels.
Anastasia had told me that this radiation-like energy could
come and go. It was controllable and could have a beneficial ef-
fect on Man. But how would we, people of the modern world,
look upon the opinions of this (let’s admit) not very typical
woman, in contrast with the affirmations of modern science
and facts established by modem scientific equipment — espe-
cially concerning radiation, which Man is so fearful of today?
Oh God, I thought, poor Anastasia! She wanted so much,
after all, for people to take a different attitude, a more
thoughtful attitude toward these ancient, extraordinary bur-
ial places of our ancestors. And now there would be an offi-
cial pronouncement. Even in the best case, it would mean no
more visitors to the dolmens. In the worst case they might
be destroyed altogether. People wouldn’t even use them any
longer for construction as they had done before. But if this
Mind of the Universe really exists, if Anastasia can use it so
freely, then they’d better come up with something, at least.
Pokrovsky approached the group of employees standing by
the dolmen and announced the readings on the meter. They
were most extraordinary. I felt overwhelmed — first with
amazement, and then with joy. According to the readings,
the closer one got to the dolmen, the more the Earth’s back-
ground radiation... decreased!
234 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
This was all the more remarkable since, on its way to the
dolmen, our group had passed through areas of elevated ra-
dioactivity One would have expected the people standing at
the dolmen — their clothing, shoes, etc. — to have retained
traces of this radiation. But, in spite of this, the measuring
device still showed decreased levels. It was as though an in-
visible someone had said: “Do not be afraid of us, people.
We are your distant forebears. We wish you well. Take our
knowledge, children!”
And all at once I realised — Anastasia! This phenomenon
must be attributable directly to her. Yes, definitely to her.
Even though she was thousands of kilometres away, she had
drawn an invisible line across the millennia, linking those liv-
ing today with an ancient civilisation, thereby causing a surge
in people’s consciousness of an aspiration toward good. Even
if it were just among a small group of people, it was still a be-
ginning. And it was something absolutely real, since here in
front of me was a real dolmen, and here were real and tangible
women, and real flowers that they had brought.
According to scientific literature, dolmens are to be found
near Tuapse, Sochi and Novorossiysk, as well as in England,
Turkey, North Africa and India. This points to the existence
of an ancient civilisation with a single culture, whose mem-
bers could communicate over vast distances. As Anastasia’s
information reaches more and more people, their attitude
toward whatever other dolmens have been preserved will no
doubt change.
This is evidenced by the reaction of the people of Ge~
lendzhik. Indeed, the world’s first excursion to a dolmen fol-
lowing Anastasia’s amazing revelations about them took place
at Gelendzhik, led by Valentina Larionova, “the luckiest and
happiest woman alive”, as she describes herself. And here was
a woman with thirty years’ experience as a tour guide, and a
member of the Gelendzhik city council to boot.
Tour sacred sites, O Russia!
235
But that’s not all. Under Ms Larionova’s guidance, a group
of local historians began comparing already known facts; they
spoke with long-term residents of the area and read biogra-
phies of saints, all of which enabled them to confirm the ex-
istence in the Gelendzhik environs of the sacred sites Anas-
tasia had spoken of. These were unique sacred sites of Russia,
most of which were not even mentioned in a single tourist
brochure. They included the Lebanese cedar, St Nina’s moun-
tain, a monastery and the Sacred Hand Springs . 9 People who
are healed there tie a cloth ribbon around a tree.
In the Gelendzhik area a church is now being restored. A
branch of the Trinity-Sergiev Monastery is under construc-
tion. I observed all this and thought to myself: Look at all
these sacred sites in just one small comer of Russia! Springs
of healing waters. And here Russians are traipsing off to the
ends of the earth to worship other people’s gods. How many
still forgotten sacred sites are waiting to be discovered in oth-
er parts of Russia? And who will discover them?
I’ve done what I can. It’s a pittance, of course, but at last it
has given me some hope that Anastasia will show me our son.
So, armed with rompers, toys and baby food, I set off for the
Siberian taiga to once again see Anastasia and meet my son.
To be continued...
9 Sacred Hand Springs — the reference here is to five springs which merge at
one point to form the shape of a hand.
Iii Anastasia’s Ray
Editor’s Afterword
Taking advantage of the frosty weather which had put a near-
by lake under a thick shield of ice, I spent a Sunday afternoon
skating with my daughter. The sky was overcast and a chilly
north wind was blowing, but layers of winter clothing and en-
ergetic movement kept us warm. The same day, 26 December
2004, a local newspaper reported temperatures below io°F
(-i2°C) and featured an article on ice fishing.
Five days later, on New Year’s Eve, we were having tea on
the porch of our house, basking in the Sun’s hot rays and
watching our daughter in her summer dress smelling yellow
dandelions and feeding honey to a bee that had joined our
meal. After breakfast we went for a walk by the lake, only
to discover no traces of ice whatsoever. The Sun’s heat was
so intense that the temperature in the shade climbed to 65T
(i8°C) and a new and historic record high was set. The news-
paper printed photographs of residents of Columbia, Mis-
souri, wearing shorts and T-shirts, enjoying the outdoors on
31 December 2004, and commented on the “unseasonably
warm weather”.
And then I remembered the words Anastasia had ad-
dressed to Vladimir Megre nine years earlier: 1
I am making it happen. . . . Can you not feel the gentle touch
of the breeze, feel its caressing embrace? And the warm
touch of the Sun’s glistening rays on your face? Can you
'Book 2, Chapter 25: “The Space of Love” (my italics).
Editor’s Afterword
237
not hear the birds singing so cheerfully and the leaves rus-
tling on the tree you are sitting under?... Love dissolved in
Space for one can touch the hearts of many.
I could not hear any rustling of leaves since it was the mid-
dle of winter, but the warm breeze, the bird songs and the
Sun’s generous warmth were very real indeed. Anyone who
witnessed this unique outpouring of sunshine in the middle
of the Midwest winter could not help but sense something
unusual in the air, but I felt I knew something special about
the cause of this sudden weather change. It was on this day, 31
December 2004, that the English translation of Anastasia was
completed, and it seemed as if Nature were rejoicing at the
birth of the book, the same way it had celebrated the birth of
Anastasia’s son with a warm sunny day, pushing away the icy
grip of the Siberian winter in 1996.
A few days later, when the Anastasia text was laid out and
sent to the printer, the cold returned and newspapers were re-
plete with stories of ice storms and snowfalls, but the feeling
of a great accomplishment lingered, to take embodiment first
in the printed book, then in the e-mails and telephone calls of
its initial readers. Here is one e-mail I received:
A friend gave me the book Anastasia. I read it today out-
doors while the sun shone warmly and the birds sang sweet-
ly My heart knows such an essence as her spirit and I am
still basking in the glow of the presence....
After reading that Anastasia suffered a loss in strength
after helping someone, I decided to send her distant reiki: I
2 reiki — a technique of holistic healing combining elements of spiritual heal-
ing, meditation, balancing of energies, homoeopathy and other approaches.
The healing process involves transfer of energy {reiki) from the practitioner
to the patient. While reiki practitioners usually use hands to channel the
energy it can also be accomplished at a distance by mental concentration.
238 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
know from experimenting with my kids that it has a healing
effect. Immediately after sending the distant reiki I ‘heard’
her say ‘thank you’. Today I sent her distant reiki again. Soon
after I was finished, I began smelling the sweetest scent of
a flower, and the scent went into all my sinuses. My sinuses
feel different now. I feel such an inexpressible feeling of
love and joy It is like being in love, but in a totally different
way If you were here right now I would hug you and let you
feel it. Thank you for this sweet and precious gift.
Even as this and other heart-warming messages showed me
that the book is producing the same response among Eng-
lish-speaking readers as in other parts of the world, I was still
wary of the welcome the translated edition of Anastasia would
receive in professional and academic circles. But the first im-
pressions shared with me by its early readers — students of
psychology, Russian literature, forestry, ecology, sociology and
philosophy — are most encouraging. One scholar, after read-
ing just the first chapter, asked me if she could have a pendant
of cedar wood...
Dr Richard Bolstad, a psychologist from New Zealand and
author of RESOLVE: a new NLP model of therapy , 3 4 was quick
to recognise the value of the book for his professional field
and described the Ringing Cedars Series as “ecological com-
mon sense and profound wisdom delivered with love, a unique
Russian gift towards the needed healing of the whole planet
and the creation of space for love in our lives”.
Steven Foster, the ‘Echinacea guru’, one of the leading
experts on medicinal plants in North America, author of A
field guide to medicinal plants and herbs 4 and other books, after
3 Williston (Vermont), USA& Carmarthen, Wales: Crown House, 2002.
4 Several volumes in the Peterson Field Guide Series, published by Hough-
ton Mifflin, New York.
Editor’s Afterword
239
sharing many of his personal experiences corroborating Anas-
tasia’s sayings about the spiritual link between Man and Na-
ture, had this comment about the Series:
The Ringing Cedars Series will impact a new generation of
readers, like the works of Carlos Castaneda did for a pre-
vious generation — only this time through awakening the
latent spiritual connection each of us has with nature. This
is not about a walk in the woods, rather these books cata-
pult us to an entirely new way of being on planet Earth.
I also discovered from informal talks with my colleagues
that many foresters have psychic experiences in the forest,
but keep silent for fear of being ridiculed by their peers. One
colleague who manages thousands of acres of forest in the
Ozarks confessed to me in a private conversation that when
marking trees to be felled he communicated with the Intel-
ligence governing the trees and had a deep reverence for the
Life manifest in them/
I am all the more happy to hear these accounts in view of
the fact that they are a sincere expression of readers’ actual
feelings, rather than a formulation developed by a well-paid
marketing specialist and put into the mouths of celebrities,
as often happens in current practice in the publishing indus-
try. These and all other reviews of the Ringing Cedars Se-
ries I have received are genuine, they come straight from the
heart.
One of the faculty members at the University of Missouri
surprised me by saying he already knew about Anastasia and
the impact these books were producing around the world.
'He therefore removes only the least healthy and vital trees, leaving the best
ones to grow — the opposite of the destructive forestry practices prevalent
over the last century
240 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
It turned out he had learnt about the Ringing Cedars Series
from his aunt who lived in Germany and had read the best-
selling German translation. He said she had been so greatly
impressed by the books that she would call him from Germa-
ny and read entire chapters, in German, over the telephone.
This story made me wonder as to how many aunts call their
nephews on the other side of the globe to read a chapter from
a book they particularly liked. Not very many, I would im-
agine. Which means a book that does elicit such a response
must certainly possess a power to set hearts aflame, regardless
of the language in which it is read.
I became even more confident about the Ringing Cedars’
power to transcend national boundaries after I received the
following message from Europe from Nara Petrovic, editor
of the Slovenian translation of the Series. This is what he
wrote:
Without any advertisement the book became a best-sell-
er mainly by readers spreading the news from mouth to
mouth. In many libraries the waiting lists were soon get-
ting longer and longer and in bookstores the sales were
very good....
Thousands of readers in Slovenia and Croatia are more
than enthusiastic about the books. Whoever has read the
books and has a vegetable garden was compelled — even
out of sheer curiosity — to try out the ideas explained in
the first book. And when I spoke to people they confirmed
that everything works. One man even called us and told
us that he had made a beehive according to Anastasia’s de-
tailed instructions and was amazed at how well it worked.
One of the publisher’s relatives spent a lot of time in his
garden even before he read the books. He loved to work in
the garden and thus had cultivated very healthy and tasty
crops. But after he implemented Anastasia’s instructions
Editor’s Afterword
241
the tomatoes and some other vegetables yielded so well
that all of his relatives and friends were surprised by the
tastiest vegetables they’d ever eaten.
One lady who lives near my city planted pumpkins for
the first time in her garden according to Anastasia’s in-
structions. That year there was a great drought. All her
neighbours’ gardens were dry, with very little vegetables,
while the pumpkins in her garden were huge, although she
took almost no care of them.
I also have accounts of people in North America who — af-
ter either reading the Russian version or learning about Anas-
tasia’s ideas from their Russian friends — have followed her
advice on gardening to obtain remarkable results. This is very
encouraging. In the light of how all the ‘incredible’ revela-
tions of the Series have been playing out in real life, there is
no escaping the fact that
Your dream, Anastasia, is entering upon our world, and it
really seems as though our world is beginning to change.
There are certain people who feel and understand you —
they show evidence of new strength coming from some-
where, and that is changing the world. The world is be-
coming just a little better . 6
In this English-speakers are no different from other read-
ers that embraced Anastasia’s ideas earlier: “The book you
have written will circulate all over the world and... it will give
you and others a power greater than mere physical or mate-
rial strength .” 7 The only difference is that in Russia and other
6 Book 2, Chapter 25: “The Space of Love”.
Book 2, Chapter 26 : ‘Anastasia's grandfather”.
242 Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
countries the dream has been unfolding for a number of
years now, while America, along with the rest of the English-
speaking world, is at the very beginning of this radiant path
which it may now choose to follow. Wes Jackson, a well-
known proponent of ecological approaches to agriculture in
the United States and director of the Land Institute, has pas-
sionately argued in his writings that there is no other possible
way of development for this country but a return to the land.
What if he is right and there is indeed no other way? Then
it is probably not by chance that two of the central chapters
in Vladimir Megre’s eighth book, The new civilisation, convey
Anastasia’s vision of America’s future. A beautiful one.
Even as my family are now packing up, getting ready to
move from Columbia to a small farm lost amidst the beautiful
Ozark mountains — with an aspiration, apart from continu-
ing work on the Ringing Cedars Series, to live their ideas in
real life — I have an ever-growing feeling of awe at the clear
realisation that what Anastasia dreamt about is already com-
ing to pass in America as well. It is coming to pass.
Within the two months since Anastasia was published in
Eng li sh there have already been two artistic performances
of dance and song inspired by her. The dancer — a young
breast-feeding mother and a future midwife — told me how
her heart had instantly felt and accepted Anastasia’s essence
as her own, and how she now feels her presence and support
on the path she is following. She told me she felt herself sim-
ply overflowing with the energy of Love and wanted to share
it with everybody Then, as she described her captivating
dance and song as ‘butterfly women’, I stared at her in awe,
experiencing a strange sensation in my heart and head. 8 The
remarkable thing is that I have a large painting by Alexan-
der Razboinikov (who designed the cover art for the Series)
hanging on the wall in my home. This painting — called The
butterfly dance — depicts Anastasia dancing in a whirlwind of
Editor’s Afterword
243
butterflies and is inspired by Book 3, The Space of Love, which
has not been translated as yet!
But The Space of Love is being translated and is scheduled
to see the light on 23 July 2005, a day on which ‘Dachnik 1 )av’
and an ‘All-Earth holiday’ will be celebrated in America for
the first time, true to Anastasia’s promise: “This holiday will
indeed begin in Russia. But then it will become the most fan-
tastic holiday for the world as a whole”. 8 9
And then, “a wave of warmth will cheer the heart, and over
the world will be unfurled a new dawn”. 10 I can already see
the twilight of this dawn. And I know that I am not the only
one who does.
Columbia, Missouri, U.S.A.
Earth Day (22 April 2005) Leonid Sharashkin
8 At that moment I could very well relate to Vladimir Megre’s feelings — de-
scribed in the first chapter of this volume — as he witnessed the unfolding
of Anastasia’s dream and watched readers expressing in art the images and
scenes from his taiga experience which had not yet been described in the
books.
9 Book 2, Chapter 9: “Dachnik Day and an All-Earth holiday!”.
'°Book 2, Chapter 32: “Title!”.
ABOUT THE RINGING CEDARS SERIES
Anastasia, the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series, tells the
story of entrepreneur Vladimir Megre’s trade trip to the Siberian
taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena
connected with sacred ‘ringing cedar’ trees. He spent three days
with a woman named Anastasia who shared with him her unique
outlook on subjects as diverse as gardening, child-rearing, healing,
Nature, sexuality, religion and more. This wilderness experience
transformed Vladimir so deeply that he abandoned his commercial
plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to fulfil Anastasia’s request
and write a book about the spiritual insights she so generously
shared with him. True to her promise this life-changing book, once
written, has become an international bestseller and has touched
hearts of millions of people world-wide.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia, the second book of the Series, in
addition to providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the
story of how Anastasia came to be published, offers a deeper explo-
ration of the universal concepts so dramatically revealed in Book 1.
It takes the reader on an adventure through the vast expanses of
space, time and spirit — from the Paradise-like glade in the Sibe-
rian taiga to the rough urban depths of Russia’s capital city, from the
ancient mysteries of our forebears to a vision of humanity’s radiant
future.
The Space of Love, the third book of the Series, describes author’s
second visit to Anastasia. Rich with new revelations on natural
child-rearing and alternative education, on the spiritual significance
of breast-feeding and the meaning of ancient megaliths, it shows
how each person’s thoughts can influence the destiny of the entire
Earth and describes practical ways of putting Anastasia’s vision of
happiness into practice. Megre shares his new outlook on educa-
tion and children’s real creative potential after a visit to a school
where pupils build their own campus and cover the ten-year Russian
school programme in just two years. Complete with an account of
an armed intrusion into Anastasia’s habitat, the book highlights the
limitless power of Love and non-violence.
Co-creation, the fourth book and centrepiece of the Series, paints a
dramatic living image of the creation of the Universe and humani-
ty’s place in this creation, malting this primordial mystery relevant
to our everyday living today. Deeply metaphysical yet at the same
time down-to-Earth practical, this poetic heart- felt volume helps us
uncover answers to the most significant questions about the essence
and meaning of the Universe and the nature and purpose of our ex-
istence. It also shows how and why the knowledge of these answers ,
innate in every human being, has become obscured and forgotten,
and points the way toward reclaiming this wisdom and — in part-
nership with Nature — manifesting the energy of Love through our
lives.
Who are we? — Book Five of the Series — describes the author’s
search for real-life ‘proofs’ of Anastasia’s vision presented in the
previous volumes. Finding these proofs and taking stock of ongo-
ing global environmental destruction, Vladimir Megre describes
further practical steps for putting Anastasia’s vision into practice.
Full of beautiful realistic images of a new way of living in co-opera-
tion with the Earth and each other, this book also highlights the role
of children in making us aware of the precari ousness of the present
situation and in leading the global transition toward a happy, vio-
lence-free society
The book of kin, the sixth book of the Series, describes another
visit by the author to Anastasia’s glade in the Siberian taiga and his
conversations with his growing son, which cause him to take a new
look at education, science, history, family and Nature. Through
parables and revelatory dialogues and stories Anastasia then leads
Vladimir Megre and the reader on a shocking re-discovery of the
pages of humanity’s history that have been distorted or kept secret
for thousands of years. This knowledge sheds light on the causes of
war, oppression and violence in the modern world and guides us in
preserving the wisdom of our ancestors and passing it over to future
generations.
The energy of life, Book Seven of the Series, re-asserts the power
of human thought and the influence of our thinking on our lives
and the destiny of the entire planet and the Universe. Is also brings
forth a practical understanding of ways to consciously control and
build up the power of our creative thought. The book sheds still
further light on the forgotten pages of humanity’s history, on reli-
gion, on the roots of inter-racial and inter-religious conflict, on ideal
nutrition, and shows how a new way of thinking and a lifestyle in
true harmony with Nature can lead to happiness and solve the per-
sonal and societal problems of crime, corruption, misery, conflict,
war and violence.
The new civilisation , the eighth book of the Series, is not yet com-
plete. The first part of the book, already published as a separate
volume, describes yet another visit by Vladimir Megre to Anastasia
and their son, and offers new insights into practical co-operation
with Nature, showing in ever greater detail how Anastasia’s lifestyle
applies to our lives. Describing how the visions presented in previ-
ous volumes have already taken beautiful form in real life and pro-
duced massive changes in Russia and beyond, the author discerns
the bir th of a new civilisation. The book also paints a vivid image of
America’s radiant future, in which the conflict between the power-
ful and the helpless, the rich and the poor, the city and the country,
can be transcended and thereby lead to transformations in both the
individual and society
Rites of Love — Book 8, Part 2 (published as a separate volume) —
contrasts today’s mainstream attitudes to sex, family, childbirth and
education with our forebears’ lifestyle, which reflected their deep
spiritual understanding of the significance of conception, preg-
nancy, homebirth and upbringing of the young in an atmosphere of
love. In powerful poetic prose .Megre describes their ancient way
of life, grounded in love and non-violence, and shows the practica-
bility of this same approach today. Through the life-story of one
family, he portrays the radiant world of the ancient Russian Vedic
civilisation, the drama of its destruction and its re-birth millennia
later — in our present time.
To be continued...
THE AUTHOR, Vladimir Megre, born in 1950, was a well-known
entrepreneur from a Siberian city of Novosibirsk. According to his
account, in 1995 — after hearing a fascinating story about the power
of ‘ringing cedars’ from a Siberian elder — he organised a trade ex-
pedition into the Siberian taiga to rediscover the lost technique of
pressing virgin cedar nut oil containing high curative powers, as well
as to find the ringing cedar tree. However, his encounter on this trip
with a Siberian woman named Anastasia transformed him so deep-
ly that he abandoned his business and went to Moscow to write a
book about the spiritual insights she had shared with him. Vladimir
Megre now lives near the city ofVladimir, Russia, 190 1 cm (120 miles)
east of Moscow. If you wish to contact the author, you may send a
message to his personal e-mail megre@online.sinor.ru
THE TRANSLATOR, John Woodsworth, born in Vancouver (Brit-
ish Columbia), has over forty years of experience in Russian-English
translation, from classical poetry to modern short stories. Since 1982
he has been associated with the University of Ottawa in Canada as a
Russian-language teacher, translator and editor, most recently as a Re-
search Associate and Administrative Assistant with the University’s
Slavic Research Group. Apublished Russian-language poet himself, he
and his wife — Susan Iv. Woodsworth — are directors of the Sasquatch
Literary Arts Performance Series in Ottawa. A Certified Russian-
English Translator, John Woodsworth is in the process of translating
the remaining volumes in Vladimir Megre’s Ringing Cedars Series.
THE EDITOR, Leonid SharasUdn, is writing his doctoral dis-
sertation on the spiritual, cultural and economic significance of the
Russian dacha gardening movement, at the University of Missouri at
Columbia. After receiving a Master’s degree in Natural Resources
Management from Indiana University at Bloomington, he worked for
two years as Programme Manager at the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF Russia) in Moscow, where he also served as editor of Russia’s
largest environmental magazine, The Panda Times. Together with his
wife, Irina Sharashldna, he has translated into Russian Small is beauti-
ful and A guide for the perplexed by E.F. Schumacher, The secret life of
plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, The continuum concept
by Jean Liedloff and Birth without violence by Frederick Leboyer.
ORDERING INFORMATION
USA:
0 on-line — www.RingmgCedars.com
° tel. /fax (toll-free) - 1-888-DOLMENS (1-888-365-6367)
0 tel /fax (from outside US & Canada) — 1-646-429-1986
0 e-mail — sales@RingingCedars.com
0 tnail (US) — send USS14.95 per copy plus S3-95 shipping and
handling for the first copy and $0.99 s&h for each additional copy
in your order to:
Ringing Cedars Press
120 HanaHwy #9-230,
Paia, HI 96779, USA
Make a check or money order payable to “Ringing Cedars Press”.
Please indicate clearly the quantity and title of the book(s) you
are ordering and be sure to include your US postal address with
your payment. Allow 2-4 weeks for delivery. Prices are subject to
change without notice.
UNITED KINGDOM:
0 order on-line — www.RingingCedars. co.uk
0 by phone (toll-free) — 0800-011-2081
3 e-mail — books@RingingCedars.co.uk
AUSTRALIA:
0 order on-line — www.RingingCedars.com.au
0 by phone (toll-free) — 1800-248-768
3 e-mail — books@RingingCedars.com.au
NEW ZEALAND:
0 order on-line — www.RingingCedars.co.nz
0 by phone-- 64-9232-9792
0 e-mail — sale$@RingingCedars.co.nz
SOUTH AFRICA:
0 order on-line — www.RingingCedars.co.za
0 e-mail — books@RingingCedars.co.za
Readers’ poetry
249
ANASTASIA’S CALL
by Eric Dane Mansfield
My dear,
why are you so sullen and sad?
For that is not your place.
Come and listen to the call,
to see your original face.
Dear, all your struggle, and your pain
is because you have forgotten your name,
and your own divinity
Yes, you are the living trinity,
I-Is-We,
the One as three.
This is where your sovereignty lives,
and peace is what dominion gives.
There is a voice,
calling from the very depths of Nature.
There is a guide,
that will lead us away from disaster.
A voice that echoes true,
for she speaks only of Reality.
And her mind is not clouded
by the obscured views of duality,
and its images of illusion.
She is living the solution,
and showing as she calls
to each from within the forested walls
of her love inspired domain.
Is it Christ, Buddha, Krishna?
Yes, Anastasia is her name.
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
She is the God-Mother of joy,
and peace is her constant companion.
She awaits your response.
She supports your return ,
to the ways of Veda,
to the Way of Love.
For Anastasia has risen above
the lies and games of self delusion.
Hers is the way of total inclusion ,
and she does not falter.
She is not special, or distinct.
She simply knows how to think
purely, and she lives as Man.
Co-creation, as-is,
that is her simple plan.
Consecration and devotion
to the standard of Truth,
if you answer to her call
your life will be the proof.
That all she says,
and all she is
you are able to be.
See, Anastasia is our Self
living completely free .
April 2007
Readers’ poetry
251
ANASTASIA’S WORTH IS OURS
by Eric Dane Mansfield
When I came to the forest
to discover my Self,
and repair the broken Earth.
I first glimpsed Her
atop a golden tree.
Yet, I knew not of her worth.
For to value what is unknown
is to wander away from ego’s home,
and I was not yet ready.
Yet, my inner pace remained steady
And so many years later on
I began to hear her silent song
of Love for all,
as All is Love.
She sits atop the trees above
because she has transcended lies.
And the light she offers up so freely
gives illumination to our skies.
For she is Advaita alive, here come.
She is a livingVe da, holy song already sung,
and she calls to those who hear,
“Come and join me, have no fear”.
“For we will remain in the forests of joy,
to plant gardens, raise children, as I, my boy”.
For knowing how to live aright
shall end this lingering, hopeless night
252
Book 2: The Ringing Cedars of Russia
Where darkness claims powers of destruction.
Yet, where Light already created,
no construction shall stand.
For from beyond the temporal realm
comes this illuminated Man.
Anastasia, captain at the helm,
her course true to the divine plan
of inclusion, co-operation, contemplation.
See there’s no room, for condemnation
of Truth set in stone.
Living as Ail,
come with her and trust
that you shall not fall.
For Anastasia is with us.
So stop, and listen do not fuss,
or fight about life.
Accept Anastasia
as your wife.
For she is your Self,
for she is your Self.
April 2007
Editor’s note: both poems by Eric Dane Mansfield are © 2007 by Eric Dane
Mansfield and are used by kind permission of the author.
The publishing team of Ringing Cedars Press sincerely thanks all read-
ers who shared their impressions, as well as poetry, songs and artwork
inspired by Anastasia. The Series’ editor may be reached by e-mail at
press@ringingcedars.com
ISBN 978-0-9763333-1-9
9 780976 333319
“The Ringing Cedars Series will impact a new generation of readers, like
the works of Carlos Castaneda did for a previous generation — only this
time through awakening the latent spiritual connection each of us has
with nature. This is not about a walk in the woods, rather these hooks
catapult us to an entirely new way of being on planet Earth.”
— Steven Foster, author of A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs
mkbm
English translation by John Woodsworth
0 Book i Anastasia
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-0-2)
0 Boole 2 The Ringing Cedars of Russia
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-1-9)
0 Book 3 The Space of Love
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-2-6)
e Book 4 Co-creation
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-3-3)
® Book 5 Who Are We?
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-4-0)
0 Book 6 The Book of Kin
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-6-4)
0 Book 7 The Energy of Life
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-7-1)
9 Book 8, Part 1 The New Civilisation
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-8-8)
9 Book 8, Part 2 Rites of Love
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-9-5)
Published by Ringing Cedars Press
www. RingingC e dars .com
Anastasia herself has stated that this book consists of words
and phrases in combinations which have a beneficial effect on the
reader. This has been attested by the letters received to date
from thousands of readers all over the world.
If you wish to gain as full an appreciation as possible of the
ideas, thoughts and images set forth here, as well as experience
the benefits that come with this appreciation, we recommend
you find a quiet place for your reading where there is the least
possible interference from artificial noises (motor traffic,
radio, TV, household appliances etc.). Natural sounds, on the
other hand — the singing of birds, for example, or the patter
of rain, or the rustle of leaves on nearby trees — may be a
welcome accompaniment to the reading process.
Ringing Cedars Press is an independent publisher dedicated
to making Vladimir Megre’s books available in the beautiful
English translation by John Woodsworth. Word of mouth is
our best advertisement and we appreciate your help in spread-
ing the word about the Ringing Cedars Series.
Order on-line www.RingingCedars.com ordering
call / fax toll-free 1-888-DOLMENS details
or call /fax 1-646-429-1986 see last page
Generous discounts are available on volume orders. To help
spread the word as an independent distributor, or to place the
books in your bookstore, or to be kept up to date about future
book releases and events, please email us at:
in£o@ringingcedars .com
or write to the Publisher, Ringing Cedars Press, 415 Dairy Rd.,
Suite E-339, Kahului, HI 96732, USA. We also welcome
reviews, poetry and artwork inspired by the Series.
The Space of Love by
Vladimir Megre
Translation and footnotes by
Editing, Editor’s Afterword, footnotes, design and layout by
Leonid SharasHrin
Cover art by
Alexander Razboinikov
Copyright ©
1998 Vladimir Megre
2005 Leonid Sharashkin, translation
2005 Leonid Sharashkin, afterword, footnotes
2005 Leonid Sharashkin, cover art
2005 Leonid Sharashkin, design and layout
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, except for the
inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2005901795
ISBN: 978-0-9763333-2-6
Published by
Ringing Cedars Press
www.RingingCedars.com
vi Book 3: The Space of Love
21. Should we all go live in the forest? 192
22. The Anastasia Centres 195
23. Re-creating Shambala 204
24. Who are you, Anastasia? 217
Lada’s message. Editor’s Afterword 233
Readers’ comments 237
The Ringing Cedars Series at a glance 246
Chapter One
There she is! Again before mine eyes flows that mighty Si-
berian River, the Ob. I had finally reached the settlement
where regular passenger service stopped, and was standing on
the riverbank. In order to continue my journey to the spot
where I could begin my trek through the taiga to Anastasia’s
glade, I would have to hire a small motorboat. Beside one of
the many boats tied up along the shore three men were laying
out some fishing tackle. I said hello to them and mentioned I
was ready to pay good money for transport to such-and-such
a place along the Ob.
“That’s Yegorych’s department. He charges a half-million
roubles' for the trip there,” answered one of the men.
I was concerned right off when I heard that someone here
was already making passenger runs to the tiny Siberian vil-
lage hidden way up north in the taiga. It was only twenty-five
kilometres from there to Anastasia’s glade. And the prices
they were charging! It meant there must be takers. Demand
creates a price like that. However, bargaining was something
one did not do in the North, and so I asked:
‘And where do I find this Yegorych?”
“He’s somewhere in the settlement. Most likely at the
store. See over there where the little tykes are playing — - that’s
his boat. His grandson Vasya’s with them. He’ll run and fetch
him — go ask him.”
l a half-million roubles — approx. USSioo at the then current exchange
rate — an exceptionally high price, roughly equivalent to an average
Russian’s monthly income.
2
Book 3: The Space of Love
No sooner had I greeted Vasya, a bright-looking lad of
twelve or thereabouts, than he started rattling off:
“So, you need to go there? To see Anastasia? Wait just a
moment! I’ll go call my gramps in a sec!”
Without waiting for an answer, Vasya went dashing off
to the settlement. I realised quite clearly he didn’t need an
answer. It was apparent that any strangers in these parts, in
Vasya’s opinion, had but one goal in mind.
I made myself as comfortable as I could by the riverbank
and began to wait. There being nothing else to do, I stared at
the water and drifted into thought.
The River was a good kilometre across at this point. Here
amidst the boundless taiga (which you couldn’t see the whole
of even from an airplane), the River had been flowing on
down through the centuries. What had it carried away of the
past without leaving so much as a trace? What do these Ob
waters remember from those times? Perhaps they remember
how Yermak , 2 the ‘conqueror of Siberia’, pressed by his foes
with his back against the River Ob, single-handedly tried to
repel an enemy attack, and how his blood from a fatal wound
seeped into the River, which then carried off his enervated
body to goodness-knows-where . .. What did Yermak in fact
conquer? Perhaps his deeds weren’t that much different from
the racketeering that goes on in modern times. Probably it is
only the River that is in a position to judge today
Or perhaps of greater importance to the River may have
been the raids of Genghis Khan’s troops? In ancient times
his Horde was considered great indeed. There is a regional
centre near Novosibirsk today known as Ordynskoe, which
" Yermak (a.k.a. Yermolai Timofeevich, 1540?— 15S5) — a Cossack ataman
(chieftain), credited with heroic exploits in his campaign to open up the
Siberian wilderness to Russian civilisation. In early August 1585 he was
killed in a battle against the Tatar Khan Kuchum on the River Ob.
Just another pilgrim 3
includes a village called Genghis. Perhaps the River remem-
bers how Genghis’ hordes retreated with their plundered boo-
ty, how they seized a young Siberian maiden, while a mighty
vizier, starry-eyed with love, eloquently begged her to go with
him of her own free will, with no resistance. The maiden re-
mained silent, her eyes lowered. All the soldiers under the
vizier’s command had already fled, while he stayed and kept
courting her with loving words. Finally he tossed her up onto
the back of his steed along with a bag of gold, leapt into the
saddle and made full speed for the banks of the Ob to escape
his pursuers.
They began to catch up to him. The vizier started throw-
ing the gold at them, and when the bag was empty he began
tearing off his precious medals he had been awarded for con-
quering various lands and throwing them on the ground un-
der his pursuers’ feet, but he did not relinquish the maiden.
With frothing mane the steed carried him to the canoes at
the shore of the Ob. The vizier carefully helped the maiden
down from his steed and seated her in one of the boats. Then
he jumped in himself. But as he was poling the boat arvay
from the shore he was pierced by an arrow from the pursuing
forces right behind them.
The current began to carry the boat downstream. The
wounded vizier lay near the stern, not even aware of the three
large rowing canoes filled with soldiers coming ever closer.
He looked tenderly at the maiden sitting calmly and quietly
beside him, and fell silent himself — he had no strength left
to speak. And the maiden looked at him, and then, with a
glance at the overtaking canoes, she smiled faintly at them
(or maybe at something else), tore the ropes off her hands
and threw them into the water. Then this young Siberian
maiden took to the oars. And none of the pursuer’s craft
could catch up to the boat carrying her and the wounded
vizier.
4
Book 3: The Space of Love
To what place and into what age did the River current carry
them? And what might the muddied waters of the River be
carrying off at this moment in their memory of us?
Perhaps, dear River, you consider our big cities to be im-
portant? A huge city, Novosibirsk , 3 stands on the banks of
the Ob, closer to its source in the south. Can you feel its great
size and majesty, dear River? Of course, there’s no doubt you
would have a great deal to tell about it — you would say it
pours a lot of pollution into you so that your once life-giving
waters are no longer drinkable. But what can we do about
it — where are we going to channel the waste from all the fac-
tories? After all, we, unlike our forebears, are in the process
of developing. We have a lot of scientists working in the mul-
titude of academic centres around Novosibirsk. And if we
don’t channel our waste into you, we shan’t survive ourselves.
And so the stench has made it hard to breathe in the city, and
in some districts the smell is so bad and nobody even knows
what it’s from. Try to make sense of all this, dear River. Do
you know — the technology we have today?! Instead of noise-
less canoes, it’s diesel ships that are now plying your waters.
Including, at one time, my own.
I wonder whether the River remembers me. How I sailed
up and down it on my ship — the largest passenger vessel in
our fleet. It wasn’t new, of course, the ship, and at full speed
all its diesel engines and propellers made such a roar that it
was even hard to hear the music in the bar.
What does the River cherish in its memory as the most
important thing? In times past I would watch its shores from
the upper deck of my ship, from the windows of the bar at the
stern, listening to Malinin’s 4 songs and romances:
3 Novosibirsk — with a population of a million and a half, Siberia’s largest city and
major industrial, cultural and academic centre. It began in the 1890s as a major
hub at the point where the Trans-Siberian Railway crossed the mighty Ob.
Just another pilgrim
5
I was going to the city upon a white steed
When a pub-mistress smiled at me sweetly indeed.
Having caught on the bridge the old miller's sly glance ,
1 remained the whole night with that mistress, entranced.
The people busy with their activities along the shore
seemed at the time to me petty and insignificant. Now I was
one of them.
Another thing I thought about was how to convince
Anastasia not to prevent me from communicating with my
son. The situation was a strange one indeed, the way it had
turned out. All my life I dreamt of having a son. I pictured
how I would play with him as a little tyke, and then how I
would raise him. When my son grew up, he would be a great
help to me. We’d be business partners.
Now I have a son. And even though he’s not around, it’s
still a jolly thing to know that somewhere on Earth there’s a
human being as close to you as that, your own flesh and blood,
someone you very much wanted.
Before leaving I took great delight in purchasing for my son
all sorts of basic kiddie things. Anyway, I went and bought
them, sure, but whether or not I’ll be able to give them to
him — well, that’s still a question mark. If my son had been
borne by an ordinary woman — it wouldn’t matter whether
she were a country or a city girl — it would all be so simple
and straightforward. Any woman would be delighted that her
child’s father was concerned and really trying to provide him
with everything he needed, and take part in his upbringing.
4 Alexander Nikolaevich Malinin (1958-) — a popular Russian singer-song-
writer from Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg), a large industrial city in the
Urals. Famous for his masterfully performed romances, in 1998 he was hon-
oured with the title People’s artist of Russia. The verse here is the first stanza
of his song Bely km (White Steed).
6
Book 3: The Space of Love
In fact, if he didn’t do this voluntarily, a lot of women would
be applying for alimony
But Anastasia was a taiga recluse with her own views on life
and her own understanding of values. Even before our son’s
birth she made it clear to me:
“He doesn’t need any material goods in your sense of the
term. He will have everything he needs right from the start.
Ebu have the desire to give our baby some sort of senseless
trinkets, which he doesn’t need at all. You are the one who
needs them for your own self-satisfaction, so you can say:
‘Look at how good and attentive I am!”’
Why on earth would she say something like that — “He
doesn’t need any material goods”? Come on, now! What can
a parent give his newborn child, then? Especially a father?
It’s still too early to start raising a breast-feeding infant in a
fatherly way. Flow then can I express my relationship to him?
How can I show him I care for him? A mother can breast-feed
her baby, it’s easier for her, she’s already doing something, but
what can a father do? In civilised circumstances he can help
around the house, fix things up, take financial care of his fam-
ily. But Anastasia doesn’t need anything like that. All she has
is her glade in the taiga. Her ‘household’ takes care of itself
and waits on her hand and foot, which means the boy will get
the same treatment once he’s seen as coming from her.
I wonder how much it would cost to buy that kind of serv-
ice? Sure, one can purchase or get a long-term lease on a few
hectares of land easy enough, but what price can you put on
the love and loyalty of a she-wolf, a she-bear, bugs and an eagle?
Maybe Anastasia doesn’t need any of the accomplishments of
our civilisation, but why should the child have to suffer for his
mother’s crazy world-view? The child can’t even have normal
toys! She sees everything her own way “The child doesn’t
need senseless trinkets, they’ll only do him harm, distract him
from the truth,” she says.
Just another pilgrim
7
Maybe in what she says there is some sort of quirky exag-
geration or even downright superstition. There must be some
reason mankind has invented so many different toys for kids!
But so as not to quarrel with Anastasia, I didn’t buy him any
rattles — instead I got him a kiddie’s constructor set, where
the label on the box reads: “Develops children’s intellect”.
Along with a quantity of disposable diapers, which the whole
world uses today. And I bought a whole lot of powdered baby
food. I’m really amazed at how easy they’ve made it. You
open the box and there’s a hermetically sealed package of wa-
terproof foil. Y)u just take a pair of scissors, cut open the
packet, pour the contents into warm water, stir and... presto,
it’s all ready. They’ve got all sorts of powders — buckwheat,
rice and other cereal grains.
The box says it has all sorts of vitamin additives. I remem-
ber, back when my daughter Polina was really little, having
to go every day to the ‘children’s kitchen’, 5 and now all you
need do is buy a bunch of boxes and you can feed your own
child with no trouble whatsoever. You don’t even have to heat
it up. Just dissolve in water, and that’s it. I knew Anastasia
didn’t boil herself any water, and so, before buying up a whole
lot, I bought a single box and tried adding the contents to
water at room temperature — and it worked. I tried tasting
it. It tasted normal — hardly any flavour, because there was
no salt, but likely that’s the way it should be for kids.
I decided Anastasia wouldn’t be able to come up with any
arguments against this powder. It would be silly to say no to
a convenience like that. And that means she’ll have to start
showing a little respect to our technocratic world. It doesn’t
just produce weapons, it thinks about children too.
5 ‘ children’s kitchen’ (Russian: domovaya kukhnia) — a government-subsidised
community canteen where parents (particularly mothers who were not
breast-feeding) could go to get fresh dairy products, specially prepared for
infants and young children.
Book 3: The Space of Love
But the thing that disturbed me most about what Anastasia
said, especially since it didn’t seem to make any sense, was
this: she said that in order for me to communicate with my
son, I would have to achieve a certain purity of thought, i.e.,
cleanse my inner parts. Only it wasn’t clear to me just what
inner parts I should cleanse.
It would have been understandable if she’d said I should
shave, or shouldn’t smoke, when I visited the child, or I
should wear clean clothing. But she goes and talks on and on
about conscious awareness and inner purging. And just where
do they sell the brush that I can purge anything there with?
Anyway, what have I got inside me that’s so dirty? Maybe I’m
not better than others, but I’m no worse either. Hey, if every
woman started malting a demand like that on her man, you’d
have to set up a bloody purgatory for all mankind! It’s... it’s
illegitimate, that’s what it is!
I brought along a clipping from the civil code, where it says
that one parent has no right to deprive the other of seeing their
child without due cause, even if the parents are divorced. Of
course, our laws don’t mean very much to Anastasia, but still,
it’s a pretty strong argument. After all, the majority of people
do observe the law. I ought to be able to take a hard line with
Anastasia, too. We should have equal rights to our child.
I had thought earlier of taking a harder line with her. But
now I’ve had some doubts about my initial decision, and
here’s why Along with everything else in my backpack, I
had brought along some letters from readers. I didn’t bring
them all, because I keep getting so many I wouldn’t begin to
have room for them all. Many of the readers care a great deal
about Anastasia. They call her a messiah, a fairy of the taiga,
a goddess; they dedicate songs and poems to her. And some
of them address her as though she were their bosom friend.
This flood of letters got me reconsidering my words and ac-
tions in respect to Anastasia.
Just another pilgrim
9
I had about a three-hour wait sitting beside Yegorych’s boat.
It was already late in the afternoon when I saw two men ap-
proach in the company of Yegorych’s grandson. The first was
getting on in years, he looked to be at least sixty lie wore
a cloth raincoat and rubber boots. He was red in the face,
obviously tipsy, since he staggered slightly as he walked. The
second was younger, around thirty, and had a strong build.
As they came closer, I noticed streaks of grey in the younger
Siberian’s dark-blond hair. The elder of the two came up to
me and said:
“Hello there, traveller! So, you’re off to see Anastasia?
We’ll take you. It’ll be five hundr’d thousand for the trip plus
two bottles 6 surcharge.”
It was already clear to me that I wasn’t the only one try-
ing to reach Anastasia. That was why the price was so high.
To them I was just another pilgrim on my way to Anastasia’s
habitat. But still I asked:
“How did you decide that I was going to see somebody
named Anastasia, and not just to the village?”
“If you be goin’ to the village or no, you’d better have
the five hundr’d thousand ready. If you don’t have the right
amount, we won’t take you there.”
Yegorych’s tone toward me wasn’t exactly friendly.
They charge so much for the trip and yet don’t talk very
friendly, I thought. Why would that be?
Still, there was no alternative, and I had to accept the terms.
But instead of being happy at all that money, and especially
the two bottles of vodka he sent his young assistant to buy at
the settlement, his attitude toward me only hardened. He sat
down beside me on a rock and kept muttering to himself:
6
two bottles — i.e., of vodka.
IO
Book 3: The Space of Love
“To the village — what village? Six houses with people just
barely alive — you call that a village? Who needs a village like
that?”
“And do you often take visitors to see Anastasia? I’ll bet
you earn a pretty penny transporting them, eh?” I asked
Yegorych, mostly to get a conversation going and soften his
enmity. But Yegorych only answered in irritation:
‘And who invited them to visit? We’ve got too many un-
invited jerks barging in here. Nothing stops them. Did she
invite them? Did she? No, she bloody well didn’t! She told
one bloke about her life. He goes and writes a book. Fine,
write a book. But why give the location away? We never did.
And here he meets with her once, and writes about her life,
and gives the place away That’s something even females can
understand: if you give it away, that’s the end of her peace and
quiet.”
“Does that mean you’ve read the book about Anastasia?”
“I don’t read books. Sashka , 7 my workmate here, he’s a real
bookworm. Anyway, we can’t get you to the village tonight.
Too far. The motor on the boat’s not too strong. We’ll make
it as far as a fisherman’s hut, spend the night there. Tomorrow
Sashka’ll take you on, while I do a bit of fishing.”
‘All right,” I agreed, thinking it was just as well Yegorych
had no idea I was the one who wrote about Anastasia.
Sashka, Yegorych’s assistant, arrived with the vodka. Then
they put the fishing tackle into the boat, at which point
Yegorych’s grandson Vasya all but cut the trip short. He start-
ed asking Yegorych for money to buy a new radio receiver.
“I’ve already fixed up a pole with an antenna — I’ve figured
out how to set it up,” said Vasya. ‘And I’ve got the antenna
wire already. All you have to do is plug the antenna into the
receiver and you pick up a whole bunch of stations right off.”
Sashka — like Sasha, a diminutive of Alexander.
Chapter Two
“You see what a bright lad I have for a grandson!” Yegorych
proudly declared with a warmth in his voice. ‘A healthy curi-
osity, a budding craftsman! Way to go, Vasya! We’d better give
him some money.”
The hint was all too clear, and I started to pull out my wal-
let. But Vasya, encouraged by the words of praise, went on:
“I gotta listen to everything about the cosmonauts. Ours
and the Americans’. When I grow up, I’m gonna be a cosmo-
naut.”
“What?! What’s thatyou said?!” Yegorych suddenly pricked
up his ears.
“When I grow up, I’m gonna be a cosmonaut.”
“The hell you are, Vasya! You’re not gettin’ any money from
me for that kind of crap!”
“That ain’t crap , no way being a cosmonaut. Everybody likes
cosmonauts. They’re heroes, they show them on TV. They’re
always orbiting the Earth on their huge spaceships. They can
talk with a whole lot of scientists right from space.”
‘And what good does all that chatter do? They’re flying
away up there, and in the meantime there’s less and less fish
in the Ob.”
“The cosmonauts can tell everybody about the weather.
They know ahead of everyone else what the weather will be
like tomorrow anywhere in the world!” Vasya continued his
defence of modern science.
“So what else is new? You go see Babka Martha . 1 Just ask
Babka Martha and she’ll tell you what the weather will be
12
Book 3: The Space of Love
tomorrow and the day after and next year. She won’t charge
any money, not like your cosmonauts, eh? Those cosmonauts
of yours are wasting Petya’s 1 2 money. Your father’s money.”
“The cosmonauts get a lot of money from the state.”
4 And where d’ya think the state gets its money from? From
where, dammit? It’s from Petya, your father, that the state
gets its money. I catch some fish and Petya later sells it in
town. He wants to become this smart businessman, see, and
the state tells him: ‘Pay your taxes, give us all your money —
after all, you know, we’ve got a lot of expenses.’ And over in
the Duma 3 they just keep on fussin’ and fussin’, worse than a
bunch of old biddies at a well. The way they’ve over-invented
everything, they think they’re the cat’s whiskers! They’ve got
all sorts of amenities, their own, clean bathrooms to go to,
those smart asses, and meanwhile our river here gets dirtier
and dirtier. You’re not gonna get any money, Vasya, ‘til you
wash that nonsense of yours right out of your head. An’ I
won’t make any more trips, I’m not gonna earn good money
for crap like that.”
Yegorych, probably because of his drunken state, got so
angry he was just about ready to cancel the trip. Then he un-
corked one of the vodkas Sashka had just brought from the
settlement and took a drink straight from the bottle. After
lighting a cigarette, he managed to calm down a bit, and we all
climbed into the boat. So he ended up not giving Vasya any
money and, instead, kept muttering something into his beard
about ‘crap’ during the whole trip.
1 Babka Martha — the word babka in this sense refers to the local ‘shaman’
of the village, an old woman held to be knowledgeable in folk medicine
and weather predictions.
"Petya — diminutive from Petr (pronounced PYOTR), the Russian equiva-
lent of the name Peter
3 Duma — the national parliament of Russia.
13
Money for crap?
The ageing motor sputtered noisily along. It was hard to
make conversation above the din. We scarcely said a word un-
til we reached an old hunter’s hut with a single little window.
The first stars appeared in the night sky. Having finished off
en route the bottle he had begun at the point of departure,
Yegorych muttered to his Sashka:
“I’m-m off to sleep. You make yourself comfy here by the
fire or on the floor of the hut. When it gets light, take him
to our spot.”
Yegorych was already bending over to get through the tiny
door of the hut, but all at once he turned around and repeated
with an admonishing tone:
“To our spoil G-got it, Sashka?”
“Got it,” Sashka calmly replied.
As we sat by the fire eating fish cooked over the coals, I
asked Sashka a question about a phrase Yegorych had used
which rather alarmed me.
‘Alexander, can you tell me what this ‘spot’ of yours is where
Yegorych told you to take me?”
“Our spot — that’s on the opposite bank of the river from
the village where you set out for Anastasia’s glade,” Alexander
calmly replied.
“So that’s it!” I exclaimed. “Here you go charging all this
money, and you don’t even take people where they need to go!”
“You’re right, that’s the way we do things. It’s about all we
can do for Anastasia, to make up for what we’ve done to her
in the past.”
“What have you done to her? And why are you confessing
this to me? How can you take me to ‘your spot’ now?”
“I’ll tie up the boat wherever you tell me to. As far as the
money goes, I’ll give you back my portion of it.”
“So why do me a favour?”
“I recognised you. I recognised you right off, Vladimir
Alegre. I read your book and saw your photo on the cover.
i4 Book 3: The Space of Love
I’ll take you wherever you want. Only there’s something I
gotta tell you... You’ve got to listen calmly to what I say An’
think about it. You mustn’t go into the taiga. You won’t make
it... Anastasia’s gone. I think she’s gone way back into some
remote part. Or somewhere else — off into the unknown.
You won’t make it any more. You’ll get yourself killed on the
way Or the hunters’ll shoot you. The hunters won’t toler-
ate any intruders on their lands. Intruders they deal with at
a distance, so as not to subject themselves to unnecessary
danger.”
Alexander was outwardly calm as he spoke, only the stick
he was stirring the embers with betrayed an awkward trem-
bling, and the sparks flew up alarmingly into the night, like
fireworks.
“Did something happen here? What was it? You recog-
nised me, so tell me, what happened? Why did Anastasia go
away?”
“I’ve been wanting to tell this myself,” replied Alexander in
a hushed voice. “I’ve been wanting to tell it to someone who
will be able to understand. I don’t even know where to begin
so’s you’ll make sense of it... so’s I'll make sense of it.”
“Tell it simply like it is.”
“Simply? You know, it’s true, it’s all really quite simple.
Only it’s so simple it’s terrifying. Just hear me out calmly, if
you can — don’t interrupt.”
“I’m not interrupting. Give me the gist of it. Don’t drag
it out.”
Chapter Three
Alexander began speaking quietly; the way Siberian people
do, and yet at the same time there was no mistaking the feel-
ing of inner tension in the heart of this young Siberian fellow
already showing streaks of grey in his hair.
“When I read your book Anastasia, I was a post-gradu-
ate student at Moscow University. I was interested in phi-
losophy and psychology I studied Oriental religions, and
was really immersed in my studies. And then along came
Anastasia. Not in some far-away land, but right in my own
neighbourhood — Siberia, where I was born. And I could
feel the tremendous power, logic and significance in her
words! I could feel a kindred spirit — something that really
spoke to me! The foreign theories I had been studying paled
in comparison to the extraordinary feelings that now welled
up in me. I dropped my studies and rushed home, as though
from darkness to light. I really wanted to see Anastasia and
talk with her.
“I came home and began malting trips with Yegorych in the
boat to the place you describe in your book. Yegorych and I
figured out just where it was. From time to time other people
would come and want to meet with Anastasia and ask about
this spot. But we never took them there. The local residents
had sense enough to realise what was happening and not give
encouragement to the ‘pilgrims’. But one time we — or, rath-
er, I alone, without Yegorych — took a whole group of people
to this place.”
“Why did you do that?”
1 6
Book 3: The Space of Love
‘“Ai: the time it seemed like I was doing the right thing,
something good. It was a party of six. Two of them were
prominent scholars and, from what I could tell, they had con-
siderable resources at their disposal. Or those backing them,
the ones who sent them, had considerable resources. The
other four in the party were their security guards, armed with
pistols, and something else besides. And they had two-way
radios. I was invited to accompany them as their guide. I
agreed, but not because of the money.
“I had a long talk with them first. They didn’t conceal the
goal of their expedition — a meeting with Anastasia. Their
leader w r as a grey-haired, pleasant-looking chap named Boris
Moiseevich . 1 He realised that Anastasia, all by herself, could
do more for science than many research institutes.
“They planned to take her out of the taiga and set her up
in a nature preserve where she could live under conditions
she was accustomed to. And they’d guarantee her protection.
Boris Moiseevich told me that if they didn’t do this, someone
else would. And anything might happen. Anastasia was an
extraordinary phenomenon, and they felt obliged to protect
her and study her.
“Boris Moiseevich had an assistant named Stanislav, a
bright young man who claimed to be in love with Anastasia,
even though he had never met her in person. I agreed with
their arguments. They hired a small ship from a co-operative.
They had a truck deliver barrels of aviation fuel to the ship.
“When we arrived at the spot, they set up tents on a prom-
ontory and summoned a helicopter on their two-way radio.
The ’copter was outfitted for aerial photography; it also had a
video camera and some other unusual equipment. Every day
1 Boris Moiseevich — Here Moiseevich is a patronymic (derived from Boris’
father Moisei), and not a surname. The use of his patronymic here, in con-
trast to Stanislav’s first name used alone, indicates his position of seniority.
Uninvited guests
17
the helicopter would fly low over the taiga and take pictures,
one quadrant after another.
“The two scientists made a daily examination of the pic-
tures taken from the air. Occasionally they would travel on
the helicopter themselves to a spot that interested them.
They were looking for Anastasia’s glade, where they planned
to land the ’copter. I could only imagine the noise the ’copter
would make landing in Anastasia’s glade, scaring all the living
creatures around. I remembered Anastasia had a baby and
thought the roar from the ’copter might frighten him too.
“I tried to persuade the scientists that after determining
the location of the glade they shouldn’t set the ’copter down
there. I proposed that once they determined the location
they should draw up a map and go to the glade on foot. But
Stanislav explained that Boris Moiseevich would find it diffi-
cult making the long trek through the taiga. Stanislav shared
my concerns about disturbing the peace of the taiga residents,
but assured me that Boris Moiseevich would be able to calm
down both Anastasia and her baby. It all came to a head on
the fourth day”
“What came to a head?”
“It happened when the ’copter flew off on a routine film-
ing-and-photography trip, and we were busy back at our base.
One of the guards noticed a lone female figure approaching
our camp from the direction of the taiga. He reported this
to Boris Moiseevich. Soon the whole camp was watching the
woman approach. She was wearing a light cardigan and a long
skirt, and the kerchief on her head was tied in such a way so
that it covered her forehead and neck.
“We were standing together in a group, with Boris
Moiseevich and Stanislav out in front. The woman came up
to us. There was no fear or embarrassment showing in her
face. And her eyes... She had the most extraordinary eyes —
they looked at us tenderly, with kindness. And we could feel a
i8
Book y The Space of Love
warmth from her gaze. It seemed as though she was looking
not at our group as a whole but at each one of us individually.
We were all overcome by a feeling of excitement we couldn’t
explain. It was as though we had forgotten about everything
else and were simply drinking in this warmth, basking in it —
the warmth radiating from those extraordinary eyes of hers.
And nobody even invited her to sit down and rest from her
journey.
“She was the first to speak. And with a calm and unusually
tender voice she said:
‘“Good afternoon, people,’
‘And we stood there without uttering a word. Boris
Moiseevich was the first to respond.
“‘Hello,’ he replied for all of us. ‘Please tell us who you
are.’
“‘My name is Anastasia. I have come to you with a request.
Please call off your helicopter. It is very harmful for these
parts. You are looking for me. Here I am. I shall answer any
of your questions I am able to.’
“‘Yes, of course, we’ve been looking for you. Thank you
for coming on your own. That takes care of so many prob-
lems,’ Boris Moiseevich began. But he still didn’t ask her to
sit down, even though there was a table and folding chairs by
the tent. Nor did he take Anastasia aside to talk with her pri-
vately He too was most likely distracted by her unexpected
appearance. He started in right away telling her about why
we had come.
‘“Yes, that’s very good... "You came to us on your own. It was
you, in fact, we had come for. Don’t worry we’ll call off the heli-
copter right away’
“Boris Moiseevich at once ordered the senior guard to ra-
dio the ’copter pilot to return to base. The order was car-
ried out immediately Then he turned to Anastasia and began
talking with her in a calmer and more even tone.
Uninvited guests
19
“Anastasia, the helicopter’s coming now. You will climb
aboard along with our colleagues. You will show our colleagues
the glade where you live with your son. The ’copter will set
down wherever you indicate, and you can fetch your boy
Well take the two of you to a nature preserve near Moscow
Everything there will be arranged just as you say. That’s only
right. Nobody will disturb you there. The preserve is under
twenty-four-hour guard, which will be reinforced once you
settle in there. Just occasionally, scientists will come and talk
with you at a time convenient for you. These people will be
thoroughly prepared. You will find them interesting to talk
to. And they will be most interested in your views on certain
natural and social phenomena, as well as in your philosophy.
‘“If you like, we’ll provide you with a worthy assistant.
Someone who will be constantly at your side and can catch
your inner meanings. In spite of his young years, he is already
a prominent and talented scholar. Besides which he has fallen
in love with you even before meeting you. The two of you,
I think, will be worthy mates — you have the potential to
become a fine, happy couple. He is worthy of you not only
because of his scholarship but in his lifestyle too. Here he is.’
And at this Boris Moiseevich turned in Stanislav’s direction,
and beckoned him over.
‘“Come along, Stanislav, don’t dawdle! Introduce yourself.’
“Stanislav came over and stood facing Anastasia. He looked
a little embarrassed as he started speaking.
“‘Well, it looks as though Boris Moiseevich has already pro-
posed for me! I know this may seem a trifle unexpected for
you, Anastasia, but I really am ready to ask for your hand. I
am prepared to adopt your son and treat him as my own child.
I am ready to help you in working out a host of problems, and
I ask you to consider me a friend.’
“Stanislav made an elegant bow before Anastasia, then
took her hand and kissed it. He presented a most handsome
20
Book 3: The Space of Love
and elegant appearance. And if only Anastasia had changed
her clothes, they would really have looked like a most worthy
and attractive couple.
“Anastasia replied to Stanislav in a tender, serious tone:
“‘I thank you for your kind attentions to me. Thank you for
caring about me.’ And then she added: ‘If you really feel you
are strong enough to share your love and make another per-
son’s life happier and more fulfilled, then remember — there
may already be in your circle of women friends someone who
is dissatisfied with her life, unhappy about something. Pay
attention to her, love her, make her happy.’
‘“But I want to love you, Anastasia.’
“‘I am already happy with another. Do not waste your en-
ergies on me. There are women out there who need you more
than I do.’
“Boris Moiseevich decided to come to Stanislav’s aid.
‘“That other — is he the one whom you met with, Anastasia?
No doubt you mean Vladimir. He’s a long way from being the
best example of our society.’
‘“Whatever you say about him, it will not change my feel-
ings. I cannot control my feelings.’
‘“But why did you choose Vladimir to meet with in the
first place? He’s hardly what you could call either religious or
scholarly, or even someone who leads a normal lifestyle. He’s
just an ordinary businessman. How did you happen to fall in
love with him in particular?’
“At some point I began to realise,” Alexander went on, “that
Boris Moiseevich, Stanislav and the rest of the group had
one clearly defined goal — to seize Anastasia, to take her
by any means possible and use her only in their own inter-
ests, against her will. And it didn’t matter whose idea it
was — their own or on orders from somebody higher up,
they would try their hardest to carry out their plan. And
Uninvited guests 21
nothing — not even the most persuasive arguments —
would stop them.
“Perhaps Anastasia understood this, too. She could hard-
ly be ignorant or unaware of their intentions. And still she
continued treating the men standing before her as kind and
decent people, even as friends. She spoke sincerely and forth-
rightly on the most sacred of topics, and it was her attitude
and sincerity which restrained, or rather forestalled, violence.
She was so ingenious at countering Boris Moiseevich’s and
Stanislav’s attempts to cool her feelings toward you that she
showed all their arguments against you to be patently absurd.
“People say a woman in love sees only the good in the one
she loves, no matter what he does or who he may really be.
But her arguments were of quite a different sort. After the
first flurry of excitement over Anastasia’s appearance had
passed, I was able to quietly switch on my tape recorder.
“Later I would often listen and analyse what Anastasia said.
I remember it all. And that ‘all’ was enough to turn my whole
consciousness upside down.”
“What turned your consciousness upside down?” I queried,
wondering what Anastasia had said about me. And Alexander
went on:
“When Boris Moiseevich asked: ‘How did you happen to
fall in love with him in particular?’, Anastasia countered with
a simple, direct reply:
‘“There is no point in asking me a question like that.
Nobody who is in love can explain why they love the person
they do. For every woman in love there will be only one man
who is the best and most significant person in the world —
and that is the one she has chosen. And my beloved is the
very best one for me.’
“‘But still, Anastasia, you cannot fail to grasp the absurdity
of your choice. Even if it happened spontaneously, it’s still
22
Book 3: The Space of Love
absurd. That first breath of passion should have been chilled
by your will, your abilities, the logic of your mind. They
should have shown you how unworthy this man was com-
pared to others. Think about it, carefully.’
‘“When I think about it carefully I come to exactly the
opposite conclusion. In this case any further reflection is a
waste of time. It only adds to the mysterious inevitability of
what took place. Better just accept everything as it is.’
“‘What, accept an absurdity? A paradox?’
“‘It only seems to be that way at first glance. You have made
a long trip here from Moscow You had quite a challenge get-
ting to that spot on the riverbank. You ask questions about
my love. But you do not seem to have grasped hold of anoth-
er paradox — namely that this love can be better and more
clearly explained by events that happened in Moscow. And it
would have been better for you to reflect on them right there.
It would have saved you coming all this way’
“‘What kind of events happened in Moscow?’
“‘On the surface they are very simple. But only on the
surface. Right after meeting with me, Vladimir, whom you
call a simpleton, an unremarkable and even malicious person,
abandoned everything and left Siberia to go to Moscow He
went there to keep his word to me — - to organise a fellow-
ship of purer-minded entrepreneurs. Even though he had no
money left, he still acted.
‘“In Moscow there is a two-storey building at 14 Tokmakov
Lane. That is where the people used to work who were in
charge of the first association of entrepreneurs. Then the
people in charge left and the association started to fall apart.
“‘Vladimir went in there and things started to pickup again
in its empty offices, both the large and small ones. There he
wrote various letters addressed to entrepreneurs. He worked
in his office from early morning until late at night and even
stayed there to sleep. People would come and see him or just
Uninvited guests
23
turn up and start helping him. They believed in him and what
he was doing. I asked him to do this when he was with me in
my glade here in the taiga. I told him how' important it was.
‘“I worked out apian of action and presented it to him. The
goals were achievable, provided he carried out the plan in the
order that had come to me in my dream. He was supposed to
write the book first. And then use the book to explain a lot
of things and spread information. It was the book that was
to have found and brought together pure-minded entrepre-
neurs. And provide him with the funds for carrying out this
plan.
“‘But Vladimir did everything the right way as he saw it.
He hardly thought of me at all. He realised the significance
of the plan and put it into practice. Only he did it his way, and
changed the sequence.
“‘That way the goal was unachievable. He did not know
this, and he acted with incredible persistence and resource-
fulness. Other people who believed in the idea started help-
ing him. The new entrepreneurs’ association very slowly be-
gan to sprout and grow in size. It was incredible, but things
started moving just a wee bit. They were getting together.
And these were pure-minded entrepreneurs. There is a list of
their names and addresses — you can go check yourselves.’
‘“We looked at this list. It was published in the first edi-
tion of the book. But I’m sorry to have to disappoint you,
Anastasia. It will be a disappointment! The list included
such enterprises as Kristall, a Moscow distillery Its product
is incompatible with any concept of the divine.’
“‘Everything in the world is relative. And perhaps this
Kristall is not so bad in comparison with some others. Besides,
we are talking about thoughts pure enough to change every-
thing. Today’s reality is the result of yesterday’s thinking.’
“‘I can agree with what you are saying there. Still, your
Vladimir failed to organise a fellowship of pure-minded
24
Book 3: The Space of Love
entrepreneurs. I assure you, Anastasia, you’ve pinned your
hopes on the wrong man.’
“After changing the sequence of events, Vladimir was un-
able to reach his goal. He did not have even the slightest
opportunity or any funds to circulate information beyond
Moscow. He came up against adverse circumstances and
he lost the offices where he could have continued his work,
he lost his means of communication as well as his sleeping
quarters. He left the building in Tokmakov Lane, along with
the little group of local people who were helping him. He
could not afford to pay his assistants for their work. He left
without a kopeck to his name. He had no place to live and
not even any winter clothing. He had forsaken his family and
been forsaken by his family And do you know what he talked
about with his little group of helpers as they headed for the
metro along the icy streets? He talked about starting every-
thing again from scratch. Even under those conditions he was
working out a plan, trying to get something going. After all,
he is an entrepreneur. They, his helpers, followed him; they
listened to him and believed him. They loved him.’
‘“What for, if I may ask?’
“‘You go ask them, these Moscow people, what for —
ask them what they found in him. Go to the building on
Tokmakov Lane and ask the security guards there why each
time they came on duty they would bring him some food in
jars or wrapped in cloth, to give him a decent supper. They
tried to do it in such a way so as not to offend him with their
charity These burly security guards, who did not have to an-
swer to him, cooked borshch and other kinds of soup at home
and brought it to him so he could have something of a home-
made meal. They loved him. Why?
‘“When you visit that building, go have a talk with the
pretty woman who used to work as a secretary there. She is
a former actress, she played the lead as the land alien-girl in
Uninvited guests
2 5
the film Cherez ternii k zvyozdam (Through the thorns to the
stars ). 2 She played her very well. It was a good film, calling
upon people to care for and love the Earth. Ask her why she,
an employee of another firm in the same building, tried to
help Vladimir inconspicuously — and she did help him. She
was not his secretary, but she helped him. Why did she en-
deavour to bring my beloved coffee or tea for his lunch? She
made it look as though it were her firm which was supply-
ing her with the sugar, tea and biscuits. In fact she brought
everything from her own home. She was not rich. She loved
him. Why?
“At the same time he, Vladimir, was still losing his strength,
he was dying. He was physically exhausted. But even on
death’s doorstep he kept trying to reach his goal. He is an
entrepreneur, after all. And his spirit is strong.’
‘“Anastasia, you’re talking in metaphors. What do you
mean when you say he was dying? In an allegorical sense?”’
“‘In a literal sense. When he was in Moscow, his flesh was
just about dead for several days in a row. People in such a con-
dition usually lie motionless. But he was up and about.’
“‘Possibly thanks to you, Anastasia?’
“‘All during those forty-two terrible hours I never ceased
warming him with my ray, not even for a moment. But it was
not enough. My ray could not retain life in a body if the spirit
were weakening. But Vladimir’s spirit was fighting back. In
its struggles his spirit did not notice death approaching. It
helped the ray Then other little rays came to the aid of my
ray. They were altogether weak and unconscious, but they
were there. These were the rays of those around Vladimir in
Moscow — people who loved him.
" Through the thorns to the stars — a 1980 Russian science-fiction film, direct-
ed by Richard Viktorov, starring Yelena Metyolkina as the cloned alien Niya
from the planet Dessa, rescued from a stranded alien spaceship by Russian
cosmonauts.
26
Book 3: The Space of Love
“‘His practically dead flesh began to be filled with life.
When confronted by sincere love, if it is strong enough, death
retreats. The immortality of Man 3 is in love, in his ability to
ignite love within himself.’ 4
‘“I say, Anastasia: dead flesh can’t walk about. You’re still
speaking in allegories, not scientifically’
“‘The criteria of human science are always temporary.
There are truths that are valid beyond the present moment.’
“‘But how then can modern scientists be convinced? We
need results from objective measuring devices.’
“‘Fine. Go to the Kursk Terminal. 5 There’s an automatic
photo booth in one of the adjacent metro stations. During
that bad period Vladimir had his picture taken for an I.D.
card — one of those small colour prints. You may still be
able to find it at the building at 42 Leninsky Prospekt. Or
Vladimir himself might have it. Take a careful look, and you
will see all the outward signs of a dead body; the automatic
camera captured even the death spots on his face. But you
will also see life in his eyes. And a fighting spirit.’
“And yet you were the only one who could rescue him,
Anastasia. Tell me how it is that you ended up spending so
much of your energies on him? Why?’
“‘I was not the only one who came to his rescue. Ask the
three Moscow students why they rented an apartment for him
at their own expense? When he finally realised the reason
"Man — Throughout the Ringing Cedars Series, the word Man with a capi-
tal M is used as the equivalent of the Russian word chelovek, including both
male and female, as, for example, the word man is used in Genesis i: 27 (see
Translator’s Preface to Book 1).
4 within himself — it is possible that ‘toward himself [on the part of others}’
may be intended in the original.
5 Kursk Terminal — one of the major railway terminals in central Moscow —
a modern structure with a glass facade, constructed in 1972. It is connected
to three different metro (subway) stations.
Uninvited guests
2 7
he was failing and set about writing the book, why did they,
right in the middle of an exam period and trying to earn more
money wherever they could, spend their evenings keyboard-
ing Vladimir’s text into their computers? Why? You can ask
the same question of many Moscow residents who were at
Vladimir’s side in his times of need. The solution to the mys-
tery lies in them, not in me. Why did Moscow and her people
help him and take care of him, why did they believe in him?
‘“The city of Moscow was also writing the book. I am
thrilled with that city! I have fallen in love with it! No
amount of roaring machines or senseless cataclysms devised
by the technocratic world can nullify the embrace of kindness
and love from the hearts of its people. Many, many residents
of this city are reaching out for kindness and brightness — for
love. Through all the bustle and the clamour of roaring ma-
chinery they feel its tremendous power and grace.’
‘“But, Anastasia, what you say is really incredible and
overwhelming. It couldn’t happen all by itself. Once again
it shows the incredible scope of your abilities, the extraordi-
nary possibilities of that ray you possess. You have evidently
used it to enlighten the Moscow people who got in touch with
Vladimir. You won’t deny now, that you did that? And that
you were the one who made all these miracles happen!’
‘“Love is what makes miracles happen. And I did use my
ray to make careful contact with all those in communication
with Vladimir. But all I did was to give a bit of strengthening
to the feelings of goodness, love and bright aspirations that
they already had. I only strengthened what was in them al-
ready
“And the book was published by Moscow The first print-
run was small and it was a pretty slim volume. But people
started buying it. It quickly sold out. Far from distorting the
events he had witnessed in the taiga, it honestly described the
feelings he had experienced. In the eyes of many readers I
28
Book 3: The Space of Love
came out looking clever and good, while Vladimir appeared
stupid and none too bright.
‘“People in their homes reading the book did not take into
account that Vladimir was with me one on one in the remote
Siberian taiga. Everything back then was still extremely un-
familiar to him. And I do not know who else could go so far
into the taiga with no gear at all. Or how such a person would
behave upon seeing what Vladimir saw. Vladimir was honest
in the way he depicted everything. And yet for many people
he began to look stupid. And here you are asking me: Why did
I choose him? And why do I love him so?
“‘In the process of writing the book, Vladimir was already
turning his thinking around on a great many things. He grasps
everything very quickly. Anyone who has the opportunity of
talking with him cannot fail to notice that. But he never tried
to paint a rosy picture of his former self.’”
Chapter Four
c
“Anastasia spoke warmly about you,” Alexander continued.
“She knew all about people and events. She told them that the
first book you wrote came out in Moscow in a small print-run,
and it immediately led to enthusiastic reviews, poetry, paint-
ings and songs. She said that thanks to the sincerity of the
writing, the book preserved the combinations and symbols she
had sought out in the Universe, and these were what aroused
the extraordinary beneficial, panacean feelings in people.
“When Boris Moiseevich heard that, he began fidgeting,
and abruptly sat down at the table by the tent. I noticed he
was surreptitiously trying to switch on a tape recorder. He was
probably so caught up with the pursuit of important informa-
tion that he completely forgot about everyone else around. He
didn’t even offer Anastasia a chair, he was so bent on extracting
as much information from her as he could, and quickly This old
grey-haired fellow was excited and fired off more questions:
‘“Scientists in many countries of the world are trying to
capture the extraordinary sounds of the Universe with their
costly specialised equipment. These sounds are out there.
They are known to science. Maybe not all of them, just a few
for the time being. Maybe just a billionth part of the whole.
What devices do you use to capture them, Anastasia? What
equipment will allow us to select the sounds that can exert an
effective influence on the human mind?’
“‘The equipment one needs has existed for a long time al-
ready It is called the human soul. The attitude and purity of
the soul will accept or reject sounds from the Universe.’
30
Book 3: The Space of Love
“‘Okay, fine. Okay. Let’s assume. Let’s assume you’ve man-
aged to... to find and select from the billions of sounds the
best that the Universe has to offer, and then recombine them
in the right way But sound can only be reproduced with the
help of a device or a particular musical instrument. What’s
the point of a book, then? After all, it can’t make sounds.’
“‘You are right, a book does not make sounds. But it can
serve as a score, like a musical score. The reader will involun-
tarily utter within himself any sounds he reads. Thus the hid-
den combinations in the text will resonate in the reader’s soul
in their pristine form, with no distortion. They are bearers
of Truth and healing. And they will fill the soul with inspira-
tion. No artificial instrument is capable of reproducing what
resonates in the soul.’
“‘How did Vladimir manage to preserve all your combina-
tions if he himself knew nothing about them?’
‘“I took note of Vladimir’s speech patterns. Besides, 1 knew
in advance that Vladimir would not distort the essence of the
events or what he heard, that he would even present himself just
the way he was. But he did not convey all the combinations of
signs. He needed to carry on writing. After all, he set forth only
a fraction of what he knew and was trying to make sense of when
he started to write. He needed to continue with the writing.
“And he has already been touched by fame. An unprec-
edented fame at that. It would have taken only a little more
effort to organise the fellowship of entrepreneurs. But then
all of a sudden he took another step my dream did not an-
ticipate. He left his Moscow apartment — on which the rent
was already paid — to his Moscow entourage, he left to them
the privilege of receiving compliments from readers, while he
himself boarded a train and headed out of town.’
‘“Why did he do that?’
“‘Fie had been wanting all along to seek out confirmation
of some of the things I had said — scientific confirmation of
Chords of the Universe
3i
the existence of various phenomena I had talked about. To
investigate them. That is why he decided not to write any
more for the time being. And so he went off to the Caucasus.
He left Moscow to see the dolmens in the Caucasus with his
own eyes — the ancient structures where living people went
to die ten thousand years ago. I had told him about them.
I also told him about the important functional significance
these dolmens have for people living today.
“‘Vladimir came to the city known as Gelendzhik. In
the museum there, along with museums in Krasnodar and
Novorossiysk, he collected material on the dolmens . 1 Then
he met with various scientists, archaeologists and local eth-
nographers who were studying the dolmens. He ended up
with considerably more information on them than was avail-
able in any one museum.
‘“Naturally I tried to help him inconspicuously. I used the
mouths of people who came to see Vladimir to inculcate a
good deal of new information in him, so that he would have
the opportunity to make his conclusions. But he also did his
part by acting quickly and decisively This was after he had
compared all the information he had gathered with what I
had told him, after the archaeologists had shown him the dol-
men closest to the road and he discovered that there were
others, but that they had fallen into ruin for lack of proper at-
tention from the local residents. The local people had never
been much interested in them.
“‘Vladimir then did something that might seem incredible.
In three months he managed to change the attitude of the lo-
cal residents toward the dolmens. They began bringing flow-
ers. The women ethnographers of the Gelendzhik museum
Gelendzhik, Krasnodar, Novorossiysk, dolmens — See footnotes 1 and 2 in
Book 1, Chapter 30: Author’s message to readers”, as well as Book 2.
Chapter r: “Alien or Man?”.
32
Book 3: The Space of Love
set up a public association, which they called ‘Anastasia” in
my honour. This association opened a school for tour-guides
in order to get the right message out to tourists about the dol-
mens, so they would preserve and take care of the dolmens in-
stead of destroying them. In addition, they began organising
new tours, which they called “Excursions into reason ”. 2
‘“The tour-guides at Gelendzhik began telling everyone
about the significance of our pristine origins and about the
works of the Grand Creator — about Nature.’
“Anastasia, do you think this was all because of him? Didn’t
you play a part here?’
‘“If I could have done as much as this without him, I would
have done it long ago. I very much wanted to. It is in one of
the distant dolmens in these mountains that my foremother’s
flesh approached its death.’
‘“But how? How did one man, a nobody, manage to change
people’s attitudes in so short a time? And how could he have
set up such an active association? You say that the local resi-
dents had access to scientific materials and all sorts of publi-
cations, since people knew about them at the museums. But
they didn’t pay any attention.’
“‘That is correct: they knew about them but did not pay
attention.’
“‘But why did they then listen to him} How did he manage to
pull it off? You can’t change people’s consciousness that quickly’
“‘But Vladimir did not know that. He did not know that
consciousness cannot be changed quickly, and that is why he
acted and, in fact, changed it. Go visit that city, ask the dif-
ferent people who joined this association. Find out how and
why fortune smiled on Vladimir.
"According to the Association’s leader, Valentina Larionova, in the years since
the organisation was established in [996, over half a million visitors have visited
the dolmens through this Association alone; the total number is much higher.
Chords of the Universe
33
‘“I was thrilled by what was happening there. The
‘Anastasia Association”. He agreed to the name when they
asked him about it. I thought he did it for me, that he was
beginning to understand me and love me. And he really has
managed to grasp a great deal, but he has not fallen in love
with me. He has not done so because ot my many mistakes
and transgressions.
‘“I soon began to figure this out. I began to realise that my
dream was actually coming true. And that people would in-
deed be transported across the dark forces’ window of time.
And that people would be happy! What I dreamt about would
come true, except that my love for him was not to be requited.
And this was payment for the many mistakes I had made, my
lack of perfection and my own insufficient purity of thought.’
“‘What happened? What made you come to that conclu-
sion?’ Boris Moiseevich queried. ‘In any case, everybody’s
known for a long time how coarse and uncivilised this fellow
is. Believe me, Anastasia, as your senior and as the father of
a family, I can tell you that your parents would not have ap-
proved of such a union.’
‘“I beg you, do not talk that way about one who is so dear to
me. Regardless of how coarse Vladimir may appear to some
people, I know differently.’
“‘What else is there to know about him? Everybody knows
what kind of people entrepreneurs are , 3 and he’s just a typical
example of the species, that’s clear to all. Anastasia, I must
say you have a rather biassed opinion of Vladimir.’
“‘No matter, it is still my opinion. Besides, your assump-
tion regarding my parents’ views is wrong.’”
’Partly because of so many years of communist indoctrination, entrepreneurs
in 1990s Russia were stereotyped as having low moral and ethical standards,
interested primarily in their own enrichment at the expense of ordinary
citizens.
Chapter Five
“‘I realised it one morning...’ Anastasia said quietly, and her
gaze looked as though it were immersing itself in the past, ‘a
morning when Vladimir was not at home in the flat he had
rented temporarily. I could not find him with my ray. It was
the morning of the day when my foremother went into a dol-
men to die many centuries ago. I always think of her on that
anniversary I try to talk with her. And she talks with me.
You people are accustomed as well to going to the cemetery
on a day you remember your loved ones, to think about them,
even talk with them. I can do this without leaving my glade.
My ray helps me both see and talk at a distance, and they can
feel my ray.
‘“On that day I was thinking about my foremother, trying
to talk with her as usual, but I could not sense any reply from
her. None at all. She was not responding to me. This had
never happened before. Then I tried to locate her dolmen
with my ray. I found it. I shone my ray upon it with all my
might. My foremother did not respond. Something had hap-
pened I did not know about. My foremother’s spirit was not
in the dolmen.’
“Anastasia, please explain what you mean by someone’s
“spirit”. What does it consist of?’
“‘It consists of all the unseen elements in a Man, including
certain passions and sensations acquired during the period of
existence in the flesh.’
‘“Does the spirit possess an energy, analogous to any of the
energies we know of?’
The spirit of a foremother
35
“‘That is correct. It is an energy complex, consisting of a
multitude of different energies. After the end of a human in-
dividual’s fleshly existence, certain of these complexes break
up into separate energies, which are subsequently used in
plant and animal aggregates, as well as in essential natural
phenomena.’
‘“What land of power do they have? What is the energy
potential of unbroken complexes?’
“‘They vary from individual to individual. The weakest
ones cannot even overcome gravitational energy — they will
later fall apart, no matter what.’
“‘Gravitational, you say? The weakest ones? Is it possible
to see their presence in anything at all? To touch it? Feel it?’
“‘Of course. In a tornado, for example.’
“A tornado? You mean a tornado which rips trees up by the
roots and overturns things? Then what kind of energy do the
strongest ones have?’
“‘The strongest? Well, that would be Him. I cannot fully
fathom the strength of His energy.’
“‘Then, let’s say, somewhere in between, something average?’
“‘The energy complex of many average spirits already con-
tains a released mental energy’
“‘What would be the strength or energy potential of an av-
erage complex like this?’
“‘I already told you: it contains released mental energy’
“‘What does that mean? What can it be compared to?
How would you define it?’
“‘To what can it be compared? A definition? Tell me, what
is the most powerful energy that your mind, your thought or
consciousness can imagine?’
“‘The energy of a nuclear explosion. No, rather, the energy
of the reactions taking place at the Sun’s core.’
“‘Everything you have named is equivalent to but a tiny
fraction of released mental energy. As for definitions, those
3 6
Book 3: The Space of Love
are things you think up yourselves to use in verbal communi-
cation with each other. Not a single definition you have ever
thought of is applicable here. You can use the ones you are
familiar with if you multiply them to the power of infinity.’
‘“Tell me, what is the strength of your foremother’s energy?’
“‘It contains released mental energy.’
‘“How did you find out about your foremother? How and
where did she die? After all, that happened ten thousand
years ago!’
“‘That information — about my foremother who went
into the dolmen to die — was passed down from generation
to generation of her descendants.’
“‘Did your mother tell you about her?’
“‘I was only an infant when my mother perished. I was not
capable of taking in that kind of information. My grandfather
and great-grandfather told me all about my foremothers.’
“‘Can her spirit be seen with normal human vision?’
“‘Partially. If one changes one’s spectral perception, along
with one’s inner rhythm.’
“‘Is that possible?’
“‘The phenomenon you know as Daltonism 1 suggests that
it is possible. You believe it is something beyond the will of
Man, that it is merely a disease, but that is not so.’
“‘You said your ancestor, your foremother, was worthy
enough to have information about her transmitted from gen-
eration to generation over the millennia? What makes this
information so worthy, so valuable?’
1 Daltonism — a red-green type of colour-blindness (also known as deuter-
anopia or deuteranomaly ), named after English chemist and physicist John
Dalton (1766—1814), who was also a teacher of mathematics and natural phi-
losophy His theory of colour-blindness was published in a paper entitled
“Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours, with observation”
(Manchester, 1798).
The spirit of a foremother
37
“‘My foremother was the last from our pristine origins who
knew what a woman should think about during the breast-
feeding of an infant and had the ability to do so. Civilisation
was gradually losing sight of the knowledge people had ten
thousand years ago, and it has all but disappeared completely
today. My foremother was by no means an old woman, but
she went into the dolmen to die in order to preserve all this
knowledge of our pristine origins. And when people’s aware-
ness begins to be restored, people will become aware of the
need to transmit this knowledge to nursing mothers. And af-
ter that they will help each other learn everything. Through
her death in the dolmen my foremother learnt even greater
truths that women need to know.’
‘“Why did she decide to go into a dolmen? How does a dol-
men differ from the usual land of stone tomb? And why did
she not wait until she was old before going into the dolmen to
die? Was she motivated by an awareness of her goal, or simply
by superstition?’
‘“Back then they had already begun paying less attention to
the breast-feeding of infants and women were not offered the
opportunity of entering a dolmen, even if they wished to. The
ageing leader revered my foremother and comprehended that
if he did not accede to her request, the leader-to-be would not
listen to her at all, and her intentions he might well dismiss as
mere fancy.
“‘But the menfolk could not be compelled by their leader
to build my foremother a dolmen, and so he gave her his own.
The men did not approve of the leader’s decision and refused
to lift the stone slab covering the top so she could go in. So
the women got together as one and all night long tried to lift
the slab of heavy stone. The next morning at dawn the old
leader came. He did not do much walking any more, yet still
he came, leaning on a staff. The old leader smiled at the wom-
en, said some encouraging words, whereupon the heavy slab
38 Book 3: The Space of Love
yielded to the women’s upward thrust, and my foremother
went in.’
“And how does a dolmen differ from an ordinary stone
tomb?’
‘“There is not much difference outwardly. But the dolmen,
as you call this stone tomb, was a place where living people
went to die. The dolmen was not simply a religious structure,
as people tend to think today It is a monument to wisdom
and the great self-sacrifice of one’s spirit for the sake of fu-
ture generations. Even today it has a significant functional
purpose. And the death experienced in one of these dolmens
was not an ordinary one. Actually, the word death is not all
that appropriate here.’
‘“I can imagine,’ Boris Moiseevich said. A living person en-
tombed in a stone chamber... That is really extraordinary —
it must have been an extremely torturous death.’
‘“The people who went into the dolmens did not suffer.
The peculiarity of their death lay in the fact that they medi-
tated. They meditated on eternity, and in spirit they would
remain forever on the Earth, and even hold on to certain
earthly feelings. But the soul of those who went into a dol-
men to die was forever deprived of the possibility of material
re-embodiment on the Earth.’
“‘How did they meditate?’
‘“You are aware today — especially from the ancient
Oriental religions — of what meditation is. And there are
teachings today that can help one become acquainted with a
small fraction of the phenomena of meditation, but not, un-
fortunately, with its underlying purpose. And today there are
people who are capable of meditating — temporarily sepa-
rating part of their spirit from their body and then returning
it to the body Through the help of meditation in the dol-
men, even while the body was still alive, the spirit completely
separated itself and returned many times, while the flesh was
The spirit of a foremother
39
still living. After that the spirit remained forever in the dol-
men. All alone, it would eternally wait for visitors to impart
to them the wisdom of our pristine origins. Even if the flesh
succeeded in living a while longer, it was still cloistered. But
while it was alive, the spirit had the freedom to travel back
and forth between different dimensions, which afforded it
the opportunity of analysing at incredible speed (according
to your calculations) the truth that was available, as though
clarifying the truth for itself.
“‘One who died, or entered into eternal meditation through
the dolmen, knew that his soul or spirit would never again be
able to take on a material form. It would never again be able
to embody itself in earthly flesh, or matter. It would never
be able to go far from the dolmen or leave it for any length
of time, but it would have the ability to communicate with
a particle of the soul of a person living in the flesh who had
come to visit the dolmen. And if you talk about a torturous
death, about suffering in general, in this case the torture lies
in the fact that for millennia now nobody has come to acquire
this knowledge. The great tragedy of the dolmens is the utter
lack of demand. That same demand for which. — ’
“Anastasia,’ Boris Moiseevich interrupted, ‘how important
do you feel it is for nursing mothers to have this knowledge
and ability?’
‘“Extremely important,’ she replied.
‘“But why? After, all, mother’s milk feeds only the flesh of
an infant.’
“‘Not only the flesh. It is capable of transmitting a huge
quantity of information, as well as a keen sensitivity You
must be aware, after all, that every substance includes its own
kind of information, its own radiance and vibration.’
‘“'Yes, I know. But how can mother’s milk transmit sensitivity?’
“‘It can — it is extremely sensitive. It is inextricably linked
to the reelings of the mother. The taste of the milk can change
40
Book 3: The Space of Love
according to her feelings. And stress can even cause the milk
to congeal or stop coming altogether.’
‘“Yes, that can indeed happen. It can. And you say nobody
comes to visit your foremother? That means nobody’s come
over many thousands of years?’
“At first people came. Mainly the generations of relatives
and people living there. After that a series of cataclysms began
happening on the Earth. People began migrating. The dolmen
remained where it was. But over the past millennia nobody has
come to visit my foremother to find out... Now the dolmens
are all being laid waste. Because people do not know:
“‘In the taiga, when I first told Vladimir about the dolmens
and my foremother, he said that perhaps he would go visit her
dolmen. Then I explained how it was impossible for him to
comprehend or feel my foremother’s spirit and accept the in-
formation she had to give. Men simply do not know the feel-
ings and sensations inherent in a nursing mother. All these
millennia my foremother has been waiting for women, not
men, to come see her. But no women have come to her dol-
men. And I am the only one to communicate with her, once
a year. And on that particular day I wanted to be in contact
with her, and tell her something good. But I could not. My
foremother’s spirit was not anywhere close to the dolmen. I
had no idea why, and began quickly searching with my ray all
around, in a constantly widening radius. And then all at once:
I found her! I found her! In a ravine among the rocks.
“‘Vladimir was lying on the rocks unconscious. And my
foremother, her spirit, was bending over Vladimir, taking
form as a conglomeration of invisible energies. I realised then
what had happened. I had known even earlier that Vladimir
was looking for guides to take him to the dolmens located far
away from the main road. But he could not find any No one
would volunteer to accompany him. And so Vladimir decided
to go into the mountains alone. At one point he fell off the
The spirit of 'a foremother
41
path into a ravine. He was wearing ordinary shoes — not suit-
able for mountain hiking. In fact, he did not have any moun-
tain gear at all.
‘“He wanted to be convinced that the dolmens really exist-
ed, he wanted to touch them. And so he went into the moun-
tains alone. On my foremother’s memorial day he went to
the dolmens located far away from the road. My foremother
did not know why this poorly equipped person had come into
the mountains. And she kept her eye on him. And when he
slipped and started falling, she suddenly... Like a supple mass
of air her spirit swept down to his side.
“‘My foremother saved Vladimir’s life. While he did not
actually strike his head on a rock, the many bruises he re-
ceived in the fall caused him to lose consciousness. My
foremother used her supple air mass to hold up his head, as
though supporting it with her hands, and waited for him to
regain consciousness. That was why she did not speak with
me. Even when Vladimir’s consciousness returned, she still
did not go back to her dolmen. She remained in the ravine
down below. She stayed to watch as Vladimir climbed back
up to the path.
“‘Later I realised that my foremother was actually on the
path, since stones began rolling out of the way. That was her
doing. She had taken on the form of a supple breeze, sweep-
ing the stones away from the mountain path. She wanted to
help Vladimir in his descent. I very much wanted to do the
same. And so I began to ever so quickly move along the path
with my ray, so that it wouldn’t be so wet and slippery and
Vladimir could get safely back to the place he was staying and
treat his wounds.
“‘Once Vladimir had climbed back up from the ravine, he
sat down on the path and examined the sketch one of the
archaeologists at the Novorossiysk Museum had drawn for
him. Then he got up and started walking, with a limp. But
42
Book 3: The Space of Love
not downward, along the dry path that had now been cleared
of stones, but the opposite way: upward. I was shocked at
this unexpected turn of events, and I believe my foremother
did not immediately grasp his intentions either. At this point
he left the path altogether and clambered through a thicket
of thorny bushes.
‘“I realised he was trying to reach my foremother’s dol-
men. He succeeded. He sat down on the portico in front of
the dolmen, at the edge of one of the stone slabs, and began
unbuttoning his jacket. His arm hurt and it took him a long
time. When his jacket was completely unbuttoned I could
see he had a bouquet of flowers underneath. Three little
roses. The stems of two of them were broken. The flowers
had been damaged when he fell into the ravine and struck the
rocks. Some of the thorns on the stems were blood-covered.
He placed the damaged roses on the dolmen’s portico and lit
a cigarette. And then he said:
‘““Too bad the flowers got smashed. These flowers are for
you, my beauty You must have been a real beauty, just like
Anastasia. You were smart, and kind. You wanted to tell our
women all about breast-feeding children. Only they have no
idea you exist. And the fact that your dolmen is so far off the
beaten path makes it difficult for women to get here.”
‘“Then Vladimir took out a shallow little flask of brandy and
two little metal goblets, and pulled out a fistful of squashed
candies from his pocket. He poured brandy into the goblets.
He drank one of them, placed the other on the dolmen’s por-
tico, covering it with a piece of candy, and said: “This is for
you, my beauty!”
“‘Vladimir did everything people do today at cemeteries
when they come to see their loved ones or dear friends. As
for my foremother... Her spirit kept sweeping around him
in the form of an invisible energy mass. She was distraught,
and did not know what to do. She tried to show some kind
The spirit of a foremother
43
of response to Vladimir’s words, tried congealing the air into
the shape of her body, but her outlines were transparent and
barely noticeable. Vladimir did not notice them. He could
not see or hear anything. She kept on trying her best to ex-
plain everything to him, but could only sweep back and forth
in frustration.
“At one point her air mass lightly touched the goblet sit-
ting on the portico and overturned it. Vladimir thought a
random gust of wind had done this, and joked:
“‘“Hey, what’re you up to, my wayward friend — spilling
expensive brandy like that?”
“And my foremother’s spirit fell still in a corner of the
dolmen. Vladimir poured some more brandy, placed a little
stone on top, and then put another piece of candy on top of
that. And again he started talking, as though to himself:
“‘“We need to get a decent pathway in here. Just wait a bit.
There will be a proper path to your dolmen. And that way
women will come to see you. You will tell them everything
they need to think about in breast-feeding an infant. Indeed,
you must have had very beautiful breasts.”
‘“Then Vladimir started his descent. It was late at night
when he get back to the place he was staying. He sat for a
while alone on the sofa in his cold apartment, binding his
wounds and watching a videocassette. Someone had given
him a tape to watch which had been copied and passed around
by people in various places.
‘“On the tape there was a speaker in front of a large audience
made up mainly ofwomen. He was talking about God and how
strong the spirit of a righteous Man could be. Then he start-
ed talking about me. He said I was an ideal woman — a role
model to which people should aspire. He said that I had great
strength of mind and spirit and that I was aided by the forces
of Light, and that now, once I became familiar with the lives of
people in the usual world, I would be able to help them.
44
Book 3: The Space of Love
“‘He said a lot of nice things about me. And then, all at
once... He said that I had not yet met a real man. And that
the one I had been in contact with was not a real man. Indeed,
others had been saying earlier that there was a young man in
Australia who was worthy of me, that he and I would meet,
and then I would meet a real man.
“And Vladimir, he... You see — he was sitting all alone
there, listening to this. All this time he was trying with one
hand to bind the wounds on his legs. His other hand still
hurt too much from the bruises. I reached out to Vladimir
at once with my ray I wanted to warm his wounds, and
chase his pain away. And to tell him... Somehow tell him...
Even though he never hears me when I speak to him at a
distance, I thought, well, this time it might work out... Yes,
I thought it might work out this time since my longing for
him to hear me was so strong. I wanted him to hear how I
loved him! Only him. And only he — my dearest — only he
is a real man.
‘“But I got burnt and thrown back on the ground.
Something was preventing my ray from getting through to
Vladimir. Once again I quickly aimed my ray at the room
where he was sitting watching the video, and you know what
I saw? There in front of him was this invisible energy mass —
my foremother was kneeling right in front of him. Vladimir
could not see or hear her. He just kept watching the tape. In
the meantime my foremother was warming the wounds on
Vladimir’s legs with her breath, as he was pouring this terri-
bly painful cologne on his wounds. And my foremother tried
speaking to him, but he was unable to hear.
‘“My foremother is so strong in spirit that nothing invisible
could penetrate her. Any psychotropic weapons trained on
her will explode. She will hardly pay them any attention. In
any case any attack will be repelled. And there was no way I
could interfere. I could only watch...
The spirit of a foremother
45
“‘I watched and began thinking ever so quickly What had
happened? How did a situation like this come about? Why
was the speaker saying such things? Did he want to help me?
Was he trying to explain something? If so, what? Why was my
ray so drawn to Vladimir? Naturally I was afraid that Vladimir
might take offence at the words “not a real man” and that he
would be jealous of another over me. And then suddenly... O,
how painful it was! It really hurt. After Vladimir had heard
the whole tape, he simply sighed and said: “Whaddya know,
a real man! In Australia, I heard, eh? They are going to meet.
Maybe then they will give me my son.”
‘“My ray began trembling. It was as though everything had
somehowgone dark, kbu see? Vladimir was not jealous. Naturally
that is not a good feeling — jealousy But I wanted to see him jeal-
ous, at least a little. Just a teeny-weeny bit. But here was Vladimir
handing me over to another with complete indifference.
“‘I could not restrain myself and started to cry I began
asking, pleading with my foremother to tell me what I had
done wrong. What mistake had I made? Where had I trans-
gressed? She did not reply until Vladimir had finished bind-
ing the last wound. Then she told me sadly:
““AH you had to do was love, daughter dear. To think about
what was good for your beloved without elevating yourself in
the process.”
‘“I tried to explain that I did really want only what was
good. But once again she quietly said:
‘““4bu wanted something for yourself daughter dear — pic-
tures, music, poems and songs! It will all come to pass — your
dream is powerful. I know It is for everyone and for the one you
love, too, but now it will be more and more difficult for you to ob-
tain earthly love, 'ibu are becoming a star, daughter dear. People
may admire and love a star as a star, but not as a woman.”
‘“That was the last thing my foremother said. I lost my
sense of self-control, I screamed and tried to explain, to argue
4 6
Book y The Space of Love
that I did not want to be a star, that I simply wanted to be a
woman and to be loved! But nobody could hear me.
‘“Please help me! There is a lot I now understand. I am not
afraid for myself — I can take care of myself. But it will take
Vladimir much longer to understand... And in the meantime
listening to that kind of talk is leading him away from Truth.
‘“The distribution of that cassette must be stopped. It sug-
gests to people, including Vladimir, that I am some sort of
ideal role model, a star, and that someone else instead of him
ought to be with me.
“‘I am not a star. I am a woman. I want to love whom I
myself want to love.
“‘My path is not determined by me alone.
“‘I was mistaken. I dreamt things would work out so that
people would talk about me, dedicate verses and songs to me,
that artists would draw me... And that has all come about.
“‘Whenever I dream, my dreams all come true. And this
one has, too. I am grateful for the verses and songs. I am
grateful to the poets. But I was mistaken all along. That was
how I dreamt it. The poems are needed! But I was not sup-
posed to become a star.
“‘I wanted all that so Vladimir would look at the images,
listen to the songs, and remember. So he would remember
me. But I did not know this when I was dreaming it. Now I
realise — I am becoming a star. Everyone looks up to stars.
But it is a woman they love.’
“Anastasia, do you realise what you’re asking for? There’s
no way to stop a cassette from being distributed, especially
when it’s one people copy themselves. That’s not something
you can control. Nobody can.’
“‘You see? Ton cannot. But Vladimir... He is an entrepre-
neur. And even if it is said to be uncontrollable, he could still do
something. But he does not want to do anything. He is resigned
to the assumption that I am not a suitable mate for him.’”
Chapter Six
“Boris Moiseevich,” Alexander continued, “forgot about eve-
rything else and went on plying Anastasia with questions,
such as:
“‘What are the forces of Light?’
“‘These,’ Anastasia replied, ‘are all the bright thoughts ever
produced by people. All space is filled with them.’
“‘Can you freely communicate with them? Can you see
them?’
“‘Yes, I can.’
“‘Can you answer any question confronting science today?’
“‘Many of them, perhaps. But every scientist — indeed,
every Alan — can find the answers. Everything depends upon
the purity of one’s thoughts, and the motive for asking.’
“‘Could you explain certain phenomena for science?’
“‘If the answer does not come to you, it means your thoughts
are not sufficiently pure. Such is the law of the Creator. I will
not go against it, if I feel it is not right to tell you.’
“‘Is there something higher than the bright thoughts pro-
duced by Alan?’
“‘There is. But they are just as significant.’
“What is it? How could you define it?’
“‘In a way you are capable of relating to.’
“Are you able to talk with Him?’
“‘Yes. At least sometimes. As far as I know, I talk directly
with Him.’
“‘Is there some kind of energy that exists in the Universe
that we don’t know about on the Earth?’
4 8
Book 3: The Space of Love
‘“The greatest energy in the Universe is on the Earth. We
need only to understand it.’
“‘Can you, Anastasia, give me at least an approximate de-
scription of this energy? Is it like a nuclear reaction? A vacu-
um phenomenon?’
“‘The most powerful energy in the Universe is the energy
of Pure Love.’
“‘I’m talking about visible, tangible energy, capable of influ-
encing technical progress, of producing heat and light. And,
if you like, an explosion.’
“And I am talking about the same thing. All your humanly
established installations, taken together, are not able to sup-
ply light to the Earth for any length of time. But the energy
of Love can.'
“‘There you go talking allegorically again. In some other,
metaphorical sense.’
“‘I am talking in a literal sense, as you understand it.’
“‘But love is a feeling! It’s not something visible — it can’t
be applied, or even seen.’
“‘Love is energy It is reflected. It is possible to see it.’
“‘Where is it reflected? How is it possible to see it?’
“‘The Sun, the stars, the visible planets — ■ they are all but
reflectors of this energy. The light of the Sun, which gives
life to everything on the Earth, is created by human love. In
the whole Universe the energy of Love is reproduced only
in the soul of Man. It takes upward flight, becomes filtered
and reflected, and pours itself forth from the planets of the
Universe as beneficial light upon the Earth.’
“‘Do not combustive, chemical reactions take place on the
Sun all on their own?’
“‘You only have to do a little reasoning to realise the falsity
of such a conclusion. It is like, as you put it, “two-plus-two”.’
“‘Can Man control this energy?’
“‘Not to any significant degree, at least for the time being.’
Forces of Light
49
“‘But do you know how to do it?’
‘“Myself, I do not know. If I knew, my beloved would al-
ready love me.’
“‘You say you can communicate with Him — - a Being high-
er than the forces of Light? Does He always answer you? I
mean, willingly?’
“‘Always. And He always answers very gently Because He
could not do otherwise.’
“‘Could you ask Him how to control the energy of Love?’
“‘I did ask.’
“And?’
“‘To comprehend certain answers of His, one needs to have
a certain level of conscious awareness and purity, which I my-
self do not have. I do not understand all Llis answers.’
“‘But you will still attempt to do something to obtain this
requited love?’
“‘Of course I shall do something.’
“‘What will you do?’
“‘I shall think. Help me. I need to ask all the women out
there who have ever loved, all who have or have not been
loved. They will think, analyse and produce thoughts which
will appear in the dimension of the forces of Light. I shall
see them. I shall understand and then I shall help everyone.
Thoughts in the dimension of Light are always comprehen-
sible.’
“Anastasia, we can’t put a question to all the women of the
world at once. Nobody can do that.’
“‘Then ask Vladimir. He will figure out how to do it, he
will find a way But he will not do it just for me. You will have
to persuade him that this is very important for all people, for
him. If he feels how important it is, he will definitely do some-
thing. He will find a way of asking all the women at once.’
“‘You believe so strongly in him. Why then has he not been
able to love you in return?’
jo
Book 3: The Space of Love
“‘He is not to blame. I am to blame. I made many mistakes.
Possibly I was in a hurry and made myself appear too fantastic
to him with my abilities. Possibly he is not yet able to appre-
ciate why his son has to be raised in surroundings that seem
unusual for human beings — that is, in the forest. Possibly
I should not have interfered so drastically with his custom-
ary habits, not have intruded on his conscious awareness. I
know now that men really do not like that. They can even
beat women for that. I should probably have waited and he
would have come to understand it all on his own. He should
have felt that he is superior to me at least in something.
‘“But I did not realise this in time. I told him that he could
not see his son until he purified himself. At that moment I
was thinking only of our son, about what was best for him,
and I inadvertently said it would not be good for him to see
his father as a dimwit. So it turned out that I was the alto-
gether clever one, and my beloved was stupid. What kind of
requited love could I dream about after that?’
“‘Why then do you need to ask other women, if you are so
capable of analysing things yourself?’
“‘I need to determine whether there really is a possibility of
setting everything right. I cannot determine this by myself, I am
so emotionally wrought whenever I think about him. The analy-
sis needs to be carried out calmly, through reminiscence and com-
parison. But I have nothing to reminisce about except him.’
“And can you talk with him?’
“‘I feel mere words are useless. Real love does not come
out of words. Some kind of actions are required. But which
ones? Perhaps one of the women will have the experience and
the needed answer?’
“And you are unable to reach him with your ray?’
“‘I cannot even touch him now with my ray My foremoth-
er’s spirit is often right beside him. And she will not permit
it. I know why.”’
Chapter Seven
“The helicopter was coming in for a landing,” Alexander went
on. “We all watched it land without saying a word. The two
crewmen got out, came over to where we were standing and
fixed their eyes too on Anastasia. A group of armed, robust
fellows silently stood watching this lone figure in an old car-
digan standing before them, and immediately it was clear to
all: they must capture this woman. The only question was:
what was the most accommodating way to make the capture?
After a long pause Boris Moiseevich laid it down in black and
white:
“Anastasia, you realise you represent a valuable resource
for science. The decision has already been made to transfer
you to the nature preserve near Moscow This is necessary for
your own good, among other things. If for some reason you
don’t understand the situation and refuse to come voluntarily,
we shall be obliged to effect the transfer by force.
‘“Naturally you will want to have your child with you in
your new place. You show us the location of your glade on the
map and the helicopter will go fetch your son. Later we can
capture a few of the animals and transport them to your new
dwelling-place. I repeat: all this is necessary for your own
benefit, for the benefit of your son and other people as well.
You do want to bring benefit to people, don’t you?’
“‘Yes,’ Anastasia replied calmly, and right away added:
‘Everything I know I am ready to share with all people, if
they find it interesting, but only with all people. Science
is not something that is available to everybody at once. Its
52
Book 3: The Space of Love
achievements are used first only by localised groups, often for
their selfish, personal interests. The vast majority get to know
about only what the localised groups are disposed to reveal.
‘“Who do you represent? Is it not a particular localised
group? I cannot go with you. I need to raise a Man, I need to
raise my son. That can only be done properly where a Space
of Love has been created. This Space has been created and
perfected by my forebears, near and distant. It is still small,
but it is what ties me to the whole substance of the Universe.
Every Man must create around himself his own Space of Love,
and offer it to his child. Bearing children without preparing
a Space of Love for them is criminal. Every Man must create
around himself a small Space of Love. And if everyone under-
stood this and acted upon it, then the whole Earth would be-
come the brightest focus of Love in the Universe. This is the
way He wanted it, and this is Man’s purpose. For only Man is
capable of creating such a Space.’
“Two strong security men approached Anastasia from be-
hind, one on either side. It wasn’t clear whether they were
acting on orders from the security captain or whether it had
all been planned out in advance. They exchanged glances and
simultaneously grabbed Anastasia’s arms. They did this quite
professionally, though not without a certain degree of appre-
hension. They kept a tight grip on her arms, as though hold-
ing a captured bird by its outspread wings.
“The security captain was a stocky fellow, his hair cut
real short. He stepped out in front and stood beside Boris
Moiseevich. Anastasia’s face showed no sign of fear. But she
was no longer looking at us. Pier head was slightly inclined
toward the ground, her eyelids were lowered, hiding her gaze.
And she began to speak without raising her eyes, with the
same calm and gentleness in her voice as before.
‘“Please do not use force. It is dangerous.’
“‘For whom?’ the security captain enquired in a raspy voice.
Assault!
53
‘“For you. And it would be unpleasant for me.’
“Boris Moiseevich tried to restrain what may have been ei-
ther his fear or his excitement. Fie asked Anastasia:
“‘Can you cause us physical pain using supernatural abilities?’
‘“I am Man. A Man, like anybody else. But I am worried.
Worry may allow undesirable things to happen.’
“‘Such as?’
“‘Matter... cells... atoms... nuclei... nuclear particles in
chaotic movement... You know about them. If one visual-
ises them vividly and in full detail, perceives and understands
them properly, and then uses the full powers of one’s imagi-
nation to extract from the nucleus even a single chaotically
moving particle, then the matter begins... begins to...’
‘Anastasia turned her head to one side, lifted her eyelids
just slightly and fixed her gaze on a stone lying on the ground.
The stone immediately began to break apart into small parti-
cles and before long was transformed into a pile of sand. Then
she raised her gaze to the security captain, squinting her eyes
into a concentrated stare. Steam began to escape from the tip
of the security captain’s left ear. The tendon slowly, millime-
tre by millimetre, began to disappear, and suddenly the young
guard standing beside him went white with fear and drew his
pistol from its holster. He did it automatically, like a profes-
sional soldier, without thinking. He aimed the pistol directly
at Anastasia and discharged the whole cartridge.
“No doubt the thoughts of each one of us at that moment
were racing at top speed, and something happened which
you occasionally hear about with soldiers in wartime, when
in extreme conditions they see a grenade or a bullet in mo-
tion. And even though the grenade or bullet is flying at its
usual speed, the acceleration of one’s thinking and perceptive
faculties causes it to be seen as in slow motion.
“I watched as the bullets from the frightened security
guard’s gun flew at Anastasia one after another. The first
54
Book 3: The Space of Love
bullet grazed her temple. The rest of the bullets never reached
her — they dissolved into dust while still in flight, just like the
stone which she had trained her gaze upon earlier.
“We all stood there stupefied. We stood and watched as a
stream of blood flowed down Anastasia’s cheek from under
her kerchief.
“The guards holding Anastasia by the arms stepped back
from her when they heard the gunshots, but didn’t let go of
her. They had got her in a death-grip, and were pulling her in
opposite directions.
‘All at once a pale-bluish glow flooded the ground around
us. It came from somewhere up above and quickly intensi-
fied. It dazzled us, making us incapable of moving or speak-
ing. In the unusual quiet that followed we heard Anastasia
say:
“‘Please, let go my arms. I may not be able to... Let go,
please.’
“But the petrified guards did not let go their death-grip.
Now I realise why she raised her arm in a characteristic ges-
ture when she was talking with you. It was this gesture that
indicated to someone up above that everything was in order
and that she did not need help. But this time they wouldn’t
let her raise her arm.
“The bluish glow continued to intensify, then something
seemed to sparkle, and we saw — we saw a fiery sphere hang-
ing over us, pulsating with a pale-blue light. It was like a huge
ball lightning. And inside it were spariding networks of hun-
dreds of lightning discharges. Occasionally they would spark
out beyond the blue membrane-like hull and reach the tops
of the nearby trees, or even the flowers beneath our feet, but
caused them no harm. One of the thin lightning bolts mo-
mentarily made contact with an obstruction which rocks and
a fallen tree had made in the creek; it transformed the ob-
struction into a cloud of dust which instantly vaporised.
Assault !
55
“The bolts that sparked out beyond the blue hull of the
fiery sphere no doubt possessed tremendous power of an en-
ergy we know nothing about. It seemed as though it was be-
ing controlled by some kind of intelligence.
“We had the impression of being in the presence of an in-
telligent being which possessed unimaginable power. But the
most incredible and unnatural thing about what was taking
place were the sensations we felt from its presence. We had
no sense of fear or suspicion — on the contrary...
“You can just imagine — right there in a situation like that
we began to feel a sense of calm and grace, as though some-
thing very close to us, something related to us, had suddenly
appeared.
“At that point the pulsating blue sphere soared over our
heads and seemed to be studying us, sizing up the situation.
All at once it made a circle in the air and landed at Anastasia’s
feet. The bluish glow intensified and, like a pleasing languor,
relaxed us to the point where we simply didn’t feel like mov-
ing, or even hearing or saying anything.
“The blue hull of the sphere then emitted several fiery
bolts at once. They swept over to Anastasia, began touching
her, as though stroking the toes of her bare feet.
‘Anastasia managed to free her arms from the languish-
ing security guards. She stretched out her arms toward the
sphere. Immediately it rose to the level of her face, and the
lightning bolts, which we had seen with our eyes turn to dust
the stones piled up in the creek, began to fondle her arms,
while doing them no harm.
‘Anastasia began talking with the sphere. We couldn’t
distinguish any words but, judging by her gestures and fa-
cial expression, she was trying to explain something to it, to
prove or persuade it of the way she was seeing something, but
without success. The sphere gave no response to her, but it
was nevertheless clear that it was not agreeing with her. This
56
Book 3: The Space of Love
much was evident, since Anastasia went on trying to persuade
it with considerable excitement. It was the excitement that
no doubt caused her cheeks to flush. Still talking away, she
removed her kerchief. Golden wheat-coloured braids of hair
hung about Anastasia’s shoulders and covered the stream of
dried blood on her face. We saw how perfectly beautiful her
facial features were.
“The fiery sphere made several revolutions, like a comet,
around Anastasia’s head, then stopped once more in front of
her face, and a thousand delicate lightning bolts swept through
her golden hair, neatly touching each individual strand, lifting
and stroking them. One of the bolts lifted a whole bunch of
strands at once and opened the bullet wound in her temple,
while another bolt began gliding along the traces of the dried
blood. It was as though the sphere was using the actions of its
lightning bolts in place of words to remind Anastasia about
what had happened and to contradict her arguments.
“Finally all the little bolts drew back inside the sphere.
Anastasia lowered her head and fell silent. The sphere made
one more revolution around her and then rose into the air.
The bluish glow decreased in intensity, and we felt things
gradually return toward the way they were before, but instead
of the bluish light a brown smoke now began rising from the
earth. This smoke filled the whole space around us, and only
Anastasia remained in a little circle of blue. And when this
brownish smoke completely enveloped us, that was when we
began to discover what hell really is.”
Chapter Eight
©
“Old Bible pictures showing the beastly torture of sinners over
hot coals, and even the most extreme portrayals of horror-film
monsters, pale like children’s innocent fairy-tales in com-
parison to the hell we went through there on the riverbank!”
Alexander exclaimed. “Since the beginning of time mankind
has never managed to dream up anything that can compare
with it. All the Bible images and horror films stop at depicting
all the different ways fleshly bodies can be torn apart and dis-
membered, which is nothing by comparison with real hell.”
“But what could be more frightful than the acute torturing
of the flesh?” I queried. “What kind of hell did you see?”
“Once the blue glow had weakened sufficiently to allow the
brownish smoke to rise from the earth and it had enveloped
us completely from head to toe, we found ourselves split into
two halves.”
“What two halves?”
“Just imagine — I suddenly found myself comprised of
two component parts. The first was my body, enveloped in
a transparent skin through which I could see all my internal
organs — my heart, stomach, intestines, the blood rushing
through my veins, along with various other organs. The other
part — invisible — consisted of my feelings, my emotions, my
mind, my desires, my pain sensibility — in other words, eve-
rything about Man that you can’t see.”
“What’s the difference whether the parts are together or
separated, as long as it’s still you? What happened to you that
was so awful, aside from seeing your skin transparent?”
Book 3: The Space of Love
“The difference turned out to be incredibly significant.
The thing is, our bodies began to act on their own, independ-
ently of our minds, wills, aspirations or desires. We could ob-
serve the actions of our bodies from an external viewpoint,
yet our feelings and pain sensibilities remained with our in-
visible selves, and we were deprived of any ability to influence
the actions of our own bodies.”
“Like someone who’s terribly drunk?”
“Drunks don’t see themselves externally, at least not while
they’re drunk, whereas we saw and felt everything. Our clar-
ity of consciousness was extraordinarily acute. I could see
how beautiful the grass, the flowers and the river looked. I
could hear the birds singing and the creek burbling away, I
could feel the cleanness of the air around me, along with the
warmth of the sunbeams. But those bodies... All the trans-
parent bodies standing in our group suddenly trotted down,
like a herd of sheep, to a pond formed by the creek.
“The pond resembled a little lake, the water in it was
clear and transparent, the bottom was covered with soft
sand and beautiful stones. Tiny fish were swimming in it.
Our bodies ran down to this splendid little lake and started
splashing around in it. They started urinating and defecat-
ing in it.
“The water became dirty and clouded, yet our bodies began
drinking from it. I saw the dirty stinking liquid flow through
my intestines and into my stomach. I was overcome with a
sensation of nausea and revulsion.
“Then under one of the trees by the pond all at once ap-
peared the naked bodies of two women. Their skin was just
as transparent as that of our bodies.
“The women’s bodies lay down on the grass under the tree,
lolling about and stretching out in the warm sunshine. My
body and that of the security captain ran over to the women’s
bodies.
What hell is
59
“My body began stroking one of the women’s bodies, it felt
a responding caress and entered into sexual intercourse with
the woman’s body. The security captain’s approach was not
reciprocated and his body started raping the woman. Then
one of the guards came running over and started hitting first
my spine and then my head with a rock, but it was I, and not
my body, that felt excruciating pain. The guard dragged my
body away from the woman’s and started raping her himself.
“Our bodies soon began to grow old and decrepit. It was
as though time was accelerating everything. The woman
that had just been raped now became pregnant, and through
her transparent skin you could see the embryo taking form
and enlarging itself in the womb.
“The body of the scientist, Boris Moiseevich, went over to
the pregnant woman, and spent some time peering attentive-
ly through her transparent skin at the developing embryo.
Then all of a sudden he slipped his hand into the woman’s
vagina, and began wrenching out the foetus.
“In the meantime, Stanislav’s body was quickly collecting
rocks into a pile, then wildly breaking off small trees and us-
ing them, along with any other materials he found handy, to
construct something resembling a cabin. My body went over
to help. When the cabin was just about finished, my body
tried to kick Stanislav’s body out of the cabin; he resisted and
our bodies started fighting with each other.
“Even though I myself was invisible, I could still feel terri-
ble pain when he started hitting the legs and head of my body
Our fight caught the attention of the other bodies, and they
shoved us both out of the cabin, and then started fighting for
it amongst themselves. My body became terribly frail and
began decomposing before my very eyes. It could no longer
walk, and just lay there under a bush, wasting away with a nau-
seating stench. Worms appeared on my body, and I could feel
them crawling all over me, creeping into my internal organs
6 o
Book y . The Space of Love
and eating away at them. I acutely felt them gnawing away at
my insides, and awaited the final decomposition of my body
to escape from this excruciating torture.
“Then all at once a foetus emerged from the second woman
that had been raped. It began to grow right before my eyes.
Soon the little fellow stood up and took its first timid step,
then another, then it staggered and fell on its bottom. I could
feel a painful sensation as it landed, and I realised to my horror
that this was my new body and it was doomed to survive — to
exist among these abominable, brainless bodies, which were
desecrating themselves and everything around.
“I realised that I, who was invisible, would never die and
that I was condemned to eternal contemplation and an acute
awareness of the nastiness of everything that was going on,
experiencing physical and even more terrible pain.
“The same thing was happening with the other bodies.
They decayed, decomposed and were born again, and with
each new birth our bodies simply switched roles.
“There was hardly any vegetation left around. In its place
ugly structures had appeared, and the once pristine pond had
been transformed into a stinking cesspool.”
Alexander fell silent. I too felt a sense of revulsion from
what he had said, but not pity.
“Indeed,” I said, “you all went through a horrible experience,
but you vermin had it coming to you. How come you had to latch
on to Anastasia? She lives all alone in the taiga, she doesn’t touch
anybody doesn’t ask for housing, she doesn’t require a pension
or any kind of amenities, so why go interfering with her?”
Alexander didn’t give any sign of offence to my verbal at-
tack on him. He simply sighed and responded:
“You know, you said we ‘ went through an experience’. But,
you see... It may seem hard to believe, but the thing is, I’m
not completely out of it. I think those who were in our group,
too, haven’t fully come out of it.”
What hell is
61
“What do you mean, ‘haven’t fully? Here you are, sitting
calmly beside me, poking the ashes in the fire...”
“Yeah, sure I’m sitting here poking the ashes, but that acute
awareness of something terrible has stayed with me. It still
frightens me. This terrible thing is not just in the past — it is
still going with us today, right now. With all of us.”
“Maybe something’s happening with you, but everything’s
okay with me and everyone else.”
“But doesn’t it seem to you, Vladimir, that the situation
we were in is an exact copy of what mankind is doing today?
What we were shown in a microcosm and at an accelerated
speed only reflects what’s going on today in the world.”
“It doesn’t seem that way to me, since our skin is not trans-
parent and our bodies obey our commands.”
“Maybe someone’s just taking pity on us, not letting us be-
come fully aware of what we have done and are continuing to
do. After all, if we were aware of it, if we could see our lives
from an external viewpoint, we’d see them exposed, along
with all the false teachings which we’ve used through the ages
to justify what we are doing. We wouldn’t last, we’d go out of
our minds!
“We try to put on a decent front, we try co justify the evil
we do by our own so-called ‘insurmountable weaknesses’. We
couldn’t resist temptation: we started smoking and drinking,
committed murder, then we started going to war to defend
some sort of ideals. We started setting off bombs.
“We are weak. That’s the way we see ourselves today We
say there are higher powers — they can do everything, they
decide everything. But as for us? We hide behind dogmas like
that and feel we can get away with any kind of filth we like.
‘And let’s face it, what we do is filth. We all do it, every one
ofus, only we justify it to ourselves in different ways. But now
it is absolutely clear that, as long as my consciousness has not
lost its control over my body, I and I alone must take personal
62
Book 3: The Space of Love
responsibility for all its actions. And Anastasia is right when
she says As long as Man is in the flesh...’”
“Don’t go citing Anastasia, smartass! ’She is right!’ But you
yourself practically had her in the grave. Too bad she didn’t
go just a little further and then you would all have lost your
marbles completely!”
I was really growing more and more angry at the whole
bunch of them, but since Alexander was the only one in front
of me, he had to bear the brunt of my anger.
“Just look at your own self,” Alexander replied. “Wasn’t it
thanks to you that we were able to get through to Anastasia?
And not just us — you think attempts like ours won’t be re-
peated?
“Whatever possessed you to specify the exact name of
your ship, even the name of your captain? Don’t play the
documentarian. You could even have changed the name of
the river, but you didn’t do it — you didn’t think of it in time.
And here you expect others to always know the right thing to
do. I got what was coming to me. Now my whole life I will
have to keep making sense of that nightmare I witnessed.”
“Tell me, how did it end, that nightmare of yours? How did
you get out of it?”
“We would never have been able to come out of it all on our
own. It was something we were to go on reliving forever. At
least that was the impression each of us had.
“Anastasia appeared amidst our decomposing and still ac-
tive bodies. Her skin wasn’t transparent. She was still wear-
ing her old cardigan and long skirt. She tried speaking to our
bodies, but they wouldn’t listen. They seemed to be prepro-
grammed to die and be born again, repeating their actions
over and over with only a change of roles.
‘At that point Anastasia started quickly picking ttp the
garbage near one of the structures our bodies had built.
She quickly gathered the scattered stones and brush into a
What hell is
63
pile with her hands, loosened the earth a little with a stick,
touched and fluffed up the grass where we had trampled it,
and the little green blades began popping up again — not all,
but those that still could, Anastasia carefully straightened the
broken trunk of a small tree, about a metre tall: she mashed
up some earth in her hands to soften it and then daubed it on
the broken part of the tree. She squeezed the tree between
her hands, and held it tight for awhile. Then, when she care-
fully took her hands away, the tree remained upright.
‘Anastasia nimbly went on doing what she had to do. She
created a small ‘oasis’ on the ground our bodies had tram-
pled, which had been left almost devoid of vegetation. Boris
Moiseevich’s body ran over to it, leapt onto the grass and
rolled around on it, then jumped up and ran off. A little while
later it returned with the body of one of the guards. Together
they uprooted the small tree and began dragging stones and
sticks to the ‘oasis’, where they attempted to put together yet
another ugly-looldng plain structure.
“Anastasia threw up her hands in frustration. She tried
talking to them but, as she met no response, she apparently
abandoned her efforts at persuasion. After stan din g for a
while in a dither about what to do next, she dropped to her
knees, covered her face with her hands, and you could see the
hair trembling on her shoulders. Anastasia was crying — cry-
ing just like a baby.
‘And almost immediately the bluish glow reappeared, at
first barely noticeable. It drove the brownish smoke of our
hell into the ground and reunited our bodies and our minds,
Only we still weren’t able to move about — but this time it
wasn’t from horror, but from a sweet and pleasant languor
emanating from the blue glow. The fiery sphere was again
circling overhead.
“Anastasia stretched out her hands toward it. The sphere
instantly changed location to within a metre of her face. She
6 4
Book y . The Space of Love
began talking with it, and this time I could distinguish words.
Anastasia told the sphere:
“‘Thank you. You are kind. Thank you for your mercy and
your love. The people will understand, they will most cer-
tainly understand everything, they will understand it in their
hearts. Do not ever take your beautiful blue light from the
Earth, your light of love.’
‘Anastasia smiled, and a tiny tear rolled down her cheek.
From the sphere’s pale-blue membrane hull fiery lightning
bolts flew into her face. Carefully and dexterously they picked
up the tear on her cheek, glistening in the sun, and ever so
delicately, as though it were a priceless gem, held the tear on
their fiery tips as they placed it inside the sphere. The sphere
gave a shudder, executed a circle around Anastasia, landed
momentarily at her feet, then swept upward and dissolved
into the blue sky above, leaving everything on the ground the
way it was before.
“And there we were, standing where we had been before.
The sun was shining, the river was flowing as it had always
done, the forest could be seen rising in the distance, and
there was Anastasia standing in front of us, right where she
had been earlier. We stood there silently taking in every-
thing around us. I was overjoyed by what I saw, and I think
the others were, too. Only we weren’t talking — perhaps be-
cause of what we had experienced and the natural surround-
ings which had suddenly become so beautiful to our gaze.”
Alexander fell silent, as though he had quite withdrawn
into himself. I tried speaking to him:
“Listen, Alexander, maybe everything you told me really
didn’t happen that way at all. Maybe Anastasia’s simply able
to use some sort of powerful hypnosis? I’ve read that there
are many recluses who can do that. So maybe she hypnotised
you and showed you a vision?”
“Hypnosis, you say? Did you notice the grey streaks in my hair?”
What hell is
65
“Yes, I did.”
“Those grey streaks appeared after this all happened.”
“But you could have got a huge fright under hypnosis, and
that caused the grey streaks.”
“'Well, if you assume it was hypnosis, then there’s another
mystery you’ll have to explain."
‘And what’s that?”
“The stone and log obstruction in the creek. It’s complete-
ly disappeared — the creek runs freely now. But the obstruc-
tion was there before our ‘vision’ — everybody saw it — it was
there!”
“Okay... That’s something to think about.”
‘Anyway, what difference does it make what happened to
us. There’s something more important than that. I’m not
the same person I was before — I don’t know how to live
notv, what I should be studying, or where. After I got home,
I burnt a lot of my books written by different so-called sages,
‘wise men’, teachers from various parts of the world. I had
quite a decent-sized personal library”
“What d’you go and do that for? You should have sold
them, if you no longer needed them.”
“I couldn’t sell them. I didn’t even think of selling them.
Now I have some accounts to settle with those teachers and
sages.”
‘And what do you think, Alexander — is it dangerous to
communicate with Anastasia? Maybe she really is some kind
of anomaly? After all some of the letters I’ve got say that she
represents another civilisation. If that’s true, then it’d be
dangerous to communicate with her, because you never know
what this other civilisation might have in mind.”
“I think just the opposite is true,” Alexander replied. “She
has such a feeling and love for the Earth, for everything liv-
ing and growing on it, that, compared to Anastasia, we look
pretty much like vagrant aliens.”
66
Book 3: The Space of Love
“Then who is she ? Can scientists say for sure, once and
for all? How did she manage to acquire such a huge mass
of information? Where does she have room to store it in
her head? Where did she get her mystifying abilities? What
about her ray?”
“I think we simply have to go by her words here — she said:
‘I am Man, I am a woman. As for all that information, I don’t
think she stores any of it in her head. I think, rather, that the
purity of her thoughts allows her access to the database of the
entire Universe. And that her talents derive from this total
access to information.
“The Universe loves her, but is wary of us, and that’s why
it won’t open itself to us completely Our thoughts — the
thoughts of any Man raised in today’s society — are blocked
by stereotypes and conventions, in contrast to her thought,
which is completely open and free. That’s why it’s hard for
us to explain her mysterious abilities simply by her assertion
that she is Man.
“Of course she can perform incredible feats — miracles,
in our perception — I know that from personal experience.
During our visit one other incident happened which can only
be described as a miracle. It’s even more mystifying than what
happened with our group. And much grander!”
Alexander uttered these last few words with a certain de-
gree of excitement in his voice. He got up and walked away
from the fire into the night. In the twinkling light of the stars
and the dusky glow from the smouldering fire I could see the
young Siberian lad pacing back and forth. I could hear his
brief, excited phrases. Alexander was saying something in-
comprehensible about science, and psychologists, and some
sort of teachings. I got tired of sitting there and listening to
his fragmentary utterances. I w'as dying to hear what kind of
‘grand miracle’ he had seen Anastasia perform.
I tried to calm him down.
What hell is 67
“Relax, Alexander, sit down. Tell me more specifically,
what grand thing you witnessed?”
Alexander tossed some dry branches onto the fire and sat
down again beside it. But I could see he had not fully regained
his composure. Out of nervousness, no doubt, he had stirred
the smouldering coals so forcefully that the sparks flying up-
ward landed on him and on me, causing us to jump up and
away from the fire. When things had quieted down, I began
listening to his emotional tale.
“In the space of some twenty minutes,” he began, ‘Anastasia
managed to change right before our eyes the physical condi-
tion of a little village girl. She did this before our very eyes.
And over this period of time she changed not only the little
girl’s destiny, but her mother’s too, and even had an effect on
the whole outward appearance of this remote Siberian village.
And it all happened within the space of twenty minutes or so.
The main thing was how she did it — simplicity itself! She...
“How can anyone believe in horoscopes after that?!”
Alexander wondered. “I saw it happen! That’s why I burnt
my books with all that ‘wise man’ nonsense and all that reli-
gious stuff.”
“See,” I countered, “you yourself admit that she performs
superhuman miracles, mystical wonders, even if she smashes
horoscopes in the process. She makes these things happen
all by herself, and then expects to be called a normal human
being. If only she’d tried to act half-way normal, but no!... I
spoke to her about that, too — I said she should just act like
everyone else, then everything will be normal, but it seems
she’s not capable of acting like everyone else. Pity! She’s such
a kind and beautiful woman, so smart — she can heal people,
and she’s borne me a son... But to live with her, the way I’d
live with another woman — well, that’s simply impossible. I
can’t imagine anybody being able to sleep with her after eve-
rything you’ve told me. Nobody could. Everybody needs a
68
Book 3: The Space of Love
woman, plain and simple, not a far-out eccentric like that. But
she herself is to blame for that, what with her mysticism and
all.”
“Hold on, Vladimir. Now it’s my turn to tell you something.
Just think carefully about what I’m going to say It may seem
incredible, but try to understand. Everybody has to under-
stand it! Everybody! Perhaps, together, we can make some
sense out of it. Perhaps...
“You see, Vladimir, Anastasia performed this incredible
miracle with the little girl, but there was no mystery or magic
involved. No sorcery, no shamanistic gimmicks. If you can
imagine, she, Anastasia, did this miracle using just simple hu-
man words known to everyone. Simple, everyday words, only
spoken in the right place at the right time.
“If psychologists were to analyse Anastasia’s conversation
with this little village girl, they would realise how psychologi-
cally effective it is. Anyone uttering these same words could
have achieved a similar effect. But to have these words come
to mind at the right time, the sincerity and purity of thought
Anastasia spoke of are an absolute requirement.”
“So, it’s not just good enough to memorise the words?”
“We’ve all known them for a long time — that’s not the
point. The real question is: what lies behind each of the words
we say?”
“Somehow you’re losing me. You’d better tell me the rest
of what happened with you there. What words could change
people’s physical condition and their whole destinies?”
“All right. Of course I should explain. Listen.”
Chapter Nine
“After what we experienced,” Alexander began, “our group
took a while to regain a sense of normalcy. Nobody spoke
with anyone else. We stood there right in the same spot
and it was only after some time had passed that we began to
look to either side of us and take in the surrounding world
in a different way from before, as though we were sensing it
for the first time. And now we noticed a group of residents
approaching us from the direction of the village. The local
population was quite small, only about a dozen people lived
in the six houses of this remote Siberian settlement. And
they were nearly all oldsters, some of them quite frail. One
woman was bent over double — she walked with a limp, car-
ried a cane, but she still came with the others. Those who did
not require a walking stick were armed with various tools —
one carried a cross-beam, another an oar. They had evidently
come to defend Anastasia. These old and frail people were
advancing against young, healthy, stalwart fellows carrying
weapons. They advanced without fear, determined to come
to Anastasia’s defence, no matter who might be standing in
their way
“Their resolve was terrifying. When they drew near to
us, the old fellow carrying the oar and wearing rubber boots,
who was walking slightly ahead of the others, stopped, which
brought a halt to the group of villagers as a whole. They paid
no attention to us, treating our group as empty space. With
a sedate stroke of his beard he looked right at Anastasia and
greeted her respectfully:
70 Book y. The Space of Love
‘“I wish you good health, my dear, dear Anastasia, on behalf
of all of us.’
‘“Good day to you, kind people,’ Anastasia responded,
clasping her hand to her breast and bowing to the elderly vil-
lagers.
‘“The water in the river is dropping early this year,’ the old
fellow went on. ‘The summer hasn’t been too rainy.’
“‘Not so rainy just now,’ Anastasia confirmed, ‘but more
rain will come, the water level will rise, and the river will re-
turn to its former strength.’
‘As they continued talking that way, out from the group
of elderly villagers emerged a frail little girl, about six years
old, with pale yellowish skin. She was wearing an old jacket,
pieced together from fragments of some adult garment, her
thin legs were covered by patched pantyhose, and she had lit-
tle old boots on her feet.
“Later I found out the girl’s name was Aniuta. She was a
sickly child, with a congenital heart disease. Her mother had
brought her from the city when she was just six months old
and left her with the oldsters, not coming back even once to
see her daughter. They say she works somewhere as a painter
for a construction firm.
‘Aniuta went up to Anastasia and started tugging on the
hem of her skirt, pleading with her:
“‘Bend down, Auntie Anastasia. Bend down to me.’
‘Anastasia looked at the little girl and squatted down in
front of her. The girl quickly took off the old white kerchief
she was wearing on her head. She salivated on one edge of it
and began to carefully wipe the blood which had already dried
on Anastasia’s face and temple, saying:
“‘You don’t come any more, Auntie Anastasia, to sit on
your little log by the shore. Grandpa said that earlier you
used to come more often. You would sit on the log and watch
the river. Now you don’t come. Grandpa showed me the
When words change destinies
V-
little log where you used to sit, Auntie Anastasia. Grandpa
showed me, and I started coming to it, to your log, myself. 1
sat there all alone, waiting for you to come, Auntie Anastasia.
I really wanted to see you. I have a secret to tell you. But
you wouldn’t come to sit on your log and watch the river.
Maybe ’cause the log is quite old. I kept asking Grandpa and
he brought a new little log for you. There it is, lying right
beside the old one.’
“The little girl took Anastasia by the hand and started pull-
ing her over to the log.
“‘Let’s go, let’s go, Auntie Anastasia, let’s go sit on the new
log. Grandpa hewed out two seats on it with his axe. I was
the one who asked him to do that, so that when you came we
could sit together.’
‘Anastasia at once responded to the little girl’s request,
and they sat down together on the log. They just sat there
silently for a while, not paying any attention to anyone. It was
as though there had been no one else around. And everyone
stood silently, without budging. Then the little girl started
talking:
“‘Grandma told me a lot about you, Auntie Anastasia. And
when my Grandma died, I began asking Grandpa, and he told
me about you, too. Whenever Grandpa talks about you, I
think about my little secret I have to tell you. Grandpa told
me that when I was little, my heart wasn’t working right. It
wasn’t ticking evenly One time its tick was way off Then they
brought in Auntie Doctor in a boat. Auntie Doctor said there
was nothing they could do with such a bad heart — there rvas
no one it would obey And that it would die before long.
“‘Grandpa told me how you, Auntie Anastasia, were sit-
ting at the time on your old little log and watching the river.
Then you got up and came into our hut. You took me in your
arms and put me on the grass outside the house. Then you
lay down beside me and put your hand on my chest. You put
72
Book 3: The Space of Love
your hand here, where you could hear my heart ticking. Right
here.’ And the girl clasped her hand to the Jett side of her thin
little chest.
“‘Grandpa said that you too, Auntie Anastasia, started ly-
ing next to me as if you were breathless, since your own heart
had started ticking ever so softly, just like mine. Then your
heart started beating faster, and called out to mine to catch
up. My heart obeyed yours, and together they started ticking
the way they ought to. That is what Grandpa told me. Did he
tell me everything right? Right, Auntie Anastasia?’
“‘Yes, Aniuta. Your grandpa told you right. Your heart will
always be good now.’
“‘That means your heart called to mine and mine obeyed?
It obeyed, did it?’
“‘Yes, Aniuta dear, your heart obeyed.’
“‘Now I shall tell you my secret, Auntie Anastasia. It is a
very, very important secret!’
‘“Tell me your important secret, Aniuta.’
‘Aniuta got up from the log and stood in front of Anastasia,
clasping her thin little hands to her chest. Then all of a sud-
den she... Suddenly little Aniuta fell on her knees before
Anastasia. She barely managed to restrain the excitement in
her voice when she said:
“Auntie Anastasia, dear Auntie Anastasia, ask your heart
again! Ask it! Ask your heart to call to my Mama’s heart. Have
my Mama come see me. Even just for a day. To see me. That’s
my secret. Have your heart... Mama’s... heart... hear...’
“Aniuta choked from emotion, then fell silent, her eyes
fixed on Anastasia.
‘Anastasia squinted her eyes and looked off into the dis-
tance, past the little girl kneeling in front of her. Then she
looked at the girl once more and quietly stated a fact that
must have been horrifying for the child. She answered her as
she would have an adult:
When words change destinies
73
“Aniuta, dear, my heart is unable to call to your Mama.
Your Mama is far away in the city. She tried to find happiness
but did not find it. She does not have a home of her own,
she does not have any money to buy you gifts. And unless
she can bring you gifts she does not want to come and see
you. It is hard for her in the city But if she should come and
see you, it will be even harder for her. A visit with you would
become a sad and tormenting experience. It would be more
difficult and frightening for her to see you so sickly and so
poorly clothed. She would see how the houses in your village
are falling apart, and how dirty and shabby the house you live
in is. It would be all the more difficult since your Mama no
longer believes she can do anything good for you. She simply
does not believe it. She feels she has tried everything and this
is what fate has determined for her. She has given in to the
very hopelessness she has imagined for herself.’
“Little Aniuta listened to the terrible truth, and her wee
body trembled. It seemed to me awfully cruel to talk to a
child that way. I thought a white lie would have been more
appropriate here. Like stroking the poor little girl’s head and
promising her mother would arrive soon. And saying they
would have a happy meeting.
“But that is not what Anastasia did. She told this help-
less, defenceless little girl the whole bitter truth. Then after
spending some time watching her body shake all over, she be-
gan talking to her again.
“‘I know, Aniuta dear, you do love your Mama.’
“‘I love... love... I love my poor dear Mamochka,’ the girl
replied, her child’s voice on the point of breaking into tears.
“‘Then you make your Mamochka happy You are the only
one, the only one in all the world who can make her happy.
It is very simple. You become healthy and strong, and learn
how to sing. You will be a singer. Your marvellous, pure voice
will sing together with your heart. Your Mama may meet
74
Book 3: The Space of Love
you in twenty years, and seeing you will make her very happy.
Or your Mama may come to see you next summer. By that
time you should already be healthy and strong. To welcome
her. Get some presents ready for your Mamochka. Show
her how strong and beautiful you are, and you will make your
Mamochka very happy, and your meeting with her will be a
joyful one indeed.’
‘“But I will never be able to be healthy or strong.’
“‘Why not?’
“‘You know Auntie Doctor? She wears a white coat. Auntie
Doctor told Grandma. I heard her say I’ll always be a weak-
ling ’cause I was a bottle baby. My Mama wasn’t able to give
me any mother’s milk. My Mama had no milk in her breasts.
And children, when they are small, always drink milk from
their mama’s breasts.
“T saw it once, when a lady came to the village with a little
baby I went over to the house she had come to. I really wanted
to see how babies drink milk from their mother’s teats. I tried
to sit there ever so quietly But they kept chasing me out. The
mama-lady wondered why I was sitting there without blink-
ing. I was afraid to blink my eyes in case I missed something.’
“‘Do not you think, Aniuta, that Auntie Doctor might
have been mistaken when she said you would never be
healthy and strong?’
“‘How could she have been mistaken? She wears a vrhite
coat. Everybody listens to her — the grandfathers and grand-
mothers. She knows everything. She knows that I was a bot-
tle baby’
“And why did you go to see how babies are breast-fed?’
‘“I thought I would see how good the baby felt when he got
fed from his mother’s teat. I thought I would see how good
he felt, and then I would feel better, too.’
“‘ You will get better, Aniuta dear. You will be healthy and
strong,’ Anastasia said quietly and confidently. And then
When words change destinies 75
Anastasia gradually unbuttoned her cardigan and exposed her
breasts.
“Aniuta stared at the exposed breasts in amazement, quite
overwhelmed by the unexpected action. From the ends of
the nipples tiny drops of breast milk emerged.
‘“M ilk ! Mother’s milk! Auntie Anastasia, are you feeding a
baby, too? Are you a mama?’
“This milk is to feed my little son.’
“Drops of breast milk kept coming. One of the drops flut-
tered in a passing breeze. The breeze tore the drop from
Anastasia’s breast.
“Like a lightning-fast steel spring, Aniuta dashed after the
little drop of breast milk. And she... Imagine, this thin, sickly
little girl was nimble enough to catch the drop! She fell to the
ground, but as she was falling she put out the palms of her
hands and caught the little drop of breastmilk! She caught it
just as it reached the ground. Getting up on her knees, she
lifted her cupped hands to her face and opened them, exam-
ining the tiny wet spot they were holding. Then she held out
her hands to Anastasia.
“‘Here. I caught it. Here it is. Your son’s milk is not lost.’
‘“You saved the little drop, Aniuta. Now it belongs to
you.’
“‘Tome?!’
‘“Yes. Just to you.’
“Aniuta raised her cupped hands to her face and touched
the drop with her lips. The frail little girl closed her eyes and
held her hands pressed against her lips for a long time. Then
she dropped her hands, looked at Anastasia, and with a voice
full of gratitude, whispered:
“‘Thank you.’
“‘Come close to me, Aniuta dear.’
‘Anastasia took hold of the little girl by her shoulders. She
stroked her hair, then sat her on her lap. She gently inclined
l6
Book y The Space of Love
the little one’s head to her breast, as she would an infant, and
began singing quietly.
‘Aniuta’s lips were now very close to one of Anastasia’s nip-
ples. Almost in a half-sleep, Aniuta slowly drew her lips closer
and closer to Anastasia’s breast, felt the moist nipple, gave a
tiny shudder and began greedily sucking on Anastasia’s milk-
filled breast.
“Judging by the tape recording, she awakened about nine
minutes later. She raised her head and jumped down from
Anastasia’s lap.
‘“I... Oh, dear, what have I done? I’ve drunkup your son’s milk.’
“‘Not to worry, Aniuta. There is enough left for him. You
only drank the milk from one of my breasts, and there is still
milk left in the other one. There is enough for him. My son
can also eat pollen from the flowers if he wants to. And now
you have been provided with all you need, so you will have no
fear about being strong and beautiful and happy. Now go and
draw your happiness from life, from each day it brings.’
“‘I shall be strong and healthy I shall think about how to
greet Mamochka, so that she will not find it difficult to see
me, but she will be extremely happy Only I shan’t be able
to sing. I used to sing with Grandma. Then Grandma died.
I keep asking Grandpa, but he doesn’t sing. Only when he
drinks vodka will he sing me a song, and then I sing along with
him. But it is hard for me to sing along with him, ’cause his
voice croaks. I also tried to sing along with the radio, but our
old receiver crackles so much I can’t get the words.’
“Aniuta dear, just try singing without words, try to imi-
tate the birds when you hear them sing, or the water when it
burbles, or the rustling of the leaves and the wind when it is
strong and whistles through the branches. And there are a lot
of sounds in the grass. You will hear many pure sounds around
you if you are willing to listen. Try imitating them with your
voice. They will be your best teachers...
When words change destinies 77
‘“I am going now, Aniuta, good-bye. It is time for me to
g°-’
“Anastasia got up from the log. Aniuta remained sitting,
listening to the world of sounds around her. Anastasia went
up to the young guard who had shot at her. The guard was still
very pale in the face, and his hands were shaking. His pistol
was lying nearby on the ground. Anastasia told the guard:
‘“Do not blame yourself, do not torture your soul. It was
not a partner in what you did. You acted out of instinct. You
were trained to protect whatever you were ordered to, with-
out thinking about the situation. And your instinct took its
course. It is not good for instinct to gain supremacy in Man.
When instinct takes first place, then Man takes second place.
The result is something less than a Man. Think about it —
perhaps it would be better to return to yourself — to the Man
that you are.’
“When the guard heard the calming tones of Anastasia’s
voice his hands stopped shaking, and the paleness disap-
peared from his face. And by the time she had finished speak-
ing, his face was flush with a reddish colour, right to the tips
of his ears.
“Then Anastasia said good-bye to the elderly villagers and
headed off in the direction of the taiga. For a long time we
watched her as she drew further and further away Then all at
once we heard an extraordinarily pure child’s voice singing.
“Aniuta was still sitting on the log, singing a beautiful, old-
time song — probably one she had learnt from her grand-
mother. And how she sang! Her pure voice hit unusually high
notes, filling the space around and enchanting the heart:
Sprinkling raindrops glisten.
Brother rocks his sister,
Brother rocks his sister,
Sings to her — she listens.
7§
Book 3: The Space of Love
‘Aniuta finished her song and began staring at our group,
still standing there motionless. Then she got up, picked up a
thin stick from the ground and said:
‘“You chaps are bad. You’re so big, but you’re still bad.’
‘After saying this she started coming at us, armed with the
little stick. The group of elderly villagers shuffled silently
along behind her. And all of us to a man began withdrawing
before them. We retreated right back to our ship which was
docked by the riverbank, then scrambled up the gangplank,
not without some pushing and shoving. We were on the point
of pulling up the gangplank when the captain suddenly no-
ticed the two helicopter pilots were also on board.
“‘How come you’re here?’ he shouted from the bridge.
‘Who’s looking after the chopper?’
“The pilots jumped down from the ship and ran over to
their ’copter.
“We left, abandoning the barrels of fuel and tents remain-
ing on the shore. Nobody even thought of collecting them.”
Chapter Ten
When Alexander finished his story, I couldn’t help expressing
my animosity toward him.
“I see only too well what you’re up to. So you left the tents
there. And the barrels too, eh? Too bad you got away with just
some grey hair. She’s a holy person, Anastasia. It was so clear
straight off — any normal person who’d seen you would have
twigged what was going on, right off the bat. They would have
known who was standing in front of them and what they were
getting at. And yet she started pouring out her soul to you.”
“She was aware of everything,” Alexander observed. “She
was aware of why we came and what we wanted of her. She
understood. But she was not talking with the dark side of
our human selves. She ignored the dark side, communicating
only with what was bright in each one’s heart. And that way
she changed all of us. After all, I’m an academic. I’ve done a
lot of work in psychology”
“So, another academic, eh? So what good is all your study
if your thoughts are so slow to catch up?”
“Well, you see, life often happens to deal out its events to us
faster and more accurately than we can handle them. Besides,
Anastasia turned out to be... No, I’m afraid to put her into a
category, any more than that other experience...”
“What other experience?”
“How can I put it? You know? Those old people from
that remote taiga village — well, they’re still coming at us.
Together with the frail little girl out in front of them, carry-
ing the thin stick.”
8o
Book 3: The Space of Love
“What? Where?”
“They’re coming at us, they’re coming at all of us who were
there and saw them. I thought that this was happening just
with me — as soon as I close my eyes, I see them straight off,
and sometimes they appear whenever I do anything which,
in their opinion, is probably unwarranted. I thought this was
happening just with me — but I’ve been talking with others
in the group. Similar things have been happening with the
ones who were there.”
“But that’s all just in your minds, in your imagination.”
“What’s the difference? We still have to retreat before
their advance, even in our minds.”
“What could be so frightening about helpless and unarmed
oldsters? What are you afraid of?”
“I really don’t know what there is to be afraid of. Maybe
our own... Maybe we’ve overstepped some line of permissive-
ness?”
“What kind of line would that be? That sort of fantasis-
ing can drive one crazy Maybe you just have to think things
through as you’re doing them, before it’s too late.”
“Maybe, think things through in time... We all have to
think things through.”
‘And where did you get the notion that after her conversa-
tion with Anastasia the little girl’s destiny changed, and her
mother’s too? And the destiny of the other villagers?”
“I told you, I’m into psychology As an academic I can say
this: Anastasia completely changed Aniuta’s whole internal
programme.
‘After being abandoned to the care of her grandparents, the
little girl had been spending her time sitting sick and helpless
in a corner of a dirty hut, waiting for her mother to come.
They kept assuring her that her Mamochka would come and
play with her and bring her presents. They did this, think-
ing they were doing a good deed by lying. In the meantime
Work out your own happiness
81
her mother in the city went on a drinking binge to relieve her
feeling of hopelessness. The false assurances had condemned
the girl to a state of fruitless expectancy
“We too sometimes sit around waiting for a dispensation
from above. Someone is supposed to come along and make
us happy and change our destiny. Maybe that’s why we act so
lethargically or don’t act at all. We don’t reflect on the fact
that we already have more than enough, and that maybe we
should be greeting the one coming with gifts of our own.
‘Anastasia changed destiny and the future with her sim-
plicity and sincerity. Just think, the simplest human words
can change destiny.
“I’ve listened to the recording of Anastasia’s conversa-
tion with Aniuta many times. I have an idea if anyone else
spoke that way to the girl, it would have had the same effect.
It doesn’t actually take much to speak the way she did. The
main thing is not to lie. One need only have the sincere desire
to help. And helping doesn’t just mean sympathising. You
have to be free of doctrines of karma, of predestination or,
rather, rise above them.
“Of course one can do a lot of talking about karma, the
hopelessness of inevitable predestination and what it means
for a sick little girl, but Anastasia rose above this sense or
inevitability She simply didn’t pay any attention to it. And
any other person could do the same. After all, everything was
done with words, simple words we use every day. Only they
need to be spoken at the right time and in the right place,
and in the proper order. It is quite possible that the purity
of thought Anastasia talks about causes these words to auto-
matically fall into place in the right sequence, and that is why
they are so powerful.”
“Well, Alexander, those are all theories of yours,
assumptions. You still have to look at real life and see whether
any destinies will change on account of a bunch of words or
82
Book y The Space of Love
not. Anyway, what could possibly change in life for that little
girl? Unless some sort of miracle happened.”
“A miracle has happened. It turns out that all the miracles
we need are within ourselves.”
“What kind of miracle happened?”
“Little Aniuta’s whole mind and life got reprogrammed.
She broke all the bonds of karma for herself and those around
her.”
“What do you mean, ‘broke’? How do you know this?”
“I know it. Some time afterward I went back to the village.
I decided to offer Aniuta my radio receiver, since hers was too
crackly, and set up an antenna for it on the roof. So I’m walk-
ing along to Aniuta’s house and I notice that the boards on
the wooden sidewalk have been fixed. Before they were quite
decayed, and now all the rotting boards had been replaced
with new ones. Wow, I thought, what’s all this renovation go-
ing on here? I saw Aniuta’s granddad sitting on the porch,
washing his boots in a pail of water. 1 said hello to him, and
explained why I’d come.
‘“Well, fine!’ said the grandfather. ‘Come on in, if you like.
Only you’ll have to take off those shoes of yours. You see,
we’ve got new rules around the place.’
“I took off my shoes on the porch and accompanied the
grandfather into the hut. Everything was simple inside, as
you’d expect in a small village, only extremely clean and cozy
‘“You see, our granddaughter’s got this new order set up for
us,’ the grandfather told me. ‘She worked at it for a long time.
She cleaned the floor, and then washed everything spic and
span. She was at it from morning ‘til night for over a week,
like a wound-up spring. She would have a rest and then start
cleaning again. She persuaded me to paint the walls a fresh
coat of white.
“And now when I come into the hut with my boots on and
leave tracks, right away she gets out a rag and starts cleaning
Work out your own happiness
83
away the tracks. So, I guess, it’s better not to leave any tracks.
We don’t have any slippers . 1 Instead of slippers she adapted
some old galoshes. Here, you can put these on. Make your-
self comfortable.’
“I sat down at the table. It was covered with an old, but
dean tablecloth. The cloth was tom in one place, and the tear
was patched, as neatly as a child’s hand could make it, with a
piece of coloured cloth cut in the shape of a bunny-rabbit. In
the middle of the table stood a cut-giass tumbler, out of which
corners cut from notepad sheets neatly protruded — instead
of serviettes.
“ ! I see they’ve started improving your village, too,’ I said to
the grandfather. And it looks like the authorities have been
paying attention, seeing they fixed the wooden sidewalks.’
‘And he replied:
“‘It’s got nothing to do with the authorities. They don’t
pay any attention to us. It’s my granddaughter, Aniuta. She
just can’t keep still.’
“‘What do you mean, Aniuta? She’s still a wee one, much
too little to repair sidewalks. Those are heavy boards there.’
‘“Heavy boards. Yeah. You see, one day I was about to
set out hunting, and I asked a neighbour if she would look in
on Aniuta. And Aniuta says to me, “Go on, Grandpa, go on
about your business. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything
myself. Just let me take a saw to that board that’s standing
against the wall in the barn.”
‘“I was surprised, but I thought: why not let the child play,
if that’s the way she likes to play. So I put the board on the
wood-block, handed her a couple of saws and set off to do
some hunting. Later my neighbour told me what happened
while I was gone.
1 slippers — It is customary for Russian hosts to offer their guests slippers to
wear during their visit.
8 4
Book y I he Space of Love
“Aniuta pulled out the old rotten pieces of board from the
sidewalk. She measured the hole with a string and began sawing
the board I had given her according to the measurement. The
neighbour says she spent half the day sawing the board, but she
managed to do it somehow. Then she lugged the new board right
up to the sidewalk and put it in the place of the rotten one.’
‘“She’s so thin anci frail, how on earth could she have lugged
such a heavy board?’ I asked.
‘“She found herself a helper. Back a couple of months ago
she made friends with an orphaned dog, a Siberian laika . 2 An
old lady died who lived at the other end of our village, leaving
a large dog. Back at the funeral Aniuta kept stroking him.
Then she started talcing him something to eat. At first the lai-
ka wouldn’t leave his own yard, even though there was nobody
left living in the hut. The old lady had been living alone.
“Aniuta fed the dog for several days. He started following
the girl around, and now he never leaves her side. Now this old
dog helps carry out whatever our granddaughter fancies. So
he helped her lug the board over. Aniuta tied a string around
one end and started in dragging it herself, when the huge dog
grasped hold of the other end with his teeth, and between the
two of them they managed to drag it to the sidewalk.
‘“Then Aniuta asked a neighbour lady for some nails, and
borrowed my hammer. And here she was trying to nail the
board into place with the hammer. But nothing happened.
The neighbour saw Aniuta sitting on the sidewalk, trying
to hammer in the nail. She hit her hand in the process and
blood started oozing out. The dog was sitting right beside
her, watching and whimpering.
' laika — the name given to a number of Arctic breeds of dog, akin to the
Canadian husky, trained for pulling sledges and hunting in the North. The
word has the same root as the Russian for to bark and is commonly used in
Russian as a personal name for a dog.
Work out your own happiness
8 5
“‘The neighbour came over, took the hammer and nailed
the board in place. The next evening she saw Aniuta and the
dog dragging another board over. Which meant there was
another hole in the sidewalk to patch up.
“‘The neighbour asked Aniuta if she were going to patch
up all the holes this way — couldn’t she think up some other
little girl’s tiling to do? And my granddaughter replied:
‘““It’s very important, Auntie, for all the sidewalks outside
the houses to be new and free from holes. You see, otherwise
someone might decide to come visiting, walking along the
boards, and there’s holes in them, and that would spoil the
visitor’s good mood. And my Mamochka, when she comes,
might get upset if she saw such a shoddy sidewalk.”
“‘So the neighbour hammered down the second board for
her. And then she raised a hue and cry throughout the village,
shouting out to everyone: “Get busy fixing the sidewalks in
front of your houses. I’m not going to let a child do drudgery
on account of your disorderliness! She’s working her hands
to the bone!”
‘“So, you can see, everyone’s fixed up the sidewalk in front
of their houses. So they wouldn’t have to hear the neighbour
lady rail at them any more.’
“And where is your granddaughter now?’ I asked the old
fellow.
“‘She’s lugged a tin of paint over to the house at the far end.
She’ll probably spend the night there, with the old Losin cou-
ple. Yeah... She may spend the night there.’
“‘What kind of paint, and what’s it for?’
“‘Just ordinary oil-based paint, bright orange. She got it
from the steamship in exchange for fish. That’s her latest
fancy.’
“And what kind of fancy might that be?’
“‘She’s decided that all the huts need freshening up.
Need to look more cheerful. So when the ship comes —
86
Book y The Space of Love
that’s the ship that collects fish that’s been caught around
here, she goes and offers 'em a whole catch of fish in ex-
change for paint. And then she lugs the tin of paint to one
of the huts. She asks them to paint the nalichniks? And the
old people start painting. Soon it’ll be my turn. Whaddya
know! I’ll do the painting. Why not? Maybe it’ll be better
if the painting gets done, if the huts are going to look more
cheerful on the outside.’
“And where does she get the fish from?’
“‘She catches them herself Every morning she brings
home two or three connies , 4 sometimes more. If only once
she’d come home empty-handed, but no, the fish just seem
to land on her hooks all by themselves. And here I’m lying in
bed with my back problems, and she says to me: get up. And
keeps at me: “Get up, Grandpa! You’ve gotta salt the fish, so
it doesn’t go bad.” Every morning it’s the same,’ the old fellow
muttered, but with no trace of annoyance in his voice.
“So I asked him howAniuta managed to cope with the fish-
ing tackle — all by herself?
“‘See, I told you,’ he replied. Aniuta’s got a helper — this
Siberian laika. Lie may be old, but he’s smart, and obedi-
ent. He helps her carry out all her fancies. Aniuta takes my
throw-line with its five hooks, neatly arranges the bait on the
hooks and goes down to her treasured spot on the riverbank
every evening with her laika. She’ll tie one end of the line to
a post on the shore, then attaches the other end to a stick.
The dog then takes the stick in his mouth and swims out into
the river. He keeps on swimming as long as Aniuta, standing
'nal/chn/k — an ornately decorated board (with carved symbols to repel evil
spirits) covering the cracks between the window-frame and the wall, to keep
out the elements; nalichniks are a common feature of Russian rural houses.
4 connies (Russian belorybitsa; Latin: Stenodus leucichthys) — a freshwater white
fish, otherwise known as inconnii or sheefisb.
Work out your own happiness
87
on the shore, keeps encouraging him: “Swim, Druzhok, swim,
Druzhok!” 5 The dog keeps pulling the line until Aniuta chang-
es the tone of her voice as she calls: “Come here, Druzhok,
come here, Druzhok!” Then the dog releases the stick from
his jaws and swims back to shore...
“‘Well, that’s enough for now. Let’s get some sleep.’
“With that the old fellow climbed onto the stove. 0 And
I lay down on the wooden sofa. When I woke up at dawn,
I went outside and saw Aniuta down by the river tugging on
the iron ring to which the fishing line was attached. A huge
Siberian laika was helping her. The laika had grasped hold of
the ring with his teeth and braced himself with his legs as he
backed up. Together they were dragging the line with quite
a decent catch on the end of it. Aniuta was wearing rubber
boots three sizes too big over her bare feet.
“Once the catch was almost at the shore, she took hold of
a scoop net and ran down to collect the fish. The laika was
standing on his hind legs, holding the ring in his teeth. Aniuta
went into the water deeper than her boots allowed, and the
water started pouring over the tops of her boots.
“She drew the catch onto the riverbank and unhooked
three splendid fish, which she put into a bag. Then she and
the laika together took hold of the rope attached to a piece of
plywood carrying the bag, and dragged it home.
“The water was sloshing around in Aniuta’s boots, interfer-
ing with her walking. She stopped and took off her boots —
first one, then the other — and stood barefoot on the cold
ground while she emptied out the water. Then she put on her
wet boots again and continued on her way.
'Druzhok (lit. ‘Little Friend’) — a popular Russian name for a dog.
6 stove (Russian: pech) — The vast majority of Russian huts Uzby) in rural ar-
eas have a furnace-size brick stove in the centre with a flat top where the
family sleeps to stay warm during cold nights.
Book 3: The Space of Love
“As the two of them together lugged their morning catch
up to the porch, I got a good look at Aniuta’s face and was
amazed.
“Her cheeks were a rosy red, and her little eyes were spar-
kling with determination. These, together with the hint of
a smile on her face, made her virtually unrecognisable by
comparison with the sickly, sallow-skinned little girl I had
met earlier. Aniuta set about rousing her grandfather. With
a rather loud wheeze he climbed down from the stove and
put on a jacket. Then he took a knife and salt and proceed to
cut up the fish. In the meantime Aniuta served me tea, and
I asked her why she got up so early every morning to bring
home the fish.
“‘Those fellows on the steamship, on the river, they come
and collect our fish,’ she said. ‘They give me money. And I
asked them to bring me paint for the houses in our village.
They brought me the paint in exchange for the fish. Along
with some lovely material for a dress. For that I gave them all
the fish I had caught that week.’ And when she said that, she
went and fetched a huge piece of magnificent silk fabric.
“‘Well, Ania,’ I observed, ‘I see there’s enough here for
more than one dress. How come so much?’
“‘This isn’t for me. I’ve got it ready as a present for my
Mamochka, when my Mamochka comes to see me. And I’m
also going to give her a beautiful shawl and a long beaded
necklace.’
“Then Aniuta opened an old worn suitcase and pulled out
a pair of imported women’s pantihose, a pearl necklace and a
magnificent brightly-coloured shawl.
“‘I don’t want Mamochka to be upset that she can’t give me
any presents. I can buy everything for her now myself. I don’t
want her to think she’s been wasting her life.’
“I watched as she joyfully showed me the gifts she had pre-
pared for her mother — she was so happy admiring them — and
Work out your own happiness
89
I realised what had happened: here Aniuta had transformed
herself from an utterly helpless, pitiful little girl, waiting for
somebody else to help her, into an active, self-confident indi-
vidual. And happy that she has known such great success, or
maybe her happiness stems from an entirely different source...
“Now I believe that each one’s happiness lies within them-
selves, within each one of us. It is there at a particular level of
awareness. The only question is: how do we reach that level?!
Anastasia helped little Aniuta reach it. Will she be able to
help everyone else do the same? Or maybe we ourselves need
to learn in some way how to figure things out ourselves.”
Alexander fell silent, and we each became absorbed in our
own thoughts.
I wrapped myself in a short thick coat and laid my head
against a log. I began looking up at the bright northern stars,
and it seemed they were quite low overhead and were also be-
ing warmed by the flames of our fire. I tried to go to sleep.
After about three hours’ sleep, at dawn Alexander and I
headed for the motorboat. But before casting off, Alexander
suddenly announced:
“I’ve been thinking. Now I’m certain. It’s not worth your
while going into the taiga. You won’t find Anastasia there
now; Nobody can find her, including you.”
“Why not?”
‘Anastasia’s gone. She’s gone deep into the taiga. She
couldn’t help leaving. If you try to go after her, you might get
killed. You’re not suited to the taiga. Besides, you’ve got to
write some more. To fulfil your promise to her.”
“In order to write more, I’ve got to hear her answers to the
many questions from my readers. Questions about children,
about different religions...”
“Nobody’ll find her now.”
“ Why do you keep parroting: ‘She can’t be found! She can’t
be found!’ I know where her glade is, I’ll find her.”
9 °
Book 3: The Space of Love
“I tell you, you won’t. Anastasia can’t help but realise that
there are people out to hunt her down.”
“What do you mean, they’re out to hunt her down? Is
somebody bribing the local hunters? Just like they pay you
and Yegorych?”
“Me and Yegorych? No way! We try to persuade people
not to interfere with her, not to alarm her. And if that doesn’t
work, we take them and let them off on the opposite shore.
The local hunters can’t be bribed; they’ve got laws and val-
ues of their own. They knew about Anastasia long before you
came along. They’ve always treated her with great respect.
They’ve been careful even when speaking about her amongst
themselves. They don’t like it when strangers show up in the
taiga, and they’re pretty good shots.”
“Then who could possibly hunt her down?”
“I think: whoever has led us into the condition we find our-
selves in at this moment. And is still leading us.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“Each one of us has to work that out more specifically on
their own.”
“But still, who do you have in mind? Someone like Boris
Moiseevich?”
“He’s just a tool. There’s something we can’t see that’s play-
ing with us. And Boris Moiseevich is starting to realise that
now And maybe the one who hired him has realised it, too.”
Chapter Eleven
“A month ago Boris Moiseevich returned to these parts,”
Alexander told me. “This time he had no assistants or guards
with him. He looked me up. He was quiet and pensive. He
and I talked for a whole day. It wasn’t so much a conversation
as a confession on his part — it wasn’t me he was confessing
to, of course, but to himself. He gave me a copy of his report
on his contact with Anastasia. I copied out some excerpts for
you. Would you like me to read them?”
“Who commissioned the report?”
“I don’t know. Even Boris Moiseevich doesn’t know. Tie
had a meeting with whoever it was in an opulent salon with
a fireplace. Elis sponsor identified himself as a representa-
tive of the ‘International Academy’. But so many acade-
mies have sprouted up recently, it’s hard to tell which of
them are the really serious ones. Now people have begun
judging the seriousness of an organisation by the amount of
funding it gets.
“The sponsor hadn’t scrimped on the financing. Ele’d paid
for the whole trip right off in cash, and promised not only
a substantial bonus but also the future involvement of the
whole unit Boris Moiseevich headed in a serious scientific
project connected with Anastasia.
“When Boris Moiseevich met with him upon his return to
Moscow and presented his report, the sponsor took only a
cursory look at it. No doubt he had already been informed of
its contents. He threw the report into the fireplace and said
to Boris Moiseevich:
92
Book 3: The Space of Love
“‘You were supposed to establish contact with “Object
X”, as you yourself referred to Anastasia. In carrying out
the project you employed not only your own scientific
methods and techniques of persuasion, but also violence.
The violence rvas your own initiative.
‘“We have decided to double your fee for organising the
expedition, and at the same time cancel our agreements with
you for any future activity. Here, take your money,’ he said,
pointing to a briefcase standing beside his chair, ‘and forget
about the whole thing.’
“Boris Moiseevich tried to explain that the violence had
erupted spontaneously, and that he himself found the whole
episode quite distasteful, and he realised what harm his group’s
inexpertness had inflicted on future contacts with Anastasia,
and for that reason he would not take any fee at all.
‘At that point the man sitting by the fireplace got up from
his chair and in a tone that brooked no contradiction, articu-
lated:
“‘You will take it. And you’ll leave. You didn’t care about
the cause, only the money. So here, take it. We don’t need
you anymore.’
“Boris Moiseevich took the briefcase with the money and
left the spacious office salon. He tried to share the money in
equal amounts among the members of the expedition, but not
all of them accepted it. It only seemed to emphasise the tre-
mendous feeling of unpleasantness at what had been wrought
by the participants.”
“How come you only copied out excerpts of the report for
me?” I asked Alexander.
“Judging by your book, you don’t really fancy reading docu-
ments filled with terms you don’t understand. I tried to copy
out only the important points, and places where there wasn’t
too much specialised terminology”
“So, what do they say about Anastasia?”
Who are we?
93
Alexander pulled some printed pages out of his pocket and
began reading them to me:
Object X cannot be studied by traditional scientific re-
search methods known to us today:
The evaluation criteria currently accepted in scientific
circles inevitably posit particular frameworks which au-
tomatically exclude properties hitherto unknown and the
possibility of encountering phenomena arising out of and
connected with isolated situations and the changing psy-
chological state of Object X.
As an information source in various areas of scientific
research, the ‘object’ may prove to have no equal among
the sources currently known to science.
The object is most likely not an information carrier in
itself. It is not interested in simply receiving and analys-
ing information. However, should there arise a particular
goal — and, consequently, a desire — which it deems sig-
nificant, information accrues to it in a form selected by
an unknown entity and in the required amount, for which
Object X may instantly find a practical application.
Our group was able to offer only a few hypotheses. But
we did confirm experimentally a number of Object X’s say-
ings regarding plants. We were able to establish the exist-
ence of the ray. The scientific terms torsion field and radio-
wave emissions are not really suitable here. If they are used
at all, it is only because there are no other more suitable
terms.
The most incredible and doubtful hypothesis, in our view,
was the possibility of infusing the text of the book 1 with
hidden combinations and signs — according to Object X’s
terminology — of “the depths of eternity and the infinity
the book i.e., Anastasia, Book i of the Ringing Cedars Series.
94
Book 3: The Space of Love
of the Cosmos”. The object affirmed that these signs may
have a beneficial effect on people.
We were recommending conducting a series of experi-
ments, comparing the parameters of the physiological
changes in human beings before and after the reading of
the book, with the help of measuring devices used in medi-
cal practice. This does not make much sense any more.
Already we are compelled to confirm that the fact of their
existence is indisputable. These changes are not effected
through the material, physiological organs of the body, but
at some intangible, non-material level of society as a whole.
One has the impression that within the milieu of the
community of people living on the Earth a reaction is be-
ginning to take place which we are not in a position to ar-
rest — or, for that matter, even to control.
The basic evidence of such a reaction is the psychic re-
sponse observed in those who have come in contact with
the book. Questionnaires, along with examination and
analysis of readers’ correspondence attest to the fact that
a majority of readers have experienced a creative urge ex-
pressed in the form of poetic compositions, sketches and
drawings, along with the writing and performing of songs.
Many readers have felt the impulse to make contact with
and cultivate plants, or to change their profession. In cer-
tain cases the reading of the book is followed by a signifi-
cant improvement in one’s sense of well-being and the dis-
appearance of symptoms of disease.
We conducted an experiment on thirty people having
various ailments. In a psychotherapy/sleep-therapy unit
they were asked to read the text of the book. In the case of
27 of them an emotional concentration was observed, along
with lack of sleep and an increased haemoglobin count in the
blood. If we assume that the reaction on the part of these
readers is due to the vividness or the image of literary art,
Who are we ?
95
one can confirm that in terms of psychological effect this
particular image far surpasses, by several degrees, all those
hitherto known, including classical and biblical images.
The indisputability of such a conclusion is confirmed by
the percentage of readers who have expressed their rela-
tionship to the book in poetic and other creative forms —
according to our statistical survey, this has happened with
as many as one in every nineteen readers.
Moreover, it should be noted that the author’s exposi-
tory style is primitive to the extreme. It does not follow
any established norm of the literary arts, and the text is re-
plete with grammatical errors. But a computer analysis of
the book’s readability shows that it has a readability rating
of 80% or higher!
In our direct contact with Object X we noticed a phe-
nomenon encountered nowhere else before and with no
counterpart in any data observed or recorded by ufologists.
We observed a spheroid energy mass, resembling large
ball lightning. Its energy potential far surpasses existing sci-
entific concepts of the power of natural energies. Its ability
to change the Earth’s gravitational field in a specific loca-
tion affords it the possibility of instantaneously transform-
ing anything not rooted in the ground into cosmic dust.
During the period of our contact, the Earth’s gravitation
was changed slightly but with any increase in its power out-
put we and all material objects might have simply found our-
selves somewhere out in space. By contrast, the gravitational
field around Object X was not changed, which attests to the
possibility of selective influence.
It was evident that the change in the Earth’s gravita-
tional attraction was preceded by a reduction in the blue
spectrum of natural light.
One could hypothesise that the so-called gravitational
attraction of the Earth is not dependent on the Earth itself
96
Book 3: The Space of Love
but on the pressure of light emanating from certain celes-
tial objects, energies, or the Earth’s atmosphere as created
by an intelligent being.
Despite its ability to acquire large quantities of infor-
mation, Object X does not attempt to subject it to analy-
sis. It processes the information it receives on the level of
feelings and intuition, from which arises an impression of
naivety. The interrelationships between Object X and the
energy mass are simple and commonplace, established on
the basis of feelings, with no trace of servility or idolisa-
tion. They are characterised by full freedom of action in a
context of mutual respect.
The luminous energy mass we observed possesses in-
telligence and, even more incredibly, feelings, something
which ufologists have not noted in connection with a sin-
gle UFO. This is evidenced by the fact that during contact
with Object X the rays of the energy mass stroked its feet
and hair, and that the mass itself, through its movements,
reacted to Object X’s emotional state.
Along with the capability of exerting a physiological ef-
fect on matter, the phenomenon perceived by us also has
the capacity to produce a psychological effect.
It may be hypothesised that Object X may represent an
earthly human being who is periodically contacted by rep-
resentatives of an extra-terrestrial civilisation, or that it is
in communication with some kind of natural phenomenon
which does not lend itself to scientific investigation.
It may be further hypothesised that Object X itself
represents an extra-terrestrial civilisation. However, the
object’s own declaration: “I am Man, I am a woman” con-
tradicts this hypothesis. Such a declaration places us in an
unresolvable dilemma, as the question inevitably arises:
“Who then are we?” Or to put it another way: “Has man-
kind been treading a path of progress or regression?”
Chapter Twelve
“Okay, that’s enough,” I interrupted Alexander. “For me,
Anastasia is just a recluse. Maybe she’s got some unusual abili-
ties, but I would say she’s human, she’s Man. Let’s hope so,
anyway. If I think about everything too much, I could go nuts.
So start up that old rattletrap motor of yours and let’s go.”
It took us about four hours to get to the remote settle-
ment. After I had set foot on the familiar stretch of shore-
line, Alexander also got out of the boat and once again tried
to persuade me:
“Anastasia’s gone, Vladimir. Really give it some thought —
you can still change your mind about trying to reach her glade.
You won’t make it.”
“I’m going.” I was hoisting my backpack to sling it over my
shoulder when I suddenly noticed Alexander unsheathing a
large hunting knife.
I threw the backpack down and rifled about on the ground
for something I could defend myself with. But Alexander,
having bared his right arm to the elbow, suddenly slashed his
own arm with the knife and covered the gushing blood with
a white linen scarf he had. Then he asked me to fetch the
first-aid kit from the motorboat and bind his wounded arm.
I did this, still in a state of bewilderment. He handed me the
bloodsoaked scarf, saying:
“Tie this around your head.”
“What for?”
‘At least that way the hunters won’t touch you. They will
not fire at a wounded man.”
98
Book 3: The Space of Love
“You think those hunters of yours are dumb or something?
They only have to come close and they’ll see right off it’s a
prop.”
“They won’t come close. Why take the chance? They’ve
all got their own territories and pathways. If someone needs
to go into the taiga for a good reason, he’ll talk to the hunt-
ers first, tell them about himself and what he intends to do,
and co-ordinate his route with them. If they think he has a
good reason, they’ll help him, give him advice and may even
provide an escort. But they know nothing about you. They
may shoot first and ask questions later, but they won’t fire at
a wounded man.”
I took the bloodsoaked scarf and tied it around my head.
“I guess I’m supposed to say thank you, but somehow I
don’t feel like thanking you.”
“No need to. I didn’t do it for thanks. I just wanted to do
at least something for you. When you get back, light a fire
on the riverbank. I’ll be passing close by from time to time,
and if I see the smoke I’ll come pick you up — if, that is, you
manage to get back.”
As I was walking along, I noticed a couple of dogs about a hun-
dred metres away Probably from the settlement, I thought.
I wished they would come closer, as dogs had a quieting ef-
fect on me. I even tried to attract their attention, but they
didn’t approach, only kept a parallel course to mine. And so
we went deeper into the taiga.
It was pointless for Alexander to try and scare me, I
thought. The taiga didn’t seem hostile to me at all. Maybe it
was because I knew at the back of my mind that here amidst
the trees and moss-covered logs lived Anastasia, and even if
she was strange, she was still a kind person. I held to the no-
tion that here in the taiga with all its tangled undergrowth,
its sounds and air so unfamiliar to city-dwellers, lived my very
Man-made mutants
99
own son. This thought made the taiga feel just a bit more like
home to me.
The twenty-five kilometres from the riverbank to the
glade presented much more of a challenge than walking along
an ordinary road, since there were fallen trees to climb over
and thickets to go around. The time I had been walking with
Anastasia I hadn’t noticed all these barriers, immersed as we
were in conversation. The main thing now was not to lose my
sense of direction on account of them, and I began check-
ing my compass more often, all the while thinking: How did
Anastasia find her glade with no compass? It certainly didn’t
look as though there was any kind of pathway.
Stopping to rest after every hour, by noon I got to a shallow
stream about two metres wide. Anastasia and I had also ford-
ed a stream, I remembered. I decided to go across and stop
for some time in a glade just on the other side. I made my
way along the trunk of a partly rotted tree which had fallen
into the stream. The tree didn’t extend all the way across, so
after tossing my backpack, I made a jump for the shore. But
something happened. My leg fell on some kind of protruding
snag and got twisted, or sprained somehow I felt a searing
pain through my whole leg and it even spread to my head. I
lay there a few minutes and then tried to get up. I realised I
couldn’t walk. So I lay there, reflecting on what to do next.
I tried to remember what you’re supposed to do when you
twist or sprain your leg. But I had a hard time remembering,
probably because the pain was so intense. Then I decided I
would lie still for a while, have a bite to eat, and maybe the
pain would go away If need be, I would light a fire and spend
the night there. Maybe by morning my leg would even be bet-
ter. After all, everything with Man heals itself eventually.
It was at this point that I caught sight of the dogs again.
There were four of them now, and two more on the other
side. And they weren’t going anywhere. They took up their
too
Book 3: The Space of Love
positions on either flank, about ten metres from me. The
dogs were of various breeds: one was an Airedale, another was
a Boxer, the remainder were mongrels. And there was a little
lap-dog among them. Their coats were ragged, they were ter-
ribly thin, the Airedale’s eyes were festering. I remembered
hearing my captain’s first mate telling about dogs like this.
And my sudden awareness of the precariousness of my situa-
tion made even the pain in my leg disappear temporarily
The first mate of my headquarters ship told how people
who didn’t want their pets around any more would take them
off somewhere and abandon them. If they dropped them off
within the city limits, the cats and dogs would hang around
various scrap-heaps and at least get a little something to keep
them going. When dogs were taken out to a remote area, far
outside of town, they would group together in gangs and get
their food by attacking a living creature. Including people,
especially people all by themselves.
These dogs are actually more frightening than wolves.
They’ll lie in wait for a wounded or exhausted victim and then
attack their prey simultaneously Another thing that makes
these gangs of homeless mad dogs more frightening than
wolves is their superior knowledge of human habits and their
hatred of human beings. They have it in for people. They have
no experience hunting for wild game, but people are their
prey.
It’s especially frightening when the gang includes at least
one dog who’s been trained to attack human beings. I once
had a dog, which I took to a private obedience school. The
training programme included attacking a person on com-
mand. The instructor’s assistant would put on a padded coat
with long sleeves and the dog would be taught to attack him
viciously If the dog carried out the command properly, he
would be rewarded with a treat. They sure went through
their paces, those smart-asses!
Man-made mutants
xoi
I wonder if there is any other creature on Earth, apart from
Man, that finds it necessary to teach another species to at-
tack one of the teacher’s own kind.
The dogs around me began to tighten their circle. I needed
to show them, I thought, that I was still alive, that I could
move about and defend myself. I picked up a short stick and
chucked it at the closest mangy bitch. It managed to dodge
the stick and take up a new position. There weren’t any other
sticks within reach. Then I got a couple of tins of preserves
out of my backpack. As I was getting them, the smallest of
the gang — the lap-dog — stole up from behind, tore a piece
out of my trouser-leg with its teeth and then jumped back.
The other dogs watched — probably to see my reaction.
I took one of the tins and chucked it at the nearest large
pooch; the other I threw at the lap-dog. There was nothing
else to throw. My consciousness was overwhelmed with a
sense of hopelessness.
I began imagining how the dogs would tear apart my body
and eat it in pieces and how I would still be conscious for
some time and witness it all and writhe in pain, since the dogs
wouldn’t be able to finish me off all at once. And I had noth-
ing with me to bring on a quick death and escape extended
torture.
One thing I felt especially bad about was that I wouldn’t be
able to deliver my backpack containing the gifts for Anastasia
from my readers, along with various kiddie items a young
child would need.
Half my backpack was taken up with readers’ letters full
of questions and requests. A lot of letters. Most unusual let-
ters. They wrote from the heart, they wrote about their lives,
and there were lots of poems. Maybe not too professionally
crafted, not always rhyming, but still there was something
good about them. And now they would all be lost, rotting
away here in the taiga.
102
Book 3: The Space of Love
And then a thought struck me, out of the blue. I decided
to write a note and place it in the plastic bag with the letters.
A note! If anyone found my backpack, they could take all its
contents and the money too. And they could send the read-
ers’ letters back to my daughter Polina. I told her in the note
to publish them once there were enough royalties from my
book to cover the expense. It would be a crime for so many
soul-inspired poems to be lost forever. Many of their authors
were likely writing the first poem in their life, something that
came straight from their heart. And now the only poem they
ever wrote in their life would be lost.
It was quite a challenge writing the note. My hands were
trembling. From fear, most probably. And just why does Man
cling so tight to life even in a situation where it is absolutely
clear that it’s all over? But I managed to finish the note and
put it in the plastic bag with the letters. I tied the bag tight
so moisture wouldn’t get in.
And then all at once I noticed that the dogs, which had
already come quite close to me, were beginning to exe-
cute a rather strange manoeuvre. One by one they started
crawling away from me. Some of them were sitting up on
their haunches looking in the other direction, away from
me, and then lay down again, as though in ambush. I man-
aged to get up on one leg to take a look and see what had
distracted them. And then I saw... I saw how along the
stream, with leaps and bounds, came running none other
than Anastasia, her magnificent golden hair trailing in the
breeze. And her sweeping stride was so utterly beautiful
that I completely forgot about my own danger in admiring
the scene.
And all of a sudden it hit me: the dogsl They were no doubt
under the impression that their prey might now be taken
from them, and they were getting set to attack the newcomer
running so determinedly toward them.
Man-made mutants
103
These starving dogs, brutalised by the wilds, would vicious-
ly fight for their prey to the end. Anastasia would not be able
to do anything about them all by herself. The dogs would tear
her apart, and I cried out as loud as I could:
“Stop, Anastasia, stop! Dogs! Wild dogs here! Don’t come
this way, Anastasia! Stop!”
Anastasia heard me, but didn’t let up her bounding stride for
a moment. But while she ran she waved her hand in the air.
What has she done now? — I thought. The extraordinary phe-
nomenon she could call upon wouldn’t be able to help her now
As quickly as I could I pulled out of my backpack the little
glass jars of baby food. I started throwing them at the dogs,
trying to attract their attention to myself and away from
Anastasia. One of the jars hit its mark, but the dogs paid no
attention to my efforts.
No doubt they realised who their real threat was. No soon-
er had Anastasia entered their circle than the dogs attacked
her from all sides at once. And then...
Oh, what a sight it was! You’d have had to see it to believe
it. Anastasia transformed all the energy of her run into a spin.
All at once she broke her stride and spun about sharply like a
top, or a ballerina twirling on stage, only faster. Upon striking
Anastasia’s rotating body, the dogs flew off in different direc-
tions without causing her any harm, but then, once she had
stopped spinning, they got ready to launch a new attack.
I crawled over toward Anastasia. She was wearing her short,
light-weight dress. If only she’d been wearing her quilted jack-
et, it would have been harder for the dogs to bite through.
Anastasia got down on one knee. As she knelt there in the
circle of the vicious dogs that were half-crazed by hunger, her
face betrayed no fear. She looked at me and said briskly:
“Hello, Vladimir! Only do not be afraid. Just relax a little.
Let go. Do not worry, they will not do anything to me, these
starving little dogs. Not to worry.”
104
Book 3: The Space of Love
Two huge mutts once more launched an attack on Anastasia
from either side. Without getting up and without ceasing her
talking, a lightning-fast movement of her hands caught each
dog in mid-air by its front paw and spun it around. Moving
her body slightly to one side, she let the two dogs crash into
each other and drop to the ground.
The other dogs had once more taken up a position, no
doubt getting ready for a new attack, but this time they stayed
put.
Anastasia stood up and swept her hand up into the air.
Lowering it, she slapped herself twice on the thigh.
From behind the nearby thickets there suddenly sprang
out four mature wolves. There was such determination in
their headlong dash that it seemed they would not think to
take account of the numbers or strength of the foe before
them. They were spoiling for a fight.
The dogs put their tails between their legs and headed off
lickety-split. The wolves ran right past me, practically spray-
ing me with their hot breath. Right on their heels a young
wolf cub breezed past in a flicker, trying with all his might, in
spite of his shorter stride, not to fall behind the pack. When
he reached the spot where Anastasia was standing, he sud-
denly braked with all four paws, and even did a somersault.
Then he jumped up and gave two licks to the fresh scratch on
Anastasia’s bare foot.
Anastasia abruptly grabbed the cub by his torso and hoist-
ed him up in the air.
“Where are you off to?” she said. “It is not your time yet.
You are still too little.”
The cub began squirming all over in Anastasia’s arms and
whining like a puppy He managed to escape — or, rather, she
herself let him go. Once more on the ground, the cub gave
one more quick lick to Anastasia’s scratch and set off to catch
up with the pack.
Man-made mutants
105
“But why?” I began questioning Anastasia as she headed
over to me. “Why didn’t you call in the wolves right off?
Why?”
Anastasia smiled, and proceeded at once to feel my arms
and legs. With her pure, calming voice she said:
“Please do not worry. I needed to show the dogs that Man
is always superior to them. The wolves they will fear in any
case. But the dogs have begun making attacks on Man. Now
they will no longer attack Man.
“Not to worry. I felt your presence and could tell you were
coming. I ran to meet you. Why did you take such a risk in
coming into the taiga all by yourself? At first I could not find
you, and then I guessed you must have set out on your own.”
Anastasia ran off to one side and plucked up some kind
of grasses. Then she looked in a different place and did the
same. She rubbed the grasses between her hands and care-
fully soothed my sore leg with her moist palms. And she kept
talking non-stop:
“It will go away It will pass quickly. Before you can say
‘Jack Robinson’.”
I noticed Anastasia frequently used proverbs and sayings,
and I asked:
“Where did you pick up these sayings?”
“I sometimes listen to how various people speak. To learn
how to express a greater meaning in just a few words. That
displeases you?”
“Well, sometimes they’re not quite apropos.”
‘And sometimes they are , well, ‘propos’? It is good when
they are ‘propos’?”
“How do you mean, ‘propos’?”
“That was your word. I was just repeating it.”
“Tell me, Anastasia, is it still a long ways to your glade?”
“You have come halfway. Together we shall get there
quickly.”
io 6 Book 3: The Space of Love
“It probably won’t be very quick, as long as my leg hurts
like this.”
“Yes, it may still hurt a bit longer. Let your leg rest, and I
shall help you walk.”
Anastasia hoisted the heavy backpack onto her shoulders.
Then, turning her back to me, squatted down on one knee
and invited me to climb on.
“Take hold of me and climb onto my back.” She said
this with such briskness and determination that I immedi-
ately obeyed, clasping my arms around her neck. Anastasia
promptly rose to her feet and skipped off at a sprightly gait.
And throughout our journey she kept talking on the run.
“Not too heavy for you?” I asked after some time.
“One’s own burdens are light,” replied Anastasia, adding
with a laugh:
“Tm a horse and I’m an ox, I’m a wench and I’m a jock!”'
“Stop. Let me down. I’ll try walking on my own.”
“But you are not too heavy for me. Why do you want to try
on your own?”
“What’s that about a jock? ‘I’m a wench and I’m a jock’,
you said?”
“Just another saying. It was not apropos, eh? Did it offend
you?”
“It’s okay. I simply want to try walking on my own. If you
could just carry my backpack a little while longer.”
“If you want to walk on your own, you will have to rest your
leg at least another hour...” she advised as she gently lowered
me to the ground. “You sit there for a bit, I shall return before
long.” At that Anastasia ran off for a little while on her own.
She presently returned with a bundle of various grasses and
once more began rubbing them into my leg near my ankle.
Then she sat down beside me, and smiled as she slyly eyed my
backpack. All at once she asked:
“Vladimir, please tell me, what is in your backpack?”
Man-made mutants
107
“Some letters from readers. Also gifts they sent me to give
to you. And I’ve bought a little something for the baby.”
“Could you show me the gifts now while we are resting?”
“And will you show me the baby — our son? You’re not go-
ing to tell me that he can’t see me until I’ve cleansed myself?”
“Fine. I shall show you our son. Only not right away.
Tomorrow I shall show you. The first thing you need to do is
to learn a bit about how to converse with him. You will learn
quickly once you see him.”
“Tomorrow’s okay.”
I undid the backpack and began to take out its contents.
First, the gifts for Anastasia. She took each item carefully
in her hands and looked at it with interest, caressing it. She
started playing on the Valdai Bells' — a present from Olga
Sidorovna . 1 2 And when I handed her a beautiful large, colour-
ful shawl — a gift from another very kind woman, Valentina
Ivanovna, I realised right off: women are women, and they all
have a lot in common.
Anastasia took the shawl and turned it over in her hands.
Then she performed a whole series of manipulations with it.
She tied the shawl around her head just like in the picture on
the Aliomishka chocolate bar label , 3 and then in other varia-
tions as well.
Then, with a laugh, she tied the shawl around her waist
in gypsy fashion, before throwing it over her shoulders and
1 Valdai Bells — popular bronze bells made in Valdai (in north-western
Russia on the route between Moscow and St. Petersburg). According to
legend, these bells date back to the 15th century. They were often used on
Russian sleighs pulled by a fast-moving troika of horses sweeping over the
silent snow-covered countryside, and even today are considered a symbol
of freedom and happiness.
2 Sidorovna — like Ivanovna in the following sentence: a patronymic, not a
last name.
io8
Book 3: The Space of Love
parading before me in some kind of folk dance. Then she
neatly folded the shawl and placed it over the presents spread
out on the grass and said:
“Please, Vladimir, say thank you from me to each person,
thank these women for the warmth of their heart that they
sent along with each of these things.”
“I’ll thank everyone I see. But I have nothing more to show
you. The remaining things aren’t for you. They’re for our son.
All the things he needs. Ton can’t use these things — I’ll show
them to you on the spot when we get there.”
“Why do you not want to do this now? We are just sitting
here and resting. I would be most interested in seeing what
you have.”
I didn’t want to show Anastasia right off what I had bought
for our son, since I remembered what she had said back the
first time we met: “You will want to get our son all sorts of
senseless toys, but he will not need them at all. You are the
one who needs them for your own self-satisfaction, so you can
say: ‘Oh, look at me, I’m so good and caring!”’ But then I still
decided to show them to her, since I myself was interested in
how she would react to the achievements of our civilisation in
matters of child-care. I started showing Anastasia the diapers
I had brought, explaining how effectively they absorb mois-
ture when the baby wets them, so he doesn’t perspire. I told
her everything I had seen in the TV commercial. I showed
her the baby food.
“You see, Anastasia, this baby food is simply a mar-
vel. It contains all the substances a baby needs — vitamin
The chocolate bar is actually called Alionka (pron. al-TON-ka ), rather than
Alionushka. The label for this popular chocolate bar, a favourite with
Russian children, shows a little girl with puffy cheeks, wearing a shawl tied
to cover her head and neck. Alionushka’ (another diminutive of Aliona), on
the other hand, is the heroine of a Russian fairy-tale, not connected with
the chocolate bar label.
Man-made mutants
109
supplements too. The main thing is, it’s so easy to prepare,
lust dissolve in warm water, and the food’s ready. Got it?”
“I ‘got it’.”
“Well, now, you see the factory chimneys of our techno-
cratic world aren’t just blowing smoke for nothing. We’ve got
some factories producing baby food like this, and the packag-
ing for it. You see that beautiful baby pictured on the pack-
age, all smiling and rosy-cheeked?”
“I see.”
Fin a lly I showed Anastasia my last gift and commented:
“This is a children’s construction set. A construction set’s
not like a senseless noisemaker. It says here it’s specially de-
signed to help the child develop. He can build a car with it,
like in the picture, or a steam engine, or an aeroplane, or a
house. Well, maybe it’ll suit our son a little later. Right now,
of course, it’s still early for him to make sense of what moves
and flies and how.”
“Why early? He can make sense of all that right now,” re-
plied Anastasia.
“You see, the construction set will help him in this,” I ob-
served.
“Do you think so? Are you certain about that?”
“I’m not the only one who’s certain, Anastasia. There’s a
whole bunch of scientists and psychologists who study chil-
dren’s mental development. You see, their endorsements are
printed right here on the box.”
“Fine, Vladimir, fine. Not to worry. You will do everything
the way you feel you should. Only I would ask you to take a
look first, observe how our son lives. Then you will be able to
determine what his first priorities are.”
“Right. Whatever you say.” I was glad that Anastasia did
not argue with the need for the things I’d brought. I would be
able to have a look for myself and decide.
“In the meantime let us hide your backpack here,” she said.
no
Book 3: The Space of Love
“Then, once you determine what thing is needed first, I shall
run and fetch it, or I shall fetch the whole backpack if neces-
sary. Right now it is heavy to carry. Your leg still hurts after
all, and you do not wish me to carry you.”
“Well, okay, let’s hide it for the time being,” I agreed. “Only
we’ll take the letters with us. There are a lot of questions in
them for you. I didn’t memorise them all.”
“Fine, we shall bring the letters,” Anastasia agreed, taking
the package. Once she had hid my backpack in a safe place, I
leaned my arm on her shoulder, and the two of us headed off
in the direction of her glade.
It was late at night by the time we arrived.
As before, the glade was empty No structures, not even a
lean-to. But somehow I got the feeling that I had come home.
Even my mood was uplifted, and a sense of calm had set in. I
felt like going to sleep. Probably because I had been talking all
the previous night with Alexander. Wow! I thought — there’s
absolutely nothing in this glade, and yet I get the feeling I’ve
come home.
Evidently, one’s sense of home is not in the size of one’s liv-
ing space or even a castle, but in something else.
Anastasia at once took me to her lake and recommended I
bathe. I really didn’t feel like bathing, but I thought I should
be obedient to her in everything, at least for now, so I’d get to
see my son sooner.
When I came out onto the shore after bathing, it was colder
than in the water. Anastasia dried me off with the palms of
her hands, wiped me with some kind of grasses, and my body
began to feel warm, even hot. Then she handed me her dress
and said with a laugh:
“Please put it on, Vladimir. It will be like a night-shirt for
you. I shall soak and wash your clothing, which has a strong
odour coming from it.”
Man-made mutants
hi
I put on Anastasia’s dress. I knew the odour must be elimi-
nated, and that was that.
“So our son won’t be scared off?”
“For him too,” Anastasia replied.
“But it’ll be cold for me to sleep in nothing but a dress.”
“Not to worry, I have already arranged everything. You will
have a good night’s sleep, and you will not be cold. You can
put the packet with the letters under your head for a pillow.
I have thought of everything — you will have a good night’s
sleep, and you will not freeze.”
“With the bear to keep me warm again, eh?... I will not
sleep with a bear. I’ll manage somehow on my own.”
“I have made up your bed so that you will not be too
cold or too hot.”
We went to the dugout where I had slept before. Anastasia
pushed aside the branches hanging over the entrance. I caught
the pleasant aroma from the dried grasses, and crawled into
the dugout, lay down amidst the grasses, and felt the sleep of
sweet languor envelop me all around.
“You can cover yourself with my cardigan, but even without
it, you will still not be cold. If you wish, I shall also lie down
beside you and keep you warm.” I heard Anastasia’s words
through a half-sleep and responded:
“No need. You’d better go to our son, keep him warm...”
“Not to worry, Vladimir. Our son is already capable of han-
dling a great deal on his own.”
“How can he do things on his own? He’s still too young...”
But that was all I could say. I was already immersed in a deep
and calm, blissful sleep.
Chapter Thirteen
I woke in the morning. I felt in such an extraordinarily good
mood that I just lay there thinking I’d better not budge for the
time being, lest the good mood suddenly vanish. What kind of
a night did I have, anyway? And why did I get the impression
in the morning that over the past night my whole body and
consciousness were literally bathed in love? By the light of day
it became clear to me why I had felt neither too cold nor too
hot during the night. I was lying immersed in dry grasses and
flowers, which gave off a pleasant warmth and aroma.
Readers often ask how Anastasia keeps from freezing in
the wintertime, during the cruel Siberian frosts, but it’s re-
ally all so simple: if you bury yourself in a haystack, there are
no frosts to fear. Granted, she has some sort of alternative
source of warmth, given that she can walk about semi-nude
even when it’s +5 01 out and doesn’t get cold. She even goes
swimming then and doesn’t give so much as a shiver when she
comes out of the water.
I continued to lie there in the bliss of my dried grasses and
thought about how the morning breaking meant a new day
had come, and I got the impression as though a new life were
beginning. I thought if only this were the way it could be
every morning, then in one lifetime one could live a thousand
ages, as it were, and each age would be as magnificent as this
morning. But how does one make each new day turn out as
magnificent as this morning?
*+5° (Celsius) — approximately equivalent to +40° Fahrenheit.
A new morning — a new life 1x3
I didn’t get up until I heard Anastasia’s cheerful voice call-
ing out to me:
“God surely gives to him who rises early”
I crawled out of my splendid night-time lodgings . Anastasia
was already standing right up there at the entrance. Her gold-
en hair was woven into a braid, which was tied with grasses at
the end, like a bow. Her new hairdo looked very nice on her.
“Let’s go to the lake — you can wash yourself and get
dressed,” Anastasia proposed, tossing her braid coquettishly
to the front.
Well, now, women are women after all, I thought, and said
to her aloud:
“That’s a very pretty braid you have, Anastasia.”
“Pretty eh? Very, very pretty?” she laughed, as she twirled
around.
We ran to the lake. There on the shore, over some branch-
es, were hanging my shirt, trousers, undershirt — in sum, eve-
rything I had taken off the night before. I felt them, and they
were dry already
“How did you manage to dry them so quickly?”
“I gave them some help,” Anastasia replied. “I put them
on myself and ran about a little wearing your clothes, and
they dried out very quickly Now you will be able to put them
on after your dip in the lake.”
‘And are you going to be taking a dip, too?”
“I have already done everything I need to to greet the
day”
Before I went into the water, Anastasia rubbed my body
down with some sort of paste made from grass. And when
I plunged in, the water all around me began to sizzle and
my body smarted a little, but when I came out, I felt really
refreshed. As though the pores of my skin were starting to
breathe with great intensity all by themselves, each one talcing
in air individually My overall breathing was free and easy.
Book 3: The Space of Love
114
Just as she had done the night before, Anastasia, ever
cheerful and playful, began once more to rub the moisture off
my body with her hands. As she was rubbing my back, I sud-
denly felt something hot unexpectedly spurt down my spine.
It happened once, then again — I turned about sharply and
there she was, squeezing her breast with both hands, aiming
a stream of warm breast milk right into my face, then from
the other breast a stream of milk spurted onto my chest. And
then she let loose with a fast rub up and down my body, ac-
companied by a roar of laughter.
“What are you doing that for?” I asked, when I had recov-
ered from my surprise.
“Because! Because!” guffawed Anastasia, as she handed me
my shirt and trousers. They too did not smell the way they
did before, and I noticed this as soon as I put them on. Then
I said to Anastasia, in a serious tone:
“Okay I’ve done everything as you wished. Now let me see
our son.”
“Fine. We shall go. Only, please, Vladimir, do not try to
approach him right off. Watch him for a while at first, try to
understand him.”
“Fine, I’ll watch, okay! And I’ll understand.”
We went back to the glade which was now so familiar to
me. When we reached the bushes at the edge of the glade
Anastasia said:
“Let us sit here quietly and watch: he will be waking up
now and you will see him.”
Beside a tree at the edge of the glade the bear was lying on
her side, but I couldn’t see any baby I was getting more and
more excited, and my heart started beating strangely.
“Where is he?” I asked Anastasia with bated breath.
“Look more closely,” she replied. “Look, you can see his
little head and feet sticking out from under the bear’s paw.
That is where he sleeps, in her groin. It is soft and warm
A new morning — a new life
115
there, and she keeps her paw on top of him — not pressing
down, but just to provide a little covering.”
And I saw the scene. The boy’s tiny body was resting in a
cradle of thick bear fur, in the huge beast’s groin, under her
slightly raised front paw The bear was lying on her side with-
out stirring, turning only her head from side to side as she
looked around. The wee little legs wiggled in the thick fur, at
which point the bear raised her paw a little more.
The baby was waking up. When he moved his arm, the
bear raised her paw. When his arm dropped back to his side,
she lowered her paw a little. Only her paw and head moved.
There was not a stir from the rest of her body
“How can she lie like that without stirring? Isn’t it uncomfort-
able to maintain that one position the whole time?” I asked.
“She can lie like that without stirring for a long, long time.
And it is not hard for her at all. She is just so thrilled when
he crawls into his little bed. And now she has started to take
herself very seriously She has a sense of responsibility When
the time approached to start a family, she did not even let her
intended mate come near her. That is not too good. But when
our son grows a little, she will allow her mate to approach her
again.”
As I listened to Anastasia I couldn’t take my eyes off my
son — I watched as the little feet once again wiggled beneath
the bear’s huge paw. Then the paw went up in the air.
The baby moved his arms and legs, stretched himself,
raised his head, then all at once stopped moving.
“Why did he stop moving? Is he going to go back to sleep?”
I asked Anastasia.
“Look more closely, he is going piddle. The bear did not
manage to let him down to the ground on time, or perhaps
she did not want to — she really spoils him, you know.”
The little fountain kept trickling onto the bear’s fur. Like
the bov, she too had stopped moving — even her head and
ii 6
Book 3: The Space of Love
her paw — until the fountain had ceased its trickle. Then the
bear began to turn over onto her other side, and the baby slid
down to the ground.
“All right. You see , she thinks he will go on to do his Number
Two, our little Man,” Anastasia said cheerfully.
The tiny human body lay on the grass, tensing its abdomen
muscles in preparation for his ‘Number Two’, while above it
hovered the enormous bear. It seemed as though the bear
was helping the baby along with her rumbling sounds, as if
going through a similar preparation herself. The boy turned
over on his stomach, started moving his arms and crawling
across the grass on all fours. His little bottom had got dirty
from his pooping. The bear went over to him and lapped his
tiny bottom with her enormous tongue, wiping off the poop,
just like a nanny. She gave the boy a push with her tongue,
and he plopped on his tummy, but got up again on all fours
and went on crawling. The bear followed him and gave his
bottom still another lapping, even though it was already clean
by now.
“What do you think, Vladimir? Do you think she would be
able to take off his dirty diapers or underpants and put new
ones on?” Anastasia asked quietly.
“Okay, okay!” I responded, also in a whisper. “I get it.”
The boy turned over onto his back, and when the bear per-
sisted in lapping his thighs, he made a nimble move and his
little hand latched on to the fur on the bear’s muzzle.
In response to what looked to be insignificant movements
by the boy’s hand, the bear proceeded to rest her huge head
on the ground at his feet. He grabbed hold of her muzzle,
reached up with his other hand and started climbing up the
bear’s head.
“Where on earth is he going?” I queried.
“To the bear’s eyes,” responded Anastasia. “Her eyes spar-
kle. They fascinate him, and he always wants to touch them.”
A new morning — a new life
117
The boy lay on his tummy on the bear’s muzzle and looked
at one of her eyes. He then tried touching it with his finger,
but all at once her eye snapped shut. The boy’s finger poked
at her eyelid. After waiting a little while longer and still not
seeing any sparkling eye, the boy began climbing down from
the bear’s muzzle, then crawled a little way across the grass,
and stopped to look at something on the ground. The bear
got up and roared twice.
“She’s calling the wolf. She needs to clean herself up and
have something to eat. Now you will see how they have a
friendly conversation amongst themselves,” Anastasia com-
mented.
A few moments later the she-wolf appeared at the edge of
the glade. The bear did not show any signs of welcoming her
presence, but greeted her with a threatening roar. The wolf’s
own behaviour was far from friendly She surveyed the whole
glade. She pranced a bit around the edge, lay down, then took
a big leap and lay down again, as though ready to pounce.
“What kind of friendly conversation do you call that?!” I
asked. “Why did the bear call her, and then roar at her like
that? And the wolf seems pretty threatening herself!”
“That is the way they talk with each other. The bear
stopped the wolf with her roar to make sure everything was
in order with her. To check that she was not sick with any-
thing, that it was not dangerous to let her approach a child
of Man, that she was strong enough to defend him. The wolf
showed that she was completely prepared. She showed it by
her actions, not with words. You saw how she walked past
and jumped pretty high.”
Indeed, the bear, after observing the wolf, calmly shuffled
off out of the glade. The wolf lay down on the grass not far
from the little one. The baby kept staring at something for a
while longer, feeling the grass. Then he noticed the wolf and
crawled toward her. As he approached, he began feeling her
iiS
Book 3: The Space of Love
muzzle with his hands, stroking her teeth with his finger, pat-
ting her tongue. The wolf lapped his face, at which point lit-
tle Vladimir crawled onto her stomach, felt the wolf’s nipples,
sucked his hand all over and screwed his face into a frown.
“Time for our son to eat,” Anastasia began speaking again.
“But he is not yet so hungry that he will drink the wolf’s milk.
I am going to leave you for a little bit, while you sit here at
the edge of the glade. If he sees you and is interested, he will
crawl over to you. Only do not pick him up yourself. He is
already a Man, even if small in appearance. Lie will not un-
derstand meaningless cooing sounds. Besides, violence may
result if you try to pick him up against his will. He will not
understand that. Even if you do it with good intentions, but
without his permission, you will make a bad impression on
him.”
“Right,” I said. “I shall not try to pick him up. I’ll just sit
here like this. But the wolf — she won’t touch me?”
“With the scent you have now, she will not touch you.”
Anastasia clapped her thigh twice. The wolf got up, turn-
ing her head in Anastasia’s direction. Then, after a glance at
the baby, who had started playing again with some land of
bug, she ran over to Anastasia.
Anastasia came up very near to me. She summoned the
wolf to approach closer, then gestured to her to lie down.
“Can I stroke her, to finally make friends with her?” I sug-
gested.
“She will not appreciate any condescending familiarity on
your part. She understands everything and will not touch you,
but she will not tolerate any display of superiority,” Anastasia
replied. She sent the wolf back out into the glade and ran
off to tend to some affairs of her own, promising to return
shortly.
I emerged from behind the bushes, where Anastasia and
I had hid ourselves to observe the scene taking place in the
A new morning — a new life
119
glade. I came out and sat down on the grass about ten me-
tres 2 from little Vladimir. I sat there that way for about fif-
teen minutes. He didn’t pay the slightest attention to me. I
thought that as long as I continued sitting quietly, he would
never pay any attention to me. And so I gave a couple of clicks
with my tongue.
The little one turned his head and looked at me. My son!
My very own son had his eyes fixed on me with fascination,
and I was excitedly looking at him. I could even feel a flush
ail through my body from the excitement.
I had the urge to run and take his little body into my arms,
squeeze him and press him against my chest. But Anastasia’s
request and (more significantly) the presence of the wolf held
me back.
And then my little son began slowly crawling toward me.
He kept his eyes fixed on me all the while he was crawling.
My heart started beating so loud in my chest that I could hear
it — what was it beating like that for? Maybe it would fright-
en the little one away, it was pounding so.
But he kept crawling and crawling, and again something in
the grass caught his eye, and he began poking around after
a little bug. Then he began to examine something crawling
along his arm. At this point he was three metres away My
little son had stopped short in his crawling only three metres
away from me!
All over some bug. And what kind of world was out there
in the grass, what kind of life had taken his fancy so? What
kind of order or rules do they have in the forest anyway?
Here’s this little boy with his very own father right in front of
him, and he’s more interested in some kind of bug! That’s not
the way it should be. The child should know that his father is
more important than a bug.
“ ten metres — approximately equivalent to 33 feet.
120
Book 3: The Space of Love
All at once the little one looked up again in my direction,
showed me a toothless smile, and quickly started crawling
again, more nimbly than before. I was all prepared to pick
him up, but then noticed that he kept on crawling right past
me, not paying any attention to me.
I looked around and saw Anastasia standing all smiles be-
hind me, a little to one side. She sat down and put her hand
on the ground, palm upturned. The boy smiled and climbed
up to his mother’s breast. Anastasia didn’t pick him up, but
ever so gently helped him climb up, ever so gently helped
him reach her breast. Now he was already in her arms, clap-
ping his tiny hands against the exposed breast and smiling
at Anastasia. Then, after feeling and stroking her nipple, he
closed his lips tight about it and began sucking on the supple
breast. Anastasia in the meantime just gave one look at me,
putting her finger to her lips to let me know I should keep
quiet. I sat there the whole time without uttering a word
while she fed our son.
It seemed as though all during the feeding Anastasia was to-
tally oblivious to my presence. Indeed, she did not seem to be
aware of the world around her at all. The whole time she con-
centrated her gaze on our son. And it also seemed as though
they were somehow communicating with each other. This im-
pression came from the fact that after sucking for quite awhile
the baby would suddenly stop, turn away from the nipple and
look into Anastasia’s face. Sometimes he would be smiling, at
other times his face had a serious expression. Then he became
very still and slept for awhile in his mother’s arms. When he
awoke, his face once again broke into a smile, and Anastasia
sat him on the palm of her hand, supporting his back.
Their faces were very close together, and the baby would
feel Anastasia’s face with his hands, and press his cheek
against hers. Then he spied me once again. And once more
he fell still for a while, staring at me in fascination.
A new morning — a new life 121
All at once he reached out his little hand toward me, inched
his body forward in my direction and uttered the sound eh.
Involuntarily I reached out my hands to him, and at that
point Anastasia handed him over to me.
Here I was holding in my arms the tiny body of my very
own son — the son I had so greatly desired! Everything else
in the world vanished into oblivion. And I had the strong
urge to do something for him. The baby felt my face, pressed
his lips against it. Then he recoiled with a frown, apparently
feeling the prickles on my unshaven face. After that — I don’t
know how it happened, but I got an uncontrollable urge to
Iciss his warm little cheek. And I resolved to kiss him! But
instead of a kiss I somehow ended up giving his cheek two
quick laps, the way the wolf did.
The boy recoiled from me and began batting his eyelids in
amazement. Anastasia’s loud trills of laughter filled the glade.
The baby at once reached out his little hands toward her and
started laughing too, squirming in my arms. I realised he was
asking to be released. My son was leaving me. Obedient to
his will and the established rules of communication here, I
carefully put him down on the grass. He immediately crawled
over to Anastasia. She jumped up with a laugh, ran around me
and sat down on the other side of me, very close. Whereupon
the little one turned around and with a big smile crawled over
to the two of us. He climbed into Anastasia’s arms and once
more began to feel my face.
This is how I first communicated with my son.
Chapter Fourteen
My son, my little Vladimir, finally fell asleep. After his feed-
ing he played for a while with something in the grass. He felt
a cedar cone which had fallen to the ground and tried to lap it.
He looked up at the clouds floating by in the sky. He listened
to the birds sing, then climbed up a little hill, where the grass
was thicker, curled up, closed his eyes, smiled at something,
and fell asleep. Anastasia ran off to take care of some sort
of tasks of her own. I set out for a walk in the forest alone,
immersing myself in thought to the exclusion of everything
around me. At the same time I couldn’t get rid of the alter-
nating feelings of joy and disappointment.
I sat down under a cedar tree at the edge of the lake and
decided to just sit there without moving until I thought of
some way that I as a parent could contribute to my child’s
upbringing. I had to think of something to make him feel his
father was the most important thing in his life.
When Anastasia approached, I didn’t feel like talking with
her at first. It was her laughter, in fact, that had distracted
my son from me. Anastasia sat quietly by my side, her hands
clutching her knees, thoughtfully contemplating the calm
waters of the lake. She was the first to speak.
“Please do not be offended at me. Your communication
struck me as so funny I could not restrain myself.”
“That’s not what I’m bothered about.”
“What is it then?”
“Many readers’ letters ask about how to bring up children,
they want me to ask you everything about your system of
A father’s role
123
raising children and to describe it in my next book. But what
is there here to describe? There is no system — quite the op-
posite. What you have here is some kind of anti-system. For
example, what should fathers do under such circumstanc-
es? — a reader might ask.”
“You used a most appropriate word — anti-system — you
can describe that.”
“But who would be interested in that? People are looking
for practical guides where it tells them what they should do
with their baby when he’s say, one month old, and then when
he’s two months old, and so on. An hourly schedule. Books
that offer a dietary programme. A complete timetable for
bringing up the child according to his age. But here you have
only a complete indulgence of the child’s whims. An all-per-
missive attitude.”
“Tell me, Vladimir, what do you want our son to be like
when he grows up?”
“What do you mean, what do I want him to be like? Of
course I want him to be a happy, normal and successful indi-
vidual.”
‘And are there many happy people amongst your acquaint-
ances?”
“Happy? Well, if you’re talking about completely happy
people, I’d have to say: probably not very many Everybody’s
got something not quite right with their lives. Either there’s
not enough money, or they’re plagued by illness or family
squabbles. But I want my son to avoid any kind of unpleasant
experiences.”
“Then think about it: how can he avoid them if you delib-
erately squeeze him into the system everyone is brought up
in? And think: might there not be a certain pattern in the
fact that all parents want to see their children happy, and yet
they grow up and turn out just like everyone else — not very
happy?”
124
Book 3: The Space of Love
‘A pattern?” I queried. “What kind of pattern? If you
know, tell me yourself.”
“Let us ponder this question together.”
“This is something people have been thinking about for
ages, Anastasia. All kinds of scholars and specialists are pon-
dering it. For this they have invented all sorts of systems of
child-rearing, worked out schedules, trying to find the most
efficient system.”
“Take a more careful look around you, Vladimir. See the
trees, grasses and flowers growing. How could one possibly
draw up an advance schedule of the days and hours when they
should be watered? You would not go watering flowers when
they were being washed with water from heaven simply be-
cause someone worked out a detailed schedule for watering
them.”
“Now you’re going too far. That’s just nonsense — that’s
not an example for raising children. It’s not something that
can happen in life.”
“But you know, Vladimir, this is exactly what does happen in
life. No matter what the system. It is still only a system. It is
always calculated to wean the heart and soul away from Man
when he is still small and to subject him to the system. So
that he grows up like everyone else, in a way that will fit the
system. And so it goes on for ages on end, so as to prevent the
human soul from experiencing clarity of vision. To prevent
Man from discovering himself in his beauty as a whole, with a
God-given soul. Yes, Man! The ruler of all the Universe.”
“Hold on a moment, don’t get carried away beyond my
reach, speak calmly using everyday^ speech. What do parents
need to do to make it so? So that children will grow up, as you
say, with a soul that is free? To be rulers of the Universe, and
happy? As God Himself has wished?”
“They must not interfere, they need to see their chil-
dren clearly in their own thinking the way God Himself has
A father’s role
125
wished. It is the aspiration of all the forces of Light in the
Universe that each newborn child be endowed with the very
best of creation. It is the parents’ duty not to hide the crea-
tive Light under the erudition of invented dogmas. For ages
upon the Earth debates have arisen as to which system might
be the wisest. But think about it yourself, Vladimir. Debates
arise where Truth is hid from sight. Fruitless debates can go
on forevermore as to what might be found behind the closed
door. But one has only to open the door and it will be clear to
all, and there will be nothing to debate, since everyone will be
able to see the Truth for himself.”
“But in the final analysis, who will open this door?”
“It is already open. All that remains is for the eyes of the
soul to be opened to see and gain awareness.”
“Gain awareness of what?”
“You were asking me about systems. You were mentioning
the schedules and everyday regimes and how someone sets
them forth for people in books. But think about it: who can
tell more clearly about creation than the Creator Himself?”
“But the Creator doesn’t tell anything. Up to now He has
said hardly a word. Nobody hears His words.”
“Words thought up by Man have many meanings. The
Creator patiently and lovingly speaks with each one of us
through splendid, imperishable acts. The rising of the Sun
and the silvery sheen of the Moon, the soft mist and tender
dew, playing with the Sun’s ray and drinking in the heavenly
blue. The Universe is filled with so many clear examples like
that. Just look around you. They touch you and everyone else
too.”
Again, if everything Anastasia said about child-rearing
were to be laid out, the result would probably be the complete
opposite of how we handle this matter today.
I have already said that Anastasia, along with all her fore-
bears through the ages, treats a newborn as a deity or an
126
Book 3: The Space of Love
immaculate angel. They consider it totally unacceptable to
interfere with the child’s thought process.
Anastasia’s grandfather and great-grandfather were able
to observe for long periods at a time how their little grand-
daughter would be fascinated by a bug or a flower, or the
contemplation of something. They tried their best not to
distract her with their presence. They would converse with
her only when she herself paid attention to them and showed
a desire to communicate. Anastasia maintained that at the
very moment I was observing little Vladimir contemplating
something in the grass, he was becoming aware not only of
the bugs but of all creation.
According to her, a bug is a more perfect mechanism than
any manufactured product, let alone a primitive construc-
tion set.
A child provided with the opportunity to communicate
with these perfect beings will himself become more perfect
than through communication with primitive lifeless objects.
Besides, as she maintains, every blade of grass, every bug, is
interrelated with the whole of creation and subsequently aids
the child in becoming aware of the essence of the Universe
and of himself as part of it, to become aware of his innate pur-
pose. Artificially created objects have no such connection
and do not arrange priorities and values in the child’s brain in
the right way
To my observation that the conditions in which she — and
now our son — were being brought up were totally different
from those in which children of our civilised world are to be
raised, she responded as follows:
“Even in the mother’s womb, and especially when a helpless
infant, as it seems, is given birth in the world, the forces of Light
in the Universe rejoice. They rejoice in the trembling hope that
the newly arrived immaculate Godlike Man will become their
kind ruler and intensify the Light of Love from the Earth.
A father’s role
127
“Everything has already been provided for him by the
Creator. Through a bug, a tree, a blade of grass, a seemingly
ferocious beast, the Universe is prepared to be a good nurse
for him. Even in a Man outwardly small we see the great work
of the Creator of all. In a burst of bright inspiration Man has
been co-created by the Creator. And with his birth has been
created for him a Paradise on Earth.
“Nothing and no one has power over the Creator’s su-
preme co-creation. His burst of love and bright inspiration
are already comprehended in each engendered moment for
the world.
“Of all the beings in the unfathomable Universe only one
is capable of influencing his destiny by coming between God,
Paradise, a star of happiness and Man.”
“So,” I queried, “does that mean that there is a being in the
world more powerful than God?”
“There is nothing in the world more powerful than Divine
inspiration,” replied Anastasia. “But there is a being equal to
it in power, capable of coming between God — the most ten-
der educator — and the angelic child — Man.”
‘And who is that, how is he called?”
“That being is Man the parent l’
“What? But how can it happen that parents can wish un-
happiness for their children?”
“Everyone wants happiness. But they have forgotten the
path to happiness. That is why they are perpetrating violence
out of good intentions.”
“Can you offer proof, even just a little, of what you say?” I
asked.
“You spoke ofvarious systems of raising children,” Anastasia
responded. “Think about it. There are many systems. But
there is only one Truth. And this alone means that the many
are leading in the wrong direction.”
“Flow can one tell the true system from a false one?”
128
Book 3: The Space of Love
“Try to look at life with an open heart. Purify thought
from vain and fruitless art, and then you will see the world,
the Creator of the Universe and yourself.”
“Where are the eyes of the heart, in place of ordinary eyes?
Who is capable of discerning all this? Couldn’t you talk about
things in more specific terms? And in simpler, conversation-
al phrases? You said that your language would be similar to
mine, but you are talking differently. And you are malting me
talk like you. I can sense how you are talking differently.”
“Only a wee bit differently And you will be able to remem-
ber the gist of what I say And my speech will mix with yours.
And do not worry do not feel shy about the combinations of
words you use. Your language will be understandable to many
people. It will reveal to many hearts the essence concealed
in those very hearts. Let the poetry of the Universe express
itself in the way you write.”
“What’s going on here? I don’t want anyone to change the
way I write.”
“But yet you were offended when a journalist called your
language ‘stilted’. I, along with your readers, can make it so
your language may leap from ‘stilted’ into ‘the best-sounding
of all time’.”
“Well, okay, let’s have it that way down the road, but for
now I just want to hear simple language. As it is, the issue is
so complex, it is incomprehensible. I low does it all happen,
and how come parents are closing off the path to happiness for
their children? And is that in fact what is really happening?
First of all I have to be convinced that that’s really the case.”
“Fine. If you want to be convinced, try recalling scenes
from your own childhood.”
“But that’s hard to do. Not everyone can recall things that
happened in their infancy”
‘And why might that be? Is it not because memory attempts
to spare our feelings and excise what is empty and fruitless? It
A father’s role
129
tries to erase any suggestion of hopelessness, to rub out what
you experienced in your mother’s womb when you sensed the
world’s verbal abuse through the sufferings of your mother.
Do you want me to help you recall the other things?”
“Well, you can give it a try What other things were there
that have gone from my memory?”
“The other things are not things you wish to remember —
you are reluctant to remember how you, the ruler of the
Universe, lay all by yourself helpless in your crib. You were
so tightly wrapped up, it was like being bound in a cocoon,
and smiling people decided when you should eat and when
you should sleep. You wanted to think everything through
for yourself, to make sense of what was going on. But so of-
ten they would simply make cooing sounds and toss you up
toward the ceiling. But what for? — you never got a chance
to think about that. After growing a little, you began to see
a great many things around you that had no voice and no
heart. But you were not allowed to touch them. You could
touch only those things which people handed you. And you
resigned yourself to trying to figure out: where was the per-
fection in any of the joy-toys you were offered? But there was
no way you could have found, in this absurd primitive object,
what had never been there in the first place and never could.
“But still you kept searching, you did not completely give
up — you felt things with your hands, you tried to bite them,
but to no avail. You did not find any explanation. That was
when you first wavered, you who were born to be ruler of the
Universe. You decided that you were unable to decide any-
thing for yourself. You were betrayed by those who gave you
birth, and you betrayed yourself.”
“You talk about the events of my life. Was there anything
in which I was different from other kids?”
“I am talking specifically about you. And about those who
are listening to me at the moment.”
130
Book 3: The Space of Love
“So that must mean there are many rulers of the Universe, if
each one of us is born to be one. But how can that be? What
sense does it make being a ruler, if there are many ruling over
the same thing? Or does that mean there are many universes?”
“There is one Universe. Just one. Indivisible. But in that
one Universe each one has his own space, and is responsible
for the whole. Each one is responsible.”
“So where is it — my space, I mean?”
“It has been lost. But you will find it!”
“When did I manage to lose it?”
“When you gave up.”
“What do you mean, I ‘gave up? I was just like all the other
kids.”
“Like all the other children, you believed in the kindness
of people around you, you believed in your parents, you be-
gan more and more to repress your own desires. And you
accepted their belief that you were nothing but an ignorant,
insignificant youngster.
“And the sensations inculcated in you by the abuse of your
childhood keep on haunting you throughout your life, even
to the point of attempting to reproduce themselves in your
offspring. You went to school like everyone else. There you
were told how Man was nothing but a monkey How he was
a primitive creature. How foolish he was to believe in God.
You were told about how there was just one leader who knew
everything. A leader chosen by the people. A leader who
alone was more worthy and more intelligent than anyone else.
And you got carried away with poems about that leader. You
began glorifying him without a second thought.”
“It wasn’t just that I extolled and read verse as I was told —
I actually believed it back then.”
“Yes, many people read verse. There were even competi-
tions to see who could extol him better than anyone else. And
you tried to be the best.”
A father’s role
13 1
“So did everyone else back then.”
“Yes, the whole system demanded that everyone have the
same aspirations. And thereby perpetrated violence on eve-
ryone. It tried to break people to preserve itself.
“But then, all at once, part way through your life, you dis-
covered that there were a lot of systems out there and that
they were all different. Then you discovered that Man, quite
possibly, was never a monkey. And the very wise leader turned
out to be a very stupid tyrant. And it turned out that your
generation had been living life all wrong. Now there was a
new system to live by.
‘And then you became a parent. And unthinkingly you hand-
ed over your daughter to the new system, as though you were
doing her a favour. You were not thinking, as you did before.
You used to wonder when your toys made noise, but you don’t
wonder any more. Having accepted abuse yourself as a normal
state of affairs, you began abusing your own child. Century af-
ter century various systems have come and gone, one after the
other, but all with a single goal — to kill you, a ‘ruler’ and wise
creator, and transform you into a soulless slave.
“The system always operates through parents. And
through those who proclaim themselves to be wise teachers.
They will come up with new teachings, thereby engendering
a whole new system. And it does not take much investigation
to see clearly that they are motivated by the age-old ambition
to separate you from God. To come between you and make
both you and God try to live and work only for them. This
is the core of any system. And you, Vladimir, started asking
me to create yet another system. I shall not be able to fulfil
your request. You must look around you. Try to make sense
of things through your heart alone.”
“Tell me, Anastasia, what about our son? Do you mean to
say that living out here in the dense taiga, among all the wild
beasts, he has not known violence, even in the least?”
i3 2
Book 3: The Space of Love
“He knows neither violence nor fear. He is ever more con-
fident that everything here is subject to Man and that Man is
answerable for everything.”
“But wasn’t it violence, at least in a small degree, when the
bear lapped his dirty bottom after he woke up? When he fell
on his stomach after the bear lapped him? And she did this
a second time after he began crawling again. And the sec-
ond time he fell down. The way I saw it, he really didn’t like
the bear lapping him like that. That was why he grabbed the
bear by her muzzle, so she would stop pushing him with her
tongue.”
‘And right at that point the bear slopped lapping him. A lit-
tle later he will realise the significance of this procedure, but
right now he sees it as a game. He himself plays with the bear
and wants her to chase him.”
“You say Man is the wisest creature in the Universe,
Anastasia, but here our son is being raised by wild animals.
That’s not quite normal. I saw one time on TV how they
showed a person who was already grown up. As a young lad
he had landed among wolves, and when he was grown up peo-
ple caught him, and it was a long time before he could talk
anything like a human being. He seemed quite backward
mentally.”
‘As far as our son is concerned,” Anastasia replied, “all the
wild animals around do not serve as child-raisers, but rather
as good, kind, capable nannies, who sincerely love our little
boy And there is no doubt they would be ready at any mo-
ment to give their lives for their little fellow”
“Have you been giving them this kind of training for a long
time? Did your grandfather and great-grandfather help you?”
“What need is there for training? Everything was done
ages ago by the Creator.”
“But how could He have foreseen everything in advance,
to be able to teach each creature what to do in any given
A father’s role
133
instance? Back there in the glade, as I was watching, our son
was looking at the squirrels, and one in particular caught his
fancy He held out his little hand to it, smiled, and uttered a
drawn-out eh sound. And the squirrel dashed right over to
him — that same squirrel that had caught his eye. The lit-
tle one then played with it, took it by its paw and stroked its
tail. Now how could the Creator have foreseen this particular
situation and taught the squirrel what to do?”
“The Creator is wise. He made everything more simple
and to perfection.”
“How?”
“From a Man who is free from aggression, selfishness, fear
and many other dark feelings which came along later, ema-
nates the Light of Love. Even though it is invisible to the
eye, it is stronger than the light of the Sun. Its energy is life-
giving. The way the Creator arranged things, only Man is en-
dowed with such a tremendous ability. Only Man! He alone
is capable of bringing warmth to all living creatures. That is
why all living creatures are drawn to him.
“As Vladimir, our little son, was paying attention to the
squirrels, he fixed his gaze on one of them in particular,
concentrated his attention on it, and his warmth went out
to that little squirrel. In this warmth the creature felt a
sense of grace, and rushed toward the source, and was de-
lighted to play with him. Our son can summon any animal
that way.
“Thanks to the Creator all newborns have such an abil-
ity — • when they are still in the Space of Love and nothing
has yet erased this magnificent element within them. The
Space of Love begins with the mother’s womb, and then only
spreads apace. Only Man is endowed with the power to wreck
or perfect this Space.
“My grandfather did train the eagle — you remember
that — and thereby introduced a new element into the Space
134
Book 3: The Space of Love
of Love. This is what my forebears — my forefathers and fore-
mothers — have been doing from time immemorial. Now,
tomorrow will be a special day, and you will see what happens.
Tomorrow will be an important day for the future.”
Chapter Fifteen
The next day we went to the glade and, as before, watched
from a concealed vantage-point as our little son was engrossed
in his play. The wolf lay at the edge of the glade, following
everything with a keen eye. Her cubs played by her side. I
noticed little Vladimir from time to time sticking his finger
in his mouth and sucking on it, as all children that age do, for
some reason. I knew parents are supposed to dissuade their
offspring from this habit by some means or other — either by
binding the child’s hands with cloth or by giving him a sooth-
er. I mentioned this to Anastasia, and she replied:
“Not to worry, this is extremely beneficial. Our son is lick-
ing pollen from his fingers.”
“Pollen? What kind of pollen?”
“Pollen from the flowers and the grass. He touches the
flowers and grass with his hands. Sometimes bugs will crawl
across his hand, and they carry pollen too, on their legs. See,
he is frowning. And taking his finger out of his mouth. That
means he did not like the taste of some kind of grass pollen.
Now he is bending down and trying to put a flower into his
mouth to see how it tastes. Let him do that. Let him taste
the Universe.”
“The Universe and a little flower — what’s the connection?
Or is it simply a figure of speech?”
“Everything alive in the world has a connection with the
Universe.”
“But how? Where? Where can one see this connection?
What instrument is capable of measuring it?”
136
Book 3: The Space of Love
“One does not need an instrument. One needs only one’s
soul. Then you will be able to see and understand what is vis-
ible around us every day, many times over.”
“What can be seen — and then understood — with the
soul? Give me an example.”
“Take the Sun, for instance. It is far away from us — a
planet of the Universe — yet as soon as it rises, it touches a
flower with its ray, and the flower opens in delight. It seems
as though they are so far apart from each other — the great
huge orb of day and the tiny wee flower, but they are linked
together. One cannot exist without the other.”
Anastasia unexpectedly fell silent and began looking up. I
looked up too. I saw a large eagle circling over the glade. I
had seen eagles something like that at the zoo. It kept cir-
cling lower and lower, and all at once it touched down with its
talons about two metres from the boy The inertia of its flight
kept it moving along the ground for a while. Then, after shak-
ing its feathers all over, it stood forth proud in the glade.
The wolf pricked up her ears. Her fur was standing on end,
but she made no move to attack the eagle, which was now
strutting proudly across the glade.
The little one got all excited. He sat down on his little bare
bottom and — without any awareness of danger — stretched
out his hands toward the fearsome bird.
Strutting slowly on its talons, the eagle came right up close
to the boy. Its hooked beak hung right over his little head.
The boy apparently felt himself in no danger whatsoever.
He began to feel the eagle’s feathers and touched its talon-
tipped legs. He clapped his little hand against the eagle’s
chest and smiled.
All at once its huge beak touched the boy’s head — then a
second time, as if looking for something on it. Then the eagle
went off to one side and spread its wings. With a beat of its
wings it rose slightly off the ground, and again touched down
A bird for discovering one’s sold
137
and stood still. The boy stretched out his arms in the direc-
tion of the huge, threatening bird and began uttering sounds:
eh, e-e-eh.
And all at once the eagle... The eagle went behind the boy’s
back, and all of a sudden started running, and then it took
flight! It circled low over the glade, dived down and without
landing picked up the boy in its enormous talons.
But the talons did not pierce his flesh.
The eagle thrust its sharp claws under the boy’s armpits
and began circling low over the glade, beating its wings and
trying to lift the little one off the ground.
The boy jerked his trailing feet along the grass, sometimes
ever so slightly lifting them into the air. The boy’s eyes were
bulging, sparkling with the fire of excitement. And then, all
at once, they rose into the air! They had risen a metre above
the ground when they achieved synchronicity — when the
push of the little feet against the ground coincided with the
beat of the eagle’s wings.
The eagle kept circling, lifting the two of them gradually high-
er, but the boy didn’t cry out. They simply flew, rising together
into the deep blue. By this time the eagle had lifted the boy
above the tops of the tall cedars and was continuing to climb.
Overcome with shock, and still speechless, I seized
Anastasia’s arm. Her eyes remained fixed on the sky as she
whispered to herself:
“hou are still the strong one! Bravo! And you may indeed
be old, but you are still strong. Your wings are still mighty
Fly! Fly even higher!”
And the eagle, bearing in its talons the wee child’s little
body, kept circling and climbing higher and higher into the
heavenly blue.
“What’s the point of subjecting the child to an execu-
tion like this? Why expose him to such danger?” I yelled at
Anastasia, as soon as I had recovered from shock.
138
Book 3: The Space of Love
“Please do not worry, Vladimir. The eagle’s ascent is not
nearly as dangerous as the aeroplanes on which you yottrself
have flown.”
“But what if he drops the boy from way up there?”
“He would never even think of such a thing! You just relax,
do not allow either fear or doubt into your thoughts. The ea-
gle’s flight is making an extremely significant contribution to
our son’s conscious awareness. Note that the eagle has lifted
the child above our Earth.”
“What significance can there be here,” I countered, “ex-
cept for superstition? It is quite true that Man should not
interfere in great works of creation. With that I agree. But
an ascent like this was not provided for by the Creator. You
yourself, along with your grandfather, taught the bird to do
this. Out of some kind of superstition, most likely. What else
could it be? There’s no point in taking such a risk!”
“When I was little,” came Anastasia’s reply, “I too flew up
high with this same eagle. I did not have a great deal of un-
derstanding back then, but it was so interesting, so extraordi-
nary The glade seemed so small from up high. And the Earth
seemed so broad and unfathomable. Everything was so bright,
and this extraordinary experience stayed with me for a long
time, for ever. When I had grown some — by this time I was
three years old — Great-Grandfather asked me a question:
‘“Tell me, Anastasia, do all the creatures like it when you
stroke and caress them with your hand?’
“‘Yes, they all do. They keep wagging their tails to show
how much they like my caressing. The grass and the flowers
and the trees like it too, but not all of them have tails to wag,
to show how good it feels to be stroked.’
“‘So, everything desires to feel the embrace of your hand?’
“‘Yes, everything living and growing, small or large.’
“And the wide Earth also wants to be caressed? You have
seen the Earth, how wide it is?’
A bird for discovering ones said
139
‘At this point I recalled the vivid experience I had had with
the eagle as a baby. The size of the Earth was not something I
knew just from hearsay And so I answered Great-Grandfather
without hesitating:
‘“The Earth is wide, you cannot see its edge. But if every-
one wants to be caressed, that means the Earth must want it,
too. But who would be able to embrace the whole Earth? It
is so great that even your arms, Great-Grandfather, would not
be able to embrace the whole of the Earth!’
“Great-Grandfather stretched out his arms to either side,
looked at them, and nodded in agreement.
“‘You are right. Even my arms are not long enough to em-
brace the whole Earth. But you said that the Earth, like eve-
ryone else, wishes to be caressed?’
“‘Yes, it does. Everybody wants to be caressed by Man.’
“‘So you, Anastasia, should embrace the whole Earth as
well. Think about howyou could do this,’ Great-Grandfather
said, and walked away
“I began thinking a lot of the time about how to embrace
the whole Earth. And I could not think of anything. And I
knew that Great-Grandfather would not speak to me — he
would not ask me any more questions — until I had solved
this problem, and so I kept trying.
“More than a month passed, and the problem had not been
solved. And then one day I found myself looking tenderly at
the wolf, from a distance. She was standing on the other side
of the glade.
‘All at once, sensing my gaze, the wolf started wagging her
tail. Then I began to notice how all the creatures were so de-
lighted when I looked at them with joy and tenderness. How
big they were or how far away they were was not important.
They were delighted just from my looking at them or thinking
about them with love. I realised they were just as happy as they
had been earlier when I was stroking them with my hand.
140
Book 3: The Space of Love
“Then I became aware of something: Here was T with my
hands and feet, and yet there was also this other me, larger
than could be shown by someone’s hands. And this larger, in-
visible entity was also me. That meant that every Man was
set up just like me. And this larger me was indeed capable of
embracing the whole Earth.
“When Great-Grandfather showed up, I was all bubbling
with joy, and I said to him:
‘“Look, Grandpakins, see how happy all the creatures
are — not just when I touch them with my hand, but also
when I look upon them from a distance. It is invisible, but
something of me is embracing them, and it can embrace the
whole Earth too.
‘“I shall embrace the Earth with my invisible self! I am
Anastasia. There is the little me, and there is the greater me.
But how this other me is called, I do not yet know. But I shall
think about how to call it properly, and I shall say its name
and give you the whole answer, Grandpakins! Then will you
begin talking with me again?’
“Great-Grandfather began talking with me right away, and
said:
“‘Call your second self, dear granddaughter, soul. Tour soul.
And cherish it, and act in accord with this limitless soul of
yours.’
“Tell me, Vladimir,” Anastasia said, addressing me, “how
old were you when you first became aware of your soul, when
you felt it for the first time?”
“I don’t remember exactly,” I replied, and wondered
whether I had ever really discovered my soul, or whether
others discovered it too, and at what age? And to what
degree? Maybe we simply talk about our soul, not really
feeling at one with it, not really thinking about our second,
invisible self. And how important is it to feel all that, and
what for?
A bird for discovering one’s soul 141
The tiny dot moving overhead quickly began enlarging.
The eagle kept circling lower and lower over the glade. When
it reached the height of the tree-tops, I could see the little
one’s flushed face, and his eyes sparkling with excitement.
The little fingers at the tips of his outstretched arms were
moving in time with the wingbeats of the extraordinary bird.
When the little one’s legs touched the ground and started
tr a i li ng across the grass, the eagle loosened its talons. The
little one fell, rolled over in the grass and quickly got up on
all fours. Then he sat up and started turning his head around,
looking for his new-found friend.
The eagle staggered off a little ways, but then fell on its
side. It lay awkwardly on the grass about ten metres distant,
with one wing sticking out at an angle. It was having a hard
time breathing, and its head was resting on the ground.
The little one saw it, broke into a smile and crawled over to
it. The eagle attempted to get up and greet the boy, but once
again rolled over on its side. Maliciously baring her teeth, the
wolf took two leaps and landed between the eagle and the
boy Anastasia whispered, her voice trembling:
“How perfect and strict are Your laws. You gave everything
to Man right from the beginning, Creator. The wolf is follow-
ing your laws, but I feel sorry, very sorry for the eagle.”
“What is going on? Why is the wolf acting so aggressive
and malicious?” I asked Anastasia.
“Now the wolf will not let the eagle come to Vladimir,” she
replied. “She thinks it has fallen ill, since it has rolled over
on its side. She could attack it to chase it out of the glade.
Vladimir must not see the attack — he will not understand it
at the present time. Oh, what to do? What can we possibly
do?”
At this point the eagle shook its feathers, got up firmly
on its feet, proudly threw back its head, and clicked its fear-
some beak twice. With proud and sure step the eagle began
142
Book 3: The Space of Love
strutting toward the boy. The wolf appeared to calm down,
went off to one side, but not far. She was ready at any moment
to make her leap, and followed the proceedings like a hawk.
The little one first touched the enormous bird’s beak, then
began tugging on its wing feathers, ruffling them and demand-
ing or asking something, repeating all the while: e-eh, a-ah.
The bird’s hooked beak touched the crown of the boy’s
head, along with his shoulders, which still bore the marks of
the eagle’s talons.
Then the eagle bent its head to the ground and, using its
beak to tear off a little flower, put it in the boy’s open mouth,
as though it were feeding its young. The little one all the
while kept making the same vowel sounds. After perform-
ing this ‘parental duty’ the eagle began staggering again. The
malicious wolf crouched for a leap. And then suddenly the
eagle... it started into a run. There was a beating of wings
and... take-off!
Time after time it would rise higher and higher, then make
a sudden dive for the glade. About a metre and a half from the
ground it would level out and ascend once more. The little
one waved at it, stretched his arms out to it, called it, laugh-
ing with a toothless grin. Anastasia kept her eyes fixed on the
eagle, and whispered with concern:
“You do not have to do that. You did everything just right.
And you are healthy — I know you are not sick. Relax., my
dear eagle, relax. Thank you! I believe... I believe you are
well! You are just a little old! Relax!”
Once again the eagle executed its complex pirouette, in
such a way as to touch the grass with its talons. Still, it did
not land, or push off from the ground. Instead, with a power-
ful thrust of its wings, it managed to rise in the air, snatching
a clump of grass along the way It circled, showered the little
one with the grass and began rising higher and higher into
the sky
A bird for discovering one’s sold
143
As before, Anastasia followed the eagle like a hawk — not
taking her eyes away even when it became nothing but a dot
in the blue. For some reason I found myself following it too,
as the dot grew ever more distant from the glade. At first it
went straight up, and then veered sharply off to the side, away
from the glade. Suddenly the dot headed for the ground, and
it wasn’t long before we could see that first one wing and then
the other were spreading themselves — but simply from the
wind, and not as a deliberate action by the bird.
It was not flapping its wings or soaring — it was simply falling.
Its wings were ruffling in the wind — it was the wind that had
opened them.
Anastasia exclaimed:
“You died in the sky, way up high! And there you remain.
You did all that you could possibly do for Man. Thank you.
Thank you for showing us your heights, my old teacher.”
The eagle continued to fall, while two young eagles circled
overhead.
“Those are your offspring, they are strong already. You did
everything for their future too,” whispered Anastasia to the
old eagle, which had fallen somewhere beyond the glade. As
though in death it could still hear her.
By this time the two young eagles were circling low over
the glade. I knew they were its offspring, and the little one
waved to them.
“Of all things!” I exclaimed to Anastasia. “Why this sense-
less sacrifice? What did he do that for? And do it all for Alan?
Why do they try like that, Anastasia? Why do they sacrifice
themselves like that?”
“For the light emanating from Alan. For the grace which
Man can give them, and for a feeling of hope for their off-
spring. Now its offspring will see and sense the light of life-
giving love from Man! Look, Vladimir, our son smiled at the
young eagles and now they are flying over to him. Perhaps
144
Book 3: The Space of Love
the old eagle has realised that this light, this grace-filled light
emanating from Man, will also include a particle of itself.”
‘Are they ready to sacrifice themselves for the light ema-
nating from everyone ?”
“From everyone who is capable of emitting this grace-filled
light!!!”
Chapter Sixteen
Anastasia went off to get ready to feed our son, while I once
again set out for a walk in the woods to do some thinking.
Two things were bothering me — unpleasant things. The
first was how I, as a father, was still unable to find myself a
niche where I could participate in the raising of my son. It
had become clear to me that I could not come up with any
more interesting toys than those he had already And there
was no point in bringing food in either.
Our son already has his mother’s milk and fresh flower pol-
len, and then there will be nuts and berries. Naturally, pack-
aged baby food is no substitute for a living, growing source of
nourishment. Yet still I had a hard time mentally accepting
this kind of situation.
After all, Anastasia has nothing, and yet at the same time
she lacks nothing, and can even make liberal provision for the
baby
In the TV adverts there is such a hype about toys and other
stuff for children that it almost seems a child won’t survive
without them. Here, however, they make no sense at all —
more than that, they are actually harmful. Ababy doesn’t even
need a crib here. With a crib like the one he has — namely
the bear — ■ of course, he is not going to freeze even when the
temperature is minus forty There’s no need to wash sheets
or diapers. The bear — can you believe it? — is also a stick-
ler for cleanness. Each time she scrapes clean her groin-area
with her claws, just like a comb. She rubs her tummy on the
grass, and then bathes. When she comes out of the water she
146
Book 3: The Space of Love
shakes herself off, with spray flying in all directions, then lies
down on her back with her tummy up and dries herself off,
and then once again combs her groin area.
Anastasia took me over to her and had me feel the place
where our little one sleeps. It is soft there, clean and warm.
But even if I am not required to make any kind of material
provision, a father should still take part in raising his son —
that’s for certain. Only how? Maybe I should go to Anastasia
and firmly demand a definitive answer. After all, I have ful-
filled all her conditions — I have not picked up the baby, nor
have I insisted on him making use of the presents I brought
with me.
My other disappointment was in not being able to fulfil my
readers’ requests and lay out a specific system or timetable
for raising children. There are a lot of questions in the letters
about children, and they are always asked at readers’ confer-
ences. I promised that I would definitely question Anastasia
about this, and in my next book I would set forth the system
her family has used from generation to generation to bring up
their young.
And there you have it! Not only does she reject systems in
general, but she even declares any system to be harmful. Of
course, that cannot be. Amidst all the harmful systems there
has to be at least one that is right. And then it dawned on
me. In all the readers’ letters there was not a single question
about child-raising addressed to me. Everyone was looking to
Anastasia for an answer, and if people actually trust her more
than the usual experts in our world — certainly more than
they trust me — then it’s up to her to answer the questions
raised. She’s the one who is obliged to do that. My part is
simply to lay it out on paper. I’ve got enough on my plate just
putting out the books.
Anastasia finished her tasks and came running over in all
her rosy-cheeked cheerfulness.
The system
147
“Everything is done. Our son is asleep. You have not been
too bored here all by yourself?”
“I’ve been thinking.”
“About what?”
‘About how there was nothing more to write in my next
book. I told you how people are waiting for answers to their
specific questions. People are interested in child-raising. But
what can I write about that? Sure, I’ll tell about how you
communicate with the baby, how he’s getting on. But what’s
the point? In the conditions of our world that kind of regime
is simply not practicable. Nobody’s going to train a bear or a
wolf or an eagle, and nobody has a glade with pure pollen on
the flowers as you have here.”
“But it is not the bear that is important, Vladimir! Nor the
eagle. They are merely effects. There is just one thing that is im-
portant, and it will find the right path under any conditions.”
‘And what’s that?”
“One’s attitude to one’s child. The thoughts surrounding
the child. Believe me, and try to understand. Christ could
be born only by a mother who believed that Christ would be
born to her, and if the parents have the same attitude to their
child as they would to Christ or Mohammed, their offspring
will follow this thought. And he will become whoever he as-
pires to become. People will still explore Nature, and those
who are able to feel and become aware of what the Creator
has created — its sense and purpose — they will be able to
make a bright and happy world for their child.”
“But how do they feel this? There has to be, somehow, a
gradual process. There has to be a procedure.”
“This can be felt only with the heart. Only the heart is
capable of understanding it.”
“And more specifically?”
“You wrote ‘more specifically’ when you told about the
dachniks, 1 yet you took no notice yourself. What is the point
148
Book 3: The Space of Love
of wasting more words? If the heart and the soul are not open,
the words will simply vanish with the wind, barely noticeable.”
“Yes, I did write a few words about that. But nothing has
come of them in real life.”
“Young shoots are barely noticeable, they are not seen by
everyone right off. All the more so in the case of young shoots
growing in the soul.”
“But if you can’t see them, what’s the point in writing? I
write, I try, but still there are many who do not believe or un-
derstand what you are talking about. And there are some who
even doubt your existence.”
“Think about it, Vladimir — perhaps you will be able to see
some logic even in their doubts.”
“What land of logic can there be in their doubts?”
“Doubts make counter-actions less likely, and that is why I
exist for those for whom I exist. They and I co-exist together
side by side, in each other’s hearts. If you think about it a
bit longer, it will make sense to you. I exist because of them.
They have the power to engender, to create and not to de-
stroy. They will understand you and support you, and will be
mentally by your side.”
“You can say what you like, but I am tired of listening to in-
sulting remarks. Dispel the doubts of the unbelievers. Come
and show yourself on television, show something of your ex-
traordinary abilities,” I implored Anastasia, and she replied:
“Believe me, Vladimir, my appearance in the flesh and any
miracles performed in public will not pour the light of faith
into the faithless. They will only exacerbate the feeling of ir-
ritation on the part of those who do not like someone else’s
perception of the world. And you should not waste your
I dachniks — people who spend time (their days oft, especially summer
holidays) tending a garden at their dacha, or cottage in the country. See
further details in Book 1.
The system
149
energies on them. To everything there is a season, to every-
thing there is a dawn, and if you wish, I shall come forth to
people and I shall appear in the flesh. But before that I must
make it so women who have involuntarily consecrated their
lives to the kitchen can experience joys of a different order.
And so that the light of love may shine upon young mothers
who have been left alone with their children. And the children !
You see, the children ! Their souls must be liberated from the
tyranny of theories.”
“See, there you go again with your dream. A lot of time
has gone by since you started to dream that way, but little has
actually been done. We’ve got a book, there’s pictures and
poetry, but where are your global achievements for all peo-
ple? Only don’t talk of bright little shoots growing in peo-
ple’s souls. Show something tangible, something that can be
felt in real life... You can’t show anything, can you?”
“I can.”
“Then show it!”
“If I show it, I shall be subjecting you to the temptation to
open prematurely the little shoots which are just starting to
come up, and then who will protect them from a damaging
hailstorm?”
“25a will.”
“In that case I shall be obliged to do so, to correct my mis-
take. Look...”
At that point, thanks to Anastasia, I was able to witness a
phenomenon which was even more extraordinary and over-
whelming than anything I had described in my books to date.
Within the space of a single moment — either inside me or in
front of me, I’m not sure which — there paraded a multitude
of marvellous faces of people of different ages and from dif-
ferent parts of the Earth.
This was not just any series of flickering images. Not
just people’s faces, but their splendid actions too appeared
150
Book 3: The Space of Love
before my eyes. I could see the circumstances surrounding
them — the events that were happening to them or because
of them over their whole lifetime. They were all drawn from
our present reality It would have taken many years to view
such a quantity of information on a cinema screen, yet here it
took but a single moment, after which Anastasia was standing
once more before me, in exactly the same position she was in
before. She began speaking the moment I saw her:
“Lou were thinking, Vladimir, that what you saw was mere-
ly a kind of hypnosis. I ask you please not to try to guess the
means by which these people appeared before you. We were
talking about children. About the most important thing!
Did you see the children? Tell me.”
“Yes, I saw the children. Their faces looked intelligent and
kind. The children were building a house all by themselves, a
very beautiful house, and so big. And they were singing while
they worked. And I saw a grey-haired man amongst them.
This man was a scholar, an academician. And he appeared to
me right off to be very wise. Only he was talking in a pecu-
liar fashion. He seemed to think that children could be wiser
even than those whom we call professors. The children were
talking with this academician as an equal, and yet at the same
time with respect. Indeed, there was a lot about children
in my vision. About how different their education was, the
things they dreamt about. But that’s only a vision, so what’s
the point in carrying on about it? In real life things are not
like that at all.”
“What you saw was indeed real life, Vladimir, and before
long you will be persuaded of that yourself.”
And, to my amazement, it all came about, just as Anastasia
promised. It happened! And I saw it!
Chapter Seventeen
Put your vision of happiness
into practice
Soon after returning from the taiga I went once again to
the city of Gelendzhik 1 to attend a reader’s conference on
the Anastasia book. The Governor’s aide in charge of the
Gelendzhik district of the Krasnodar region took me to see
Academician Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin’s 2 forest school.
A narrow gravel road led from the main highway into the
forest, to a valley nestled amidst the mountain peaks. The
road soon came to an end in front of a most unusual two-sto-
rey mansion. It was still under construction. From one of the
still frameless window openings wafted the sounds of chil-
dren’s voices singing a Russian folk song. This building was
part of the vision Anastasia had showed me back in the taiga
forest, but now it was an altogether real experience.
Without a word to anyone I made my way through various
construction materials to touch this mansion with my own
hands. As I approached, I saw a little girl, about ten years old,
climbing deftly down a ladder. She went over to a pile of river
’The author’s earlier experiences at Gelendzhik are described in Book i,
Chapter 30: “Author’s message to readers” and Book 2, Chapter 33: “Your
sacred sites, O Russia!”. Gelendzhik is located in the Krasnodar region of
the northern Caucasus, on the north-east shore of the Black Sea.
‘ 'Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin (1944-) — director (principal) of the Tekos
School near Gelendzhik. Originally a music teacher by profession, Mikhail
Petrovich has had a long and distinguished career in experimental educa-
tion. The recipient of several awards, in 1991 he was honoured with the
title Akademik (Academician) by the Russian Academy of Education.
152
Book 3: The Space of Love
pebbles and began selecting and dropping stones into an old
herring tin. When she started back up the ladder, I climbed
up after her, in the direction of the alluring music pouring
forth from above.
There on the second floor I watched as a group of kids like
her, some a little older, were taking smooth pebbles out of a box
and attaching them with a cement mixture to the wall, making
an amazingly beautiful pattern. Two little girls at once careful-
ly washed off each newly attached stone with damp rags. They
set about their tasks in earnest, singing as they worked. No
adults were present. Later I found out that the whole founda-
tion, indeed, each brick of this structure, had been laid by a
child’s hand. The children had come up with the whole design
by themselves, including every corner of their building.
And this is not the only such building on the little campus.
In this amazing setting children are constructing not only
their buildings, their campus, but their whole future in the
process. And they sing! Here a ten-year-old girl is capable of
building a house, doing splendid drawings and cooldng meals,
not to mention knowing ballroom dance steps and mastering
the fundamentals of Russian martial arts . 3
The children of this forest school are acquainted with
Anastasia. They themselves told me about her. Three hun-
dred pupils from different Russian cities study here.
At this school children take but a year to master the whole
ten-year public-school maths syllabus, along with studying
three foreign languages. They neither recruit nor produce
child prodigies. They simply give the kids a chance to dis-
cover what already lies within.
Academician Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin’s school comes
under the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Education. It
3 Photos of the campus, pupils and creative learning activities may be found
on the colour insert of the present volume.
Put your vision of happiness into practice
*53
charges no tuition fees. Even though the school does not ad-
vertise itself, it has no vacancies. Indeed, there is already a
waiting list of 2,500 hopefuls for an unexpected opening.
It is hard to find words to describe the joy on these chil-
dren’s beaming faces. I went to visit the school directly after
the readers’ conference at Gelendzhik. I went with a small
group of readers who had heard about my intended visit.
One of these readers was Natalia Sergeevna Bondarchuk, 4
an actress and film director who is also on the board of the
Roerich Society’ A specialist in esoterics, she gave a presen-
tation at the conference on the Roerichs’ legacy and on eso-
terics in general. She talked about Anastasia far more intel-
ligently than I.
Natalia Sergeevna was accompanied by her ten-year-old
daughter Mashenka. 6 After the conference the two of them
were to go to a film festival in Anapa/ where Mashenka’s be-
loved grandmother, the famous actress Inna Makarova, s was
4 Natalia Sergeevna Bondarchuk (1950-) — a popular Russian film actress and
director. One of her first cinema roles was in Tarkovsky’s famous 1973 sci-fi
flick Solaris. She has directed a number of children’s films, including several
on the Bambi theme.
'’the Roerich Society — founded by Russian expert on Oriental religions Elena
Ivanovna Roerich [Rerikh] and her artist-husband Nikolai Konstantinovich
Roerich (see footnote 18 in Book 1, Chapter x: “The ringing cedar”). With
branches in a number of countries, the society is devoted to the study and
promotion of art and culture in relation to human creativity and spiritu-
ality It sees Culture as a synthesis of ethics, religion, science and art, all
contributing to Man’s spiritual development.
6 Masbenka — a diminutive form of the name Maria.
‘ Anapa — a Black Sea coastal resort with a population of approximately
60,000, located about 100 km north-west of Gelendzhik.
g
Inna Makarova (1926-) — an award-winning Russian film star who made
her debut in 1948 with Molodaya gvardia (Young Guard). In 1984 she ap-
peared in a film version of Gogol’s classic novel Mertvye dushi (Dead Souls).
She has also starred in several Bondarchuk films. In 2001 she received of-
ficial congratulations from President Putin on her 75th birthday.
i54
Book 3: The Space of Love
already staying. But Mashenka’s words came as a thunderous
call to new enlightenment:
“Mamochlta, please, just for three days. Just three! While
you go to the festival, arrange for me to stay here at this
school!”
And the delicate little Mashenka stayed for three days at
the school, to the great astonishment of her mother, who
sadly said:
‘Apparently we don’t give enough to our children — even
though we love them, we are inadvertently stealing from
them.”
Natalia Sergeevna was accompanied by a film cameraman.
Fie began shooting as soon as the children of Shchetinin’s
school started talking about their communication with
Anastasia and their understanding of life. I’d like to repro-
duce here some of our conversation with the children who
were building this mansion. Natalia Sergeevna and I were the
ones asking the questions:
“One gets the impression that each brick of your building
here is filled with the bright energy of a great power.”
“Yes, that’s true,” answered an older, red-haired girl. “So
much depends on the people who touch them. We have done
all this with love, we are trying with our mental attitude to
bring only what is good and happy to our future.”
“Who designed this building, the columns and paintings?”
“This was the result of our united, collective thinking.”
“Does that mean that while each one is outwardly working
on their own individual task, in actual fact it represents a col-
lective thought?”
“That’s right. Every evening we get together and plan out,
or visualise, the day ahead. We come up with the images we
want to see expressed in the design of our mansion. Some of
the pupils here take on the role of architect — they give spe-
cific form to our common work, tie it all together.”
Above: Pupils at Academician Shchetinin’s school (Tekos, Russia)
perform a folic dance in the auditorium they themselves designed,
built and decorated. Photo © 2004 by Alexey Kondaurov, Nizhny
Novgorod, Russia.
Below: Pupils at Shchetinin’s school, 10-15 y ears °H are building a
new hall on their campus without adult supervision. Photo © 2004
by Vladislav Kirbiatiev, Grishino eco-village, Russia.
Above: Main entrance to
school. Photo © 2004 by
Dmitry Samusev.
Right: A pupil decorating
the wall of a new administra-
tive office. Photo © 2004 by
Vladislav Kirbiatiev
Left: Pupils at a
self-guided learn-
ing session. Photo
© 2004 by Marina
Kolmogorova.
Above: Martial arts performance by Telcos pupils. Photo © 2004
by Alexey Kondaurov. The school curriculum includes a wide va-
riety of subjects, ranging from traditional disciplines to folk danc-
ing, self-defence and architecture. Pupils are fully involved in the
life of the school, from cooking meals to construction and self-
governance.
Below: Decorations at the main entrance were designed and execut-
ed by the pupils themselves. Photo © 2004 by Alexey Kondaurov.
Above: Pupils’ choir performance at one of the school’s regular con-
certs. Mikhail Shchetinin standing in front with accordion. Photo
© 2004 by Vladislav Kirbiatiev
Left: A typical
session: learning
without teach-
ers. The school
is not divided
into age-based
forms or grades,
and students
learn efficiently
without adult su-
pervision.
Photo © 2004
by Vladislav Kir-
biatiev
Details of the school’s interior design. As with everything else on
the premises, the pupils are fully responsible for the design, con-
struction and decoration of all buildings. Photos © 2004 by Dmitry
Samusev.
Top: Residents of Novosibirsk planting cedar trees in the spring of
1998. Photo from the Internet, author unknown. Below: Siberian
cedar sprouting in New York City Photos <& 2005 by Ilya Kurkin.
Vladimir Megre arriving at the Ringing Cedars of Russia movement
conference held in the city of Vladimir on 5 June 2004. The con-
ference brought together over 400 delegates from 150 eco-villages
from all over Russia and beyond. Photo © 2004 by Alexey Kondau-
roy Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
Readers’ art inspired by Anastasia-. This is not a dream © 2006 Maria
Ignatieva (above) and Birds by Audrey and Natalia Patokin (below).
Put your vision of happiness into practice 155
“What image is expressed in the room we’re standing in
now?”
“The image of Svarog 9 — the primordial element of heav-
enly fire. You can see him here in the symbols, in the pebble
amulets.”
“Does your group recognise one of its own as a principal or
superior?”
“We do have a leader, but by and large it is the collective
thought that is at work here — lava, we call it.
“Say that again — thought is lava f”
“That’s right — a state of mind, an image, a desire.”
“Do you all work with such great delight, everybody smil-
ing, everybody with such sparkling eyes — everybody so
cheerful?”
“Yes, our life is like that, since we are doing what we want,
doing what we can, doing what we love to do.”
“You said each stone has its own pulse and rhythm?”
“Yes, and this pulse beats once a day — just once.”
“Is it like that with all stones, or do some beat twice a
day?”
“Every stone’s pulse beats once a day”
“Doesn’t it seem to you that your mansion is something
like a temple?”
“A temple is not a form, but a state of mind. For exam-
ple, the cupolas — they simply help you access a particular
state of mind. The form is moulded by feeling. And it is not
9 Svarog — in Russian and Slavic mythology, the god of fire, the father and
divine light of celestial and earthly fires, who created (Russian: svargamt)
our Universe (Sanskrit and ancient Russian: svarga). Svarog fought and cap-
tured a giant malicious serpent or dragon ( Zmey ), which he used to pull a
plough, separating the land of the living (or the visible world, Tav) from the
land of the dead (or the invisible world, Nav ) and thus establish order (or
Rightness, Prat). In Christianity he is associated with, among others, the
Archangel Michael.
156
Book 3: The Space of Love
by chance that the form of a cupola or hipped roof 0 came to
us — they represent our aspirations for heaven and the de-
scent of Heavenly Grace,”
“This building, where every stone is laid with a good
thought, is it able to heal?”
“Of course.”
“And does it heal?”
“Yes, it does.”
I couldn’t help looking at the girls attaching the river-peb-
ble ornamental design to the walls of the upper room. The
girls were dressed in very plain, unsophisticated attire, they
were beautiful, only with an unusual kind of beauty. I thought
to myself: where do we go to meet our future wives? To
dance-halls, parties and resorts, eh? We see our future wives
all made up wearing the latest fashions, luring us with their
slender legs and other charms of their figure. All this is what
we marry, and then later, when the make-up is rubbed off, you
look, and there you see sitting before you a kikirnora , n and
looking like a kikimom, grumbling away and demanding atten-
tion and... love. What happiness is there in living your whole
life with a kikirnora — what is there to talk about with her?
And then she demands you support her financially too. Oh,
what rotten luck! But just maybe we get what we deserve.
Of course we get what we deserve. You have to be a com-
plete idiot to marry make-up and long legs! But some of us
10 hipped roof — a pyramid-style roof with 4 or more sloping sides, narrower
at the top than at the bottom — characteristic of many Russian churches of
wooden or stone construction.
“ kikirnora — in Slavic mythology and folk customs, a malevolent female
ghost said to attach itself to a particular house and disturb the inhabitants,
males in particular. By extension, the term may also suggest an ugly woman
in shabby clothing, ill-tempered and grumbling, striving to make life of her
husband (and men in general) unbearable.
Pitt your vision of happiness into practice 157
are lucky. Some of us end up marrying, well... these girls here,
the ones sticking the ornamental stones on the walls. They
will be able to build a beautiful house, and to cook meals with
love, they know all sorts of foreign languages, they’re wise,
smart, beautiful, and when they grow up they’ll become still
more beautiful, even without cosmetics. Naturally, many will
want to take them to wife, but who will they agree to marry?
This was a question we put to these beautiful little girls wear-
ing their plain clothing:
“Tell me, who would you like to marry, what kind of hus-
band would you like? What qualities should he have?”
And right away, without hesitation, the first girl respond-
ed:
“Kindness, patience... and he should be a Man who loves
his Motherland. A Man with honour and dignity”
“And what is honour, in your view?”
“For me, honour can be summed up in one saying: I have
the honour of being Russian.”
‘And what constitutes a Russian Man?”
“It is a Man who loves his Motherland. First and foremost
it is one who stands up for her and never fails her. Not for a
moment, not even the most difficult moment. He feels him-
self a part of Rus ,” u
‘And your children will live for the Motherland?”
“Yes!”
‘And that means your husband must share this view as
well?”
“Yes!”
The second girl answered the question as follows:
1 ~Rus (pronounced ROOS, rhyming with moose) — the name of the Old
Russian territory, which by the 9th century A.D. was centred around Kiev;
more so than the later term Rossiya, it signifies an emotional attachment to
the Russian Motherland.
i 5 8
Book 3: The Space of Love
“He should be a Man capable of giving light and warmth
to other people. If he radiates light and warmth, it will be
good for those around him, and our family too. A Man rich in
spirit, healthy in spirit, and this can’t be compared with any
other kind of riches.”
The littlest girl wasn’t asked any questions while the cam-
era was running, but later I put the same query to her and got
the following response:
“Maybe all the best men will get married while I am grow-
ing up, but my husband will still be very good, kind and
happy — I shall make him that way, I shall help him the way
Anastasia does.”
And I saw, and realised that Anastasia was sharing her abili-
ties with these children. Why with the children of Shchetinin’s
school? Because Academician Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin
is himself a great magician — one who has created and con-
tinues to create a big Space of Love, and it will continue to
grow even bigger.
Right now these girls are little Anastasias with their light-
brown braids. But they wall grow up! They will spread across
the Earth, creating oases like this one, until the whole Earth
is filled with them.
As I was standing there in the upper room on the second
storey of this extraordinary mansion, examining the orna-
mental design and drawings executed by the children’s hands
(though more reminiscent of the art of the ‘old masters’), I
had the impression of being in the greatest, brightest and
most welcoming temple on Earth. This was probably because
the amount of bright energy in this mansion, every millimetre
of which had been lovingly caressed by children’s hands, was
infinitely greater than in many religious temples.
And then I had another thought come to me. Here we’ll
continue to go about restoring ruined churches and mon-
asteries using modern technology and reinforced concrete
Put your vision of happiness into practice 159
construction — not such a difficult thing to do, really — and
then we’ll come to these temples with the feeling that we
have done our duty and begin asking: “Lord, bless our work!”
But no blessings will be received. Because during this time
God will be concentrating His attention on the children con-
structing this extraordinary temple building. And He will
be concerned that they will run out of cement and not have
enough bricks and boards for the floor. And God will lovingly
bless all those who help them.
And I couldn’t resist the temptation to show the world
these little ‘shoots’. I couldn’t resist doing what Anastasia
was so afraid of. And this is how it happened:
I was walking down the aisle between rows of kitchen ta-
bles set up outdoors for the children to work at, when I sud-
denly felt a soft warmth in my body, as though someone was
training a heat-reflector on me. The sensation of warmth was
similar to that emitted by Anastasia when she concentrated
her gaze on a person. Only this time it was considerably
weaker. In any case I stopped and looked in the direction the
warmth appeared to be coming from. An eleven-year-old girl
winnowing rice at a distant table was looking at me and smil-
ing. I went over and sat down beside her. Up close I could see
her eyes sparkling with a fiery blue light and I began to feel an
even greater sensation of warmth. I asked her her name.
“Hello!” she replied. “My name is Nastia.” 13
“So, you have the ability to warm someone with your gaze,
like Anastasia?”
“Did you feel it?”
“Yes, I did.”
Little Nastia indeed had Anastasia’s ability to warm a per-
son’s body with her gaze, although not to the same extent.
h Nastia — a diminutive form of the name Anastasia (a common girl’s name
in modern Russian).
160 Book 3: The Space of Love
Natalia Sergeevna, the actress, came and sat down with us,
and the cameraman began shooting. With no trace of embar-
rassment and without interrupting her work, Nastia started
answering our questions.
“Where do you get your knowledge and abilities from?”
“From the stars.”
“What have you learnt through your communication with
Anastasia in Siberia?”
“I’ve learnt how very important it is to understand and love
our Motherland.”
“Why is it so important?”
“Because our Motherland is what has been created by our
forebears — both distant and close.”
“Who are your parents? Where does your father work?”
“My Papa is a schoolteacher. It’s nice in the school where
he works too, but here it’s better.”
“Here you are all living as a single friendly, happy family
Have you forgotten about your parents?”
“On the contrary. We love our parents more and more, we
send them good thoughts so they can live well, too.”
The camera was running, and I very much wanted Nastia
to show the sceptics her warming gaze. And so I asked her:
“Nastia, now you can show many people howto warm some-
one with your gaze. See the camera? Look straight into the
lens and share your warmth with everyone who will see this.”
“To warm everybody at once — that’s really hard. I might
not be able to do it.”
But I kept insisting. I repeated my request. And exactly
the same thing started happening with Nastia as happened
with Anastasia back in the forest, when she tried to save with
her ray at a distance a man and a woman from being tortured
by bandits. I described this scene in my first book . 14
I4 See Book i, Chapter 28: “Strong people”.
Put your vision of happiness into practice 1 6 1
Back then Anastasia had initially expressed reservations:
“It is not within my power,” she had said. “Everything has
been, so to speak, programmed in advance, but not by me. I can-
not interfere directly They have the upper hand right now”
And yet, after my repeated requests, she did what I asked
her to. She did it, knowing full well that she might die in the
process.
And now, after my persistent pleading, little Nastia at-
tempted to do my bidding. Twice in a row, without exhaling,
she inhaled air, closed her eyes for a few moments and then
began to calmly look straight into the camera lens. The aston-
ished cameraman fell silent. And then all of a sudden Natalia
Sergeevna tore off her kerchief and put it over Nastia’s head.
She was the first to notice how her body had begun to vibrate
and her face had turned pale.
I realised I should not have persisted with my request —
there was no point in wasting energy on unbelievers. It would
only intensify their anger and resistance.
The grown-up visitors could not resist the impulse to touch
the children. They touched them, hugged them and patted
them as though they were kittens. And why had I brought
along a whole group of these grown-ups? After all, I was aware
that this school receives visits from all sorts of committees
and delegations, and even individuals come to have a look and
satisfy their curiosity, and tune into the grace emanating from
its inhabitants. And they do come and tune in, and take away,
but do not make any contribution of their own.
Perhaps Anastasia was right when she said:
“In trying to gain the grace of a holy place, think what you
might offer in return. And if you have not learnt to emit light
yourself, then why take it and bury it in yourself, as though in
a grave?”
I too had come to the school more out of curiosity than
anything else. It was thanks to Anastasia that I had been
i6z
Book 3: The Space of Love
so graciously received by Academician Shchetinin, and the
children had prepared a feast for me and my whole entou-
rage. And it was far more than food that we took away from
the table. The sparkle in the children’s bright eyes gave us
infinitely more, and what were we to give them in return?
A patronising pat on the head? I was so angry with myself
that I withdrew from the group and went off on my own to
think.
All of a sudden I became aware of the two girls whose ac-
quaintance I had made — Lena and Nastia — standing at my
side.
“Just relax,” Nastia said quietly. “Grown-ups are always
that way. They want to pat our heads and give us a hug. They
think hugging is the most important thing. And you’ve been
on pins and needles the whole day Come along with us to our
glade, and we’ll tell you about Anastasia. I know what space
she is in right now.”
When we arrived at the glade, the cameraman who had
joined us proposed:
“Let’s get another interview with the girls. We’ll get some
excellent shots here — look what a splendid landscape there
is, and no one’s around to bother us.”
“Maybe not,” I hesitated. “We’ve probably tired them out
already with so much questioning.”
“But still they’ll be delighted to talk with you. They don’t
really like visitors and journalists coming around here. We’ve
got a golden opportunity under our noses. It’d be a shame to
let it slip by. Please understand my professional interest.”
I grabbed the microphone and told the girls:
“We have to do another interview with you. I’ll be asking
you some questions and you answer them. Is that okay with
you?”
“If you need to, go ahead and ask,” replied Lena, and Nastia
added: “Of course, of course, we’ll be happy to answer.”
Put your vision of happiness into practice
163
The girls took up a position right beside us and straight-
ened their long brown braids. They looked me straight in the
eye, waiting for my first question.
After two rather trite questions I fell silent, suddenly re-
alising that these were the type of hackneyed, stereotyped
questions they got from all the grown-up visitors, committee
members and journalists, whereas in fact they were capable of
answering questions on themes most adults would never even
have cross their minds in their whole lifetime. A Cossack het-
man was right when he said:
“My son’s been studying here only three months, and I al-
ready feel there’s a lot more I need to become aware of myself
and quickly, or I’m going to look positively stupid next to him.”
In any case, aren’t we talking down to the children with our
immature questions, inadvertently implying they’re not capa-
ble of responding to anything more? I stood silently before
these girls, holding the microphone in my hand, and saw in
their faces how concerned they were for me. They realised I
had lost my train of thought and didn’t know what I should
talk with them about. I admitted as much to them:
“You know, I really don’t know what to talk to you about,
or even what questions I should be asking.”
And then ensued an utterly comic situation. Here we were,
the cameraman and I, two stout grown-up fellows, and there
in front of us were these two young girls, enthusiastically giv-
ing each other support, without a second’s hesitation explain-
ing to us how to do an interview, how to make conversation
with another human being.
“Just relax,” they insisted. “You’ve got to learn how to re-
lax. The most important thing is to be sincere and talk about
anything you’re concerned about.
“Don’t think about us. Of course you should think about
any other person you’re talking with, but you don’t need to
think about us if you find that too hard. Just relax.
164
Book 3: The Space of Love
“Just ask your questions from the heart, well be able to an-
swer, don’t worry about us.
“As long as you’re having trouble, let us tell you something
ourselves...”
The girls were walking around the meadow, smiling, feeling
the blades of grass and talking. The depth of their under-
standing of the Universe, the purity emanating from their
heart, their eyes sparkling with kindness, literally immersed
us in a sense of peace and confidence. The cameraman shot
from a distance, not bothering to attempt switching camera
angles. Later I would spend hours watching and re-watching
the videotape Natalia Sergeevna subsequently gave to me. I
would be fascinated by these little charmers with their light-
brown braids walking through the glade. They will grow up!
There are three hundred of them at the school.
I am writing about this school not to prove anything to
anyone, but to gladden the hearts of those who have come to
feel and understand Anastasia through my books.
If anyone feels irritated by what I write and how I write
it, they need not read my books at all. I have already had my
fill of criticism — over my writing style, my grammatical mis-
takes and the suggestion of a commercial ulterior motive. In
any case I am still working on my next book. If you don’t like
my books, don’t bother reading the next one. The events it
describes are even more penetrating than the ones recorded
in the volumes to date, and my style is getting better, but not
by very much. Both the contents and the style could make
you quite distraught.
Chapter Eighteen
Academician
Who is he? We are accustomed to describing a person
through his biographical outline, his record of service, the ti-
tles bestowed upon him. But in the present instance all that
would be meaningless. In the Bible it says: “By their fruits ye
shall know them .” 1 Academician Shchetinin’s fruits are the
happy, beaming faces of the children studying at his school,
along with those of their parents. Then, who is he?
Natalia Sergeevna Bondarchuk is not only an award-win-
ning Russian actress, she is also a member of the board of the
International Roerich Foundation (a UN non-governmental
organisation). She told me:
“I have talked with many famous preachers and teachers
in various countries of the world, but I have never been so
impressed as here. We may well have come into contact with
a great Vedun . 2 I say a Vedun not because of his acquaintance
with the Old Vedic scriptures, but because he knows what
many of us don’t.”
I should also like to record my impressions from my meet-
ings with Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin, but I am not a spe-
cialist in the educational field and hence my terminology may
not be all that accurate, so I shall try to reproduce his own
words as faithfully as possible.
*Matth. 7: 20 {Authorised King James Version).
"Vedun (pron. ve-DOON) — in Slavic and Hindu traditions: a revered wise
man. The word is derived from the Old Slavic (originally Indo-European)
root ved- meaning knowing or knowledge.
1 66
Book y. The Space of Love
At one point I was walking down a corridor of the school
building, along with Natalia Sergeevna, her cameraman and
Mikhail Petrovich. We came to a spacious hall opening onto
the corridor, where a number of tables had been set up. At
these sat children of various ages, all intensely engaged in some
kind of mysterious project, from which neither our presence
nor that of the videocamera could distract them. From time
to time one or another of the children would get up and go
off somewhere, and then come back again. Sometimes they
would go over to examine numbers on a bulletin-board hang-
ing on the wall, at other times they would thoughtfully pace
around the room. Some of them were talking amongst them-
selves — ■ arguing or explaining things to each other . 3
“Mikhail Petrovich, what is going on?” asked Natalia
Sergeevna.
“Here you are basically witnessing attempts to establish
contact. If the contact is successful, the children will be able
to master the ten-year school maths programme in just one
year. That is their assignment. It will happen when the chil-
dren are able to make contact with those who possess similar
knowledge, and the degree of openness in their relationships
is important. Their field elements 4 will then be able to share
information with each other.
“You’re familiar with the observation made by simple
folk: love at first sight’, when people In love catch each oth-
er’s meaning with hardly a word between them. You haven’t
even opened your mouth, and he’s already got it. You can see
the whole point here is to make the children feel free and
3 A photo of a typical learning session may be found on the colour insert of
the present volume.
Afield elements — referring to the non-material elements making up one’s
identity For a more detailed discussion of ‘field’ phenomena see foot-
note 13 in Book 2, Chapter 1: ‘Alien or Man?”.
Academician Shchetimn
167
unencumbered. This is a place they can ask any question, get
up, and come and go as they please. Maintaining relation-
ships is the important thing.
“Working on relationships is not only very important for
the children but also for the ones organising the activities.
So we take off the brakes, so to speak, we refrain from fo-
cusing on age. Over there, right next to fifteen-year-old Ivan
Alexandrovich is sitting ten-year-old Masha. We also have a
university student named Sergei Alexandrovich, who’s actu-
ally finishing university this year.”
‘And how old is he?”
“He’ll turn eighteen this year.”
‘And he’s finishing university at seventeen?”
“Seventeen, in this generation, but we generally try not to
refer to the notion of age. That’s a very important point. If
you will notice, here the teachers tend to blend in with the pu-
pils. True, it is a rather special group. The ones you see here
are those that weren’t able to participate in the construction.
And they have quite a task ahead of them — assimilating the
ten-year school maths course, so they in turn will be able to
share their knowledge with those who are currently occupied
in the construction. And it will all come about. Because what
is germinating in them is a system of interdependent integra-
tion elements.
“Our collective ancestral memory has knowledge of the
laws of the Cosmos, as well as techniques for living in cosmic
space. So it is very important to reject any suggestion that
there is something they don’t know. If one of those doing the
explaining entertains such a thought, his pupils will not know
it. The explainer’s basic task is to enter into a relationship
with his pupils focused on solving problems, then the learn-
ing process takes place all by itself. So as not to distract them
with attention to the actual learning or memorisation. The
thought of somebody out there teaching has to be rejected.
i68
Book y The Space of Love
As they work together, the consciousness of a dividing line
between teacher and pupil is obliterated.
“The problem-solving process brings with it the neces-
sary knowledge, and what actually takes place is a recalling
of things forgotten. This is the reflex arc, you know, as in
Pavlov : 5 stimulus-reaction. When necessary, I decide.
“It is very important that what they do should have a direct
effect on people around them. And now they are studying not
for themselves, that is very important. They are concerned
about how to share what they are learning with others. Marks
aren’t important to them. They know that in a few days they
will have to explain it all to someone else.
“They have been entrusted with the beginning of the
learning process. Each pupil you see here has been assigned
a group. He observes how his designated pupils work on the
construction and watches to see that members of his group
do not fall behind their schoolmates. Considerable emphasis
is laid on motivation — the idea of service to others. And if
they learn anything, they learn to understand the soul, the as-
pirations and the thoughts of another individual. It’s not the
mathematics that’s important here, but rather Man learning
mathematics. Not maths for its own sake, but maths for the
sake of progress toward Truth. And the more powerful this
for the sake of motive is, the more successful will be one’s im-
mersion into a field of knowledge.
“It is important to be in an atmosphere of sincerity, with no
feelings of being offended or irritated. That’s wrong is a phrase
we never use. In the Old Russian language there is no stop-
page of motion and no bad words. In ancient times people,
5 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) — world-renowned Russian physiologist,
recipient of the 1904 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on digestion; he
later became famous for his experiments with dogs and theories of human
behaviour based on conditioned reflexes.
Academician Shchetinin
169
no matter what their ethnic affiliation, never used a bad word
in reference to anything. It simply doesn’t exist, so why pay
attention to it? What is bad does not exist. If you find your-
self at a dead-end, then the words you would use to get out of
that dead-end would be phrases like: turn right, turn left, climb
up — hinting at which way one should go, but not snapping:
‘You’re standing the wrong way.’ Today russophobes commit
sacrilege by saying ‘Speak Russian!’, when they actually mean
cursing. That is not Russian at all. Kobzev ' 1 has a very suc-
cinct expression of this thought:
From our Slav forebears we have heard
Midst happenings of great dimension,
They paid to language, phrase and word
A special homage and attention.
“That is true. So people who work with them should have
a deep vocabulary range which excludes thought-distracting,
incidental words. Words warmed by feelings have special sig-
nificance.
“Truth, their legacy — it’s all spiritual. The child must be
enrolled in a natural cosmic process — eternal self-reproduc-
tion. Then you have given the child eternity, the joy of fife,
real existence. Not just illusory forms, like: ‘See here, son,
I’ve bought you a shirt and trousers and shoes — now I can
die.’ But what have you really given your son? Your gifts, af-
ter all, won’t last more than a single season! If only you had
given your son your good name, your honour, your work, your
6 Igof Ivanovich Kobzev (1924-19 86) — a Russian poet known for his verse
based on the history of Russia and the ancient Slavs — in particular, on
the celebrated poetic chronicle Slovo 0 polku Igoreve (The song of Igor’s
campaign). In 1977 he helped organise a museum devoted to the famous
chronicle. Kobzev himself is best known, perhaps, for his epic tale Padenie
Peruna (The Fall of Rerun).
Book 3: The Space of Love
170
friends, a flourishing people! If you had given him an under-
standing of the Truth of being and a life of wisdom, then you
could say: ‘Son, I have given you the most important thing,
you will be happy You will buy shirts and build houses, you
know now how it is done.’”
Listening to Academician Shchetinin speak and observing
his interactions with the children, I noticed that they were
very much like what Anastasia had said about children, and I
wondered: how could a lonely Siberian recluse and this grey-
haired academic think so much alike — almost identically, in
fact? And, come to think of it, why is he talking with me at all?
Why did he receive me so warmly even setting the table and
offering me a meal? He’s taken me around the school, shown
me everything. Why? What kind of education expert am I?
I’m nobody. One who used to get pretty poor marks in school.
But of course — Anastasia’s somehow been at it again.”
Of course it was only thanks to Anastasia that I ended up
at Shchetinin’s school in the first place. But he and I didn’t
talk about her. We talked about all sorts of other things —
everyday things. Each time I visited we would walk around
and see how the construction of this unusual temple building
was progressing. As for my book, he said tersely: “It’s very ac-
curate” — and that was it.
A few days after my first visit — after the day I had come
with a group of conference participants, and had shown them
Nastia, asking her to warm everybody with her gaze — the
following incident occurred. Mikhail Petrovich and I were
walking along one of the school corridors, and I was keeping
my eye peeled for her. I searched for her the way people in-
tuitively search for a source which emits light.
“Nastia’s light has gone out,” Shchetinin said all of a sud-
den. “Right now I’m in the process of restoring her strength.
It’s coming along, but slowly She’ll need some time to fully
recover.
Academician Shchetinin
171
“What do you mean, it’s gone out? Why? She’s a strong
lass. What happened?”
“Yes, she is strong. But she had a very powerful emotional
outburst.”
I stood there in Shchetinin’s office, angry and irritated at
myself. Why had I done such a tiring? For just whose benefit
was I trying to prove something? I had utterly failed to heed
Anastasia’s warning: “Neither my appearance in the flesh nor
any miracles performed in public will pour the light of faith
into the faithless. They will only exacerbate the feeling of ir-
ritation on the part of those who do not like someone else’s
perception of the world.”'
That’s enough, I thought to myself. I shall no longer try
to show people and I shan’t write any more. That’s it. Look
what a mess I’ve made with my writing! I was thinking this to
myself, but then Shchetinin suddenly said out loud:
“Aou shouldn’t stop writing, Vladimir.” Then he came
over to me, placed his hand on my shoulder and, looking me
straight in the eye, began vocalising a tune. I could hear how
easily he took the high notes, but even more amazing was the
fact that the melody he was vocalising was very similar to the
one Anastasia had sung for me in the taiga.
As I made my way back to the main door, I passed the same
hall where the pupils were still scurrying about. There was
Nastia, sitting on a chair. I went over to her. She got up,
raised her head, and her rather weary-looking eyes brightened
in a second, emitting light and warmth with their sparkle. I
realised now that she was giving of her energy and warmth to
others. She was giving her all, without reservation, to help
that other Anastasia, the one in Siberia, fulfil her dream. For
it had now become their shared dream.
'From Book 3, Chapter 16: “The system”.
I?2
Book 3: The Space of Love
So what was going on here? What was the force behind
that dream? Why were they...? With complete self-sacri-
fice... And the child’s gaze... Is it possible to become worthy,
even partially worthy, of such a gaze during a single lifetime? I
wondered. Aloud I said:
“Well, hello, Nastia!” And to myself: “You don’t have to,
Nastia. Thank you. Forgive me.”
“I’ll see you out,” the girl offered. “Lena and I will go with
you to your car.”
As we drove off, I kept looking behind me until the car
rounded a corner, watching the little figures standing there
at the end of the road, by the mansion, under a lamp-post,
as they got smaller and smaller. They weren’t waving their
arms in the usual sign of farewell. Each of them held one
hand raised in the air, palm out-turned in the direction of the
departing vehicle. I knew what this meant — Shchetinin had
explained it to me earlier. It signified: “We send you our rays
of good, may they follow you wherever you go.” And once
more I felt fired up with the thought: “What do I need to ac-
complish to become worthy of your rays?”
Chapter Nineteen
My meeting with Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin and my ac-
quaintance with his amazing school took place after my sec-
ond visit to Anastasia. After seeing this school I had virtu-
ally no lingering doubts about Anastasia's pronouncements
on raising children, or about the way she communicated with
our son. But back there in the taiga everything within me had
rebelled against her. I didn’t want to believe her. At least not
everything she said.
As I write these lines I can hear many readers saying, ei-
ther aloud or to themselves: “Come on, how could he pos-
sibly doubt? After all, there have been so many times he was
obliged to concede that she was right, and still he carries on
like an idiot, unable to perceive a new phenomenon!”
My daughter Polina sent me a videocassette from one
of the readers’ conferences. I watched as a scholar from
Novosibirsk by the name of Speransky 1 declared right from
the podium:
“Megre is incapable of fully grasping what Anastasia says.
He hasn’t the brains for it.”
I do not feel offended by him — on the contrary, his whole
talk was most interesting. The audience listened with bated
1 Sergei Vladimirovich Speransky — a biology expert with Novosibirsk
Scientific Research Institute, known for his experiments using mice to de-
tect extra-sensory abilities; a Corresponding Member of the International
Academy of Energy-Informational Sciences.
i 7 4
Book 3: The Space of Love
breath, and thanks to him I have been able to comprehend
that Anastasia is an Essence — a self-sufficient substance.
I myself have no expertise in such matters — ■ I’ve been in-
volved in a completely different line of work. But what about
all those who are into studying Nature, or children — why have
they been keeping so quiet, barely uttering a peep about what
they know? And even children in their letters to me tell me I
should be more attentive to what Anastasia says and does.
But I can respectfully assure my readers that I have indeed
become much more attentive to her; nevertheless, I cannot
refrain from arguing with her, or from doubting. I cannot
refrain since I am unwilling to admit that I and our whole
society are complete idiots. I am unwilling to believe that we
are heading down a path of degeneration.
And so I am trying to find at least some justification for
our actions. Or some reason for saying her world-view is not
applicable to our modern way of life. And I shall go on trying
as long as I have the strength to do so. After all, if I didn’t, I
would have to own up not only to the fact that she is right but
also to the terrifying situation you and I find ourselves in to-
day And if we are going to admit the existence of a hell, then
we ourselves are paving the road to that hell.
Let’s just take, for example, the matter of child-raising.
I’m speaking not just for myself, but for all others in the same
boat, and I think there are quite a few of us.
I was an average pupil in school; my father punished me
every time I got a poor mark. It wasn’t just a matter of keep-
ing me from playing outdoors with other kids, or buying some
toy — it was more severe than that. And all this struck fear
into me — a fear greater than the strap. I was always in fear of
something bigger. And every time I stepped up to the chalk-
board, it was like stepping up to the scaffold. And I used to
tear pages out of my dnevnik ... 2
What to agree with, what to believe?
I 75
Marvellous schooldays still ringing —
Textbooks and notebooks and singing!
So fast and fleeting alack!
No one can now bring them back.
Will they then vanish without any trace?
No, none can ever their mem’ry erase.
Marvellous schooldays!
Remember the words to that song 3 they taught us to make us
believe how marvellous our schooldays were? Brainwashing,
brainwashing! But we also remember — especially us ‘aver-
age’ kids (and we’re the majority, after all) — how glad we
were to chuck those hated schoolbags aside just as soon as
the summer holidays began!
And just how marvellous can schooldays be for a child who
has a physiological need to move around, when here he’s re-
quired to sit a whole forty-five minutes in a prescribed pose,
arms neatly folded on his desk, without hardly moving a mus-
cle? Sure, the slow and sluggish types can take it, but what
about the child who is agile, temperamental and impulsive
by nature? But under the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, it’s as
though everybody were robots, no individuality — “Sit there,
or else...”, the child is told.
And the little fellow sits there, trying to endure the for-
ty-five minutes and then, after a ten-minute break, another
' dnevnik — a notebook kept by each Russian schoolchild with a record of
his or her marks, ranging on a scale from i (fail) to 5 (excellent). Some chil-
dren would tear out pages showing lower marks so that their parents would
not see them.
'that song — a school song learnt by nearly all Soviet schoolchildren in the
second half of the twentieth century. The words were written by Evgeny
Dolmatovsky (1915-1994) and the music composed by Dmitry Kabalevsky
(1904-1987).
176
Book 3: The Space of Love
forty-five, then a month, a year, ten years, and the only way out
is to give in. Most importantly, to resign himself to the fact
that he will have to keep resigning himself to things his whole
life long. He will have to live the way society dictates, marry
the way society dictates, and go to war directly the order is
given. He must unfailingly believe in anything he is told.
People who willingly resign themselves are very easy to
control. Only it’s best if they’re physically healthy and up
to all sorts of tasks. But then they start drinking and tak-
ing drugs. But doesn’t a Man do this to escape, even for a
moment? Doesn’t he try to escape from his prison of utter
subjection to something his heart and soul cannot possibly
comprehend? They don’t, in fact, pass all that quickly, those
schooldays — they drag out in torture periods of forty-five
minutes each.
Our great-great-grandfathers, grandfathers and fathers be-
lieved — and we today believe — that that’s how it should be,
that the child is basically ignorant, and that he must be forced
into things for his own good. And so today our children, our
Vanyas, Kolyas, Sashas and Mashenkas 4 attend school too,
and we today, just like our forefathers centuries ago, believe
that we are sending them there for their own good, for knowl-
edge and the Truth. This is where we must stop! Let’s think
seriously about it.
Let us remember Russia in the pre-revolutionary days.
Our great-grandfathers are sitting at their schooldesks, not
yet grown-up children. They are taught religion, history and
what kind of life they are supposed to lead. Those that don’t
learn by rote — or are slow to grasp the proffered world-view
the way they’re told to — get a sound drubbing on their hands
or head from the teacher, ‘for their own good’.
‘‘’Vanya, Kolya, Sasha , Mashenka — diminutive forms of Ivan, Nikolai,
Alexander/ Alexandra and Maria (i.e., typical Russian names) respectively
What to agree with, what to believe ?
177
But then the revolution comes along, and all of a sudden
adults acknowledge that what the schools have been teaching
the children is rubbish and brainwashing. Everything old is
thrown out of the classroom, and a new indoctrination takes
its place: “Religion is sheer nonsense. Man is evolved from
monkeys. Put on red scarves,’ form up in lines, read poetry
and, above all, glorify communism.” And so the Pioneers glo-
rify communism, read poetry at the top of their lungs and give
honour to adults. “For our happy childhood we thank you,
our native land.” And once more those who don’t try hard
enough are subjected to deprivations, beatings and public
condemnation.
But then, in our own era, before our very eyes, all of a
sudden new directives are handed down: “Take off the red
scarves. The Red Plague overcame us. Communism — that’s
nothing but terror and hypocrisy. Man from monkeys? Sheer
rubbish. We have a different progenitor now The Market!
Democracy! This is Truth!”
Where the Truth is, and where false dogma — is still by no
means clear. But children once again are sitting at their desks
without so much as a stir. And over by the chalkboard still
stands a teacher as strict as can be...
For ages children have been under the shadow of a ‘spir-
itual sadism’. Like a ferocious beast, invisible and frighten-
ing, it tries to chase each newborn child as quickly as possible
into a kind of invisible cage. The beast has some faithful sol-
dier-allies — who are they? Who is spiritually scoffing at our
children? Scoffing at every Man that comes into this world?
What is their name? Their profession? What? — can we sim-
ply accept that their name is ‘schoolteacher’ or ‘parent’? An
’ red scarves — red silk scarves worn (during the Soviet period) by the so-
called ‘Pioneers’ (schoolchildren 10-15 years old), whose uniforms bore a
superficial resemblance to those of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides in the
West.
i 7 8
Book 3: The Space of Love
educated parent, perhaps? There’s no way I can accept that
right off — what about you?
Today in Russia teachers are not being paid their wages on
time. The teachers are on strike. “We won’t teach the chil-
dren,” they say. Tell me, is it good or bad when someone is
not paid the wages owed them? Of course, it’s bad. After all,
people need something to live on. But what if there are actu-
ally ‘spiritual sadists’ among those on strike? Now tell me, is
it good or bad not to give money to those who scoff at your
child?
Anyway, the teachers’ strikes gave me pause for some rather
interesting reflection. Right now all the major cities have pri-
vate schools, whose organisers select the most talented teach-
ers and pay them a decent wage — in the neighbourhood of
twice what they would get in regular schools. Not all parents
manage to get their children into a private school, even if they
have enough to pay for the tuition. Simply because there are
not enough private schools to go round. And why aren’t there
enough?
The answer is simple — because there aren’t enough good
teachers. The founders of private schools can’t find them.
Another question. If they can’t find teachers even at a good
salary, who are all those people on strike? Now there’s a ques-
tion for you. Only please believe me, I’m in no way wishing,
out of the whole cross-section of our society, to point the fin-
ger at teachers alone. When I speak about them I’m includ-
ing myself too. After all, I’m one of them. I too, after all — as
a parent — made my daughter study what she was taught in
school, and then, when perestroika 6 came along, I asked her:
° perestroika — the policy of restructuring the economic and political system
of the Soviet Union, initiated by Gorbachev in 1985, which eventually led
to the collapse of the Soviet system and the break-up of the USSR in the
early 1990s.
What to agree with, what to believe?
179
“What is your teacher telling you about history now?” — only
to hear in reply: “The teacher talks, but it’s, like, he isn’t say-
ing anything.” And what could I say to my daughter about
that? So I simply advised her: “Well, don’t go philosophising
about it. Just get on with your studies.”
Today we have strikes, but is it only the teachers? Doctors
are on strike, so are miners, so are academic researchers. The
strikers write on their placards: “Down with the government!”
“Down with the president!” It’s all quite logical, according to
the strikers. After all, if there’s no pay, it means the authori-
ties are not carrying out their duties.
Everything in their demands seems logical to us today, but
what about tomorrow? Again, a question to be answered.
Perhaps it will come out tomorrow that the government and
the president have been standing on the bright side all along,
saving the whole Earth from invaders and vampires. Perhaps
against their will, unwittingly, risking loss of power under a
hail of malevolence by their refusal to give money to sadists
and destroyers of people’s souls and bodies, as well as the
Earth. And yet the latter have hysterically portrayed them-
selves as martyrs in the public’s eye.
Today it’s martyrs. In the context or today’s positions
and dogma. But tomorrow there will be a different dogma,
and who will be portrayed as what is not yet clear. Anastasia
says:
“Everybody is choosing an unreliable path for themselves.
They always get what is coming to them, not in the next life,
but in this one. But with the dawn of each new day each one
of us is given the opportunity to determine whether their
path is true or not, and the choice is up to you! You are free
to choose which path to take. You are a Man! Become con-
sciously aware of what you really are! You are a Man, bom to
be in paradise.”
I asked her:
iSo Book 3: The Space of Love
“Where is it, that paradise? Who’s been leading us into
some kind of swamp?” And she replied:
“Man creates everything for himself.”
Just try to fathom what she said next! She was affirming,
after all, that the time has now come for the speeding up of
some kind of processes in the Universe. And those whose way
of life does not correspond to the natural laws of being will be
subjected to trials — at first in the most ordinary way — clear
and understandable, and these trials will serve as a good sign
for becoming consciously aware of their actions and the path
they are following. For those who don’t manage to do this,
more troubles will ensue, and then they will have to forsake
life in order to be regenerated as healthy beings — but only
after nine thousand years.
And it turns out, according to her, that miners tearing
open the veins of the Earth, modern medical doctors thrust-
ing themselves into genetic engineering, scientists inventing
deadly products — all these have already been shown the first
sign in the form of their rejection by society and their fail-
ure to achieve financial peace of mind. Those of them who
possess material goods today suffer even more from lack of
moral satisfaction, as they are subconsciously aware of how
harmful their activity is and how it is bringing no real good
to anyone.
I tried to object, arguing that coal was needed for factories,
but she countered:
“What factories? The ones that smoke and burn up the
air intended for Man to breathe, and turn out steel to make
machine guns and bullets?”
In other words, she maintains that the system we have cre-
ated to provide artificial conditions for life is so imperfect that
all its present achievements will result in terrible cataclysms.
The ground that has been dug up beneath our large cit-
ies — where natural underground streams and pure springs
What to agree with, what to believe ? 1S1
welling up from the depths of the Earth have been replaced
by systems of pipes and taps — is unable to restore itself and
is rotting away, bringing this rot along with the water into
everyone’s taps. Anastasia went on:
“The time will come when mankind will understand. The
most important scientists will come and pay a visit to the
grandmother on her plot of land. Famished, they will ask her
to give them a tomato for something to eat. The scientists
and their illusory creations are not needed by that grand-
mother today She knows nothing of them herself, nor does
she want to know She lives a quiet life without the scien-
tists’ help, while they cannot live without her. They inhabit a
world of fruitless illusions, leading nowhere. She is with the
natural earth and the whole Universe. The Universe needs
her, it does not need them.”
I tried to object that, if we don’t produce weapons but only
take care of the land, we’ll become weak, and risk being easily
conquered by technologically advanced powers that do have
weapons.
“They are having a problem protecting themselves from
their own weapons!” replied Anastasia. ‘And from the social
cataclysms these weapons engender.”
“Sure,” I said, “they will abandon everything and come af-
ter our grandmothers on their plots of land — come afteryour
dachniks — with their machine-guns, and our grandmothers
will have no machine-guns of their own to fight back.”
“But will they get that far? What do you think? Will they
not fight to the death among themselves over our grandmoth-
ers?” 7
So there you have it. If we’re not going to argue with
Anastasia and simply trust what she says, then we have to
’fight ... over our grandmothers — The Russian phrase here involves a play on
words; it can also be understood in the sense of fight over money.
182
Book 3: The Space of Love
admit to ourselves that we’re complete idiots, nothing but
fruit-hungry worms. That’s not something we’re willing to
own up to!
So, not understanding, perhaps, everything in Anastasia, I
am trying to find at least some sort of justification of what we
have been creating in our world. And should I not be able to
find any reasonable justification, should I be obliged to ad-
mit that the path we are following is completely untenable,
then... And what then? Let’s think about it a bit. Perhaps we
should give our children the freedom to grow up without our
dogma. And then ask the children where and which way we
should go.
Anastasia talks about how children whom we have not
corrupted spiritually will find the way to winning salvation
for both themselves and us or, rather, to attain the paradise
given us right from the beginning.
It turns out everything in our world is simple, yet not so
simple. Why — tell me — why not extend the experience of
Academician Shchetinin’s school to other places? Why not
set up at least one such school in every major city? Well, it’s
not all that simple, it turns out. I asked Shchetinin to set up
such a school in Novosibirsk, and he agreed. But who is going
to provide the space? A good question. I asked Shchetinin:
‘And what if people can be found in other cities to set up
a foundation, would you be able to organise at least one such
school in various cities?”
“It’s impossible to settle everything right away, Vladimir.”
“Why?”
“We shan’t be able to find that many teachers for all the
schools.”
And again the thought: What’s this about there not being
enough teachers?! Who are all those people out on strike?
Academician Shchetinin’s school is a regular government-
supported institution, it’s not a private school. It comes under
What to agree with, what to believe?
183
the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation and does
not charge tuition fees. s But why is it located far away in the
mountains, in a ravine? Why? And why was there an attempt
on Academician Shchetinin’s life? And why was his brother
killed? And why do the Cossacks 8 9 help guard the school?
Who doesn’t like this school? Who is it interfering with?
I was invited to a meeting with the Education Committee
of the State Duma . 10 Officials there had read the first two
books — Anastasia and The Ringing Cedars of Russia. And there
were people on the Duma Education Committee who shared
and understood Anastasia’s views. Good people. I told them
about Shchetinin — they know him very well, and have great
respect for him..
“Then what’s the problem?” I asked. “Why is nothing
changing in the educational system in this country? Children
are suffering as they did before — every time they step up to
the chalkboard it’s like going to the scaffold. And they still sit
at their desks without stirring.”
I was saddened by their response, which, unfortunately,
has tragic consequences for those who are still children today.
Paradoxically, it is the teachers, the teachers themselves who
have turned out to he an insurmountable barrier, as I heard
and understood this gruesome reply:
8
Despite Shchetinin’s school’s official status, since this book was published
in Russian in 1998, the Russian Orthodox Church has labelled the school a
“totalitarian sect” and it has become a target of a concerted libel campaign
in the mass media (described in Book 7 of the Ringing Cedars Series, The
energy of life) aimed at discrediting the school and disrupting its operation.
In 2001 the school’s main building burnt down for unknown reasons but
was rebuilt by pupils themselves in an even more impressive form.
9 Cossacks (Russian: kazaki) — descendants of a race of independent pro-
fessional warriors who traditionally hired out their services to the ruling
authorities, especially in the Caucasus.
10 Duma (pronounced DOO-ma) — Russia’s national parliament.
184
Book 3: The Space of Love
“What would become, tell me, of the whole raft of aca-
demic titles and degrees, the countless dissertations on the
subject of child-raising? What would become of our research
institutes? After all, they’ve worked out a whole system. The
machinery has been set in motion, and its flywheel can’t be
stopped with the wave of a wand. Anyone who has defended
a doctoral thesis, especially one who has achieved professo-
rial rank, is going to stick as hard as he can to his own views.”
I also learnt how a woman member of the Duma lamented
after visiting Shchetinin’s school:
“I don’t understand anything that’s going on in that school.
It’s quite out of the ordinary — something like a sect.”
I wasn’t aware of the specific meaning of the word sect
(Russian: sekta). Later I looked up the definitions in the dic-
tionary, which read as follows:
Sekta (Sect) — from Latin secta — teaching, movement,
school.
1. A religious community or group which has cut itself
off from the prevailing church.
2. An isolated group of people absorbed in their own
narrow group interests.
It is not clear in what sense the Duma member was using
this word, but I feel neither definition is really applicable to
Shchetinin’s school. And if it has indeed cut itself off, has it
cut itself off from the good or the bad? I think, if it has cut
itself off at all, then it has detached itself from the sadistic
treatment of children. As for the Duma, as long as its mem-
bers make such statements, I have nothing to say. Let readers
themselves consider whether and in what measure the sec-
ond definition quoted above applies to certain factions in the
Duma: ‘An isolated group of people absorbed in their own
narrow group interests”. Does that mean they’re a sect?
What to agree with, what to believe? 185
Shchetininwasshotat. But he is a man. Now the Cossacks,
perhaps, will help to some degree. And Anastasia promised
to protect the ‘new shoots’. Now I realise it would be better
for her not to come out of her taiga, at least for the time be-
ing. If she were just slightly more aggressive, she could easily
zap dissertations, academic titles and all sorts of rot with her
ray. But no way! “A gentler approach,” she says, “is needed.
People’s consciousness needs changing.”
Anyway, here I’ve gone and written down my thoughts
about child-raising and our modern schools, only they’ve
come out rather chaotic, not very sincere. Not very sincere,
since if I were to describe how I really feel about our schools
I’d have to resort to some pretty foul language. But my style of
writing has somehow changed after my talks with Anastasia.
There are a lot of words that simply wouldn’t fit in.
I would still like to say a word to all those teachers who
have been able in spite of the system to impart to their chil-
dren even a smidgen of good and, as Shchetinin says, “enrol
them in the natural cosmic process”. Thank you! Along with
my deepest respect!
And there’s another thing I have learnt from what Anastasia
says about child-raising — namely, that first and foremost
comes the conscious awareness of the child as an individual.
By comparison with us adults youngsters are, of course, physi-
cally weaker, but at the same time immeasurably kinder than
we are, unsullied, not bound by dogma. And before we go fill-
ing children’s heads with any kind of moralising, we need to
understand something about the world ourselves. Ourselves!
We need to think things through ourselves! And to forget
about somebody else’s dogma, at least for a time.
As for us entrepreneurs, we too have to somehow seek out
teachers in each city, help create foundations for the schools
where we shall be teaching our children and grandchildren.
Chapter Twenty
Day after day my stay in the taiga goes by, and I can’t find any
particular activity for myself. Anastasia keeps running off,
still tending to her own affairs. Our son, even though he is
still quite little, splendidly copes with everything through the
help of his ‘nannies’ of the wilds. It’s a strange turn of events:
as though humanity has thought up so many activities simply
to give it the feeling that it is doing something. And out here
all you do is go for walks in the forest and think. So I take
walks, and I think. Now I’ve come once more to the lake and
sat myself down in my favourite spot by the shore, underneath
a cedar tree. And I’m looking at the bag of readers’ letters
and thinking I’d better not forget to have Anastasia answer all
these questions. As soon as she approaches, I ask her:
“You see these letters from readers? I’ve sorted them all
out according to the type of question. There are questions on
child-raising, various suggestions, questions on different reli-
gions, on Russia’s purpose, on war, there’s poetry and greet-
ings, letters from mediums. You see?”
“Yes, I see.”
And the first thing I did was to ask Anastasia about mediums.
“There are people who say — in fact, they write in their
letters — that they communicate with extraterrestrial civi-
lisations, with certain individuals in the past, that they hear
different voices, and some record what they hear — they say
that they record various kinds of information communicat-
ed to them by the Supreme Mind of the Universe. We have
books published in huge print-runs on ‘channelling’ — contact
Mediums
187
through mediums. Blavatsky , 1 for example — there’s a woman
writer by that name who has written quite a few weighty tomes
along this line. And then there’s the Roerichs , 2 known to a lot
of people — they've written books and produced paintings
which have been exhibited in many different countries where
their books are read. Other people are afraid, terrified when
they hear voices. Look — here’s a letter from a little girl in
the town of Klintsy 3 — she has a voice telling her he’s a wise
teacher and she should listen to him, and the girl is afraid and
is asking for help. Are people like this really communicating
with someone and how does it happen?”
“Tell me, Vladimir, what do you consider to be an extrater-
restrial civilisation?”
“Well, I would say the population of some other planet or
star, or something invisible existing quite close by If people
can communicate with individuals who lived in the past, it
must mean these individuals reside in some kind of invisible
world.”
“Every Man, Vladimir, is so constructed that he has access
to the whole Universe — both visible and invisible. Every
Man may communicate with anything or anyone he wishes.
It works pretty much the same as through your radio receiver.
1 Elena (Helena) Petrovna Blavatskaya (Blavatsky) (1831-1891) — Russian char-
ismatic spiritualist writer who travelled the tvorld in the 1850s and was es-
pecially intrigued by the religions of the Orient. In 1873 she emigrated to
America, where she wrote her monumental Isis unveiled (1877) and along
with Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907) and William Quan Judge (1851-1896)
founded the Aryan Theosophical Society of New York. In 1878 she and
Olcott went to India and founded a Theosophical Society there; they later
did the same in Europe (London and Paris), where Blavatsky ’s other major
work, The secret doctrine, was published in 1888.
“ Roerichs — see footnote 5 in Chapter 17: “Put your vision of happiness into
practice”.
■’ Klintsy — a totvn south-east of Briansk, just north of the Ukrainian bor-
der.
i88
Book 3: The Space of Love
There are so many stations broadcasting all kinds of informa-
tion, out of which the owner of the receiver must select what
he is going to listen to.
“Man is both the receiver and its owner. And which source
finds a reception in his thought depends on his conscious
awareness, his feelings and purity. As a rule, a Alan receives
directly information he is able to make sense of, understand
and use. And all this must take place calmly and quietly, with-
out intrusive attention drawn to greatness.
“When voices draw attention to their own greatness, they
try to appeal to one’s sense of self-importance: ‘Look here,
I’m so great, yet I have chosen only you out of everyone —
you shall be my pupil, and you too shall be greater than every-
one else.’ As a rule, this is what you would hear from inferior,
soulless creatures. They are not granted a bodily existence, so
they attempt to oppress the human soul and occupy another’s
body. They act on Alan’s mind, his sense of self-importance
and his fear of the unknown.”
“‘But how do we save ourselves from such creatures?’ —
many readers are asking.”
“It’s really very simple — they themselves are cowards,
rather primitive cowards at that. You need to give them an ul-
timatum: ‘Get out of here, and if you do not, I shall burn you
with my thought!’ They know very well that Man’s thought is
many times stronger than they are.
‘Another thing you can do is chew a celandine 4 leaf, but
first you should put the leaf in the palm of your hand and say
to it mentally: ‘Save me, little leaf, from all impurities’.”
“But what if a whole lot of people want to talk with the
same source? What happens then? See, a lot of people say in
their letters that they talk with you — is that true? And if so,
how do you manage to answer everyone? After all, there are a
lot of them, and they all claim that they talk directly with you
and you answer them.”
Mediums
189
“Every individual produces their own thoughts. And eve-
ryone’s thoughts still exist — they do not simply disappear
into oblivion. What you and I think also exists in space —
my dream is there, too, and my thoughts, and everyone who
wishes to can hear them — many can hear them at the same
time — it is only a question of the degree of distortion the
receiver is capable of permitting.”
“What do you mean by distortion ? What determines
that?”
“It is determined by the purity of the receiver. Imagine,
Vladimir, that you are hearing someone speak over an ordi-
nary receiver. But instead of distinct words you get interfer-
ence, static, and you do not know what some of the words
are, and the concepts behind them are unclear, what do you
do then?”
“Well, then I try to guess what words might fit into the
gaps where I don’t understand.”
“Exactly But a word you put in might change or detract
from the original thought being conveyed by the sounds, or
could even turn it in the opposite direction. Only one’s own
purity is capable of hearing Truth undistorted, and if they are
insufficient — your tuning and your purity, that is — then you
should not blame the source.
“In your material life, in your world, there are a multitude
of sources of sound on all sides, all of them claiming to be
Truth and trying to control your mind and will, to make your
4 celandine (from Greek khelidon = swallow) — here referring to greater celan-
dine 0 Chelidoniim majus), a yellow-flowered plant whose blooming is associ-
ated with the arrival of migrating swallows, and whose leaves and flowers
are used as medicine. Native to Europe, Eurasia and North Africa, it has
also been naturalised in North America. In Russian the greater celandine is
known as chistotei, derived from the root chist- (signifying ‘pure’ or ‘cleans-
ing’) and - tel (signifying ‘body’) — a name consistent with its traditional use
as a cure for a variety of skin diseases.
190
Book 3: The Space of Love
life suit their own purposes, but you are free to listen to them
or not to listen. You are free to decide, with nobody to blame
but yourself.”
“Let’s say that’s true,” I observed, “but what if there is
some kind of question for which there is no answer in all the
Universe? Let’s say you’re asked a question, and you don’t
have any thoughts out in space on that subject to respond to
the question, andyou yourself haven’t produced any thoughts
in response to that question, what then?”
“A question for which there is no answer in the Universe
will immediately speed up the evolution of everything. Like
a flashbulb bright and clear as a bell, it will reach into all cor-
ners of the Universe and everything will be set in motion as
well, there will be a rejoining of opposites, an answer will be
born and it will be heard.”
“So, that means, right off you’ll hear the question and
glimpse the one who’s asking it?”
“Just like everyone else, I too shall hear it right off. But
unfortunately, for centuries people have been asking the same
questions over and over again — there are answers to them,
but not many people who hear those answers.”
“But how can I tell what’s what? How can I tell when the
source is communicating Truth, or rather, whenTruth is being
perceived without interference? After all, there’s no crackling
sound in one’s ears when we hear something externally, and
you say that the answer is born, as it were, in the form of our
own thoughts — thoughts we produce ourselves. But what
helps us tell whether the voice we hear is a good voice or no?
After all, everyone that hears voices thirties they are listening
only to the Supreme Mind.”
“It is when you hear more than just words. When suddenly
there is a flash of feeling or emotion in the soul and tears of joy
in your eyes. And when sensations of warmth and fragrances
and sounds are born in you. When you feel within yourself
Mediums
191
the impulse or urge to co-create and a thirst for purification,
you may be sure that you are clearly hearing the thoughts of
Light.
“When it is simply cold information that comes, an order
or command, even one that talks about good — perhaps it
seems wise, even very wise, and the originating source claims
to be supreme and very powerful — know this: it is not good
that is hiding behind good, but an entity not accorded a place
in perfection that is trying to persuade you to follow it for its
own purposes.”
Chapter Twenty-One
‘Anastasia, here's another issue. Some readers want to live
the way you do in the taiga. Several are trying to come to see
you and are asking directions, others want to organise settle-
ments in the taiga. And they are sending in their proposals to
the Moscow Research Centre as to how to do this. Besides,
I’ve read that there are already settlements like this elsewhere
in the world, where people leave their homes in the city and
settle in communities in Nature. This is happening in India,
in America, and also here in Russia — in the Krasnoyarsk 1 re-
gion, for example. And people are asking you the best way to
realise their dreams.”
“But why go to another place to live?”
“What do you mean, why? People are leaving the dirty cit-
ies where the air quality is poor, where there’s a lot of noise
and bustle. They are moving to places that are clean and eco-
logically pure, so they can become purer themselves.”
“But back there where it has become dirty, who is to clean
it up? Others?”
“I don’t know who. But is it so bad when Man has the de-
sire come to him to live in a clean place in Nature?”
“The desire is a good one, that is not the point. When a
person who creates dirt around himself comes to a clean place,
1 Krasnoyarsk — a major industrial city of approximately one million inhab-
itants in central Siberia, a few hundred kilometres east of Novosibirsk.
Krasnoyarsk is also a port on the Yenisei River which, like the Ob in
Novosibirsk, flows north to the Arctic Ocean.
193
Should we all go live in the forest?
he pollutes that place with his very presence. You need to
clean up the place you’ve been polluting first, thereby wash-
ing away your sins.”
“So, everything starts with a clean-up, eh? And how do you
suppose that’s all going to happen?”
“Conscious awareness is the point of departure for any
venture. The aspiration of one’s thought finds the most ef-
fective path, just like any stream in Nature.
“It is all happening already in Russia today. Look closely,
Vladimir. You will see that the factories with their smoking
chimneys are not doing very well — that is not by chance, it
did not simply happen that way all by itself.
Another thing — there is less and less money for the na-
tion’s armed forces.
But the main thing Is that you have stopped treating as
heroes people whom it would not be a sin to call vandals —
people who have polluted the Earth by their actions.
“There is no need to go live in the forest. The space of the
forest will not be quick to accept newcomers, and will take a
long time examining their motives, habits and way of life. After
all, the place where you were living, the place where you are liv-
ing now — all that was once a forest too, planted by the Creator.
And what has become of this beneficial oasis of paradise today?
“People who go live in the forest are no more significant —
indeed, they are less significant — than the dachniks who
plant gardens on desolate, abandoned land with their own
hands. They are known and loved by every blade of grass on
their plot, which endeavours to give back to them the warmth
of the Universe. And the true feelings are to be found in
those who themselves have set up this oasis of paradise, giv-
ing embodiment to the good in their souls amidst the bustle
and gloom of death.”
“But what then will become of the cities?” I queried.
“Who will maintain those in a state of normalcy? After all,
194
Book 3: The Space of Love
everything in the cities will decompose into a void, every-
thing will decay and be destroyed.”
“There should not be a sudden transition from one base
to another — a gradual movement is needed, and it is already
taking place. It is splendid, and it will be even more splendid
in the future.”
“Well, Anastasia, you are true to form! Just like before, all
the dachniks are still your idols. The only thing is, they hardly
ever talk about spiritual things, the way a lot of different reli-
gious organisations and communities do. ’
‘Are words needed when their deeds are holy?” Anastasia
countered.
“Here are some more letters,” I offered. “One person has
already sent me five letters. He claims that he heats voices
and that his dowsing-rod tells him you are summoning him to
the taiga, and he is trying to get to you; he threatens me and
goes to see Solntsev at the Moscow Research Centre . 2 He
says we are concealing you from everyone and demands that
we organise a trip for him to come see you in the taiga. And
he’s not the only one. How would you answer him? I think
you know these people are in love with you. They think they
should be with you, doing good deeds together. And live to-
gether with you in the taiga.”
“I would respond to everyone who is sincere: thank you for
your love. But I have not invited anyone to the taiga. What
would you do here? What could you contribute? If your in-
tentions are good, let them be expressed right there where
you are living. Let your love illuminate those living around
2 Alexander Solntsev. Moscow Research Centre — see Book 2, Chapter 25: The
Space of Love”.
Chapter Twenty-Two
c
entres
“In cities in Russia and even abroad,” I told Anastasia, “people
have already started organising centres named after you. Let
me read you just one example of the many letters my daughter
Polina has been receiving. She herself has answered a number
of them, and sent others to me, but I can’t possibly reply to
them all, and there are some letters I’m not completely sure
how to respond to. After all, there are people out there who
think these centres represent some kind of sect. Just listen
to this letter from one of the centres — how would you re-
spond?”
I took one of the letters Polina had forwarded to me and
read it to Anastasia in full. Here it is:
Hello, Polina!
I am a member of our school’s Anastasia Ecological Creativity
Centre , Valery Anatolievich Karasiov. 1
Our Centre is still quite young, it was set up on 4 December 1997
and is now in the process of getting established. Its genesis was facili-
tated by your fathers book, for which we are all very grateful to him.
Anastasia, like a ray of Light in a dark realm, is now bringing to-
gether the creative forces of us adidts and children who have not lost
our creative capacities, with the aim of standing up for our honour
and dignity. Such people as we aspire to bright ideals and believe
that the happiness of Russia, our native land, is in our hands and our
thoughts.
'Karasiov — pron. ka-ras-TOFF.
196
Book 3: The Space of Love
We realise how right now the forces of darkness are pressing down
upon her, and we are trying to help her as much as we are able.
Teachers, schoolchildren and their parents are all working togeth-
er at our Centre.
At the present time we are introducing Anastasia and her ideas to
kids and their parents with the help of classes and seminars, making
use of your father’s books and, distributing them along with magazine
anicles.
We are also trying to put together a collection of scientific accounts
explaining Anastasia ’s abilities.
We are aware of the challenges involved in the task of awaken-
ing Man’s conscious awareness, in overcoming the inertia of human
thinking and so we are going abou t our activities with calmness and
confidence. And we have already > made some interesting discoveries.
Some people we have been in touch with look upon Anastasia as
a beautiful fairy-tale, while others tune in to our work right from
their very first reading of the book. There are also a few who are
starting to spread rumours that Anastasia is just another sect, which
makes us smile.
But as it has been said, “ Father, forgive them; for they know not
what they do .” 1
The main thing is. we are so happy that Anastasia has brought
us together in this rural region with its dying agricultural industries
and its decaying state-run farm, whose managers have completely
forgotten about people’s needs — especially young people’s needs. And
this has all happened on the very spot where Mikhail Kalinin 3 was
“Luke 23: 34 ( Authorised King James Version).
3 Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (1875-1946) — as Chairman of the Soviet
National Executive Committee in 1922, the USSR’s first titular Head of
State. In 1931 one of Russia’s oldest cities, Tver (founded in 1135), and subse-
quently the Tver region ( oblast ) — where this letter is coming from — were
both re-named Kalinin, and retained this name throughout the Soviet pe-
riod. The city’s historic name was restored in 1990. One of the ships in
Vladimir Megre’s river fleet was also named the Mikhail Kalinin (see Book 1,
Chapter i: “The ringing cedar”).
The Anastasia Centres
197
born and the hugely successful Verkhnyaya Troitsa 4 5 state-run farm
once flourished.
Here at the Anastasia Centre located at the M. I. Kalinin rural
school, our Raduga’ programme was initiated. It is designed to work
out and put into practice creative solutions for the development of
our native land, work education and the moral upbringing of the ris-
ing generation, to set up a basis for the manufacturing of ecologically
clean agricultural products.
Raduga also aims to set up a young people’s cultural and ecological
manufacturing co-operative under the name Rus, which will include
the Slavic cultural centre known as Lada and an ecological manufac-
turing complex called Rod . 6
This is the kind of programme Anastasia helped us set up.
Let unbelievers believe in their unbelief, but we shall work on
bringing our programme to fruition, no matter how unrealisable it
may appear to some people.
Our goal is to allow our young people to feel the practical results
of their creative forces.
One aspect of the Raduga programme involves getting to know
our own country better — studying our native land’s ancient history
and the life and culture of our Slavic forebears.
4 Verkhnyaya Troitsa — the name literally means ‘Upper Trinity’, although to
the Soviet authorities in charge of the farm the term was strictly geographi-
cal. Workers on state-run farms ( sovkbozy ) received a monthly wage, just
like factory workers. This was in sharp contrast to the period preceding the
collectivisation of the 1930s, when peasant households owned their land
and whole families often participated in the farm labour.
5 Raduga — the word literally signifies rainbow.
6 Rus (pronounced ROOS, rhyming with moose ) — the name of the Old
Russian territory, which by the 9th century A.D. was centred around Kiev;
Lada — the name given to the Slavic goddess of love and beauty, also related
to the word lad, signifying peace, union, harmony, Rod — an ancient Slavic
name for God as Creator of all (see footnote 10 below).
198
Book 3: The Space of Love
A long time ago, right near Verkhnyaya Troitsa, the town of
Medved was built, but hardly anything is known about it — it has
literally been wiped o ff the face of the Earth. Along the banks of
the Medveditsa' River may be found old Slavic burial mounds. We
are wondering whether some of these have a similar significance to
that of the dolmens' in Gelendzhik, since that was where the local
Medved militia did battle with the Tatars and their Golden Horded
We need this information, as we don’t want to be neglectful of our
past. We shall take steps to preserve whatever we can, and do at least
a partial restoration. That is our request, Polina, to Anastasia.
In the spring we shall start setting up a nursery to cultivate cedar
seedlings — this will be possible thanks to one of our local residents,
a forest warden by the name of Georgi Shaposhnikov, who gave us
this amazing gift.
Our childrens theatre, headed by Tatiana Yakovlevna Zaonegina,
who comes from Siberia, will be putting on a play based on the
Anastasia book. The kids are really fired up with the project.
We would very much like other centres and organisations Anastasia
helped come into being to get in touch with us. May her Divine lines
of Light join all our centres together throughout Russia.
Mutual communication, even if just through letters, will increase
our strength and enable us to find answers more quickly.
Our postal address is as follows:
Anastasia Ecological Creativity Centre
M.I. Kalinin School
’Medved, Medveditsa (pronounced something like mid-VETTCH, mid-VET-
dit-sa ) — these names both signify bear (the animal), male and female, re-
spectively
8 dolmens — See Chapter 4: “Score for the Universe”.
9 Tatars (= Tartars), Golden Horde — a reference to the Mongol invasion of
Russia under Batu Khan (grandson of Genghis Khan) in the 13th century;
the Tatar domination of Russia lasted almost two hundred years.
The A nastasia Centres
199
Verkhnyaya Troitsa, Kalinin District,
Tver Oblast 171622
The following is a gift from, our school to all for whom Anastasia
exists.
HEAR YOUR ORDERS,
DEAR BROTHERS!
To help with Anastasias
World-happifying ideas,
To head off disaster for good
And never repeat it, we should
Awaken at six in the morning,
So as not to find anything boring
And with smiles and sincere open hearts
We shall stretch out our arms to the stars
And draw ourselves close to her side —
To our mother dear, as to our bride:
“Here I am, your own blood to embrace!”
And a sly smile creeps over our face...
In an instant, not a -moment beyond.
We see Mother’s own face respond.
“To you, Mother Nature, good morn!
Who with God the Father 10 have borne
Strong warriors — where would one find
In the Universe any more kind?
10 God the Father — The Russian term is Rod-Bat/ushka. Batiushka is a tender
name for ‘Father’, while Rod is the name ascribed to God by the ancient
Slavs to designate the source of all life. Many current Russian words are de-
rived from this root, including the word for Nature — Priroda, whose literal
meaning is ‘attached to God’.
200
Book 3: The Space of Love
Oh Sister, of Slavic blood true,
So long we have waited for you.
We all have been touched by your Ray:
Tour orders we now will obey."
Dear brothers, your orders now hear!
At six, like the book says, dark fear
Will flee from our forthright attack —
Fifteen minutes it takes, there and back!"
So that no threat will vex our dear sister,
We must give this child our assistance.
We answer to them, after all.
Then how can we not heed their call?
We are quite used to lending our add
To break through the dark foe’s blockade I 11
Valery, a Russian naval officer
I wish you success and all the best, Polina. We at the Centre shall
be happy to receive any information you can give us about Anastasia.
Please give our very best wishes to your father
Happy New Tear!
11 fifteen minutes — This whole poem is a reference to Anastasia’s ‘orders’ (an
urgent request, at least) to “wake up in the morning at a set time — six
o’clock, say — and think about something good. ... They can think about
their children, about their loved ones, about how to make everyone happy.
If they could only think fifteen minutes like that.” See Book 2, Chapter 8:
“The answer”. The word orders harks back to the observation by the ‘colo-
nel’ in Book 2 (Chapter 20: “The Ringing Cedars of Russia”) that Vladimir
was “not good at following orders properly”.
11 blockade — a reference to the 900-dav Nazi blockade of Leningrad (start-
ing in September 1941), which was broken by the will of the Russian peo-
ple — first, during the winter months with the ‘Road of life’ across frozen
Lake Ladoga east of the city, and then for good, finally ending in January
1944. During all this time the city never surrendered and was never taken
by the enemy.
The Anastasia Centres
201
“Well, Anastasia, what do you have to say about this let-
ter?”
“I can say that it shows marvellous aspirations of the hu-
man soul. But neither you nor I can take credit for that. It
is beauty and the strength of their soul that alone are respon-
sible. Their names would make an even worthier choice for
naming the centre. I grew up in the cradle of the Creator,
while their soul has strived to brave the tortures of hell and
has survived.
“For years a string of hardships, deprivations, tempta-
tions and commotions have tried as hard as they could to
distort their realisation of good. Their souls have been able
to overcome it all. They are stronger than those who have
cut themselves off from the world behind a stone wall. They
are in the world and have enriched the world with their pres-
ence. They should be remembered in the centre’s name. If
people plan to name all the centres after me, it will result in
the formation of a cult, and that must not be. A personality
or image cult always distracts Man from the essential thing,
from himself.”
“Then what will be the result?” I queried. “There’s
Solntsev’s centre in Moscow and Larionova’s in Gelendzhik,
and already I’ve heard people speak of an Anastasia division
at the International Academy of Spiritual Development.
How will people be able to find out with precision what these
centres are all about?”
“Intuition is a quality given the same to all, Vladimir, and a
centre’s real essence and attraction is determined not by the
name: it is the soul that should be able to feel one’s actions.”
“Now that’s an interesting turn of things, now I’ll have to do
some more thinking. You are a quite unconventional woman,
Anastasia, and conversing with you makes thinking work not
just for me but for many others around too, and when is there
time to relax? There is one more concrete question they ask
202
Book 3: The Space of Love
of you: what kind of burial mounds are located there on the
river, on the Medveditsa?”
“There is no need to excavate the mounds. They have ful-
filled their task, and people were born there who were the
first to ask the most important question.”
“What question?”
“Think about it yourself, Vladimir, please. But I shall tell
you this for now: you go show people like these the ways to
make better contact with each other. You can do your part
by noting their addresses in your book. Let all the letters,
like bright rays, help them warm each other’s hearts. The St.
Petersburg poet Korotynsky’ 3 gave you a hint a long time ago
when he wrote:
This ray of Love from heart to heart
With th read Divine will gleam and glisten,
Make every soul from dust depart
And thirsting minds with heaven freshen.”
“Okay, I’ve got it,” I said. “I myself was going to publish
both the letters and the poems readers have sent in. I wanted
to keep them and release them in a volume of their own. I
myself felt there was something deeper than usual in them.
And I can make their addresses known through the Moscow
centre, so that people may end up helping each other. My
daughter Polina can also participate — she has been very
good about taking care of the letters to date.
“You know, Anastasia, it might not be a bad idea if people
from all over the world could carry on communication with
each other. They will find people of like spirit and like mind,
h Alexander Korotynsky — a St. Petersburg scientist and poet. See Book 2,
Chapter 25: “The Space of Love”.
The Anastasia Centres
203
they can marry or at least become friends, they can start new
common trends or spend their vacation together. Right, that’s
it! That’s great! I’ll get a selection of letters together and put
them out as a collection . 14 You know how our newspapers
now offer a dating service — people place advertisements,
let’s say they’re looking to meet a potential marriage partner,
and they give their height, their age and the colour of their
eyes, as though they were selecting a prize cow for breeding.
But here, I wager, it will be much better, when people meet in
spirit and start helping each other.”
“Of course a union in spirit is better, more solid indeed.”
“Yes... But there’s just one problem...”
“A problem? What is it?”
I4 A 544-page volume of readers’ poetry, art and letters was subsequently
published in Russian, under the title: V luche Anastasii zvuchit dusha Rossii.
Narodnaya kniga (The soul of Russia sings in Anastasia’s ray Apeople’s book).
It was followed by half a dozen issues of a periodical known as Almanakh
“Zvenjashcbie Kedry Rossii” (The Ringing Cedars of Russia Almanac). Most
letters and poems are now shared through numerous on-line forums and e-
mail lists, as well as on the pages of periodicals specially devoted to readers
of the Ringing Cedars Series.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“For some reason it all happens like that in Novosibirsk — it
just happens that most people who are critical of me and my
book come from there. Indeed, that’s the only place people
criticise me.
“My first book is already being published in three foreign
countries, and in many others contracts are being drawn up.
But in Novosibirsk all they do is curse it. My daughter Polina
is there — I can only imagine what she’s going through. And
as for a collection of readers’ letters, they’ll only say: ‘What
new thing are you dangling in front of us now? Why don’t you
go back to your own business?’
“They did a programme recently on Novosibirsk TV about
the early entrepreneurs.' I was included, and in the course
of an interview with my daughter they asked her about my
absence from my business. Polina tried to explain something
about my spiritual interests, but they cut her off.”
“Just a little more time will go by,” Anastasia replied, “and
most residents of Novosibirsk will think highly of both you
and the book. The best of the friends you had last year will
come back, and new friends will appear.
“In one of the city centres a short way from the Eternal
Flame 2 your friends both old and new will plant a brand new
avenue and name it Cedar AUee. ”
I the early entrepreneurs — i.e., following perestroika and the collapse of the
Soviet system in late twentieth-century Russia.
* Eternal Flame — in memory of the soldiers from Novosibirsk who fell dur-
ing World War II.
Re-creating Shambala
205
“Sure they will! Come on, now! You’d better think again —
a ‘Cedar Allee’ near the Eternal Flame? You’re really quite the
schemer, Anastasia, dearest little dreamer of mine!”
She jumped up from the grass and stood on her knees,
beaming all over, throwing up her hands, and all of a sudden
whispering:
“Thank you for those words so fine — ‘dearest’, ‘mine’.
That is me you were talking about here, Vladimir, right? Have
I indeed become dear to you?”
“It’s more just a figure of speech we use. But still, your
dream is very beautiful.”
‘And it will come about, believe me, it will. Just as I dreamt
it, that is how it will turn out.”
“But nothing comes about in the world all by itself. Now
if you could attempt to create some kind of miracle in
Novosibirsk... No, not just any old miracle — what’s the
point of a miracle which leaves people neither hot nor cold?
If only you could grant, say, that every resident of the city be-
came just a little bit richer and healthier — in other words,
so that everyone in Novosibirsk could be happier — now for
that, perhaps, people might plant an allee. But I have an idea
that all your forces of Light, even all told, would still not be
able to bring that about, Anastasia. That is not within the
grasp of anyone’s might.”
“You are right, Vladimir, nobody has power over Man’s
will. Man must still work out his own plan, his own destiny,
whether it be for joy or sorrow. Each one’s conscious aware-
ness will point out the path to follow”
“But who then is toying with our awareness? Who is im-
peding us from choosing the path leading out of sorrow to
j°y ? ”
“Why grope for causes outside your own self, Vladimir? In
accusing others, what do you hope to change? A feeling so
great has arisen within you: to create something good for the
20 6
Book 3: The Space of Love
citizens of your city — I find it very appealing. It is a thought
I myself now must dream with...
‘Ah! Great indeed! I have it! Yes, that is it! All the people
of Novosibirsk will go down in the history of our nation, for it
is there that a generation of happy people will be bom. Every
one living there today will become happier right away
“Let us think together what we can say to the people of
this whole city you are concerned about, how we can learn to
break through to each one’s heart and soul...”
“And what do you want to say to each one of them?”
“That together they will all be able to re-create
Shambala .” 3
‘And just what might this Shambala be? Elaborate more
precisely”
“People have been looking for aeons for a holy place on
the Earth. They think that it is called Shambala, that anyone
there can link with the wisdom of the Universe. But no one
has ever been able to find Shambala, though seekers have
galloped through many foreign nations looking for it. And
find it they will not, as long as they look for it therein, for
ever since time began, Shambala has been re-created — both
within each one and in its outward manifestation — ■ by
Alan.”
“More specifically,” I interjected, “what must be done to
establish a link with the wise Universe and to make one happi-
er — show me a step we can take here that lies not within our-
selves? All that’s within ourselves is somehow unclear. Show
me some outward things we need to sow; build or break?”
“Let each resident of the big city obtain a little nut from a
resinous cedar cone, place it in his mouth and hold it there in
his saliva. Let him plant it in a little pot of earth in his home
3 Shambala — a Tibetan word indicating ‘the source of happiness’. See foot-
note 1 in Book 2, Chapter 27: “The anomaly”.
Re-creating Shambala
207
and water the earth every day. Before watering he should put
his fingers in the water, and should be in a good humour. And
the main thing — he should be wishing good for himself, his
children and descendants, and a conscious awareness of God.
This he should do every day
“When the seed sprouts, one may share with it one’s in-
nermost thoughts. On summer days and frost-free nights
the little pot with the little sprout should be placed outdoors
among other plants growing in the ground so that it can com-
mune with stars, the Sun and the Moon, so that it may know
the rain and the breeze and the spirit of the blades of grass all
‘round, and then come back again to its friends, its parents.
This may transpire many times now, while the desire is there
and time allows.
“The seedling will grow and develop through the ages — a
cedar, after all, will live more than five hundred years, beget
offspring and tell the young cedars about the soul of those
that cultivated them. When the sprout has grown in the
home to about thirty centimetres, it may be planted in the
earth in early spring. Have the city authorities allot at least
one square metre of earth for their sprout to all those that
have no plot of their own.
‘And these sprouts will be planted around the edge of the
city, among the houses and in the centre of busy squares. Let
each person take care of his sprout and help each other in
this.
“From the ends of the Earth people will come to this city to
see and touch the sacred trees, and exchange at least a word
or two with these happy people.”
“Why would people suddenly start coming here from all
over the world?” I asked. “Now if only you could discover
some kind of new sacred sites in Novosibirsk! Dolmens, for
example, as in Gelendzhik. You told about the dolmens of
Gelendzhik, and now seekers from various Russian cities and
208
Book 3: The Space of Love
other lands are flocking to see them. I noticed that every day
now they have tours to the dolmens.
“And every year in September readers from many places
come together for a conference. Artists organise exhibits,
and they record things on video. And now, surprise of sur-
prises, trees are growing in the city Well, not actual trees yet,
just cedar seedlings.”
“These will not be ordinary seedlings,” Anastasia pointed
out. “They are like the ringing cedars. Warmed by the kind-
ness of human hearts, having touched the human soul, they
will take in the best rays the Universe has to offer and start
giving them back to Man. And Alan and the Earth together
will begin to shine once more in that place — now and for-
ever. And there will come a new conscious awareness, and
discoveries of universal importance will go forth from such
people through the whole Earth!
“Do you know what a sacred site is? Believe me, Vladimir,
you will come to know one in your own native city.”
“That’s all very tempting, of course,” I said. “But you
know, Anastasia, there’s hardly anyone that’s going to take
your word alone. There’s no way this can be known from our
history books, and it’s not something our modern science is
going to condone. Now, if there were just something a little
more influential than you, someone better known with the
proper credentials, who could show this...”
“The Koran makes some wise statements on the signifi-
cance of trees. Buddha too got this wisdom when he went off
for a long time into the woods. Tell me, Vladimir, you have
been reading the Bible, have you not?”
“Yes I have, what of it?”
“The Old Testament notes that long before Christ Jesus’
birth the wisest of the Earth’s rulers, King Solomon, used ce-
dar wood to build a temple to the glory of God and a house
for himself. Tie hired a work force of considerable size to cut
Re-creating Shambala
209
down the cedars and bring them in from tar-off places. King
Solomon was very wise, as the Bible says, and the Song of
Songs he wrote has come down to us as an oasis of wisdom in
the present day.
“The Old Testament also tells us that toward the end of his
days the wives of his harem from various lands and various
faiths began leading Solomon away from his faith. He came
to know a variety of faiths. And do you know which one satis-
fied him the most?”
“Which one?”
“The one where trees are not only cut down but also
planted. And on his death-bed this wise king comprehended
that his temporal house and temple would be destroyed, that
his descendants would not be able to maintain their power
or greatness. It would mean that the might of his kingdom
would lapse into a void. And it all came about exactly as he
had foreseen.
‘And to this day his soul is dismayed by the great mistake
he had made. And the wise king realised that it was impos-
sible to do a deed pleasing to God, and at the same time take
the life of any of His ow r n creations. The torment that af-
fected his soul and many human souls extends through whole
millennia, as they watch one mistake making itself again and
again over thousands of years. But the mistake can be cor-
rected, and then a splendid dawn will once more rise over the
world. News of your city will spread through all the channels
of the Earth and the Universe.
“Of all the miracles on Earth that have come down to us to-
day, nobody has ever heard of a city where every citizen there-
of cultivated trees such as these this way — with extraordi-
nary love and tenderness of soul, thereby transforming their
own city of stones into a true, living temple of the Universe,
into a Space of Love. For this a whole conscious awareness is
needed of the Divine, so may it, oh may it rise up so fine and
210
Book 3: The Space of Love
good within each one’s heart, and do its destined part to help
the Universe be understood.”
“Perhaps, just perhaps, there is a germ of rationality in
what you’ve said, Anastasia, and I shall, perhaps, write about
it, so that people may determine everything for themselves,
but I must warn you that you’re missing something here. You
spend all your time carrying on about trees... But... well, how
can I put this? You’ll never be able to get married officially
You don’t have the documents you need to take your turn at
the Civil Registry Office, and here you’re talking with such
earnestness about trees. As it is, the church clerics consider
you a heathen, and when I write these words of yours, they
won’t even let you in the nearest church, and certainly will not
officially wed you to anyone.”
“Vladimir, do write down my words, let people read them
and decide for themselves. And do not be ashamed of these
words, humble your pride. Not everyone, perhaps, will un-
derstand the meaning of these words, and not right away But
in your city there are many scholars who will supplement in
scientific words what I have begun to say, if you believe that
people will understand them better than my own words. And
then there are the journalists. Do not be angry over their crit-
icism; not all the journalists have had their turn. And if the
time should ever come for me to wed, believe me, Vladimir,
one will be found to hold the crown above my head.”
‘And what if people create something like that in another
city, other than Novosibirsk?”
‘Any city can be reborn. For achievements like these to
be fulfilled, a different conscious awareness in people must
be instilled, and when it appears, the face of cities will be
changed for years to come. But among them there will be a
first to perceive the Grace.”
“Blessed Anastasia, you are so naive, it seems, you never
have anything but bright dreams. Well, okay then, I shall
Re-creating Shambala 211
write what you say, so that people will know these things
too.”
“Thank you, thank you! I do not know how else to thank
you.”
“What for? That’s not hard to write. You can add some-
thing more, if you like.”
“I ask you, people, do not just read what I say as empty
words, you need to make sense of what you have heard.”
“Here you are, Anastasia, answering questions from readers,
and you speak of Man as a creator, but you’re a woman, don’t
you see? You know what the leader of one of our religious
denominations said about women?”
“What did he say?”
“He said that women are incapable of creating — their pro-
clivity, then, is to look beautiful and inspire men to various
achievements and creativity but it is only men that do the
actual creating.”
“But you, Vladimir, do you agree with statements such as
those?”
“One could agree with them, I suppose. You know about
statistics, which is an impartial science. Well, if you go by
statistics, you come up with this — ”
“What?”
‘Andrei Rublev, Surikov, Vasnetsov , 4 Rembrandt and other
famous artists were all men — there simply aren’t any women
among them — at least, I don’t recall any women artists. The
4 Andrei Rublev (pron. roob-LYOFF) (1365?— 1430?) — one of the best-known
early Russian painters, known especially for his icons and frescoes. His im-
ages are considered to convey a sense of humanity and deep spirituality
Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (1848-1916), a member of the Itinerant ( Peredvizhnik i)
school of Russian art, known for his huge paintings of historical Russian
battles. Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1848-1926) — another Itinerant,
who also painted monumental historical canvases (his younger brother
Apollinari was not only a fellow artist but an archaeologist as well).
2X2
Book y I he Space of Love
inventors of the airplane, the car, the electric engine, the space
satellite, the rocket-ship — they’re all men, too. Right now
one of the most popular art-forms in our society is the cin-
ema, and in order to produce a film you need a director, and
he’s one of the most important figures in film-making. And
once again, all the best film directors are men. Occasionally
you find a woman director, but they’re very rare. And unlike
men, they don’t produce any really outstanding films. And
the best musicians are invariably men, just like the philoso-
phers — both the ones we know from antiquity and in our
modern world — they’re men, too.”
“But why are you telling me all this, Vladimir?”
“Well, I just had a thought. Maybe it’ll help you.”
“What is your thought? Could you share it with me?”
“It’s like this. Maybe you, Anastasia, should concentrate
more on some kind of home improvement here, along with
child-raising, and not burden yourself down so much with
concerns about the outside world and other people — after
all, men can take care of everything there. Men alone, ac-
cording to statistics, which is an exact and impartial science.
Historically, too, all the important things have been done by
men, and we can’t get away from history Do you understand
how irrefutable this argument is?”
“I understand what you are saying, Vladimir.”
“Just don’t you go and get upset, now Better understand
everything right off the bat, so that you can busy yourself
with your own affairs and not with those that others can do
better. You’re trying to change the world for the better, but
only men can do that, you see — they are better inventors and
better creators than women. Do you agree?”
“Vladimir, I agree that men appear outwardly to be crea-
tors. If you look at it from a material viewpoint, that is.”
“What do you mean, ‘outwardly’? And from what other
viewpoint can you look at irrefutable facts? You’d better not
Re-creating Shambala
213
get philosophising here. Just tell me out-and-out: can you at
least create something ? For example, can you at least do em-
broidery? Can you embroider a beautiful design on a piece of
fabric with a needle?”
“I would not be able to embroider a design with a needle.”
“Why not?”
“I would not be able to take a needle in my hands. A nee-
dle that has been manufactured out of the depths of living
Nature. What is the point of creating something if it involves
first destroying a great, living creation? Think, Vladimir,
when a demented person takes a work by one of the Great
Masters, as you said, and rends the canvas to pieces to cut out
rabbit figures, would you call his actions creativity, making an
allowance for his dementia? But if another person, this one
rational and aware of what is around him, did the same thing,
then his actions would be defined in quite a different way.”
“How?”
“Think about it. For example, his actions could be termed van-
dalism.”
“Come on, now, you’re not serious?! Does that mean that
all creators and artists are vandals?”
“They are artists and creators in their perception of the
world as seen on their own level. But if their consciousness
should rise to a higher level, they would create by entirely dif-
ferent means.”
“And what ‘different’ means would these be?”
“The means by which the Creator has created all in His
own impulse of inspiration. And the power to perfect His
creations and to make new creations of their own is some-
thing He has given to Man, to Man alone.”
‘And just how did the Creator create everything? And what
instrument did he give to Man for creativity?”
“Thought is the chief instrument of the Great Creator.
And thought has been given to Man. Creations are true when
214
Book 3: The Space of Love
thought is brought to fruition through the soul and intuition
and feelings, and the main factor here is and will always be:
the purity of one’s awareness.
“Look how the little flowers thrive at our feet — their
splendid shapes and colours and tints are constantly changing
in creation alive. These are something you can perfect with
your thought. Concentrate, try to change them, give them a
better look.”
“What look? For example?”
“Indulge your fantasy, Vladimir.”
“Well, I can at least do that. Let this camomile here, for
example, take on one red petal, and the next one stay as it is,
so the alternation will make it better, more cheery.”
And all at once Anastasia fell stock still. She began con-
centrating her gaze on the white camomile. And you know,
the camomile — slowly and quietly as could be, but still, right
before my eyes — began to change its colours. There they
were, alternating — first there was a red petal, then a white,
then a red one again. At first the red petals were barely no-
ticeable, then the colour became stronger, and the red hue
kept getting brighter and brighter until finally they were sim-
ply blazing with a shining red radiance.
“You see how it happened, Vladimir — you came up with
the idea, and I created it all with my thought.”
“What are you saying, Anastasia — that everybody can do
this?”
“Yes! And they are doing it. But they use material for this,
which they first slay, and dead material can only deteriorate.
So mankind through the ages has struggled to stop his crea-
tions from deterioration, even as human thought becomes
more and more preoccupied with just plain rot, and Man has
no time to think about what constitutes genuine creation.
“Every thing is preceded first by thought. It is only with
time that it gets embodied in matter or the changing strands
Re-creating Shambala
215
of the social order. But whether they are creating for better
or for worse — they do not immediately understand.
“Look how you wanted to change the colour of the camo-
mile’s petals. I changed them with my thought — the camo-
mile obeyed Man’s thought. But look closely now, did you re-
ally think up something better? More perfect than it already
was?”
“In my view, it’s splashier and more cheerful.”
“But why are you not excited when you talk about the new
Creation?”
“I don’t know, maybe it’s because there’s still something
lacking, maybe some kind of colours — I can’t tell right
now.”
“The colours have come into conflict with each other —
the tenderest tints have paled for the sake of splashiness. A
loud splashiness fails to evoke calm and tender feelings.”
“Okay, okay. Try to change everything back the way it
was.”
“It is not I that shall do it, but the camomile itself will be
able to. The red will fall away After all, we did not slay the
camomile. It is alive. Nature itself will bring everything back
to a state of harmony where it can thrive.”
“So, in your view, Anastasia, are all men ignorant vandals
and are women the creators?”
‘All men and women are one — in each of them two prin-
ciples merge into a single one. And in the creativity they feel,
they are inseparable — earthly existence is there for them
both.”
“But how can that be? I don’t understand. I, for example,
am only a male of the species.”
‘And what do you consist of, Vladimir? The flesh of a
male and the flesh of a female have merged into one, they are
united in you; similarly the spirit of two has merged into one
spirit within you.”
21 6
Book 3: The Space of Love
“Then why do people go and state in treatises exactly what
a woman is and what a man is, and state which of them is
stronger and more important?”
“Think about it yourself, who would want to, and for what
purpose, replace your awareness — your consciousness which
the Creator gave to everyone in the beginning — with his
own dogma?”
“Well maybe the Creator just happened to give someone
more than others, and this person, as a teacher, is striving to
share his wisdom and awareness with everyone?”
“Every little sprout on the Earth — the seed of a birch
tree, a cedar tree or a flower — is filled with the knowledge of
the Creator. So how could the thought come to you that the
Creator could deign to withhold something from His Supreme
Creation? What could be more insulting for a Father than a
complaint like that?”
“What are you talking about? I’m not complaining about
anyone. I was just consulting with myself, thinking out
loud.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Before asking Anastasia this question, I took a good look
at her. Here sitting before me was a woman — a young and
beautiful woman, hardly different in her outward appearance
from many others in our modern civilisation. Perhaps it is
just that her body conveys a lightness — barely perceptible,
even outwardly — in the way she stands, the way she moves
her hands, and especially when she rises to her feet and walks,
all of which she does with an extraordinary lightness.
The burdened, ponderous gait of a ‘senior citizen’ is no-
ticeably different from the movements of a young, energetic,
vivacious person. But that gives you some idea of the differ-
ence between the way Anastasia moves and walks and the
motions of even the trimmest of our young athletes. She
gives the appearance of being light as a feather on her feet,
yet physically very strong. She easily carried my heavy back-
pack fifteen kilometres, at the same time helping me make
my way along.
During our brief stops she didn’t lie down, or even sit down
in exhaustion, but kept moving — either running off to col-
lect herbs, or massaging my wounded leg. And she did all this
with a sense of lightness, cheerfulness and a smile. Where did
this vivaciousness come from all the while?
Just try observing some time the flood of people walking
along the street — take a look at their faces. I did. Almost
all of them look absorbed in thought, downcast or just plain
glum. Especially when a person is walking all by himself along
a road. Even when they aren’t carrying any heavy load, and
2l8
Book 3: The Space of Love
they’re neatly dressed, evidently not starving, since they’re
smoking expensive cigarettes, and yet their faces are marked
with tension, weighty thoughts — and there are many like
that, the majority in fact.
Anastasia, on the other hand, never allows her smile to
leave her face. She constantly delights in the Sun and the
grass, the rain and the clouds, like a carefree child constantly
beaming with gladness, and even when you talk about serious
matters with her, she betrays no sadness.
Just like now... But no, her appearance at the moment was
not typical at all. Anastasia was sitting there, her head slight-
ly bowed and her eyelids lowered, like someone upset or even
a mite depressed, as though she could sense what I was about
to ask. But I still asked her:
“If you look at all the letters, Anastasia, you will get an
idea of all the different things people call you — ■ even an al-
ien from another planet. In one of her books the well-known
psychologist and writer Oksana Lavrova 1 has called you a bi-
ologist from an extraterrestrial civilisation. Ordinary readers
call you a goddess, but strangely enough, those who call you
that also write as if they were talking to a close friend. You are
probably the first person to be addressed both as a goddess
and a close friend (without genuflection) at the same time.
“Most scholars and religious leaders call you an essence, an
elevated essence, or a self-sufficient substance.
“Look, here I’ve been talking with you all this time, I’ve
written a book about our conversations, and I still can’t figure
‘ Oksana Vladimirovna Lavrova — founder of a psychological consultation
centre named Squaring the circle ( Kvadratnra kruga) aimed at making a range
of psychological services more familiar to the general population. She also
heads a professional training institute known as the Samara College of
Practising Psychologists, located in the city of Samara (a major port on the
Volga River south-east of Moscow).
Who are you, Anastasia?
219
out just who you are. Can you yourself give an explanation to
me of who you are — clearly and precisely?”
“Vladimir, whom do you see in me yourself?” Anastasia
asked, without raising her eyes. ‘And why is it so important
to you what other people say?”
“The thing is, that I myself don’t even know what I’m look-
ing at. To be honest with you...”
“Say what you have to say honestly and sincerely, Vladimir,
and I shall try to comprehend it all.”
“Well, okay, I’ll say it out-and-out... The first time I saw
you, Anastasia, you gave the appearance of being a simple
woman. Then that first time I walked with you into the for-
est, we sat down to rest and you took off your dress and your
kerchief and I saw how beautiful and attractive you were —
well, you know, the kind of girl we say is sexy or has sex appeal.
I really wanted to... well, do it with you — you know what I
mean. D’you remember?”
“I do.”
“But now, maybe on account of all these complexities com-
piled thereon, I don’t really want it anymore, even when I see
you with nothing on.”
“You’ve come to fear me, Vladimir, is that it?”
“Not fear you, no, not really But things have got, well, com-
plicated. You’ve borne a son, see, but you’ve become somehow
more and more distant, even when you’re right here beside
me, like you’re sitting right now, and still you don’t seem very
close —you seem far away to me. At least that’s my impression.
My head keeps telling me you’re some kind of ‘essence’.”
“I may be an essence, but you are an essence, too.”
“No. I’m no essence, nobody ever calls me that in their let-
ters. Even if some readers curse me, still, nobody doubts that
I’m Man, a human being.”
“Excuse me, Vladimir — you know, I am a woman. Which
means I too am Man.”
220
Book 3: The Space of Love
“You say you’re Man too, but you don’t seem to want to do
the most basic thing to prove it. You don’t want to live the
way people live. The way the whole world lives. Everybody
wants to have an apartment, furniture, a car, but oh no, not
you. There’s money coming in now from the book, and soon
there’ll be lots more. Let’s buy ourselves an. apartment, furni-
ture, a car, let’s go round together and visit the sacred places.
We’ll take our son along, too. Our society is now restoring
the temples and monasteries, and other countries have lots
of sacred sites and historical monuments we can visit. But
you have nothing here — no sacred sites. What’s holding you
back? What have you got to lose?”
“Vladimir — this is my Space here. The Creator’s crea-
tion in its pristine state. My foremothers, my dear mother,
along with my forefathers, tenderly cared for every blade of
grass with their love, and every majestic cedar remembers
their gaze and the warmth of their hands. And in the spring
it comes about that the seeds of all the plants bring forth
sprouts. And each grain that touches the ground in the spring
contains all the information of the Universe. As well as infor-
mation about how they will see the Light of Grace.
‘And the seed grows apace until it becomes a sprout, and
the Sun attempts to help it out, and the sprout reaches out to
Man for more than just the Sun — it reaches out to Man for
the Light of Grace.
“Thus the Creator created all. He designed everything so
that Man could continue creating along with Him. My par-
ents saved and preserved the creations thereof, and there is a
Space of Love! My parents gave it to me.
“What in the world could be more sacred than the crea-
tions of the Creator, of my parents, of living Love filling all
Space?
“This is how every Man that is a parent should act. They
should give the child born to them the Space of Love!
Who are you, Anastasia ?
221
Marvellous as a mother’s womb, only in the Space of Love is
there room for their future offspring — indeed the future of
their own — to be truly happy
“It is this holy place and the Space of Love that is my gift
to our son.”
“You are giving this of yourself, Anastasia, but where is my
Space of Love? What can 1 give our son?”
“The links of the continuum have been violated in many
people’s lives. But the strand is not broken. The strand that
ties humanity as a whole and every creature in particular
to the Creator needs only to be comprehended and felt by
each, and then to each may be extended both light and might.
Vladimir, expand the Space of Love. Right there in the world
where you now live, create a Space of Love. For the sake of
our son, for all the children of the Earth, make the whole
Earth into a Space of Love.”
“I don’t understand. What do you want from me? To
change the whole Earth?
“That is exactly what I want!”
‘And for all people to love each other, for there to be no
more wars or crime and for the air to be pure and sublime?
And the water too?”
“Let it be thus throughout the Earth!”
“And only then will it be construed that I am a father true,
that I have given something to my son?”
“Only then will you be a father true, worthy of your son’s
respect.”
“Does that mean that otherwise he will not respect me?”
“What can he respect you for, Vladimir? For which of your
achievements do you wish to receive respect from your son?”
“For the same reason that children all over the world re-
spect their fathers. Their fathers gave them life.”
“What kind of life? When a child comes into the world,
where, in what place does he find any gladness? And why, in
222
Book 3: The Space of Love
the space given to him by his forefathers, is there so much
sadness? And the child born again must live in this same sad-
ness, and yet the one who gave him life does not surmise that
he himself is to blame. And so we live and crave respect, and
are surprised when we do not get it.
“Believe me, Vladimir, very few children respect their fa-
thers as they should. This is why, as soon as they grow a bit,
they leave their parents by and by, and refuse to remember
them, thereby accusing them, albeit intuitively, and repeating
in their turn the parents’ mistakes. If you wish to earn the
respect of your son, Vladimir, you will have to make the world
a happier place for him.”
‘Aha, so... Nowit’s clear!” I jumped up. My head was ever
so filled with despair and anger. My thoughts became jum-
bled together.
I realised it now, as I hope it has become plain to all:
Anastasia is a fanatical recluse. I surmised this right from our
very first encounter. Maybe a recluse with extraordinary, un-
explainable abilities and perhaps she has an excuse — perhaps
these same abilities — her Ray, for example — do not allow
an accounting of her own — I mean, do not allow her to take
account of her possibilities. You will remember she said she
would transport all people across the dark forces’ window of
time." Well, she herself realised that she was not in a position
to do that, and now she is resorting to luring me and my read-
ers into her fruitless vision. I knew for sure that along with
being abnormal and fanatic she is incredibly deceptive and
makes use of her guile to do whatever she can for her dream!
She bore a child, and she’s managed to get a book written
by now And then — something really wild! — she says if I’m
to earn the respect of my son, I shall have to make the whole
world into a Space of Love to give not only to my son but to
' Sec Book 1, Chapter 27: ‘Across the dark forces’ window of time”.
Who are you, Anastasia ?
223
every child!... Methodically and by intricate art she is draw-
ing everyone into her dream and keeps complicating my part
before my very eyes. First write a book, says this girl, then
make a Space of Love throughout the world, and then what?
We have known of more than a few fanatics who have tried
to change the world, and now they are where? Vanished like
smoke into thin air. And here I find another one sitting in
front of me with head bowed, with the same aim in mind: to
change the world.
I knew that it was useless to argue with eccentrics and fa-
natics, that I needed to calm down and walk away, but I was
unable to prevent myself. And to this girl sitting there on the
ground with downcast eyes, as before, I still said:
“I know now, I realise precisely who you are. You are a mix-
ture of essence and Man. And you know how to deceive. You
deceive so nicely, you took me right in. Oh wow! what an in-
tricate web of guile you weave! To get me first to write a book
and then entice me by bearing a child.
“You tried with your non-human logic to hide your fanati-
cism, only a hole appeared in your plans. A loophole appeared,
you understand. While I was writing the book, I had the
chance to talk with many people. I learnt a lot indeed, and was
given all sorts of religious books to read. And there’s no way I
can tell what you know of them, but this one thing I can say:
“Several thousand years ago the world saw wise men of
greatness and piety arise, whose spiritual currents in all their
variety continue to flow until this day. There are more than
two thousand different religious confessions on the Earth,
you see — I learnt this from a recent talk session on TV. They
one and all proclaim the good, they aim to give advice to eve-
ryone on how they should live, and every leader tries to make
it known that the path to Truth lies through him alone. We
have our fill of sacred sites all around, but still, has anything
really profound, far-reaching or sincere resulted from their
224
Book 3: The Space of Love
gabfests over the many, many years? Or from the multitude
of their teachings?
“There’s just one thing I’ve understood: millennia pass,
but war has never ceased for good. The war of dogma against
dogma. The strongest wins a fight and thinks that he is right,
but not for long. Time passes, a new war ensues, and a new
song, a new dogma gains ascension with its views. But no one
thanks the losers in this contention, nobody pays them any
attention. I’m saying all this openly and frankly... Do you
know who you are? Do you know what you are calling me and
all the readers to?”
Anastasia arose, looked me calmly in the eye and said:
“You need not go on, Vladimir. Believe me, I know what
you still might say to me anon. Let me declare it myself. lean
say it more briefly and without swearing.”
“Yourself? Well, why not give it a try? And all right, then,
without swearing. What was I going to say?”
“You were going to say, Vladimir, that there are a multitude
of prophets on the Earth, and a multitude of teachers too.
There are so many different dogmas it is hard for you to de-
cipher them all. But when I speak, you will be able to under-
stand everything — if you really want to, that is.
“ Water will prove to be the criterion, the measure of all
things. Every day that passes, water seethes with more and
more contamination. And the air becomes more difficult to
breathe.
“The parade of worldly rulers, no matter what grand tem-
ples they might have built, will be remembered only by the
filth they have bequeathed to their descendants. The legacy
they give makes life more dangerous every day, but we con-
tinue to live. Ebu have surmised, Vladimir, that I am one of
those who tries to teach everyone how they should live. One
of those who creates just another religious denomination,
only too ready to put himself at its head.
Who are you, Anastasia?
225
“But I can assure you now that the sense of self-importance
which has ended up burning all that were initially enlightened,
is not something I shall ever resort to myself. I shall be able to
win and I am winning! I shall stop the factories spewing their
stinking dirt, the miners will comprehend that they cannot rend
apart the precious veins of the Earth.
“I beg of you, people, change your professions just as soon
as you can — all those professions which bring hurt to the
Earth, to the great works of the Creator.
“I beg of you, Man, to grasp this fact just as quick as you
can, that no one on Earth can be truly happy as long as he
keeps causing harm to the Earth.
“Yet a little while and human misery will start feeling the
pain of agony, it will burn in its own flame.
“People’s conscious awareness will transport them across
the dark forces’ window of time. Look around, Vladimir, and
you will find that what I sought in my dream is already com-
ing to pass, my dream has been caught up by the Universe it-
self, it is resounding in the hearts of all people, and is already
transporting mankind over the abyss, and only the doubters
will run amiss and fall into its snare. But mankind, believe
me, Vladimir, mankind shall be spared.
“People will see what children can be — people will learn life in
paradise.
“The events now taking place in Russia are not coinci-
dental. Assume a closer vantage-point, Vladimir, to observe
these events. I am nullifying the portent of doom hanging
over the Earth.”
“But who are you? Who do you consider yourself to be?”
“Oh, do you still not comprehend me in the least? Dogma
has instilled in you a distrust of your own soul. Do you still
perceive me to be a sorceress, do you still believe my dreams
and aspirations to be fruitless? You are inflamed by doubts —
you believe in yourself, and yet you do not believe, it turns
226
Book 3: The Space of Love
out. For that I am to blame, unskilled as I am — my speech
is too bewildering and contused. But I say to each one of you
who reads this: forgive me — I cannot find the words to make
myself clear to all without exception. Forgive me, Vladimir,
for my deception — not everyone is grasping what you wrote,
and some are simply trying to get your goat.
“But how am I to expiate my guilt? I have got it! If you
wish, I shall play the fanatic for you to the hilt. Or I can sim-
ply show you what I am. You can take it any way you like, but
please do believe my one desire: that I sincerely aspire only to
good for all.
“I beg you, please do not frown. Smile and see how great is
everything around. Do not torment yourself, let nothing any-
where be kept hid. And if it is easier to accept me as a sorcer-
ess naive, feel free to consider me as whatever you perceive.”
“Now that’s better,” I observed. “Things are clearing up
again. Does all this mean you’ve just been playing a game?”
‘And have you begun to perceive my play with your Soul?”
“Well, all play ought to involve some fun!”
“Of course you’re right in that. I should keep everything
light and simple, and fun for everyone.”
The Sun’s ravs shone through the dark clouds on the lake
and the shore. They lighted upon the blades of grass and the
raindrop-laden leaves, while the raindrops formed intertwin-
ing circles on the surface of the lake. Anastasia, who before
this had been speaking quietly yet emotionally her eyes con-
stantly fixed on me, suddenly looked about her, clapped her
hands and broke out laughing.
Her laughter was loud, alluring and infectious as it rang
through the cedar branches and across the shore and surface
of the lake. She began spinning about with childlike excite-
ment, delighting in the rare drops of rain with a girlish, bois-
terous laughter. But every three minutes or so she interrupted
her fiery dance.
Who are you, Anastasia ?
227
I watched as the Sun’s rays played in the glistening rain-
drops, or perhaps it was in the tears streaming down her
face ablaze with colour. Everything around fell still, and
Anastasia’s sonorous, confident, yet despairing words filled
all space as they were carried off into the air. And the air over
the taiga took on a greater tinge of blue, and the birds fell
silent, too. As though they were listening to all her words as
off into space these flew
“Woe unto you, prophets! For centuries you have been proph-
esying about the frailty and futility of earthly existence, terrify-
ing people with doom and hell’s flaming judgement. Tame your
ardour — you are the ones that have made Man’s comprehen-
sion of Heaven so much harder!
“Woe unto you, Nostradamus! The dates of the fearful cat-
aclysms upon the Earth were not so much your divinations as
the creations of your thought. Abu made millions of people
persuade themselves of these by what you taught and thereby
aim their thoughts at the implementation of the same. Your
thought still hovers up there, hiding in the blue, still frighten-
ing people with your prophecies of despair, but now they will
no longer come true. Let your thought join in fray with mine.
Of course you knew all this ahead of time, and that is why you
are so eager to flee away.
“Woe unto you who call yourselves teachers of human
souls! Abu try to suggest to Man that he is abject and weak in
spirit, knows nothing of himself and that all Truths are acces-
sible only to a few elect like yourselves — and only through
worshipping you can he detect God’s voice and the Truth of
the creation of the Universe. Cool the passions of your heart,
and may everyone now know: the Creator has given all to each
one right from the start, and we need only refrain from hid-
ing the Creator’s great creations under the murky domain of
dogma and conventions, the murk of inventions for the sake
of one’s own selfish pride. Stand not between the people and
228
Book 3: The Space of Love
God. The Father wishes to speak with each one equally. The
Father abides no intermediaries.
“The Truth has been there right from the start in each one’s
soul. Not tomorrow, but here today each Man may be happy
and whole! The Creator has filled each moment of every year
with gladness. And in His thought there is no room for His
beloved child to feel torment from sadness.”
Just listen to her play! So inspiring! "Yet so despairing! Of
course she’s playing, but why above her in the sky over the taiga
is there shining bright such an extraordinary light? As though
the heavens could record every inspiring and despairing word
that from this forest recluse upon the Earth could be heard:
“Woe unto you, prognosticators of the ages, foretelling but
gloom for Man, thereby creating both gloom and hell! Oh,
how earnestly you have been feeding your own egregor? fright-
ening people in the name of the Father and more. Well, here
I am. You can all come to me. With my Ray I shall take but a
moment to bum up the murk of age-old dogma. All anger on
Earth, leave your deeds and make haste to me, join fray with
me, try your utmost.
“But you, militants of all faiths, it is you who have created
all the wars. Dream about wars no longer. Lure not people
into war with your obscure deceptions for the sake of your
own mercantile connections. I stand alone before you. Try to
defeat me. To defeat me, all of you come meet me together.
The fight will be fightless, as clergy of all religious confessions
will greet me with their merged assistance.
■’ egregor (also spelt egregore) — a non-material collective psychic entity or
field uniting members of a human group or organisation (e.g., religion,
state, association), generated and maintained by thought energy of the
members of the group. Egregor can, in turn, influence the psyche of the
members of the group and, taking on life of its own, persist even when the
original members leave the group.
Who are you, Anastasia?
229
“Foremothers of mine, Fathers of mine, imbue them with
the True Light. Give them everything you have been so care-
fully saving for me. Give freely to all who are able to accept
the Light.
“Let evil join fray with itself and with my flesh, not with my
soul. I give the whole of my soul to people. In people I shall
prevail through my soul. Prepare yourself, all wickedness and
evil-mindedness, to leave the Earth behind and fall upon me!
“I am Man! I am a Man ofpris-tine or-i-gins. Anastasia I am.
And I am stronger than you.”
“Stop!” I shouted, thinking that it was some kind of game,
continuing all the while to play itself out. “Why are you tak-
ing it upon yourself to call up all these vile things?”
“Vladimir, be not afraid of them, they are cowards every bit.
Besides, you yourself said that I was deceptive. Deceptive?
Yes, deceptive indeed. I have outwitted them. They were
mockingyou, treating me as an invention of your imagination,
while all along I was involved in creation. And the strength
which my foremothers and my fathers showed, which they
had brought with them from their pristine origins, I have
now bestowed on many people.”
Anastasia stamped her foot and chortled out loud, and
then spun round again, just like a ballerina. And I got carried
away with her play and began giving her my moral support.
“So go to, Anastasia, burn them! Let all the evils of the
Earth throw themselves at you and you will burn them! Only
be careful, don’t get burnt yourself”
“To dispose of me, Vladimir, they would have to let go of
many of their earthly gains, free many human souls from their
chains.
“But even if I should perish, my dream shall come to pass
all the same. The strings of the harp of the Universe have
struck up a happy strain, and human souls are hearing them.
They understand them!
2 3 °
Book 3: The Space of Love
“Sound forth, O Universe! Sound forth with your happy
strain! For them, for all the people of the Earth. May every-
one know the melody of the Soul!
“Look, Vladimir, human Souls are sending their rays to the
weary Earth.”
With these words Anastasia ran over to the plastic bag
with the readers’ letters, dropped to her knees and placed her
hands on the package. And with childlike joy and enthusiasm
she exclaimed:
“When an elderly man, a soldier who had been in the war,
read your book and tears suddenly appeared... When a young
mother’s whole attitude to her newborn child changed over-
night... When a young girl, about twelve years old, saw every-
thing clearly for the first time and started to love life... And
look, when a young man stated he would no longer take drugs
and went home to his mother...
“When people send you letters from prison, you can see and
feel how their souls sing, and they take on a whole new strength . . .
“These are all signs I found that people’s souls are under-
standing the combinations of the sounds of the Universe,
now they are resounding in their thoughts, and they are ac-
cepting them... Not all of them yet, but there will indeed be
many! And the heavens know thereof and wait to meet each
one with love.
“Look, just look how people are expressing their under-
standing in their poetry.”
She was so sincere in her delight and kept talking about
the letters, that I got carried away with the scene before me
and thought: Well now, let her have her joy, let her play her
little scheme and believe that her dream will come to pass. I
shall tell everybody about her playing. She thinks up every-
thing herself and delights in every thought.
I was trying to calm myself down, when suddenly in my
consciousness everything again got jumbled together. I began
Who are you, Anastasia f
231
once more to dismiss everything as her own caprice and fancy,
yet there was one thing, can you imagine, that simply blew
my mind away Can you imagine, she talked about things that
really were in those letters! And even in the letters I hadn’t
brought with me to show her! But how could she know? After
all, she hadn’t read them.
I watched and listened in absolute astonishment as she
read poems that were still in the envelopes, as she took a sud-
den delight in something or stood preoccupied in silence, as
though she had read all the letters together in a single mo-
ment.
She kept on talking about the letters with complete accu-
racy. Complete accuracy... Stop! So even before this, then,
she must have been describing everything else with complete
accuracy, too. It hadn’t been a game at all... Was she dream-
ing? Of course she was dreaming! But she had also dreamt
before — about the book, and people’s poetry and now all
this lay right there before her eyes. Wow! Her dreams really
did come true! They actually came true!
The book was lying right there in front of her. A material
object.
Fantastic, indeed!
No, this can’t be real!
Dear reader, are not you too holding in your hands right
now a part of this despairing recluse’s dream, materialised in
a book?
And what next?
Can it be that everything else may actually come to pass?
When I got over my initial sensation of amazement, I
asked her:
‘Anastasia, how did you know what people had written in
their letters? It was as though you had read them all. And
even those I hadn’t brought with me!”
Anastasia turned around, all beaming with joy:
232
Book 3: The Space of Love
“It’s all very simple, on the whole, how one can hear what is
being said by the soul.”
And all of a sudden Anastasia fell silent. And in this silence
she walked calmly over to me and said thoughtfully:
“It is not that hard to answer all the questions, but the an-
swer still will not take away the problem, as one question but
begets another. Right now mankind keeps biting into Adam’s
apple, not realising that this will never fully satisfy him.
Besides, anyone may hear the answer for himself within.”
‘And how may each one recognise when the true answer
comes, as opposed to one that is not so true?”
“Only one’s sense of self-importance can lead people
about, lead them away from the Truth. Vladimir, try to hear
me out.”
We sat down on the grass beside the package containing
the letters. I saw how her eyes were sparkling, and there was
a rosy blush in her cheeks, as she said:
“I shall tell you about co-creation, Vladimir, and then eve-
ryone will be able to provide an answer to his own ques-
tions. Please listen carefully, Vladimir, and write about the
Creator’s great co-creation. Listen and try to take it in with
your soul...”
And thus began Anastasia’s inspired account of co-crea-
tion. But it is a long one. And no room to include it here
right away But this one thing I’ll say: after I heard it I really
did want to pray
With my sincere respects to you, dear readers, and until we
meet in the next book,
Vladimir Megre
To be continued...
In place of an Editor’s Afterword
As I was finishing writing my lengthy afterword, my four-year-
old daughter Lada, named after the goddess of Love, walked
in from the garden, hiding a ‘present’ behind her back — two
cucumbers she had just picked, one for me and one for her
Mama. I hardly paid any attention to her approach, im-
mersed as I was in my work. Lada quietly sat on a chair and
patiently waited for me to become aware of her presence. She
considered it totally unacceptable to interfere with an adult’s
thought process.
At that moment I was busy compiling citations from the un-
heeded sages of many millennia ago as well as of the recent
past, who have all been trying to convey the same message:
simple life in close contact with Nature is an absolute con-
dition of happiness and peace . 1 I had noted how significant
it was that the understanding of humanity’s deep spiritual
connectedness to Nature and especially trees — the under-
standing that once served as foundation of entire cults and
"Leo Tolstoy, for example, wrote in his What I believe in 1884: “One of the
first and universally acknowledged preconditions for happiness is living in
close contact with nature, i.e., living under the open sky, in the light of the
sun, in the fresh air; interacting with the Earth, plants and animals. Being
deprived of these experiences has always been seen as a huge misfortune.
It is felt most acutely by people locked up in prison. Just look at the life of
those who adhere to the dogmas of today’s world: the greater success they
enjoy in terms of what the world teaches, the more they are deprived of this
precondition for happiness.”
234 Book 3: The Space of Love
cultures' — still survives today in folk customs and such uni-
versal symbols of rebirth as the Christmas tree. I had also
been writing about our former much closer relationship with
wild animals and gave examples of people living in our world
today — such as Tom Brown, Jr . 3 — who, just like Anastasia,
can relate to wild animals in the same way we relate to house-
hold pets...
I had had things to say on education, too. Just think
about it: a century and a half ago — at a time when com-
pulsory schooling had not yet become a “natural” part of
our lives — Leo Tolstoy (who, as a proponent of ‘anarchi-
cal’ ideals of love, compassion and non-violence, would later
be denied a Nobel Prize in literature) already discerned the
havoc wreaked on children by the educational system or by
what Megre calls ‘spiritual sadism’ and founded a school
based on freedom rather than compulsion . 4 And today
John Taylor Gatto, a teacher with thirty years’ experience
and a recipient of numerous teaching honours — includ-
ing the New York City and the New York State “Teacher of
the Year” awards — ■ speaking from his decades of teaching
experience and his own extensive investigation of contem-
porary American education — shockingly declares point
blank that the school system has been deliberately designed
"In fact, the words cult (a system of religious worship or ritual) and culture
both derive from the Latin verb signifying to take care of the land or to till,
and reflect the understanding of the sacredness of humanity’s connection
to the Earth. To the present day the primary meaning of culture found in
dictionaries is “cultivation of the soil”.
Tee The tracker (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1978), The
search (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1980) and other books
by Tom Brown.
4 In Tolstoy’s view, “education does not educate, it only spoils”, and “the best
educational system is having no system at all”. For further details, please
see his article “Education and Instruction”.
Lada’s 'message
235
to “dumb children down” and kill their creative potential, so
as to turn them into compliant members of a “faceless work-
force ”. 5 6 Interestingly enough, Gatto also describes the early
childhood years, in terms very similar to Anastasia’s, as “a
prison of games” in which children are confined and chil-
dren’s toys as “suffocating your little boy or girl’s conscious-
ness at exactly the moment when big questions about the
world beckon ...” 0
Lada apparently thought that as long as she continued sitting
quietly I would never pay any attention to her. And so she
gently whispered:
“What are you doing?”
“Writing good words about the new Anastasia book,” I
said, finally turning my head and looking at her.
“Read them to me.”
Responding to her request, I read two paragraphs out loud,
and then, remembering Vladimir Megre’s suggestion to “ask
the children where and which way we should go”, I enquired:
“Well, what do you think?”
“Papa, it’s so long and boring!” came a frank reply.
“All right!” I laughed, sensing I would probably have to
make my afterword much shorter. “D’you suppose you could
put it all more briefly?”
“You should live close to the plants,” Lada said in a very se-
rious tone. “In cities cars pollute air and turds from your toilet
flow into rivers and make fish unhappy over the dirty water.
And papas have to go away and work for money to buy food to
5 See John Taylor Gatto’s Dumbing us down (Philadelphia: New Society
Publishers, 1992), The underground history of American education (New York:
Oxford Village Press, 2001) and other books.
6 John Taylor Gatto. The underground history of American education , p. 3S3.
Chapter 19: “What to agree with, what to believe?”.
236
Book 3: The Space of Love
eat. Do not cut down trees. God co-created everything. All
are His little children.
“You want to go see how huge my tomato grew? And the
water-melon’s so handsome!” she finished off.
“I do,” I smiled and, taking me by hand, Lada led me out
into the light of the garden.
Brixey, Missouri, U.S.A.
Perun’s Day (2 August 2005)
Leonid Sharashkin
READERS’ COMMENTS
Ordering a set for a friend... these books are awesome. Hard to put
down when you start reading.
— David, British Columbia, Canada
I love these beautiful energies of Anastasia’s loving spirit and vision.
I am sharing them with all my friends.
— Grace, Colorado, USA
The Ringing Cedars Books have indeed been a Life Saviour for me,
it is changing me back to where I once was as a child, giving me re-
newed hope! I think that we were all a little bit like Anastasia when
we were children, we were possibly just not allowed to remember...
Lots of Love and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
— Cissy
Book i was extraordinary. A sense of deep well-being came over me
at different times during the reading of it — which took place in
one sitting on the evening I received it in the mail! Anastasia’s com-
ment that illness is a conversation with god just blew me away. I
have had a chronic illness for 21 years now and that is exactly what it
has been for me - a conversation with god. Thanks for malting these
wonderful books available for us in English!
— Robert, South Pasadena, California, USA
I have just finished reading ‘The Space of Love’, and since I first
started reading Anastasia’, and then through the ‘Ringing Cedars
of Russia’, I have such a feeling of hope and some long forgotten
remembrance that this is absolute truth. I -want to weep with the
joy of it all, and I want to weep at the sorrow of how I could have
wandered so far astray. I want to weep with gratitude, and long for
the first manifestation in my life that I am capable of the uncondi-
tional love that you share with all, Anastasia.
Book 3: The Space of Love
230
Thank you Anastasia, and your forefathers and mothers, for
holding the Perfection of Being for us until we are able to recognize
our destructive ways and turn back to Love and Purity ofThought.
Thank you Vladimir, for your courage and determination in writing
these books. And thank you John and Leonid, for being the English
language connection and working so hard to conserve the purity
and authenticity of the message... and what a message! Now I’m off
to start reading ‘Co-Creation’. I don’t want to do anything but sit
and read these wonderful, inspiring books. In love and gratitude,
— Lucette
After reading book x I’m convinced rve should indeed all read this
book, no matter nationality, ethnicity, gender or age. We need to
reconnect as a society and this first gives us something to discuss
that we cannot receive from modern media (television, news URLs,
papers). This allows us to expand upon ideas heartened by our cells/
bodies/souls with our common man, neighbor and bus-rider to cre-
ate a community our children can thrive on.
— Doug. Portland, Oregon, USA
Words truly cannot describe the feelings that the books have impart-
ed upon me, and an effort to try and describe these feelings would
not be sufficient, excepting to say that there has been great joy and
sadness in my heart through the words found in these books.
For Anastasia, I know that this beautiful Man, this woman is
indeed a great great blessing to humanity, I say that she is indeed
bringing in the ‘second coming of the Christ (energy)’ upon earth,
that of unconditional love. To this beloved sister of ours, may your
wish indeed come true my friend.
For Vladimir, you are a wonderful reminder of what we have let
ourselves become, and I mean no offense to you personally We have
let ourselves become so caught up in being better than the next per-
son, keeping up with the jones’es by having to have the best of the
new technologies available, that it is sometimes only when we stop,
listen and feel the love and light that nature provides, do we feel so
Readers’ comments
239
belittled and useless in comparison, that it is as if we are almost a
virus upon this planet, destroying this beautiful oasis that is here,
NOW!!! Do not blame yourself or anyone for what you have done,
or thought, but let yourself NOW enjoy that which life and special-
ly Anastasia’s loving words have to offer. Peace and Light and Love
upon this Lleaven on Earth that we are now beginning to co-create.
God Bless you All. With Love and Light,
— Anthony, Australia
What a blast... My partner bought books 2, 3 & 5 at Adyar {Book
Store] so I have ordered 1 & 4 from you... but sadly have now run
out of reading as I digested the 5 in a week.
I have not been as engrossed in a series of books since I discovered
Lobsang Rampa in the 1970’s. Every Australian reader should insist
their Local Member read these, we’re so far behind the Russians, and
it (unlike the Cold War Arms Race) is a race that could just save our
Planet. Or at the very least ourselves... Cheers and best wishes.
— George
To say the content is thought-provoking would be a great under-
statement and would certainly do the writings an injustice. The
messages contained in the book have the ability to change one’s
understanding in all areas of life. It is written in an easy-to-read
manner, almost like an exciting novel gradually unfolding, provid-
ing deep insights and new perspectives.
— Healthsynergy
I found Anastasia to be one of the most thought-provoking books I
have ever read. I found myself with a new revelation on nearly every
page and it brought many of my thoughts / beliefs / instincts? full
circle. Anastasia reinforced many of my deepest beliefs while also
providing me with many new perspectives on our interconnected-
ness with the natural world and each other. I have found myself
referring back to and reflecting on Anastasia daily and it has given
240
Book 3: The Space of Love
me much insight and plenty to think about and act on in my daily
life. I’m very thankful I learned of this book. I really look forward
to digging into the second book.
— Lawrence, Rutland, Ohio, USA
Anastasia will impact a new generation of readers, like the works of
Carlos Castaneda did for a previous generation — only this time
through awakening the latent spiritual connection each of us has
with nature. This is not about a walk in the woods, rather these
books catapult us to an entirely new way of being on planet Earth.
— Steven Foster, Arkansas, USA, author of
A field guide to medicinal plants and herbs
My husband finished reading Book 1... Today he said he had read
hundreds and hundreds of books on spirituality but no one book
had made such an effect on him like this one. Knowing him I will
tell you that this is quite a statement! Thank you very much for all
your effort in making possible this exquisite translation. We are
now reading Book 2.
— Olga, Colorado, USA
Anastasia’s wonderful! I truly believe this is the book that will make
all religious systems and all social structures respond. It is so much
in tune with mankind’s transformation that takes place and will
immensely contribute to that transformation in the best possible
way — practically, metaphysically, theologically, philosophically...
The freedom that this book carries in its life-concept for individu-
als and the society as a whole is so beautiful that everybody who
reads the book will respond and will become a better person than
what he or she was before reading it! It only takes to have an open
mind and be ready to accept Anastasia not as a fiction but rather
as a living person next door! Just a bit different from you and me.
Of course we, “very well educated people”, find it hard to admit
that the lifestyle we have in this society is pretty close to slavery
Readers’ comments
241
compared to the potential for freedom, for love, for compassion,
for God in ourselves. We are losing sight of higher values and are
running after dollars, mortgage and garbage...
Thanks a lot for bringing this wonderful book into the English
language! Thanks for the joy and love this book will trigger in the
souls of people in the English-speaking world! I sincerely hope it
will help to avoid some of the ‘predestined’ paths for us people on
this continent. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to become a
better person myself and offering this gift to us all!
— Rada, Toronto, Canada
Thank you for the book! It arrived day before yesterday and I just
cannot put it down. How fantastic! It makes me even more “home-
sick” for I love living close to nature and yet am forced to be as-
sociated with a city like Chicago. What an irony of life! My “wild”
imagination takes me right into the taiga and as I lose myself in
reading, I can actually “see” in my mind Anastasia and her beautiful
“home!” Fantastic story, the more fantastic as it is really true!
— Anna, Chicago, Illinois, USA
At work I walked by a book lying face down on a messy table and
it called me. I picked up the book, flipped it over and the cover
clicked. I sat down and started reading. That night I took the
book home and over the next few days I found a piece of life, of the
spiritual cosmos, which I knew had been missing.
In my disgust and shame at Vladimir Megre’s reaction to Anastasia,
I saw a reflection of my own attitudes towards concepts I was
uncomfortable with. Although Anastasia herself is a little odd, I had
no difficulty believing in her presence, her existence. After reading
the book, I slept under the stars, near some current bushes, but some
possums awoke me in the middle of the night. I then did some reiki
and sent the energy to Anastasia, and felt myself floating in cedar
branches, softly brushing me, with a bright yet soft ball of radiant
light shining back upon me (kind of like the sphere on the cover). In
a tarot read I asked about Anastasia and drew the Guardian card.
242
Book 3: The Space of Love
Three years ago my family moved to the country, our own dacha.
I now look forward to next spring and “coding” the seeds and
creating a space of love for both my garden and my family.
— Dietrich Jakobi, Missouri, USA
It is obvious that Megre is not a great and stylish writer... He doesn’t
have to be... With the highest level of respect to Megre, his value in
this process is that of the one who has the technocratic ability, the
expertise, the ability to get the information to the people, his per-
sonal opinions, thoughts, or rewards from this process are immate-
rial... Anastasia is the messenger, Megre appears to be successfully
delivering it... If the Anastasia person had these technocratic abili-
ties, this worldly savvy, the message would probably be tainted... As
it is the message is pure.
In the actual reading of the books I find that I sort of have to
wade thru the subjective ramblings in order to gather up the ob-
jective truths that I am re-minded of. At one point the doubter in
my spiritual nature said... “Who is this guy Megre... how do I know
he had these experiences, perhaps this is just Alegre exercising his
entrepreneurial skills”... But as I read on, the basic truths that were
conveyed rang so true, all doubting fell away
In my 71 winters on this planet my experience has been that when
basic truths have come to me they sort of ring true deep in the core
of my heart as opposed to beliefs or theories that register in my
brain and have to be learned and remembered... The information
in these books doesn’t need to be proven or investigated... you just
know, it’s the knowledge you originally came here with... that you
once knew and over time, forgot... As I read on I find myself say-
ing out loud... “Oh Yeah”... “That’s Right”... “I remember That”...
“That’s What I Always Felt”.., “Of Course”...
These books are like service manuals for maintaining and living
one’s life in a good way, they spark long lost, forgotten memories of
the original plan... indications on how man is to live his life on this
planet in a perfect way, the original plan designed to result in the
ongoing experience joy and happiness.
I do believe that we are here to experience pleasure and
Readers’ comments 243
entertainment... that’s not a bad thing... it’s just what pleasure and
entertainment have currently evolved to that’s the problem...
On one hand one may be... quietly resting under a giant cedar at
dawn witnessing the planet cornin’ alive... and on the other... there
is gazing at this glass screen compulsively typing away... Hmm? Re-
spectfully,
— Avid
Anastasia and subsequent volumes tell the story oi a return of
mankind to a state of grace through love, actualizing real love to
everything around us and keeping our thoughts, hearts, minds in
the place of love, touching with love the earth and celebrating the
God’s creation through loving it and caring for it. I think the most
important lesson for us is to move back to the work of the Creator
and away from ways which destroy it. That is what I take from the
Series and find myself inspired to work harder and being joyous,
thankful and loving.
In my own life, our family works toward goals that aren’t measured
in dollars, which is a much richer life than working for material
wealth. We have a certified organic and wild crops farm, so I am
very receptive to the medicines of the earth and see the importance
of people interacting in a healing way with God’s Creation — the
earth. In a very humble way, our work with native plants on our
farm could be seen as demonstration of away people can take some
of the Ringing Cedars ideas and put them to work.
I think if people find a larger purpose for their lives than
collecting material goods, everyone will be happier rediscovering
the scope of humanity’s tools from the Creator. The Ringing
Cedars books help with explaining ways to have a richer life, raise
healthier children, filling one’s heart rather than one’s pockets. I
do not agree with everything written, and many people will find
ideas threatening. "Yet if we don’t discover new ways of being
human beings and put them to work, if we don’t have a spirit rich
enough to live with love and respect for God’s creations, we have
no future.
Penny Frazier, Missouri, USA
244 Book 3: The Space of Love
As a 75 year-old American who finished the third Anastasia book by
Vladimir Megre, The Space of Love, I am in the process of digesting
its substance.
The American must pick up and go to a place that Vladimir
Megre shows him. Megre shows him wonders. But those expecting
wonders to be valid only if found on American soil will be taken aback
to learn they are in a land that rarely thinks of the New World.
Anastasia’s Siberian taiga is a land that measures history in millennia
instead of decades. There, Vladimir meets those who have a mystical
affection for their country and culture. He finds values resting on
rock-solid Christian principles not bearing Christian labels. They are
values descending from ancient insights, approved by generations
faithful to the soil of their forbearers. Their love foe Mother Russia is
a love not understood even by the most patriotic American.
Christians will recognize much from the Old Testament as well as
from the New, especially Isaiah, Chapter n. This is not to say the
Anastasia Series promotes or detracts from that teaching. Instead,
it parallels and edifies. The Christian emerges with his faith firmer
and a respect for Megre’s Anastasia.
After three books, I am digesting, and there are moments when
my credulity vanishes. Then, lines appear that can have been written
only to me. Then my unbelief is overturned. It is like the story of
Lazarus. I believe, but help my unbelief! Coincidences are endless.
— Gallagher Rule, Ponca City \ Oklahoma, USA
I am very touched by the energy that the books carry (hard to put
into words). A new awareness of who I AM and how I can more
deeply connect with my / All That IS Light and Life within.
I’m having fun with a little planting and the energies connected
with that action.
NO QUESTION for me that the book’s story and message is
TRUE. But I am grateful for the powerful Seeds sown in the read-
ers who may not be able to perceive its truth on their first reading.
Blessing to you and your ministry of getting this Series out to the (in
near future) Millions of English Readers.
— Linda, Virginia, USA
Readers ’ comments
245
Thank you for publishing these wonderful books! to read them has
been an amazing experience for me and my life has changed since
then. I have now moved and started to grow my own garden. For a
city girl like me it is quite a challenge... but so rewarding. I was just
admiring the first sprouts this morning, thinking of Anastasia...
— Virgime, Germany
A friend has lent me Book One and it’s rearranging my cells. So
lovely I’ve been on a spiritual path for decades, and what I’m get-
ting both confirms and deepens my understanding. My garden is
especially happy! Thank you for making these available. Blessings.
— - Holly, Portlatid, Oregon, USA
When I embark on a new learning experience such as reading Book
One, Anastasia, I am interested certainly in gaining new knowledge
and of course in discovering new perspectives on consciousness and
life in general. And on those two fronts, I will say that what I have
absorbed from Anastasia by all means fulfills my interests.
However, there is an added, rather magical quality to the ex-
perience of getting to know Anastasia that I do not recall ever
experiencing without being in someone’s actual physical presence.
It was not so much a book that I read but rather reading the book
allowed me to meet a truly remarkable being whose love is beyond
measure. In fact, her love is beyond what I could ever imagine a hu-
man being could experience. She has added to the depth and breadth
of my beingness beyond what knowledge alone could impart. She
has added to the lustre of my soul with the song of her being.
I am deeply impressed by her attention to the importance of
everything. She notices the grandiosity of God’s Vast & Wonderful
Creation in even the smallest detail, even details I have never no-
ticed as having anything to do with the vastness of Love in action. I
take from this, my first reading of Book One, a profoundly deeper
sense of the sacred in every living detail occurring all around me as
Well as in every detail of possible discovery within me.
— Garrett, Colorado, USA
THE RINGING CEDARS SERIES AT A GLANCE
Anastasia, the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series, tells the
story of entrepreneur Vladimir Megre’s trade trip to the Siberian
taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena
connected with sacred ‘ringing cedar’ trees. He spent three days
with a woman named Anastasia who shared with him her unique
outlook on subjects as diverse as gardening, child-rearing, healing,
Nature, sexuality, religion and more. This wilderness experience
transformed Vladimir so deeply that he abandoned his commercial
plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to fulfil Anastasia’s request
and write a book about the spiritual insights she so generously
shared with him. True to her promise this life-changing book, once
written, has become an international bestseller and has touched
hearts of millions of people world-wide.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia, the second book of the Series, in
addition to providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the
story of how Anastasia came to be published, offers a deeper explo-
ration of the universal concepts so dramatically revealed in Book 1.
It takes the reader on an adventure through the vast expanses of
space, time and spirit — from the Paradise-like glade in the Sibe-
rian taiga to the rough urban depths of Russia’s capital city' from the
ancient mysteries of our forebears to a vision of humanity’s radiant
future.
The Space of Love, the third book of the Series, describes author’s
second visit to Anastasia. Rich with new revelations on natural
child-rearing and alternative education, on the spiritual significance
of breast-feeding and the meaning of ancient megaliths, it shows
how each person’s thoughts can influence the destiny' of the entire
Earth and describes practical ways of putting Anastasia’s vision of
happiness into practice. Megre shares his new outlook on educa-
tion and children’s real creative potential after a visit to a school
where pupils build their own campus and cover the ten-year Russian
school programme in just two years. Complete with an account of
an armed intrusion into Anastasia’s habitat, the book highlights the
limitless power of Love and non-violence.
Co-creation, the fourth book and centrepiece of the Series, paints a
dramatic living image of the creation of the Universe and humani-
ty’s place in this creation, malting this primordial mystery relevant
to our everyday living today. Deeply metaphysical yet at the same
time down-to-Earth practical, this poetic heart-felt volume helps us
uncover answers to the most significant questions about the essence
and meaning of the Universe and the nature and purpose of our ex-
istence. It also shows how and why the knowledge of these answers,
innate in every human being, has become obscured and forgotten,
and points the way toward reclaiming this wisdom and — in part-
nership with Nature — manifesting the energy of Love through our
lives.
Who are we? — Book Five of the Series — describes the author’s
search for real-life ‘proofs’ of Anastasia’s vision presented in the
previous volumes. Finding these proofs and taking stock of ongo-
ing global environmental destruction, Vladimir Megre describes
further practical steps for putting Anastasia’s vision into practice.
Full of beautiful realistic images of a new way of living in co-opera-
tion with the Earth and each other, this book also highlights the role
of children in making us aware of the precariousness of the present
situation and in leading the global transition toward a happy, vio-
lence-free society
The book of kin, the sixth book of the Series, describes another
visit by the author to Anastasia’s glade in the Siberian taiga and his
conversations with his growing son, which cause him to take a new
look at education, science, history, family and Nature. Through
parables and revelatory dialogues and stories Anastasia then leads
Vladimir Megre and the reader on a shocking re-discovery of the
pages of humanity’s history that have been distorted or kept secret
for thousands of years. This knowledge sheds light on the causes of
war, oppression and violence in the modern world and guides us in
preserving the wisdom of our ancestors and passing it over to future
generations.
The energy of life, Book Seven of the Series, re-asserts the power
of human thought and the influence of our thinking on our lives
and the destiny of the entire planet and the Universe. Is also brings
forth a practical understanding of ways to consciously control and
build up the power of our creative thought. The book sheds still
further light on the forgotten pages of humanity’s history, on reli-
gion, on the roots of inter-racial and inter-religious conflict, on ideal
nutrition, and shows how a new way of thinking and a lifestyle in
true harmony with Nature can lead to happiness and solve the per-
sonal and societal problems of crime, corruption, misery, conflict,
war and violence.
The new civilisation , the eighth book of the Series, is not yet com-
plete. The first part of the book, already published as a separate
volume, describes yet another visit by Vladimir Megre to Anastasia
and their son, and offers new insights into practical co-operation
with Nature, showing in ever greater detail how Anastasia’s lifestyle
applies to our lives. Describing how the visions presented in previ-
ous volumes have already taken beautiful form in real life and pro-
duced massive changes in Russia and beyond, the author discerns
the birth of a new civilisation. The book also paints a vivid image of
America’s radiant future, in which the conflict between the power-
ful and the helpless, the rich and the poor, the city and the country,
can be transcended and thereby lead to transformations in both the
individual and society.
Rites of Love — Book 8, Part 2 (published as a separate volume) —
contrasts today’s mainstream attitudes to sex, family, childbirth and
education with our forebears’ lifestyle, which reflected their deep
spiritual understanding of the significance of conception, preg-
nancy, homebirth and upbringing of the young in an atmosphere of
love. In powerful poetic prose Megre describes their ancient way
of life, grounded in love and non-violence, and shows the practica-
bility of this same approach today. Through the life-story of one
family, he portrays the radiant world of the ancient Russian Vedic
civilisation, the drama of its destruction and its re-birth millennia
later — in our present time.
To be continued...
THE AUTHOR, Vladimir Megre, bom in 1950, was a well-known
entrepreneur from a Siberian city of Novosibirsk. According to his
account, in 1995 — after hearing a fascinating story about the power
of ‘ringing cedars’ from a Siberian elder — he organised a trade ex-
pedition into the Siberian taiga to rediscover the lost technique of
pressing virgin cedar nut oil containing high curative powers, as well
as to find the ringing cedar tree. However, his encounter on this trip
with a Siberian woman named Anastasia transformed him so deep-
ly that he abandoned his business and went to Moscow to write a
book about the spiritual insights she had shared with him. Vladimir
Megre now lives near the city ofVladimir, Russia, 190 km (120 miles)
east of Moscow. If you wish to contact the author, you may send a
message to his personal e-mail megre@online.sinor.ra
THE TRANSLATOR, John Woodsworth, bom in Vancouver (Brit-
ish Columbia), has over forty years of experience in Russian-English
translation, from classical poetry to modern short stories. Since 1982 he
has been associated with the University of Ottawa in Canada as a Rus-
sian-language teacher, translator and editor, most recently as a Research
Associate and Administrative Assistant with the University’s Slavic Re-
search Group, A published Russian-language poet himself) he and his
wife — Susan K. Woodsworth — are directors of the Sasquatch Literary
Arts Performance Series in Ottawa. A Certified Russian-English Trans-
lator, John Woodsworth is in the process of translating the remaining
volumes in Vladimir Megre’s Ringing Cedars Series.
THE EDITOR, Leonid Sharashkim, is writing his doctoral dis-
sertation on the spiritual, cultural and economic significance of the
Russian dacha gardening movement, at the University of Missouri at
Columbia. After receiving a Master’s degree in Natural Resources
Management from Indiana University at Bloomington, he worked
for two years as Programme Manager at the World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF Russia) in Moscow; where he also served as editor of
Russia’s largest environmental magazine, The Panda Times. Together
with his wife, Irina Sharashkina, he has translated into Russian Small is
beautiful and A guide for the perplexedly E.F. Schumacher, The secret life
of plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, The continuum con-
cept by Jean Liedloff and Birth without violence by Frederick Leboyer.
ORDERING INFORMATION
USA:
o on-line — www.RLngingCedars.com
. tel, / fax (toll-free) — 1-888-DOLMENS (1-888-365-6367)
o tel. / fax (from outside US if Canada) — l-646-429T9o6
0 e-mail — sales@RingingCedars.com
. mail (US) - send US$14.95 per copy plus $3.95 shipping and
handling for the first copy and $0.99 s&h for each additional copy
in your order to:
Ringing Cedars Press
415 Dairy Rd., Suite E-339
Kahului, HI 96732, USA
Make a check or money order payable to “Ringing Cedars Press .
Please indicate clearly the quantity and title of the book(s) you
are ordering and be sure to include your US postal address with
your payment. Allow 2-4 weeks for delivery Prices are subject to
change without notice.
UNITED KINGDOM:
0 order on-line — www.RingingCedars.CQ.ult
0 by phone (toll-free) — 0800-011-2081
» e-mail — foooks@RingingCedars.co.uk
AUSTRALIA:
0 order oil-line — www.RingingCedars.com.au
0 by phone — 1800-248-768
0 e-mail— books@SingingCedars.com.au
NEW ZEALAND:
© order on-line — www.RingingCedars.co.nz
0 by phone — 64-9232-9792
0 e-mail — sales@RingingCedars.co.nz
SOUTH AFRICA:
• order on-line — www.RingingCedars.co.za
0 e-mail — fcooks@RingingCedars.co.za
Tike He* <Si
I: ul'imilC'Mi^
ISBN 978-0-9763333-2-6
9 780976 333326
RINGING CEDARS PR
ivww. RingingCedars . co
1-888-DOLMENS
USS14.95 CANS19.95 AU$24.95
p A
• Book i Anastasia
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-0-2)
® Book 2 The Ringing Cedars of Russia
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-1-9)
0 Book 3 The Space of Love
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-2-6)
0 Book 4 Co-creation
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-3-3)
• Book 5 Who Are We?
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-4-0)
6 Book 6 The Book of Kin
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-6-4)
• Book 7 The Energy of Life
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-7-1)
0 Book 8, Part 1 The New Civilisation
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-8-8)
0 Book 8, Part 2 Rites of Love
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-9-5)
f Published by Ringing Cedars Press
www.RingingCedars . com
Anastasia herself has stated that this book consists of words
and phrases in combinations which have a beneficial effect on the
reader. This has been attested by the letters received to date
from thousands of readers all over the world.
If you wish to gain as full an appreciation as possible of the
ideas, thoughts and images set forth here, as well as experience
the benefits that come with this appreciation, we recommend
you find a quiet place for your reading where there is the least
possible interference from artificial noises (motor traffic,
radio, TV, household appliances etc.). Natural sounds, on the
other hand — the singing of birds, for example, or the patter
of rain, or the rustle of leaves on nearby trees — may be a
welcome accompaniment to the reading process.
Ringing Cedars Press is an independent publisher dedicated
to making Vladimir Megre’s books available in the beautiful
English translation by John Woodsworth. Word of mouth is
our best advertisement and we appreciate your help in spread-
ing the word about the Ringing Cedars Series.
Order on-line www.RingingCedars.coin ordering
call /fax toll-free 1-888-DOLMENS details
or call / fax 1-646-429-1986 see last page
Generous discounts are available on volume orders. To help
spread the word as an independent distributor, or to place the
books in your bookstore, or to be kept up to date about future
book releases and events, please email us at:
info@ringingcedars . com
orwrite to the Publisher, Ringing Cedars Press, 120 HanaHwy
#9-230, Paia, HI 96779, USA. We also welcome reviews,
poetry and artwork inspired by the Series.
Co-creation by
Vladimir Megre
Translation, Afterword and footnotes by
John Woodsworth
Editing, Afterword, footnotes, design and layout by
Leonid SharasMdn
Cover art by
Alexander Razboinikov
Copyright © 2000 Vladimir Megre
Copyright © 2006 Leonid Sharashkin, translation
Copyright © 2006 Leonid Sharashkin, afterword, footnotes
Copyright © 2006 Leonid Sharashkin, cover art
Copyright © 2006 Leonid Sharashkin, design and layout
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, except for the
inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2006920095
ISBN: 978-0-9763333-3-3
Published by
Ringing Cedars Press
■vvww.RingingCedars.com
1. All this exists right now! i
2. The beginning of creation 8
3. The first appearance of 3 ion 13
4. The first day 21
5. Problems confirming the perfection of life 23
6. First encounter 25
7. When Love 33
8. Birth 37
9. The unsatisfying apple 43
10. Avoid intimate relations with her 55
n . Three prayers 58
12. Anastasia’s line 68
13. T o feel the deeds of all mankind 76
14. Dining in the taiga 83
15. They’re capable of changing the world? 91
16. An extraordinary power 95
17. When fathers will understand... 105
18. He celebrated the joy of life 00
19. A secret science 113
20. Our genetic code 124
21 . Where do we go in sleep? 127
VI
Book 4: Co-creation
22. Other worlds 135
23. The invasion centre 149
24. T ake back your Motherland, people! j6o
25. Two brothers 170
26. Even today everyone can build a home 178
27. A fence 182
28. Home 192
29. The energy of Love 195
30. In His image and likeness 198
31 . But who is to blame? 203
32. The old man at the dolmen 207
33. School, or the lessons of the gods 212
34. Anomalies at Gelendzhik 231
Hope for the world. Afterword 244
Series at a glance 254
Chapter One
right now!
“I shall tell you about co-creation , Vladimir, and then everyone
will be able to provide an answer to his own questions. Please
listen carefully, Vladimir, and write about the Creator’s great
co-creation. Listen and try to understand with all your Soul
the aspirations of the Divine dream.”
After uttering these words, Anastasia fell into a silent dis-
traction. She looked at me but said not a word. Her distrac-
tion was probably due to her feeling or noticing in my facial
expression signs of incredulity in what she might have to say
about Co-creation, about God.
But really, how could I — or anyone else, for that matter —
not entertain at least some measure of incredulity? What
could not this passionate recluse dream up next?! She doesn’t
have any historical proofs to offer. If anyone can talk convinc-
ingly about the past, then surely that would be the historians
and archaeologists. And there’s lots of talk about God in the
Bible and in the books of other denominations. In all kinds
of books. Only for some reason, when they talk of God, they
can’t seem to agree. Alight not that be on account of the fact
that nobody has any convincing proofs?
“There are proofs, Vladimir,” Anastasia suddenly broke in
confidently and excitedly in answer to my silent question.
‘And where are they?”
‘All the proofs, all the truths in the Universe are preserved
for ever in every human soul. Lies and falsehoods cannot sur-
vive for any length of time. They are exposed by the soul.
That is why so many different kinds of religious treatises are
2
Book 4: Co-creation
thrown at Man. 1 Lies constantly need new disguises to sur-
vive. And that is why manldnd is constantly changing its so-
cial structures, trying to find in them the truth it has lost, yet
only distancing itself from the truth even more.”
“But who has proved, and how, that each one contains the
truth within? In Man’s soul or any other part? And if it is
indeed there, then why does it stay hidden?”
“On the contrary, not a single day goes by but in the sight
of each one of us the truth strives to bring itself out. Life
around us is eternal and it is through the truth that eternal
life comes about.”
Anastasia quickly pressed the palms of her hands to the
ground, ran them over the grass and then held them out to
me.
“Look, Vladimir, perhaps these will dispel your doubts
once and for all.”
I looked, and saw in her outstretched hands seeds of grass, a
small cedar nut, and some sort of bug crawling. I asked her:
‘And what does all this mean? The nut, for example?”
“Look, Vladimir, such a tiny wee kernel, and yet if you plant
it in the ground, it grows into a majestic cedar. Not an oak,
not a maple, not a rose, but only a cedar. The cedar in turn
gives birth to a kernel just like this, and it will contain, just as
the very first one did, all the information about its pristine
origins. And if millions of years ago or millions of years from
now a kernel like this makes contact with the earth, still, only
a cedar will sprout out of the ground. In it, in every kernel of
God’s perfect creation, all possible information has been fully
implanted by the Creator. Millions of years may go by, but
1 Man — Throughout the Ringing Cedars Series, the word Man with a capi-
tal M is used to refer to a human being of either gender. For details on the
word’s usage and the important distinction between Man and human being
please see the Translator’s Preface to Book 1.
All this exists light now !
3
the Creator’s information will never be erased. And Man, the
apex of creation, has been given everything by the Creator at
the moment of co-creation. All truths and all future achieve-
ments have been inculcated by the Father, inspired by a grand
dream, in His beloved child.”
“Well then, how do we attain that truth, in the final analy-
sis? From somewhere within ourselves? From our kidneys,
our heart or our brain?”
“From our feelings. 'You should try to determine the truth
with your feelings. Trust yourself to them. Free yourself from
mercenary dogmas.”
“Well, okay, if you know something, say it. Perhaps some-
body will be able to understand you with their own feelings.
What is God, for example? Can scholars draw a portrait of
Him with some kind of scientific formula?”
‘A scientific formula? A formula would extend many times
around the Earth, and when it stopped, another would be
given birth. God is no less in worth than what can be born in
one’s thought. He is the firmament and the empty space, and
that which cannot be seen. There is no sense in trying to un-
derstand Him with the mind, however keen. Take all the for-
mulas on the Earth and all the information in the Universe as
a whole and squeeze them into the tiny kernel of your soul and
turn them into feelings, and let your feelings then unfold.”
“But what am I supposed to feel? Talk in terms more sim-
ple, clearer and more real.”
“Oh, help me, God!” Anastasia pleaded. “Help me with
the creation of a worthy image out of today’s word combina-
tions.”
“Well now, not enough words, eh? Why don’t you go take a
look at a dictionary? It’s got all the words people use today”
‘All the words available at the moment. But modern books
do not contain the words your forefathers used to describe
God.”
4
Book 4: Co-creation
“Are you talking about Old Church Slavonic 2 words?”
‘And even earlier. Before the Old Church Slavonic alpha-
bet was invented, there was a means by which people set down
their thoughts for their descendants.”
“What are you talking about, Anastasia? Everyone knows
that our proper writing system came from two Orthodox
monks. Their names were... something, I can’t remember.”
“Cyril and Methodius, perhaps, you have in mind?”
“Yes. They created our kind of writing system, after all.”
“It would be more accurate to say: they changed the writing
system of our forefathers and foremothers.”
“What d’you mean, they ‘changed’ it?”
“They were following orders. To make sure the culture
of the Slavs would be forgotten for ever. To make sure the
remnants of knowledge of our pristine origins would disap-
pear from human memory, and a new r culture would be born,
so that our peoples would subject themselves to different
priests.”
“What have writing systems and a new culture got to do
with that?”
“Suppose children today were taught to speak and write a
foreign tongue, and forbidden to express themselves in the
one they already know Tell me, Vladimir, how would your
grandchildren learn about events of our present day? In peo-
ple deprived of a knowledge of the past it is easy to inculcate
new teachings, simply by treating them as important. And
2 Old Church Slavonic — a literary language developed from the Slavic dialect
used by two monks named Saints Cyril [ Kirill I and Methodius [. Mefodii ],
who first translated the Bible into a Slavic tongue in the 10th century A. D.
and invented an alphabet (which many people identify as Cyrillic ) wherein
to write down their translation. It was used as the liturgical language of
the Russian Orthodox Church up until the 12th century. Its present-day
derivative is known simply as Church Slavonic, and is still used in Orthodox
liturgy today
All this exists right now !
5
they can tell them anything they like about their forebears.
Once the language had gone, culture went along with it. That
was the aim, at least. But those who formulated that aim
were wholly unaware that the sprouts of truth remained un-
seen for ever in the human soul. All it takes is to drink in a
single drop of dew so pure for the sprout to grow and mature.
Look, Vladimir. Please, accept my words, and try to feel what
lies behind them.”
As Anastasia spoke, she would either slow down her speech
or quickly rattle off whole phrases at a time, or else suddenly
fall silent for a moment, ponder something for a moment, and
then pluck unfamiliar, drawn-out phrases literally out of the
air. And occasionally a word or two I had never heard before
would weave their way into what she was saying. But each
time she said an unclear or unknown word, she seemed to give
a start and replace it with a correct or more understandable
variant. And it always appeared as though she were trying to
prove something whenever she talked of God:
“Everybody knows Man is the image and likeness of God.
But in what respect? Where are God’s characteristic traits
within you? Have you ever thought of that?”
“No, not really,” I admitted. “Never had any occasion to.
Why don’t you describe them yourself?”
“When a Alan, exhausted after his daily cares, lies down
to sleep, when he ceases to feel his weary body, his set of in-
visible energies and his ‘second self ’ 3 leave the body to some
degree. And at that moment earthly limitations do not exist
for them. They know no time or space. In less than a second,
your consciousness crosses all the distances in the Universe.
And your complex of feelings senses past and future events,
analyses them, measures them against the present day and
dreams on. All this means that Man feels the unfathomable
3 'second self — see Book 3, Chapter 15: ‘A bird for discovering one’s soul”.
6
Book 4: Co-creation
Divine universal creation not only with his flesh. His God-
given thought is at work creating afresh. Human thought
alone is capable of creating other worlds or changing what
has been created.
“Sometimes a person will cry out in their sleep when they
are scared by something. Their complex of feelings, free
from earthly cares, is frightened by events of the past or the
future.
“Sometimes a person creates in their sleep. Their crea-
tions strive, quickly or slowly, to embody themselves in earth-
ly form. And how ugly a form they take or how harmoniously
they shine forth depends wholly or partly on the degree to
which inspiration plays a role in their creations. On the de-
gree to which all aspects are taken into account in all their
accuracy and detail at the moment of creation. On the degree
to which inspiration empowers your Divine ‘self’.
“In the whole Universe creation is something inherent in
God alone, and in God’s son, Man.
“God’s thought serves as the principle of all. His dream is
transformed into living matter so that it may be seen. And
human actions are preceded by the human dream.
“The opportunities for creation are equal for all the people
of the Earth. It is only that people use their opportunities
in different ways. Here Man is accorded full freedom. And
freedom he has!
“Tell me now, Vladimir, what kind of dreams do God’s chil-
dren have today? You yourself, your friends and acquaintanc-
es, for example? For what purpose do they use their creative
dreams? What purpose do you use them for?”
“Me? Hmm... how d’you mean, for what purpose? Just like
everyone else, I’ve tried to make more money so I can some-
how get my life on a solid footing. I got myself a car — sev-
eral, in fact. Plus a lot of other things I need to get by — good
furniture, for example.”
All this exists right now! 7
‘And that is it? Is that all you have used your creative, God-
given dream for?”
“That’s what just about everyone uses it for.”
“For what?”
“For money! How can you live without money? To have a
decent set of clothes to wear, to eat a little better, buy things,
get something to drink. What could be clearer than that?
And you ask what for!”
“Something to eat, something to drink — you realise,
Vladimir, that all this has been given to everyone in abun-
dance, right from the very beginning.”
“Given? Well, then, where did it disappear to after that?”
“Think for yourself: where might it have gone?”
“Well, I would imagine the original clothing simply got
ragged and worn out, and the original food got eaten up aeons
ago. Times are different now, clothing fashions have changed,
along with tastes for food.”
“Vladimir, God gave His son indestructible garments,
and his food reserves are not the kind that can ever be ex-
hausted.”
“So where’s all this today?”
“It has all been preserved, it exists right now.”
“Then tell me where. Where do I find the hiding-places
where so many supplies are stored up even today?”
“You shall see. They shall be seen. Only look with your
feelings. Only with your feelings will you be able to grasp the
essence of the creation of God’s dream.”
Chapter Two
creation
“Picture what it was like in the very beginning. There was as
yet no Earth. There was as yet no matter to reflect the light
of the Universe. But still, even as now, the Universe was filled
with a great multitude of diverse energies. Living energy el-
ements thought in the dark, and created in the dark. They
needed no external light-source. Within themselves, for
themselves, they shone. And each contained everything —
thought, feelings and the energy of aspiration. Yet still there
were differences among them. In each one a single form of
energy predominated. Just as now, the Universe included an
element of destruction and an element which creates life.
And other elements involved a multitude of various shadings,
similar to human feelings. There was no way these elements
of the Universe could come into contact with each other.
Within each element multiple energies created movement —
either languidly creeping or, all at once, lightning-swift on
the dot. What was self-created within each one could also
destroy itself on the spo\t. Their pulsations did not alter the
Cosmos — visible they were not — and each considered that
they were alone in space. Alone!
“Uncertain of their purpose, they were unable to bring
about any lasting creation that might give satisfaction. And
so in a time of stagnation without limitation there were these
pulsations, but there was no overall motion or action of any
kind.
‘And all at once, as by an impulse, each element was
touched by communication ! All of them at once, throughout
The beginning of creation
9
the unfathomable Universe. Throughout those complexes
of living energy one suddenly began illuminating the rest.
Whether the complex was old or young could not be ex-
pressed in ordinary tongues. Whether it arose from the vacu-
um of space or from the spark of all the possibilities one could
imagine is not important. Whatever its semblance, the re-
sulting complex bore a most striking resemblance to M a n! To
Man who is still living today! It was similar to his second self.
Not the material, but the eternal, sacred self. The living en-
ergy of its aspirations and dreams first began to lightly touch
all elements in the Universe. And he alone was so fervent in
his devotion that he was able to bring all sensations and feel-
ings into locomotion. The sounds of communication began
to resound through the Universe. And if the first sounds
were to be expressed through translation into modern words,
we would feel the sense of questions and answers. From all
across the unfathomable Universe one question was uttered
by all, addressed only to Him:
‘“What do you so fervently desire?’ everyone enquired.
‘And He, confident in His dream, replied:
“‘Conjoint creation and joy for all from its contemplation.’
“‘And what may bring joy to everyone in the Universe?’
“‘Birth!’
“‘The birth of what? Each one of us has been self-suffi-
cient for as long as we can recall.’
“A birth in which will be included particles of all!’
“‘How is it possible to reunite in a single whole that which
is all-destructive and all-constructive at the same time?’
“‘Through opposing forms of energy, after first bringing
them into line, balancing them in one’s self, you see!”
“And, to achieve this, who so strong would there be?’
“‘Me.’
“‘But there is the energy of doubt. Doubt will attempt to
decoy and destroy you, and the diverse multitude of energies
IO
Book 4: Co-creation
will tear you into tiny particles. No one can unite and hold
opposites in a single whole.’
“‘But there is also the energy of confidence. When confi-
dence and doubt are equal, they will facilitate exactitude and
beatitude for future co-creation.’
“And how do you call yourself?’
“‘I am God. I shall be able to deploy particles of all your di-
verse energies within Myself. I shall stay great! I shall create!
To the whole Universe creation shall bring forth joy!’
“From all quarters of the Universe all elements simultane-
ously released the multitude of their energies into Him alone.
And each endeavoured to gain ascendancy over the rest, so that
it alone might establish itself as supreme in its new home.
“Thus began the great struggle of all the forms of energy
in the Universe. There is no measure of time or space to de-
scribe the scale of that struggle. Calm returned only when
in each one’s consciousness one fact gleamed: that nothing
could be higher or stronger than the One energy of the Uni-
verse — the energy of the Divine dream.
“God possessed the energy of the dream. He was able to
take in and compile all within Himself, bring all into balance,
reconcile opposites and begin to create. And to create still
within Himself. Indeed, in His creating of future creations
still within Himself, He cherished each detail with speed on
a measureless scale, and worked out the interrelationships
with everything else for each and every creation. He did it all
alone. Alone in the darkness of the unfathomable Universe.
Alone he set into motion the diverse energies of the whole
Universe. The uncertainty of the outcome frightened eve-
ryone and removed them a distance from the Creator. The
Creator found Himself standing in empty space. And that
empty space was expanding.
‘A deathly cold appeared. Dank fear and alienation held
sway around, while He alone beheld the awesome dawn of
The beginning of creation
ii
each new day, heard the singing of birds, and breathed the
sweet fragrance of the blossoming of the ground. With His
fervent dream He alone unfolded His marvellous creations in
their sheen.
“‘Stop!’ they pleaded. ‘You are in empty space. You are go-
ing to explode! How do You contain the energy within Your-
self? Nobody is helping You squeeze or contract, and now
Your only course is to explode. But if You have a moment
remaining, stop! You must act to gently release your creative
energies.’
“And He replied:
“‘My dreams! I will not betray My pact with them! For
them I will continue to contract and accelerate My energies,
My powers. My dreams! In them I see the ants hurrying and
scurrying across the grass, among the flowers. And the eagle in
his bold ascent into the sky is teaching his young how to fly.’
“With His own unfathomable energy God accelerated in
Himself the motion of all the diverse energies of the Universe
as a whole. Inspiration squeezed them into a small kernel in
His Soul.
‘And all at once He sensed a touch. Everywhere, from all
quarters in turn, He felt the burn of a new unfamiliar energy,
and then it withdrew to warm Him with its warmth from a
distance, filling all with some kind of new power. And all that
was previously empty space suddenly began to radiate with
grace. And the Universe resounded with new sounds, when
God enquired with tender ecstasy:
“‘Who are you? What kind of energy are you?’
‘And Fie heard the words of Music in reply:
‘“The Energy of Love and Inspiration am I.’
“A particle of you is within Me. It alone is able to restrain
and cage the energy of disdain, hatred and rage.’
“‘You are God. Your energy — the dream of Your Soul —
has been able to bring everything into the harmony of the
12
Book 4: Co-creation
whole. And if my particle has been of assistance there, then
hear me out, O God, and to help me be prepared.’
“‘What do you desire? Why have you touched Me with all
the power of your fire?’
“‘I have realised that I am Love. I cannot remain simply
a particle of... I desire to give my whole self to Your Soul. I
know, so as not to disrupt the harmony of good and evil, You
will not admit me as a whole. But I shall fill with myself the
empty space around You. I shall warm with my cheer all the
room within and around You. You shall not be touched by the
cold of the Universe and its gloom — it shall not even come
near.’
‘“What is going on here? What indeed? You have begun to
shine even brighter!’
“‘I am not doing this alone. This is the presence of Your
energy! Your Soul! It is only being reflected by me. Your re-
flected light comes back, back to your invisible Inner Self.’
‘Aflame with courage and aspiration, God, inspired by
Love, exclaimed:
“‘Everything is proceeding with acceleration. Everything
is astir in Me. O, how marvellous is inspiration here above!
And now let the dreams of My creation come to fruition in
most radiant Love!”’
Chapter Three
The first appearance of you
“The Earth! The core of the whole Universe and the centre
of everything appeared as the planet Earth loomed in sight!
And all at once, along with it loomed the stars, the Sun and
the Moon. The invisible creative light radiating from the
Earth found its reflection in them.
“In the Universe a new plan of existence appeared for the
first time! A material plan, and how it did shine!
“Up to the moment the Earth appeared, nobody and noth-
ing possessed visible matter. While the Earth came into con-
tact with everything in the Universe, it was an independent
body, too.
“It was a self-sufficient creation. Things that lived all
around, things that grew in the ground, things that swam in
the sea and things that flew on high did not die or disappear
somewhere. Even decomposition brought forth flies, and
flies became food for other life, and everything fused togeth-
er into a single magnificent life.
“In their excitement and astonishment all the entities of
the Universe began looking to the Earth. The Earth came into
contact with everything, but nobody was able to touch it.
“With God a sense of inner inspiration surged apace. And
in the light of Love, which had filled the empty space, the
Divine being changed its design, and took the form which in
time became known as the human body.
“The Divine thought worked with no sense of speed or
time. Indeed, it worked infinitely faster than all the di-
verse energies of thought and created with inspiration!
14 Book 4: Co-creation
And again another creation which was still invisible, still
within itself.
‘All at once the illumination flared up, and the energy of
Love gave a quiver of agitation, as if set aflame with its newly
felt heat. And in joyous elation God exclaimed:
‘“Look, O Universe, look! Behold my son! Man! He stands
upon the Earth. He is material! And in him are particles of
all the diverse energies of the Universe. He dwells on all the
planes of being. My image and likeness he is, and in him are
particles of all your diverse energies... So love him! I urge
you: love him!
‘“My son shall bring joy to all living on the Earth. Lie is
creation! He is birth! He is all of all! He will create a new
creation, and will transform into infinity his ever-repeating
regeneration.
“‘When alone, or when infinitely multiplied, he emits in-
visible light, merging it into a whole, he will rule the Universe.
He will endow everything with the joy of life. I have given
him everything that is Mine, and will furthermore give him
for his own all that may be thought at a future time.’
“Thus for the first time you stood alone on the splendid
Earth,” Anastasia ended her narrative.
“Who are you talking about?” I queried. ‘About me?”
‘About you, Vladimir, and about anyone who happens to
see these lines you shall be writing down.”
“How so, Anastasia? There’s a complete disconnect here.
How can all my readers stand on a spot where you say only
one person was standing. And it talks about that in the Bible.
There was just one Man at first — Adam, he was called. And
you yourself said God created just one Man.”
“Quite correct, Vladimir. But look and see: it is from that
one that we all have come. His particle, and the information
contained therein, has been infused into all others who have
The first appearance of you
15
been given birth upon the Earth. And if your willing thought
is ready to cast aside all your worldly cares, then all the feel-
ings held up to now in that tiny particle will be felt. It has
been there all along, and remembers everything. It is in you
right now and in every Man living upon the Earth. Let it un-
fold, let yourself feel what you have seen, and you who are in
turn reading these lines at the moment, you shall feel what
you saw at the very beginning of your journey through time.”
“Oh wow! Then is it true that everyone living today was
there, on that Earth, right at the very beginning?”
“Yes. But on this Earth, not on ‘that’ one. It is only that the
Earth looked different back then.”
‘And is there a single term by which we can be called?”
“You are probably more accustomed to hearing the name
Adam ? I shall use it, but picture it as referring to you. And
let everyone picture themselves when they come across that
name. I shall use some words to help in this.”
“Yes, please do. For some reason I still have only a rather
faint idea of how I might have appeared in those times.”
“To make it easier, picture yourself as entering a garden on
the border between summer and spring — a garden in which
there are also the fruits of autumn. There are also beings here
which you are seeing for the first time. It is hard to take eve-
rything in at one glance, when it is all so new and everything
radiates perfection. But recall how you, Adam, saw your first
flower and concentrated your thought upon it. On a very tiny
flower.
“It was cornflower blue, the petals were smooth and made
up of lines. The petals gently glowed, as though reflecting
in themselves the light of the sky And you, Adam, sat down
beside the flower, admiring this creation. But no matter how
long you looked at it, the flower’s appearance was constantly
changing. A breeze caressed the flower, making it sway on
its slender stem, and the petals quivered under the Sun’s rays,
i6
Book 4: Co-creation
changing the angle of reflection, giving new shadings to its
tender hues. When the petals were not trembling in the
breeze, they seemed to be waving to the Man in greeting, or
moving in time to the music ringing in the soul. And the flow-
er gave off a most delicate fragrance in its efforts to embrace
you, the Man.
“All at once Adam heard a mighty roar and, rising, turned
in the direction of the sound. In the distance an enormous
lion was standing with his lioness. And the lion announced
himself with his roar to everything around.
‘Adam’s gaze became entranced by the lion’s stately and
powerful stance, crowned by a bushy mane. No sooner had
the lion spied Adam than the creature bounded toward him
with mighty steps, the lioness right behind him. Adam could
not help but be impressed by the play of their powerful mus-
cles. Three metres from the Man the creatures came to rest.
Man’s gaze caressed them, a feeling of delight was emanating
from the Man, while the lion, sensing the gentle calm, settled
to the ground in delight. The lioness lay down beside him,
keeping perfectly still so as not to interfere with the warm
and gracious light emanating from the Man.
“Adam ran his fingers through the lion’s mane, examined and
touched the claws of his mighty paws, put his hand on his great
white fangs and smiled when the lion purred with delight.”
‘Anastasia,” I couldn’t help asking, “what kind of light first
emanated from the Alan to stop the lion from tearing him
apart? And why is there no such radiance today? Nobody
emits light that way today.”
“Vladimir, have you not noticed what a huge difference
there is even today? Alan’s gaze distinguishes all that is earth-
ly — the little blades of grass and flowers, the wild beasts and
the rocks with sluggish thinking. It is curious, mysterious, full
of unexplained power. Alan’s gaze can be calming. And yet it
can also wrap all living creatures in the cold of destruction.
The first appearance of you
17
Tell me, has it ever happened that you have been warmed by
someone’s gaze? Or perhaps someone’s eyes have caused you
inner discomfort?”
“Yes, it’s happened. You can actually feel someone watching
you. Ydu can feel a pleasant gaze, or one that is not so pleasant.”
“There, you see... that means you too know that a calming
gaze will create a sense of warmth within you. And that an
opposite gaze will bring a feeling of cold and destruction. But
Man’s gaze was many times stronger during those first days
upon Earth. The Creator saw to it that all life aspired to be
warmed by this gaze.”
‘And where has all the strength of Man’s gaze gone now?”
“It has not all gone. Enough of it is still around, but vanity,
superficial thinking, a different speed of thought, a misappre-
hension of basic concepts and apathy have darkened percep-
tion, and prevented it from opening up to what everybody
expects of Man. Inside each one of us a warm heart abides.
Oh, if only each one of us could open it wide to everything!
All reality could then be transmogrified into a magnificent
pristine garden.”
“Is this possible with everyone? Just as in the beginning
with Adam? Could something like that actually transpire?”
“Everything may be born, which is to what human thought,
merging from all into one, aspires.
“When Adam was alone, the power of his mind was equal
to what today is found in all mankind.”
‘Aha! That’s why the lion was afraid of him!”
“The lion was not afraid of the Man, not a trace. The lion
was bowing before the light of grace. All life aspires to know
this grace, which Man alone is capable of creating. For this
all life, and not only upon the Earth, is ready to perceive Alan
as a friend, a brother, a god. Parents always strive to instil
in their children all the very best abilities. Only parents sin-
cerely want their children’s abilities to exceed their own. The
i8 Book 4: Co-creation
Creator has wholly given Man — His son and creation — all
to which He Himself aspired in a burst of inspiration. And
if all are able to understand that God is perfect, then may all
feel exactly who God the Creator planned to create His child
to be — His beloved son, or Man. And how He feared no bur-
den of responsibility, and how he undertook never to abandon
His creation, having uttered the words that have come down
to us over the millions of years: ‘He is My son, this Man. He
is My image! My likeness!”’
“Does that mean that God wanted His son, His creation —
Man, in other words, to be stronger than Himself?”
‘All parents’ aspirations may be seen as a confirmation of this.”
“Well then, did Adam justify God’s hopes for him on his
first day? What transpired after the meeting with the lion?
What did he set about to do?”
‘Adam aspired to know all living things. To define the
name and the purpose or need for each living creature. Some
of these were solved quickly others he became involved with
for quite a time indeed. For example, before the Sun set on
the first day he was attempting to define the purpose of the
brontosaurus, but here he did not succeed. And so the bron-
tosaurus disappeared from the face of the Earth for all time.”
“Disappeared — why?”
“It disappeared because Man did not define its purpose.”
“That brontosaurus — is that the one that’s several times
bigger than an elephant?”
“Yes, bigger than an elephant it was, and little wings it had,
and a little head on a long neck that could spew flame out of
its jaws.”
“Just like in a fairy tale. The folk tale about the Gorynytch
Serpent , 1 for example, which spewed fire, too. But that’s a
fairy tale, not something real.”
“Sometimes folk tales tell about a past reality metaphori-
cally, but sometimes they can be quite accurate.”
The first appearance of yon
19
“Really? And just what would such a monster be made of?
How could fire come out of the jaws of a real living creature?
Or is the fire to be taken metaphorically? Let’s say, for in-
stance, to portray a monster breathing hatred?”
“The huge brontosaurus was good, not evil. Its huge size
served to compensate for its enormous weight.”
“How can its huge size serve to lighten its weight?”
“The more a hot-air balloon is filled with whatever is light-
er than air, the lighter it is.”
“Well, what has that got to do with the brontosaurus? It’s
not a hot-air balloon!”
“The brontosaurus was indeed an enormous living hot-air
balloon. Its skeleton was constructed of very light-weight
material, while its insides contained little in the way of or-
gans. Just as with a balloon, its insides were empty, except
they were constantly being filled with a gas that was lighter
than air. With a leap and a flap of its wings, the brontosaurus
actually managed to fly a bit. When there was an excessive
build-up of gas, it breathed it out through its mouth. Flint-
like fangs protruded from its jaws, and their friction could
create a spark and ignite the gas welling up from its abdomi-
nal cavity, sending fire out of its mouth.”
“Hmm! But hold on there, hold on — just who kept fill-
ing it with gas?”
“Listen to me, Vladimir: the gas was produced all by itself
inside as its food was being digested.”
“Impossible! Gas exists only in the bowels of the Earth.
That’s where it is extracted from, then they use it to fill
l Gorynytch Serpent — a fire-breathing dragon in Russian folk tales, with as
many as twelve heads, associated with fire and w r ater, capable of flight, yet
making its lair in caves and holes in the ground wherein to hide its captured
treasure, including kidnapped princesses. Gorynytch literally means “son of
a Mountain”, referring to its great size.
20
Book 4: Co-creation
propane tanks or send it through pipes to people’s kitchen
stoves. But from food — is it really that simple?”
“Yes, Vladimir, it is really that simple.”
“I can’t believe in something that simple, neither will anyone
else. And that means everything you’ve told me, for that mat-
ter, not just about the brontosaurus, but everything else too —
nobody’s going to believe it! So I shan’t write about this.”
“What is it, Vladimir? Do you think I am capable of being
mistaken? Of lying?”
“Well, I don’t know about the lying part, but you’re defi-
nitely mistaken about the gas.”
“I am not mistaken.”
“Then prove it.”
“Vladimir — do you not realise that your stomach, and other
people’s stomachs, produce the same kind of gas even today?”
“Impossible.”
“ You can prove it for yourself. Just take a match and light
the gas when it comes out of you.”
“What d’you mean, ‘out of me’? Out of where? Where
would I light the .match?”
Anastasia broke out laughing and, still laughing, said:
“What are you, a little child? Think for yourself — it is a
private experience.”
I thought about this gas from time to time. And for some
reason the thought began to eat away at me. And finally I
decided to try the experiment. I tried it directly I returned
from my visit with Anastasia. It worked! And now I think
back even more vividly on what she said about Adam’s first
days — or, rather, our first days on the Earth. And I get the
feeling that somehow we have forgotten to take with us today
something from those days. Or maybe it was just me that for-
got. That’s something each one can decide for himself when
he learns how Man spent his first day on the Earth. This is
how Anastasia described it.
Chapter Four
The first day
‘Adam was interested in everything. Each blade of grass, each
intricate little bug, the birds in the sky above, and water. The
first sight of a stream, its transparent running water sparkling
in the Sun, filled him with wonder and admiration, and in
it he could behold life in its infinite manifestations. When
Adam bent down to touch the water, his hand was immedi-
ately embraced by the current which caressed all the folds of
his skin and drew him in. Upon immersing himself in the wa-
ter he found his body becoming lighter. The gurgling water
supported him and comforted his whole body Splashing the
water in the air with his hands, he was delighted to see the
play of the Sun’s bright rays in each and every drop, before the
drops were once more received back into the stream. And it
was with a great sense of delight that Adam drank the water
from the stream. And before the Sun set he gladly contem-
plated, and bathed again, and meditated.”
“Hold on, there, Anastasia. You mentioned him drinking,
but did Adam eat anything the whole day? What food did he
eat?”
‘All around him were a multitude of fruits with a variety of
tastes, berries and edible grasses. But during those first days
Adam felt no sense of hunger. He remained satisfied with
fresh air alone.”
“With fresh air? But you can’t live on air. There’s even a
saying about that.”
“One certainly cannot live on the air Man breathes today
Today’s air is dying, and is often harmful for one’s body and
22
Book 4: Co-creation
soul. You mentioned the saying that one cannot live on air, but
there is another saying: ‘I have been fed by air alone’, which
corresponds to what was available to Man in the beginning.
Adam was born in a marvellous garden, and the air surround-
ing him did not contain a single harmful particle. Pollen had
been dissolved into that air, along with drops of purest dew.”
“Pollen? What kind of pollen?”
“Pollen from flowers and grasses, from trees and fruit,
which diffused fragrances into the air. Some came from those
close by, while breezes brought others from distant places.
Back then Man was not distracted from his great works by any
problems of finding food. He was fed by everything around
him through the air. This was the way it was all designed by
the Creator right from the very beginning, so that all life on
Earth should strive to please Man, and the air and the wa-
ter and the breeze would be life-giving, under the impulse of
love.”
“You’re right about one thing: air can be very harmful, but
Man invented the air conditioner. It purifies the air of dan-
gerous particles. And people sell mineral water in bottles. So,
you see, the problems of air and water have been solved — at
least for the many people who aren’t poor.”
“Alas, Vladimir, the air conditioner does not solve any
problems. It keeps back harmful particles, yes, but the air
continues to die. The water preserved in air-tight bottles dies
for lack of fresh air. All it does is feed the old cells of the body.
For new birth, so that the cells of your body may constantly
renew themselves, living air and water are needed.”
Chapter Five
Problems confirming
the perfection of life
“Adam had all that?” I asked in amazement.
“Yes, he did! This is why his thought moved so quickly. In
a relatively short period of time he was able to define every-
thing’s purpose. One hundred and eighteen years swept by
like a single day.”
“A hundred and eighteen years! Adam lived all by himself
to such a ripe old age?”
‘All by himself lived Adam, the first Man, caught up in all
sorts of interesting projects. A hundred and eighteen years
did not bring him age, but a blossoming of life.”
“Well, a person’s pretty old at a hundred and eighteen —
he’s known as an ‘old-timer’, at the mercy of all sorts of dis-
eases and ailments.”
“That might be so now, Vladimir, but back then Man was
not troubled by diseases. Every one of his cells enjoyed a
longer span of life, and if a cell became weary, that meant it
was destined to die, but right away a new cell, full of energy,
appeared in its place. Man’s body was able to live as many
years as his spirit or soul wished.”
‘And how come the Man of today can’t wish himself to live
a little longer?”
“By his moment-by-moment actions he is cutting short his
lifespan, and death is something thought up by Man.”
“What do you mean, ‘thought up’? Death comes all by it-
self. Against Man’s will.”
“When you smoke tobacco or drink alcohol, when you drive
24
Book 4: Co-creation
into a city which pollutes the air with the stench of burning
fumes, when you use lifeless food and let yourself be eaten
away by bitterness, tell me, Vladimir, who, if not yourself, is
hastening your death?”
“Well, that kind of life is pretty common for everyone to-
day”
“But Alan is free to choose. Everyone builds his own life for
him self and determines his lifespan moment by moment.”
“So, you’re saying that back then, in paradise, there weren’t
any problems?”
“Problems, if they arose at all, were resolved not in a harm-
ful direction, but in such a way as to confirm the perfection
of life.”
Chapter Six
“One day when he was a hundred and eighteen years old,
Adam did not become excited with the Spring upon waking
with the dawn. And he did not rise, as he usually did, to greet
the Sun’s brightening rays.
“Above him astride a leafy branch the nightingale trilled his
song. But his singing only made Adam turn over on his other side.
“Before his eyes Spring filled space with a quiet tremolo,
the gurgling stream called out to Adam in his bed, while swal-
lows made sport overhead. Fanciful clouds heralded each new
unfolding scene. From grasses, flowers, bushes and trees the
gentlest fragrance rushed to embrace the Man. Oh, how God
wondered then what was talcing place! Amidst Spring’s re-
splendent glory, under the deep-blue skies of his earthly crea-
tion, his son, the Man, had become sorrowful and despond-
ent. His beloved child dwelt not in gladness but in sadness.
Could any scene be more agonising for a loving father?
“One hundred and eighteen years on, long after creation,
the dormant throng of Divine energies suddenly swarmed
into motion. The whole Universe listened in shocked sur-
prise. Such acceleration as had never been seen before glis-
tened in the aura of the energy of Love, so intensely that all
life caught the sense at once: a new creation had been thought
of by God. But what could possibly be originated after crea-
tion had already reached the limit of inspiration? This was
something that surpassed all comprehension. And still God’s
thought kept growing in acceleration. And the Energy of
Love whispered in muted tones:
26
Book 4: Co-creation
‘“Once more You have set everything in inspired motion.
Ifiur universal energies are setting space on fire. How is it
that You do not explode or consume yourself in such fervour
and desire? Where are You heading? To what are You aspir-
ing? I no longer shine with Your light. Look, O my God, I
burn with Your essence, I turn planets into stars. Stop! Tou
have already created all the best. Stop, and Your son’s grief
will evanesce, it will disappear. Stop, O my God!’
“But God did not hear the plea of Love. And paid no at-
tention to the jeers of the elements of the Universe. Like a
young and enthusiastic sculptor, He continued accelerating
all the diverse energies in motion. And all at once, a dawn
of never before imaginable beauty burst forth, delineating it-
self through the vast unfathomable Universe, and all creation
gasped, and God Himself whispered in exultation:
“‘Behold, O Universe, behold! Behold my daughter stands
amidst the created creatures of the Earth! How perfect her
features are, the finest by a thousandfold! She shall be worthy
of My son. A creation more perfect than hers will never come.
In her is the image and likeness of Me, each particle of yours
in her will always be — so love her with a love so pure and free!
“‘She and he! My son and daughter shall bring extended joy
to every living thing! And shall build on every plane of being
resplendent universal worlds!’
“From the little hill, over dew-washed grass, on the festive
day in the Sun’s morning ray the maiden to Adam came. With
a pace full of grace and a form so slender, the bends of her
body smooth and tender, in the hues of her skin there shined
the light of the dawn Divine. Closer and closer she neared.
And then she appeared! In front of Adam, reclining on the
grass, the maiden arose.
“The breeze smoothed out her golden braids, her forehead
to expose. The Universe held its breath, completely awed. O,
how beauteous is her face — Thy creation, O God!
First encounter
27
‘Adam, reclining on the grass, glanced up at the maiden
who had appeared beside him, gave a yawn, turned away and
closed his eyes.
‘All the elements in the Universe then heard — no, not
words — they heard how listlessly Adam reacted in his
thought to the new creation of God:
“‘Well, there it is, yet another creation of some kind has
come to mind. It is nothing new, you see, just another en-
tity that looks something like me. Horses have joints in their
knees more supple and sturdy than these. The leopard has
skin so much brighter and livelier to please. And what’s more,
she arrived without invitation, on the very day I was going to
offer the ants a new designation.’
‘And Eve, standing a while beside Adam, went over to a
pool in the stream, sat down on the bank by the bushes and
caught a gleam of her reflection in the still, cool water.
‘And the elements of the Universe began to intone their
murmurings, and their thoughts merged into one: ‘Two per-
fections have not managed to achieve an appreciation of each
other. There is no perfection in God’s creation.’
“And only the energy of Love, alone amidst the murmur-
ings of the Universe, tried to protect the Creator with itself.
God was enveloped in its radiance. Everybody knew: never
had the energy of Love involved itself in rationalisation. Un-
seen and unheard, it was ever wandering apace through the
unfathomed reaches of space. But why was it now, so totally
and with no retention, encircling God again with its radiance?
Paying no attention to the intonings of the Universe, here it
was, warming and comforting through its radiance alone.
“‘You can rest, O Great Creator, and impart Your educa-
tion into the heart of Your son. You will be able to adjust and
correct any of Your illustrious creations.’
“In reply the Universe heard words, in which it recognised
the wisdom and majesty of God:
28
Book 4: Co-creation
“‘My son is the image and likeness of Me. He includes in
himself particles of all the diverse energies of the Universe.
He is Alpha and Omega. He is creation! He is the realisa-
tion of the future! Henceforth and for all time still to come
neither I nor anyone else shall be able to change his destiny
without his will. All that he wills for himself will be allowed
to him. Whatever he conceives, provided it is not conceived
in vanity, will turn into reality My son did not bow before
the sight of the maiden’s fleshly perfection. Much to the
amazement of the whole Universe, he was not amazed by her.
Still not consciously aware, My son has sensed all through his
feelings. In the first place he sensed that in him something
was amiss. And the new creation standing before him — the
maiden — did not possess this. My son! My son, through his
feelings, senses the whole Universe, he knows everything the
Universe possesses.’
‘A question filled the whole Universe:
‘“What can possibly be missing from one in whom all the
diverse energies of ours and Yours exist?’
“And God answered them all:
‘“The energy of Love.’
‘And the energy of Love flashed with flame:
“‘But I am alone, and I am Your very own. I shine by You
alone.’
“‘Yes! You are alone, My love,’ the Divine words pro-
claimed in reply. ‘Your shining light both shines and caresses,
My love. You are inspiration. You are able to give everything
an acceleration, you accentuate sensations and you are the
reconciliation of peace, My love. I beg of you, descend to the
Earth in your totality, leaving nothing in its former place. Sur-
round and enfold these My children in yourself, the energy of
boundless grace.’
“This farewell dialogue of Love and God heralded the be-
ginning of all earthly love.
First encounter
29
‘“My God,’ Love called out to the Creator. ‘When I leave,
You will be alone, unseen, for ever, dwelling on all the planes
of being. You will be invisible.’
“‘May My son and My daughter henceforth shine through
the Inner, the Outer and the Order .’ 1
“‘My God, around You will be empty space. There will never
be a place where the life-giving warmth can penetrate to Your
Soul. Without this warmth Your Soul will become cold.’
“‘Not for Me alone, but for all life may this warmth ema-
nate from the Earth. My sons and daughters will multiply
this radiated Love. And the whole Earth will glow with the
warmth of Love shining throughout space. All will feel the
light of grace emanating from the Earth, and all My diverse
energies will be warmed by its might.’
“‘My God, a great variety of paths are exposed to Your son
and daughter. In them remain the diverse energies of all the
planes of being. And suppose just one of those energies de-
cides to hold sway over the rest, and leads them astray what
can You do, seeing You have thought to give everything away,
when You find the energy shining from the Earth start to
weaken and fade to naught? You have given everything away,
and yet You see how on the Earth the energies of annihilation
hold sway over all. Your own illustrious creations are covered
with a lifeless crust, and the grass is smothered with stones.
What will You do then, what can be done, seeing You have
given complete freedom to Your son?’
“As a green blade of grass I shall be able to break through
among the stones anew, and unfold the petals of a flower in a
1 the Inner, the Outer, the Order — an approximation of the ancient Slavic
terms Nav’, Tav’ and Prav\ respectively. Nav signifies inner spiritual reality,
the invisible foundation of the outer, or visible, material reality (Tav), while
Prav (from a Slavic root word signifying ‘right’ or ‘true’) refers to the order
governing the Nav and Tav and the relationship between them.
30
Book 4: Co-creation
small and untouched glade. My earthly daughters and sons
will be able to realise their purpose.’
“‘My God, when I leave, You will not be by any eye perceiv-
able. It is conceivable that elements of other energies will
begin to speak through people in Your name. Some may try
to proclaim themselves rulers over others, abusing Your es-
sence for their own interests, saying: “I speak in God’s place,
I am His chosen one, everybody listen to me.” What will You
be able to do in such a case?’
‘“I shall come up as the dawn at the inception of the on-
coming day. By caressing all creations on the Earth without
exception, the rays of the Sun will help My daughters and sons
understand that each one in their own soul can hold conver-
sation with My Soul.’
‘“My God, many of them will there be, a great sum, and You
are alone as one. And all the elements of the Universe will be
eager to capture Man’s soul. Just to use Man to establish their
sway over all through the energy they possess. And Your er-
rant son will suddenly start to pray to them.’
“‘There will still be a major obstacle to any attempt, no
matter what its form, to lead people awry or lead them into
empty space, and this will be a barrier to anything based on a
lie. Within all My sons and daughters there is a striving for a
conscious awareness of truth. A lie is invariably bound within
limits, but truth is unlimited — it will be forever found in the
conscious awareness of My sons’ and daughters’ soul!’
“‘O my God! no one and nothing is able to fight or even
stand against the flight of Your thought and dreams! They are
marvellous! I shall willingly follow them. I shall warm Your
children with my radiance and shall perform this service for
ever. The inspiration You have given them will help them un-
dertake their own creations. I have only one request to make
of You, my God. Allow me to leave just one spark of my love
with You.
First encounter
3i
“‘When You are obliged to dwell in darkness, when You are
surrounded by nothing but empty space, when oblivion weak-
ens the light from the Earth, then may this spark of my love,
even though it seem but a single spark, shine for You with its
gleam.’
“O, Vladimir!” Anastasia exclaimed. “If only Man living to-
day could look up to the skies and see what was way above the
Earth back then, what a great vision would grace the scene
before his eyes! The light of the Universe, the energy of Love,
compressed into a comet, hastened toward the Earth, illumi-
nating the still lifeless planets along its course and lighting up
the stars above the Earth. Yes, it was indeed heading toward
the Earth! Closer, ever closer, it came. And there it was. And
all at once, it came to rest over the Earth itself, and the ra-
diance of Love began to resonate. And far away, among the
shining stars, one star, smaller than all the rest appeared to
be moving. It was hastening to follow the radiance of love on
its earthward path. And then Love realised that here was its
last little spark from God, and even it was on its way to the
Earth.
‘“My God!’ whispered the radiance of Love. ‘But why? I do
not understand. But why? 'You have not left even a single spark
for Yourself?’
“To the words of Love, out of the darkness of the Universe,
God, already perceivable by no one, gave reply His Divine
words were heard across space:
“Anything I kept back for Myself would be lacking in My
gift to them — My daughters and sons.’
‘“My God!’
“‘O how marvellous you are, Love, even as a single spark.’
“‘My God!’
“‘Hasten, My Love, hasten, do not stop for rational con-
templation. Llasten with your last spark and warm all My fu-
ture sons and daughters.’
32
Book 4: Co- creation
“The people of the Earth were embraced by the universal
energy of Love. All of it, down to the last spark. Everything
was there within it where it belonged. Throughout the un-
fathomable Universe, Man, who lives on all planes of being
simultaneously, of all the entities became the most strong.”
Chapter Seven
“Adam lay on the grass, among the fragrant flowers. In the
shade of a tree he dreamt, as his thoughts churned listlessly
along. And all at once a reminiscence swept over him in an
unexpected wave of warmth, somehow empowering a strong
acceleration of his thoughts. Just recently this new creation
stood before me — he reflected — something very much like
me, only different, but what is the difference? Where does it
lie? And where is this new creation now? Oh, how I wish I
could see the new creation once more as I did before! I want
to see it again, but why?
“Quickly Adam rose from the ground and looked around.
A thought flickered by: What has happened all of a sudden?
It is the same sky, the same birds, grass, trees and bushes.
Everything is the same, and yet it is different. I am not look-
ing at it the same way as before. The creatures of the Earth,
the scents, the air and even the light — everything’s become
brighter and more resplendent.
‘And words were born in Adam’s mouth, and he cried out
to all: And I love in return!’
‘And all at once a new wave of warmth came upon him
from the direction of the stream, sweeping over his whole
body He turned in the direction the warmth was coming
from and, lo and behold, there was the new creation, shining
before him. All logic departed from his thought, his whole
heart delighted in the vision, when Adam first caught sight
of it: there quietly sitting beside a clear pool of water in the
stream was the maiden, but after tossing back the braids of
34
Book 4: Co-creation
her golden hair she was looking not at the clear water but at
him. She caressed him with a smile, as though she had been
waiting for him a long eternal while.
“He went over to her. As they were looking at each oth-
er, Adam thought there could be no one with eyes more re-
splendent than hers. Aloud he said:
‘“You are sitting by the water. The water is good. Would
you like to bathe together?’
“‘I would.’
“And then would you like me to show you around... crea-
tion?’
“ £ I would.’
“‘I have given everything its designation. I shall command
them to serve you too. And would you like me to make a new
creation?’
‘“I would.’
“They bathed in the stream and ran through the meadow
Oh, how entrancing seemed the maiden’s trills of laughter,
when after mounting an elephant, Adam conceived a little
dance for her and called the maiden’s name Eve.
“The day was already drawing to a close as this woman and
man stood with all the glory of the Earth around, delight-
ing in its colours, scents and sounds. Quiet and meek, Eve
watched the evening descend. The floral petals folded into
their buds. The splendid creations of the day faded from
sight into the night.
‘“Do not feel despondent,’ said Adam, by this time already
confident in himself. ‘It is just that now the darkness of night
is coming on. We need it to take our rest, but no matter how
much night presses in or how black, the day always comes
back.’
“‘Will it be the same day, or a new day?’ asked Eve.
“‘The day will return in whatever form you conceive.’
“‘And who is it subject to — each day?’
When Love...
35
“To me.’
‘“And who are you subject to?’
“‘To no one.’
“‘And you, where are you from?’
“‘I come from a dream.’
“And whence comes everything around that is so pleasing
to see?’
‘“It also appeared from the dream, as a creation for me.’
“And where is he whose dream is so bright and resplend-
ent?’
“‘He is often around, only He cannot be seen with ordinary
sight. But all the same it is good to be with Him. God He calls
Himself, my Father and my Friend. Fie never offends me, and
He gives me everything. I also wish to give to Him, though
what — I do not yet know.’
“‘That means I too am His creation. Like you, I also wish
to show Him my appreciation. To call Him Father, God and
Friend. Perhaps we can decide together what actions on our
part the Father intends?’
“‘I have heard Him say what may bring joy to everyone’s
heart.’
“‘To everyone’s? Including His?’
“‘Yes, that would mean His too.’
“‘Tell me what He desires.’
“‘Conjoint creation and joy from its contemplation.’
“And what may bring joy to everyone on the Earth?’
“‘Birth.’
“‘Birth? But everything is so beautifully born already’
“‘I often think, before I go to sleep, about an extraordi-
nary and marvellous creation. But with the dawn of the day
the dream goes away, and I see that nothing new has come to
thought — everything is so fraught with wonder and visible
by the light of day.’
“‘Let us then think together.’
3 6
Book 4: Co-creation
“‘I too wanted, before going to sleep, to be close to you, to
hear your breathing, to feel your warmth, to think together
about creation.’
“Before going to sleep, impelled by tender feelings for each
other, the two embraced in dreams about a marvellous crea-
tion, their aspirations connected and merged into one. Their
two material bodies reflected the thoughts that had jointly
come.
Chapter Eight
“The day returned, and night once more came on. One morn-
ing, as day was dawning, just as Adam was watching the tiger
cubs and reflecting on life, Eve quietly approached him, sat
down beside him, took his hand and placed it on her tummy
‘“Feel here, inside me lives my creation — a new creation
at the same time. Can you feel it, Adam? Is it pushing, this
restless creation of mine?’
“‘Yes, I can feel it. It seems to be reaching out to me.’
“‘To you? Of course! It is mine, but it is yours too! I very
much want to see our co-creation.’
‘And Eve gave birth, not in painful labour but in great
wonder.
“Forgetting everything around him, not conscious of him-
self, Adam watched and trembled in anticipation. And Eve
bore a new and conjugal creation.
‘A tiny wee lump, all wet, lay helplessly on the ground. Its
legs were drawn up tight, its eyelids remained closed. Adam
watched, his eyes fixed on the little one, as it moved its tiny
hand, opened its tiny lips and took its first breath. Adam was
afraid to blink lest he miss the tiniest movement. Unfamiliar
feelings had begun filling the space within and around him.
Unable to restrain himself to the spot, he suddenly leapt up
and began to run.
“With no particular destination in mind, Adam rushed
headlong along the bank of the stream in great exultation.
He stopped. A wondrous, unfamiliar something kept growing
and expanding in his chest. And everything around!... The
38
Book 4: Co-creation
sound of the wind not only rang through the trees and rus-
tled leaves it sang, sifting through the rifts of bushes and
setting astir the clusters of floral petals. The clouds not only
swarmed through the sky — all the clouds performed a dance
to entrance the observer as they passed by. The water spar-
kled with a smile as it rushed into the miles of stream before
it. Oh, wow! The stream! Reflecting the clouds the stream
made yet another bend as it gleamed before the eyes. And all
along the birds kept twittering their joyful song in the skies!
And among the herbs the cheerful chirping of crickets could
be heard. And everything fused and blended together into a
single resounding intonation of the tenderest sounds of mu-
sic known through all God’s grand creation!
“After taking a little more air into his lungs, Adam suddenly
cried out as loud as he could. It was not an ordinary cry —
not that of an animal, but one that overflowed with the most
tender sounds. Along sublime hush slowly settled all around.
And for the very first time the Universe heard a Man on the
Earth joyfully burst into song. A Man was singing! And all the
noises that had before sounded throughout the galaxies were
now grounded. A Man was singing! And hearing this happy
song, the whole world of the Universe concluded: not in any
of the galaxies could there be found a single string capable of
producing a better sound than that of the singing of the hu-
man soul.
“But the song of rejoicing could not hush Adam’s new-
found abundance of feelings. Catching sight of the lion, he
rushed toward it and wrestled it to the ground as though it
were but a pussycat. He laughingly began to run his fingers
adeptly through its mane, then leapt up and, gesturing the
creature to follow suit, ran off across the terrain. The lion
barely managed to keep up with him, while the lioness and
her cubs lagged way behind. Fastest of all ran Adam, his arms
waving, summoning all the creatures to follow in his route.
Birth
39
His creation, he recalled, would be able to bring joy and ela-
tion to all.
‘And once again he sees the tiny lump in front of him. His
own creation! Such a wee little lump — alive! — lapped by the
she-wolf and caressed by the warm breeze.
“The baby’s eyes had not yet shown a peep — he was asleep.
At the sight of him all creatures that had accompanied Adam
on his run fell to the Earth in delight.
“‘Why yes, it is true!’ Adam intoned with exultation. ‘Light
like my own is emanating from my creation. Maybe it is even
stronger than my light, if such an extraordinary thing is hap-
pening with me. All creatures have fallen down before it in
delight. I desired! I carried through! I created! I created a
creation resplendent and alive! All of you! All of you come
look at him!’
‘Adam cast his glance at all around, and suddenly stopped,
his gaze fixed. His eyes were fixed on Eve.
“She was sitting on the grass all alone, caressing with her
own lightly fixed gaze the suddenly still and silent Adam.
“And with new might love began shining within and around
Adam in invisible delight. And then all at once... Oh, how
love universal quivered and shivered to see Adam run up to
the resplendent maiden-mother, fall on his knees before
Eve, press his hands to her golden braids, her tender lips and
her milk-filled breasts. And restraining his exclamation to a
gentle purr, he tried to express his exultation in words:
“‘Eve! My Eve! My wife! You are able to make dreams
come true in life!’
“‘Yes, I am woman, your wife. Let us turn into life every-
thing you are able to think of!’
“‘Yes! Together! The two of us together! Now it is clear!
Two together are we! We are as He! We are able to make
dreams come true! Look at us! Our Father, do You hear
us?’
40
Book 4: Co-creation
“But for the first time Adam could hear no reply. Surprised,
he leapt up and cried:
“‘Where are You, my Father? Look upon my creation. Per-
fect and fantastic are all Your earthly creatures. Resplendent
are all the clouds, the grass, the bushes and the trees. But my
new creation is even finer than the features of the flowers —
look at it! I have seen how my own creation has brought
me a joy far greater than anything You created through Your
dream...
“‘You have nothing to say? You do not wish to look at it?
But it is by far and away the best part of all! My creation, more
than any other, is dear to my heart. But what about You? Do
you not wish even to look at it?’
‘Adam looked at his child. In the spot directly above the
tiny sleeping body the air seemed bluer than usual, there was
no breeze to ruffle even a hair, only someone was invisibly
bending the slender stem of a flower over the baby’s lips. And
three soft puffs of pollen tenderly touched his lips. The baby
smacked his lips, sighed a deep and blissful sigh, moved one
of his legs just a tiny bit and then went back to sleep. Adam
guessed that while he had been celebrating, God had been
cultivating, cherishing the little one, and so had not seen fit
to speak.
“And Adam exclaimed:
“‘That means You Yourself were helping! That means You
were with me all along, and You acknowledged the creation!’
“And he heard in reply the Father’s quiet voice:
“‘Not so loud, Adam, you’ll wake the child with your cel-
ebrations and rejoicings.’
“‘That means You, my Father, loved both me and my crea-
tion? Or did you love it more than me? If so, why? Explain to
me! It is not Yours, after all.’
“‘Love, My son, has its continuation, and in your new crea-
tion will be found your continuation.’
Birth
4i
‘“That means I am standing here and I am in my creation at
the same time? And does that mean Eve is in it, too?’
“‘Yes, My son, your co-creation is in all respects like you,
only not in the flesh. Within it your spirit and soul merge to
give birth to a new creation. And your aspirations will con-
tinue and will intensify the joyous sensations multifold.’
“‘So, You are saying there will be many of us?’
“‘You shall fill the whole Earth. You shall know everything
through your feelings, and then in other galaxies your dream
will re-create the world anew to be even more resplendent.’
“‘Where is the edge of the Universe? What will I do when
I come to it? When I myself fill everything, and have created
everything I have conceived?’
“‘My son. The Universe itself is a thought, a thought from
which was born a dream, which is partially visible as matter.
When you approach the edge of all creation, your thought
will reveal a new beginning and continuation. From obscurity
will arise a new and resplendent birth of you, and it will re-
flect in itself your soul, your dreams, your whole aspirations.
My son, you are infinite, you are eternal, within you are your
dreams of creation.’
‘“Father, it is always so good when You speak. When You
are with me, I want to embrace You. But You are invisible.
Why?’
“‘My son, when My dreams about you were drinking in the
diverse energies of the Universe, I did not have time to be
thinking about Myself. My dreams and thoughts created only
you, they did not make a visible image for Me. But there are
visible creations of Mine — feel them, but do not try to ana-
lyse them. Nobody in the whole Universe will find that they
can analyse them simply with their mind.’
“‘Father, it feels good to me when You speak. You are with
me — everything is with me. If I should find myself at the
other end of the Universe, if doubts or crude obscurities
42
Book 4: Co-creation
should intrude upon my soul, tell me, how might I search You
out? Where will You be at such a time?’
‘“I shall be in you and with you. Everything is in you, My
son. You are the master of all the diverse energies of the Uni-
verse. I have counterbalanced all the opposite extremities of
the Universe in you, thereby making yon a new creature. Do
not allow any of these extremities to hold sway within you.
Then shall I be in you alway.’
“‘In me?’
‘“In you and with you. You and Eve are in your creation.
In you there is a particle of Me, and so I am in your creation,
too.’
“‘I am Your son. What then will be the new creation in
relation to You?’
“Again, it will b eyou’
“‘Whom will You love more — me as I am now, or the me
which will be born again and again as before?’
“‘Love is one and the same, but there is greater hope in
each new embodiment and dream.’
“‘Father, how wise You are, I so very much want to em-
brace You!’
“‘Look around you. The visible creations you see are My
materialised thoughts and dreams. On the material plane of
being you will always be able to communicate with them.’
‘“I have loved them, just as I love You, Father. And I have
loved Eve, and my new creation too. Love is all around, and I
want to be in it eternally’
“‘My son, you shall dwell eternally only in the Space of
Love.’
“Years passed, as it were, but time, after all, is a relative
concept. Years passed, but why make a list? — for a long time
death in himself was something Man could not have even
missed. Which means that death, back then, could not even
exist.”
Chapter Nine
“But Anastasia,” I queried, “if everything was so good in the
beginning, then what happened afterward? Why are there
wars on the Earth today and why are people starving? We
have thievery, bandits, suicides, prisons. Too many unhappy
families, too many orphans. Where have all our loving Eves
disappeared to? Where is God, who promised that we would
all live eternally in love? And I just remembered what it says
about this in the Bible. God expelled Man from Paradise for
picking and tasting the fruit of the forbidden tree. And He
even stationed a guard at the gates so as to stop the violators
from getting back into Paradise.”
“Vladimir, God never expelled Man from Paradise.”
“Yes Ele did, I read about it. He even cursed the Man over
this. He told Eve she was a sinner and would bring forth chil-
dren in sorrow, and Adam would have to earn his living by the
sweat of his brow And that’s all come to pass with us today”
“ Vladimir, reason it out for yourself, perhaps that kind of
logic, or absence of logic, has been devised for somebody’s in-
terests, to suit a particular purpose.”
“What’s logic and somebody’s interests got to do with it?”
“Please believe me. Each one must learn to make sense of
things, to determine what is true, with his own soul. Only
after thinking it through for yourself can you realise that God
did not expel Man from Paradise. God remains a loving Fa-
ther right up to this very moment. He is a God of Love — you
must have read about that, too.”
“I did indeed.”
44
Book 4: Co-creation
“So where is the logic then? You will agree that a loving
parent would never expel his child from his home. Loving
parents, even if it means suffering deprivation themselves,
will forgive their children any transgressions they have com-
mitted. And God is not indifferent to all the sufferings of
people — the sufferings of His children.”
“Whether He is or not, I don’t know. But one thing every-
body knows: He doesn’t do anything about them.”
“Oh what are you saying, Vladimir?! Of course He will tol-
erate this distress, too, from His son, Man. But how long can
Man go on without a full appreciation of his Father? Flow
long can he go on not seeing or feeling his Love?”
“What you are so concerned about all of a sudden? Be
more specific. Where are these manifestations today of the
Divine Love for us? Where do we look for them?”
“The next time you are in the city, take a close look around
you. The living carpet of marvellous grass has been paved
over with lifeless asphalt, all around are harmful masses of
concrete called housing, cars scurry around in between them,
emitting deadly fumes. But even amidst the stone masses,
finding even the tiniest of islands, grass and flowers still
sprout forth — God’s creations. And through the rustle of
leaves and the song of the birds He is still calling out to Flis
daughters and sons to reconsider everything that is happen-
ing and to return to Paradise.
“The glow of love emanating from the Earth keeps on
getting smaller, and for a long time now the Sun’s reflection
should have been decreasing, too. But He with Elis energy is
constantly intensifying the life-giving power of even the Sun’s
rays. Just as before, He loves His daughters and sons. He
waits, trusting and dreaming that one day Man will wake at
dawn and suddenly regain his conscious awareness, and that
this conscious awareness will restore to the Earth its original,
pristine blossoming.”
The unsatisfying apple
45
“But how did everything on the Earth come to go against
God’s dreams and for some reason last all these thousands,
maybe millions of years? How could He keep waiting and
trusting for so long a time?”
“Time does not exist for God. As with any loving parent,
He never loses faith. And it is thanks to that faith that all of
us are living right now. And we ourselves arrange our lives as
we see fit, using the freedom granted us by the Father. But
people did not all of a sudden decide to follow the option of a
path leading nowhere.”
“If not all of a sudden, then how, when? What does it mean,
that phrase Adam’s apple’?”
“Back then, just as now, the Universe was filled with a
multitude of living energies. Everywhere there are living el-
ements invisible, the vast majority of them resembling Man’s
second self. They are almost like people, capable of compre-
hending all planes of being, but they are not afforded a mate-
rial embodiment. That is Man’s great advantage over them.
Furthermore, in the complexes of energies of the Universe’s
elements one form of energy inevitably holds sway over the
rest. And they themselves do not have the capability of
changing the proportional relationship among their forms
of energy.
‘Also, among the elements of the Universe there are com-
plexes of energies similar to God. Similar, yes, but they are
not gods. They have momentarily equalised the multitude of
energies within themselves, yet, in contrast to God, they are
not capable of producing living creations in harmony.
“In the whole Universe nobody has managed to solve the
puzzle — the sacred mystery of how or by what power the
material plane of being was created, or where the threads
tying it and the whole life of the Universe together may be
found. Or how or on what basis this plane is capable of re-
producing itself.
4 6
Book 4: Co-creation
“When the Earth and everything upon it was created by
God, the unparalleled speed of the generative process made
it impossible for the elements to understand by what power
God was bringing about this grand creation. After every-
thing was already created and was visible, when they noticed
that Man was the strongest of all, many were plunged by this
resplendent vision first into astonishment, and then into ex-
citement, and finally came the desire to repeat it. To create
something similar, all on its own.
“This desire kept on growing. Even today it is still present
in a multitude of the diverse energies. They tried to imitate
earthly creations in other galaxies, on other worlds, even us-
ing the planets which God had created. Many managed to
come up with a facsimile of earthly existence, but only a fac-
simile. The harmony of the Earth and the interrelationship
among all things — that is something none have been able to
achieve. Thus throughout the Universe, even today, there are
planets with life, but this life is but a poor imitation of life on
the Earth.
“When all these attempts — not only to produce a better
creation but even to repeat the existing one — failed (and
God did not reveal His secret), then many of these elements
began turning to Man for help. It was clear to them that if
Man was God’s creation, if Man was God’s beloved, then a
loving parent could not possibly withhold anything from him.
On the contrary, God must have offered great opportunities
to Man, His son. And the elements of the Universe started to
turn to Man; in fact, they strive to do so even today.
“You know, there are people today who claim that some-
one invisible is communicating with them from the Universe,
calling itself mind and the power of good. Back then, too,
right at the beginning, they appealed to Man with requests
and exhortations, demanding to know (though hiding their
true motives under various guises), by what power the Earth
The unsatisfying apple
47
was formed, along with everything existing upon it, and how
Man was created to be so great, they wanted to know from
what he was fashioned.
“But Man gave an answer to none of them. He did not
know the answer to the question himself, nor does he know it
today But he became more and more interested in the ques-
tion, and began demanding answers from God. Not only did
God decline to answer — He tried to inculcate a better un-
derstanding in Man, asking him to erase the question from
his thinking:
‘“I ask you, My son, to create. You have been given the pow-
er to create in the space on Earth as well as on other worlds.
What you think up in your dream will be turned into reality,
you need not doubt. Only one thing do I ask of you: do not
try to figure out how, by what power, it all comes about.’”
“What I don’t understand, Anastasia, is why God would
not want to divulge the specifics of His creation even to Man,
His son.”
“I can only guess, no more,” Anastasia replied. “In not re-
sponding to this question even to His son, God might have
been trying to protect him from disaster, even deflecting a
universal war.”
“I don’t see any connection between a refusal to respond
and universal war.”
“If ever the secret of creation were to be revealed, then on
other planets in the Universe other forms of life might arise,
equal in power to those on the Earth. Two powers might have
the desire to test each other. It is possible that such a contest
could take place peacefully It is also possible it could turn
out like the wars on the Earth. And that could touch off a war
throughout the Universe.”
“Indeed,” I agreed, “it would be better for the specifics of
God’s creation to remain a secret. Only one of the elements
might happen to figure it out on its own, without hints.”
4 8
Book 4: Co-creation
“I do not think any of them would ever figure it out.”
‘And why are you so confident of that?”
“The nature of the secret is such that it is clear on its own,
and at the same time it is not even there, and yet at the same
time it is not alone. The term co-creation gives me confidence,
when I add a second word to it.”
“What word?”
“The second word is inspiration .”
“Well, what of it? What can these two words together sig-
nify?”
“They -”
“No, stop! Don’t say it! I remember your telling me that
thoughts — and that means words too — don’t simply disap-
pear into nowhere, they circle around us in space and anyone
can catch them. Is that right?”
“Right it is.”
‘And can the elements catch them too?”
“True.”
“Then don’t say it. Why give them a hint?”
“Not to worry, Vladimir. Suppose I give them a slight hint
as to the secret, I can thereby show them the fruitlessness
and senselessness of their constant attempts. That way they
can understand and stop bothering Man.”
“Well, if that’s the case, then tell me, what do co-creation
and inspiration mean?”
“ Co-creation signifies that in His creating, God used parti-
cles of all the diverse energies of the Universe, and His own
energy too, and even if all the elements got together to pro-
duce a duplicate of the Earth, they would still be missing one
particular form of energy — the one that is inherent in God
as an idea of Elis own, the one born in the Divine dream alone.
Inspiration signifies that the creations were produced through
an impulse of inspiration. Who among the great earthly art-
ists and sculptors, after creating their works in an impulse of
The unsatisfying apple
49
inspiration, will dare attempt to explain how they held their
brush, what they were thinking or where they were stand-
ing — these were not the kinds of things they paid attention
to, absorbed as they were so completely in their work. Again,
there is the energy of Love, which God sent to the Earth. It
is free, subject to no one and, preserving its loyalty to God, is
in the service of Man alone.”
“How fascinating that all is, Anastasia! Do you think the
elements will hear it and understand?”
“They shall certainly hear, and possibly understand as
well.”
‘And will they hear what I say, too?”
“True.”
“Then I shall sum it up for them. Hey there, elements, is
it clear to you now, eh? Don’t you go bothering people any
more. You’ll never guess the Creator’s design!... Well, Anas-
tasia, what do you think, did I do a good job of telling it to
them?”
“Your final words were quite accurate: ‘You will never guess
the Creator’s design!”’
“Have they been trying to guess it for a long time?”
“Right from the moment they first beheld the Earth and
its people, right up to the present day”
‘And what harm did their attempts cause Adam, or us for
that matter?”
“In Adam and Eve they aroused feelings of pride and self-
conceit. And they managed to persuade Adam through a false
teaching, saying that to produce something more perfect, it
was necessary to break the existing creation down and see
what it consisted of, how it worked. They often instructed
him to find out how everything was constructed, and then
he would be supreme over all. They hoped that when Adam
began analysing God’s creations to make sense of their con-
struction and purpose, he would comprehend with his mind
50
Book 4: Co-creation
the interrelationship among the creations of all different
kinds. They would then be able to see the thoughts Adam
produced and from that they could deduce how they could
create like God.
‘At first Adam paid no attention to their requests and sug-
gestions. But then one day Eve decided on her own to give
Adam some advice:
“‘I have heard voices stating things will be even easier
and more splendid for us once you ascertain how everything
works within. Why should we stubbornly refuse to follow
this recommendation? Would it not be better for us to give it
a try, at least once?’
“First, Adam broke off a branch of the tree with its marvel-
lous fruit, and then... Then... now you can see for yourself,
how Man’s creative thought came to a stop, a standstill. Even
today he keeps examining things in detail and breaking them
apart, trying to analyse the structure of everything and pro-
duce his own primitive creations with his thought instantane-
ously at a standstill.”
“Hold on, Anastasia. That’s not at all clear to me. Why do
you say that human thought has come to a standstill? When
people examine something in detail, on the contrary, we say
they’re learning something new.”
“Vladimir, Man is made in such a way that there is noth-
ing he needs to examine in detail. He includes... Oh, how
can I make this clearer to you? The structure of everything is
included in Man himself, in what you might call an encoded
format. The code is deciphered when he tunes into his dream
of inspired creativity.”
“But I still don’t see what harm can there be in taking
something apart, 1 and how this can possibly bring thought
1 taking something apart — a play on words; the Russian term here ( razborka )
can also signify settling a score between rival gangs.
The unsatisfying apple 51
to a standstill. Maybe it’d be better if you showed me an
example.”
“Yes, you are right. I shall try an example. Imagine you are
at the wheel of your car, driving to some destination. All at
once you find yourself wondering how the motor works, and
what makes the wheels turn. You stop the car and set about
taking apart the motor, for instance.”
“So, I’ll take it apart, see how it works, and then I’ll be able
to repair it myself. What’s wrong with that?”
“However, while you are taking it apart, your journey is
being interrupted. You will not reach your destination on
time.”
“But I’ll still learn more about my car. What’s wrong with
my acquiring new knowledge?”
“What do you need it for? Your purpose is not to repair,
but to enjoy the drive and to create.”
“You don’t sound very convincing, Anastasia. Not a sin-
gle driver will agree with you. Except maybe for a few with
foreign cars, like Japanese models or Mercedes, which hardly
ever break down.”
“God’s creations not only do not break down, but are capa-
ble of re-creating themselves. Hence why should one need to
tear them apart to see how they work?”
“What d’you mean, why? Just out of curiosity, if for noth-
ing else.”
“Forgive me, Vladimir, if my example was unconvincing. If
you will allow me, I shall attempt another.”
“Go ahead.”
“Suppose a beautiful woman is standing in front of you.
You feel a burning attraction for her, she appeals to you. And
she finds you interesting, too, and seeks to join together with
you in creation. But a moment before the mutual impulse for
coming together to create, all of a sudden you wonder what
this woman is made of. How do her internal organs work?
52
Book 4: Co-creation
Her stomach, liver and kidneys? What does she eat and drink?
How will all this function in a moment of intimacy?”
“Enough. Don’t go on. You’ve come up with a jolly good
example there. There will be no closeness, no creation. It
won’t work out if this cursed thought comes along. It hap-
pened once that way with me. There was one woman I fan-
cied for a long time, but she never gave in to me. And the one
time she agreed, I suddenly thought of how I could perform
better, and for some reason I doubted my ability to perform.
The upshot was that nothing happened. I felt such shame,
and was even afraid I might have lost it for good.
“I later asked a friend about it, and he said the same thing
had happened to him. The two of us even went to see a doc-
tor. The doctor said there was some kind of psychological
factor at work here. There was no use doubting our abilities
or trying to figure out what to do and how. I think this psy-
chological factor causes trouble for a lot of men. Now I get it:
it’s all because of those elements, because of Adam, because
of Eve’s advice. Yes, they acted pretty bad back then.”
“Why are you only blaming Adam and Eve? Look around
you today, Vladimir, is not all mankind continuing to stub-
bornly repeat the same mistake, violating God's guidelines?
Adam and Eve were not fully aware of the consequences, but
why does mankind stubbornly continue to tear everything
apart? And to destroy living creations? Today?! When the
consequences are so obvious and sad?”
“I don’t know. Maybe everybody needs a good shake-up.
Come on, are we so hung up on tearing apart one thing after
another ? 2 I just had a thought — maybe it was no use, God
not handing Adam and Eve a decent punishment after all. He
should have given Adam a right good hiding and knocked all
' tearing apart — again, the Russian term could refer to settling scores by
violence.
The unsatisfying apple
53
that nonsense out of his head — that same nonsense that’s
causing mankind so much suffering today: And He could have
taken a good whip to Eve’s soft spot so she wouldn’t have gone
round getting people into trouble with that tongue of hers.”
“Vladimir, God gave Man complete freedom, with no
thought of punishment on Elis part. Besides, punishment
will not alter acts committed in one’s heart. Wrong actions
will continue as long as the original thought is not changed.
Tell me, for example, who invented lethal missiles and the nu-
clear warheads they carry?”
“In Russia it was Academician Korolev 3 who first built
rockets like that. But before him Tsiolkovsky 4 theorised
about them. American scientists also tried. In any case, a lot
of human minds have been involved in rocket design. A lot of
inventors in different countries have been working on it.”
“Vladimir, there is in fact only one inventor of all rockets
and all the lethal weapons attached to them.”
“How can there be just one, when whole research centres
have been working on rocket design in various countries, and
keep their achievements secret from one another? That’s
what the whole arms race is about: who can produce a weapon
best and fastest?”
“This lone inventor takes pleasure in giving out hints to all
people that call themselves scientists or inventors, no matter
what country they live in.”
3 Sergei Pavlovich Korolev (also spelt: Sergey Korolyov) (1907-19 66) — the So-
viet scientist responsible for the design of the first artificial earth satel-
lite — known as Sputnik (lit. ‘Fellow-traveller’) — along with a number of
rockets, including the spaceships Vostok and Voskhod, which carried the first
cosmonauts into space.
4 Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) — physicist and mathemati-
cian, held to be the father of Soviet space science. He is known, among
other things, for his experiments in photosynthesis. He also envisioned
human beings colonising other planets in various solar systems.
54 Book 4: Co-creation
“And where, in what country, does he himself live and
what’s his name?”
“ Destructive thinking. At first it got through to a single in-
dividual and took over his material body, producing spears
and stone spearheads. Then it proceeded to come up with
arrows and iron arrowheads.”
“But if it knows everything, this destructive thought, why
didn’t it go for a missile straight off?”
“The material plane of earthly being does not embody eve-
rything thought of all at once. Slowness in matter was given
by the Creator to allow people time to think things through.
In terms of destructive thinking, the spear, our modern weap-
ons, as well as those of the future, even more deadly, were
produced a long time ago. To manifest something more than
a spear on the material plane required the construction of a
multitude of factories and laboratories that are today termed
scientific. Under the guise of plausible excuses more and
more people were gradually drawn into the business of turn-
ing such deadly thinking into reality”
‘And what was the need of constantly trying to do that?”
“To establish itself. To destroy the whole material plane of
the Earth. To show to everything in the Universe the superi-
ority of the energies of its all-destructive element over every-
thing else — and, in fact, over God. And it is through people
that it acts.”
“Sneaky little vermin! And how do we exterminate it from
the Earth?”
Chapter Ten
“Do not allow it access to your thought or body. All women
should avoid intimate relations with men who permit destruc-
tive thinking into their consciousness, so as not to reproduce
it over and over again.”
“Wow! That’s quite a thought!” I exclaimed. “If all women
gang up like that, all our scientific military minds will go out
of their minds.”
“Vladimir, if women start acting that way, there will be no
war on the Earth.”
“Right on, Anastasia! You’ve struck a blow against all war.
Way to go — this idea of yours can wipe out all war! That’s
quite a blast! It’s true — what man would want to go to war
if not a single woman would sleep with him after that or bear
him offspring — who ?! That would mean anyone starting a
war would be killing himself, his offspring too.”
“If women were willing to do this, nobody would ever start
a war. Eve’s fall from grace would be expiated by women liv-
ing in today’s times, not to mention their own decline, in the
face of themselves and God.”
‘And what will then be occurring on the Earth?”
“The Earth will once again burst forth in its pristine
flower.”
“You’re a powerfully stubborn girl, Anastasia, true to your
dream, just as before. But you are also naive. Flow can one
believe in all the women on the Earth?”
“How can I ho? believe in all women, Vladimir, since I know
that the Divine essence is present in every woman living on
56
Book 4: Co-creation
the Earth today? So let it reveal itself in all its resplendent
array! Goddesses! Women of the Divine Earth! Reveal in
yourselves your own Divine essence. Show yourselves to the
whole Universe in all the beauty of your original pristine pres-
ence. You are a perfect creation, you are created from the
Divine dream. Each of you is capable of taming the diverse
energies of the Universe — dear women, goddesses of all the
Universe and the Earth!”
“Now how can you stand there, Anastasia, and state that all
the women of the Earth are goddesses? I’m beginning to find
your naivety a trifle ridiculous. Imagine! All of them... god-
desses?! Including those standing behind counters, I mean
in stores and street kiosks? Cleaning ladies, dishwashers,
waitresses? All the ones that cook, bake and wash dishes day
after day in their kitchen at home — don’t tell me they’re god-
desses, too?! Sounds like blasphemy to me, even. How can
you call drug addicts and prostitutes goddesses?
“Well, now, in a church, okay, or a beautiful lady dancing
at a ball — sure, people will say she’s a goddess. But all those
plain types, dressed in everyday rags, nobody’s going to call
them goddesses.”
“Vladimir, it is only a chain of circumstances that makes
earthly goddesses spend time in a kitchen day after day. You
have stated that I am like some kind of wild creature, that my
life is primitive, and that only the world you inhabit is civi-
lised. Then tell me why it is that women in your ‘civilisation’
spend a good part of their life in cramped kitchens? Made
to wash floors and carry heavy groceries home from stores?
You boast about your ‘civilisation’, but why is there so much
dirt in it? And why do you transform the most beautiful god-
desses of the Earth into cleaning ladies?”
‘And just where have you seen a cleaning lady who’s a god-
dess? Any women worth their salt shine at beauty pageants and
drench themselves to a fault in luxury — and every man wants
Avoid intimate relations with her
51
to marry them. But they will only marry men who are rich. As
for the plain ones, well, even the poor don’t need them.”
“Every woman has her own beauty. It is only that not all of
them are given the opportunity to reveal this treasure. This
great beauty is not something you can measure, like a person’s
waist, for example. The length of one’s leg, the size of one’s
breasts, the colour of one’s eyes — all that is completely irrel-
evant here. This beauty is interior to the woman, and is found
in both a young girl and a woman of senior years.”
“Sure, in ‘women of senior years’. You’re going to tell me about
old ladies next! You think they’re beautiful goddesses, too?”
“They too are beautiful in their own way. And in spite of
the endless humilities they face in everyday life, the multitude
of blows dealt them by fate, any woman labelled a ‘senior’ can
still wake up in the morning with the Sun, walk across the
dew, smile at the sunrise with a ray of conscious awareness,
and then...”
‘And what then?”
‘And then suddenly make someone love her. She will be loved
herself, and she will impart to him the warmth of her love.”
“To what ‘him’?”
“To the one, her only one, who sees in her the goddess
within.”
“It doesn’t happen like that.”
“It does. Go ask some seniors. You will be surprised at
how many of them have passionate romances.”
“And are you sure that women are capable of changing the
world?”
“Capable they are! Capable beyond the shadow of a doubt,
Vladimir. Once they change their priorities of love, they —
God’s perfect creation — will restore to the Earth its resplend-
ent pristine worth, they will transform the whole Earth into
the blossoming garden of the Divine dream. They are God’s
creation! The beautiful goddesses of the Divine Earth!”
Chapter Eleven
“There you go talking about God, Anastasia, but how do you
pray? Or do you pray at all? Many people have requested in
their letters that I ask you about this.”
“Vladimir, how do you understand the word pray?”
“What do you mean, how? Isn’t it obvious? To pray...
that’s, well, to pray. Are you telling me you don’t understand
the meaning of the word?”
“One and the same word can mean different things to dif-
ferent people, depending on how they perceive it. To be able
to express myself more understandably, I asked you: What
does prayer mean to you?”
“I never really thought about what it means, somehow Any-
way there’s one principal prayer I learnt by heart and sometimes
I say it — just, you know, to be on the safe side. Apparently
there must be some meaning in it, if so many people say it.”
“What are you telling me? You memorised a prayer, and
never wanted to find out its meaning?”
“It’s not that I didn’t want to, it’s just I never really thought
about its meaning. I thought, well, everybody knows what it
means, so why bother thinking? Prayer — well, that’s just like
having a conversation with God.”
“But if this ‘principal prayer’ signifies a conversation with
God, then tell me, how can you talk with God, your Father,
without any meaning?”
“I don’t know how What’s all the big fuss, anyway, about
this meaning? No doubt the people who wrote the prayer
knew what it meant.”
Three prayers 59
“But would you not like to talk with your Father on your
own?”
“Of course. Everybody would like to talk with their Father
on their own.”
“But how can you talk ‘on your own’ by repeating someone
else’s words, especially without even thinking about what lies
behind them?”
At first I felt a little irritated at Anastasia’s pickiness re-
garding the meaning of the prayer I had learnt, but then I
got interested myself in determining what it meant. For the
thought was coming to me all by itself: Flow did this happen?
I had learnt a prayer which I repeated on a number of occa-
sions, but never really thought about what was in the prayer.
I thought how interesting it would be to find this out, since I
had memorised it. And I said aloud to Anastasia:
“Well, okay, I’ll give thought to the meaning at some point.”
But she persisted:
“Why ‘at some point’? Could you not say your prayer right
here and now?”
“Why not? Of course I can.”
“Then, Vladimir, say your prayer — the one you term, of all
your prayers, the ‘principal’ one, the one through which you
have tried to talk with the Father.”
‘As a matter of fact, it’s the only one I know And I only
learnt it because it seems everybody else considers it the most
important one.”
‘All right. Say your prayer, and I shall keep track of your
thought.”
“Okay. Listen.”
I said the Lord’s Prayer to Anastasia, which, you may re-
member, goes like this:
Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
6 o
Book 4: Co-creation
Thy kingdom, come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory
Of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Always, now and for ever. Amen. 1
I stopped speaking and looked at Anastasia. But she was
sitting there, just as silently, her eyes lowered, not looking at
me. She just sat there without a word, with a sad expression
on her face, until I couldn’t take it any longer and asked her:
“Why aren’t you saying anything, Anastasia?”
Without raising her head, she enquired:
“What words are you expecting to hear from me,
Vladimir?”
“What d’you mean, ‘what words’? I said the prayer without
even a single flaw. Did you like it? You could at least say so if
you did or not, but you’re not saying a word.”
“When you were saying the prayer, Vladimir, I tried to fol-
low your thought, your feelings, the meaning of your appeal
to God. 1 understood the meaning of the words of the prayer,
but you did not understand all the words in it. Your newly
budding thought was disintegrating, getting away from you,
’Matth. 6: 9-13 (Authorised Kingjames Version), plus two lines translated
from an old Russian version of the Lord’s Prayer. It should be noted that
the Russian text of the prayer includes many obsolete Old Church Slavonic
words and expressions that are barely understandable to modern-day Rus-
sians (see footnote 2 in Chapter 1 of the present volume: “All this exists
right now”). Overall, the frequent use of Old Church Slavonic in the Or-
thodox Church means that many Russians today associate it with an ‘un-
known language’ (a situation similar to the former predominance of Latin
in the Catholic Church).
Three prayers
61
and there were absolutely no feelings. You were unable to
grasp the meaning of many of the words, and you were not
addressing yourself to anyone. You were simply muttering.”
“But I just said it the way everybody does. I was in church,
and there they use even more incomprehensible words. I
heard how other people say it. They rattle it off at top speed,
and that’s it! But I said it to you slowly and distinctly, so you’d
understand.”
“But before that you said it was a prayer addressed to God.”
“Yes, I did say that.”
“But God is our Father. He is a person. He is a living enti-
ty The Father is capable of feeling and understanding, when
normal communication is initiated. But you...”
“What about me? I’m telling you, that’s the way they all
say it when they address God.”
“Imagine your daughter Polina is standing before you, and
all at once she starts talking in a monotone and slips into
her sentences words she does not even understand herself.
Would you as a father be pleased by her talking to you in such
a way?”
I could picture the situation quite clearly, and began to
feel downright uncomfortable at the prospect. Here was my
daughter standing in front of me, muttering something like a
half-crazed person, not knowing what she wanted even.
So I came to a decision: No, I had to make conscious sense
of my prayer. I can’t just rattle off meaningless words. Oth-
erwise I would appear to God like some half-crazed idiot. If
someone wants to mutter it, they can go ahead. As for me,
I shall definitely make the effort to understand this whole
prayer. I only have to find some place to look up the mean-
ing of unfamiliar words. And why do they speak in some un-
known language in church? Aloud I said to Anastasia:
“You know, it’s probably not a full and accurate translation.
That’s why my thought got lost, as you say.”
62
Book 4: Co-creation
“Vladimir, the meaning can be understood even from this
translation. Of course it contains words that are not used any
longer in everyday speech. But the sense is clear when you
ponder it and decide what is the most important thing of all
for you and what is the most pleasing for the Father. What is
it you wish to say in uttering this prayerful message addressed
to the Father?”
“Well, whatever the words say, that’s probably what I want
to say, too. I want Him to give me bread to eat, to forgive my
sins and debts, to not lead me into temptation and deliver me
from evil. It’s all clearly set out there.”
“Vladimir, God provided food for His sons and daughters
even before they were born. Look around you — everything
has long ago been provided for you. A loving parent forgives
everyone their sins without being asked, and does not even
think of leading anyone into temptation. The Father has giv-
en each one the capacity to withstand the wiles of evil. Why
offend the Father by not realising what He has already pro-
vided a long time ago? His eternal gifts are all around you.
What more can this loving Parent give, who has already given
all to His child?
“And what if there’s something missing?”
“God gives to the utmost. He has provided everything for
His sons and daughters right from the beginning. Everything!
Completely! As a parent who loves His child uncondition-
ally, He can think of no greater good for Himself than the joy
which comes from the joyful existence of His children. His
own sons and daughters!
“Tell me, Vladimir: How might the Father feel, after giving
His children everything right from the beginning and seeing
them appear before Him, constantly pleading ‘More, more!
Keep us, save us, we are all helpless, we are all as nothing’?
Please, answer me. Would you as a parent, or any of your
friends, wish to have children like that?”
Three prayers 6 3
“I can’t give you an answer right off. I’ll work it out on my
own, when I have a quiet moment.”
“Yes, yes, of course, fine, Vladimir. Only when you do find
the time, think about what the Father would like to hear from
you, apart from your requests.”
“You mean, God might also want something of us?
What?”
“What any parent would wish to hear from his children.”
“Tell me, Anastasia, do you yourself ever turn to God in
prayer?”
“Yes, I do,” came her reply.
“Then tell me your prayer.”
“I cannot say my prayer to you, Vladimir. My prayer is des-
tined for God.”
‘All right, talk to God then. I can still hear it.”
Anastasia rose, spread out her arms, turned her back to me
and began uttering some words. Ordinary words one might
hear in a prayer, but... something within me all at once began
to tremble. The way she spoke these words was not the way
we say prayers. She spoke them the way anyone might talk to
a close friend, a loved one, a relative. Her speech contained
all the intonations of a live conversation. Passion, joy, fervent
ecstasy — as though the One Anastasia was talking to was
right there beside her:
My father, Toil are present everywhere!
For the light of life I gladly thank You,
For Tour bright kingdom visible here and now,
And for Tour loving will Long live the good!
For daily bread and daily food with joy I thank Ton!
And for your loving patience,
And for Tour giving of forgiveness of sins on Tour Earth fair.
My Father, Ton are present everywhere!
Book 4: Co-creation
I am Tour daughter here midst Tour creations.
Weakness and sin — 1 shall not let them in,
But prove myself worthy of Tour consummations.
My Father, Ton are present everywhere !
I am Tour daughter, Tour joy I declare.
My entire self shall magnify Tour glory,
In Tour bright drea?n the coming ages all will live and share.
It shall be so! I wish it so! I am a daughter of Tours.
My Father, Ton are present everywhere.
Anastasia ended her prayer. She continued to communicate
with everything around her. It seemed as though she were sur-
rounded by a radiant light. During the prayer, as long as she
was near me, something invisible happened all around. And
whatever it was touched me too. It wasn’t an outward touch,
but an inner one. It made me feelgood, feel comforted. But as
Anastasia drew away, this effect faded, and I called after her:
“ You said the prayer as though Someone was standing be-
side you who could answer it.”
Anastasia turned toward me, her face beaming. She spread
out her arms, spun around, smiling, and then, giving me a seri-
ous look in the eye, said:
“Vladimir, God, our Father, also speaks to everyone with a
request, and answers every prayer.”
“Then why doesn’t anyone understand His words?”
“Words? The peoples of the Earth have so many words
with different meanings. There are so many diverse languag-
es and dialects. And yet there is one language for all. One
language for all Divine callings. It is woven together out of
the rustlings of the leaves, the songs of the birds and the roar
of the waves. The Divine language has fragrance and colour.
Through this language God responds to each one’s request
and gives a prayerful response to prayer.”
Three prayers 65
“Could you translate, or express in words, what He says to us?”
“I could give you an approximation.”
“Why just an approximation?”
“Because our language is much too poor to be compatible
with the language God speaks to us in.”
“Never mind, just tell me any way you can.”
Anastasia looked at me, stretched her arms out in front of
her, and her voice — her voice came forth in chest tones:
My son! My own dear son !
How long I have been waiting. I am still waiting.
A minute holds a hundred years, a moment lasts millennia.
I am waiting.
I have given you all. The Earth is all yours.
Ton are free in everything. Toil shall choose your own path.
All that I ask, My son, My own dearson,
Is that you be happy.
Tou do not see Me.
Ton do not hear Me.
In your mind are doubts and sorrows.
Ton are turning away. Whereto?
Ton are yearningfor something. What for?
And you. are bowing to someone.
I stretch out my hands to you.
My son, My own dearson,
Be happy, 1 ask of you.
Again you are going away. But your road leads to nowhere.
On this road the Earth will explode.
Ton are free in everything and the world is exploding
And tearing your destiny apart.
Tou are free in everything but I shall stand My ground.
I shall restore you to life with the last blade of grass.
And once more the world will shine around.
Only be happy, I ask.
66
Book 4: Co-creation
On the faces of saints a deep sorrow swells.
Ton are frightened by judgement and hell
They tell you that I shall send judges.
But I only pray for that time, as before
When you and I are together once more.
I believe you will return,
I know you will come.
I shall embrace you once more.
Not as a stepfather! Not as a stepfather! I am yours!
I am your Abba, your Father , 1 the only One,
And you are My very own son, My own dear son,
We shall be happy together as one!
After Anastasia stopped speaking, it took me a while to
recover my composure. Even though it seemed that I was
continuing to listen to all the sounds around me, perhaps I
was really listening to how my blood was rushing through my
veins at an extraordinary tempo. What had I understood? I
cannot understand, even to this day.
Through this fervent interpretation, Anastasia had just set
forth God’s prayer to Man. Whether the words were true
or not, who can say? And who can say why they arouse such
strong emotions? And what am I doing at the moment? I
am letting my pen run across the page in conscious excite-
ment — or maybe not so conscious... Am I going out of my
mind? Am I mixing up her words with those the bards now
sing in her name? Anything’s possible. Perhaps those that
read this will understand. And I shall try to understand once
I have finished writing. And I am writing again. But again,
just as back there in the forest, as though penetrating a cur-
tain, occasionally lines from those prayers I heard back in the
2 Abba, Father — see Mark 14: 36: ‘And he (Jesus] said, Abba, Father, all things
are possible unto thee” (Authorised King James Version).
Three prayers
67
taiga will suddenly appear. And again the question arises — a
difficult question, which continues to torment me to this day,
through scenes from our lives and ponderings. A question I’m
afraid to try to answer, even to myself. But it is not one I can
keep back any longer just within myself. Perhaps someone
will come up with a convincing answer?!
Prayer! That prayer of Anastasia’s! Just words! The words
of a taiga recluse, an uneducated recluse, with her own unique
way of thinking and her own unique lifestyle. Just words. But
for some reason every time I hear them, the veins on my writ-
ing hand puff up and the blood pulsates through them more
quickly It pulsates, counting off the seconds in which each
of us must decide what is best for ourselves, and how to con-
tinue to live. Should we be asking a kind Father to save, give,
provide? Or alternatively, confidently and from the heart,
suddenly declare, just as she did:
My Father, Ton are present everywhere 1
Weakness and sin — I shall not let them in,
I am Tour son, Tour joy I declare.
My entire self shall magnify Tour glory ...
Which prayer will have the most pleasant meaning for
Him? What should I do, or what should we all together do?
Which way should we go?
My Father, Tou are present everywhere!
Weakness and sin — I shall not let them in...
But where does one get the courage to speak like that? And
to carry it out once the prayer’s been said?
Chapter Twelve
“Tell me, Anastasia, how did it happen that you and your an-
cestors lived for so long — millennia, even — in the remote
forest, away from society? If, as you say, all mankind is a single
body, and all have a single origin, then why is your ancestral
line, in contrast to all the rest, a kind of outcast?”
“You are right, we all have One parent. And then there
are parents whom we can see. But every human soul has the
freedom to chose his own path, leading to a determined goal.
Among other things, the choice depends on how one’s feel-
ings are nurtured.”
‘And who then thus nurtured your distant forebears in
such a way that your line is so distinctive even today? In your
lifestyle, let’s say, or the way you understand things?”
“It happened in times long ago. I know I said long ago,
hut it seems as though it happened only yesterday. Perhaps
I can best put it this way: a time came when mankind
aspired not to co-creation but to analysing God’s creation,
back when spears were already flying and hides of faithful
creatures were already considered worthy features on
people’s bodies, when everyone’s consciousness was being
altered and being directed along the path leading to today,
when human thought faltered, aspiring not to creation but
to the accumulation of knowledge — all at once people began
analysing the process by which men and women were able to
experience tremendous satisfaction by merging their bodies
together. Then for the first time men began possessing the
women, and women submitted to the men not for the sake
Anastasia’s line 69
of co-creation, but so that both of them could experience a
satisfying sensation.
“It seemed to them, as it seems to people living today, that
such a sensation comes afresh each time there is a merging of
the male and female elements, their visible bodies, their flesh.
“In fact the satisfaction from the merging of mere fleshly
bodies is fleeting and incomplete. In the intercourse of car-
nal desire there is no participation by the higher planes of the
human self. Man aspired to feel a sense of fulness by changing
bodies and methods of coming together, but even today he
has not achieved anything fully
“The sad consequence of these carnal pleasures has been
their children. The children were deprived of conscious as-
pirations toward the goal of realisation of the Divine dream.
And women began experiencing pain in childbirth. And the
rising generation was doomed to live in torment, and the ab-
sence of the three planes of being meant they were afforded
no opportunity of attaining happiness in any way And so we
have come down to the present day.
“One of the first women to experience pain in childbirth
saw that her newborn baby girl had injured her little leg dur-
ing the birth and was so frail that she wasn’t even able to utter
a cry The woman also saw that the man who had enjoyed sex-
ual pleasure with her remained indifferent to the birth, and
was already seeking to pleasure himself with another woman.
And so the woman who had chanced to become a mother be-
came annoyed at God. She grabbed her newborn baby girl
and ran with it with all her might far away from everyone else,
right into the middle of the woods, an isolated place where no
one lived. Stopping to catch her breath in her despair, wiping
tears from her cheeks, she kept railing at God with words of
frustrated anger:
‘“Why in Your resplendent world, as You describe it, is
there pain, and evil, and repudiation? I do not experience any
7 o
Book 4: Co-creation
satisfaction when I turn to look at the world of Your creation.
I am in utter dejection and am burning up with anger. I have
been rejected by everybody And the one whom I made love
to is now making love to another; he has forgotten about me.
And You were the one who made them, see? He is Yours, the
one who was untrue and betrayed me. After all, she, the one
malting love to him, was also made by You. These are your
creations, true? And what about me? I just want to strangle
them. I am burning up with annoyance at them. Your world
has become forlorn and joyless for me. What kind of fate did
you select for me? And why did I bear this deformed and half-
dead child? I do not want anyone to see it. There is no joy for
me in contemplating it.’
“The woman didn’t just put the child down — she callous-
ly tossed the barely living lump, her own daughter, onto the
ground. In her despair and anger she again cried out to God:
“‘Let no one ever lay eyes on my daughter! But You look
and see. Look and see the torments taking place among Your
creations. Her life is not to be. I shall not be able to feed the
child that I have borne. My ill temper has burnt the milk in
my breast. I am going away But You look and see! Look and
see how many imperfections there are in the world You have
created. Let your ‘birth’ die in Your sight. Let it die among
the creations of the Earth.’
“At that the mother ran from her own daughter, angry and
forlorn. The newborn baby was left all alone, a barely breath-
ing, helpless little lump, lying on the wooded ground. My dis-
tant foremother was in that baby girl, Vladimir.
“God could feel the anger and despair coming from the
Earth. He felt distress and compassionate care for that tear-
ful, depressed woman. But the invisible Father who loved her
could not alter her destiny. The woman running in despair
was wearing a crown of God-bestowed freedom. Every Man
fashions the destiny of his own soul. The material plane of
Anastasia’s line
7i
being is subject to no one. It is under the complete control
of Man himself.
“God is a person. He is the Father of all, but He does not
exist in the flesh. Not in the flesh. But in Him there is a
complex of all the diverse energies of the Universe, a whole
complex of feelings belonging to Man. He can rejoice and He
can feel distress, He can grieve over one of His sons or daugh-
ters who chooses a path leading to suffering. He glows with a
fatherly tenderness to all and each day, for all without excep-
tion, He caresses the whole Earth with a sun-ray of love. Day
after day He never loses hope that the daughters and sons of
His conception will follow the Divine path. Not under or-
ders, not through fear, they will use their freedom of choice
to determine their own path to conjoint creation, regenera-
tion and joy from its contemplation. Our Father has faith,
and waits. And He sustains life with Flis Self. Our Father
includes the whole complex of human feelings.
“Could anybody imagine how our Father, God, felt, when
His newborn child lay quietly dying there alone in His forest
wild, among His own creations?
“The baby girl did not cry, she did not even make a sound.
The little heartbeat was slowing down. Just occasionally her
tiny lips searched around for some life-giving nipple — she
felt thirsty
“God does not have hands of flesh. Even though Fie is all-
seeing, he still could not clasp the baby girl to His breast. Hav-
ing given everything to Man, what more could He possibly give?
And so, He who is capable of filling the whole Universe with
the energy of Flis dream, compressed Himself into a lump of
energy over that forest. A wee, tiny lump, capable of dispers-
ing all the vast worlds of the Universe at a single burst. He con-
centrated the energy of His love right over that forest — the
love He expressed toward all His creations. Through them He
embodied Himself in His acts upon the Earth. And they...
7 2
Book 4: Co-creation
‘And a little drop of rain touched the lips of the baby girl
lying there on the ground — lips which were already turning
blue — and at once a warm breeze blew. From the trees fell
pollen dust, and the baby girl breathed it in. And the day went
by and the night came on, and the baby girl was still alive. All
the beasts and creatures of the wild, embraced by a Divine
delight, recognised this baby girl as their own child.
“Years passed, the little girl grew and became a young
woman. I can call her Lilith . 1
‘As she strode over the ground all bright in the Sun’s early
rays, all other life around called out her name in gladness and
praise. Lilith’s smile illuminated and caressed the world God
had created around her. Lilith accepted everything around
her as we would accept our mother or dad.
‘As she grew up, she would venture more and more often
toward the edge of the forest. Quietly concealing herself
amidst the tall grasses and bushes, she watched as people so
similar in appearance to her went about their daily life — but
what a strange life it was! They were distancing themselves
more and more from God’s creations, building houses to live
in, cutting down everything around, and for some reason
1 Lilith — in Jewish folklore, a female demon of the night associated with
owls; in a more recent Hebrew legend, the first wife of Adam in the Genesis
story, who refused to subordinate to him and was expelled from Eden to be-
come a malevolent wanderer. However, both the name Lilith and her image
can be traced back to pre-Jewish traditions. In Sumerian culture the god-
dess or demoness Lila was depicted as a winged woman surrounded by owls .
In Sanskrit the term lila signifies ‘Divine play’ and conveys the idea of Crea-
tor’s enjoyment at the sight of His unfolding creation. In Ancient Gaelic
lili is a snow-white lily, and the Gaelic feminine name Lili to the present day
is associated with purity, chastity and innocence. The name of the ancient
Slavic goddess of Love — the female aspect of God the Creator — is Lelia
or Lilia, and in ancient Slavic myths a winged goddess in the form of an owl
(Mater’ Sva) is mother of god Svarog, Creator of the Universe. The old Rus-
sian verb lilit’i in modern form: leleiat ) means ‘cherish’ or ‘love’.
Anastasia’s line
73
clothing themselves in animal hides. And they took great
pride in killing God’s creatures, and boasting about who
could most quickly kill their prize. And they kept on produc-
ing something out of dead matter. Back then Lilith did not
yet realise that people who created dead things out of living
things considered themselves thereby to be very wise.
“She aspired to tell these people about things that could
bring joy to everyone. She very much desired a conjoint crea-
tion and the joy that comes from its contemplation. She felt
an ever-growing need within her to bring about the birth of a
new, living, Divine creation.
“More and more frequently her gaze rested upon one man
in particular. He was rather a plain sort in comparison to his
fellows. He did not distinguish himself at spear-throwing,
and considered himself a less than successful hunter. He was
pensive and often sang quietly to himself. He would often go
off on his own and dream about something all alone.
“One day Lilith went out to meet these people. She had
collected living gifts from the forest and carried them in
a withy basket out to a crowd of people — men standing
around a baby elephant they had slain and arguing arcanely
about something. And he was there among them, her chosen
one. At the sight of her all voices suddenly became mute.
“Now Lilith was a woman of exceptional beauty. She had
not taken steps to veil her exposed slender figure, unaware
of the hold carnal desires had already secured for themselves
over male human beings. They crassly thrust themselves at
her en masse. Putting her gifts down on the ground, she no-
ticed the fire of fleshly lust and desire burning in their eyes.
And he, her chosen one, ran after all the rest.
“Even from a distance Lilith still felt how forcefully the
wave of aggression touched the delicate strings of her soul.
Taking a step back, she suddenly turned and ran from the
whole approaching horde of warriors.
74
Book 4: Co-creation
“Seething with lust, they kept up their chase for a long
time. She ran without any difficulty in breathing and did not
tire out, while those in pursuit were dripping with sweat. But
they were not to lay a hand on Lilith. Those who thirsted to
capture this beauty were unaware of the truth that to know
beauty, one must include such beauty within one’s self.
‘And the warriors tired of the chase. Losing sight of Li-
lith, they started wandering back the way they came and went
astray. Eventually they found their way
“All but one. Weary from running, he sat down on a fallen
tree and began to sing. Lilith quietly concealed herself and
recognised the singer as the one her heart felt a yen for, who
had also given chase after her with the other men in the crowd.
Nevertheless she still allowed him to catch sight of her, at a
distance, to show him the right way back to his camp. And he
followed, but did not run after her.
“Upon arriving at the edge of the forest and seeing his
camp and the campfire burning there, he forgot everything
and started running toward it. And Lilith watched as her cho-
sen one ran off Her heart would beat in an unfamiliar way, or
all at once stop, as Lilith repeated to herself:
‘“Be happy among the others, my beloved, be happy Oh,
how 1 would love to hear not a sad tune but your gladsome
croon here in my forest dear!’
‘All at once the runner stopped, and turned back toward
the forest, as though pausing in reflection. He looked at the
camp and again in the direction of the forest. Suddenly he
threw away his spear and confidently took a step forward.
He strode over to where Lilith was standing concealed. Lilith
kept watching as he walked past her hiding-place, her eyes
fixed on him. Perhaps it was her gaze of love that stopped
him in his tracks. He turned and walked back in her direc-
tion. She did not flee at his approach. She placed her still
timid hand onto his outstretched palm. And together they
Anastasia’s line
15
started walking hand in hand, though not a word had yet
passed between them. There they were, walking toward the
glade where Lilith had grown up — my father the poet, and
my foremother.
“Years passed, and the line continued. And in each genera-
tion of my forebears, one person at least was inspired by the
desire to go visit those other people, so similar in appearance
but with quite a different destiny. They would go under vari-
ous guises. They might mix in with the warriors, or the priests,
or pass themselves off as scholars. As poets, they shone with
their poetry. They tried to let people know that there was
another path to Man’s happiness, that the One who created
all was right with them, only they need not hide themselves
from Him and pursue their vain mercenary interests, or cher-
ish other entities in place of the Father.
“They tried to tell others, and perished. But even when a
man or a woman was left alone, through their love they would
find a friend among those who lived a different lifestyle, and
so our line continued, and with our thinking and our way of
life true to our pristine origins, remained unchanged in the
end.”
Chapter Thirteen
T o feel the deeds of all mankind
“Wait, Anastasia,” I cried out, after a thought hit me like an
electric shock, “you say they all perished. And that that’s the
way it’s been for millennia. And that all the attempts were
unsuccessful and all mankind is going its own way?”
“Yes, all the attempts made by my foremothers and forefa-
thers were unsuccessful.”
“That means they all perished?”
‘All the ones perished that went out among the people and
tried to talk to them.”
“So that means just one thing — you will perish, too, just
like all the rest. You too have started speaking out. And to
hope for anything here is just silly. If nobody’s ever succeed-
ed in changing the world, or society’s way of life, then what
makes you think you
“Why talk prematurely about death, Vladimir? See, I am
still living. And you are here along with me, and our son is
growing up.”
“But what makes you so confident? What makes you be-
lieve that you’ll win out where all your forebears failed? All
you do is talk, just like they did.”
“I just talk — is that what you think? At some point you
should pay closer attention to the sentences I use. They are
not for the intellect. They contain no information which has
not been set forth before, but people read them and many ex-
perience an emotional stirring within. That is all on account
of the way they are constructed so that people can grasp a
great deal ‘between the lines’. The poetry of their own soul
To feel the deeds of all mankind
77
fills in the gaps — whatever is not explicit in the actual text.
And now it is not me that is telling them about the Divine
truth — the readers are discovering it for themselves. Their
numbers are multiplying at an ever-increasing rate, and now
there is no diverting them from the path of the dream which
belongs only to God. My mission is not yet accomplished,
but already the Creator’s desire has come true in many hearts.
And that is the most important part.
“When the heart aspires to something in a dream, invari-
ably — invariably, believe me, it must all come true in life.”
“Then tell me, why wasn’t everything set forth in such sen-
tences before this?”
“I do not know Perhaps the Creator has shone forth with
some kind of new energy! An energy that tells us anew about
something we see around us every day, something we see but
do not pay sufficient heed to or reflect upon. And my feelings
do not deceive me — I have the clear feeling that He is ac-
celerating all His diverse energies once more. A new dawn is
coming for all the Earth. His earthly daughters and sons will
experience life as it was created by the energy of the Divine
dream. And both you and I will play our part.
“But most important! Most important are those who have
become the first ones to feel those thoughts between the lines,
the thoughts that the energy of the Creator has implanted in
people, like the music of the soul. It has all happened! It has
all come to pass! People are already aspiring to create a new
world in their thoughts!”
“"You’re talking in very general terms, Anastasia. Tell me
specifically, what should people do, what kind of world should
they build and how, so that everyone in this world can live
happily ever after?”
“I cannot tell you more specifically at the moment,
Vladimir. Treatises of all kinds are not hard to find in the life
of mankind. Many of them have been such that people have
78
Book4 : Co-creation
fallen down and worshipped them. But none of them makes
any sense. Treatises have no power to change the world, and
just one point will serve as a confirmation of that.”
“What point? I don’t understand.”
“That point in the Universe designated as a universal lim-
it. The point where all mankind is standing at the moment.
And everything depends on the direction in which it takes
the next step. All this shows that there is absolutely no sense
in tracts. Ever since the beginning of creation the whole of
mankind is attracted by feelings alone.”
“Hold on a moment, hold on. What about me? Do you
mean to say that I have not done everything in my life by vir-
tue of my mind?”
“Vladimir, you, like everyone else, have changed with that
mind of yours the interrelationship of material things around
you. You have been trying through material means to experi-
ence sensations which every Man knows intuitively. Sensa-
tions which everyone is seeking but cannot find.”
“What kind of sensations? Sensations everyone is seeking?
What are you getting at?”
“At what people felt back then, in their pristine origins,
when they were still living in Paradise.”
“So, are you trying to say I’ve worked to achieve so many
things through the power of my mind just so I could discern
these feelings of Paradise?”
“But think for yourself, Vladimir, why you did all the
things you did.”
“What d’you mean, why ? Just like everybody else, I’ve been
making a living for myself and my family In order to feel that
I’m no worse than anyone else.”
“‘In order to fee? — you said.”
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
“Now try to get this through your mind: ‘In order to feel’...
the deeds of all mankind.”
To feel the deeds of all mankind
79
“What d’you mean, all? Even the deeds of drug addicts —
are they too part of a search for such sensations?”
“Of course. Just like everyone else, they are aspiring to
find these sensations, only they are going about it their own
way — - subjecting their bodies to torture, taking poison in the
belief it can help them, just for a moment, experience even an
approximation of a great sensation.
‘And the drunkard, oblivious to everything, winces and
drinks his bitter poison only because the search for a beauti-
ful sensation lives in him too.
“And the scientist harnesses his mind and comes up
with some fanciful invention, thinking that this will help
him find satisfaction, along with everyone else. But to no
avail.
“Over the whole course of its history, Vladimir, human
thought has gone and invented a tremendous number of
senseless things. Just think of the multitude of objects sur-
rounding you right where you live. And each of those objects
is considered to be the achievement of scientific thought.
Think of the labours of the multitude of people behind its
production. Only please tell me, Vladimir, which of these ob-
jects has made you happy and satisfied with life?”
“Which?... Which?... Well, maybe, not a single one, if you
look at them individually But taken all together these objects
do a lot toward making life easier.
“Take the motor-car, for example. You get behind the wheel
and you can go where you like. It can be cold and raining on
the street, but in the car you can turn on the heat. It can be
hot and sweaty outside, but inside all you have to do is turn
on the air conditioner and you have a nice, cool ride. And in
your home, in the kitchen, for example, there’s lots of appli-
ances to help women. There are even dishwashing machines
to spare the housewife that particular care. And vacuums to
clean the rooms through and through and save a lot of time,
8o
Book 4: Co-creation
too. Everyone knows that there’s a lot more objects out there
like these that can make our lives a lot easier.”
“Alas, Vladimir, ‘ease-makers’ such as these are quite illu-
sory. Man is obliged to pay for them day after day through
sufferings and a shortened lifespan. In order to afford these
soulless objects, people are obliged to spend their whole life
slaving over joyless tasks. The more these soulless objects ap-
pear all around us, the more clearly they show the degree of
Man’s misunderstanding of what constitutes the universal es-
sence of being.
“You are a Man! Take a careful look around you. In order
to produce yet another mechanical object, whole factories
are built, spewing out deadly pollution, killing the water, and
then, you... You, a Man, are obliged to spend your whole life
in joyless work for their sake. They do not serve you, but you
them, inventing, repairing and bowing down to the things you
make. In the meantime, Vladimir, tell me: who among your
great scientific minds invented this particular mechanism for
serving Man, and at what factory was it produced?”
“Which one?”
“The little squirrel with the nut, the one just below my
hand.”
I looked at Anastasia’s hand. She was holding it out-
stretched, palm face down, about a half metre above the
ground. And on the grass, just below her hand, a little red
squirrel was standing on its hind paws. In its front paws the
squirrel was holding a cedar cone. Its head was first tilted
down toward the cone, then perked up high, with its spar-
kling round eyes fixed on Anastasia’s face.
Anastasia smiled, looking down at the little creature.
Without a stir she held her hand balanced in the same posi-
tion as before. And all at once the squirrel put the cone down
on the ground, started working on it in some way, using the
claws on its front paws to take off the scales and pull a tiny
To feel the deeds of all mankind
81
nut out of it. And once more the little creature stood up on
its hind paws, raised its head and seemed to be holding the
nut out for Anastasia, as though asking her to receive it from
its paws. But Anastasia continued to sit on the grass as be-
fore, without a stir.
“Then the squirrel lowered its head and quickly bit into the
nutshell and, after peeling off the shell, placed the kernel of
the nut on a broad leaf. Then it began pulling more and more
nuts out of the cedar cone, each time biting into the shell and
laying the kernels on the leaf. Anastasia then put her hand
down on the grass, palm upturned. Whereupon the squirrel
hastily transferred all the shelled kernels from the leaf onto
her hand. With her other hand Anastasia gently stroked the
furry little creature, which had become stock still. Then it
came even closer to Anastasia and stood, apparently trem-
bling with joy before her, and looked her in the eye.
“Thank you!” Anastasia said aloud to the squirrel. “Today,
my beauty, you are better than ever before. Go on, go about
your business, my busy little one. Find your chosen one, my
beauty, one who is worthy” And she motioned with her hand
toward a nearby cedar tree with huge, spreading boughs.
Whereupon the squirrel began skipping about, twice execut-
ing a circle around Anastasia before bounding off in the direc-
tion indicated by her arm. With a flying leap onto the trunk,
she finally disappeared into the cedar’s leafy branches. In the
meantime, on Anastasia’s hand, now stretched out toward
me, lay the neatly shelled cedar nut kernels.
Well now, that’s quite a mechanism, I thought to myself.
It collects the product, delivers it, even separates it from the
shell. This little creature doesn’t require any maintenance or
repair, and doesn’t consume any electrical energy
After trying the nuts, I asked:
“What about the great military leaders — Alexander the
Great, Julius Caesar, the ones who started wars, Hitler too —
82 Book 4: Co-creation
don’t tell me they were searching for a feeling of their pristine
origins?”
“Of course they were. They wanted to feel that they were
rulers of the whole Earth. Subconsciously they felt that this
kind of sensation was related to the one everybody is intui-
tively searching for. But they were mistaken.”
“Mistaken, you say What makes you think that? After all,
nobody has yet been able to take control of the world.”
“But they took control of cities and whole countries. They
would fight and win battles over cities, but the satisfaction
they derived from their victory was fleeting indeed. And they
kept on warring, aspiring to even greater conquests. Their
invasion of a country, almost inevitably more than one, would
bring them no relief but only more grief And the fear of los-
ing everything. And once again they tried seeking satisfac-
tion through military deeds. Their minds were so immersed
in vanity that they could no longer count on them to bring
them to the dream of the great Divine sensations. All the mil-
itary leaders of the Earth met with a sad end. And the whole
history of the world, insofar as we know it today, bears this
out. Unfortunately, however, the vanity, the ramblings and
the parade of mercenary dogmas do not allow people living
today to discern where exactly the Divine sensation awaits
them along the way”
Chapter Fourteen
Each time I visited Anastasia in the taiga, I would invariably
take along things to eat. I would take preserves, hermetically
sealed biscuits in a plastic wrap and sliced fish fillet in a vac-
uum pack. And each time when I got ready for the trip back,
I would find my reserve supplies unused. And each time she
would slip some treats into my backpack. These generally
consisted of nuts, fresh berries wrapped in leaves, and dried
mushrooms.
Russians are accustomed to eating mushrooms — well
boiled, fried, marinated or salted. Anastasia eats them in
their dried, natural state, without any processing. At first I
was afraid to even try them — then I tried them, and they
were okay Once a piece of mushroom is softened from the
saliva in the mouth, you can suck on it like candy or swallow
it. Later I even got so I liked it.
One time I was travelling from Moscow to Gelendzhik
by car for a readers’ conference. The whole trip I lived on
mushrooms Anastasia had given me, Alexander Solntsev/ the
director of the Moscow Anastasia Centre, was at the wheel
and he ate some of the mushrooms, too. And during my talk
at the conference I invited the audience to try them, and peo-
ple didn’t shy away. They kept taking one piece each until my
supply ran out, and ate it on the spot, and nothing bad hap-
pened to any of them.
1 Alexander Solntsev — see footnote 4 in Book 2, Chapter 25: “The Space of
Love”.
8 4
Book 4: Co- creation
In fact, I don’t remember any occasion during my visits
with Anastasia where we actually sat down for the specific
purpose of eating. Whatever Anastasia offered me, I would
just try on the spot, and I never felt any real sensation of hun-
ger. But this once...
At the time I was probably too engrossed in pondering
the meaning of Anastasia’s prayer to notice how she man-
aged to spread such a huge table, if, indeed, one can call it
that.
There on the grass, on a variety of leaves both large and
small, lay a host of delicacies. They filled an area larger than a
square metre in size. And everything was beautifully laid out
with tasteful decor — cranberries, huckleberries, cloudber-
ries, raspberries, black and red currants, dried strawberries,
dried mushrooms, some kind of yellowish paste, three small
cucumbers and two medium-sized red tomatoes. These lay
among a multitude of clumps of herbs, decorated with floral
petals. Some sort of white liquid, looking not unlike milk,
stood in a little hollowed-out wooden bowl. I couldn’t tell
what the scones were made of. There was honey in the comb,
too, strewn with multicoloured grains of pollen dust.
“Seat yourself down, Vladimir, try this God-given daily
bread,” Anastasia invited, with that sly smile of hers.
“Wow!” I couldn’t restrain myself from exclaiming. “That’s
really something! And you’ve laid it all out so beautifully! Just
like a good mistress of a feast.”
Anastasia bubbled with child-like joy at my praise. Then
she burst out in laughter, her eyes still fixed on the ‘table’ she
had laid out. All at once she threw up her hands in the air and
exclaimed:
“Oh-oh! You see, here I am supposed to be a good feast-
mistress and yet I have gone and forgotten my spices. You
like a lot of hot spices, do you not? You like them, yes?”
“I do.”
Dining in the taiga 85
“And here this ‘good feast-mistress’ has gone and forgotten
them. Give me just a moment. I shall correct my mistake.”
She took a look around her, ran off a little ways and tore
off part of a herb, then did the same in another place. Then
she reached into the bushes and tore off something else, and
presently laid her find down amongst the cucumbers and to-
matoes — a little bouquet-like clump of various herbs. Then
she explained:
“These are spices. They are hot. Try them if you like. Now
we have everything. Take a taste of everything, Vladimir.”
I picked up a cucumber, surveyed the variety of taiga foods
spread out before me and said:
“Pity there’s no bread.”
“Bread there is,” Anastasia responded. “Look here.” And
she handed me some kind of tuber. “This is a burdock root.
I prepared it specially so you would find it a replacement for
tasty bread and potatoes and carrots.”
“I never heard of burdock being used for food.”
“Try it. Not to worry — in times past people used it to
make a great many tasty and healthful dishes. Try just a small
bite first. I have been keeping it in milk, to soften it.”
I was about to ask where she got the milk, but once I took
a bite of the cucumber... I couldn’t say another word until I
had finished it off — and without bread yet. I took the bread-
replacement tuber from Anastasia, but I could only hold it
in my hand without trying it until I had finished eating the
cucumber.
You see, this ordinary-looking cucumber was utterly dif-
ferent in taste from any I had ever eaten before. This taiga
cucumber had a pleasant unique fragrance. You’re no doubt
aware that cucumbers grown in hothouses taste quite dif-
ferent from those raised in garden beds in the open air. The
ones growing in the open have a significantly superior taste
and fragrance. But Anastasia’s cucumber surpassed all the
86
Book 4: Co-creation
open-air cucumbers I had tasted before, and possibly by an
even greater margin of difference.
I quickly picked up a tomato, tried it and polished it off on
the spot. Its taste, too, was extraordinarily delicious. Like
the cucumber, it was far tastier than any other tomato I had
ever eaten. Neither of them required any salt, sour cream or
salad oil. They were delicious in and of themselves. Just like a
raspberry, or an apple or an orange. Nobody would ever think
of either sweetening or salting an apple or a pear.
“Where did you get these vegetables, Anastasia? Did you
run down to the village? What kind are they?”
“I grew them myself. You liked them, did you not?” she
asked.
“Like them?!! I’ve never had any like these before! That
means you’ve got a garden plot, or a hothouse? What kind
of tools do you use to dig your beds? Where do you get ferti-
liser — at the village?”
“The only thing I got at the village was some seeds from a
woman I know there. I prepared a spot to plant them among
the herbs, and they grew. The tomatoes I planted in the au-
tumn, then hid them under the snow, and come springtime
they began growing. The cucumbers I planted in the spring,
and they — those little ones — managed to ripen.”
“But what makes them so delicious? Is it some new variety?”
“Just an ordinary variety. They are different from those
grown in a typical garden plot only because they were provid-
ed with everything they needed during their growth period.
In garden-plot conditions, when people try to isolate their
plants from contact with other species and accelerate their
growth by using fertiliser, the plants are unable to take in eve-
rything they need to become self-sufficient and please Man.”
“And where do you get your milk? How do you make your
scones? I thought you didn’t use any kind of food from ani-
mals, and yet here you’ve got milk...”
Dining in the taiga 87
“That milk is not from animals, Vladimir. The milk you see
before you is from a cedar.”
“How d’you mean, from a cedar? Can a tree actually give
milk?”
“It can. Only not all trees, by any means. But cedars, for
example, can. Try it — there is so much included in this
drink. The cedar milk before you can nourish more than just
your body. Do not drink it all at once — try one or two sips,
otherwise it will fill you up so much that you will not want
anything else.”
I took three sips. The milk was thick, with a pleasant,
slightly sweet taste to it. I also felt a warmth from it, but
not the same as from warmed cow’s milk. This tender, inex-
plicable warmth ran through my whole insides and, I think,
changed my mood at the same time.
“This cedar milk is delicious, Anastasia. Delicious indeed!
But how does one ‘milk’ a cedar, to get this liquid?”
“There is no ‘milking’ involved. You must keep grinding
the milk kernels of the nut with a special stick in a wooden
mortar — calmly, thoughtfully, with a good attitude. And you
keep adding water — little by little — living spring water...
and you end up with the milk.”
‘Are you saying people have never known about this before?”
“Many people knew about it in times past, though even to-
day people in the little taiga villages sometimes drink cedar
milk. People in cities prefer a different kind of diet altogeth-
er — one less healthful but more suitable for the purposes of
conserving, transporting and cooking.”
“What you say is quite correct. When you live in a city you
have to do everything quickly. But this milk... Wow! What
kind of tree is this cedar?! The cedar all by itself can give us
nuts and oil, and flour for scones... and milk!”
‘And there are lot of other unusual things that the cedar
can supply”
Book 4: Co-creation
“What unusual things, for example?”
“You can make superb perfume from its ether oil. Self-suf-
ficient, healthful perfume. Nothing artificial can come even
close to its fragrance. The ethers of the cedar represent the
spirit of the Universe. They can cure the body — the ethers
of the cedar can protect Man from harmful influences.”
“Can you tell me how to extract perfume like that from the
cedar?”
“I can, of course, but now you, Vladimir, should have a lit-
tle more to eat.”
I reached out my hand to take another tomato, but Anas-
tasia stopped me.
“Wait, Vladimir, not that.”
“How d’you mean?”
“I prepared a variety of things for you, so that you could
first take a taste of everything, so that it might cure you.”
“What might cure me?”
“Your own body Once you try a bit of everything, the body
itself selects what it needs. You will feel like eating more of
what you have chosen. Your body itself will determine what
it needs.”
Wow! — I thought — for the first time she’s gone against her
own principles.
What happened was that twice before Anastasia had cured
me of some internal ailments. What kind of ailments, exactly,
I don’t know, but I used to get bad pains in my stomach, or my
liver, or my kidneys. Or maybe all of them at once. The pains
were bad, and painkillers didn’t always help. But I knew that
when I came to see Anastasia, she would cure me — some-
thing she does very quickly.
But on the third occasion she refused to treat me. She
didn’t even completely remove the pain with her gaze, saying
that if I wasn’t going to change my lifestyle or eliminate what
was causing me to be ill, there was no point in treating me,
Dining in the taiga
89
since in that case the treatment would only harm me. I got
really angry at her and never asked her for treatment again.
After returning home, I did find myself cutting back a lit-
tle on the amount of smoking and drinking I indulged in. I
even fasted for several days, and felt better. And then the
thought came: we don’t have to go to a doctor or some other
healer every time we feel ill — we can take hold of our own
selves when we feel pain pressing down upon us. Of course it
would be best for it to not press down at all. I wasn’t able to
cure myself completely, but I decided not to ask Anastasia for
help. However, she agreed to treat me, all on her own.
“But you did say you wouldn’t give me any more treatment
or even take away the pain.”
“I shall not take away your pain any longer. Pain is a con-
versation between God and Man. But, I can now... since I
am just offering you food — that does not go against Nature,
although it does go against them .”
“Who’s them}”
“The ones who thought up the regime that is so harmful
to Man.”
“What harmful regime? What are you getting at?”
‘At the fact that you, Vladimir, like the majority of people,
feed yourself according to an established dietary regime. A
very harmful regime.”
“I guess some people follow a kind of regime. There are
lots of diets out there — for losing weight, or for gaining
weight. But I eat what I want. I never read up on any regime.
I go into a store and I pick out what I like.”
“That is right: you go into a store and choose, but your
choice is restricted to what is offered by the store.”
“Well, yes. In stores today everything’s neatly pre-
packaged. Because of the tremendous competition, all the
producers nowadays try to please the consumer, and do eve-
rything for the consumer’s convenience.”
90 Book 4: Co-creation
“Do you think it is all done for the consumer’s cc
ience?”
“Sure — for who else?”
“All systems under a technocratic way of living invariably
work only for themselves, Vladimir. Do you consider it ‘con-
venient’ to get those lifeless frozen or tinned foods, or water
that is half-dead? Was it your body that determined the se-
lection of foodstuffs available in grocery stores and super-
markets?
“The technocratic world’s system has taken upon itself the
role of supplying you with the necessities of life. You have
agreed to this, you have complete faith in it, to the point that
you have even ceased to wonder whether you have been sup-
plied with all the necessities.”
“But we’re still alive — we aren’t dying from using these
stores!”
“Of course you are still alive. But the pain! Where do you
think your pain comes from? Think about where pain comes
from with the majority of people. Disease and pain are not
natural for Man, they are the effect of choosing the wrong
path in life. Now you will be persuaded of that for yourself.
Here before you lies just a small sampling of what the Divine
Nature has created for Man. Just try a little bit of each thing,
and then take what you like with you. Three days is sufficient
for these little herbs — which you yourself will select — to
overcome your pains.”
I began trying a little of everything while Anastasia was still
speaking. Some of the clumps of herbs were tasteless, while
others I felt like eating more of. Before my departure Anas-
tasia put the things I had taken a liking to into my backpack.
I ate them over a three-day period. And the pain completely
disappeared.
Chapter Fifteen
capable of changmi
the world?
“Why is it, Anastasia, that every time you speak of your fore-
bears, you always talk about mothers, about women? As for
men, your forefathers, I hardly hear anything. It’s as though
the fathers in your line were all insignificant. Or maybe your
genetic code, or your Ray, doesn’t allow you to feel your male
ancestors? Isn’t that a bit insulting toward your forefathers?”
“I can feel and see the deeds of my forefathers, just as I can
my foremothers, when I want to. But I am far from being
able to understand all their deeds, or to determine their signifi-
cance for the present day — for me and everyone else.”
“Tell me at least about one of your forefathers whose deeds
you don’t fully comprehend. As a woman, you find it harder
to understand men. It’ll be easier for me, seeing I’m a man. If
I understand, then I can help you understand, too.”
“Yes, yes, of course, I shall tell you about my forefather
who was able not only to discern but also to produce living
substances of a power greater than all the weapons known,
either today or in the future. Nothing manufactured could
ever withstand them — they are capable of changing the
earthly world, of destroying galaxies or even creating whole
new worlds.”
“Abu must be joking! And where is this gadget today?”
‘Any Man living on the Earth today is capable of pro-
ducing it provided he can understand, and can feel... My
forefather revealed part of the mystery to the Egyptian
priests. Even today, earthly rulers in their political states
92
Book 4: Co-creation
govern according to the system and mechanism established
by those priests. But now there is less and less understand-
ing of the meaning and the mechanism of government. This
mechanism was not perfected, and has become degraded
over the centuries.”
“Hold on, hold on a minute, there. You’re saying that to-
day’s presidents rule their countries according to a system or
directions worked out by the priests of ancient Egypt?”
“Since that time, Vladimir, nobody has ever contributed
anything significant of their own to the system of govern-
ment. And today’s earthly states have no conscious awareness
of how the government of human society works.”
“Now that’s simply too hard to believe. Can you try taking
me through the whole thing step by step?”
“I shall try taking you through it all step by step, and you
try to understand.
“Tens of thousands of years ago, before the world witnessed
the grandeur of Egypt, when no state like that yet existed,
human society was divided into a multitude of tribes. My
forefather and foremother’s family lived apart from human
society, they lived according to their own laws. They were
surrounded in their glade by everything as it was back in their
pristine origins, as in Paradise. My foremother, a beauty her-
self, had two Suns — one of them was the orb of day, which,
as it rose into the sky, awakened everything to life. The other
was her chosen one.
“She was always up first. She bathed in the stream and
warmed herself in the rising Sun. The light of joy was some-
thing she always shared with everything around, and she wait-
ed. She waited for him to awaken, her loved one. As he awoke,
she caught his first glance. When their glances met, it was as
though everything around them fell into a trance. Love and
trembling, comfort and ecstasy were excitedly taken in by the
Space around them.
They’re capable of changing the world?
93
“The day passed by in joyful duties. And each time the Sun
began sinking toward sunset, my forefather always watched
thoughtfully, and then he sang.
“My foremother listened to his singing with hidden ecstasy
in her heart. Back then she did not yet understand how the
words interwoven into the song were forming a new image, an
extraordinary image. More and more often she felt like hear-
ing about it, and as though feeling my foremother’s desire,
my forefather sang about it again and again, and each time
he sang he outlined the unusual features more and more dis-
tinctly. The invisible image came to dwell among them.
“One morning upon awakening my forefather did not en-
counter the glance of love that he usually did. He was not
surprised. He quietly rose and headed into the forest. In a
secluded spot he caught sight of my foremother, enfolded in
silence.
“She was standing there all by herself, leaning against a ce-
dar tree. Enfolded in silence, she felt my forefather put his
hands on her shoulders. She kept her moist eyes lowered, in-
stead of raising them to look at him. He lightly touched a tear
running down her cheek, and said tenderly to her:
‘“I know. You are thinking about it, my beloved. You are
thinking about it, and you are not to blame for that. The im-
age I created is invisible. It is invisible, but you love it more
than you love me. You are not to blame for that, my beloved.
I am going away I am going now, out among the people. I
have been able to discern how splendid images are created.
I shall tell the people about that. What I know, others can
know, too. And the splendid images will lead people into the
pristine garden. There is nothing more powerful in the Uni-
verse than the substance of living images. The image I cre-
ated has proved itself even stronger than your love for me.
Now I shall be able to create grand images. And these images
will serve people.’
94 Book 4: Co-creation
“My foremother’s shoulders trembled, and a trembling
voice whispered:
‘“But why? You, my beloved, have created an image which
I love. It is invisible. But you who are visible are going to be
leaving me. Our child is already stirring within me. What
shall I tell him about his father?’
“‘The splendid images will create a splendid world. Our
son will picture to himself, as he grows, the image of his fa-
ther. If I am able to become worthy of the image pictured by
my son, then my son will recognise me. If I am not worthy of
his conception, I shall stay on the sidelines, so as not to inter-
fere with his aspiration to the dream, the splendid dream.’
“Incomprehensibly to my foremother, my forefather went
away He came to the people. He came with a grand discov-
ery enthralled. He came for the sake of his future sons and
daughters, in an aspiration to create a splendid world for all.”
Chapter Sixteen
“It transpired in those days that the tribes of people living on
the Earth engaged in frequent frays. And every tribe planned
to raise as many warriors as it could. And among the warriors
any that aspired to the culture of the land or the culture of po-
etry were looked down upon. And each tribe had its priests,
who essayed to make the people afraid. But none of them had
any clear goal; they simply found solace in others’ fear. And
each one flattered his own pride by telling himself he was re-
ceiving from God more of something than his fellows.
“My forefather managed to assemble a group of poets and
priests from a number of different tribes. There were nine-
teen in all: eleven poet-singers, seven priests and my forefa-
ther. They got together in a deserted, isolated spot.
“The singers sat with meek faces to one side, while the priests
took their places with a show of pride. My forefather addressed
them as follows:
‘“The tribes can be made to cease their enmity and war.
And all the peoples will then come to live in a single state.
They will have a single just ruler, and every family will be saved
from the horrors of war. People will start to offer each other
help. And the brotherhood of people will find their way to
the garden of their pristine origins.’”
‘At first the priests simply laughed at my forefather, telling
him he was daft:
“‘Who will voluntarily surrender his power and authority
to another? If all tribes are to come together, one of them
must become the strongest and overcome the others, and
96
Book 4: Co-creation
here you conceive of there being no more war. Your words
are too naive to ponder. Why have you gathered us together,
you slow-witted wanderer?!’ And the priests began to leave.
But my forefather stopped them by saying:
‘“You are wise men, and your wisdom is needed to make
laws for human society I can give each one of you such power
that no weapon made by human hand can withstand it. If
you cherish it and use it for a good trust, it will help everyone
reach their goal, come to the truth, to a bright sunrise that is
blissful and grand. But if its possessor lusts in his soul to fight
others with an evil intent, he himself will perish.’
“This reference to extraordinary power arrested those
priests in their tracks. Whereupon the high priest proposed
to my forefather:
‘“If you know of such an extraordinary power, tell us about
it. And if this power actually works, and is capable of creat-
ing whole states, you will stay and live with us in that state.
Together we shall create laws for human society.’
“‘This was precisely why I came to see you: to tell you about
this extraordinary power,’ my forefather replied to all. ‘But
first I would ask you to nominate a ruler from among all those
known to you. A ruler who is kind, whose mind is free from
greed, who lives with his family in love and, as to war, has not
a single thought thereof.’
“The high priest mentioned to my forefather in reply that
there was indeed a ruler who studiously avoided all conten-
tions. But his tribe was small in terms of numbers, and since
there was no tendency to glorify its warriors, this was some-
thing few among them aspired to become. And so to avoid
conflicts, they were often required to change their base and
move on, abandon a place that was more suitable for living and
settle in a less favourable space. This ruler’s name was Egypt.
“‘Then Egypt shall this state be called!’ my forefather said.
“I shall now sing you three songs. You, my dear poet-singers,
An extraordinary power
97
shall sing these songs to people in all the different tribes. And
you, my dear priests, shall settle yourselves among the people
of Egypt. Families from all over will be drawn to you, and you
shall greet them with good laws.’
“Whereupon my forefather sang three songs to those gath-
ered. In the first song he formed the image of a just ruler, call-
ing him Egypt. The second song conveyed the image of a happy
people living together in harmony In the third song was the
image of a loving family with happy children, fathers and moth-
ers, residing in this extraordinary state.
“The songs were made up of ordinary words already familiar
to everyone. But the words were combined in such a way as
to cause their listeners to hang on each new combination with
bated breath. And then there was the captivating melody in
the resonant voice of my forefather. It beckoned and called,
fascinated and created living images.
‘At that time there was still no outward Egyptian state, its
temples had not yet been built, but my forefather could tell
that it would all come about as a result of the calling of Man’s
thought and dream, melding into one. And my forefather was
enthralling in his song, inspired by the extraordinary power
with which our grand Creator has endued us all. He sang as
one who possessed this power — a power that distinguishes
Man from everything else, that gives Man dominion over all,
that allows Man to be recognised not only as the son of God
but as a creator too.
“Now fervent with inspiration of their own, the poet-sing-
ers sang these three songs amongst the various tribes. The
people were fascinated by the splendid images created, and
came from all over to dwell with the tribe of Egypt.
“Just five years later, out of this very small tribe, the state of
Egypt was born. All the other tribes which had earlier vaunt-
ed themselves above their neighbours simply fell apart. And
there was nothing the war-inclined rulers could do to stop it.
98
Book 4: Co-creation
Their authority weakened, and disappeared completely They
were defeated by something, but there was no war.
‘Accustomed to material conflicts, they had no idea of the
power the images held over all — images that delighted peo-
ple’s souls and fascinated their hearts.
“In the face of but a single image, provided it is genuine
and untainted by mercenary interests, all the armed troops of
the Earth are useless, whether they carry spears or any other
deadly weapons. Before this image all warriors fall to the
ground, powerless.
“The Egyptian state grew and increased in strength. Its
ruler was dubbed pharaoh by the priests. Ensconced in their
temples away from the everyday bustle of mankind, they
made laws, which even the ruling pharaoh was obliged to fol-
low And every ordinary citizen was only too glad to carry
them out. And each one aspired to live his life in conformity
with the image.
“My forefather lived among the high priests in the main
temple. And for nineteen years the priests paid heed to him.
They aspired to study the supreme science of all sciences, to
learn how to create grand images. My forefather was inspired
with the best of intentions and sincerely endeavoured to ex-
plain everything to them. Whether they understood it fully
or only in part is no longer clear, and it does not really matter
all that much.
“Then one day after nineteen years, the high priest called
a meeting of his inner circle of priests. They filed into the
main temple with solemn dignity — a temple which even the
pharaoh was not allowed to enter.
“The high priest took his place on the throne, while all the
rest sat at his feet. My father smiled as he sat there among
those priests. He was immersed deeply in thought, compos-
ing yet another song, either creating a new image, or perhaps
rejuvenating an old one.
An extraordinary power
99
“The high priest addressed the gathering as follows:
‘“We have learnt a grand science indeed — one that allows
us to rule all the world, but in order to perpetuate our reign,
we must ensure that not one grain of it goes beyond these
walls. Now we must create our own tongue and communicate
exclusively in it amongst ourselves, lest any of us let some-
thing slip, even by chance.
‘“Over the ages we shall circulate among the people a mul-
titude of treatises, at which everyone may marvel, and think
that it has all been set forth. And we shall set forth a multi-
tude of marvellous sciences and various discoveries in such a
way that both the rulers and the common people will move
further and further away from what is important. And so that
wise men in the centuries to come may amaze others with
their sagacious treatises and sciences. Moving further and
further away from what is important themselves, they will
lead others in the same direction.’
“‘So be it!’ they all agreed with the high priest. With the
exception of my forefather, who alone remained silent.
‘And the high priest continued:
“‘There is one question requiring our urgent attention.
Over the past nineteen years we have learnt how images are
created. Any one of us is now capable of creating an image that
can change the world, destroy or strengthen a state — and yet
the secret of the power itself has never been revealed. Can
any of you tell me why the images each of us creates vary in
power? And, in terms of time, why does it take us so long?’
“The priests were silent. None of them knew the answer.
The high priest went on, ever so slightly raising his voice, and
his sceptre trembled ever so slightly in his hand as he told
those assembled:
“‘In the meantime there is in our midst one who is capa-
ble of creating images very rapidly, and the power of these
images remains unsurpassed. For nineteen years now he has
IOO
Book 4: Co-creation
been teaching us, but there remains much that he has yet to
tell. Now we must realise that we are not all equal among
ourselves. It matters not who holds what rank among us. But
everyone should know that there is one among us who holds
the power to control in concealment, unseen, in his sway.
With power of the images he is capable of creating, he can
elevate or slay One among us is capable of deciding the fate
of nation-states. I as high priest am empowered to alter the
balance of power. The doors of the temple wherein we sit are
closed. A loyal guard stands outside the door and will open it
to no one except on my command.’
“The high priest rose from his throne and with heavy steps,
striking his sceptre against the stone slabs of the floor, headed
toward my forefather. In the middle of the hall he suddenly
halted and addressed my forefather:
‘“Now you shall choose one of two paths. Here is the first.
Tou shall now reveal before us all what you have concealed:
the secret behind the power of your images. You shall tell us
how and by what means they are created, and then you shall
be proclaimed a priest second only to me, and upon my de-
parture you shall become first. All living people will bow be-
fore you.
“‘But if you do not reveal your secret to us, a second path
will be yours. It leads only to that door.’
“Whereupon the high priest pointed to the door leading
out of the temple hall into the tower, in which there were no
windows nor supplementary exterior doors. This high tower
with smooth walls did have an exterior platform up above,
from where on an appointed day once a year my forefather or
some other priest would sing to an assembled crowd.
“Still pointing to the tower door, the high priest added:
“‘You shall go in through that door and never come out of
it. I shall command the door to be walled up, leaving only a
small opening through which you will receive a daily minimum
An extraordinary power
IOI
of food. When the time comes for people to gather by the
tower, you shall go out to greet them from the platform up
above. You shall go out, only you shall not sing nor create any
images. You shall go out so that the crowd will see you and
not become concerned or spread rumours surrounding your
disappearance. You shall be allowed to greet the people with
words only If you should dare sing a song to create images,
even a single song, you shall be deprived of food and water
three days long. For two songs you shall not receive food or
water six days long, which means you will be decreeing your
own death. Now decide and tell us clearly which of these two
paths you have chosen.’
“My forefather now calmly rose from his place. His face be-
trayed neither fear nor rebuke, only a sense of sorrow lay gen-
tly on his furrowed brow As he made his way past the priests
sitting in his row, he looked each one of them in the eye. And
in each pair of eyes he beheld the thirst for knowledge. But
not only the thirst for knowledge: greed itself glared at him
from each pair of eyes. Then my forefather went up close to
the high priest and stared him in the eye. The grey-haired
high priest in turn did not take his eyes off my forefather —
eyes which likewise burned with greed. Striking his sceptre
against the stone floor, he sternly repeated to my forefather’s
face, saliva foaming in his mouth:
‘“Hurry up and decide, which of the two paths is your
choice.’
“My forefather’s voice betrayed no fear as he calmly replied:
“‘Perhaps it is the will of fate, but I choose a path and a
half.’
“‘How can you choose a path and a half?’ exclaimed the
high priest. ‘Do you aim to make fun of me, and of all those
who are currently in the Great Temple?!’
“My forefather went over to the tower door, then turned
and replied to all:
102
Book 4: Co-creation
‘“Believe me, I would not even think of making fun of you
or offending you. At your will I shall enter into the tower for
good. But before I go I shall reveal to you the secret as best I
can, and I know that it is not my reply that will bring me the
second path. That is how it turns out that my choice is a path
and a half.’
“‘So tell us! Do not halt or waste time!’ The voices of
the priests leaping up from their seats rang even stronger
through the vaulted arches of the Great Hall. ‘Where is
the answer to the secret? Keep it from us no longer!’ they
begged.
‘“It is in an egg,” my father calmly replied.
“‘In an egg?!! What egg? What are you talking about? Out
with it!’ The assembled priests kept plying my forefather
with questions, and he responded:
“A hen’s egg will bring forth a hen’s chicken. A duck’s egg
will give birth to a duckling. An eagle’s egg will bring an eagle
into the world. Whatever you feel yourselves to be, that is
what you will bring forth.’
“‘I feel! I am a creator!’ the high priest all at once professed.
‘Tell us how to create the image that is stronger than all the
rest.’
“‘That is not the truth,’ my forefather replied. ‘You your-
self do not believe what you are saying.’
“‘How can you know what power of faith I have?’
“‘One who creates will never bring himself to entreat. One
who creates is capable of giving of himself. You, on the other
hand, are one who entreats, which means you are already well
within the shell of unbelief.’
“My forefather went through the door, which at once shut
behind him. Later, following the high priest’s order, the en-
trance was walled up. Once a day my forefather was handed
food through a small opening. The rations were meagre, and he
was not always given enough water.
An extraordinary power
103
“As the day approached when the throngs of people were to
gather before the tower to hear new tales and songs, for three
days my forefather was allowed no food, only water. That was
on the order of the high priest — a change from his original
decree. He gave this new order so that my forefather would
become weak and not be able to sing any new creative songs
to the crowd.
“When the multitude of people gathered in front of the
tower, my forefather went out to greet them from the plat-
form up above. He gave the waiting throng a cheerful look.
As to what had happened to him he breathed not a word. He
simply sang. His voice rang forth in a song of rejoicing, and
an extraordinary image was born. The people who had gath-
ered to hear him paid close attention. Directly he finished his
song he began a new one.
“The singer stood and sang from his high platform the
whole day long. As the day drew to a close, he announced
to the whole throng: ‘With the new dawn you will hear new
songs.’ And on the following day he sang again. The peo-
ple were unaware that the singer, imprisoned as he was in the
tower, was no longer being given even water by the priests.”
Listening to Anastasia’s account of her distant forefather, I
wanted to hear at least one of the songs he sang, and I asked:
‘Anastasia, if you can reproduce in such detail like that all
the scenes from the life of your forebears, couldn’t you sing a
song too? The song your forefather sang to the people from
the tower.”
“I can hear all these songs myself, but a full and accurate
translation of them is impossible. Many of the words simply
do not exist in today’s language. And many of the words used
back then have a different meaning now. Not only that, but it
is difficult to reproduce the poetic rhythms of that time in the
word-combinations we have today”
104
Book 4: Co-creation
“Pity; I very much wanted to hear those songs.”
“You shall hear them, Vladimir. They will rise again.”
“What d’you mean, they’ll rise again ? You just said a trans-
lation is impossible.”
‘A full and accurate translation, yes, is impossible. But it
is possible to create new songs in the same spirit and with
the same meaning. Bards are creating them right now, using
words familiar to everyone today The final song my forefa-
ther sang back then you have already heard.”
“Heard? Where did I hear it? When?”
“A bard from Yegorevsk 1 sent it to you.”
“He sent me a lot of songs.”
“Yes, he did, but one of them is very similar to my forefa-
ther’s final song.”
“But how could that have happened?”
“Times have their own continuity, Vladimir.”
“So what land of a song is it, what words does it contain?”
“You will understand in just a moment. I shall explain eve-
rything in order.”
1 Yegorevsk (pron. yi-GOR-yivsk ) — an industrial town about too kilometres
south-east of Moscow, founded by decree of Empress Catherine the Great
in 1778. The site of the new city had previously been known as Vysokoe (lit,
‘High’), dating back to 1328; on a number of occasions through the centu-
ries Vysokoe had won special favour from the reigning Tsar and his family.
Chapter Seventeen
When fathers wil .
“On the third day my forefather once more climbed up to the
platform with the dawn. He stood there smiling, looking at
the throng of people. He was looking for someone specific
in the crowd. Itinerant singers waved at him in greeting and
raised their instruments, and their strings vibrated under the
singers’ inspired hands. My forefather kept smiling at them
while at the same time he scanned the crowd even more care-
fully My forefather wanted to see his son. To see the son
bom to his loved one nineteen years earlier in the forest. Sud-
denly out of the crowd he heard a resounding young voice:
‘“Tell me, O great poet and master of the song. You are
standing up there, high above everyone. I am down here, but
why do you seem so close to me, as though you were my fa-
ther?’
“And their dialogue was heard by all around.
‘“Why young man, do you not know your own father?’ en-
quired the singer from the platform up above.
‘“I am nineteen years old, and I have not seen my father
even once. I live with my mother alone in the forest. My
father left us before I was born.’
‘“First tell me, young man, how do you see the world around
you?’
“‘The world is splendid with its rosy dawn and the setting
Sun drawing the day to a close. Marvellous and multifacet-
ed it is. But people are crassly perverting the beauty of the
Earth, and causing each other to suffer.’
“From the high tower came the voice in reply:
io 6 Book 4: Co-creation
‘“Perhaps your father left you because he was ashamed be-
fore you, ashamed of the world into which he brought you.
Your father left, aiming to make the world a more splendid
place for you.’
“‘And so, did my father believe that he would be able to
make over the world all by himself?’
‘“The day will come when all fathers will understand that
they are the ones given the responsibility for the world in
which their children live. The day will come when every
father will face the fact that before bringing his beloved
child into the world, he must act to make the world a hap*-
pier place. And you as well must give thought to the world in
which your own offspring will live. Tell me, young man, how
soon is your chosen girl to give birth to the one which she has
conceived?’
‘“In the forest where I live I have no chosen girl. The world
there is splendid, I have a host of friends. But I still have not
yet met a girl who is willing to go with me into my world — a
world I cannot leave.’
“‘Well, then, even if you have not yet seen your chosen
girl so fine, you still have a space of time to make the world
into at least a little more joyful place for your future girl or
boy.’
“‘I shall devote myself to that, just like my father.’
“‘You are no longer a growing lad. You have flowing within
you the blood of a fine young man, a future poet and master
of the song. Sing to the throng about your splendid world.
Come, you and I together shall join in song. We shall sing
along together of the splendid world of the future.’
“‘Who can sing when your own voice is so resounding, O
poet and master of the song?’
“‘I tell you, young man, you shall be able to sing that way as
well. I shall sing the first line, the second is your verse. Only
sing out boldly, as I have told you, my poet.’
When fathers will understand...
107
“My forefather sang from the high tower. Over the heads
of the assembled throng the voice soared forth with rejoicing,
and out came the line:
I arise, and the dawn smiles, befriending...
‘Mid from the throng standing below, all at once a pure and
resonant voice, not yet self-confident, carried on:
I walk miles, and the birds sing above...
“And after each line of the father’s came that of the son,
and sometimes their voices blended as one, and a resonant
song of joy resounded all around:
And this day will have never an ending
Because ever more deeply I love.
‘At that point the young man found his confidence and
with rank ecstasy sang on:
Along the Sun’s road with light footsteps a-stealing
I enter my Father’s own ground,
My eyes see the path, but my feet have no feeling
My happiness now knows no bounds.
I remember my seeing this all once bef onetime:
The flowers, the trees and the sky.
Back then I could see only pain and misfortune,
But now, Tou are everywhere nigh.
It’s all still the same — the blight stars and the birdies,
But I look at them, differently now.
I have no more sorrow, I feel no more huntings,
I love all you people — oh, wow!
io8
Book 4: Co-creation
“The voice from the tower grew fainter and fainter, and
before long it could not be heard at all. The singer in the
tower momentarily lost his balance, but quickly regained it,
and smiled at the people once more. And right up to the end
he noticed how his son’s voice was ever stronger than before.
The voice of his son, now master of the song, standing below
in the throng.
“When the song was ended, my forefather, from his po-
sition on the tower platform, waved farewell to the throng.
To conceal himself from human eyes, he descended five steps
on the staircase inside the tower from the platform doorway.
He was becoming weaker and losing consciousness, but he
perked up his hearing to the limit. From the wind he could
just catch the words fervently whispered to the young singer
by a young and beautiful girl:
“Allow me, young man, allow me... I shall follow you, I
shall go with you into your splendid world...’
“There on the stone steps of the walled-up tower my forefa-
ther was fast losing consciousness. He had a smile on his face
as he awaited death. With his last breath his lips whispered:
‘“The line will continue. You will find bliss in a circle of
happy children, my beloved.’
“My foremother heard him in her heart. Over the thou-
sands of years to come poet after poet would repeat the words
of the song of my two forefathers. And the words and phrases
of that song were reborn all by themselves among poets of
various times and lands. They have sounded forth in many
tongues. These simple words conveyed truth, and they broke
through artifice and dogma. And now once again they are
heard today. Whoever deciphers their lines — not with the
mind but with the heart — will learn great wisdom.”
‘And was there some sort of special meaning in the other
songs your forefather sang from the tower?” I asked. “Why
would he give his life just for some songs?”
When fathers will understand . . . 109
“My forefather, Vladimir, created many images in his songs.
They later built a state and maintained it for a long time. It
was these songs that helped the priests — the descendants of
those first priests — to create a multitude of religions, and
take power in different lands. But there was just one thing
the priests did not know, when they decided to use their pow-
er for selfish ends. The priests did not know how to make the
images work for them in perpetuity The images lost their
power when the priests tried to subject them to their own
selfish pride. The ones — ”
“Hold on, hold on there, Anastasia. There’s something I
fail to understand about the images.”
“Forgive me, Vladimir, for my lack of clarity Now I shall
try to let go, pull myself together, and tell you, all in its proper
order, about the most important of all sciences. The science of
imagery, it is called. All our ancient and modern sciences are
derived from it. The priests split it up into parts so as to con-
ceal the most important thing, in an effort to maintain their
power over everything on the Earth in perpetuity, passing on
their knowledge of it to their descendants in underground
temples byword of mouth. And they tried to preserve the se-
cret with such zeal that their modern-day priest descendants
have been afforded only a tiny fraction of that science. But
back then, when it all began, things were going considerably
better for the priesthood.”
‘And just how did it all begin? Tell me everything right
from the start.”
“Yes! Yes, of course. I somehow got excited once more. I
must tell you everything in order. The conscious awareness of
this powerful science began with the songs resounding forth
from the tower.”
Chapter Eighteen
He celebrated the joy of life
“When my forefather sang from the high tower, images were
bom from his songs. The throng standing below included sing-
ers and musicians. And all the priests of the time took their
places with solemn dignity amidst the multitude. The priests
feared most of all that some image exposing and incriminat-
ing them might be born in those songs, that my forefather
might recall how the priests imprisoned him in the tower.
But from his position on the platform high on the walled-up
tower the singer sang only songs of joy He painted a picture
of a righteous ruler, with whom the people could live happily
ever after. And he offered an image of wise priests. And he
depicted the country and the people living in it as fruitful and
prosperous. No one was exposed or incriminated, but in his
songs the joy of life was celebrated.
“The priests, who for the past nineteen years had been
studying the science of imagery probably realised more than
the rest what the singer was doing. They kept watching peo-
ple’s faces and saw how their eyes lit up with inspiration.
They watched how the poets’ lips moved and the musicians
quietly fingered the strings of their instruments in time with
the singer.
“My forefather had been singing from the high tower for
two whole days. The priests calculated in their minds for how
many thousand years this one person, standing there in front
of everyone, was creating the future. At dawn on the third
day the words of the final song rang out, which my forefather
sang with his son, and when he made his final exit, the throng
He celebrated the joy of life m
of people listening to them broke up and began heading for
their homes.
“The high priest remained at his place for a long time. As
he thoughtfully sat there, the priests standing silently about
him noticed how his hair and even his eyebrows were turning
white right before their very eyes. Then he arose and ordered
the entrance to the tower to be re-opened. And the entrance
to the tower was opened once more.
“There on the stone floor was the poet’s body lying lifeless.
Only two metres or so separated his weakened hand from a
piece of bread. Between his hand and that piece of bread a
wee little mouse ran back and forth, squeaking. The wee little
mouse kept begging and waiting for the poet to take his bread
and share it with the creature, but the mouse itself would not
touch the bread. It was waiting and hoping for the singer to
revive. Upon catching sight of the people coming in, the wee
little mouse jumped back toward the wall, but then ran over
to the feet of the people silently standing around. The wee
little mouse’s two little beady eyes tried to look these people
in the eye. The priests standing on the grey stone slabs of the
floor took no notice of it. Then it hastily ran over to the piece
of bread once more. The wee little grey mouse squeaked des-
perately, and even dragged the piece of bread over to the life-
less body of the singer, poet and philosopher, trying to push
it into his hand.
“The priests buried my forefather’s body with high hon-
ours in an underground temple. But they made it so nobody
would take notice of his grave under the stone slab floor. And
bending his grey head over my forefather’s grave, the high
priest said:
‘“None of us will ever say of himself that he understood
how he could create great images as you did. But you are
not dead. We have but buried your body The images you
created will live on for thousands of years around and above
112
Book 4: Co-creation
the Earth, and you are in them. Our descendants will make
contact with them in their souls. Perhaps someone in some
future age will be capable of learning the essence of creation,
of learning what people need to become. And we must create
a great and splendid doctrine, and keep it for thousands of
years out of sight, until one or the other of us or our descend-
ants discovers to what Man should consecrate his great and
splendid might.”
Chapter Nineteen
“The priests created a secret science. Their doctrine was
known as the science of imagery, and from it all other sci-
ences have been derived. To keep the secret, the high priests
divided up the whole science of imagery, and caused the other
priests to think in differing directions. Hence astronomy, and
mathematics, and physics came along quite a bit later, as well
as a multitude of other sciences, including the occult scienc-
es. They were all developed for the simple purpose of draw-
ing people’s attention to individual sectors, thereby ensuring
that nobody would ever be able to break through to the core
of the teaching.”
“But what kind of core are you talking about? What kind
of science is it, and what does it consist of — this ‘science of
imagery’ that you speak of?”
“It is a science that allows Man to accelerate his thought
and think in terms of images, to grasp the whole of the Uni-
verse at once and penetrate a microcosm, to create invisible
yet still living substance-images and use them to control a
large community of people. Through the help of this science
a multitude of religions came about. One who had even the
slightest knowledge of it possessed incredible power, and
was able to conquer countries, and topple kings from their
thrones.”
‘And does that mean that a single individual could take
over a country?”
“Yes, that is right. And the procedure involved is very
simple.”
ii4 Book 4: Co-creation
“Is even one fact like this known to today’s historians?”
“It is.”
“Tell me about it. I don’t remember anything like that
myself.”
“Why waste time in telling about it? If you go back and
read about Rama, or Krishna, or Moses, you will see their cre-
ations — the creations of priests who had learnt a part of the
secret science of imagery.”
“Well all right then, I shall read about their deeds, but how
shall I arrive at the essence of this science? Try telling me
yourself about its essence — what did they learn about it and
how?”
“They learnt to think in terms of images, as I told you.”
“Yes, you told me, only it’s still not clear to me what con-
nection mathematics, say, or physics, has with this science.”
“One who masters this science does not need to write out
formulas, or outline or create a variety of models. He is able
to penetrate matter mentally, right down to the nucleus, and
split an atom. But this is just a simple exercise to learn how
to control people’s destinies and those of the populations of
various countries.”
“Wow! I’ve never read anything like that.”
“But what about the Bible? There is an example in the Old
Testament when the priests were competing amongst them-
selves to see who could create the strongest images. Moses
the priest against the pharaoh’s high priests. Moses cast his
rod down in the sight of everyone and turned it into a ser-
pent. And the priests of the pharaoh’s court did the same
thing. Then the serpent created by Moses swallowed up the
other serpents .” 1
“You mean to say all that actually happened?!”
“Yes.”
'See Exodus 7: 8-12.
A secret science
115
“I thought somebody just made it up, or it was a kind of
metaphor...”
“Nothing made up, Vladimir. It all happened just the way
the competition is described in the Old Testament.”
“But what made them compete in front of each other that
way?”
“It was to show who could create the strongest images, ca-
pable of conquering other images. And Moses proved to eve-
ryone that he was the strongest. After that it was senseless
to fight against him. Instead of fighting they were obliged
to carry out his requests. But the pharaoh did not listen, he
tried to stop the Israelites from following Moses’ leadership
and the image he created. But the warriors were not strong
enough to stop the people of Israel — a people in which a
more powerful image resided.
“Then you can read about how the people of Israel many
times conquered other tribes, and took their cities. About
how the people created their own religion and nation-state.
The glory of the pharaohs lost its shine. But at the time when
the priests of Egypt still excelled in their creation of grand im-
ages, when they were able to determine what consequences an
image they created would provoke among the people, Egypt
flourished under the control of the priests. Of all the known
states formed after the last global disaster, Egypt flourished
the longest.”
“No, wait a moment, Anastasia. Everybody knows that
Egypt was ruled by the pharaohs. Their pyramid tombs have
lasted right to the present day.”
“Outwardly, the executive power in the country did rest
with the pharaohs. But their chief task was to exemplify the
image of a wise ruler. The important decisions were not tak-
en by the pharaoh. Whenever the pharaohs tried to seize full
power for themselves, the state would start deteriorating at
once. Each pharaoh was, first and foremost, appointed to the
n6
Book 4: Co-creation
throne by the priests. The pharaoh himself studied with the
priests from very early childhood, and endeavoured to mas-
ter the science of images. Only by learning its fundamentals
could he hope to be appointed a pharaoh.
“The power structure prevalent at that time in Egypt can
today be described as follows. At the very top were the secret
priests, then the priests who looked after educational and judi-
cial matters. Control of the state formally rested in the hands
of a council of representatives of all the priestly ranks, while
the pharaoh ruled according to their laws and did as he was told
by them. The community leaders had a good deal of executive
power — they were considered more or less independent.
“In fact, things were pretty much the same as they are to-
day Many nation-states have a president and government as
their executive authority Parliament, like the priests of old,
makes the laws. The only difference is that today there is no
provision in any country for the president to be instructed as
the pharaoh was instructed by the priests. The same applies
to those who hold public office today on councils, Dumas 2
or congresses. It does not really matter by what term today’s
legislator-priests are called; what matters is that they too have
nowhere to turn to learn how to become lawmakers before
they actually take on the job. How can our lawmakers learn
wisdom when the science of imagery is kept secret? That is
why we have chaos in many nation-states.”
“What are you trying to say, Anastasia? If we modelled
our governments on the power structure that was in place
in ancient Egypt, everything would have turned out for the
better?”
“The actual power structure can bring about very little in
the way of change. It is much more important what stands be-
hind it. And when it comes to the Egyptian power structure,
Duma — the name of the Russian parliament.
A secret science
“7
Egypt was not ruled by it, nor by the pharaohs, nor even by
the priests.”
“Then by whom?”
“In ancient Egypt everything was ruled by images. Both
the priests and the pharaoh subjected themselves to them.
From the ancient science of imagery a secret council com-
posed of just a few priests took the image of the pharaoh as
a just ruler. They took the image just as it appeared at that
time. This secret council spent a good deal of time discussing
the proper conduct for a pharaoh, his outward trappings and
lifestyle. Then they taught one of the selected priests how to
exemplify this image.
“They tried first to select a candidate from the ranks of
royalty. But if no one of royal blood was found suitable in ap-
pearance or character, they could choose any priest and pass
him off as pharaoh. The priest selected as pharaoh was always
obliged to conform to the conceived image, especially during
public appearances. And then each member of the public felt
the invisible image hanging over him and acted according to
his understanding of it. When people believe in an image and
the majority find it to their liking, each one is only too happy
to follow it, and the state has no need to set up a huge official
surveillance apparatus. Such a state can only grow stronger
and flourish.”
“But if that were so, then no state today could get by with-
out images. And yet they do get by, they are alive and flourish-
ing. Just look at America, or Germany And our own Soviet
Union, before perestroika, 3 was a tremendous state.”
“Without an image, Vladimir, no state can get by even to-
day. Today it is only the state in which the governing image is
perestroika — the policy of restructuring the economic and political system
of the Soviet Union, which led to the collapse of the Communist Party’s
hold on power and to the break-up of the USSR.
Book 4: Co-creation
118
the most acceptable to the majority of people that flourishes,
compared to other states.”
“Then who is creating this image today? After all, there are
no priests around any more — at least not the kind ancient
Egypt had.”
“There are still such priests today, only they are called by
another name, and have within them less and less of the sci-
ence of imagery. Today’s priests are not able to make impar-
tial and long-term calculations. Not able to set a goal and cre-
ate a worthy image capable of drawing the whole country to
that goal.”
“What are you talking about, Anastasia — what kind of
priests, or images, were there in our Soviet Union? Every-
thing back then was controlled by the Bolsheviks . 4 First
Lenin, then Stalin was in charge. Then came other First Sec-
retaries . 5 They had the Politburo . 6 Religion was pretty much
eliminated back then, they even destroyed the temples — and
here you go carrying on about priests!”
“Vladimir, take a closer look. What was there before the
state which came to be known as the Soviet Union emerged?”
“What d’you mean, what was there? Everybody knows. It
was the tsarist regime. Then along came the revolution, and
we went down the path of socialism, at the same time trying
to build communism .” 7
“But before the revolution actually took place, the image
of a new and just system of governance with a bright outlook
4 Bolsheviks — the majority party at the time of the Russian Revolution in
1917. The term is derived from the Russian word signifying ‘majority’.
^ First Secretaries — Under the Soviet system, the First Secretary of the Com-
munist Party was the de facto leader of the country
6 Politburo (a term derived from the Russian words signifying ‘political bu-
reau’) — the chief policy-making committee of the Communist Party, re-
sponsible to the First Secretary
A secret science
119
was already circulating among the people, and the old system
was being exposed. After all, initially it was the image of a
new state that was being formed, along with the image of a
new ruler who would be most benevolent to everyone. And
the image of everyone leading a happy life. It was images
such as these that led people on and motivated them to fight
against those who were still loyal to the old images. And both
the revolution and the civil war s which followed it — a war
which involved multitudes of people — were in fact a conflict
between two competing images.”
“Of course there might well be something in what you say,”
I admitted. “Only Lenin and Stalin weren’t images. Every-
body knows they were merely human beings who happened
to be leaders of their country.”
“You bring up these names, thinking that behind them
stood simply people in the flesh. In fact... Perhaps if you
think about it, you will see that it was very far from being that
way, Vladimir.”
“How could it not be that way? I’m telling you: everybody
knows that Stalin was a Man.”
“Then tell me, Vladimir, what sort of Man was Stalin?”
“What sort? The sort... Well, in the beginning, everybody
thought him to be kind and just. Someone who loved chil-
dren. There were photos and portraits of him holding a little
girl in his arms. Thousands of soldiers went into battle crying
‘For the Motherland! For Stalin!’ Everyone wept when he
■' socialism/ 'communism — In official Communist Party pronouncements, the
political status quo in the Soviet Union was designated ‘socialism’, while
the country was in the process of ‘building communism’ — i.e., working
toward the goal of becoming a truly communist state.
8
‘ civil war (grazhdanskaya voina ) — In Russia this lasted from the 1917 Revo-
lution up to 1922, when the Bolsheviks (or ‘Reds’) finally consolidated their
power, defeating the ‘White’ forces loyal to the Tsar.
120
Book 4: Co-creation
died. My mother used to tell me that when he died practically
the whole country wept. And they placed him in the Mauso-
leum 9 next to Lenin.”
“So, that means that a great many people loved him and
triumphed in deadly conflicts with their enemies in his name?
They dedicated poems to him, but what do they say about
him today?”
“Today they say he was a bloodthirsty tyrant and a mur-
derer. He let multitudes of people rot in prisons. They un-
ceremoniously removed his body from the Mausoleum and
buried it in the ground, and destroyed all the monuments to
him, along with the books he once wrote...”
“Now do you understand? You see before you two differ-
ent images. Two images, but the same Man.”
“The same.”
“So what kind of Man was he — can you tell me now?”
“I guess I can’t... Can you tell me anything yourself?”
“Stalin as a Man corresponded to neither of these two im-
ages — before or after — and therein lay the tragedy for the
nation. There has always been tragedy in states where a sig-
nificant discrepancy has come up between the ruler and his
image. That is where all national troubles have begun. And in
these times of trouble people have fought for the images with
the gun. It is only recently that people were still attracted to
the image of communism, but the image of communism has
deteriorated, and now what are you and everybody else in the
nation attracted to?”
“Now we are building... well, capitalism, maybe, or maybe
something else, but just so that we can live the way they do
in the developed countries — like America, or Germany, for
9 Mausoleum — a large marble structure on Red Square just outside the walls
of the Kremlin, where visitors can still see the embalmed body of Lenin.
A secret science
121
instance. Anyway, so that we can have democracy like they
have over there, and an abundance of everything.”
“Now you are identifying the image of your country and a
just ruler with the image of those other countries you name.”
“Okay let’s say it’s the image of those countries.”
“But is that not admitting that the knowledge of the priests
in your own country has completely diminished? There is no
knowledge left? They have no more power to create a worthy
image capable of leading people in its path? As a rule, any
state in such a situation has been a dying state, as thousands
of years of history attest.”
“But what’s wrong with our starting to live the way they do,
say, in America, or Germany?”
“Take a closer look at how many problems there are in the
countries you name. Ask yourself why they need such huge
police forces and great numbers of hospitals. And why are
there more and more suicides there? And where do people
from the rich big cities go for their holidays? And they con-
stantly require increasingly greater numbers of officials to
watch over the public. All this means that their images are
deteriorating, too.”
“And what is the result — that we are attracted to their de-
teriorating images?”
“Yes, the result is that we are thereby prolonging their life,
but not by much. When they destroyed the leading images in
your country, they did not create any new image in its place.
And everyone was allured by an image that was prevalent in a
foreign country If they all keep bowing down to it, then your
country will cease to exist — it is a country which is losing its
own image.”
“But who is able to create such an image today? We don’t
have any Egyptian-style priests.”
“There are people even today who are wholly involved
in creating images and determining the ability of images to
122 Book 4: Co-creation
attract a nation’s people, and their calculations are frequently
quite accurate.”
“For some reason I’ve never heard of such people. Or is it
all top secret?”
“You, like a great many people, come into contact with
what they do on a daily basis.”
“Oh, where? When?”
“Vladimir, remember, when the time comes to elect new
deputies to the Duma , 10 or to select a single ruler out of sev-
eral candidates — he’s called a president today — how their
image is presented to the people. And those images are put
together by people who have chosen image-making as their
profession. Each candidate has several such people working
for him. And the winner is the one whose image is the most
favourable to the majority of voters.”
“What d’you mean, ‘image’? These are all real live people.
They get up on the hustings in front of voters and even go on
TV themselves.”
“Of course, they appear themselves, only they always get
advised as to where they should go, how they should behave,
what they should say, so as to fit the image most favourable to
the people. And, more often than not, the candidates heed
this advice. In addition, a variety of advertisements are made
up for them, attempting to associate their image with a better
life for all.”
“Yes, they do advertise. All the same, I don’t really know
what’s more important — the Man himself who wants to be-
come a deputy or president, or the image you keep talking
about.”
“Of course the Man is always more important, but when
you vote for him, after all, you probably have not had the
10 deputies — Members of the Duma, or Russian parliament, are known as
‘deputies’ ( deputaty ).
A secret science
123
opportunity to meet with him, you do not know in detail
what he is actually like — you are voting for the image which
has been served up to you.”
“But each candidate still has a platform, and people vote
for the platform.”
“How often are those platforms carried out once the can-
didate is elected?”
“Well, not all pre-election platforms are carried out by any
means, and maybe none of them ever gets fully carried out,
because other people with their platforms of their own get in
the way”
“So each time it turns out that a multitude of images is cre-
ated, but there is no complete unity among them. There is no
single image capable of attracting everyone and leading them
to a goal. If there is no image, then there is no inspiration,
and no clear path. Life becomes ad hoc and chaotic.”
“Then who is capable of creating such an image? Priests of
wisdom, we’ve seen — there simply aren’t any today And as
for the science of imagery which your forefather taught the
priests of old, well, I’m learning about that for the first time
from you.”
“There is not much longer to wait — the country shall have
a strong image. It will end all wars, and people’s dreams in
splendid clarity will start coming into birth — first in your
country, and then all over the Earth.”
Chapter Twenty
Anastasia spoke with absorbed interest. Sometimes joyfully,
sometimes dejectedly, she spoke about what happened on the
Earth at one time. Some things were believable, others not
so much. And when I got home I wanted to find out about
people’s ability to hold in their memory information about
events going back not just to their own birth but to the birth
of their ancestors, and even further back, to the creation of
the first Man. Scientists and specialists on this subject got
together on a number of occasions, and here I should like to
offer a few pertinent excerpts from the round tables we had.
“...To many people it will seem strange to claim that eve-
ryday objects can contain information about a Man. But
if you show an audiocassette to someone who’s never seen
a tape recorder or even heard about its possibilities, and
tell him that your voice, your speech, is recorded on the
tape and he can listen to it whenever he likes — a year or
even ten years later, that person will not believe you. He’ll
think you’re some kind of trickster. Yet for us the fact of
recording and reproduction of sound is a common occur-
rence. And by the same token something that seems quite
extraordinary to us might be extremely simple and natural
to someone else.”
“If we start from the fact that Man has still not invented
anything more substantial or perfect than what has been
invented by Nature, then Anastasia’s ray which helps her
Our genetic code
125
see things at a distance, can be confirmed by the existence
of the radiotelephone and television. Further, I would say
that those phenomena of Nature which she uses sound like
a more perfect application than what we have invented ar-
tificially, like our modern television and radiotelephone.”
“One person’s memory may have a hard time keeping
track of things that occurred even half a year ago. Another
person may remember events that happened in his child-
hood and be able to talk about them. But I don’t see that as
coming anywhere close to the limits of the human memo-
ry’s possibilities.”
“I don’t think many scientists will deny that Man’s ge-
netic code has been storing primordial information for
millions of years. It is also possible to collect supplemen-
tary, so-called ‘incidental’ information over one’s lifetime
and pass it on to succeeding generations. Expressions we
are all familiar with — like “it’s inherited” or “transmitted
by inheritance” — bear witness to this. Anastasia’s abilities
to reproduce scenes that happened to mankind millions or
billions of years ago are theoretically possible and explain-
able. Not only that, but they can be at their most accurate
the further they are removed from our reality I believe
Anastasia’s memory is not that different from many other
people’s. Or to put it more accurately, the information re-
corded in her genetic code is no greater than for any other
individual. The only difference is that she has the ability
to ‘retrieve’ and reproduce it fully, while we can do so only
in part.”
These and other things the specialists said have convinced
me that Anastasia is able to tell the truth about the past. I
was especially struck by the example of the tape recorder.
126
Book 4: Co-creation
But there was one phenomenon which the scientists invited
to the round table couldn’t explain — namely, how it is that
Anastasia can get information not only about earthly civilisa-
tions but also about those on other worlds and in other galax-
ies. Besides, she can not only talk about them, but it seems
she can also influence them. I shall try to set forth everything
in order. Perhaps someone will be able to explain these abili-
ties of hers, at least theoretically, and to figure out whether
or not they are inherent in other people as well. Anastasia
herself tried to explain how she happens to know about them,
only her explanations were difficult to understand.
In any case, I shall try to describe the following situation
in its proper order.
Chapter Twenty-One
On several occasions Anastasia’s description of earthly civili-
sations contained references to the existence of life on other
planets and in other galaxies of the Universe. And I got so
interested in this that while I was listening to her tale about
mankind’s past, I could only think about how life evolved out
there, on other planets.
Anastasia, no doubt, saw my interest in her story waning,
and stopped talking. I was quiet, too, thinking about how
I could get her to tell in more specific detail about life in
extraterrestrial civilisations. I could have asked her directly,
of course, but she tends to get somehow distracted whenever
she can’t explain why she knows something others don’t. And
it seems to me that her desire not to stand out from other
people on account of her abilities discourages her from talk-
ing about everything. I’ve begun noticing, for example, that
she’s rather shy about her inability to explain how certain
phenomena work. This is in fact what happened when I
asked her directly:
“Tell me, Anastasia, are you able to teleport yourself
in space? I mean: moving your body from one place to
another?”
“Why are you asking me about that, Vladimir?”
“First tell me specifically: yes or no?”
“Vladimir, everybody has that kind of ability But I am not
sure I can explain to you just how natural this process is. You
will only withdraw yourself from me again, saying I’m a witch.
You will feel uncomfortable with me.”
128
Book 4: Co-creation
“So that means you can?”
“I can,” she answered hesitantly, her head bowed.
“Then give me a demonstration. Show me how it happens.”
“Perhaps I should try to explain first...”
“No, Anastasia, first show me. It’s always more interest-
ing to watch something than to listen. And then you can ex-
plain.”
Anastasia had an estranged look about her as she rose to
her feet. She closed her eyes, tensed up a little, and then dis-
appeared before my eyes. Dumbstruck, I looked all around.
I even felt with my hands the spot where she had just been
standing, but all that was there was some trampled grass,
while Anastasia was nowhere to be seen. Then I caught sight
of her standing on the far side of the lake. I looked at her,
speechless. Then she called out:
“Shall I swim to you? Or shall I once more...”
“Once more!” I replied and, taking care not to blink in case
I missed anything, I began watching the figure of Anastasia
standing on the other side of the small lake. All at once she
vanished. Simply dissolved into thin air. Not even a trace of
smoke was left at the place where I had just seen her. I con-
tinued to stand there unblinkingly
“I am here, Vladimir.” Anastasia’s voice sounded right be-
side me. Once again she was standing no more than a metre
away. I found myself stepping back a little, then I sat down on
the ground, trying not to show any sense of surprise or excite-
ment. For some reason the thought came that suddenly she
might take it into her head to dissolve my body and then not
assemble it afterward.
Anastasia spoke first. “Only the owner of a body can fully
dissolve it or split it into atoms. This is an ability available
only to Man, Vladimir.”
I realised she was going to first try to prove to me that she
was Man, and so as not to have her waste any time, I said:
Where do we go in sleep? 129
“I realise that it’s only given to Man. But surely not to eve-
ry Man.”
“Not to everyone. One must — ”
“I know what you’re going to say: One must have pure
thoughts .”
“Yes. Pure thoughts, and besides that, the ability to think
quickly and in images, to visualise in specific detail one’s self,
one’s body and desire, a strong will, and faith in one’s self...”
“Don’t explain, Anastasia. Don’t waste your time trying.
Tell me rather, can you move your body to any place at all?”
“ Any place, yes, though I rarely do that. Any place can be
very dangerous... Besides, there is no need to. Why move
one’s body? There are other ways...”
“Why dangerous?”
“It is essential to get an accurate picture of the place you
wish to move your body to.”
‘And if you don’t get an accurate picture, what can happen?”
“Your body might be lost.”
“How?”
“For example, suppose you wanted to transport your body
to the floor of the ocean, and the water pressure crushes it.
Or you suffocate. Or you might wind up on a city street in
front of an oncoming car, and the car hits your body and in-
jures it.”
“And can Man also transport his body to another planet?”
“Distance plays absolutely no role here. It will move it-
self to whatever place your thought dictates. After all, your
thought goes to the destination first. It is also what assembles
and puts together again the body that was earlier dissolved in
space.”
“If I wanted to dissolve my body, what should I be thinking
about?”
“You have to visualise all of its matter, right down to the
tiniest atom, right to the nucleus, and see how the particles
130
Book 4: Co-creation
create an outwardly chaotic movement in the nucleus, and
then mentally dissolve them in space. Then assemble them in
their former sequence, in their outwardly chaotic movement
in the nucleus, reproducing it accurately It is all very simple.
Just the way children play with blocks.”
“But mightn’t it turn out that on another planet there
wouldn’t be a suitable atmosphere to breathe?”
“That is what I am saying — it is dangerous to transport
one’s body without thinking it through carefully There are a
lot of things to take into account ahead of time.”
“So that means it won’t work out to go to another planet?”
“It can. It is possible to take some of the surrounding at-
mosphere along, too, and the body will live in that for a time.
But generally it is better not to transport one’s body without
a particular need for it. In most cases it is sufficient to watch
from a distance with one’s ray, or transport only one’s second,
non-material seif.”
“Incredible! It’s hard to believe that every Man was once
capable of doing something like that!”
“Why do you say once} One’s second human self is capa-
ble even now of moving about freely, and it does move. Only
people do not assign it any specific tasks. They do not set it
any goal.”
“Who... — what kind of people does this happen with?”
“Right now it basically happens when a person sleeps. It
is possible to do the same when one is awake, but on account
of the general bustle as well as all sorts of dogmas and vari-
ous contrived problems, people are losing more and more the
ability to control their own selves. They are losing the capac-
ity for imaginative thinking .” 1
1 imaginative thinking (Russian: obraznoe myshlenie ) — the Russian term refers
to the specific ability to visualise in one’s mind a vivid and detailed image,
not just a fantasy.
Where do we go in sleep? 131
“Maybe because it’s not that interesting to travel without
one’s body?”
“Why would you think that? In terms of what you feel, the
final result can often be the same.”
“Well, if the result were the same, people wouldn’t go drag-
ging their bodies around, travelling to different countries.
Right now the tourist business is pretty profitable in our
world. And there’s something I don’t quite understand about
that mysterious second self of Man’s. If one’s body hasn’t been
somewhere, that means the Man wasn’t there either. It’s just
as simple and clear as that.”
“Do not try to jump to hasty conclusions, Vladimir. I shall
now present you with three different scenarios. And you try
to tell me in which case this hypothetical person actually took
a trip.”
“Okay, go ahead.”
“Here is the first... Imagine yourself or some other person
sound asleep. He is placed on a stretcher. While still asleep,
he is put on an aeroplane and taken to another country —
from Moscow to Jerusalem, for example. Still sleeping, he
is driven up and down the main street, taken into the main
temple, and still asleep, brought back the same way and put
back where he started. What do you think — was the travel-
ler from Moscow really in Jerusalem?”
“Tell me the other two scenarios first.”
“Fine. The second traveller went to Jerusalem all on his
own, walked along the main street, spent a little time in the
temple and then went home.”
‘And the third?”
“He left his body behind. But he had the ability to visualise
everything at a distance. He walked around the city as though
in a dream. He visited the temple, dropped in somewhere else,
and then mentally returned to his previous activities... Now,
who of the three was actually in Jerusalem, do you think?”
132
Book 4: Co-creation
“In the fullest sense, only one of the three was there. That
was the one who consciously decided to make the journey and
see everything for himself.”
“Let us say that is so, but in the final analysis, what did each
of them get out of the visit?”
“The first traveller didn’t get anything out of it. The sec-
ond was able to tell about everything he saw. As for the third...
The third person would probably also be able to talk about it,
only he might make mistakes, since he saw everything in a
dream, and a dream can be quite different from reality.”
“But the dream as a phenomenon is also a reality”
“Well, yes, the dream exists as a phenomenon. Maybe it’s a
reality too, but what are you getting at?”
“At the fact, which you will probably not deny, that Man is
always able to connect or make contact between two existing
realities.”
“I know what you’ve been driving at here. You want to say
that it’s possible to control a dream and direct it where you
want.”
“Yes.”
“But what exactly helps that come about?”
“It comes about with the help of the energy of thought, and
its ability to free any reality for penetration into images.”
“And what then, does it register an impression of every-
thing that goes on in some other country, like a TV camera?”
“Excellent! The TV camera can serve as a primitive confir-
mation. So, Vladimir, you have reached the conclusion that
it is not always necessary to transport material bodies to feel
what is happening in a faraway land?”
“Perhaps not always. But why did you start telling me about
this? Are you trying to prove something?”
“I realised that when you began talking about other worlds
that you would demand or ask that I show them to you. I want
to carry out your request without putting your body at risk.”
Where do we go in sleep ?
133
“You guessed everything right, Anastasia. I really was go-
ing to ask you about that. So, there’s life on other planets
after all? Gosh, it’d be jolly interesting to see them!”
“Which planet would you like to visit?”
“What — are there a lot of them — inhabited, I mean?”
“There are a great many, though none more interesting
than the Earth.”
“But still, what kind of life is there on the others? And how
did it originate?”
“When the Earth appeared as a Divine co-creation, many
of the elements of the Universe were eager to repeat this mar-
vellous creation. They wanted to create their own on other
worlds, using planets which in their opinion were suitable.
They began creating them, but nobody could create life in a
harmony anything like that of the Earth.
“There is in the Universe, for example, a planet where ants
predominate over everything. There are a great number of
ants on it. The ants devour other life-forms. When there is
nothing left for them to eat, they turn to eating each other
and die. And the element that created this kind of life is try-
ing to re-create it anew, but it certainly is not turning out any
better. Nobody has been able to bring all the elements to-
gether in harmony.
“There are also planets where the elements have tried,
and are still trying, to create a vegetative world similar to the
Earth. And they are creating it. Those planets are growing
trees, grass and bushes. But each time their creations reach
full maturity they die. None of the elements of the Universe
has been able to guess the secret of reproduction. They are
like Man today. After all, Man today has created a lot of artifi-
cial things all on its own. But not one of his creations can re-
produce itself. They break down, rot away, decay and demand
constant maintenance. The majority of people on the Earth
have been turned into slaves of their own creations. Only the
134
Book 4: Co-creation
creations of God are capable of reproducing themselves and
living in harmony in all their great diversity”
“But are there planets in the Universe, Anastasia, where
beings are involved in technology the way Man is?”
“Yes, there are, Vladimir. There is a planet that has six
times the Earth’s volume and has beings outwardly similar to
Man. Their technology is artificial, and has been perfected
far beyond the technology of our Earth. Life on this planet
was created by an element of the Universe which believes it-
self to be on a par with God, and is striving for predominance
over God’s creations.”
“Tell me, are they the ones who have come to the Earth in
their space ships — the ‘flying saucers’ we see?”
“Yes. They have tried to make contactwith Earth people on
a number of occasions. But for the Earth their contacts — ”
“No, wait. Is there any way you can take me, or my second
self, to that planet for a visit?”
“Yes, I can.”
“Then take me there.”
After that Anastasia asked me to lie down on the ground
and relax. Telling me to spread out my arms to the sides, she
placed one of her hands in mine and in a short time I began
to doze off into something similar to sleep. I say something
similar, as this dozing off was most unusual. First my body felt
more and more relaxed. I couldn’t feel my body any more,
though I could see and hear everything around me perfect-
ly well — the singing of the birds, the rustling of the leaves.
Then I closed my eyes and sank into a sleep, or ‘divided my-
self’ (as Anastasia would put it). But to this day I am not in a
position to say what happened to me next or how. If it is to
be assumed that with Anastasia’s help I fell asleep and had
a dream, the fulness of my sensations and the clarity of my
awareness of everything I saw can in no way be compared
with any human dream.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Other worlds
I saw another world, another planet. I was able to remem-
ber everything that went on there in clear detail, yet to this
day I still have the lingering feeling in my consciousness that
beholding anything like that is an impossibility Think about
it — my mind and consciousness tell me it’s impossible, and
yet they — the visions, the pictures — remain with me to this
day And now I shall try and describe them to you.
I stood on ground similar to what we have on the Earth.
There was absolutely no vegetation around me. 1 say stood.
But whether I can actually say that it’s hard to tell. I didn’t
have any legs or arms, I didn’t even have a body, and yet at the
same time it seemed I could feel my steps, I could feel the
rocky, uneven surface through the soles of my feet.
All around, as far as the eye could see, above the soil rose
metallic machines, both egg-shaped ones and square, or cube-
like machines. I use the word machines because the one clos-
est to me gave off a kind of soft whirring sound.
From each of these machines a plethora of hoses of dif-
ferent diameters went down into the ground. Some of these
hoses were slightly quivering, as though something was being
sucked up through them from the ground, while others were
in a motionless state. No living beings were in sight.
All at once I saw a panel on the side of one of these strange
devices open, and out floated — rather slowly — a kind of
disc, similar in shape to a discus thrown by athletes, only
much larger, about forty-five metres in diameter. It hovered
in the air, and then started to rotate. After a brief descent
136
Book 4: Co-creation
it took off and flew completely noiselessly overhead. Other
devices a little further away did the same, and several more
discs flew after the first one, one after the other, right over
my head. And then once again there was just still and empty
space, except for the whirring and crackling of the strange de-
vices. The whole picture aroused my interest, but even more,
its indescribable lifelessness was frightening.
“Do not be afraid of anything, Vladimir.” All at once I
caught the sound of Anastasia’s voice, which comforted me
no end.
“Where are you, Anastasia?” I enquired.
“Right here beside you. We are invisible, Vladimir.
Present here are our feelings, sensations, mind and all our
other invisible forms of energy. We are here without our ma-
terial bodies. Nobody can do anything to us. The only thing
we need be wary of is ourselves, and the consequences of our
own sensations.”
“What kind of consequences might there be?”
“Psychological consequences. Like temporarily going out
of one’s mind.”
“Going out of one’s mind?”
“Yes, but only temporarily For a month or two, it can hap-
pen: the vision of other planets may stir up Man’s mind and
consciousness. But you need not be afraid, you are not threat-
ened by this. You will pull through. And there is nothing to
be afraid of — believe me, Vladimir, you are indeed here, but
not as far as they are concerned. At the moment we are invis-
ible and can go and see whatever we wish to.”
“I’m not afraid. Only you’d better tell me, Anastasia,
what are those whirring machines all around us? What are
they for?”
“Each of those egg-shaped machines is a factory. They are
the ones that produce the ‘flying saucers’ that are of such in-
terest to you.”
Other worlds
137
“And who maintains, or controls these factories?”
“No one. They are programmed in advance to make a
particular product. Through those pipes going down into
the ground they suck up the raw material they need in the
required amounts. The forging and pressing, and then the as-
sembly, all take place in small compartments inside, and then
the fully formed product comes out. This factory is much
more efficient than any on the Earth. There is practically no
waste from this process. There is no need to transport raw
material from distant places. There is no need to ship indi-
vidual component parts to the assembly point. The whole
manufacturing process is concentrated in one place.”
‘Amazing! We should have a gizmo like that! And who
controls the new ‘flying saucers’? I noticed they were all fly-
ing in the same direction.”
“Nobody controls them, they fly all by themselves to a stor-
age depot.”
“Incredible! Just like a living being!”
“But this by itself represents nothing incredible, even in
terms of earthly technology. After all, the Earth also has pi-
lotless planes and rockets.”
“Just the same, they are controlled by people on the
Earth.”
“But the Earth for a long time has also had rockets which
are preprogrammed for a specific target. All one has to do is
push the launch button and the rocket fires itself and heads
for a predetermined target.”
“Maybe so. And really, what was there here that was so sur-
prising?”
“If you really think about it, there is not that much to be
surprised at. Only, by comparison with the technology we
have on the Earth, this is far more advanced. These factories,
Vladimir, are multifunctional. They can manufacture a great
deal, from food products to powerful weapons.”
138 Book 4: Co-creation
“And what are their food products made of? Nothing grows
here, after all.”
“Everything comes from deep in the ground. The ma-
chines take in all the juices they need through the pipes and
press them into granules. These granules will contain all the
substances needed to sustain bodily life.”
“What does this gizmo itself feed on? Who supplies it with
electrical power? I don’t see any wires.”
“It produces the energy it needs all on its own, using every-
thing from the environment.”
“Well, just look how smart it is! Smarter than Man.”
“It is by no means smarter than Man, Vladimir. It is simply
a machine. It is subject to its assigned programme, and is very
easy to reprogram. Would you like me to show you how it is
done?”
“Go ahead.”
“Let us move a little closer to it.”
We stood at about a metre’s distance from the huge device,
which was the size of a nine-storey building. The crackling
sound became more distinct. An army of flexible tentacle-
like pipes reached into the ground, shaking. The surface of
the device’s covering wasn’t entirely smooth. I caught sight
of a circular area approximately a metre in diameter, densely
covered with small wires sticking out like hairs. They were
quivering, each one individually
“This is the antenna for the scanning apparatus. It picks
up the brain’s energy impulses which it uses to compile a
programme capable of carrying out an assigned task. If your
brain can visualise a particular object, the machine should be
able to manufacture it.”
‘Any object?”
“Any that you can picture in detail. As though constructing
it with your thoughts.”
‘And any kind of car?”
Other worlds
139
“Of course.”
‘And can I try it right now?”
“Yes. Move closer to the receiver and start by mentally in-
structing its antenna to turn all its receptor wires toward you.
Directly that happens, begin picturing what you desire.”
I stood close to the wiry antenna. Burning with curiosity,
I mentally desired, as Anastasia had said, to have all its wires
pay heed to me. At first they turned in my direction, then
all of them, with a slight trembling, directed their tips to my
invisible head and stayed still.
Now I had to visualise a particular object. For some rea-
son I began picturing a Model 7 Zhiguli 1 — the car I had in
Novosibirsk. I tried picturing everything in as much detail
as I could — the window-glass and the bonnet, the bumper,
the colour and even the licence plate. I took a long time
with the visualisation. When I got tired of it, I moved away
from the antenna. The huge machine started whirring more
briskly.”
“We must wait,” explained Anastasia. “Now it is disassem-
bling the unfinished product it was working on and compiling
a programme for carrying out your design.”
“Will we have long to wait?”
“I do not think so.”
We went over to look at some of the other machines. Pres-
ently, as I was examining the multicoloured rocks underfoot,
I heard Anastasia’s voice announcing:
“I think the manufacture of the object you pictured in your
mind is complete. Let us take a look and see how it coped
with the task.”
l Zhiguli — a car first produced in the late 1960s at the Volga Automobile
Factory at Toliatti, on the Volga River, by an agreement with the Italian Fiat
corporation. The cars outwardly resemble a Fiat of about the same era, and
are still being produced to this date.
140
Book 4: Co-creation
We went back to the first machine and began waiting. Af-
ter a little while its panel opened and out came a Zhiguli. It
rolled down a smooth ramp to the ground. But this freak
standing in front of me had nothing on the beautiful automo-
bile I knew back on the Earth.
First, it had only one door — one on the driver’s side. In
place of the back seats there were only some coils of wire and
pieces of rubber. I walked — or rather moved — around the
object. It was definitely not something you could call a mo-
tor car.
Two wheels were missing from the passenger side. Nor was
there any bumper or licence plate at the front. The bonnet
did not look as though it would open — it seemed to be made
of a single piece with the chassis. In sum, this unique factory
had produced not a car, but some kind of narwhal of indeter-
minate function.
And I said:
“Gawd! Is that the best this alien factory can come up
with? If this had happened on Earth, they’d have sacked all
the designers and engineers!”
Anastasia burst out laughing in response, and I heard her
voice say:
“Of course they might have been let go. But in this case
the chief designer is you, Vladimir, and what you see is the
product of your designing.”
“I wanted a standard modern automobile, but what has
this machine spit out?”
“Wanting is not enough. You have to picture everything
down to the minutest detail. You did not even include any
passenger doors in your visualisation. You only thought of the
one door for yourself. And you pictured wheels only on your
side of the car — you neglected to put in wheels on the other
side. And I think you completely forgot about the motor.”
“Completely forgot.”
Other worlds
141
“Which means there is no motor in your design. So why
blame the manufacturer when you yourself gave it an incom-
plete programme to work with?”
All at once I saw, or sensed, the approach of three flying
machines heading in our direction. Gotta get outa here — the
thought flashed across my mind, but then I heard Anastasia’s
calming voice:
“They will not notice us or sense us in any way, Vladimir.
They have received word about a disruption in the work of
one of their factories, and now they are probably coming to
investigate. We shall have the opportunity to quietly observe
some of the living inhabitants of this planet.”
Out of the three small flying machines stepped five aliens.
They were very similar in appearance to earthlings. Not just
similar, but everything about them suggested earthlings. They
were well built. No slouching shoulders — their athletic bod-
ies held their handsome heads straight and proud. And they
even had hair on their heads and eyebrows on their faces, and
one of them sported a neatly trimmed moustache. They were
dressed in thin multicoloured one-piece outfits that tightly
covered their whole body.
The aliens walked over to the car produced by their fac-
tory, or, more accurately, to the semblance of an earthly car.
They stood silently beside it, observing, without emotion.
They are no doubt having one hell of a time trying to figure this one
out, I thought.
The alien who appeared to be the youngest, with light-
brown hair, detached himself from the others. He went up to
the door of the car and tried to open it, but the door refused
to budge. The lock was probably jammed. The rest of his ac-
tions seemed very earthly, which gave me no small comfort.
The brown-haired alien banged his hand on the door in the
area of the lock, then tried pulling it harder this time, and
the door opened. He sat down in the driver’s seat, put his
142
Book 4: Co-creation
hands on the steering-wheel and began to carefully examine
the dashboard instruments.
Good lad, I thought. A clever fellow. And in confirmation of
my appraisal I heard Anastasia say:
“This is a very top-ranked scientist, by their standards,
Vladimir. His thought works quickly and logically in a tech-
nical orientation. Besides, he is studying how beings live on
several other planets, including the Earth. He even has an
Earth-like name — Arkaan.”
“But why does his face show no surprise at finding that one
of their factories made something anomalous?”
“The inhabitants of this planet have almost no feelings or
emotions. Their minds work evenly and logically, with no giv-
ing in to emotional outbursts or departures from set goals.”
The young alien climbed out of the car, uttering sounds remi-
niscent of Morse code. An older alien stepped forward and stood
by the wiry antenna where I had positioned myself earlier. Then
they all climbed back into their flying machines and took off.
The factory which had manufactured the car according
to my design began whirring again. Its tentacle pipes began
pulling themselves up from the ground and redirecting them-
selves toward a nearby automated factory of the same type,
from which tentacle pipes also extended. When all the tenta-
cles joined together, Anastasia said:
“You see, they have reprogrammed it to self-destruct. All
the components of the factory where the disruption occurred
will now be remoulded by the other factory and used in pro-
duction.”
And I began feeling a trifle sorry for the robot factory
which had helped me create, albeit unsuccessfully, an Earth-
car. But there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
“Vladimir, would you like to take a look at the everyday life
of the planet’s inhabitants?” Anastasia offered.
“Yes, of course.”
Other worlds
143
We found ourselves overlooking one of the cities or settle-
ments of the huge planet. Our aerial view afforded us the fol-
lowing picture:
As far as the eye could see, the whole populated area con-
sisted of a great many cylindrical installations, something like
our modern skyscrapers, set in a large number of circles. In
the centre of each circle were low-rise structures somewhat
reminiscent of trees on the Earth — even their sensor-leaves
were green. And Anastasia confirmed that these artificial
structures draw up from the ground all the components of
substances needed for sustenance, which are then despatched
through special pipes into the homes of every inhabitant of
this particular world. Not only that but they maintain the
requisite atmosphere for the planet.
When Anastasia suggested paying a visit to one of the
apartments, I asked:
“Can we visit the flat of that brown-haired alien who sat
in my car?”
“Yes,” she replied. ‘At this moment he will be just getting
home from work.”
We found ourselves almost at the very top of one of the
cylindrical skyscrapers. There were absolutely no windows in
this alien apartment block. The circular walls were marked off
into dull-coloured squares. Near the bottom of each square
was a raisable door — the kind you might find on our modern
garages. Now and then one of the doors would open and out
would come a small flying machine similar to the ones we had
seen near the automated factory, and fly off on its own. It
turned out that there was a small garage for one of these ma-
chines located below each apartment in the high-rise.
There were no lifts or doors in the building. Each flat had
its own entrance directly from the garage. And, as it turned
out, every inhabitant of the planet acquired an apartment like
this once he reached a certain age.
144
Book 4: Co-creation
At first I didn’t particularly take to the flat itself. Upon
finding ourselves in the brown-haired man’s flat just after
he arrived home, my initial impression was one of surprise
at its simplicity and apparent lack of amenities. The room,
approximately thirty square metres in area, was completely
barren. It wasn’t just that there were no windows or parti-
tions — there wasn’t even the barest modicum of furniture.
The smooth, pale walls bore not a single painting or shelf by
way of decoration.
“Maybe he’s just got this flat recently?” I asked Anastasia.
“Arkaan has been living here for twenty years now. His
apartment has everything necessary for relaxation, entertain-
ment and work. All the necessary components are built into
the walls. You shall presently see for yourself.”
Indeed, no sooner had the brown-haired alien come up
from his garage below, than the ceiling and walls of the
room began to glow with a soft light. Arkaan turned to
face the wall next to the entrance, placed the palm of his
hand on the surface and uttered a sound. A panel on the
wall lit up.
Anastasia gave a running commentary on everything that
was taking place in the apartment:
“Right now the computer is identifying the apartment’s
owner by the lines of his hand and his eye-scan. Now it is
greeting him and letting him knowhow long he has been gone,
as well as the need to check his physical condition... You see,
Vladimir, Arkaan has put his other hand up to the console
and is letting out a deep sigh so that the computer can check
his physical condition... Now the check-up is complete, and
a message has appeared on the screen telling him he needs to
take a nutrient mixture. It is asking him what he intends to
do over the next three hours.
“This is important for the computer to know in order to
prepare an appropriate mixture. Now Arkaan is asking for a
Other worlds
145
mixture optimised to boost his mental activity for the next
three hours, after which he intends to go to sleep.
“The computer is suggesting that he not engage in any
strenuous mental activity over a three hour period; instead,
it is recommending he take a solution calculated to sustain
work activity for a period of two hours and sixteen minutes.
Arkaan has agreed to the computer’s recommendation.”
At that point a small niche opened in the wall, from which
Arkaan seized hold of a flexible pipe. Putting the end of the
hose to his mouth he took a drink (or a bite to eat) from the
hose and then went over to the opposite wall. The niche hold-
ing the pipe closed up, the screen panel dimmed, and the wall
where the alien had just been standing once more became
smooth and monochrome.
Wow! I thought, with this technology you can do away
with a kitchen and all its equipment, and dishes, and furni-
ture — especially you can do away with clean-up. And even
with a wife who knows how to make a good meal. No need to
go to the store. Besides, at one fell swoop the computer can
check your health, prepare the food you require and make all
sorts of recommendations. I wonder how much a compu-
ter would cost back on the Earth? And immediately I heard
Anastasia say:
‘As for expenditures, it is less expensive to equip each
apartment with such a device than to load kitchens down with
furniture and a whole lot of appliances for food preparation.
They are much more rational than earthlings, all told. But in
fact there is much more rationality on the Earth than here.”
I didn’t pay much attention to Anastasia’s last remark. I
was too absorbed in watching Arkaan’s actions. He went on
giving voice commands, and the following events ensued in
the room.
From a section of the wall all at once an armchair began to
inflate. Then beside the chair another little niche opened,
146
Book 4: Co-creation
from which a small table emerged, along with some kind of
semi-transparent container resembling a laboratory flask.
On the opposite wall of the room a large screen lit up, about
one-and-a-half to two metres in diagonal. The screen showed
a beautiful woman in a slinky body-suit seated in a comfort-
able chair. The woman was holding a container in her hands
similar to the one on the table beside Arkaan. The image of
the woman on the screen was three-dimensional, and much
sharper than on our TV sets. It seemed as though she were
not on a screen, but sitting right there in the room.
Anastasia explained that Arkaan and the woman sitting
opposite him were forming a child together.
“The inhabitants of this planet do not have sufficient
strength of feeling to enter into sexual relations like people
on the Earth. Outwardly their bodies are no different. But
the absence of feelings does not allow them to produce off-
spring the way people do on the Earth. It is their own cells
and hormones that are contained in the test-tubes you see.
Men and women visualise what they would like their future
child to look like. They mentally instil in him the informa-
tion they themselves contain, and discuss his future activity.
This process lasts approximately three years in Earth time.
Once they determine that the process of the child’s forma-
tion is complete, they join the contents of the two contain-
ers together in a special laboratory, the child is produced and
raised in a special nursery school until he comes of age. Then
as a mature member of the community he is offered an apart-
ment and assigned to the personnel roster of one of the work
groups.”
Arkaan alternated his gaze between the woman on the
screen and the liquid in the little sealed container. All at once
the wall screen dimmed, but the alien remained seated in his
chair, his eyes fixed on the container on the table in front of
him holding a particle of his future child. Now the opposite
Other worlds
H7
wall was flashing with red squares. The alien turned side-
ways, his hands shielding his eyes from the flashing lights,
and inclined his head even closer to his container. New illu-
minated squares and triangles began flashing alarmingly from
the ceiling.
“The wake-time allotted Arkaan by the computer has ex-
pired. Now the computer is insistently reminding him of the
need for sleep,” Anastasia explained.
But the alien bent his head down even closer to his flask,
clasping it in his hands.
The lights on the walls and the ceiling stopped flashing.
The room began filling with some kind of steam-like gas.
Anastasia’s voice remarked:
“Now the computer is using gas to put Arkaan to sleep.”
The alien’s head began slowly drooping toward the table
and soon it was resting on it, his eyes closed. The armchair
began emerging even further out of the wall and transforming
itself into a bed. Then the bed-chair began rocking from side
to side, and the body of the already sleeping alien fell back
into a comfortable cradle.
Arkaan slept clasping the little container in his hands to
his chest.
There is so much more to tell about the advanced technologi-
cal features not only of the apartment, but on the huge planet
as a whole. According to Anastasia, the community of people
inhabiting it have no fear of any invasion from the outside.
Not only that, but with the help of their technical achieve-
ments they are capable of destroying life on any other planet
in the Universe. Any except the Earth.
“Why?” I asked. “Does that mean our rockets and weapons
are capable of repelling an attack?” And Anastasia replied:
“Earth rockets pose no threat to them, Vladimir. The civi-
lisation on this planet has long been acquainted with all the
148 Book 4: Co-creation
derivatives of explosion. They also are familiar with implo-
sion.”
“What does that mean, implosion ?”
“Scientists on the Earth know that when two or more sub-
stances which have come together in an instantaneous reac-
tion expand, an explosion occurs. But there is a different re-
action from contact between two substances. Take a gaseous
substance, about a cubic kilometre or more in size, capable
of instantaneously compressing itself to the size of a speck,
thereby becoming a super-hard material. Imagine a grenade
or a rocket exploding in such a cloud, but another force simul-
taneously acting against the explosion — an implosion — will
take place at the same time. And all you will hear then is a
clapping sound. And everything that was in that cloud will be
transformed into a stone the size of a speck. All the rockets
on Earth will not overcome the pall of gaseous clouds.
“In the history of the Earth there have been two comings,
or invasions, on their part. Now they are preparing for a
third. They think a favourable moment for that is once more
approaching.”
“That means nothing can stop them, if there are no weap-
ons on Earth stronger than theirs.”
“Man does have a weapon. It is known as Man’s thought.
Even I alone could turn about half of their weapons into dust
and scatter them through the Universe. And if I could find
some helpers, then together we would be able to liquidate all
their weapons. The only thing is, the majority of people on
the Earth and almost all the governments on the Earth would
consider their invasion a blessing.”
“But how could it happen that everyone took an invasion,
an attack, for a blessing?”
“You will see in a moment. Here, take a look at the centre
which is preparing an invasion force to take over the conti-
nents of the Earth.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The invasion centre
Of course I was eager to see their interplanetary super-tech-
nology that was capable of conquering a whole planet. But
what my eyes actually saw... I think our Russian, American
and other military strategists have absolutely no idea of the
kind of weapons that could so easily be used to take over the
territories they are supposedly protecting.
And you, dear readers, before you read on, try to imagine
how an alien centre preparing for an invasion of the Earth
might be equipped. And then look and see what it looks like
in reality. I shall now attempt to describe its outward ap-
pearance.
A huge square room. Along each of the four walls there is a
life-size replica of the interiors of our own native parliaments
on the Earth. Along one wall is the State Duma, 1 * along with
the office of our President in the Kremlin. On the opposite
wall 1 could see the interiors of the American Congress and
the office of the American president in the White House.
Along the other two walls were the offices of various State
political institutions — in some of the Asian countries, judg-
ing by their appearance.
In the parliamentary seats were sitting our earthling depu-
ties, 3 congressmen and presidents. First of all I began exam-
ining our own Russian deputies. They were an exact copy of
l Duma — the Russian Parliament (derived from the Russian word meaning
‘to think’).
' deputies — members of the Duma are known as deputaty (deputies).
i5o
Book 4: Co-creation
the familiar faces I had seen on TV. Only here they were sit-
ting motionless, like mummies. It is difficult to say what they
were made of. Maybe they were dolls, holograms or robots, or
maybe even something else.
In the middle of the huge hall was a raised platform, on
which were sitting approximately fifty aliens. They were
dressed not in their usual bodysuits, but in our earthly cloth-
ing, and were listening to a speaker standing in front of them.
Probably their chief instructor or some other official.
Anastasia explained that we were observing one of the
landing parties, currently engaged in a routine class session
on preparing for interaction with earthly governments. They
have been studying the most common Earth languages and
the way people behave in various situations. They are paying
special attention to the preparation for contact with govern-
ments and legislative bodies, through which they hope to in-
fluence the whole population of the Earth.
They have mastered conversational speech without too
much difficulty but in the absence of certain feelings capa-
ble of provoking outward emotions, they are finding it rather
hard to mimic Earth people’s gestures. And with their ration-
alistic way of thinking they cannot see any logic in earthly
governmental systems. Despite their drawing upon the best
minds and the most modern technology of their civilisation,
they have still been unable to guess, for example, the secret of
why in spite of the computer technology already available on
the Earth and the multitude of special scientific institutions,
our national legislative bodies are still not provided with in-
formation about the consequences of the decisions they take.
They are convinced that were there a specific analysis cen-
tre — a ‘think tank’, in other words — for which everything
requisite is already available on the Earth, it would be pos-
sible to visualise almost perfectly the social consequences of
all parliamentary decisions. Instead, every legislator, every
The invasion centre
151
member of an earthly government, is obliged to make deci-
sions independently. Not having sufficient information at
their fingertips, each member of a government is obliged to
fulfil the function of a powerful analysis centre and calculate
the consequences not only of his own actions but also those
of his colleagues, enemies and friends.
Another very mysterious question which the aliens have
not been able to guess the answer to is why earthlings do not
define any goal to be attained. They aspire to something, but
to what — that remains a deep secret. Nevertheless, on the
basis of the current requirements of earthly societies the al-
iens have prepared a plan to invade Earth’s continents. They
will begin by making proposals to earthlings through the gov-
ernments of various countries. And their proposals will be
accepted with great enthusiasm.
When I asked Anastasia why she was so confident in gov-
ernmental acceptance of the proposals, she replied as follows:
“This is what their analysis centre has determined. The
conclusions of the centre are correct. Given the level of con-
scious awareness of most earthlings today, they will take the
aliens’ proposal as a supreme manifestation of the humanity
of the Mind of the Universe,”
“And what kind of proposals are they?”
“They are monstrous, Vladimir. It is difficult for me even
to talk about them.”
“Tell me at least the main points. It would be interesting,
after all, to know just what these monstrous proposals are
that would be enthusiastically welcomed on the Earth — the
Earth I live on, and you too.”
“The aliens first plan to land a small party, three of their fly-
ing machines, on Russian territory They will tell the military
personnel which surround them of their desire to meet with
government circles to talk about mutual co-operation. They
will present themselves to the soldiers as representatives of
152
Book 4: Co-creation
the Supreme Mind of the Universe and give them a demon-
stration of their superior technology.
‘After military, scientific and government circles have held
internal consultations, approximately fourteen days later the
aliens will be invited to concretise their proposals, but first
they will have to undergo a medical examination to make sure
it is safe to communicate with them.
“The aliens will agree to the medical examination and then
put their proposals in writing, as well as on video. The text
will be laid out in a form very similar to our modern official
documents, and will be characterised by extreme simplicity.
“The text will read something like this:
We the representatives of an extraterrestrial civilisation , hav-
ing achieved the ultimate level of technological development by
comparison with other intelligent inhabitants of the Universe, do
hereby consider Earth people our brothers in reason.
We are prepared to share our knowledge with societies on the
Earth in various branches of science and social structure and of-
fer them our technology.
We ask you to consider our proposals and select the ones most
suitable for improving the life of every member of your society.
“Then will follow a whole series of concrete proposals, the
substance of which amounts to this:
“The visitors offer to share their technology in providing
each citizen of the country with nutrient mixture and rapid
construction of housing for everyone who has reached the age
of maturity This is the same kind of housing you have already
seen, Vladimir, only with not quite so many functions. As an
example, they will introduce their mini-factories into the
country They will integrate their alien factories with existing
Earth factories, but in five years all Earth technologies will
be discarded and replaced by technologically more advanced
The invasion centre
153
counterparts. A job will be guaranteed for all who wish to have
one. Not only that, but every single inhabitant of the Earth
will be required to contribute a certain minimum amount of
work toward maintaining the technological devices.
“A nation that signs a treaty with the visitors will be com-
pletely protected from military invasion by any other nation.
In a society which embraces the new social order and its tech-
nologically supported lifestyle there will be no crime. In the
apartments provided you, everything you need will react only
to your voice commands, identified by tones inherent only in
your voice. Every day before you take in food, the computers
in your apartments will scan your eyes, breath and other pa-
rameters to determine your physical health and prescribe the
corresponding food mixture composition.
“Each computer installed in an individual apartment will
be linked with the main computer, which will thereby be able
to pinpoint the exact geographic location of every individual,
along with his state of physical and mental health. Any crimi-
nal offence will be easily uncovered with the help of a special
programme in the main computer. Besides, the social condi-
tions which now foster crime will be absent.
“In return, the visitors plan to ask the government’s permis-
sion to settle representatives of their civilisation in sparsely
inhabited areas — mainly in forests — as well as the right of
people to exchange their individual garden plots for techno-
logically equipped apartments and provision of lifetime care
if they choose to do so.
“The governments will agree, under the impression that
they will still be in full control. A number of religious denom-
inations will start preaching that the alien visitors are God’s
emissaries, since the aliens will not deny any of the religions
existing on the Earth. Religious leaders who do not believe in
the aliens’ Divine perfection will find it impossible to stand up
against the visitors since they will be accepted by the majority
i54
Book 4: Co-creation
of the citizens in each country that signs the treaty All other
countries will start seeking similar treaties of co-operation
with the visitors.
“Nine years after the first landing on the Earth a new way
of life will have been speedily inculcated into all countries on
all the continents of the Earth. All information media will
broadcast the ever advancing achievements in technology
and social order. The majority of the population will glorify
the ‘emissaries of the Mind of the Universe’ as intellectually
superior brethren, as deities in themselves.”
“And not without justification,” I remarked to Anastasia.
“There’s nothing wrong in having no wars and crime on the
Earth. Everyone will be provided with an apartment, food
and employment.”
“Vladimir, do you not realise that once mankind accepts
the terms of the aliens, they at the same time renounce their
non-material, Divine self? In fact, it will self-destruct. All
that is left will be material bodies. And every Man, Vladimir,
will come to more and more resemble a biological robot. And
all the children of the Earth will henceforth be born biologi-
cal robots.”
“But why?”
‘All people on the Earth will be compelled to render daily
service to those devices which outwardly serve them. All man-
kind will fall into a trap, surrendering their own freedom and
that of their children for the sake of an artificial technological
perfection. Before long many Earth people will intuitively rec-
ognise their mistake and start ending their lives by suicide.”
“Strange. What would they be lacking?”
“Freedom, creativity and the feelings that only co-creation
with the Divine creation can bring.”
‘And if the parliaments and governments of various coun-
tries are unwilling to sign treaties with the aliens, what then?
Will they start destroying mankind?”
The invasion centre
*55
“Then the alien minds will look for other ways to lead
everybody into a trap. There is no sense in their annihilat-
ing mankind. After all, their goal is to understand the inter-
relationship among all earthly creations, and by what power
reproduction is brought about. Nothing like that can exist
without Man. It is Man who is the chief link in the chain of
harmony of earthly creation. And the Sun’s rays are part of
the energy and feelings that many people reproduce. With
their present level of consciousness today’s Earth people pose
no resistance to the visitors. And many earthlings today are
even trying to render them assistance.”
“How so? Who among us is trying to help them? Does that
mean there are traitors in our midst? Working for them?”
“They are working for them, but these people are not trai-
tors. Their acquiescence in this comes about involuntar-
ily — it is without malice or premeditation. The main reason
is their own lack of faith in themselves and in the perfection
of God’s creations.”
“What’s the connection here?”
“It is simple. When Man admits the thought that he is
not a perfect creation, when he all at once begins to imagine
that there are beings on other planets of superior intellect, he
himself feeds them by his own thought. Man himself thereby
belittles his own God-given power and attributes power to
creations other than the Divine. They have already learnt to
gather the energy human thoughts and feelings can produce
into a unified complex and are proud of that achievement.
“Look, and you will see in front of that group of aliens there
is a container of glowing liquid, which is being transformed
back and forth between gaseous, liquid and solid states. They
have no weapon stronger than what is concentrated in that
small container. Later they will distribute its whole content
into a whole lot of small, shallow containers. One of the sides
of the container will act as a special reflector. Each one of
156
Book 4: Co-creation
them will wear a similar device around his neck in the form of
a medallion. All the aliens you see sitting in front of you are
wearing such devices right now. When a ray from this medal-
lion is directed at a Man, it may provoke in him feelings of
fear, reverence or excitement. And it can paralyse not only a
person’s will, but also his consciousness and his body. This ray
contains thoughts of a multitude of people. People’s thoughts
that there is someone in the Universe stronger than Man.
Stronger than Man, God’s creation. And these thoughts, when
concentrated, can be turned against people themselves.”
“So, it turns out we ourselves give them power when we
consider them mentally superior to ourselves?”
“Yes, that is right. Mentally superior to ourselves means
mentally superior to God.”
“What’s God got to do with it?”
“We are His creations. When we believe that there are other
more perfect worlds in the Universe, that means we are accept-
ing ourselves as imperfect — imperfect creations of God.”
“Wow! And have they already accumulated a lot of such
energy on the alien world?”
“In the container standing in front of you there is enough
energy to overcome approximately three quarters of all the
minds on the Earth and to take over people’s feelings. That
they consider way more than enough. Then the whole earthly
civilisation will begin to pay them obeisance. And their pow-
er will increase.”
“So, is it impossible at this stage to do anything about it?”
“It is possible, if we take a risk and do something they are
not expecting. After all, a full complex of human feelings,
even just one, is always stronger. And it is possible to acceler-
ate thought to a speed unknown to those who have no feel-
ings. And all the energy amassed in that container can be neu-
tralised by the energy of another thought which is brighter,
more confident and more perfect.”
The invasion centre
i?7
‘And you, Anastasia, would you yourself be able to neutral-
ise all the energy in that container?”
“I could try, but I would have to bring my whole body here
for that.”
“Why?”
“My complex of feelings will not be complete without my
body. Matter is one of the planes of Man’s being. With it Man
is stronger than the elements of the Universe.”
“So, go ahead — we need to break the container.”
And all at once in front of me I saw Anastasia in the flesh.
She was dressed just as she had been in the forest, in a car-
digan and skirt. She stood there barefoot on the floor, and
then all at once started walking unhurriedly over to the al-
iens sitting in front of the container with the glowing liquid.
They caught sight of her. No emotions showed themselves
on the faces of these unfeeling beings — only for a brief mo-
ment they remained motionless in their seats. A second later
everyone was astir. Suddenly, as if on command, they all rose
and grasped hold of the medallions around their necks. All
the medallions flashed with rays of light, all directed at the
approaching figure of Anastasia.
She stopped, lost her balance momentarily, took a small step
backward, then stopped again. Giving a little stamp with her
bare foot, she slowly and confidently moved forward again.
The rays coming from the aliens’ medallions got brighter
and brighter as they joined together, concentrating on Anas-
tasia. It looked as though it would take but a moment for
them to reduce all the clothing on her to ashes. But Anasta-
sia continued moving forward. All at once she stretched her
hands out in front of her. Some of the rays reflected off the
palms of her hands and were extinguished. Then the others
started to go out.
The aliens stood there stock still, as before. Anastasia went
over to the container, put her hands around it, stroked it with
i 5 8
Book 4: Co-creation
her palms and whispered something to it. All at once the liq-
uid in the container became turbulent, then its glow began to
gradually fade, and before long there remained a practically
colourless liquid with only a slight bluish tinge, much like or-
dinary water on the Earth.
Anastasia went over to a machine standing by the wall that
looked something like a refrigerator. She pressed her hand
against it, whispered something to it, and out came a show-
er of some kind of small coloured square tablets, which she
caught in the upturned hem of her cardigan.
Anastasia went over to the aliens, who were still standing
dumbstruck as before, and held out one of the tablets to the
one at the end. He stirred, as though about to hold out his
hand, but stopped at once and began staring in the direction
of the man who was standing in front of them all — probably
their leader. And so there was Anastasia standing before him
for about half a minute, her hand outstretched.
Then she went over and stood directly in front of the lead-
er and held out a tablet for him. After a brief pause the leader
took the tablet and put it in his mouth. Anastasia then went
around to each one in turn, and this time everyone calmly
took a tablet from her and ate or swallowed it.
Then she turned from them and came over toward me.
She had got half way to me when all at once she stopped and,
turning toward the group of seated aliens, waved her hand at
them. And several of the aliens got up from their seats and
waved their hand back at her in response. When she reached
my position, she said with a tired voice:
“We need to go back. They have now taken the thought-
accelerating tablets. Let them try to make sense of what has
happened here.”
And then it was all over. I found myself lying on the grass
as before, as though awakening from sleep. It seemed just
a short time had passed, but my body felt rested, as after a
The invasion centre
159
deep, healthy sleep. But my head... Inside me everything felt
as though it were boiling over. As though my thoughts were
running in all directions at once. All the images I had seen on
that other planet completely stayed with me.
What was it? A dream? Hypnosis? Or everything at
once — it still wasn’t clear. To see what is actually happen-
ing on a planet other than the Earth — this was something I
found impossible to believe, and I asked Anastasia who was
sitting beside me:
“What was it? A dream? Hypnosis? I seem to have remem-
bered everything and now my head feels absolutely chaotic.”
And she replied:
“Vladimir, as for the power by which this vision of another
planet appeared to you, take it any way you like. If you find
the question disturbing, you can simply tell yourself you had a
dream. Besides, all that is not what is really important. What
is important is the essence, the conclusions and the sensa-
tions of this vision you saw Think about that while I leave
you for awhile.”
“Yes, go on. I’ll be thinking about it here on my own.”
Left alone, I began to ponder what I had seen. Naturally I
concluded that I had had some kind of hypnotic dream.
After taking just a few steps, however, Anastasia suddenly
turned and headed back in my direction. She took something
out of the pocket of her cardigan, and held out her open hand
to me. And there I saw it, lying on her hand... a strange-look-
ing tablet, the same kind I had seen on the other planet.
“Take it, Vladimir. You need not be afraid to swallow it.
On the planet you and I visited they make these out of herbs
from here on the Earth. For about fifteen minutes it will help
accelerate your thought, and you will be able to make sense of
everything all the more quickly.”
I took the little tablet from her outstretched hand, and
when Anastasia left, I ate it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Take back your Motherland,
people!
At first I found my dialogue with Anastasia about what con-
stitutes the Motherland rather unintelligible. Her arguments
didn’t even seem normal to me, at least initially But later...
Even today I can’t help thinking of them. I distinctly re-
call her response to my questions about what to do to prevent
war — either earthly or interplanetary — from happening to
us, to eliminate bandits altogether and bear happy and healthy
children. It went this way:
“We need to tell everyone, Vladimir: Take back your Moth-
erland, people /”
“‘Take back your Motherland?’ — are you sure you’re not
mistaken, Anastasia? Everyone has a Motherland, or a native
1 Motherland — The Russian term here is rodina , also translatable as native
land. Rodina conveys a deep reverence to one’s ancestors, responsibility for
descendants and an intimate connection to the land one’s family lives on.
As explained in footnote 2 in Book 2, Chapter 27: “The anomaly”, the term
Rodina is derived from two Russian roots connected by i (= ‘and’): (a) Rod —
the name of God the Creator in the ancient Slavic tradition, also signifying
‘origin’, ‘derivation’, ‘birth’, ‘kin’ and, by extension, ‘Father’, and (b) Na — a
root signifying ‘Mother’, and quite possibly the same root as the na in the
Latin participle natus (‘born’), from which our English words native and na-
ture are derived. Subsequently Rod i Na (‘Father and Mother’) took on the
broader significance of one’s family (or ‘kin’), and by association came to
refer to the particular geographical location occupied by succeeding gen-
erations of the same family. Readers should be aware that it is the ‘native’
or ‘family’ aspect, more than the ‘land’ component, that is significant in
understanding the term Motherland (i.e., Rodina) in this and subsequent
chapters.
Take back your Motherland, people! 1 6 1
land, only not everybody lives in the country where they were
born. Maybe you didn’t mean ‘ take back your Motherland’,
but ‘you need to come back to your Motherland’ — is that what
you were trying to say?”
“I was not mistaken, Vladimir. Most people living on this
planet today have no Motherland at all.”
“What d’you mean they haven’t a Motherland? For Rus-
sians, Russia is their Motherland, the English have England.
After all, everybody was born somewhere, and so people will
use the term Motherland or native land to refer to the land
where they were born.”
“Do you consider that one’s Motherland must be measured
by someone’s arbitrarily determined border?”
“What else? That’s the way things are. All states have bor-
ders.”
“But if there were no borders, how could you determine
your Motherland then?”
“By the place I was born — the town or village — or maybe
the whole Earth would then be a Motherland for everyone?”
“The whole Earth could be a Motherland for each one of
its inhabitants, and Man could be caressed by everything in
the Universe, but tor that to happen, he would need to join
together all planes of being into a single point, call it his Moth-
erland ' and create with his own self a Space of Love therein.
Then all the best things of the Universe would come into con-
tact with it first hand — come into contact with the space
of your Motherland. You in yourself will feel the whole vast
Universe through this point, and possess power unsurpassed.
They will know about this on other worlds. Everything will
serve you, as God, our Creator, wanted it.”
“You’ve really got to speak in simpler terms, Anastasia. I
didn’t get anything about those ‘planes of being’, or how to
join together their strands. Or about the ‘point’ I can call my
Motherland.”
\ 6 i Book 4: Co-creation
“Then we need to begin our discussion with what consti-
tutes birth.”
“Well, okay, with birth then. Only don’t just say words,
but use words that make sense for us on the Earth today Tell
me, for example, how you see, how you picture the genera-
tion of the family — the birth and raising of children — in
today’s prevailing conditions. And how all the children of
Man can be born happy Can you construct a plan or draw
me a picture?”
“I can.”
“Then tell me about it. Only not about life in the forest or
about the incomprehensible science of imagery. Nobody knows
anything about that, only you...”
I couldn’t finish the sentence. My head was buzzing with
not just one but a whole lot of questions. Especially: Why was
I even interested in knowing what this taiga recluse would tell
me about our lives? How does she happen to know not only
the outward details of our lives but many people’s inner feel-
ings too? What were the possibilities of this incomprehensi-
ble science of imagery?
I couldn’t stay seated. I got up and began to pace to and
fro. Trying to calm down and to make sense of — to under-
stand — these incredible phenomena, I began to reason like
this:
Here’s this young woman calmly sitting under a cedar
tree — ruffling her hand slowly through the grass, or watch-
ing some bug crawl up her arm, or immersing herself briefly
in thought. Here she sits in the taiga, far removed from the
bustling day-to-day life of cities and nations, far removed
from wars and all the troubles of the civilised world. But what
if she actually knows this science of imagery to perfection?
What if she can use it to influence people and society, and in
a more powerful way than all our governments, parliaments
and religious denominations? Incredible! A fantasy! But...
Take back your Motherland, people! 163
There are actual concrete facts which confirm this. Incred-
ible facts, indeed! But they really do exist.
In a very short time she taught me to write books. She
needed only three days to do this. She was the one pouring
forth over and over again an unending stream of informa-
tion. Incredible, but fact. Without so much as an advertising
campaign, her books have easily spread across municipal and
national boundaries. Her image is in these books. By some
unknown means this image influences people and arouses
creative impulses in them. Thousands of lines of poetry and
hundreds of bards’ songs are dedicated to her image.
And this is something she has known about all along!
Right there in the first book I outlined what she said on this
subject. Back then there was nothing as yet. At the time her
words seemed like incredible nonsense, like a fantasy. But
everything came about exactly as she had said. And now,
even as I am writing these lines, incredible things have been
happening.
In 1999 the Prof-Press publishing house put out a 500-
page anthology of readers’ letters and poems. 2 The anthology
was published in July, considered a ‘dead season’ for booksell-
ers. But an incredible thing happened: the whole print-run of
15,000 copies sold out within a single month.
Another 15,000 copies have been printed, but these books
instantly sold out, too. Such an event may not be so spec-
tacular for a sensationalism-ridden press. In fact, it goes far
beyond the conceptual bounds of sensationalism by virtue of
the uniqueness of the conclusions stemming from it — con-
clusions that defy credulity. It is indeed hard to believe that
This readers’ anthology, entitled V luche Anastasii zvucbit diisha Rossii (The
soul of Russia sings in Anastasia’s ray), was first released in 1999 by Prof-
Press in the city of Rostov-on-Don, and was subsequently re-published by
Dilya Publishers of St. Petersburg.
164 Book 4: Co-creation
Anastasia’s image is actually changing the consciousness of
society
Readers feel the need of taking action. People both in Rus-
sia and abroad are independently organising readers’ clubs
and centres, calling them after her.
A Novosibirsk medical factory is producing the cedar oil
she talked about. And in a small village in the Novosibirsk
Region local residents are repairing their old equipment and
endeavouring to produce healing oil according to the tech-
nology she recommended, and they are getting help from the
city
It was she herself who said that Siberian villages would be
regenerated, and that children would start coming back to
their parents.
She has been redirecting the flood of pilgrims from foreign
temples to our native sacred sites. In the past two years alone
the dolmens she spoke about on the outskirts of Gelendzhik 3
have been visited by over fifty thousand of her readers.
Around these previously neglected sacred sites people are
now planting flowers and gardens. And in a number of cities
they are planting cedars and other growing things according
to her method.
By decree of the head of the Tomsk Region administra-
tion an enterprise has been set up under the name of Sibirskie
dikorosy (Siberian Flora). It has now sent four thousand cedar
saplings to Moscow.
Scientists are talking about Anastasia, tier image as a liv-
ing, self-sufficient substance is already soaring across Russia.
But only Russia? Women in Kazakhstan are collecting mon-
ey to make a film about Anastasia. Wow! Here are Kazakh
women wanting to make a film about a Siberian recluse?!
3 dolmens , Gelendzhik — see footnotes i and 2 in Book 1, Chapter 30: ‘Au-
thor’s message to readers".
Take back your Motherland, people ! 165
This image of hers is beginning to lead people somewhere.
But where? By what power? Who is helping her? It is possi-
ble she herself possesses some kind of incredible power hith-
erto unknown. But why is she staying in her glade as before,
still messing about with bugs?
While intellectuals are arguing over whether or not she ex-
ists at all, she is simply taking action. The results of her ac-
tions can be seen, touched and tasted. What is this science
of imagery?
Back in the taiga, I found such thoughts a trifle confusing.
I wanted to have them either disproved or confirmed on the
spot, but she was the only one around, the only one I could
ask.
So I’m going to ask her. She is incapable of lying. I’m going to
ask her.
“Tell me, Anastasia... Tell me, do you have a perfect knowl-
edge of the science of imagery? Do you possess the knowl-
edge of those ancient priests?”
I was greatly excited as I awaited her reply, but a calm voice
responded without the least hint of excitement:
“I know what my forefather taught those priests. And also
what the priests did not give him the opportunity to say And
I have endeavoured to find out and feel new things on my
own.”
“Now I get it! Just as I thought! You are more of an expert
than anyone else on the science of imagery And you have
created your own image and placed it before people. For
many you are a goddess, a messiah, a forest sprite. That is
how readers write about you in their letters. You have told me
I should write down everything — as though pride and self-
conceit were a great sin. And I have presented myself before
the public as a bumbler, whil eyou have come out exalted over
everyone, and what’s more, you knew it was going to turn out
this way in advance.”
1 66
Book 4: Co-creation
“Vladimir, I have not concealed anything from you.”
Anastasia rose from the ground and stood in front of me,
her arms down by her sides. She looked me straight in the eye
and went on:
“Only my image is not yet clear to everyone. But that
other image which will be out there before the people, will
also be mine. My image will resemble that of a cleaning lady
who is simply dusting the cobwebs off the most important
thing.”
“What’s this about cobwebs? Speak more clearly, Anasta-
sia. What is it you want to ‘create’ this time?”
“I want to animate, bring alive, the image of God to peo-
ple. I want to make His grand dream clear to everyone, so
that every living person may feel His aspiration of love. Man
can become happy here and now, in this life. The children of
people on the Earth today will live in His Paradise. I am not
alone. You are not alone. And Paradise will appear as a con-
joint co-creation.”
“Hold on, hold on there. I realise now that your words will
cause many teachings to fall apart. Their instigators and their
followers will start not only lambasting you but bombarding
me too. Who needs problems like that? I refuse to write
down everything you say about God.”
“Vladimir, here you are afraid just of the thought of strug-
gling with someone you do not know”
“No, it’s all quite clear to me. I’ll get descended upon by all
the religious leaders. They’ll poison their fanatical followers
against me.”
“It is not them — you are afraid of yourself, Vladimir. You
are ashamed to present yourself before God. You do not be-
lieve in your newway of life. You think you cannot change.”
“What’s this got to do with me? I’m telling you about
the clerics. So many of them are already reacting to your
sayings.”
Take back your Motherland, people !
167
‘And what are they saying to you?” Anastasia enquired.
“Different things. Some react negatively, while others —
just the opposite. One Orthodox priest from Ukraine came
to me along with his parishioners in support of your sayings.
But he’s just a country priest.”
‘And what do you mean when you say a ‘country’ priest
came to see you?”
“I mean there are others, higher-ups. Everybody’s subject
to them. Everything depends on them.”
“But still, even those ‘higher-ups’, as you call them, also
once served in the smaller churches.”
“That makes no difference. All the same I’m not going to
write until at least somebody in charge of some major tem-
ple... Anyway, what am I saying? You can predict everything
that’s going to happen ahead of time. So tell me, who will be
against you, and who will help you? Will there be anyone, in
fact, who comes to your assistance?”
“What clerical rank could convince you to be bolder,
Vladimir?”
“Nothing less than a Father Superior or a bishop. Can you
name any?”
She thought just for a split-second, as though gazing into
both time and space at once.
And then came this incredible answer:
‘Assistance has already come, Vladimir, from someone
who has uttered new statements about God — namely Pope
John Paul II,” Anastasia replied. “The images of Christ and
Mohammed will unite their energies in space, and other im-
ages will merge together with them. There will also be an Or-
thodox patriarch , 4 whose words will be revered for centuries.
But, most importantly, there will be impulses of inspiration
among all ordinary people. It may be their earthly status that
4 patriarch — the titular head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
1 68
Book 4: Co-creation
is important to you, but, after all, truth is more important
than anything on Earth.”
At this point Anastasia ceased talking and lowered her eyes,
as though she had been suddenly offended by something. It
appeared as though a lump in her throat had welled up, but
she swallowed it and sighed. Then she added:
“Forgive me — I fear I am not making myself clear to your
heart. Things are not working out at the moment on my part,
but I shall try to be clearer, only let the people hear...”
“About what?”
“About what others have tried for a thousand years to hide
from them. About how it takes hardly a moment for any one
of them to enter the Creator’s pristine garden and there bring
about splendid conjoint creations with Him.”
I could feel a sense of agitation building inside her. And I
myself, for some reason, began feeling agitated, and said:
“Don’t be concerned. Tell me, Anastasia, and perhaps I
shall be able to understand and write about it.”
And what she went on to say she said in an extremely con-
crete and simple way. It was only later, after analysing and
pondering her words, that I began to understand, and could
feel some sense — a significant sense at that — in her words
“Take back your Motherland, people!” But back there, in the
forest, I asked her once more:
“I see how it’s all going to come about. I see that if you can
so easily bring out images of life of thousands of years ago,
that means you must know all religious teachings and trea-
tises, and that you will reveal them to people?”
“I know the teachings that called forth reverence among
people.”
“All of them?”
“Yes, all of them.”
“And the Vedic scriptures you can translate in their en-
tirety?”
Take back your Motherland, people!
169
“I can. Only why waste time on that?”
“But look, don’t you want mankind to know about those
ancient teachings? Tell me about them, and I shall write
about them in my next book.”
‘And what then? What do you think will be the net benefit
to mankind?”
“What d’you mean? They’ll become wiser.”
“Vladimir, the whole nature of the dark forces’ trap is that
with their multitude of teachings they try to conceal the
most important thing from Man. By presenting a portion of
truth — only for the mind — in their treatises, they deliber-
ately lead people away from the most important thing.”
“Then why do people call the ones that present such teach-
ings wise merit”
“Vladimir, if you will allow me, I shall tell you a parable. It
is a parable that a thousand years ago was whispered by wise
men to each other in some secluded spot. For many centuries
now no one has heard this parable.”
“Then go ahead and tell it to me, if you think that the par-
able may be helpful in explaining something.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Once upon a time lived a couple that for many years had no
children. When they were well on in age, the wife bore twin
boys — two brothers. The labour was difficult, and shortly
after childbirth their mother passed on to the next world.
Their father hired wet-nurses, and tried to bring up his
children as best he could. And he managed indeed, for nigh
on fourteen years. But as his boys approached their fifteenth
birthday, the father himself passed on.
After burying their father, the two brothers sat mourning
in their room. Two twin brothers. Three minutes separated
their emergings into the world, and so between the two of
them one was considered the elder, his brother the younger.
After a period of mournful silence the elder brother spoke:
“Our father on his deathbed told us of his sorrow that he
had not been able to impart to us the wisdom of life. How
shall you and I live without wisdom, my dear younger brother?
Without wisdom our family line will go on in misery. People
who have managed to gain wisdom from their fathers might
laugh at us.”
“Do not be sad,” said the younger to his elder brother. “You
spend a good deal of time in reverie. Perchance time will af-
ford you the opportunity in your reverie to learn wisdom too.
I shall do everything you say I myself can live without reverie,
yet I still find living a pleasing experience. I am happy when
the day dawns and when it draws to a close. I shall simply live,
take care of the household, while you are learning wisdom.”
Two brothers
171
‘Agreed,” replied the elder to the younger. “Only there is
no opportunity to seek out wisdom by staying here at home.
There is no wisdom here, no one has left it here and no one will
bring it to us of their own accord. But I as the elder brother
have decided I must, for both our sakes, and for the sake of
our line which will extend through time, find everything that
is wise in this world. I must find it and bring it home, and be-
stow it upon our descendants as well as our own selves. I shall
take with me everything of value our father left us, and travel
throughout the world and meet all the wise people of differ-
ent lands. I shall learn all their teachings and then return to
my native home.”
“"four course will be a long one,” said the younger brother
sympathetically. “We have a horse. Take the horse, and the
cart as well, and on your departure take along as much goods
as you can carry, so that you will find your journey the less
hard. I shall stay at home and await your returning as the wis-
est of men.”
The brothers parted for a very long time. Years went by.
The elder brother went from wise man to wise man, from
temple to temple, learning the teachings of the Orient and
the Occident, journeying to the North and to the South. He
possessed a colossal memory, and his keen intellect quickly
grasped everything he heard and committed it to heart.
For about sixty years the elder brother plied the highways
and byways of the world. His hair and beard turned to ashen
grey His inquisitive mind kept roaming and honing his wis-
dom. And this ageing pilgrim came to be considered himself
the wisest of men. He was followed around by a crowd of
disciples. To inquisitive minds he generously preached his
wisdom. Both young and old hung on his every word. And
his glory and fame preceded him wherever he came, and com-
munities would proclaim in advance the wise man’s great
coming.
1 72
Book 4: Co-creation
And so it was in an aura of glory, surrounded by a throng of
obsequious disciples, that the ageing wise man drew nearer
and nearer to the village where he was born and the house
which he had left sixty years before as a youth of fifteen.
All the people of the village turned out to greet him, and
the younger brother, showing similar signs of grey, ran toward
him rejoicing, and bowed his head before his learned brother.
And he whispered with gladsome tenderness:
“Bless me, O my learned brother. Come into our home, I
shall wash your feet after your long journey Come into our
home, my wise brother, and take your rest.”
With a magnanimous sweep of his hand he gestured to all
his disciples to remain on the little hill in front of the village,
accept gifts from the well-wishers and engage in learned con-
versations, while he himself entered the home of his younger
brother. The wise man, like an ageing dignitary, sat down wea-
rily at the table in the spacious upper room. And the younger
brother began washing his feet with warm water and listening
to what his learned brother had to say. And the wise man be-
gan speaking to him as follows:
“I have fulfilled my duty I have learnt the teachings of the
great wise men of the Earth, and I have created teachings of
my own. I shall not stay long at home. Now to impart what
I have learnt to others — that is my part. But since I prom-
ised to bring my wisdom home, I shall fulfil my promise and
sojourn a day or two with you. During this extent of time, my
dear younger brother, I shall impart to you the wisest pearls
of truth in the world.
“Here is the first: all people should live in a splendid garden."
Drying his elder brother’s feet with a beautifully embroi-
dered towel, the younger went to considerable effort to please
him, saying:
“Go to, my brother. On the table before you are the fruits
of our garden — I have gathered the very best for you.”
Two brothers
m
The wise man thoughtfully tasted the marvellous array of
fruits before him, and went on:
“ Every Man living on the Earth should cidtivate his own family
tree. When he dies, the tree will remain as a good memorial
for his descendants. It will purify the air with its leaves so
that his descendants will be better able to breathe. We should
all be able to breathe good air.”
The younger brother began to show signs of haste and ef-
fort, and said:
“Forgive me, my wise brother, I forgot to open the window
so that you can breathe fresh air.” Whereupon he threw the
window open and then went on:
“Here, breathe the air of our two cedar trees. I planted
them the year you left. I dug a hole with my spade for one of
the saplings, for the other I used the spade you played with
when we were youngsters.”
The wise man thoughtfully gazed at the trees, and then in-
toned:
“Love is a grand feeling. Not everyone is handed the op-
portunity to live his life with love. And there is a grand wis-
dom: each of us shoidd strive every day for love”
“Oh, how wise you are, my dear elder brother!” exclaimed
the younger. “You have learnt such great wisdom, and I am
embarrassed in your presence. Forgive me, I have not even
introduced you to my wife...” And he called out toward the
doorway:
“ Starushka ! Where are you, my little cookie?” 1
“Here I am!” a voice piped up. And in the doorway a cheer-
ful old woman appeared with plates of fresh steaming pies in
her hands. “Sorry, Fve been busy making pies.”
1 starushka — an affectionate term for an elderly woman; little cookie (Rus-
sian: striapushka ) — an endearing name derived from the word striapukha
(lit., ‘cook’), and rhyming with starushka.
x 74
Book 4: Co-creation
Putting the pies down on the table, the cheerful starushka
did a playful curtsy to the two brothers. And then she went
over to the younger brother, her husband, and whispered in
his ear, but loudly enough for the elder brother to hear:
‘And now you must forgive me, hubby, I have to go lie
down.”
“How now, my ne’er-do-well?” her husband replied. “You’ve
decided to go have a nap when we have an honoured guest?
My very own brother — and you go...?”
“It’s not that, my head is spinning and I’m starting to feel
a bit nauseous.”
‘And how could that possibly happen to you, my little busy-
body?”
“Perhaps you are the one to blame, no doubt, again. I
am once more with child,” laughed the starushka, as she ran
off.
“My apologies, brother,” the younger brother excused him-
self in some embarrassment. “She doesn’t know the value of
wisdom, she’s always been light-hearted and is still that way,
even in her old age.”
The wise man’s thoughtful moments became increasingly
longer. His reverie was broken by the sound of children’s
voices. The wise man heard them and said:
“Every Man should strive to learn great wisdom. To learn
how to raise children that will be happy and righteous
“Tell me, learned brother, I long to make my children and
grandchildren happy — you see, my noisy little grandchildren
have just come in.”
Two boys no older than six and a little girl of about four
were standing in the doorway and quarrelling amongst them-
selves. In an attempt to smooth things out, the grey-haired
younger brother hastened to say to them:
“Quickly tell me what all the fuss is about, my noisy ones.
You’re interfering in our conversation.”
Two brothers
H5
“Oh,” the smaller boy exclaimed, “it seems our one grandpa
has become two! Well then now, which is ours and which is
not, how do we tell?”
“Here’s our Grandpakins sitting right here, isn’t it clear?”
piped up the little girl, running over to the younger broth-
er, putting her cheek against his leg, tousling his beard and
prattling:
“Grandpakins, Grandpakins, I was coming to see you all
by myself, to show you how I’ve learnt to dance, and the boys
decided to tag along all on their own. One of them wants to
draw with you — see, he’s brought a board and some chalk.
The other’s brought a flute and a pipe — he wants you to play
them for him. But Grandpakins, Grandpakins, I was the one
who decided to come and see you first. You tell the others
that. You can send them home, Grandpakins!”
“She’s wrong. I came first to draw with you, and my
brother only then decided he wanted to come with me, to
play the flute,” observed the boy carrying the thin piece of
board.
“There are two of you grandpakins, you decide,” the grand-
daughter chimed in. “Which of us came first? You’d better
decide that I was first, or else I’m going to feel terribly hurt
and cry.”
The wise man smiled sadly at the youngsters. He furrowed
his brow, working out a response in his mind, but said noth-
ing. The younger brother became flustered, and decided to
cut short the ensuing pause. He took the flute out of his
grandson’s hands and said without stopping to think:
“We don’t have any cause for quarrel here. Dance, my
pretty little jumper, and I shall accompany your dance on the
flute. My dear little musician will accompany me on the pipe.
And you, my dear little artist, draw what the sounds of the
music are drawing, and draw the ballerina doing her dance.
And now, everybody to their tasks — look to it, lads!”
176
Book 4: Co-creation
Whereupon the younger brother struck up a cheerful and
splendid melody on the flute, and the grandchildren enthu-
siastically imitated him in time, portraying their favourite
images. The future famous musician playing the pipe tried
his best to keep up with the melody The blushing girl leapt
about like a ballerina in a delightful portrayal of her dance.
The future artist drew a picture full of joy.
The wise man kept silent. The wise man realised... When
the merriment was finished, he rose and said solemnly:
“You remember, my dear younger brother, our father’s old
hammer and chisel. Give them to me, and I shall hew out on
a rock the most important lesson of all. Then I shall go away.
I probably shan’t come back. Don’t stop me, and don’t wait
for me.”
The elder brother left. The ageing wise man went with his
disciples over to a great rock which a pathway bent around.
The same pathway that lured wisdom-seeking pilgrims into
lands far from home. A whole day passed, and night fell, but
the grey-haired wise man kept hammering and chiselling away
at the inscription on the rock. When the aged man finished
his work in exhaustion, his disciples read the inscription on
the rock:
Whatever you seek, pilgrim, you are already carrying with you. Ton
keep losing it with every step you take, and are finding nothing new.
Upon finishing the parable, Anastasia fell silent. She gave me
an enquiring look in the eye, no doubt wondering what I had
got from it.
“Well, Anastasia, I took from the parable that all the pearls
of wisdom the elder brother talked about, the younger broth-
er was already implementing in his day-to-day life. There’s
just one thing that isn’t clear to me, though: who taught the
younger brother all these wise things?”
Two brothers
177
“No one. All the wisdom of the Universe is included for
ever in each soul right from the moment it is created. It is just
that wise men slyly intellectualise for their own interests, and
thereby lead people away from the most important thing.”
“From ‘the most important thing? But what is the most
important thing?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Even today everyone
can build a home
“The most important thing, Vladimir, is that even today eve-
ryone can build a home. Everyone can feel God with their
soul and live in Paradise. One single moment is all that sepa-
rates Paradise from people living on the Earth today Each
one possesses conscious awareness within. When dogmas do
not interfere with this awareness, then look, Vladimir, what
can come to pass...”
All at once Anastasia brightened. She grasped hold of my
hand and led me to the shore of the lake where there was a
patch of bare sand, and started talking to me along the way
“It only takes a moment. You will understand everything in
just a moment of time. And everyone will understand — the
readers, yours and mine.
“Within themselves they will define the essence of the
Earth, and become aware of their destined purpose. Right
this moment, Vladimir, see, right this moment we shall in our
thoughts build our home! I and you, and all of them too. And
I assure you indeed that the thought of each one of them will
be brought into contact with the thought of God. The gates
of Paradise will open. Let us go, let us move with more speed.
I shall draw it with a stick upon the shore...
“We shall build a home together with those who into
contact with your written words will later come. All human
thought will merge together into one. Believe me, people
have God’s ability within them to turn what they conceive
into reality And many a home will stand upon the land. And
Even today everyone can build a home 179
each one in their own homes will be able to grasp everything
first hand. They will be able to feel and understand the aspi-
rations of the Divine dream. We shall build a home! I and
you, and all of them too!”
“Hold on there, Anastasia. There are a whole bunch of
different designs out there for homes where people are liv-
ing now; What sense can there be in proposing yet another
one?”
“Vladimir, you must do more than simply listen to me! You
must feel everything that I outline, and mentally complete
yourself the whole design, and let everyone else draw it along
with me. O, God! People, at least give it a try, I beg of you!”
Anastasia was literally trembling with joyful excitement.
She was reaching out to people, and I found myself grow-
ing more and more interested in her design. And at first it
seemed simple to me, yet at the same time I had the feeling
as though this recluse, Anastasia, was revealing to everyone
a most extraordinary secret. The whole secret was in utter
simplicity, and if I can remember the events in order, this is
how they all went.
Anastasia continued;
“First choose for yourself a place of your own you like best
of all the pleasing spaces on the Earth. A place where you
would like to live, and would like your children to live out their
lives. And then you will indeed leave to your great-grandchil-
dren a fitting memorial to you. The climate, too, in that place
must be favourable for you. Take one hectare 1 of land in that
place for yourself in perpetuity”
“But nobody can just come along and take any piece of land
they jolly well desire. Land today is sold only in places where
people wish to sell it.”
1 hectare — designating an area 100 metres square or 10,000 square metres,
approximately equivalent to 2.5 acres in the Imperial system.
i8o
Book 4: Co-creation
“Yes, unfortunately, everything happens that way today.
Our Motherland is extensive, but there is not a single hec-
tare of your land where you can create a corner of Paradise
for your children and descendants. And yet the time has now
come when we must begin acting on this cause. And take ad-
vantage of the most favourable of all the existing laws.”
“I don’t know all the laws, of course, but I’m sure there is no
law allowing someone to take possession of a parcel of land in
perpetuity Farmers can rent a good deal of land, but only for
ninety-nine years.” 1 2
“Well then, we can start by taking it for a shorter span of
time, but we need at once to plan a law so that everyone may
have his own parcel of ground, his own Motherland. Wheth-
er or not and to what degree the country flourishes as a state
depends on this. And if there is no appropriate law at the
moment, well, you will have to make one.”
“That’s easier said than done. Our laws are made by the
State Duma. It has to make some amendment or introduce
a new article into the Constitution. And the parties in the
Duma are constantly fighting with each other — there’s no
way they can settle the land question.”
“Then if there is no party capable of enshrining into law
everyone’s right to their Motherland, you will have to form
such a party” 3
1 ninety-nine years — Ninety-nine-year leases, still in effect in Russia, were once
common in many lands. Yet even today, the right to so-called ‘land ownership’
in most Western countries can be all too easily abrogated by governments if
taxes on the land are not paid (and paid on time!), or if ‘private’ land is expro-
priated for a deemed ‘public’ need (the legal doctrine of eminent domain).
3 a party — In 2005 the Russian ‘Motherland party'’ ( Rodnaya partiya) was
established with the specific purpose of bringing forth legislation on al-
locating ‘pieces of Motherland’ to people in the form of family plots, just as
Anastasia proposes here. In fact, the name Rodnaya partiya was suggested
in Book 8 (Part 2) of the Ringing Cedars Series, published shortly before
the new party' was announced.
Even today everyone can build a home
181
‘And who will set it up?”
“Those who will read about the home we are creating and
become aware of what a Motherland means to each one, to
each Man living today, and to the future of the whole Earth.”
“Well, enough about political parties. Tell me rather about
this unusual home of yours. I’m really interested now in what
new design you can possibly bring forth. Let’s say someone
has come into possession of a hectare of land. Not exactly a
Paradise, but, say, one grown over with wild grasses — they’re
probably not going to give him better than that. And there he
is, standing on his hectare of land — what next?”
“Think about it yourself, Vladimir, and dream a little, too.
What could you do if you were standing on your own land?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“First of all,” I said, “first of all, everything, of course, must
be enclosed by a fence. Otherwise, when they start bringing
in building materials to construct the manor house, some-
body could come along and pilfer them. And when you plant
a crop, it might be stolen before you harvest it. Or are you
against fences on principle?”
“I am not against them, Vladimir. Even animals mark out
their own territory Only what are you going to make the
fence of?”
“What d’you mean, what of? Fence boards, of course... No,
wait. Fence boards can turn out to be on the expensive side.
For starters you need to dig post holes and string up barbed
wire all around the property Even then you should still put
up boards so people wouldn’t see inside the fence.”
“And how many years could a board fence last without
needing repair?”
“If it is constructed of good material, if you keep it painted
or varnished and smear the parts of the posts that are in the
ground with pitch, it might go five years or more without
needing repair.”
‘And then?”
“Then you’d probably need to do some repair work and
touch it up to keep it from rotting.”
“So, that means you will constantly have to fuss over the
fence. And it will give your children and grandchildren even
greater cause for concern. Would it not be better to construct
it so your children will not have to bother about it, and so that
A fence
183
their view will not be spoilt by the sight of rotting timber?
Let us think how to make the fence more solid and long-last-
ing, so that your descendants may have fonder remembrances
of you.”
“Of course, you can build it so it will last longer. Who
wouldn’t want that? For example, you could make brick pil-
lars and a brick foundation, and put cast-iron grill work in
between — that kind of fence doesn’t rust. It can even last a
hundred years. But only very rich people can afford to build a
fence like that. Can you imagine? A whole hectare — that’s a
perimeter of 400 metres. A fence like that’s going to set you
back several hundred thousand roubles, maybe even millions.
Still, it’ll last a good hundred years, maybe two hundred or
more. You can even have it made with all sorts of family mon-
ograms. Your descendants will look at it and remember their
great-grandfather, and it’ll be the envy of everyone around.”
“Envy is not a good feeling, Vladimir. In fact, it is harm-
ful.”
“Well, there’s not much you can do about that. I tell you,
enclosing a hectare of land with a good fence is not something
many people can afford.”
“That means we must think up some other kind offence.”
“What other kind? Can you suggest something?”
“Would it not be better, Vladimir, in place of a whole lot of
posts, which can later rot, to plant trees?”
“Trees? And then what, nail boards...?”
“Why nail boards to them? Look there, in the forest there
are a lot of trees growing with their trunks only one-and-one-
half to two metres apart.”
“Yes, you’re right. But there are holes between them. It’s
not the same as a fence.”
“But it is possible to plant bushes in between them that
people cannot get through. Take a careful look, and think
what a splendid living fence you would have! And it would
184
Book 4: Co-creation
be just a little bit different with each person. And everyone
would come to admire the view And your descendants in
the ages to come will remember the creator of this splendid
hedge. And the hedge will not only save them time on repairs
but will bring them benefits as well. It will serve, in fact, as far
more than just a barrier. One person will make a hedge out of
birches growing in a row. Another will use oak. And someone
with a creative impulse will make a coloured hedge, the kind
one reads about in fairy tales.”
“What d’you mean, coloured?”
“Planting different-coloured trees. Birches, maples, oaks
and cedars. Someone may intertwine a rowan-tree with clus-
ters of bright red berries and still plant guelder-roses in be-
tween. And make room for bird-cherry trees and lilac bush-
es. After all, you can plan it all out in advance. Each planter
should watch to see how high each one grows, how it blooms
in the spring, what kind of a fragrance it has and what feath-
ered friends it attracts. Thus your hedge will be both sono-
rous and pleasantly fragrant, and you will never get tired of
looking at it, as the picture will be changing its tints with each
passing day It will flourish with colours anew every spring
and every autumn burst forth in an explosion of fiery hues.”
“Well, Anastasia, it seems you’re a poetess as well. We be-
gan with just a simple fence, and now see what all you’ve made
of it! You know, I really like the way you’ve turned the whole
thing around. And why haven’t people thought of this before?
No painting required, no repair. And wdien the trees get too
big, they can be cut down and used for firewood and people
can plant new trees — they can change the picture, just like
an artist. The only thing is, won’t it take a long time to plant
that kind of a hedge? And if you’re going to plant the trees
two metres apart, then you’ve got to dig two hundred holes
for the saplings. And then plant the bushes in between. And
no technology will be allowed, you’ll say”
A fence
185
“On the contrary, Vladimir. There is no sense in rejecting
technology for the project at hand. Indeed, any invention of
the dark forces must be put to use to serve the forces of light.
It will hasten the implementation of the plan if you use a
plough to dig a trench around the perimeter of the ground-lot
and plant the saplings in it, along with the seeds at the same
time — for the bushes you have decided to plant between the
trees. Then you can go over it again with the plough to fill in
the soil. While the earth is still loose, you can adjust the posi-
tion of each sapling to even out the row.”
“That’s fantastic. So in two or three days one person can
put in a whole hedge.”
“Yes.”
“The only drawback is that until the hedge grows, it won’t
deter any thieves. And people will have to wait a long time for
it to grow. Especially in the case of oak and cedar.”
“But birch and aspen grow quickly, and the bushes between
them will not take much time either. If you are in a hurry, you
can plant tree saplings two metres high right away When the
birches are grown, they can be cut up for household use, and
their places will be taken by the maturing cedar and oak trees.”
“Okay then, a living fence is something I can grasp. I re-
ally like it. Now tell me, what style of house do you see on the
ground-lot?”
“Perhaps we should first plan out the lot as a whole,
Vladimir?”
“What d’you have in mind — different beds for tomatoes,
potatoes, cucumbers? That’s usually women’s work. House-
building is a man’s job. I think you need to build one large
house right off — a fashionable manor house in the European
style so that your grandchildren and great-grandchildren will
remember you fondly. Then there can be a smaller cottage
for the servants. It’s a pretty big lot, after all. It’ll require a
lot of work.”
i86
Book 4: Co-creation
“Vladimir, if everything is done properly from the start,
there will be no need for servants. Everything around you
will serve you with great pleasure and with love — - and not
only you but your children and whole family, and your grand-
children too.”
“It doesn’t happen that way with anyone. Even with your
beloved dachniks. 1 They only have five or six hundred square
metres, yet they’re working it every free day from dawn ’til
dusk. And here they’re going to have a whole hectare! It’s
going to take at least a dozen dump-trucks every year just to
bring in the fertiliser and manure.
“First the loads of manure have to be spread over the
whole growing area, and then all the earth has to be dug up
and turned over. Otherwise nothing will grow right. And
you’d better add some kind of fertiliser — you can get it in
special stores. If you don’t fertilise, the soil won’t give a good
yield. It’s something agronomists — people who study agri-
culture — know and dachniks have learnt from experience. I
hope you agree on the need for fertiliser.”
“Of course, the earth needs fertilising, but the task need
not be devitalising. God has thought through everything in
advance so that the ground in the place you wish to live will
turn out to have the right nutrients and be in an ideal con-
dition without wearisome physical efforts on your part. You
need only make contact with Elis thought and feel the whole-
ness of the system He has designed, instead of just relying on
your own intellect in making decisions.”
“Then why is nothing fertilised today, anywhere on the
Earth, according to God’s system?”
1 dachniks — people who spend time (their days off, especially summer
holidays) tending a garden at their dacha, or cottage in the country. See
further details in Book i.
m 1 Bpi 1 H
M
Above: A raspberry ‘living fence’ grown by Sergei and Vera Bond-
ar, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. In addition to producing abundant
harvests of raspberries, this maintenance-free hedge protects the
garden from winds, attracts birds that naturally control pests and
keeps unwanted visitors out. Photo © 2004 by Alexey Kondaurov
Below: Kin’s domain design © 2003 by Irina Labountsova, Zapolyanie
eco-village. In response to Anastasia’s plea, thousands of people all
across Russia and beyond have created designs of their family do-
mains and started turning them into reality:
“Vladimir, you must do more than simply listen to me! You must
feel everything that I outline, and mentally complete yourself the
whole design, and let everyone else draw it along with me. O, God!
People, at least give it a try, I beg of you!”
Anastasia’s words from Ch. 26: “Even today everyone can build a home”
Opposite page: Plan of the Solnyshko (‘Sunshine’) community composed
of kin’s domains (top). Marina Detner’s kin’s domain (bottom).
This page: kin’s domains of Marina (top) and Dima & Julia (bottom).
All drawings © 2003 Raduga Centre, Murmansk.
“We shall build a home together with those who into contact with
your written words will later come. All human thought will merge
together into one. Believe me, people have God’s ability within
them to turn what they conceive into reality And many a home will
stand upon the land.’’— Ch. 26: “Even today everyone can build a home”
True to Anastasia’s promise, new homes have sprouted all across Rus-
sia as thousands of people, inspired by her dream, start to lay founda-
tions for their family domains or bring dying villages back to life.
Above: a ‘build-your-home wonder-cake’, representing a small-scale
model of a kin’s domain complete with a ‘living fence’ and garden
plantings, becomes a festive table centrepiece in the Kovcheg eco-
village, Kaluga Region, during a celebration on 16 September 2006.
Below: young girls in search for their intended mate set small rafts
afloat during a ‘Find-your-soulmate’ festival in the Rodovoe eco-com-
munity, Tula Region, 20 June 2006. For a description of this ancient
ritual and its significance, see Chapter 5 in Book 6 of the Ringing Ce-
dars Series. Photos © 2006 Alexey Kondaurov, Nizhny Novgorod.
Dachnik Day celebration at the Rodnoe eco-village, Vladimir Region,
23 July 2006. Residents of Rodnoe and nearby eco-villages, along with
numerous guests, share greens, vegetables and fruit they have grown
themselves on their plots. The Dachnik Day holiday — proposed in
Book 2 of the Ringing Cedars Series to honour the millions of garden-
ers and celebrate Man’s connectedness to the Earth — is now celebrat-
ed by thousands of individuals, families and communities throughout
Russia and beyond. Photo © 2006 by Leonid Sharashkin.
This page & opposite page, top: new homes & residents of the Rodnoe eco-
village, Vladimir Region, © Leonid Sharashkin, 2004-2006. Oppo-
site page, bottom : flourishing gardens in the Podgomoe village ( Raduzhie
community), Republic of Mariy El, Russia, attract visitors to a perma-
culture workshop, August 2006, © Alexey Kondaurov, 2006.
Mixed permaculture plantings in Vasiliy and Marina’s garden,
Raduzhie community ( Podgomoe village), Republic of Mariy El, Rus-
sia, © Alexey Kondaurov, 2006. Like millions of other food-garden-
ers throughout Russia, this family uses no chemical fertilisers or pes-
ticides, yet manages to grow abundant harvests in a climate with a
growing season of only no days. According to official statistics, in
2005 Russian gardeners, using less than 3% of the country’s agricul-
tural land, produced over 53% of the nation’s agricultural output —
more than all the commercial producers taken together.
Afence
187
“Vladimir, right nowyou are in the taiga. Look around you,
how high the trees are, how mighty their trunks! Among the
trees herbs and bushes are growing. There are raspberries,
and currants... indeed, a whole lot of everything grows right
here in the taiga for Man’s use. And over thousands of years
not a single person has fertilised the ground. But the land re-
mains fruitful. What do you think: how has it been fertilised
and by whom?”
“By whom? I don’t know how or by whom. But you’ve point-
ed out a really important fact. Indeed, it’s simply amazing how
Man somehow gets everything twisted around. Tell me your-
self, why aren’t various kinds of fertiliser needed in the taiga?”
“Here in the taiga God’s thought and God’s plan are not in-
terfered with to the same degree as where Man lives today In
the taiga leaves fall from the trees, and little branches are torn
off by the breeze. And these leaves and branches, along with
worms, fertilise the ground in the taiga. And the grass which
grows all around regulates the composition of the earth. The
bushes help it clear away excesses of acids and alkalis. None
of the fertilisers you are familiar with can substitute for leaves
falling from the trees. After all, leaves include many of the
diverse energies of the Universe. They have seen the stars,
the Sun and the Moon. And not only seen, but they have in-
teracted with them. And even many thousands of years from
now, the ground here in the taiga will still be fertile.”
“But the ground-lot where our house is to be built is not
the taiga, you see.”
“Then start planning! You yourself can plant a forest of dif-
ferent kinds of trees.”
‘Anastasia, maybe it’d be best if you told me right off how
to make it so that the soil on the plot stays fertilised all on its
own? That is a major undertaking, since there are so many
other things to do. Planting beds, warding off various lands
of pests...”
i88
Book 4: Co-creation
“Of course we could talk about details and particulars, but
it would be best for each one to apply his own thought, his
soul and his dream to the building work. Each of us knows
instinctively what will be the most suitable arrangement for
him and bring joy to his children and grandchildren. There
can be no one single plan that fits all. Each plan is individual,
like a great artist’s masterpiece. Each Man must make it his
own.”
“But give me an example. At least tell me in general
terms.”
‘AH right — look, I shall do a little outlining for you. But
first there is the most important thing to understand. Every-
thing is created by God’s hand for the good of Man. You are a
Man and can control everything around you. You are a Man!
Try to comprehend and feel through your soul what consti-
tutes a real Paradise on the Earth...”
“Now more specifically, Anastasia, without philosophising.
Tell me what to plant and where, tell me where I should dig.
What cash crops should I grow that will bring me the biggest
return on my investment?”
“Vladimir, do you know why peasants and farmers today
are so unhappy?”
“Well no, why?”
“So many of them are striving to bring in as big a harvest as
they can. To sell. They think more about money than about
the land. They themselves do not believe they can be happy
in their own family nest, they think the rest of the people
are happy in the big cities. Believe me, Vladimir, whatever is
created in your soul will unfailingly be reflected in the whole
world around you.
“Of course, outward details are also necessary Let us think
together about one way we can plan out our plot. I shall sim-
ply start things rolling, and you help me on your part.”
“Okay, I’ll help. You start.”
A fence
189
“Let us say our lot is on a barren section of land, and is now
enclosed on all sides by a hedge. Let us divide it, reserving
half or three-quarters of the lot for a forest, and there plant
a variety of trees. On the edge of the forest, where it bor-
ders on the remaining part of the lot, we shall plant a hedge
in such a way that animals cannot pass through it and trample
the crops growing in the garden plot.
“In the forest we shall set up a pen using densely planted
saplings, which in time will be home to a goat or two. And
we shall also use saplings to construct a shelter for egg-laying
hens.
“In the garden plot we shall make a pond approximately 16
metres across. We shall plant raspberry and currant bushes
among the trees in the forest, and wild strawberries around
the edge. Later, after the trees in the forest have grown a lit-
tle, we can set up two or three empty log hives there for bees.
And we shall use trees to make a gazebo where you will have
a cool place, safe from the heat, to talk with your children or
your friends. And we can make a summer sleeping area out
of living things, along with a creative workshop for you. And
sleeping places for the children, and a living room.”
“Wow! It won’t be a forest we end up with, but more of a
palace!”
“Only the palace will be a living entity, and continue to
grow in perpetuity This is how the Creator Himself thought
up the whole balance of things. And all Man has to do is to as-
sign everything its task — according to his own taste, design
and understanding.”
“But why didn’t the Creator do it all this way to begin
with? Everything in the forest grows just where it happens
to end up.”
“Think of the forest as a book for you as a creator. Look
more closely, Vladimir — everything therein has been written
by the Father. Look over there: three trees are growing just a
190
Book 4: Co-creation
half-metre apart. You are free to plant them in a row and use a
whole lot of them to make up other configurations. In among
the trees there are bushes growing — think of how you can
make use of them to sweeten your life. And where the trees
do not allow grass and bushes to grow between them, you can
take that as a lesson for building your future house out of liv-
ing materials. It is as though all you have to do is to formulate
the required programme and adjust it according to your taste.
Everything around you is charged with the task of cherishing
and delighting you and your children, cherishing and feeding
them.”
“To feed ourselves, we’ll need to plant a vegetable garden.
And that’ll take a lot of sweat.”
“Believe me, Vladimir, even the vegetable garden can be set
up so that it will not be an aggravation. You just need to keep
everything under observation. Among the herbs, just the
way everything grows in the forest, you could have the most
splendid tomatoes and cucumbers under cultivation. Their
taste will be much more appealing and healthful for the body
than when they are grown simply on a patch of bare ground.”
“But what about the weeds? And won’t they be destroyed
by pests and beetles?”
“There is nothing useless in Nature, Vladimir, and there
are no purposeless weeds. Neither are there any beetles that
are harmful to Man.”
“What d’you mean, there aren’t any harmful beetles?! lake
locusts, for example, or the Colorado beetle — a real vermin
that eats away at potato crops in the fields.”
“Yes, it does. It is also thereby showing people how their
ignorance is eating away at the self-sufficiency of the Earth,
contradicting the designs of the Divine Creator. How can
people keep stubbornly ploughing year after year in one and
the same place, torturing the ground? It is like scraping an
open wound, at the same time demanding benefits from the
A fence
191
wound. Locusts or the Colorado beetle will not touch the
ground-lot which you and I have outlined. When everything
grows together in one grand harmony, the fruits accruing to
the owner are also harmonious.”
“But if that’s the way everything is going to ultimately turn
out, meaning that on the lot you have thought up there is no
need for Man to fertilise the ground, or fight off vermin with
various kinds of poisons, or do weeding, and everything is just
going to grow all by itself, then what is there left for Man to
do?”
“Live in Paradise. The way God wanted us to. Anyone who
is able to build himself a Paradise like that will come into con-
tact with the Divine thought and produce a new co-creation
together with Him.”
“What new co-creation?”
“Its turn will come once the creation of Paradise has been
completed in due course. Let us consider now what you and
I still need to do.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“We still have to build ourselves a decent home,” I observed.
“A. place for our children and grandchildren to live, problem-
free. A two-storey brick manor house with a toilet, bathroom
and hot-water heater. You can do that for any private home
these days. I was at a building fair recently and noticed how
a lot of different facilities have been developed for conven-
iences in private homes. Or are you again going to object that
we don’t need to use any technological gadgets?”
“On the contrary, they are necessary. You need to make
everything serve the cause of good as the opportunity
presents itself. Besides, it is important that there be a
smooth transition in people’s habits. Only your grandchil-
dren will not need the kind of home you are building. They
will understand on their own as they grow up. They will
need another kind of home. That is why it is not worthwhile
spending too much effort to make the house extremely big
or solid.”
‘Anastasia, I can tell you’ve got another sly trick up your
sleeve. You keep rejecting everything I propose, even the
house. I think there is no question but it should be a decent
house. You said we would be designing this project together,
and here you’re thwarting me at every turn, no matter what
I say.”
“Of course we are doing it together, Vladimir. Besides, I
am not rejecting anything, I am simply expressing my views.
And each one must decide for himself what comes closest to
his own taste.”
Home
193
“You should have told me a little more about your views
right off. I don’t think anyone’s going to understand why
the house should not stay the way it is for the grandchil-
dren.”
“The other home will still preserve their love for you and
their everlasting memories of you. When your grandchil-
dren grow up, they will understand which materials out of all
the ones thought up on the Earth will be the most pleasant,
solid and useful for them. Right now you do not have those
kinds of materials. Your grandchildren will build a wooden
house using those trees which their grandfather planted ‘way
back when’ and which their father and mother so loved. That
home will start curing them, it will keep them from impuri-
ties and inspire them to what is bright. The grand energy of
Love will dwell in that home.”
“Yes... Interesting... A home made ofmaterials, of the trees
cultivated by their grandfather, and their father and mother.
And you say it will help protect those living in this home?
How? There’s some kind of mysticism involved here.”
“Why would you call the bright energy of Love ‘mysticism’,
Vladimir?”
“Because not everything’s clear to me. Here I’ve been talk-
ing about designing a home and a ground-lot, and now you’ve
all of a sudden started stating things about love.”
“But why ‘all of a sudden’? You have to create everything
with love right from the start.”
“What — the living fence too? And d’you have to plant the
saplings in the forest with love, too?”
“Of course. The grand energy of Love and all the planets
in creation will help you lead a full life, a life inherent in a son
of God.”
“Now you’ve really started talking incomprehensibly, Anas-
tasia. From a house and garden you’ve gone back to ‘God’
again. What relation could there possibly be here?”
194
Book 4: Co-creation
“Forgive me for not being clearer in my explanation,
Vladimir. Allow me to try a different route in trying to ex-
plain the significance of our project.”
“Go ahead. Only it turns out it’s your project, not ours. ”
“It belongs to everyone, Vladimir. Many people will sense
it intuitively in their hearts. But Man will be prevented from
grasping its specific details by fly-by-night dogmas, sounds of
the technocratic way of doing things and the many scientific
disciplines that are attempting to lead people away from hap-
piness.”
‘All the more reason for you to try putting everything in
more specific terms.”
‘All right, I shall try Oh, how I wish my explanations could
be clearer to people — oh, how I wish they could! O logic of
Divine aspirations, help me choose phrases and word-combi-
nations that will be more clearly understood!”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“The great energy of Love is sent to the Earth by God for His
children. It comes to each of them at one time or another. It
frequently tries to cheer Man with its warmth and stay near
him for ever. But most people do not give the great Divine
energy the opportunity of remaining with them for long.
“Imagine a couple where he and she meet at one point in
the resplendent radiance of love. They endeavour to join their
lives together in perpetuity. They consider that their union
will be made more solid if affirmed on paper and by ritual in
front of a large gathering of witnesses. But all to no avail. It
takes but a few days for the energy of Love to fade from their
lives. And it happens that way with just about everyone.”
“Yes, you are right, Anastasia. A tremendous number of
people get divorced. About seventy percent. And it often
happens that those who don’t get divorced end up living like
a dog and cat together, or show complete indifference to each
other. Everybody knows this, but nobody can figure out why
it happens on such a massive scale. You claim the energy of
Love fades from their lives, but why? As though it were some-
how aiming to tease everyone or playing some kind of game
it’s invented?”
“Love does not tease anyone and it does not playgames. It
tries to stay with everyone for ever, but Man chooses his own
way of life, and this way of life frightens the energy of Love.
Love cannot give inspiration to annihilation. It is unseemly
for the offspring of love to live in torment when he and she
are beginning to build a new life together — when they are
196
Book 4: Co-creation
endeavouring to establish a home in an apartment resembling
a vault of iifeless stone. When each has their own work and
interests and their own environment. When there is no com-
mon vision of the future, no conjugal aspirations. When their
bodies are attracted by mere fleshly alleviation, only to hand
over their child to the cruel ways of a world devoid of clean
water, a world filled with bandits, wars and disease. It is from
this that the energy of Love flees.”
“But what if he and she have lots of money? Or the par-
ents give the newlyweds, instead of a tiny flat, say a six-room
apartment in a fancy modem block, with a guard on duty at
the entrance, and they give them a fine car, and deposit lots of
money into their bank account — would the energy of Love
agree to remain under those conditions? Could he and she
live their ivhole life in love?”
“Then they will be obliged to live their lives to the end of
their years in cold fear, deprived of love and freedom. And
watch everything around them grow old and rot.”
“So what exactly does this finical energy of Love require?”
“Love is not finicky or obstinate, it aspires to the Divine
creation. It can forever warm the heart of one who agrees to
co-create with it a Space of Love.”
‘And is there a Space of Love somewhere in the design you
have come up with?”
“Yes.”
“And where is it?”
“It is in everything. First it is born for the couple, then
again for their children. And through three planes of being
the children will have a connection with the whole Universe.
“Imagine, Vladimir, that he and she will begin in their love
to implement this design that you and I are outlining. They
will plant family trees and herbs in the ground, together with
an orchard. And how happy they will be in the spring when
their co-creations burst forth into bloom. Love will eternally
The energy of Love
197
dwell between them, in their hearts, all around. And each
will see the other in a spring flower, remembering how they
planted a flowering tree together. And the taste of raspber-
ries will remind them of the taste of love, since in the autumn
he and she — in love for each other — touched the twig of a
raspberry bush.
“In the shady orchard splendid fruit is ripening on every
tree thereof. And the orchard was planted jointly by he and
she. They planted the orchard in love.
“She laughed resoundingly when he dug a hole and perspira-
tion covered his brow, and she wiped it off with her hand and
planted a kiss on his burning lips.
“It often happens in life that only one of the partners is in
love, while their mate simply tolerates the other’s presence.
Once they start working on the orchard, the energy of Love
will multiply itself and never forsake either of them! After all,
their way of life will help them both live their lives in love and
convey the Space of Love to their children in continuation.
And help them raise their children together with God in His
image and likeness.”
‘Anastasia, tell me in greater detail about the raising of chil-
dren. A desire to know more about this is something many
readers in their letters have expressed. Even if you don’t have
a system of your own, at least tell us, out of the existing sys-
tems, which is best.”
Chapter Thirty
11
1
“You will not find a single system of child-raising that will suit
everyone, Vladimir, if only because each one must first re-
spond to the question of exactly what kind of individual they
want to raise their child to be.”
“What d’you mean, what kind? A Man, of course — a hap-
py, intelligent Man.”
“If so, then the parents themselves must become that kind
of Man. And if they themselves have not been able to achieve
happiness, then they should know what has prevented them
from doing so.
“I very much want to speak about happy children. Raising
them, Vladimir, means also raising yourself. The project we
have been outlining all together will help in this. You and eve-
ryone else know the way children are born these days. Peo-
ple do not pay enough attention to their whole experience
leading up to the birth, and many children are deprived of the
planes of being inherent only in Man, and so children are in-
evitably born cripples.”
“Cripples? D’you mean without arms or legs, or polio vic-
tims?”
! A Man may be born crippled not only in outward ap-
pearance. Sometimes the body may appear externally quite
healthy. But Man has a second self, and each Man should have
a full set of all forms of energy Intellect, feelings, thought and
much else besides. But more than half of all children, even by
today’s very low standards, are deemed by your medical pro-
fessionals to be deficient. If you want proof of this, take a
In His image and likeness
199
look and see how many schools there are today for the ‘men-
tally retarded’. That’s how your medical professionals clas-
sify them. Only they are comparing their abilities with those
of children considered relatively normal. But if the doctors
saw what the mind and the inner complexes of human energy
could be in the ideal, only a few rare individuals among all the
children born on the Earth would be considered ‘normal’.”
“But why are all children not completely perfect, as you
say?”
“The technocratic world aims to prevent the three most
important points in newly born children from merging into
one. Technocracy tries to break Man’s links with the Divine
Mind. And the links are broken before the child is born. And
in looking for this connection, Man goes searching the world
in suffering, and does not find it.”
“What ‘most important points’ are you talking about?
What’s this about ‘links with the mind’? I don’t get any of
it.”
“Vladimir, in a great many aspects Man is formed even be-
fore his entrance into the world. And his upbringing should
come into contact with all creation. What God has used in
creating Elis splendid creations should not be neglected by
His son. Parents should impart to their co-creation the three
most important points, the three primary planes of being.
“Here is the first point of Man’s birth — it is called parental
thought. Both the Bible and the Koran talk about it: “In the
beginning was the Word” 1 — though it could be put more pre-
cisely: “In the beginning was the Thought”. Let anyone call-
ing themselves a parent today remember when they conceived
their child in thought, and what kind of child they thought of
him as. What kind of life did they foresee for him? What
kind of world did they prepare for their creation?”
'John 1: 1 (Authorised. King James Bible).
200
Book 4: Co-creation
“I think, Anastasia, that very few would even care to think
of anything like that before the woman actually gets pregnant.
In other words, they simply sleep together. Sometimes with-
out even being married. And they get married when the girl
gets pregnant, since there’s no way of knowing whether she’ll
get pregnant at all. And there’s no sense in thinking about it
ahead of time, when there’s no guarantee she’ll even have a
child.”
“Yes, unfortunately, that is the way it often happens. Most
people are conceived in fleshly indulgence. But Man, the im-
age and likeness of God, should not come into the world as
the result of fleshly indulgence.
“Now picture a different scenario. He and she build their
splendid living home in love for one another and in thoughts
about their future co-creation. And they visualise how their
son or daughter will be happy in that place. How their off-
spring will hear its first sounds — its mother’s breathing and
the singing of the birds, God’s creations. Then they will visu-
alise how their child, when he grows up, will want to rest in his
parents’ garden after a hard day’s journey and sit in the shade
of a cedar tree. In the shade of a tree planted in love for him
by his parents’ hands, with thoughts of him, in their native
land. The planting of the family tree on the part of the future
parents will define this first point, and this point in turn will
call upon the planets to aid them in their future co-creation.
It is vital! It is important! And above all else it belongs to
God! It is confirmation that you will be creating in His like-
ness! In the likeness of Him, the Grand Creator! And He will
rejoice in the conscious awareness of His son and daughter.
“ Thought is the origin of everything. Please believe me,
Vladimir. The currents of all the diverse energies of the Uni-
verse will unite in that spot where the thoughts of two have
merged into one in love, where two together are contemplat-
ing a splendid creation.
In His image and, likeness
201
“The second point, or rather, yet another human plane, will
be born and light a new star in the heavens when two bod-
ies merge into one — merge in love and with thoughts of a
splendid creation — in the very place where you build your
Paradise home, your living home for your future child.
“Then the wife who has conceived should live in that spot
for nine months. And it is best of all if these months are the
blossoming of spring, the sweet fragrance of summer, and the
fruits of autumn. Where nothingwill distract her except for joy
and pleasant feelings. Where the wife, in whom a co-creation
is already dwelling splendidly, is surrounded only by the sounds
of Divine creations. She lives there and feels with her whole
self the whole Universe. And the future mother should see
the stars. And mentally give all the stars and all the planets
to her splendid child as a gift — something the mother can do
all with the greatest of ease, something completely within her
power. And everything will follow the mother’s thought with-
out hesitation. And the Universe will be a faithful servant to
the splendid creation these two people have produced in love.
‘And a third point, a new plane of being should come about
in that space. Right there on the spot where the conception
occurred the birth should take place. And the father should
stay close around. And the great all-loving Father will raise
over the three of them a crown.”
“Wow! I don’t know why, Anastasia, but I find your words
even took my breath away. You know, I was able to visualise
the spot you’re talking about. And oh, how I could visualise
it! It made me feel as though I wanted to be born again my-
self in such a place. So that right this moment I could go and
rest in a splendid garden planted by my father and mother.
So that I could sit in the shade of a tree planted for me be-
fore my birth. The place where I was conceived and where I
was born. Where my mother walked in the garden, thinking
about me, even before I came into the world.”
202
Book 4: Co-creation
“Such a place would greet you with great joy, Vladimir. If
your body should fall ill, it would heal the body. If your soul, it
would heal the soul too. And if you were weary it would give
you food and drink. It would embrace you in a gentle sleep
and wake you with a joyful dawn. But, as with most of the
people living on the Earth today, you do not have such a spot.
You do not have a native land — a Motherland — where the
planes of being can merge into one.”
“But why does everything we do turn out so lousy? And
why do mothers continue to bring semi-retarded children
into the world? Who took this spot away from me? Who has
taken it away from everyone else?”
“Vladimir, perhaps you yourself can say who failed to cre-
ate such a place for your daughter Polina?”
“What?! You’re not suggesting I’m to blame for...? For my
daughter not having a spot?”
Chapter Thirty-One
“But I had no idea all that could be done so fine, just like that.
Pity I can’t turn the clock back in time and correct every-
thing.”
“But why go back? Life goes on, and each one is given the
opportunity at any moment to create a splendid way of life.”
“Life goes on, of course, but what good are old people, for
example? Now they expect their children to help them, while
the children themselves are unemployed. Besides, how can
children be properly brought up now, when they’re all grown
up themselves?”
‘Adults can still give their children a Divine upbringing.”
“But how?”
“You know, it would be good for the elderly to apologise to
their children. And sincerely apologise, for not having been
able to give them a trouble-free world. For dirty water and
polluted air.
“And let them begin to build, with their elderly hands, a
real living home for their grown kids. If only such a splendid
thought is born in them, the days of their lives will be extend-
ed. And when the elderly reach out their hand to touch their
Motherland, believe me, Vladimir, the children they yearn to
see will return to them. And perhaps the elderly will not be
able to grow their living home completely but their very chil-
dren will be able to bury them right in their Motherland, and
thereby help them come to life again.”
“Bury them in their Motherland? Oh, by ‘Motherland’
you mean their lot of family terrain. So, we should bury our
204
Book 4: Co-creation
relations on this lot of land, instead of in a cemetery? And
we’ll put up memorials to them there?”
“Of course, on their own land, their own plot of ground.
In the forest planted by their own hand. But of man-made
memorials they have no need. Indeed, everything around
will serve as a memorial to them. And every day everything
around you will remind you of them and not with sadness, but
with gladness. And your line will be immortal — after all, it is
only good memories that will bring back souls to the Earth.”
“Hold on, hold on there. What about the cemeteries?
D’you mean to say they’re completely superfluous?”
“Vladimir, cemeteries today are something like cesspits,
where people throw their useless garbage. Even up until re-
cently the bodies of those who died were buried in family
tombs, chapels and temples. And only those without fam-
ily or wayward people were taken outside the community.
What is left today is but a distorted remembrance ritual of
long ago. You go through a ritual after three days, then nine
days after that, then six months, then a year, and so on. Then
the remembrance is wholly superseded by the ritual itself.
The souls of those who have passed away are gradually for-
gotten by those living today. And even the living are all too
often forgotten, when children abandon their own parents
and run away to some far-off land. And the children them-
selves are not to blame — they are simply running from what
they intuitively perceive as the parents’ lie and the hopeless-
ness of their own aspirations. They are running away from
impending hopelessness, only to find themselves at the same
dead end.
“Everything in the Universe is arranged so that those souls
who are called by good memories from the Earth are the first
to be re-embodied in material form. Called not by ritual, but
by genuine feelings. They will appear in those living on the
Earth when the departed, by virtue of their way of life, leave
But who is to blame?
205
behind pleasant memories of themselves. When the memo-
ries of them are not ritualistic, but are real and tangible.
“In comparison with the multitude of other human planes
of being in the Universe, the human material plane is no less
significant, and we must lovingly cherish our relationship to
it.
“From the bodies buried in the forest they themselves
planted, grass and flowers will come up, along with bushes
and trees. You will see these and delight in them. Every day
you will come into contact with a piece of your Motherland
tilled by your patents’ hand, you will communicate with them
subconsciously, and they will communicate with you. Have
you ever heard of guardian angels?”
“Yes, I have.”
“These guardian angels, your ancestors both close and dis-
tant, will endeavour to watch over you. In three generations
their souls will once again be embodied on the Earth. But
even when they do not have an earthly, material incarnation,
the energy of their souls will not refrain from watching over
you every moment. Nobody will be able to aggressively invade
your kin’s terrain. The energy of fear is in each person — an
energy that will also be awakened in the aggressor. The ag-
gressor here will find himself subject to a multitude of diseas-
es, arising from stress. In time they will also destroy him.”
‘“In time,’ you say, but that aggressor might wreak a lot of
havoc in the meantime.”
“Who will seek to attack, Vladimir, if he knows that his
punishment is inevitable?”
“But what if he doesn’t know it?”
“Every person today knows this intuitively”
“Well, okay, let’s say you’re right about aggressors, but what
about friends? Let’s say I want to have my friends over for a
visit one night. They’ll come and get a fright from everything
around them.”
20 6
Book 4: Co-creation
“Any friends you have whose thoughts are pure will be
gladly welcomed by what is around them, as you will be glad
to greet them. And here I might bring up the example of the
hound. When a friend comes to the dog’s owner, a faithful
watchdog will not lay a paw on him. When an aggressor at-
tacks, however, the faithful hound is ready to do mortal com-
bat with him.
‘And on your plot of Motherland even each blade of grass
that grows will be healthful both to you and to your friends.
And each breeze that blows will bring you healing pollen
from the flowers, bushes and trees. And the energy of all your
forebears will be present with you. And in anticipation of co-
creation the planets themselves will await your dictation.
‘And the face of your beloved will reflect from every petal
of the splendid flowers in perpetuity And the children you
raise will tenderly talk with you for millennia to come. And
you yourself will be embodied in new generations. And so
you will talk with yourself, and help with your own upbring-
ing. And you will produce co-creations with your Parent. In
your own Motherland, in your own Space of Love will dwell
the Divine energy — love!”
When Anastasia told me about the plot of land back in the
taiga, my breath was simply taken away, captivated as it was
by her fervour and the intonations of her voice. Later, after
coming home and writing these lines, I often wondered how
important it really is for each individual to have such a spot
of his own — this piece of one’s Motherland, as she calls it?
Can one really see to a child’s upbringing when he is already
grown, with one’s own last breath? Is it really possible, with
the help of one’s own family terrain, to speak with one’s par-
ents again and for their energy to protect one, both in spirit
and in body? And — ■ just imagine — it came about that all my
doubts were erased all on their own by life itself. This is how
it happened...
Chapter Thirty-Two
The old man at the dolmen
Three years ago I went to the northern Caucasus to write the
first chapters about the dolmens, which people now flock to
visit in an unending stream. But back then very few both-
ered to come and see these edifices of our ancient forebears.
I would make frequent visits — on my own — to the dolmen
situated on a property belonging to a farmer by the name of
Stanislav Bambakov in the settlement of Pshada, 1 in the Ge-
lendzhik district. And each time I went, there was old Bam-
bakov at the dolmen. He always showed up unexpectedly,
wearing a patched shirt and carrying a jar of honey from his
apiary.
The elderly man was tall, lean and very agile. He had ac-
quired his land only recently, at the beginning of perestroika?
and gave the impression he was most anxious to get every-
thing set up on it as quickly as possible. He built himself a
small house and a shed for his beehives, along with farm
buildings made of various scrap materials. He started putting
in an orchard and digging a small pond, thinking to coax forth
a water spring, but he ran into a layer of rock.
In addition, old Bambakov was very attentive to the dol-
men. He would sweep all around it. He also took the rocks he
found in the field beside the dolmen and put them in a pile.
I Psbada — see footnote 8 in Book 2, Chapter 33: “Your sacred sites, O
Russia!”.
" perestroika — see footnote 3 in Chapter 19 of the present volume: ‘A secret
science”.
208
Book 4: Co-creation
He told me that these rocks had been brought here manually
from other places, and pointed out how different they were
from other rocks in the vicinity People had made them into
a mound, he said, and erected the dolmen on top.
The old man’s farmstead stood off to one side, away from
the settlement and the main road. Most of the time he
worked it all by himself. I wondered whether he realised how
pointless his efforts were. There was no way he could set up
his farmstead, work the land and build himself a regular mod-
ern house. But even if a miracle should happen and he should
succeed in beautifying the surrounding land and establishing
his farmstead, he would still hardly have cause for rejoicing.
Everybody’s children were running off to the cities. Indeed,
this old man’s son had set himself up with his wife in Moscow,
where he’d become a civil servant.
Didn’t the old man realise how pointless his efforts were?
They weren’t of any use to anyone, even the children. Their
father would no doubt have to die with a heavy heart, knowing
that his farmstead would go to ruin. Knowing that everything
would grow over with wild grasses, and his bees would swarm
out. And the dolmen standing so awkwardly in the middle of
his field would once again get covered in garbage. He ought
to have taken it easy in his advanced years, while here he was
working his heart out from morning ’til night, always digging
or building something like a possessed man.
One time I arrived at the dolmen well after dark. The
path leading to it was lit by the light of the moon. Silence
reigned — the only sound was the rustle of leaves in the
breeze. I stopped a few steps short of the trees growing
around the dolmen.
There sitting on a rock next to the dolmens portico was
the old man. I recognised his gaunt figure at once. Usually
agile and cheerful, he sat there without so much as a stir. He
appeared to be weeping. Then he got up and began pacing
The old man at the dolmen
209
back and forth near the portico with his usual quick gait.
Then he stopped abruptly, turned toward the dolmen and
gave an affirmative wave of his hand. I realised that Bamba-
kov was communicating with the dolmen, having a conversa-
tion with it.
I turned and headed back to the settlement, endeavouring
to tread as softly as I could. Along the way I fell to wondering
bow this old fellow, already in his twilight years, could pos-
sibly be helped by the dolmen, no matter how strong or wise
a spirit it possessed. How indeed?! Surely not just through
communicating like that? Wisdom! Wisdom is something you
need when you’re young. What good is it when you’re old?
Who needs it? Who’s going to listen to speeches of wisdom,
if even one’s own children are a million miles away?
Then a year and a half later, during one of my regular visits
to Gelendzhik, I once again set out for the dolmen on old
Bambakov’s property. I already knew that Stanislav Bamba-
kov had died. And I was a little sad that I wouldn’t be seeing
this cheerful, stalwart old fellow again. And I was sorry that
I wouldn’t have the chance to taste any more honey from his
apiary But what worried me the most was the prospect of
seeing garbage around the dolmen and the whole place in a
state of ruin. However...
The lane leading from the main road to the farmstead, it
turned out, was freshly swept. Just before the path turned off
that led to the dolmen, there among the trees stood wooden
tables with benches around, even a beautiful gazebo. Along
the lane, neatly marked off by whitened stones, were growing
green cypress saplings. Lights burned in the windows of the
little house, as well as outside, on a lamp-post.
His son! Old Bambakov’s son, Sergei Stanislavovich Bam-
bakov, had left Moscow, quit his job and moved with his wife
and son here to his father’s farmstead.
Sergei and I sat at one of the tables underneath the trees...
210
Book 4: Co-creation
“My father rang me in Moscow, asked me to come. I came,
looked around, and brought my family,” recounted Sergei.
‘And I started working here with my dad. Such a joy it turned
out to be, working alongside him. And when he died, there
was no way I could leave this place.”
“No regrets moving here from Moscow?”
“No regrets, and my wife has no regrets either. I thank
my father every day for this. We feel a lot more at home
here.”
“Have you got some facilities in — running water for in-
stance?”
“Facilities... well, you see the outhouse there — that’s
something my father fixed up before he died. No, I’m talking
about feeling at home in a different way. You know, feeling
better inside, more satisfied.”
‘And what about work?”
“We’ve got our fill of work. There’s the new orchard to
tend to, and looking after the apiary I’m still not a hundred
percent knowledgeable about working with bees. Too bad my
father’s skill didn’t rub off on me.
“More and more people are coming to the dolmen, and eve-
ry day we greet the touring coaches. The wife’s always glad to
help out. My father asked me to keep on greeting people, and
I greet them. I’ve set up a little coach stop, I want to bring in
running water. But they keep harassing us over taxes. Right
now we don’t really have enough to get by. At least we can be
thankful that the head of the local administration can give us
a little help.”
I told Sergei about what Anastasia had said about land,
about the lots, and remembering parents, and he responded:
“You know, she’s right! She’s a hundred percent right! My
father died, and yet it seems as though I talk with him every
day — sometimes we argue, even. And he’s becoming closer
and closer to me — it’s as though he never died.”
The old man at the dolmen
211
“What d’you mean? How can you talk with him? The way
mediums do — you hear voices?”
“Of course not. It’s much simpler than that. You see that
crater over there? He was searching for water and stumbled
across a layer of rock. I was going to fill in that crater and put
another table with benches in its place. And then I thought
to myself: What have yon done here, dear old dad? Jou didn’t
think things through. Now I’ve got extra work to do, and there’s
so much on my plate already. Only the rains came, and water
gushed down from the mountain and filled the crater, and it
stayed — the water level stayed up for several months. A lit-
tle pond formed. And I thought: Jolly good, dad! That crater
of yours is good for something after all! And now I see there’s so
many other things he thought of here, I’m still trying to fig-
ure them all out.”
“Can you tell me how he managed to get you to come here,
Sergei, all the way from Moscow? What words did he use?”
‘As far as I can recall, he used very simple words. Ordinary
words. I only remember that his words gave me some kind
of feelings and desires I’d never had before... and here I am.
Thank you, dad!”
What words did old Bambakov learn when he communi-
cated with the dolmen? What wisdom did he learn to make
his son come back to him? And come back to him for good!
Pity they buried him in the cemetery, and not on his own land,
like Anastasia said. And I began to be even a bit envious of
Sergei — his father found, or created for him, his own piece
of his Motherland. Will I ever have mine? Will others have
theirs? Bambakov has it good. It would be good for everyone
to be able to stand on their own piece of their Motherland!
Chapter Thirty-Three
After my final visit to the dolmen on Stanislav Bambakov’s
property and my meeting with his son I began recalling more
distinctly my conversation with Anastasia about one’s Moth-
erland, and about her ‘lot’ project. My head was floating in
memories of the individual plots comprising splendid com-
munities of the future which she had outlined with a stick
in the moist earth. And how enthusiastically, with unusual
intonations in her voice, she had endeavoured to describe
them — it was as though I could hear the very leaves rustle in
the gardens now covering the former wasteland, and hear the
pure water gurgling in the brooks, and look and see the beau-
tiful and happy men and women living among them. And hear
the children’s laughter, and the songs at the close of the day.
Along with this, the extraordinary nature of her description
provoked a whole range of questions, such as:
“The way you’ve drawn them, Anastasia, it looks as though
the lots are not right up against each other. Why?”
“This splendid community has to have walkways, roadways
and paths. There should be a passage no less than three me-
tres wide on all sides between the lots.”
‘And will there be a school in this community?”
“Of course — look, there it is, in the middle of all the
squares.”
“I wonder what kind of teachers will be teaching in the
new school, and how they will structure the classes. Prob-
ably the way I saw at Shchetinin’s school. A lot of people are
going there now Everybody likes the forest school at Telcos . 1
School, or the lessons of the gods 213
And a lot of people want to set up similar schools in their own
communities.”
“Shchetinin’s school is indeed marvellous. It is a step to-
ward the school where children in the new communities will
study. The pupils who have gone through Shchetinin’s school
will help build them and teach in them. But wise and educat-
ed teachers are not the only principal component here. Par-
ents will also be teaching their children in these new schools,
and at the same time they will learn from their children.”
“But how can parents become teachers all of a sudden?
Will all the parents have a higher education, let alone special-
ised education? There are a lot of different subjects — maths,
physics, chemistry, literature — who will teach the children
these in the schools?”
“The level and specialisation will not be uniform, of course,
for everyone on the whole. But then, after all, the study of
sciences and other subjects should not be considered an end
in itself, a primary goal. It is much more important to learn
how to be happy, and that is something only the parents can
show by their example — that is their role.
“It is not at all necessary for the parents to teach classes in
the traditional sense. Parents, for example, can participate in
joint discussions or collectively administer an examination.” 1 2
‘An exam? Whose exam could the parents administer?”
“Their children’s, and the children could examine them,
examine their parents.”
“Parents administer their kids’ exams?! You’re talking
about school exams?! Now that has to be some kind of joke!
1 Tekos — the name of the settlement near Gelendzhik where Mikhail
Petrovich Shchetinin’s school is located. For a description of the school,
see Book 3, Chapter 17: “Put your vision of happiness into practice” and
Chapter 18: ‘Academician Shchetinin”.
' administer an examination — It should be remembered that in Russian
schools examinations are usually oral, rather than written.
214
Book 4: Co-creation
Then all the kids would end up with top marks! What par-
ent is going to give his own child a low mark? Any parent, of
course, is automatically going to mark their son or daughter
near the top of the class.”
“Vladimir, do not jump to conclusions. Along with classes
resembling those in today’s schools, the new school will have
others — more important ones.”
“Others? What land of others?”
And all at once a thought crossed my mind: if Anastasia
could so easily show scenes from millennial antiquity (what-
ever the process involved — her ray, hypnosis, or something
else besides — it still worked), that means... that means, she
must be able to show the near future too. So I asked her:
“Could you show me, Anastasia, at least one class from that
school of the future, the land of school that those new commu-
nities will have? Could you show me a non-traditional class?”
“I could.”
“Then show me. I want to compare it with what I saw in
Shchetinin’s school. And with the classes I had back in my
own schooldays.”
‘And you will not ask about or be frightened by the power
that I use to create scenes of the future?”
“I don’t care how you do it. It’ll simply be most interesting
for me to watch.”
“Then lie down on the ground, relax, and doze off.”
Anastasia quietly placed her hand on top of mine and...
I could see, as though from above, amidst a whole lot of
plots, one which had an internal configuration different
from the rest. It comprised several large wooden buildings
linked by footpaths, lined on either side by a variety of flower-
beds. Near the building complex stood a natural amphithea-
tre: along the side of a hill rows of benches descended in a
semi-circular formation. On these were seated about three
hundred people of different ages, including both grey-haired
School, or the lessons of the gods
215
elders and some quite young. It looked as though they were
sitting in family groups, since adult men and women were in-
terspersed with children of various ages. Everyone was talk-
ing excitedly amongst themselves, as though they were antici-
pating something out of the ordinary — • a concert perform-
ance by a superstar or a presidential address.
In front of the audience on a wooden stage or platform
stood two small tables and two chairs, with a large chalkboard
behind. Alongside the platform there was a group of chil-
dren, about fifteen in all, ranging in age from five to twelve,
engaged in an animated discussion.
“This is the beginning of something resembling a sympo-
sium on astronomy,” I heard Anastasia say
“But what are the children doing here? Don’t their parents
have anybody they can leave them with?” I asked Anastasia.
“One of the group of children arguing amongst them-
selves will now give the keynote presentation,” she explained.
“Right now they are voting on who it shall be. There are two
candidates, you see — a boy, he is nine years old, and a girl, she
is eight... Now the children are voting... Ah, the majority has
picked the boy”
Ayoung boy approached one of the tables with a confident,
businesslike step. From a cardboard folder he took out some
papers containing designs and sketches and laid them out on
the table. The rest of the group of children — some slowly
and solemnly, others with a hop, skip and a jump — headed
over to where their parents were seated on the benches. A
little red-headed, freckle-faced girl — the other candidate,
who was not chosen — walked past the table, her head held
proudly in the air. The folder in her hands was a little big-
ger and thicker than the boy’s — no doubt it too contained
sketches and designs.
The boy at the table tried to say something to the girl as
she went by, but she didn’t stop. She simply straightened her
2l6
Book 4: Co-creation
braid and walked on past, deliberately looking the other way.
For some time the boy followed her distractedly with his gaze.
Then he once more focused his attention on rearranging the
papers in front of him.
“Who on earth could have managed to teach these kids
enough astronomy so that they can make a presentation be-
fore a group of adults?” I asked Anastasia.
And she replied:
“Nobody taught them. They were given the opportunity
to work out for themselves how the whole Universe is struc-
tured, to prepare their arguments and present their conclu-
sions. They have been working on it for more than two weeks
already, and the final moment has come. They will now de-
fend their views, and their conclusions may be refuted by any-
one who wishes to do so.”
“So, it turns out this is some kind of game?”
“You can think of what is going on here as a ‘game’. Only it is
very serious. Each person present will now have their thinking
about the planetary order accelerated, and may perhaps start
contemplating something even greater than that. After all,
the children have been thinking and pondering for two weeks
now, and their thought is not limited by anything — there are
no dogmas or theories of planetary order to weigh them down.
We still do not know what they will come up with.”
“They’ll be fantasising with their child mindsets, you mean
to say?”
“I mean to say, they shall present their own theories. After
all, even adults have not come up with any proven truths regard-
ing planetary order. The goal of this symposium is not to work
out any canons, but to accelerate thought, which afterward will
determine what is true, or at least come closer to the truth.”
At this point a young man stepped up to the second table
and announced the presentation was about to begin. Where-
upon the nine-year-old started to speak.
School, or the lessons of the gods
217
He spoke confidently and enthusiastically for about twen-
ty-five or thirty minutes. What he said struck me as sheer
childish fantasy — a fantasy not grounded in any scientific
theories or even an elementary knowledge one would get
from a high-school astronomy course. He spoke in substance
as follows:
“If you look up to the sky in the late evening, you see a
whole lot of stars shining there. There are different kinds of
stars. Some stars are little and others a little larger. But very
small stars can be big, too. Only we think at first that they are
little. But they are very big. Because when an aeroplane flies
very high, it is small, but when it is on the ground and we walk
up to it, it turns out to be big, and it can hold a whole lot of
people. And each star could hold a whole lot of people.
“Only there are no people on the stars right now But they
shine in the evening. The big ones shine, and the little ones
too. They shine so we can see them and think about them.
The stars want us to make the things we do on the Earth just
as good on them too. They are a little envious of the Earth.
They really want berries and trees to grow on them the way
they do here, they want the same little streams and fishes.
“The stars are waiting for us, and each of them is trying to
shine to make us pay attention to it. But we can’t yet travel
to them, ’cause we’ve got a lot of things to take care of here
at home. But when we do take care of everything at home,
and things are good everywhere on the whole Earth, then we
shall travel to the stars. Only we shan’t travel by plane or
rocket ship, ’cause flying by plane would take too long and
the rocket ship would be long and boring. Besides, we won’t
all fit into a plane or a rocket ship. And there won’t be room
for all sorts of things we want to take with us. There won’t
be any room for trees, or a stream. But once we make every-
thing right all over the Earth, we’ll fly the whole Earth to the
nearest star.
2l8
Book 4: Co-creation
“Besides, some stars will want to come to Earth themselves
and snuggle up to it. They have already sent their fragments,
and their fragments have snuggled up to the Earth. People
used to think that these were comets, but they are fragments
of stars which really, really wanted to snuggle up to our beau-
tiful Earth. They were sent by the stars, which are waiting for
us. We can fly the whole Earth to a far-off star, and whoever
wants to can remain on the star, to make it beautiful, like on
the Earth.”
All this time the boy had been holding up his sheets of
paper and showing them to the audience. They contained
drawings of a starry sky and the Earth’s trajectory as it headed
toward the stars. The last drawing portrayed two stars blos-
soming with gardens and the Earth moving away from them
on its intergalactic journey
When the boy finished talking and showing the drawings,
the master of ceremonies announced that anyone who wished
could challenge him or put forth his own views on what had
just been said. But no one hastened to speak. Everybody re-
mained silent — it looked to me as though they were con-
cerned about something.
“What are they hesitating for?” I asked Anastasia. “Don’t
any of the adults here know about astronomy?”
“They are hesitating because they know whatever argu-
ments they put forth must be clear and well thought through.
After all, their children are present. If what they say is not
understandable or acceptable to the children’s hearts, then
the speaker will risk being mistrusted or, even worse, treated
unsympathetically Adults cherish their relationship with
their children, and hesitate to risk any harm to it. They are
afraid of incurring the audience’s disfavour — especially their
children’s.”
The heads of many in the audience began turning in the
direction of a grey-haired elderly man sitting in their midst.
School, or the lessons of the gods
219
He had his arm around the shoulders of the little red-haired
girl sitting beside him, the same one who had been one of the
candidates to give the keynote presentation. Sitting next to
them was a young and very beautiful woman. Anastasia com-
mented:
‘A lot of people now have their eyes on the elderly man in
the middle of the audience. He is a university professor, a
scientist, now retired. His personal life got mixed up rather
early on, and he had no children. Ten years ago he procured a
lot of land, and began to establish a home on it all by himself.
A young woman fell in love with him and the little red-headed
girl was born to them. The young woman next to him is his
wife and the mother of his child. The retired professor very
much loves the child of his old age. And the girl, his daughter,
treats him with great respect and love. Many of those present
here today believe that the professor is entitled to take the
floor first.”
But the elderly professor had trouble getting his first words
out. I could see him nervously rumpling the pages of some
journal with his hands. Finally he got up and started to speak.
He said something about the structure of the Universe, the
comets and the mass of the Earth, and finally summed up his
remarks something like this:
“The planet Earth, of course, is moving through space and
rotating. But it is inextricably linked with the solar system, and
cannot move independently It cannot leave the solar system
and travel to distant galaxies. The Sun gives life to everything
living on the Earth. Moving away from the Sun would involve
a serious cooling of the Earth, and we would end up with a
dead planet. We can all observe what happens even when we
move just a fraction away from the Sun. We get winter.”
At this point the professor stopped abruptly The boy
who had presented the paper flipped distractedly through his
sketches, then gave a questioning glance to his peers in the
220
Book 4: Co-creation
group, the ones who had helped him prepare the presenta-
tion. But it was apparent that everybody had found the argu-
ment of winter and cooling very cogent and plausible. This
argument had the effect of crushing the children’s beautiful
dream of a space-travelling Earth. And all at once in the ensu-
ing quiet, which had lasted a half-minute already, the voice of
the elderly professor once more sounded forth.
“Winter... Life can’t help but slow down if the Earth
doesn’t get enough solar energy. Simply can’t help! You don’t
need any scientific studies to see that, to be convinced... On
the other hand... it is possible that the Earth itself possesses
energy, the same as the Sun. Only it hasn’t yet manifested it-
self. Nobody’s discovered it yet. Perhaps you yourselves will
discover it at some point. Perhaps it is possible that the Earth
could be self-sufficient. This energy will be made manifest in
some way... The Sun’s energy will show itself on the Earth,
and, like solar energy, it will be able to unfold the petals of
the flowers. And then we can travel on the Earth across the
galaxy... Yes, then...”
The professor lost his train of thought and fell silent. A
murmur of dissatisfaction could be heard through the audi-
ence. And then it all began...
The adults in the audience began getting up from their
seats and holding forth, denouncing the professor, especially
the possibility of living without the Sun. Some of them spoke
of the photosynthesis of plants, others about environmental
temperature, still others about the fixed nature of planetary
trajectories. Through all this the professor sat with an in-
creasingly drooping head. His red-haired daughter turned
her head to look at each of the speakers — on occasion she
would try standing up, as though she were trying to protect
her father from his challengers.
An elderly woman who looked like the teacher type took
the floor and started holding forth on how it wasn’t right to
School, or the lessons of the gods
221
appease or flatter children just to curry a favourable attitude
toward you on their part.
“Any lie will be exposed with time, and then how will we
all look then? This isn’t just a lie, it’s cowardice!” said the
woman.
The red-headed girl tugged on the lapels of her father’s
jacket. She began shaking him, practically crying, her voice
breaking as she kept at him:
“Papochka , 3 you lied about the energy... Did you lie, Pa-
pochka? Because we’re children? The lady called you a cow-
ard. Is that bad?”
A silence fell upon the large open-air amphitheatre. The
professor raised his head, looked his daughter in the eye, put
his hand on her shoulder and quietly said:
“I believed what I said, daughter.”
At first the girl remained silent. Then she quickly stood up
on the bench and cried out as loudly as her little child’s voice
could muster:
“My Papa’s not a coward. Papa believed what he said. He be-
lieved it. 1 ”
The little girl surveyed the now hushed audience. Nobody
was even glancing in their direction. She looked at her moth-
er. But the young woman turned away with her head lowered;
she fiddled with the buttons on the sleeve of her cardigan,
undoing them and doing them up again. The girl once more
surveyed the hushed audience, and looked at her father. As
before, the professor seemed to be gazing helplessly at his lit-
tle daughter. Once more, this time in the absolute quiet, the
red-headed girl’s voice sounded gently and tenderly.
“People don’t believe you, Papochka. They don’t believe
you ’cause the Sun’s energy has not yet showed itself on the
Earth — the energy that is like the Sun and can open the petals
3 Papochka (pronounced PAH-poch-ka) — an endearing form of Papa.
222
Book 4: Co-creation
of the flowers. But once it appears, then everybody will believe
you. They will believe you later, when it appears. Later...”
And all at once the professor’s daughter quickly straight-
ened her hair, then leapt out into the aisle and ran off. She
ran to the edge of the amphitheatre, and hurried toward one
of the nearby houses. She disappeared inside, only to reap-
pear in the doorway a few seconds later. This time the girl
was holding in her hands an earthenware pot with a plant in
it. She ran with it over to the speaker’s table, which was now
vacant. She put the potted plant down on the table. And
her child’s voice, now loud and confident, resonated over the
heads of the audience:
“Look, here’s a flower. Its petals are closed. All the flowers’
petals have closed. ’Cause there’s no sun out today But they
will open, because there is energy on the Earth... I shall...
I shall transform myself into the energy which can open the
petals of flowers.”
With that the little girl closed her hands into a fist and began
staring at the flower. She went on staring without blinking.
The people sitting in their seats refrained from conversa-
tion. Everyone was looking at the little girl and the plant in
the earthenware pot on the table in front of her.
Slowly the professor rose from his seat and went over to his
daughter. Lie went up to her and put his hands on her shoul-
ders, trying to lead her away. But the little redhead shrugged
him off and whispered:
“Why don’t you help me instead, Papochka!”
The professor was no doubt utterly bewildered. He re-
mained standing at his daughter’s side, his hands on her little
shoulders, and he too began staring at the flower.
But nothing was happening with the flower. And I began
to feel somehow sorry for the little girl and her professor-fa-
ther. But he really got himself into a fix with his declaration
of faith in some kind of undiscovered energy!
School, or the lessons of the gods
223
All at once a boy stood up in the front row — the same boy
that had given the presentation. He partially turned toward
the silent audience, sniffed his nose and headed over to the
table on the stage. Solemnly and confidently he approached
the table and stood next to the red-haired girl. Just like her,
he fixed his gaze firmly on the plant in the earthenware pot.
But as far as the plant was concerned, of course, nothing was
happening.
And then I saw it! I saw how children of all ages began ris-
ing from their seats and one by one came down to the stage.
They silently took up a position, staring intently at the flower.
The last little girl, about six years old, was carrying her very
small brother in her arms. She managed to squeeze in front
of those standing and someone helped her stand her younger
brother up on the chair by the table. The toddler, after tak-
ing a good look at everyone around, turned to the flower and
began blowing on it.
And all at once the potted plant began to gradually unfold
the petals of one of its flowers. Little by little. But it didn’t
escape the notice of the hushed crowd in the amphitheatre.
And several of them rose silently from their seats. And now,
on the table, a second flower was already opening its petals,
along with a third, and a fourth...
“Oooh...” cried the teacher- type in an excited, childlike
voice, and began clapping her hands. Then the whole amphi-
theatre broke into applause. The beautiful young woman ran
over to her professor-husband, who by this time had stepped
off to one side of the crowd of delighted children surrounding
the flower and was rubbing his forehead. She leapt at him on
the run, threw her arms around his neck and began kissing his
cheeks and lips...
The little redhead took a step in the direction of her em-
bracing parents, but the boy who had given the presentation
stopped her. She managed to wriggle her hand away, but after
224
Book 4: Co-creation
taking a few more steps, she turned, went up close to him and
buttoned up a button which had become undone on his shirt.
With that she gave him a smile, then quickly turned and ran
off to her still embracing parents.
More and more people were now heading from their seats
down to the stage, some with babes in arms, others shaking
the hand of the young presenter. He just stood there, his arm
outstretched for handshaking, while his second hand was
clasping the button the little girl had just done up for him.
All at once someone struck up a tune on a bayan 4 — some-
thing between a gypsy melody and a Russian folk dance. And
when some old fellow began stamping his feet on the stage,
he was joined by a plumpish lady who made her entrance like
a swan. And two young fellows had already launched into a
boisterous prisiadka . ' And the flower with its unfolding pet-
als watched as more and more people got carried away by
the tricky and boisterous rhythms of a Russian folk dance.
Then, all of a sudden, the scene of the unusual school dis-
appeared, as though a screen had been turned off. I was sit-
ting on the ground. Taiga vegetation stretched all around, as
far as the eye could see, and there beside me was Anastasia.
4 bayan — in this case a Russian folk-instrument of the accordion family,
using a single reed and a chromatic scale, with rows of buttons on both
the left and the right sides (not to be confused with a similarly named bass
drum in India). Derived from another accordion-type instrument, the dia-
tonic garrmm’, it is often played together with a stringed instrument (such as
the domra or balalaika). It takes its name from a legendary Russian singer-
storyteller named Bayan or Boyan, whose songs inspired ancient warriors
to do their utmost in battle. By extension, the word bayan (derived from an
ancient Russian verb signifying ‘to tell’) could refer to any wandering poet-
storyteller — a counterpart of the Celtic bard.
' prisiadka (pronounced prees-YAT-ka ) — one of the more famous Slavic
dances, usually performed by men, involving squatting on one knee while
kicking out the opposite leg in front, then alternating the leg positions in
quick succession.
School, or the lessons of the gods
225
Inside me, however, a kind of excitement lingered, and I
could still hear the laughter of happy people and the sounds
of the cheery dance music, which I didn’t want to let go of.
When the sounds within me gradually died down, I said to
Anastasia:
“What you showed me just now is nothing at all like any
school class I’ve ever seen. It’s some kind of family gathering,
of families living in the community. And there wasn’t a single
teacher there — everything happened all by itself.”
“There was a teacher, Vladimir, a very wise teacher. But he
purposely did not attract anyone’s attention to himself.”
“But why were the parents there? Their emotional reac-
tions only provoked stress.”
“Emotions and feelings can accelerate thought by a factor
of many times. They have lessons like that every week in this
school. Teachers and parents are united in their aspirations,
and children consider themselves to be equal with adults.”
‘All the same, it seems weird to think of parents partici-
pating in their children’s education. After all, parents aren’t
trained to be teachers.”
“It is sad, Vladimir, that people have got into the habit of
handing over their children to others to be raised, regardless
of who these others are — a school, or some other institution.
They simply hand their children over, often not knowing what
kind of world-view will be inculcated in them, or what desti-
ny awaits them as a result of somebody’s particular teaching.
By giving their children over to an uncertain future, they are
actually depriving themselves of their own children. That is
why children whom mothers hand over to someone else to be
taught learning often forget their mothers in turn.”
226
Book 4: Co-creation
The time came to leave. My mind was filled up full with
all the information I had acquired, so much so that I was
scarcely aware of my surroundings. I took my leave of Anas-
tasia in some haste. I told her:
“Don’t bother seeing me off. When I’m walking alone, I
can think unhindered.”
“Yes, do not let anyone hinder your thinking,” she re-
sponded. “When you come to the river, my grandfather will
be there, and he will help ferry you across to the landing.”
I walked alone through the taiga in the direction of the
river and thought about everything I had seen and heard, all
at the same time. But one question persisted above all others:
how did we get into this situation (‘we’ meaning the majority
of people)? We think everyone has their Motherland, and yet
none of us has a little piece of Motherland to call their own.
And there isn’t even any law in our country, no law guarantee-
ing a Man or his family the opportunity to own in perpetuity
a single hectare of land. Political leaders and parties in their
ever-changing procession promise all sorts of benefits, but
they all manage to avoid the question concerning a piece of
our Motherland. Why?
And yet our grand Motherland consists precisely of little
pieces. Native, small family homesteads, with little houses
and gardens on them. If nobody has anything like that, then
what does our Motherland consist of? A law must be drawn
up to guarantee everyone their piece of Motherland. For eve-
ry family that wants one. The deputies 6 can pass such a law
The deputies are chosen by all of us. That means we must
vote people into office who agree to pass such a law
A law! How should it be worded? Maybe this way?
6
deputies — members of the Russian Duma, or national parliament.
School, or the lessons of the gods
227
The State is obliged to provide each family couple, upon request,
one hectare of land for use in perpetuity, with right of inheritance.
Agricultural yields on these family lands shall never be subject to
any kind of taxation. Family lands are not subject to sale.
Something like that would be okay But what if somebody
takes the land and doesn’t do anything with it? Then the law
should also state:
If over a period of three years the land is not cultivated, the State
may take it back.
But what if some people want to live and work in the city and
use their family domain like a dacha? Well, let them. Women
will still come to their kin’s domain 7 to give birth. Those who
do not will not be forgiven later by their children.
And just who will push this law through to final adoption?
A political party? Which one? We need to set up a party for
this purpose . 8 And just who will take care of organising it?
Where do we find politicians like that? We must seek them
' The terms family domain and kin’s domain are used here interchangeably to
translate the Russian term rodovoe pomestie. Pomestie is equivalent to domain,
estate or homestead. Rodovoe comes from the same root as Rod (signifying
‘God the Creator’, ‘origin’, ‘birth’ or ‘kin’) and Rodina (‘Motherland’); it lit-
erally means ‘belonging to one’s kin’ and points to the unity of the past,
present and future generations of one’s family Both kin and family, as used
henceforth in the Ringing Cedars Series, include the whole range of one’s
ancestors and descendants and not merely the present generation of a fam-
ily Interestingly enough, the concept of kin’s domain is not unlike the con-
cept underlying the English word kingdom, since king originally meant ‘head
of a kin or family clan , while dom stems from a root signifying ‘home place’
or ‘domain’. For more on Rodina see footnote 1 in Chapter 24 above: “Take
back your Motherland, people!”.
g
a party — see footnote 3 in Chapter 26: “Even today everyone can build a
home”.
228
Book 4: Co-creation
out, somehow As soon as possible! Otherwise you could die,
and not once come nigh to your Motherland. And your grand-
children won’t remember you. When will an opportunity like
this come again? When will it be possible to say, “Greetings,
my Motherland!”?
Anastasia’s grandfather was sitting on a log by the shore.
Nearby a small wooden boat was tied up, rocking ever so gen-
tly on the waves. I knew it wasn’t too hard to row to the near-
est landing a few kilometres downstream on the other side
of the river, q but how would he fare coming back against the
current, I wondered as I greeted the old fellow I asked him
about it.
“I’ll make it by and by,” answered Anastasia’s grandfather.
Always cheery as a rule, on this occasion he seemed rather
sombre and not much inclined to conversation.
I sat down beside him on the log.
“I can’t understand,” I said, “how Anastasia can hold so
much information inside her — how she can recall things
from the past and know everything that is going on in our
lives right now. And here she lives way out in the taiga, and
delights in the flowers, the Sun and all the little creatures. It’s
as though she doesn’t think about anything.”
“What’s there to think about?” her grandfather replied.
“She feels it, this information. When she needs it, she takes
as much as she wants. The answers to all questions are right
9 the river — the Ob, which flows from south to north.
School, or the lessons of the gods
229
here in space, right with us. We need only know how to per-
ceive them and make them manifest.”
“How do we do that?”
“How... How... Say you’re walking along the street of a
city you know very well, thinking about your own affairs, and
a passer-by suddenly comes up to you and asks how to get
somewhere. Can you give him an answer?”
“Sure.”
“You see how simple it all is. You were thinking about some-
thing completely different. The question put to you has abso-
lutely no connection with whatyou were thinking about, and yet
you are still able to give an answer. The answer ‘lives’ in you.”
“But that’s just a request for directions. But if the same
passer-by were to ask me what happened in the city we’re
in — let’s say, a thousand years before we met, no Man could
give an answer to that.”
“He couldn’t if he’s lazy or neglectful. Everything, right
from the very moment of creation, is stored in and around
each individual Man... Why don’t you get into the boat?
Time to push off.”
The old fellow took the oars. When we had got about a
kilometre from our departure point on the shore, Anastasia’s
erstwhile taciturn grandfather began to talk.
“Try not to wallow in all your information and contempla-
tions, Vladimir. Decide what’s real by yourself. With your
self, you should be able to feel both matter and what you can-
not see in equal measure.”
“Why are you telling me this? I don’t understand.”
“Because you’ve started digging around in all that informa-
tion, trying to define it with your mind. But you won’t get it
with your mind. The mind can’t possibly fathom the volume
of information known to my granddaughter. And you’ll stop
being aware of the creative process taking place around you.”
“I’m aware of everything — the river, the boat...”
230
Book 4: Co-creation
“If you’re aware of everything, then why weren’t you able to
say a proper good-bye to my granddaughter and your son?”
“Well, maybe I wasn’t able to after all. You see, I was think-
ing more globally”
I had indeed left almost without saying good-bye to Anas-
tasia, and I got so immersed in thought during my whole jour-
ney back to the river that I hardly noticed the time, but sud-
denly found myself on the riverbank. I added:
‘Anastasia also thinks about other things, she thinks glo-
bally, she doesn’t need a whole lot of sentimental gestures.”
‘Anastasia feels with her self all planes of being. She doesn’t
feel one at the expense of another.”
“So?”
“Take your field-glasses out of your bag and have a look
back at the tree on the bank where we pushed off.”
I got out my field-glasses and had a look. Standing there
by the tree-trunk, holding our son in her arms, was Anastasia.
On her bent arm hung a little bundle. She stood there with
our son and waved her hand at our boat, which was moving
further and further away downstream. And I waved back.
“Looks as though my granddaughter and her son followed
you. She was waiting for you to finish your contemplating and
start thinking of your son, and of her too. And she gathered
together that bundle for you. But it seemed the information
you had gathered from her was more important to you.
“The spiritual and the material — you need to feel it all in
equal measure. Then you’ll be able to take a solid stand in
life, with both feet planted firmly on the ground. When one
predominates over the other, it’s like a person going lame.”
The old man spoke with no trace of anger as he handled
the oars with dexterity.
I tried to respond aloud, either to him or to myself:
“Most of all now I need to understand... To understand
things for myself! Who are we? Where are we?”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Anomalies at
Gelendzhik
Dear readers, everything I have written in these books I ei-
ther heard from Anastasia, or saw and experienced myself.
All the events I describe are real events from my own life, and
my descriptions, especially in the first couple of books, in-
cluded people’s real names and addresses — a decision I later
had cause to regret. These people came to be bothered more
and more by curious busybodies.
Another thorny problem has been all the various rumours,
events and phenomena attached to both myself and Anas-
tasia. The particular interpretations of these events — and,
consequently, the particular conclusions drawn therefrom —
have also been upsetting. Many of them I cannot agree with
at all. For example, I am dead set against worshipping the
dolmens. I believe that we can and must communicate with
the dolmens on the basis of respect, but not worship them.
The readers of the Anastasia books comprise people of
various faith groups and religious confessions, with various
levels of education. I believe that anyone’s interpretation of
events is worth our attention. Everyone has the right to their
own opinion, but when expressing it, they should say: “This
is my opinion, my suggestion.” And of course one should not
mystify everything right off, and should certainly not mystify
either me or Anastasia. Otherwise one may transform Anas-
tasia from a Man — albeit not a very ordinary Man — into
some kind of extraordinary being. Might it not be that she
in fact is a supremely normal Man, and we are the ones who are
abnormal? So please excuse me for getting carried away here
232
Book 4: Co-creation
with my own opinions. It’s on account of my being disturbed
by a particular set of circumstances:
Rumours are circulating lightning fast at the moment
about the fiery sphere with which Anastasia communicates.
I ask my readers to recall my various descriptions of it in pre-
vious books — how this sphere appeared next to Anastasia
in emergency situations: how it first appeared when little
Anastasia was crying over her parents’ grave, and then taught
her to take her first little baby steps, and how it defended her
when she was attacked. To her grandfather’s question, “What
is it?” she replied: “I would call it Good.
Yes, she does communicate with it, but even she does not
fully comprehend what kind of natural phenomenon it is.
Now why have I all of a sudden brought up the fiery sphere
which appeared out of nowhere? Because according to a mass
of witnesses, it was this very sphere that appeared in the sky
over Gelendzhik and stirred up a good deal of turmoil. Now
rumours are being spread by detractors to the effect that
Anastasia can practically bomb anyone she doesn’t like with
the help of this sphere, and that she communicates not only
with the forces of light but also with the dark forces. And
here the readers themselves are adding fat to the fire. I have
already had a request from Tuapse to send this sphere to the
Sochi city hall so that they might see the light the way the
Gelendzhik council did . 2
I shall now attempt, dear readers, to offer you a true ac-
count of what really happened in Gelendzhik, and I would
ask you to read it calmly and understandingly.
A local non-profit organisation in Gelendzhik was prepar-
ing to hold a readers’ conference on the Anastasia books. The
'See Book 2, Chapter 27: “The anomaly”; also Book 3, Chapter 7: Assault!”,
2 Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Sochi — cities on the eastern shore of the Black Sea (see
footnote 2 in Book 1, Chapter 30: Author’s message to readers”).
Anomalies at Gelendzhik
233
relationship of the organisation’s board with the city coun-
cil was, to put it mildly, tense. And in Book 2 I had already
given a rather unflattering portrayal of the old city leader-
ship. Against a background like that, you can just imagine
what happened.
Some time after noon on 17 September 1999, on the eve
of the reader’s conference, a wind blew up in the city, and a
thunderstorm began. All at once a fiery sphere appeared on
the small square in front of the city hall. Its subsequent be-
haviour, people now say, was very much like that of Anasta-
sia’s sphere.
The sphere which appeared over Gelendzhik somehow
evaded the lightning-rods of the surrounding buildings, and
made contact with a tree standing in the middle of the square.
Then the sphere emitted several fiery spheres or rays of some-
what smaller proportions. One of them flew into the Mayor’s
office, flew around the room right in front of onlookers and
then flew out.
A second sphere flew into the window of the Deputy May-
or, Galina Nikolaevna, 3 and hovered in the air for a while.
Then it went over to the window and etched on the window-
pane a strange symbol that nobody has yet been able to erase,
and then flew off.
Subsequent rumours have it that the Gelendzhik admin-
istrative council has become ‘holy’ or ‘enlightened’. They say
that right after the incident with the fiery sphere, the council
decided to adopt measures for a more favourable reception of
the readers of my books coming to the city from out of town,
to fix up the dolmens in the area, hold an annual inspirational
3 Galina Nikolaevna — Note: Nikolaevna is a patronymic (i.e., a middle name
derived from one’s father’s first name), not a surname. The combination of
first name and patronymic is a common polite form of address in Russian,
especially in business relationships.
234
Book 4: Co-creation
songwriters’ festival, and a lot more besides, which it was un-
willing to do before.
Rumours of what had happened spread, together with the
affirmation that Anastasia’s sphere had visited Gelendzhik.
I tried countering that it was only ball lightning, and that
its resemblance in behaviour to what I had described in the
book was purely coincidental, and the city council would
have adopted some kind of resolution, regardless. But they
would have none of it. They immediately began arguing that
there are no coincidences, and besides, it wasn’t just one co-
incidence in this case, but a whole chain. And they further
declared that when coincidences follow one after another in a
chain, it can be termed a pattern.
Of course one could say that the coincidences had come
together in a chain. For now, at least, there was no logical ex-
planation for the sphere bypassing the lightning-rods. Why
did it make contact with the big tree standing in the square,
flare up and make thundering sounds over it, yet refrain from
destroying it and fly over to the city council windows? Why
did it fly right into the offices of the very people capable of
taking decisions with respect to readers coming to the city?
Why did the city council render a favourable decision on a
whole lot of questions immediately afterward? Why did the
chairman of the municipal assembly take it upon herself to
personally welcome the conference delegates the next day?
And so forth.
According to one recent rumour the Mayor of Gelendzhik
and the whole administrative apparatus has changed so
much that now Gelendzhik will start to flourish, and be-
come, as Anastasia said, “richer than Jerusalem or Rome ”. 4
Another rumour has it that the sphere simply struck fear in
everyone.
4 See Book 2, last page of Chapter 32: “Title!”.
Anomalies at Gelendzhik
2 35
Upon my arrival at Gelendzhik I met with the Mayor and
her deputy I saw the symbol the sphere had etched on the
glass and I touched it. I sensed an unusual aroma in the of-
fice, something similar to incense or sulphur. But there was
no sensation of fright. On the contrary: Galina Nikolaevna,
the Deputy Mayor, for example, even seemed more cheery
than on previous occasions. She also recounted to me how
everything had happened, and asked me whether I thought
this might be some kind of sign.
Altogether, the way things turned out, the theory about
ordinary ball lightning was quite unacceptable. And I got ac-
cused of simplifying the situation.
I don’t deny that I really did try to simplify things — and
not only this situation. Why? Because I have heard reports
about how certain religious leaders are frightening people
with their speculations on Anastasia’s unusual powers — say-
ing that these powers were not of God, and that Anastasia was
not a Man. They’re writing articles about this in their religious
journals. I can only imagine the exaggerations that will now
come up with the appearance of the sphere at Gelendzhik.
I am not about to try to either prove or refute the identi-
fication of the fiery sphere at Gelendzhik with Anastasia’s —
there’s no sense in it now. Everybody’s going to stick to their
own opinion. All I want is to try to reason a little together
with you, dear readers, as to what kind of forces the fiery
sphere at Gelendzhik might have represented.
The Bible says: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” 5 Well
then, what are the fruits?
First, the fiery sphere caused no damage to the city hall.
Even the glass on which it etched its symbol wasn’t broken.
The lingering aroma in the office was not an unpleasant one.
Galina Nikolaevna (the occupant of the office) spoke with me
’Matth. 7: 20.
236
Book 4: Co-creation
in the presence of four people, and none of them detected any
sense of fear in her.
The sphere made thundering noises over the tree in the
square, and there was a bright flare — people said it looked
as though the tree itself was flaring up. But there it is, still
growing away in perfect health.
The city council resolved to improve the level of service
to readers from out-of-town. It also made a decision to offer
regular, properly organised excursions to the dolmens Anas-
tasia spoke about.
I myself cannot see a single negative consequence. There-
fore, the fruits must be judged positive.
Anastasia says about the fiery sphere that it acts complete-
ly self-sufficiently, that it cannot be ordered about — one can
only make a request of it.
In my books I am attempting to describe, as accurately as
I can, situations I have seen with my own eyes, experienced
with my own feelings or heard with my own ears. As for the
incident with the fiery sphere at Gelendzhik, well, everyone
can put forth their own version of events. But I certainly don’t
want anyone using this incident for the purpose of frighten-
ing people.
Besides, if one were to continue along that line, then it is
possible to mystify the most mundane situations. Now peo-
ple are even starting to say that this fiery sphere assisted me in
making my presentation at Gelendzhik. But that’s not true. I
don’t have any connection with it at all. And the press has not
been blameless in feeding these rumours.
The respected magazine Ogonyok 6 printed a long arti-
cle in which the author states that “an experiment is being
6 Ogonyok (stress on last syllable) — one of the oldest weekly illustrated
magazines in Russia (published since 1899). The name literally means ‘little
flame’.
Anomalies at Gelendzhik
2 37
conducted on this country on a major scale”. Specifically
he notes about me that “he talked on stage for eight hours
straight — I haven’t seen oratory like that for a long time”.
And another paper adds: “through all this he remained fresh
as a cucumber”. All these descriptions, to put it mildly, are
exaggerated and inaccurate.
In the first place, at the conference I spoke not for eight
hours straight, but only six. Two hours were ‘added’ from my
presentation on the following day
As far as assistance goes, it really was there, but with no
mysticism.
On the eve of the Gelendzhik conference Anastasia came
to see me, telling me I should get a good night’s sleep. She
offered me a tea extract that she had brought with her from
the taiga, for me to drink just before bedtime. I agreed, since
lately I really hadn’t been able to sleep much at night. Then,
when I lay down, she sat down beside me, took my hand — as
she used to do back in the taiga (I described this in my chap-
ter “Touching Paradise” 7 ). And I fell asleep, as though liter-
ally flying off somewhere. Whenever she did this in the taiga,
a sense of peace would always come over me.
I awoke the next morning to see a beautiful day out, I felt
in top shape, and my mood was cheerful.
For breakfast Anastasia offered me only cedar milk, say-
ing it was better not to eat any meat, since a lot of energy
would be spent on digesting it. And after the cedar milk I
didn’t even feel like having meat. Whenever I have cedar
milk, I never feel like having anything else.
When I gave my talk to the readers at the conference,
Anastasia was not beside me. She stood quietly for a while in
the auditorium among the readers, then went off and disap-
peared altogether.
'“Touching Paradise’’ — Chapter 21 in Book 1.
238
Book 4: Co-creation
But after the publication of the articles and the rumours
giving a mystic interpretation to my presentation at the con-
ference, I began to wonder myself whether Anastasia had
somehow been helping me, and I said to her:
“Don’t tell me, Anastasia, you quite forgot I was supposed
to look tired, at least toward the end of my presentation? Why
did you let these people indulge in mystical speculation?”
She laughed, and replied:
“What kind of mysticism can there be in someone well-
rested talking in a good mood with his friends? As for your
speaking for so long, this was because your thought is still con-
fused, you tried to grasp hold of a number of topics at once. It
was possible to have phrased it more clearly and concisely, but
you were not able to do that — also on account of the fact that
your shoes were too tight and squeezing your feet, so that the
blood had trouble circulating through your veins.”
You see now how utterly simple in fact it all was. There
was absolutely no mysticism in my presentation.
Dear readers! I’m receiving more and more letters from you
asking why neither I nor the Anastasia Foundation are re-
sponding to the critical articles in the press, to the insults and
accusations of bigotry directed at me and my readers in gen-
eral. What a waste of time that would be! Anyway, what’s the
sense of responding to people who are simply out to provoke
a scandal?
In November one journalist (by the name of By... — I’m
not going to spell it out in full, no need to immortalise him)
Anomalies at Gelendzhik
239
saw fit to publish one and the same article under different
titles in no less than five publications at the same time. He
changed the titles, transposed a few sentences in the text and
signed himself with different names. He naturally disparages
me and then rants away with a diatribe on morals, ethics and
commercialism. His editors will deal with him themselves
before too long. I know how distasteful such a situation can
be for editors. And it’s considered highly unethical in jour-
nalists’ circles. After all, each publication paid him an hono-
rarium on the understanding they were getting an ‘exclusive’.
What’s the point of my arguing with him? Maybe the poor
fellow needs the money to buy himself a decent meal. And as
for the muck and lies he dishes out, I don’t think they’ll ever
stick to Anastasia — they’ll all fall back on him.
Let’s face it: Anastasia’s a pretty hot topic right now, so I
wouldn’t be surprised if a few more publications tried to capi-
talise on her popularity After all, you readers number more
than a million already. Let’s say I start a polemic with a tabloid
of maybe 50,000 subscribers. You are naturally going to want
to read it, and that means you’ll be giving a huge boost to their
circulation. There’s absolutely no sense in arguing with them.
You know yourselves, after all, whether you’re bigots or not.
If you really want to get back at a publication, your best bet is simply
to refuse to buy it, or cancel your subscription if you have one.
As for me, the only way I can communicate with you is
through my books. So now I’m going to try and answer some
of your questions.
First of all, at the present time I’m not engaged in any
business activities — I spend my whole time writing. I don’t
belong to any religious group. I’m simply trying to come up
with my own sense of what life’s all about. But the criticisms
and fabrications directed at me and Anastasia are likely to in-
crease. Seems a lot of people see Anastasia as an obstacle to
their own pet plans.
240
Book 4: Co-creation
You can bet they’ll expose themselves sooner or later. But
one thing that seems pretty clear to me now is that this Si-
berian girl’s being seen as one hell of a threat to more than a
few religious groups and at the same time to some financial-
industrial empires both here in Russia and abroad.
They’re the ones that are persistently blowing up the ques-
tion in the press: Does Anastasia exist or not? And just who isMegre?
And then they give their own answer: No, she doesn’t. AndMegre’s
a penny-pinching entrepreneur. In actual fact, they are more aware
than just about anyone else of Anastasia’s existence.
But they feel a need to go to any length to distract people
from the central message of what information is coming out,
to cut off the source of information at any cost, try to take
control of it, and if that doesn’t work, to exterminate it.
It seems they have been better and quicker than we have
at evaluating the information coming from Anastasia. They
even laugh at those who question Anastasia’s existence. Think
about it: would anyone listening to information on the radio
question the existence of the station broadcasting it? But
while some self-professed ‘wise guys’ have got caught up in an
endless round of asking Does she exist or not?, in the meantime
there has been an intense buying up and exporting of cedar
nuts in the Irkutsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions — - for for-
eign currency, yet. According to reports out of Novosibirsk
and Tomsk, Chinese representatives have been involved. 8
1999 was a banner year for cedar nut crops in many parts
of Siberia. But the Novosibirsk medical factory 9 is not
g
Indeed, China’s domestic consumption of pine nuts (‘cedar nuts’ in Russia) is
estimated to be greater than its total domestic production. 4et, China is the
largest exporter of pine nuts to America (controlling over 90% of US im-
ports, worth tens of millions of dollars each year). The ‘Chinese’ pine nuts
found in North American health food stores and supermarkets are predom-
inantly Russian in origin — they are, in fact, the nuts of Siberian cedar and
Korean cedar trees ‘exported’ across the border to China, to be shelled and
sent overseas, often without the necessary level of refrigeration.
Anomalies at Gelendzhik
241
increasing its output of cedar oil. There is a shortage of cedar
nuts — the same nuts which are being made into expensive
medicines in the West, where the manufacturers are talcing
great pains to conceal the identity of the main ingredient.
Remember I wrote back in Book 1 about how they were
shipping cedar nuts abroad? And when I tried searching for
information about cedar nut oil, I got a warning from Poland
to back off. 10 This year they’ve managed again to hold their
own. But as to the future, well, we shall see. In the next book I
shall tell about a certain surprise being prepared by Anastasia.
I am an entrepreneur. My idea was to write the books 1 prom-
ised and then get back to business. And I never hid myintentions
from anyone — in fact I wrote about them right in Book 2. 11 But
now my plans have changed. Let other Siberian entrepreneurs
compete for trade with these Western smart alecs.
My plans changed because those behind critical publica-
tions continue to insult and frighten readers, labelling as
bigots anybody who bothers to read my books, which they
consider silly and devoid of literary value. Granted, I don’t
have any higher education, or experience in the literary field,
and those who have these are irritated by the popularity of my
books. They are especially upset by the fact that, given my
level of education, I still refuse to submit my work to editors.
And they are simply furious over my publication of the five-
hundred-page collection of readers’ letters and poems enti-
tled The soul of Russia sings in Anastasia’s rayT Again, I didn’t
9 Novosibirsk medical factoty — see Ch. 24: “Take back your Motherland, people!”.
IO See Book 1, toward the end of Chapter 1: “The ringing cedar”.
n See Book 2, at the very end of Chapter 31: “How to produce healing cedar oil”.
12 The soul of Russia sings in Anastasia’s ray. Apeople’s book (Russian title: Vluche Anas-
tas ii zvuchit dosha Rossii. Narodnaya kniga) — a 544-page volume of readers’ poetry
art and letters. Seven sample poems from this collection are reproduced in Eng-
lish translation at the end of Book 1, Chapter 30: ‘Author’s message to readers”.
242
Book 4: Co-creation
allow anyone to edit this. I wrote the preface myself, saying
that the collection was quite an historic publication. I still say
this. How else could one characterise it, containing as it does
letters and musings on life, on the purpose of Man, on what
people today cherish in life. The letters and poems are sin-
cere, and written by people of different ages, different social
situations and religious inclinations. And this book has been
pretty popular. In fact, its popularity has quite given the lie to
the myth that modern Man is interested only in crime novels
and books about sex. People are eager to read poetry — even
if it’s not professionally written, but sincere nevertheless.
I’ve been told on a number of occasions that because I’ve
thrown out a challenge to the whole brotherhood of the pen
and their erudition, I’m going to be wiped off the face of the
map — nobody will ever recognise me as a writer.
But it wasn’t my intention to challenge anyone as a writer.
That was never my intention, but now, when the press is go-
ing so far as to attribute the popularity of my books to the
fact that “Russia is a stupid country”, and that all my readers
are fools and bigots, I have no choice but to respond to them.
I shall be a writer! I’ll do a little more practising, study some
more... I’ll ask Anastasia for help... and I shall be a writer! I
shall write new books and reprint the ones already published
in the best printing houses in the world. I shall make the
books about Anastasia and about the people of Russia today
the best books of the millennium.
This is how I shall respond to my present and future crit-
ics, but in the meantime I’ll simply say this to them:
“To my critics, I bid you farewell. I’m going off with Anas-
tasia — maybe she’s a bit naive, but she’s beautiful, kind
and sincere. We shall set off into our new millennium with
more than a million readers in whose hearts a splendid and
inspired image is alive and well. And what is in your hearts,
critics? Phooey on you! Don’t come crawling into our new
Anomalies at Gelendzhik
243
millennium. Get the... how can I put it? Get the hell on back
to your own! And even if you do come crawling into ours,
you’ll only choke on your own anger and envy.
“In our millennium we’re seeing the start of a new and
splendid co-creation, where the air will be pure and there will
be living water and fragrant gardens. And in that millennium
I shall continue publishing new collections with readers’ po-
ems and letters. I shall call the series A people’s book. You may
say that “the poems therein are horrendous” but I say they are
resplendent.
“I shall also put out some audiocassettes with songs of the
bards — songs of Soul, of Russia, of Anastasia . 13 You may say
that anyone can strum a guitar. But I say that these bards sing
from the heart. And I would add, in Anastasia’s words: Not in
any of the galaxies could there be found a single string capable of pro-
ducing a better sound than that of the singing of the human sold. ”' 4
Dear readers, I extend to all of you my heartfelt greetings
on the dawn of our millennium! On the dawn of your splendid
co-creation on the Earth!
Who are we? That is what I have decided to call my next book.
Respectfully,
Vladimir Alegre
To be continued...
' 3 Over the past five years, over a dozen albums — collections of bards’ songs
inspired by Anastasia — have been released by the Anastasia Foundation
alone, and many more albums have been released independently. A ‘Cara-
van of Love of Sun-bards’ ( Karavan Liubvi Solnecbnykh bardov ) has also been
set up as an itinerant song festival, with large groups of bards travelling
from city to city and giving free song performances in Russia and beyond.
I4 See Chapter 6: “Birth”.
Wow! Four books translated and counting. Not a bad record,
when one considers that just a year ago (as of this writing)
not a single page of this series had yet come off the Ringing
Cedars presses in America.
The series was launched with the publication of Book i,
Anastasia, in February 2005, followed by Book 2, The Ringing
Cedars of Russia, and Book 3, The Space of Love, later in the year.
And now Co-creation makes four, with at least five volumes still
to come. And for this swift progression we have you to thank,
dear readers, for your ongoing support and encouragement,
without which the publication of the new volumes would not
have been possible. And needless to say, our gratitude goes
out to our original source of support, the One whose inspira-
tion inevitably underlies any legitimate act ot ‘co-creation’.
Equally noteworthy is the co-creation evident in the evo-
lution of the original series itself, particularly the remarkable
transformation of a hard-nosed Siberian commercial trader
into one of Russia’s bestselling authors. All the more amaz-
ing when one remembers that because of Vladimir Megre’s
initially ‘choppy’ writing style, the original Russian manuscript
of Anastasia was rejected by publisher after publisher, leaving
him no choice but to bring out the first edition on his own. 1
However, after several print-runs of the self-published Anas-
tasia sold out simply by word of mouth, with no advertising
campaign or bookstore exposure, professional publishers were
‘See Book 1, Chapter 30: “Author’s message to readers”.
Hope for the world. Afterword
245
only too eager to reconsider, and it was not long before the vol-
umes in the Ringing Cedars Series were selling in the millions.
And now in America, as elsewhere in the English-speaking
world, Anastasia and its sequels are once again running coun-
ter to the book-industry’s long-held axioms. Even though cor-
porate wholesalers declined to distribute the Ringing Cedars
Series to major retailers on the grounds that “no book sells by
word of mouth alone, without a budget sufficient for a large
advertising campaign”, you the readers have proved otherwise,
and the books have already spread around the globe without so
much as a single advertisement or paid-for review in the press.
Many of you have taken it upon yourself to purchase additional
copies to give to the family and friends. Some have even gone
further and become independent distributors, devoting con-
siderable time and effort to making the books available in your
local regions. Thus, as with their original editions, the success
of the books in translation is once again the result of the re-
sourcefulness of their readers — readers who have let a new
splendid image live in their hearts — and the ideas these books
set forth are already learning their mark on the world.
Indeed, there are signs that the world is beginning to grasp
the message that there is a better path to freedom, enlight-
enment and happiness than the one along which it has been
hurtling forward at breakneck speed, and that the ‘new mil-
lennium’ on the Earth which Vladimir Megre welcomes on
the final pages of Co-creation is already dawning with a most
glorious radiance. Both in Russia and abroad, Anastasia and
the Ringing Cedars Movement are already the subject of
many day-to-day conversations and frequent reports in the
press (some pertinent examples are detailed below).
Many might find these developments surprising. Howev-
er, there have been numerous thinkers in both the distant and
the recent past who have attempted to send a similar message
246 Book 4: Co-creation
to humanity: that it is on the wrong path. A few of these are
worth noting here.
In the late 19th century the great Russian writer Leo Tol-
stoy took special note of how “millions of people — men,
women and children — working ten, twelve or fifteen hours
a day, are being transformed into machines and perishing in
factories that manufacture unnecessary and harmful gad-
gets... while more and more villages become deserted”. He
further observed that “in our time the human heart has been
crying out more strongly, more strongly than ever before,
against this false life, and calling people to the life demanded
by revelation, reason and conscience”. 2
At the same time, on the other side of the Atlantic, religious
thinker and Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy was
calling for a new approach to spiritual freedom from ‘mental
slavery 1 to long-held beliefs. She summed up this approach
in her major work, Science and health (originally published in
1875) as follows: “The despotic tendencies, inherent in mortal
mind and always germinating in new forms of tyranny, must
be rooted out through the action of the divine Mind”. 3 4
In 1931 the American prophet Edgar Cayce established his
Association for Research and Enlightenment to promote al-
ternative solutions to humanity’s problems based on, among
other things, personal spirituality and holistic health. Inter-
estingly enough, in one of his many ‘readings’ he received an
intimation that “on Russia’s religious development will come the
greater hope of the world” r
2 Leo Tolstoy, An appeal ( Vozzvanie ), 25 May 1889.
3 Mary Baker Eddy, Science and health with key to the Scriptures (final edition,
1910), p. 225. Not unlike Megre, Eddy frequently used ‘divine Mind’ (with a
capital M) as a synonym for God.
4 From Cayce reading 3976-10 (February 1932). Edgar Cayce Readings are
copyrighted (© 1971, 1993-2005) by the Edgar Cayce Foundation. This quo-
tation is used by the kind permission of the copyright holder. Italics ours.
Hope for the world. Afterword
247
Three years later the world-renowned humanitarian, Dr
Albert Schweitzer, re-published the English translation of his
book, On the edge of the primeval forest. While decrying the
injustices inflicted on the indigenous peoples by European
settlers,’ he intimates that the only path to successful coloni-
alism is to turn the indigenous people into more productive
workers by removing them from their native villages, families and
plots of land. Surprisingly in the same piece Schweitzer even
holds labour compulsion (forcing the African native peoples
to provide labour in return for material ‘benefits’ bestowed
on them) to be justifiable. 0
Separating people from their own (or their family’s) land
is a social trend that goes back centuries. Thomas More de-
scribed it in Book 1 of his Utopia (published in 1516), accusing
greedy landowners of talcing land from their peasant farmers
for their own enrichment. Stalin’s forced collectivisation of
agriculture in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, the loss of family
farms in the United States in the years following World War
II and the establishing of huge ‘factory farms’ in present-day
Canada (nearly always achieved by buying up small, family
operations at an ‘irresistible’ price) are further examples of
concerted efforts on the part of the ‘dark forces’ of this world
to break Man’s ties to the land. This in turn has the effect of
subduing his free will and destroying his independence.
’He writes, for example: “Who can describe the injustice and cruelties that
in the course of centuries they [the coloured peoples] have suffered at the
hands of Europeans?... If a record could be compiled of all that has hap-
pened between the white and the coloured races, it would make a book
containing numbers of pages which the reader would have to turn over un-
read because their contents would be too horrible” — A. Schweitzer, On the
edge of the primeval forest: experiences and observations of a doctor in Equatorial
Africa (London: A.&C. Black Ltd, 1934), p. 115.
6 See A. Schweitzer, On the edge of the primeval forest, pp. 112-118.
248
Book 4: Co-creation
All of which gives added weight to Anastasia’s proposal, so el-
oquently set forth by Vladimir Megre in Co-creation, of bring-
ing Ma n (more specifically, a Man’s family) and his land back
together again in the form of what is called in Russian rodovoe
pomestie — translated in this book as ‘family domain’ or ‘kin’s
domain ’. 7 This phrase is in turn linked, in terms of both mean-
ing and etymology, to the Russian concept of Rodina, which
has been rendered ‘Motherland’ in the Ringing Cedars Series,
though it is equally translatable as ‘native land ’. 8
A brief word on the translation is in order here: inasmuch
as both Rodina and rodovoe pomestie convey concepts that have
deep roots in the Russian historical context, unparalleled in
Western cultures, a good deal of thought — not to mention
countless paragraphs of text and e-mail correspondence —
has gone into selecting the most appropriate English equiva-
lents . 9
We were aided in this decision in part by two of our readers
who were asked to voice their thoughts on the selection of an
equivalent for Rodina. Here is a brief excerpt from each of
their responses:
To me Motherland seems to invoke the most profound con-
nection one can have to the land. It is the land in which
This proposal of Anastasia’s — a ‘family domain’ comprising one hectare
of land — is presented throughout the latter part of Co-creation, beginning
with Chapter 24: “Take back your Motherland, people!”. The origin of the
Russian term tendered family domain (or kin’s domain ) is discussed in foot-
note 7 in Chapter 33: “School, or the lessons of the gods”.
8
For further discussion of the original meaning of Rodina, please see foot-
note 1 in Chapter 24: “Take back your Motherland, people!”.
9 Even then the final results were, shall we say, less than unanimous, and
involved a significant element of compromise on the part of both editor
and translator. We can only hope our readers will be able to glean at least a
glimmer of understanding from the choices we eventually decided upon.
Hope f 07 - the woiid. Afterword
249
you were likely born. But even more so, it is the land to
which you have bonded through work, toil, sweat and
blood, laughter, joy and sustenance.
I like motherland. It brings the “life giving” nature of the
earth to my heart, “my mother”, evoking feelings of tender-
ness and responsibility. There is much meaning to women
in the idea of being a mother and a common thread which
relates to my personal life’s experience and has a place in
the emotional file cabinet of the brain for most people.
The relationship between “life” and the earth is shattered
in this country [America], as people are so removed from
the idea the earth gives us our life.
The linkage made by the latter reader between one’s ‘per-
sonal life’ and ‘the Earth’ is significant. Early in Chapter 24
(appropriately entitled “Take back your Motherland, peo-
ple!”) Anastasia acknowledges that “the whole Earth could be
a Motherland { Rodina ] for each one of its inhabitants”, and
she designates a family’s personal plot of land (subsequently
identified as one’s kin’s domain ) as a “piece of the Mother-
land” 10 — thus linking the feelings associated with one’s per-
sonal family to the broader concept of the family of human-
ity as a whole. Indeed, perspectives on the concept of the
family as revealed in Co-creation are by no means confined to
the world of the early twenty-first century we call home, but
reach out in both time and distance to look at family not only
through the lenses of the past, the present and the future but
from beyond our usual sense of planetary space as well.
On this basis, then, it may be seen that the concepts of
both Motherland and family domain reach far beyond the bor-
ders of Russia alone. In fact, as indicated above, there are
I0 See Chapter 31: “But who is to blame?”.
250
Book 4: Co-creation
signs that Anastasia’s appeal to “take back your Motherland”
is already resonating in the hearts of many people in many
parts of the world.
In May 2005, for example, a massive power outage in
Moscow reminded many of Anastasia’s words concerning the
inevitable collapse of artificial life-support systems. 11 This
one accident paralysed Russia’s capital city for several days in
a row and, among other things, resulted in the sewage from
millions of dwellings being flushed into the Moskva River un-
treated. In a radio programme devoted to possible solutions
to this problem, one of Russia’s most prominent ecologists —
and President of the Centre for Russia’s Environmental
Policy — Academician Alexey Yablokov, made pointed refer-
ence not only to E.F. Schumacher’s book Small is Beautiful ' 2
but also to the “ hugely popular ‘Anastasia’ movement of people
building their family domains” A
In neighbouring Latvia, journalist Liudmila Stoma was
curious about what was behind a movement of hundreds of
people in Latgal Province — “all well-educated specialists in
high demand in the labour market” — relocating to a newly
formed eco-village in a remote rural area. Upon investiga-
tion, she was amazed by what she could only describe as a
“new revolution”:
Over the last few years Russia, Belarus and Ukraine have
been experiencing a real eco-village boom: thousands of
n See, for example, Book 2, Chapter 8: “The answer”, and Book 3, Chap-
ter 19: “What to agree with, what to believe?”.
I2 E.F. Schumacher, Small is beautiful: economics as if people mattered (New
York, Harper & Row, 1973).
I3 From Dr Yablokov’s interview on ecological threats to Moscow result-
ing from electricity outages ( Problemy ekologicheskoy bezopasnosti Moskvy
v sluchae otkliucheniya podachi elektroenergii), aired on Radio Svoboda on
25 May 2003. Italics ours.
Hope for the world. Afterword
251
families are building ‘family domains’ on one hectare of
land each, attaining remarkable self-sufficiency with only
sparing use of all the technological achievements of the
technocratic world. They are all united by the same goal:
to build a Paradise on the Earth. 14
She ended her article by wondering if “the settlers follow-
ing Anastasia’s advice” in building their own family domains
might actually succeed where government subsidies had so
miserably failed.
In fact, thousands of new kin’s domains are being estab-
lished each year — not only in Russia and Latvia, but in many
other countries as well. And Dachnik Day — an annual cel-
ebration of our connectedness to Mother Earth on 23 July, the
idea of which was proposed in Book 2 (The Ringing Cedars of
Russia ) only eight years ago 15 — has now become an interna-
tional holiday, and in 2005 it was celebrated for the first time
by readers of the series in both America and Canada.
These are but a few examples of a growing, world-wide
phenomenon rounded out by international readers’ confer-
ences, bards’ festivals and multitudes of new poems, songs,
paintings and other forms of artistic expression. And already
the reaction of readers of the English translation of the se-
ries in America, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and
elsewhere is indicating a real ‘globalisation’ of interest not
only in reading the Ringing Cedars books, but in acting on the
“'Liudmila Stoma, Vozvrashchenie v Edem (Return to Eden). Ezhenedelnik
“Vesti” (Weekly News), n° 8 (601), 24 February 2005. Interestingly enough,
Israeli writer and poet Efim Kushner also used the term revolution (in the
phrase “a global-scale moral revolution”) in reference to the Ringing Cedars
Series in his book Beskrovnaya revoliutsiya (A bloodless revolution), published
in 2003.
l5 See Book 2, Chapter 9: “Dachnik Day and an All-Earth holiday!”.
252
Book 4: Co-creation
ideas they present as well, revealing new manifestations of a
Motherland that completely transcends national boundaries.
And to think it all started from a single simple idea, which,
multiplied through its first faltering attempts at imple-
mentation, still keeps on blossoming and helping people all
over the world ‘take back’ their own Motherland — even as
Vladimir Megre’s blossoming series of publications started
from a single simple proposal to write a book implanted in
the thought of an inveterate ‘non-writer’. And this former
non-writer’s initial ‘choppy’ attempts have now evolved into
a flourishing trademark style of poetic prose which charac-
terises Books 3 and 4 of the series. (How well we have suc-
ceeded on conveying this evolution of style in the English
version, particularly the melodious effect his resulting po-
etic mode of expression can have on the one who reads it
with a heart attuned to textual harmonies, will be up to you
the readers to judge.) 16
As translator and editor we have only to wish you as fas-
cinating an experience in discovering this book on your own
as we ourselves had in reading and ‘co-translating’ it (not to
mention ‘co-editing’ the translation). For now we shall leave
you with Anastasia’s appeal from Chapter 26 (“Even today
everyone can build a home”): “You must feel everything that
I outline, and mentally complete yourself the whole design,
16 We are reminded here of the words of British poet Robert Graves: “The
reason why the hairs stand on end, the eyes water, the throat is constrict-
ed, the skin crawls and a shiver runs down the spine when one writes or
reads a true poem is that a true poem is necessarily an invocation of the
White Goddess, or Muse, the Mother of All Living..." We feel that this
‘goddess’ — whom Anastasia calls Love — is invoked in this volume with
tremendous power. The quote is from Robert Graves, The White Goddess:
a historical grammar of poetic myth (London: Faber & Faber, 1946; now also
published in New York by Noonday Press), pp. 24-25.
Hope for the world. Afterword
253
and let everyone else draw it along with me. O, God! People,
at least give it a try, I beg of you!”.
We look forward to meeting you again on the pages of the
next book — entitled Who are we? — which, like Co-creation,
will offer ever greater hope for the world.
Ottawa, Canada John Woodsworth
Ozark Mountains, USA Leonid Sharashkin
February 2006
ABOUT THE RINGING CEDARS SERIES
Anastasia , the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series, tells the
story of entrepreneur Vladimir Megre’s trade trip to the Siberian
taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena
connected with sacred ‘ringing cedar’ trees. He spent three days
with a woman named Anastasia who shared with him her unique
outlook on subjects as diverse as gardening, child-rearing, healing,
Nature, sexuality, religion and more. This wilderness experience
transformed Vladimir so deeply that he abandoned his commercial
plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to fulfil Anastasia’s request
and write a book about the spiritual insights she so generously
shared with him. True to her promise this life-changing book, once
written, has become an international bestseller and has touched
hearts of millions of people world-wide.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia, the second book of the Series, in
addition to providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the
story of how Anastasia came to be published, offers a deeper explo-
ration of the universal concepts so dramatically revealed in Book 1.
It takes the reader on an adventure through the vast expanses of
space, time and spirit — from the Paradise-like glade in the Siberian
taiga to the rough urban depths of Russia’s capital city, from the an-
cient mysteries of our forebears to a vision of humanity’s radiant
future.
The Space of Love, the third book of the Series, describes author’s
second visit to Anastasia. Rich with new revelations on natural
child-rearing and alternative education, on the spiritual significance
of breast-feeding and the meaning of ancient megaliths, it shows
how each person’s thoughts can influence the destiny of the entire
Earth and describes practical ways of putting Anastasia’s vision of
happiness into practice. Megre shares his new outlook on educa-
tion and children’s real creative potential after a visit to a school
where pupils build their own campus and cover the ten-year Russian
school programme in just two years. Complete with an account of
an armed intrusion into Anastasia’s habitat, the book highlights the
limitless power of Love and non-violence.
Co-creation, the fourth book and centrepiece of the Series, paints a
dramatic living image of the creation of the Universe and humani-
ty’s place in this creation, making this primordial mystery relevant
to our everyday living today Deeply metaphysical yet at the same
time down-to-Earth practical, this poetic heart-felt volume helps us
uncover answers to the most significant questions about the essence
and meaning of the Universe and the nature and purpose of our ex-
istence. It also shows how and why the knowledge of these answers,
innate in every human being, has become obscured and forgotten,
and points the way toward reclaiming this wisdom and — in part-
nership with Nature — manifesting the energy of Love through our
lives.
Who are we? — Book Five of the Series — describes the author’s
search for real-life ‘proofs’ of Anastasia’s vision presented in the
previous volumes. Finding these proofs and taking stock of ongo-
ing global environmental destruction, Vladimir Megre describes
further practical steps for putting Anastasia’s vision into practice.
Full of beautiful realistic images of a new way of living in co-opera-
tion with the Earth and each other, this book also highlights the role
of children in making us aware of the precariousness of the present
situation and in leading the global transition toward a happy, vio-
lence-free society.
The book of kin, the sixth book of the Series, describes another
visit by the author to Anastasia’s glade in the Siberian taiga and his
conversations with his growing son, which cause him to take a new
look at education, science, history, family and Nature. Through
parables and revelatory dialogues and stories Anastasia then leads
Vladimir Megre and the reader on a shocking re-discovery of the
pages of humanity’s history that have been distorted or kept secret
for thousands of years. This knowledge sheds light on the causes of
war, oppression and violence in the modern world and guides us in
preserving the wisdom of our ancestors and passing it over to future
generations.
The energy of life , Book Seven of the Series, re-asserts the power
of human thought and the influence of our thinking on our lives
and the destiny of the entire planet and the Universe. Is also brings
forth a practical understanding of ways to consciously control and
build up the power of our creative thought. The book sheds still
further light on the forgotten pages of humanity’s history, on reli-
gion, on the roots of inter-racial and inter-religious conflict, on ideal
nutrition, and shows how a new way of thinking and a lifestyle in
true harmony with Nature can lead to happiness and solve the per-
sonal and societal problems of crime, corruption, misery, conflict,
war and violence.
The new civilisation, the eighth book of the Series, is not yet com-
plete. The first part of the book, already published as a separate
volume, describes yet another visit by Vladimir Megre to Anastasia
and their son, and offers new insights into practical co-operation
with Nature, showing in ever greater detail how Anastasia’s lifestyle
applies to our lives. Describing how the visions presented in previ-
ous volumes have already taken beautiful form in real life and pro-
duced massive changes in Russia and beyond, the author discerns
the birth of a new civilisation. The book also paints a vivid image of
America’s radiant future, in which the conflict between the power-
ful and the helpless, the rich and the poor, the city and the country,
can be transcended and thereby lead to transformations in both the
individual and society.
Rites of Love — Book 8, Part 2 (published as a separate volume) —
contrasts today’s mainstream attitudes to sex, family, childbirth and
education with our forebears’ lifestyle, which reflected their deep
spiritual understanding of the significance of conception, preg-
nancy, homebirth and upbringing of the young in an atmosphere of
love. In powerful poetic prose Megre describes their ancient way
of life, grounded in love and non-violence, and shows the practica-
bility of this same approach today. Through the life-story of one
family, he portrays the radiant world of the ancient Russian Vedic
civilisation, the drama of its destruction and its re-birth millennia
later — in our present time.
To be continued...
THE AUTHOR, Vladimir Megre, born in 1950, was a well-known
entrepreneur from a Siberian city of Novosibirsk. According to his
account, in 1995 — after hearing a fascinating story about the power
of ‘ringing cedars’ from a Siberian elder — he organised a trade ex-
pedition into the Siberian taiga to rediscover the lost technique of
pressing virgin cedar nut oil containing high curative powers, as well
as to find the ringing cedar tree. However, his encounter on this trip
with a Siberian woman named Anastasia transformed him so deep-
ly that he abandoned his business and went to Moscow to write a
book about the spiritual insights she had shared with him. Vladimir
Megre now lives near the city ofVladimir, Russia, 190 km (120 miles)
east of Moscow. If you wish to contact the author, you may send a
message to his personal e-mail megre@online.siiior.ru
THE TRANSLATOR, John Woodsworth, born in Vancouver
(British Columbia), has over forty years of experience in Russian-
English translation, from classical poetry to modem short stories. Since
1982 he has been associated with the University of Ottawa in Canada
as a Russian-language teacher, translator and editor, most recently as a
Research Associate and Administrative Assistant with the University’s
Slavic Research Group. A published Russian-language poet himself) he
and his wife — Susan K. Woodsworth — are directors of the Sasquatch
Literary Arts Performance Series in Ottawa. A Certified Russian-
English Translator, John Woodsworth is in the process of translating the
remaining volumes in Vladimir Megre’s Ringing Cedars Series.
THE EDITOR, Leonid SharashJdn, is writing his doctoral dis-
sertation on the spiritual, cultural and economic significance of the
Russian dacha gardening movement, at the University of Missouri at
Columbia. After receiving a Master’s degree in Natural Resources
Management from Indiana LTniversity at Bloomington, he worked for
two years as Programme Manager at the World wide Fund for Nature
(WWF Russia) in Moscow, where he also served as editor of Russia’s
largest environmental magazine, The Panda Times. Together with his
wife, Irina Sharashkina, he has translated into Russian Small is beauti-
ful and A guide for the perplexed by E.F. Schumacher, The secret life of
plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, The continuum concept
by Jean Liedloff and Birth without violence by Frederick Leboyer.
Co-ercafion by Vladimir Mcerc
Nature
Boot 4 o( Tfic Ringing Cc Jars Series
Co-creation paints a dramatic living image of the creation of the Universe and
humanity’s place in this creation, making this primordial mystery relevant to
our everyday living today Deeply metaphysical yet at the same time down to-
Earth practical, this poetic heartfelt volume helps us uncover answers to the
most significant questions about the essence of the Universe and the purpose
of our existence. It also shows how and why the knowledge of these answers,
innate in every human being, has become obscured and forgotten, and points
the way toward reclaiming this wisdom in partnership with Nature.
RINGING CEDARS PRESS
ISBN 978-0-9763333-3-3
www. RingingCedars. com
1-888-DOLMENS
US$14.95 CANS19.95 AU$24.95
admin
V.
1 L
-jy TJL-d&g^
£
>>v» . ,A 1
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-0-2)
Book 5 Who Are We
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-4-0)
ak 6 The Book of K:
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-6-4)
9k 7 The Energy
>N: 978-O-9763333-7-1)
9k 8 , Part 1 The k
>N: 978-O-9763333-8-8;
9k 8 , Part 2 Rites
SN: 978 - 0 - 9763333 - 9 - 5 :
Anastasia herself has stated that this book consists of words
and phrases in combinations which have a beneficial effect on the
reader. This has been attested by the letters received to date
from thousands of readers all over the world.
If you wish to gain as full an appreciation as possible of the
ideas, thoughts and images set forth here, as well as experience
the benefits that come with this appreciation, we recommend
you find a quiet place for your reading where there is the least
possible interference from artificial noises (motor traffic,
radio, TV, household appliances etc.). Natural sounds, on the
other hand — the singing of birds, for example, or the patter
of rain, or the rustle of leaves on nearby trees — may be a
welcome accompaniment to the reading process.
Ringing Cedars Press is an independent publisher dedicated
to malting Vladimir Megre’s books available in the beautiful
English translation by John Woodsworth. Word of mouth is
our best advertisement and we appreciate your help in spread-
ing the word about the Ringing Cedars Series.
Order on-line www.RingingCedars.com ordering
call /fax toll-free 1-888-DOLMENS details
or call / fax 1-646-429-1986 see last page
Generous discounts are available on volume orders. To help
spread the word as an independent distributor, or to place the
books in your bookstore, or to be kept up to date about future
book releases and events, please email us at:
info@ringingcedars .com
orwrite to the Publisher, Ringing Cedars Press, 415 Dairy Rd.,
Suite E-339, Kahului, HI 96732, USA. We also welcome
reviews, poetry and artwork inspired by the Series.
Who Are We? by
Vladimir Megre
Translation and footnotes by
Editing, footnotes, design and layout by
Leonid Sharaslikin
Cover art by
Alexander Razboinikov
Copyright © 2001 Vladimir Megre
Copyright © 2006 Leonid Sharashkin, translation
Copyright © 2006 Leonid Sharashkin, footnotes
Copyright © 2006 Leonid Sharashkin, cover art
Copyright © 2006 Leonid Sharashkin, design and layout
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, except for the
inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2006920096
ISBN: 978-0-9763333-4-0
Published by
Ringing Cedars Press
www. RingingCedars .com
ite
47
;vail on the Earth 56
nent race 78
seudo-science 87
*eedom of thought? 96
from the future 101
VI
22. Our real
23. Your de. (
24. Eternit)
Appendix . . .
Chapter One
civilisations
We are always in a hurry to get somewhere or get something.
There is hardly a single one of us who doesn’t desire to lead a
happy life, find love and establish a family But how many of
us will actually achieve our desire?
What determines our satisfaction or dissatisfaction with
life? What determines our success or failure? What consti-
tutes the meaning of life for each and every Man 1 and for all
mankind on the whole? What kind of future awaits us?
These questions have been around a long time, but nobody
has managed to come up with an intelligible answer. But I
wonder: what kind of country will we be living in five or ten
years from now? What kind of world are we leaving to our
children? We really don’t know. And, let’s face it, none of us
can ever picture our own future, because we are always hurry-
ing off somewhere... but to where?
Strange, but true: the first clear glimpse I ever had about
the future of our country came not from statisticians or poli-
ticians but from Anastasia, a recluse living in the wilds of the
taiga. And not only did she present a picture of a marvellous
future, but showed step-by-step its feasibility even for our
generation — a design, in fact, for the development of the
whole country
The word Man (with a capital M) is used throughout the Ringing Cedars Se-
ries to refer to a human being of either gender. For details on the word’s use
and the important distinction between Man and human being please see the
Translator’s Preface to Book i.
2
Book 5: Who Are We?
It was while I was on my way from Anastasia’s glade to the
river 2 that this firm conviction, for some reason, came to my
thought: her plan is capable of changing so much in this world of
ours. When we consider that everything her thought concep-
tualises inevitably turns into a real-life embodiment, we see
we are already living in a country with only a splendid future
ahead of it. As I walked along, I thought about what Anasta-
sia had said about our country’s splendid future, which might
even come about in our generation’s lifetime. It will be a
country without regional conflicts, criminal gangs and diseas-
es, a country without poverty And while I didn’t understand
all the thoughts she came out with, there wasn’t a single thing
she said this time that I felt like doubting. On the contrary, I
felt as though I wanted to show everyone how right she was.
I firmly resolved to do everything within my power to bring
her plan to fruition. On the surface it seems simple enough:
each family should be allotted a hectare 3 of land for lifetime
use, whereon to set up its own ‘kin’s domain ’, 4 its own ‘piece
of the Motherland’.* But my thought was immersed in the
details of this plan. They were utterly simple in themselves,
and yet at the same time utterly incredible.
Amazing! It isn’t an agricultural scientist but a reclusive
woman from the taiga that has shown that, with the right
planting arrangement on a plot of land, it can take just a few
short years to dispense with the need for fertilisation. Not
only that, but even soil that isn’t terribly fertile will be signifi-
cantly improved.
2 from Anastasia’s glade to the river — see the last part of Book 4, Chapter 33:
“School, or the lessons of the gods”.
3 hectare — 1 hectare is equivalent to approx. 2.5 acres in the Imperial system.
4 kin’s domain — see footnote 7 in Book 4, Chapter 33.
'’Motherland — see footnote 1 in Book 4, Chapter 24: “Take back your Moth-
erland, people!”; also the Translator’s and Editor’s Afterword to Book 4.
Two civilisations
3
As a basic example Anastasia referred to the situation in the
taiga. 6 The taiga has been around for thousands of years, and
everything grows in it, even though it has never been fertilised.
Anastasia says that all the things growing in the earth constitute
the materialised thoughts of God, and that He has arranged
everything so that Man has no need to worry about difficulties
in finding food. One needs only to try to understand the Crea-
tor’s thought and create splendid things together with Him.
I can cite an example of my own. The island of Cyprus,
which I have visited, has a very rocky soil. But the ground
wasn’t always this way Centuries ago the island was home to
some splendid cedar forests and orchards, and its many rivers
were filled with the purest spring water. 1 he whole island was
like an earthly Paradise. Then the Roman legions invaded the
island and began to cut down the cedars to build their ships.
Whole groves were felled. Today the larger part of the island
is covered with stunted growth, the grass looks burnt even
in the springtime, summer rains are a rarity and there is not
enough fresh water. The residents have had to import fertile
soil by the bargeload to be able to grow anything at all. So the
upshot is: not only has Man failed to improve what has been
created on the island, but his barbarous interference has actu-
ally made things worse.
In outlining her plan, Anastasia said that it was essential
to plant a family tree, and that people should not be buried
in a cemetery but right there on the beautiful terrain they
themselves have nurtured. No headstone of any kind need be
placed on the grave. It is a Man’s living creations, not some-
thing dead, that will serve as a memorial for his relations. And
not only that, but his soul will be able to take on a material
embodiment again, in his earthly garden of Paradise.
6 taiga — the Russian name given to the boreal forest that stretches across
much of Siberia and northern Canada.
4
Book 5: Who Are We?
People buried in a cemetery cannot end up in Paradise.
Their souls cannot be embodied in matter as long as there
are relatives and friends around thinking about their death.
Headstones are monuments to death. Funeral rites were
thought up by the dark forces for the purpose of confining,
at least temporarily, the human soul. Our Father has never
produced any kind of suffering or even grieving for His belov-
ed children. All God’s creations are eternal, self-sufficient,
self-reproducing. Everything living on the Earth, from the
outwardly simple blade of grass to Alan, is a self-constituted
harmonious and eternal whole.
Here too, I think, she is right. Just look at how things have
turned out. Today scientists tell us that human thought is
material — but if that’s the case, it means that the deceased
person’s relatives, in thinking of him as dead, thereby keep
on holding him in a deadened state, which torments his soul.
Anastasia maintains that Man, or, more precisely, Alan’s soul,
can live forever. It has the capacity to constantly re-embody
itself anew, but only under certain conditions. These condi-
tions are brought about by a kin’s domain established according
to Anastasia’s design. I am simply a believer in this design. As
to proving or disproving her claims about life and death, I’ll
leave that to esoteric scholars who are no doubt more quali-
fied for the task.
I say, you’re going to get a lot of opposition on that one,” I
observed to Anastasia. To which she only laughed and replied:
“It will all happen very simply now, Vladimir. Alan’s though t
is capable of materialising and changing the shape of objects,
predetermining events, creating the future. So it works out
that any opponents who try to argue for the frailty of Alan’s
existence only end up destroying themselves, for they will
biing about their own decease by their very thoughts.
Those who are able to comprehend their purpose and
the meaning of infinity will start to live a happy life, eternally
Two civilisations
5
re-embodying themselves, for they themselves will produce
with their thoughts their own infinity of happiness.”
I lilted her plan even better when I began to calculate its
economic potential. I have become convinced that any Man,
with the help of a family domain he establishes according to
Anastasia’s design, can ensure a poverty-free existence for
himself as well as for his children and grandchildren. It is not
merely a question of providing one’s children with good food
to eat or a roof over their heads. Anastasia said that the fence
around the domain must be made of living trees, and that at
least a quarter of the hectare should be given over to forest.
That means about 300 trees. They’ll quite likely be cut
down in, say, eighty to a hundred years, yielding about 400
cubic metres of lumber. 7 Even today, lumber well-dried and
processed for finishing fetches at least one hundred dollars 8
per cubic metre, meaning a total income of $40,000. Of
course, one shouldn’t cut down the whole forest at once, just
the number of mature trees that are needed at the time, and
then immediately plant new ones in their place. The overall
value of a kin’s domain set up according to Anastasia’s design
may be estimated at a million dollars or more, and any family
can build one, even those with an average income.
The house can be quite modest to start with. The main
treasure will be the plot of ground, accurately and aesthetically
laid out. Even today, wealthier citizens are paying big money
to firms specialising in landscape design. There are about for-
ty such firms in Moscow right now, and they are always busy
For upwards of $1,500 they will take just the hundred square
metres of ground around your house and turn it into a land-
scape designed with detailed accuracy and aesthetic beauty.
'400 cubic metres of lumber — equivalent to 170,000 board feet.
8 dollars — in this case, American dollars, the currency most familiar to Rus-
sians after their own rouble.
6
Book 5: Who Are We?
It costs around $500 to plant a single conifer about 6 me-
tres high, but people who want to live in beautifully appointed
surroundings are willing to pay big money for that. They end
up paying it because it never entered their parents’ heads to
establish a family domain for their children. You don’t need
to be rich to do something like that, you need only to get your
priorities straight. How can we raise our children properly if
we ourselves don’t grasp such simple things? Anastasia’s right
when she says that education begins with ourselves.
I myself have had a strong desire to establish my own fam-
ily domain — to take a hectare of land, build a house and —
most importantly — to put in all sorts of plantings around it.
I want to set up my piece of the Motherland just as Anastasia
described, and have it surrounded by other people’s beauti-
fully appointed plots. Anastasia and our son could establish
themselves there too, or at least come visiting, and eventually
our grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Maybe our great-
grandchildren will want to work in the city, but they will still
be able to come to their family domain to relax.
And once a year, on the 23rd of July, the All-Earth holiday, 9
the whole extended family will gather at home. I shan’t be
around then myself, but the domain I set up will remain, and
the trees and garden it contains. I’ll hollow out a little pond
and put in some hatchlings so there’ll be fish. The trees will
be planted in the special arrangement outlined by Anastasia.
Some things my descendants will like, others they may want
to change, but either way I shall be remembered.
And I shall be buried in my own domain, with the request
that my grave not be marked in any way I don’t want anyone
putting on a show of grief or making a sad face over it. In
fact, I don’t want there to be any grieving at all. I don’t want
a headstone with an inscription, just fresh grass and bushes
’See Book 2, Chapter 9: “Dachnik Day and an All-Earth holiday!”.
Two civilisations
7
growing over the body — maybe some sort of berries too,
which will be useful to my descendants. What’s the point in a
grave-marker? There isn’t any — only grief. I don’t want peo-
ple coming to my domain to remember me with sadness, but
with joy Yeah, they’ll see how I’ve set things up, and arranged
all the plantings!...
My thoughts kept intertwining in a kind of joyful anticipa-
tion of something grand: I’d better begin as quickly as possible,
somehow start the ball rolling. I’ve got to get back to the city quicker,
but it’ll still be another ten kilometres just to get through this forest.
If only 1 could get through it sooner!
And all at once, out of the blue, statistics on Russia’s forest
lands floated to the surface of my memory I didn’t remember
all the figures, but here’s what I saw one time in a statistical
report: 10
“Forests constitute the basic type of vegetation in Russia,
covering 45% of its land mass. Russia has the most extensive
forest reserves in the world, amounting to 886.5 million hec-
tares in 1993, with a timber volume of 80.7 billion. This means
Russia holds 21.7% and 25.9% (respectively) of the world’s for-
est and timber resources. The higher figure for timber reflects
the fact that in terms of its wealth of mature and productive
forests, Russia is way above the world’s average.
“Forests play a huge role both in the gas balance in the at-
mosphere and in regulating climate on our planet. Accord-
ing to B.N. Moiseev’s calculations, the gas balance of Russia’s
forests is 1,789 million tonnes" for carbon dioxide and 1,299
million tonnes for oxygen. Annual carbon deposits in Russia’s
forests amount to 600 million tonnes. These huge volumes
IO This description appears, among other places, in an environmental atlas
of Russia which may be found on the Russian “Practical Science” website
at: mvw.sci.aha.ru
11 tonne (metric ton) — 1 tonne = 0.98 UK (long) tons or 1.1 US (short) tons.
8
Book 5: Who Are We?
of gas exchanges significantly contribute to the stabilisation
of the gas composition and climate of the whole planet.”
Just look at what’s happening! I’ve heard it said some kind
of special mission lies ahead for Russia — but that’s not in the
future , it’s already unfolding.
Just think: people all over the planet — to a greater or
lesser extent, it isn’t important — are breathing Russia’s air.
They’re breathing the oxygen produced by this very forest
I’m walking through right now. I wonder whether it’s simply
oxygen that this forest is supplying all life on the planet with,
or maybe something even more important besides.
My solitary walk through the taiga this time provoked no
feeling of trepidation within me as it did before. It felt pretty
much the same as walking through a safe park. In contrast
to a park, of course, there are no laid out pathways, and my
journey was sometimes blocked by fallen trees or thick un-
derbrush, but this time there was nothing that irritated me.
Along the way I would pick berries — raspberries and cur-
rants, for example — and for the first time my attention was
drawn to the tremendous variety in appearance even among
the same kind of trees. And the vegetation, too, was arranged
in so many different patterns — no two scenes were alike.
For the first time I really examined the taiga, and it seemed
a kinder place than before. No doubt this impression was due
in part to the awareness that it was right here in the taiga that
my very own son was born and was now living. And then, of
course, there’s Anastasia... My encounter with this woman
has changed my whole life.
In the middle of this endless taiga is Anastasia’s little glade,
which she has no desire to leave for any length of time. She
would never exchange it for any — even the fanciest — apart-
ment in town. At first glance the glade appears to be just an-
other empty space — no house, no tent, no household facili-
ties — and yet look at how she brightens with joy every time
Two civilisations
9
she approaches it! And now on my third visit I’ve caught a
similar feeling, something like the sense of comfort one feels
upon returning home after a difficult journey.
Funny things have been taking place lately all over our
world. It seems that, for millennia now, human society has
been struggling for the happiness and welfare of the indi-
vidual, but when you come right down to it, it turns out that
this same individual, even though he lives at the very centre
of society, at the centre of the most modem and civilised city,
finds himself more and more often in a state of helplessness.
He gets into a traffic accident, or gets robbed, or constantly
falls into the grip of all sorts of aches and pains — he can’t live
without a drugstore nearby — or some dissatisfaction he can’t
even explain to himself provokes him into suicide. The sui-
cide rate is increasing particularly in civilised countries with a
high standard of living. Mothers from various regions of the
country are seen on TV pleading for help for their families
threatened with starvation because they can’t afford to feed
their children.
Yet here is Anastasia, living with a little boy all alone in
the taiga, in what can only be called another civilisation. Not
a single thing does she ask from our society. She needs no
police or home security forces to protect her. She gives the
impression that nothing bad can possibly happen in this glade
to either her or her child.
It’s true: we live in different civilisations, and she proposes
to take the best of both these worlds. In which case the life-
style of many people on the Earth will change, and a new and
joyous commonwealth of humanity will be born. This com-
monwealth will not only be interesting — it will be new and
unusual. For example...
Chapter Two
For a long time it bothered me that Anastasia appeared so
content to leave her nursing child all by himself. She would
simply put him down on the grass under some bushes or next
to the dozing she-bear or she-wolf. I was already convinced
that not a single creature would touch him. On the contrary,
they would defend him to the death. But from whom? If all
the animals around were acting like nannies, then who would
they need to protect him from? Still, it was unusual to leave
a nursing baby all alone, and I tried to dissuade Anastasia,
saying:
“Just because the animals won’t touch him, that doesn’t
mean that there are no other misfortunes out there that could
befall him.”
To which she responded:
“I cannot imagine, Vladimir, what misfortunes you have
in mind.”
“There are a lot of things that could happen to helpless
children. Let’s say he crawls up a hillock, for example, and
then tumbles down it, twisting his ankle or his wrist.”
‘Any height of ground the baby could crawl up on his own
would not cause him any harm.”
“But say he eats something harmful. He’s still too young,
everything goes into his mouth, so it won’t be long before he
poisons himself, and then who’s going to be around to flush
out his insides? There aren’t any doctors in the neighbour-
hood, and you don’t even have an enema to flush out his intes-
tines in case of emergency”
Take a taste of the Universe
ii
Anastasia just laughed.
“What need is there for an enema, Vladimir? The intes-
tines can be flushed out another way, and much more effec-
tively than with an enema.”
“How so?”
“Would you like to try it? It will do you a world of good! I
shall simply bring you a few little herbs...”
“Hold on, don’t bother. I understand. You want to give me
something to make my stomach upset.”
“Your stomach has been upset for a long time, Vladimir.
The herb I have in mind will expel anything causing your
stomach harm.”
“I get it — in case anything happens you can give a herb to
a young child and it will make him go to the bathroom. But
why take things to such lengths when it conies to a baby?”
“It will not go that far. Our son will eat nothing that is go-
ing to harm him. Children — especially those who are nurs-
ing and accustomed to the taste of their mother’s milk — will
never eat anything else in any significant quantity And our
son will only take a little taste of any berry or herb. If he finds
it noxious or bitter — a substance that could harm him, he
will spit it out himself. If he eats a little of it and it begins
to affect his stomach, he will vomit it, and that will help him
remember and he will not try it again. But he will come to
know the whole Earth — not from someone else’s reports,
but by tasting it on his own. Let us allow our son to taste the
Universe for himself.”
No doubt Anastasia is right. It is true nothing bad has
happened to the little one so far, not even once. Besides, I
noticed a particularly interesting phenomenon: the creatures
around her glade themselves train or teach their young how
to interact with Man. I used to think Anastasia was the one
that did this, but later I became convinced that that is not
something she wastes her time on.
12
Book 5: Who Are We?
This is what I saw on one occasion: we were sitting in the
sun at the edge of the glade. Anastasia had just finished nurs-
ing our son, and he was blissfully lying in her arms. Initially he
seemed to be having a nap or just dozing, but then all at once
his little hand began touching Anastasia’s hair, and he broke
into a smile. Anastasia looked at her son and smiled back,
whispering something in his ear with her tender voice.
I saw the she-wolf come out into the glade with her
brood — four cubs, still quite young. The wolf came over
to us, and stopped about ten metres away and lay down on
the ground. The cubs trailing along behind her quickly be-
gan nuzzling up to her belly. Upon seeing the wolf and her
cubs lying there, Anastasia rose from the ground, babe in
arms, and went over to her. She squatted down about two
metres away and began inspecting the wolf’s brood, her face
all smiles, and saying:
“Oh, what beauties our clever wolf has borne! One of them
will most certainly be a leader, while this little one is the spit-
ting image of her Mama. She will be a joy to her Mama, and a
worthy inheritor to carry on the family line.”
The mother wolf seemed to be dozing, her languishing eyes
closed tight either from drowsiness or from the soft caressing
of Anastasia’s voice. The cubs turned away from their moth-
er’s belly and began looking at Anastasia. One of them, still
unsure of his step, began making his way over to her.
The mother, who just a second before had looked so drow-
sy, suddenly sprang up, seized the cub with her teeth and
dropped him back among the others. Then the same thing
occurred with a second cub, then the third and the fourth,
all trying to get closer to Anastasia. The inexperienced cubs
continued their attempts, but the mother would not let them
go until they had finished their little adventures. Two of the
cubs began tussling with each other, the other two sat meekly
and kept a watchful eye on us.
Take a taste of the Universe
13
The baby in Anastasia’s arms also noticed the wolf family.
He began watching them, and then his legs began kicking im-
patiently, and he uttered some kind of beckoning sound.
Anastasia reached out her hand toward the wolves. Two of
the cubs began heading, with unsure step, in the direction of
the outstretched human hand. This time, however, the moth-
er didn’t try to stop them. On the contrary, she began nudging
the other two cubs, who were still at play, in the same direc-
tion. And before long all four were right at Anastasia’s feet.
One of them began nibbling on one of her fingers, a second
got up on its hind legs and rested its forepaws on her arm,
while the other two crawled over to her leg. The boy started
to squirm in Anastasia’s arms, evidently wanting to get clos-
er to the cubs. Whereupon Anastasia let him down on the
ground and he started playing with them, oblivious to any-
thing else! Anastasia went over to the mother wolf, and after
giving her neck a gentle stroking, came back to me.
I realised that the wolf had been trained never to disturb
Anastasia without being invited, and would approach her
only upon a predetermined gesture. Now she was teaching
this same rule to her offspring. The wolf, no doubt, had been
taught this by her own mother, who in turn had learnt it from
her mother, and so on from generation to generation — all
the creatures transmitted to their young the rules of interac-
tion with Man. A reverent and tactful interaction, it must be
said. But who taught them that other kind of interaction and
how — to attack Man?
My exposure to the life of the Siberian taiga recluses 1 raised
a whole lot of different questions — questions I could not
have even imagined asking earlier. Anastasia has no intention
of changing her reclusive lifestyle.
1 recluses — referring to Anastasia, her grandfather and great-grandfather,
introduced in Book 1, Chapter 2: “Encounter”.
ia Book 5: Who Are We?
But... stop right there! When I think of Anastasia as a
‘recluse’, each time I associate the word recluse with someone
who has isolated himself from society, from our contempo-
rary information systems. But what is really going on? After
each visit to her glade I end up putting out a new book. A
book that is discussed by all sorts of people, young and old,
scientists and religious leaders. The way it turns out, it is not
I who bring her information from our over-informed society,
but it is she who offers me information that proves to be of
great interest to our society
So then, who is the real recluse? Haven’t we got caught
up so much in the abundance (or, more correctly, the seem-
ing abundance) of information at our fingertips that we have
set ourselves apart, distanced ourselves from the true source
of information? It’s simply amazing when you think about
what’s really going on — Anastasia’s remote taiga glade serves
as a real information centre, like a launch pad propelling us
into the other dimensions of our existence. Then, who am I,
who are we? And who is Anastasia?
In any case, perhaps it isn’t all that important. Something
else is much more important, namely, her latest sayings con-
cerning the possibility of transforming the life of any indi-
vidual Alan for the better. Or, for that matter, any country, or
even human society as a whole. And this is effected through
changing the living conditions of an individual.
It’s all incredibly simple: just give a Man at least one hec-
tare of land, and she goes on to explain what to do with this
land, and then... Incredible, how simple it is! And Alan will
always be surrounded by the energy of Love. Those in marital
relationships will love their spouses. Their children will be
happy, many diseases will be eradicated, wars and catastro-
phes will cease. Man will draw closer to God.
She has, in fact, proposed the construction of awhole lot of
glades similar to her own in the proximity of major cities. But
Take a taste of the Universe
15
this doesn’t mean she rejects making use of our civilisation’s
achievements — “Let what is negative be pressed into service
on behalf of good,” she says. And I have come to believe in
her plan. I believe in that splendid turn of events that is to
come about as a result of implementing her ideas in our lives.
And a lot of them seem so logical to me. All we have to do
is go over everything, think everything through, in the right
order. We have to adapt her proposal to each location.
I was especially struck by Anastasia’s idea regarding land
and its development. I could hardly wait to get home and see
what scientists have to say about similar communities — does
anything along this line exist anywhere in the world? I wanted
to see if I could start by designing a new community in all its
detail, and then start building it through the concerted efforts
of those desiring to participate in its construction. Naturally,
neither I nor anyone else can undertake the responsibility for
getting this marvellous community of the future going all on
our own. It is something we need to do together! We shall
have to examine all the information collectively and design
our community, taking into account mistakes other people
have made.
Chapter Three
During the first months after returning from my visit with
Anastasia I set about making an intensive search and study of
any information about eco-communities I could lay my hands
on. Most of my sources told about experiments abroad. Alto-
gether I collected information on 86 communities in 19 coun-
tries (Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany,
India and others). But I wasn’t particularly struck by any of
the reports I had collected. No country could boast any kind
of large-scale eco-movement, nor did I come across any com-
munities capable of exercising a significant influence on the
social situation in their respective countries.
One of the largest and best-known communities that came
to my notice is located in India. It goes by the name of Au-
roville. I’d like to elaborate a little on this one.
Auroville was initiated in 1968 by the wife of the founder of
the Integral Yoga movement Sri Aurobindo, Mirra Richard. 1
It was thought that the community, once begun, would even-
tually grow into a thriving city of 50,000 on lands allocated
1 Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) — Hindu mystic, scholar, poet and evolutionary
philosopher, considered by his followers to be an ‘avatar’, or incarnation,
of the Supreme Being. His Integral Toga is actually a synthesis of the three
yogas: bbakli, karma and jnana, embodying and integrating all aspects of life.
His ‘spiritual partner’, Mirra Richard (1878-1973), born in Paris to Egyptian
parents, first came to Aurobindo’s Ashram (Hermitage) in 1914 and eventu-
ally settled in Pondicherry in 1920. Commonly known as ‘The Mother’, she
supervised the operations of his A shram and related organisations. Upon
Aurobindo’s death in 1950, she succeeded him as spiritual leader, and went
on to found the Aurovill| community in 1968.
Dreams of Auroville
17
by the Indian government near Pondicherry, where Sri Au-
robindo’s Ashram — a centre for Integral Yoga adherents —
had been operating since the 1940s. Auroville, or the ‘City
of Dawn’, was supposed to embody the idea of unity of peo-
ple — people united by a common goal of building a harmoni-
ous material world which in no way would find itself at odds
with the world of the spirit.
The community’s charter, written by Mirra Richard,
states:
“Auroville will be a site of material and spirit ual researches
for a living embodiment of an actual human unity.”
The idea of building a city wherein people will live in har-
mony with the world of Nature, in the harmony of the spirit
and love, was approved by the Indian government (and per-
sonally by Indira Gandhi) as well as by UNESCO. It received
financial support from the Indian government along with
a large number of sponsors. Representatives of 121 nations
and 23 Indian states attended the opening ceremonies, after
which this splendid city — no doubt the dream of a lot of
people the world over who call themselves ‘spiritual’ — began
to take shape.
However, following the death of Mirra Richard in 1973,
one of Aurobindo’s disciples by the name of Satprem 2 spoke
out strongly against the Auroville community, calling it noth-
ing but a ‘commercial enterprise’. Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram,
which controlled most of the ‘enterprise’s’ finances, claimed
" Satprem (birth name: Bernard Enginger, 1923-) — French author, who dis-
covered the teachings of Sri Aurobindo while serving in the French colonial
administration of Pondicherry in the 1940s, and later worked closely with
Mirra Richard. It was she who gave him the name Satprem (‘the one who
loves truly’) in 1957. Later he published The Agenda — a mutli-volume ac-
count of his collaboration with Richard, disseminated through his Insti-
tute for Evolutionary Research in Paris. This was followed by a number of
other books he wrote on his experiences in India.
i8
Book 5: Who Are We?
authority over everything going on in the city, but the resi-
dents considered that their community belonged to the
whole world and was not under the Ashram’s jurisdiction. A
serious confrontation ensued between the spiritual leaders
on both sides — a confrontation which was not confined to
the ideological level but became more and more physical. In
1980 the Indian government was obliged to pass a decree re-
moving Auroville from the control of Sri Aurobindo’s society,
and a permanent police detachment was assigned to the com-
munity The Auroville situation led to a general crisis in Sri
Aurobindo’s movement and teachings.
Today Auroville has about 1,200 residents, instead of the
50.000 or more envisaged by its initiators. The whole re-
gion, including the local population, comprises 13 villages and
30.000 people.
Quite possibly the downfall of the Auroville dream was
precipitated by the following situation: while any resident
may obtain permission to buy land and build himself a house
(at his own expense), legal title to the land on which the house
stands belongs to the city. Thus it turns out that full confi-
dence is placed in Auroville as a city, but is not accorded any
of its individual residents. Every resident lives in a state of
dependency on the community as a whole. And yet the whole
project was worked out by people who considered themselves
highly spiritual. It seems that in the case of spirituality there
is another side of the coin to be considered.
I am extremely disturbed and upset by the situation of Au-
roville today While it has not provoked any doubts about
Anastasia’s project, I cannot say my mind is entirely free from
negative thoughts. If things did not work out with a model
community in India — a country considered practically the
leader in the spiritual understanding of human existence, es-
pecially with the financial backing of the Indian government,
UNESCO and sponsors from a variety oi countries, then how
Dreams ofAuroville
19
can Anastasia possibly foresee on her own all the pitfalls that
lie ahead? Even if it isn’t all on her own, and the masses of
readers sharing her views try to make calculations, think eve-
rything through and foresee the future — even then there is
no guarantee such concerted efforts will succeed, as nobody
has any experience along this line.
If anyone knew where to find the foundation on which
to build a happy life for both the individual and society as a
whole, a happy society would have probably been built some-
where. But it doesn’t exist — anywhere in the world! The
only experience we have is negative. Where can one find any-
thing positive?
“In Russia!” replied Anastasia.
Chapter Four
“The first shoots of a new and splendid future are to be found
in the Russian dacbniksl ” 1 These words sounded within me, all
by themselves. Anastasia was not around at the time. It took
but a moment to recall the enthusiasm and joy with which she
talked to me about the Russian dachniks four years ago. She
believes that it was thanks to the dachniks that a global catas-
trophe on the Earth was avoided in 1992. So it turns out that
it was in Russia that this amazing movement began, a move-
ment which has had a kindly influence on a part of the Earth.
I remember her telling me:
“Millions of pairs of human hands began touching the Earth
with love. With their hands, you understand, not a bunch of
mechanical contraptions. Russians touched the ground ca-
ressingly on these little dacha plots. And the Earth felt the
touch of each individual hand. The Earth may be big, but it is
very, very sensitive. And the Earth found the strength within
itself to carry on.” 2
Back then, four years ago, I didn’t take this saying seriously
but now, after learning of all the various attempts by people of
different countries of the world to create spiritual-ecological
communities, I suddenly realised something: with no noisy
fanfare, appeals, advertising or pompous ceremonies, the
1 dachniks — people who spend time at their dacha, or cottage in the country,
surrounded by a garden where fruits and/or vegetables are grown to feed
the family all year long (for further details see Book 1).
"See Book 2, Chapter 9: “Dachnik Day and an All-Earth holiday!”.
Harbingers of a new civilisation
21
most massive-scale project has come to fruition right here in
Russia — a project having significance for all humanity. When
seen against the backdrop of all the various Russian dacha
communities, all the reports from various countries on the
creation of eco-communities there sound quite ludicrous.
Judge for yourselves: here spread out in front of me is a pile
of articles and collections of reports seriously discussing the
question of how many people should live in an eco-commu-
nity — a population of no more than 150 is advised. Consid-
erable attention is paid to the governing bodies of such com-
munities and their spiritual leadership.
But Russia’s dacha co-operatives have existed for years, some-
times comprising 300 families or more. Each co-operative is
managed by one or two people, usually somebody retired from
their regular job — if in fact you can call the chairman of a Russian
dacha co-operative a manager. He’s actually more like a registrar,
or a manager who simply carries out the will of the majority
Russia does not have any centralised management system
for its dacha movement. However, according to data pub-
lished by Goskomstat (the State Statistics Committee), in 1997
14.7 million families had fruit-growing plots, while 7.6 million
had vegetable plots. The overall land area cultivated by these
families amounted to 1,821,000 hectares. These households
independently grew 90% of Russia’s potatoes, 77% of its ber-
ries and fruit, and 73% of its vegetables. ’
These figures have further increased since the book was written, making
Russian gardeners the backbone not only of the country’s agriculture, but
the economy as a whole. Thus, according to the official statistics published
by Goskomstat , in 2004 Russian gardening families — without any heavy ma-
chinery, hired labour or government subsidies — have growm on their free
time and using predominantly organic methods 33 million tonnes of pota-
toes, 11. j million tonnes of vegetables and 3.2 million tonnes of fruit and
berries, which represent 93%, 80% and 81% respectively of the country’s
total output of these crops. Russian gardeners now produce more prod-
ucts than the whole commercial agricultural apparatus all told. In 2004 the
22
Book 5: Who Are We?
No doubt the theoreticians who have been designing eco-
communities and eco-villages for years will protest that a
dacha co-operative is not the same as an eco-community To
which I wish to immediately respond: it is not the name but
the content that is important.
The overwhelming majority of Russia’s dacha co-opera-
tives conform to eco-community guidelines. Not only that,
with no thunderous declarations on spiritual self-improve-
ment and the necessity of a careful approach to Nature, the
dachniks have proved their spiritual growth not bywords but
by their way of life. They have planted millions of trees. It is
thanks to their labours on hundreds of thousands of hectares
thought to be infertile and good for nothing — so-called mar-
ginal lands, that orchards are now flourishing.
We keep hearing how in Russia part of the population is on the
verge of starvation. We see strikes by teachers, then by miners,
and our politicians are scratching their heads in their attempts
to bring the country out of crisis after crisis. More than once
during the perestroika 4 period Russia was but a hair’s breadth
away from a massive social upheaval. But it didn’t happen.
And now let’s try mentally deducting from just the past few
years of our lives the 90% of potatoes, 77% of berries and 73%
of vegetable production, and substitute a heightened anxiety
level on the part of millions of people. This you would have
value of the Russian gardeners’ production represented ji% of the coun-
try’s total agricultural output — approx. US$14 billion, or 2.3% of Russia’s
gross domestic product (GDP). The contribution of dachniks and rural
family growers to the Russian economy exceeds that of any of the following
industries: steel; electric power generation; chemical and pharmaceutical;
forestry, timber, pulp and paper; building materials; or oil refining, natural
gas and coal industries taken together.
4 perestroika — the policy of restructuring the economic and political system
of the Soviet Union, which led to the collapse of the Communist Party’s hold
on power and the break-up of the USSR in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Harbingers of a new civilisation
23
to do if you were going to exclude from the past few years the
calming effect of the dachas. You don’t have to be a psycholo-
gist to see how dachniks are calmed by their contact with the
vegetable plots they have planted. So, if we take away that
factor, what would we have been left with in 1992, 1994 or
1997? In any of those years a colossal social upheaval could
have come about. What kind of result might such an upheav-
al have led to on a planet chock full of deadly weapons?
But no catastrophe occurred. Anastasia maintains that in
1992 a catastrophe on a global scale was avoided thanks only
to Russia’s dachniks, and now, having read all the reports ex-
plaining the situation, I tend to agree with her. 5
It’s not so important any more to know just which ‘smart
head’ in our nation’s government came up with the idea of
giving the green light to the dacha movement in Russia (still
the Soviet Union back then). Or maybe it was Providence it-
self that saw fit to accord this privilege specifically to Russia?
What’s important now is that the movement exists! And it
is proof positive that there is indeed a possibility of achiev-
ing stability in human society — maybe even that stability so
many peoples on various continents having been trying with-
out success to achieve for thousands of years!
Anastasia says that the dacha movement in Russia rep-
resents a momentous turning-point in the development of
the human commonwealth. Dachniks are the harbingers of
a splendid future which will come after them, she has said,
thinking of the future communities she has sketched out.
And I myself would very much like to live in one of these
splendid communities — a community located in a flourish-
ing country, whose name just happens to be... Russia.
’See Book 2, end of Chapter 8: “The answer”. Some of the factors portend-
ing a social upheaval in 1992 are detailed in footnote 1 of Book t, Chap-
ter 17: “The brain — a supercomputer”.
Chapter Five
Russia of the future... A splendid land, in which many of to-
day’s generation will be able to live a happier life.
Russia of the future — a land which will lead the human
commonwealth of the whole planet to a happier life. I
have seen this splendid country coming into bloom. She.
Anastasia, showed me the future of our country. And it
is absolutely unimportant and insignificant just how this
fiery, untiring recluse living alone in the Siberian taiga is
able to travel to other planets, or into the future or into
the past, or by what means or unseen threads she brings
together the hearts of people living in different countries
into a single, exciting creative impulse. What is important
is that this impulse exists. Does it really matter where she
obtained such a colossal amount of all kinds of information
and knowledge of our life? What matters immeasurably
more is the result of this knowledge — the fact that people
living in different cities, once put in touch with the infor-
mation she possesses, are now planting cedar allees, that
people have started producing cedar nut oil, and that more
and more songs and poems about what is beautiful in life
are coming to light.
This is simply amazing! She dreams about something, I
write about it, and ...presto, it turns into reality! Like a kind of
fantasy! Yet this fantasy, after all, is embodied in real life for
everyone to see. Now she has dreamt about a splendid coun-
try. Shall not that too come to pass? Of course it must! And
we must help in any way we can!
A search for evidence
25
Going over in my mind and analysing everything Anastasia
has said or showed has only made me more and more con-
vinced of the reality of a splendid future. I believe in it.
Even though I’d begun to believe all Anastasia’s words,
there was still no way I could put together and publish a chap-
ter on the future of Russia. It wasn’t included in the previous
book, Co-creation. And the release of this present volume has
been delayed more than once for the same reason. I wanted
everything I wrote to look sufficiently real and convincing.
So that not just I but a whole lot of people could believe and
set things in motion to create a splendid future. But there are
certain sayings of Anastasia’s that have prevented me from
being less than fully convincing.
In Co-creation I published Anastasia’s statement that what
our whole natural environment comprises is precisely the
materialised thoughts of God. If Man is able to comprehend
these, even in part, he will not need to spend so much ef-
fort in his search for food, fertilising the ground (since the
ground itself is capable of re-establishing its own fertility) or
to waste energy on trying to fight noxious pests and weeds.
His thought will be liberated from the problems of everyday
living, and Man will be able to get involved in tasks more suit-
ed to his existence — the co-creation, with God, of splendid
worlds. I wanted her words to be believed by a majority of
people. But how can people trust her if even the whole agri-
culture industry, both in Russia and abroad, cannot dispense
with the fertilising process?
So many factories in various countries of the world are in-
volved in the production of all sorts of chemicals for ‘enrich-
ing’ the soil. On a number of occasions I have put this ques-
tion to various agricultural scientists, but each time I’ve got
pretty much the same condescending reply, namely that of
course one could set up a Paradise garden on a single hectare
of land, but you would need to tend this garden from morning
2 6
Book 5: Who Are We?
’til night. And you could not possibly expect a good harvest
unless you added fertiliser to the soil, and made use of toxic
chemicals, otherwise your harvest would be ruined by a whole
bunch of pests. When I brought up Anastasia’s argument that
everything grows in the taiga without human assistance, the
scientists countered:
“Let’s assume it grows. But if your recluse is to be believed,
the taiga has been programmed directly by God. Man needs
a lot more than what can grow in the taiga. For example, the
taiga doesn’t have any fruit orchards. That’s because orchards
need to be cared for by Man. They can’t grow all by them-
selves.”
I’ve made several visits to such stores as “Everything for
your garden”, “The Gardener”, “The Dachnik”, and seen so
many people buying different bags of chemicals. I watched
these people and thought that they’ll never believe what
Anastasia says, and so there’s no point in writing about the
future of Russia — they simply won’t believe in it. They won’t
believe in it because this future is first and foremost linked to
a new conscious awareness, a different attitude to the Earth
and our environment.
But there is not a single person today who could confirm
what she said, not a single real-life example bearing out her
words. On the contrary, everything contradicts her position.
And the factories producing toxic pesticides continue to op-
erate. There is a whole chain of stores selling fertilisers and
chemicals. And a great many people are involved in agricul-
tural research.
The absence of significant evidence to back up Anasta-
sia’s statements had such a strong effect on me that I came
to the point where I was no longer able to write anything at
all. It was for that reason that I accepted an invitation to go
to Innsbruck in Austria. A German publisher rang me and
said that the director of a bio-energy institute by the name of
A search for evidence
27
Leonard Hoscheneng had invited me to speak on Anastasia
at a gathering of the most prominent healers of Europe. The
institute would pay my travel and lodging expenses, and was
prepared to pay me 1,000 marks for every hour I spoke. I
didn’t go on account of the money, but in search of convincing
arguments that a lot of people could understand either for or
against Anastasia’s plan — her affirmations about the future
of Russia.
Dr Hoscheneng, who invited me to speak to the healers,
was himself a professional doctor and a prominent healer, as
his father and grandfather had been before him. His grand-
father had treated the Japanese Imperial family and many
other highly placed dignitaries. His personal domains, apart
from the institute building, included several small, cozy ho-
tels (where a great number of patients coming from Euro-
pean countries stayed), along with a restaurant, a park, and
some other buildings in the city centre. He was a millionaire,
though, in contrast to the image many Russians have about
the lifestyle of a Western millionaire, Leonard, as I found out,
handles all the serious work involved in people’s treatment
himself. He personally treats every one coming to see him —
which can mean as many as fifty patients a day. Indeed, his
working day can sometimes stretch to 16 hours. Only occa-
sionally he has entrusted his consultation task to... a healer
from Russia.
I spoke to the gathering of healers at Innsbruck, aware
that they were interested first and foremost in Anastasia. I
devoted the larger part of my presentation to her, and ended
up talking a little about her project, with the secret hope that
the audience would either confirm or discredit her ideas on
the future of Russia. But they neither confirmed nor discred-
ited them; they just kept constantly asking for more details.
That evening Hoscheneng threw a ‘banquet’ in his restau-
rant. I would simply have called it a supper. Even though
28
Book 5: Who Are We?
everyone could order what they liked, they were all modest,
giving preference to the salads. Nobody drank alcohol or
smoked. I too refrained from ordering any alcoholic bever-
ages. Not because I was afraid of looking like the proverbial
black sheep in their eyes — it was just that for some reason I
didn’t feel like having meat or alcoholic drinks.
At the supper-table the talk again turned to Anastasia. A
saying was bom (though I don’t remember who said it first):
The splendid future of Russia is linked with the Siberian Anastasia.
The phrase caught on, and was in time repeated with various
interpretations by healers from Italy, Germany, France and
other countries.
I was waiting for specifics as to why and by what means
the splendid scenario of the future would unfold, but nobody
could offer any specific evidence. The healers were relying
on some kind of intuition, whereas I needed proof: can the
Earth feed Man without a special effort on his part, simply by
virtue of Man correctly understanding the thought of a God
whom nobody could see?
After returning to Russia, I recalled the words of the Euro-
pean healers, and continued my search for concrete evidence,
for which I was prepared to travel anywhere. But I didn’t have
to travel very far. An extraordinary coincidence, as though
deliberately set up by someone, not only offered theoretical
evidence, but proved to be a real and living confirmation of
Anastasia’s words.
It happened this way...
Chapter Six
I set off on a day-trip to the country along with employees of
the Anastasia Cultural Foundation of Vladimir. 1 We stopped
by the picturesque shore of a small pond. The women went
about preparing a variety of salads for lunch, while the men
attended to building a fire. I stood at the edge of the pond,
gazing at the water and lost myself in thought. I was in a pret-
ty gloomy mood. All at once Veronika, a resident of a nearby
village, came up to me and said:
“Vladimir Nikolaevich, just about seven kilometres from
here, in the middle of these fields, there are two former ma-
norial estates. There’s nothing left of the buildings, but the
fruit orchards have been preserved. Nobody looks after
them, but they still bring forth fruit year after year. They give
a lot more fruit than the village orchards which are tended to
and fertilised.
“In 1976 there was an extremely cold winter in these parts,
and a lot of people lost their orchards and were forced to
'Vladimir — in this case the name of one of Russia’s oldest cities (founded
in 1108 by Prince Vladimir Monomakh on the site of a much earlier settle-
ment), which once served as the Russian capital. Situated on the Klyazma
River about 180 km east of Moscow, it has a current population of about
340,000. Like neighbouring Suzdal (former patriarchate of the Russian Or-
thodox Church) and a chain of other historic towns, Vladimir forms part of
Russia’s circular tourist route known as the Golden Ring ( Zolotoe kol’tso). It
is here that the author of the Ringing Cedars Series, Vladimir Nikolaevich
Megre, resided at the time this book was written. The name Vladimir —
though now commonly interpreted as meaning “ruler of the world” — is an
ancient Slavic name originally meaning “in harmony and peace”.
30
Book 5: Who Are We?
plant new ones, but these two, out among the fields, weren’t
touched by the cold at all, and not a single tree was lost.”
“Why didn’t the cold touch them?” I asked. “Maybe they
were a special variety, cold-resistant?”
“Just the usual variety. But the way everything was set up
on these former estates — the way they did it on just a sin-
gle hectare of land — wow! It’s pretty much the way Anas-
tasia describes it in your books. Wo hundred years ago peo-
ple planted Siberian cedars all around it along with local oak
trees... Another thing: the hay from the grass that grows
there is a lot richer. It keeps for a long time.
“If you like we could go see the place right now. It’s just a
dirt trail through the fields, but your jeep can make it.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. Who? How? A gift like this —
and just at the right place and at the right time. Are such ‘co-
incidences’ really coincidental after all?
“Let’s go!” I said.
The trail ran across fields belonging to a former state farm . 2
I said ‘fields’, though they were really more like hayfields or
meadows, all overgrown with tall grasses.
“They’ve really cut back their growing areas here,” observed
Evgeny, Veronika’s husband. “The farm company doesn’t have
enough money for fertiliser... Anyway, the ground’s getting a
rest. And not just the ground. The birds have started singing
again this year. You didn’t hear such happy twittering before.
What are they so happy about? Maybe ’cause there are no
chemicals on the fields now. Before the revolution there were
villages here in these meadows — my grandmother told me
about them. But there’s no trace left of them now.
“Look — there it is, to the right of the trail — a former
estate.”
" state farm (Russian: sovkhoz) — in the Soviet period, a farm where workers
were paid a monthly wage, as in a factory.
A garden for eternity
3i
In the distance I could see tall trees growing densely to-
gether. They appeared to cover about a hectare of ground.
This place seemed simply like a green isle of forest, all sur-
rounded by fields and meadows. As we drew closer, I could
see in amongst the dense grove of two-hundred-year-old oak
trees and bushes an entrance leading to a woodland oasis in-
side. We went in through the entrance and...
There we were inside... Just imagine: there inside were
ancient apple trees with gnarled trunks, spreading their
branches out into space. Branches literally dripping with
fruit. They hadn’t been dug around — they were just growing
there amidst the grasses, they hadn’t been sprayed for insects,
but these old apple trees were bearing fruit, and their fruit
showed no sign of worm infestation. Some of the trees were
real oldies, their branches were breaking under the weight of
the fruit. Real oldies — quite possibly this was their last year
for bearing fruit.
They will soon die off, but alongside each ancient tree you
could already see shoots of a new tree breaking through the
soil. The thought actually came to me that these trees prob-
ably wouldn’t die — at least not until they saw the fresh and
healthy shoots coming from their seed.
I walked through the orchard, took a taste of the fruit, wan-
dered among the oak trees growing all around, and it seemed
as though I could discern the actual thoughts of the Man who
had created this splendid oasis. It was as though I could hear
him thinking:
“Right here, around the orchard, I should put in an oak
grove. It will protect the orchard from the winter cold, as
well as from summer heat in dry years. Birds will make their
nests in the tall trees and stop the caterpillars from taking
over. I’ll plant a shady oak allee by the shore of the pond.
When the trees grow up, their tops will come together, giving
shade to the spacious allee below.”
32
Book 5: Who Are We?
And all at once a kind of vague thought made my blood
course faster through my veins. What was it demanding of
me, this thought? And then... it came in a flash: of course,
Anastasia! Naturally you were right when you said that we
could feel God in coming into contact with His creations and
in continuing His creations. Not by wild antics, jumping up
and down and new-fangled rituals, but by directly turning to
Him, to His thoughts, it is surely possible to understand His
wishes and our own purpose in life. Here I am standing be-
neath the oak trees on the shore of a man-made pond and I
can literally read the thoughts of the Alan behind this living
creation. And he — this Man, this Russian, who lived here
two hundred years ago — no doubt felt more than others the
thoughts of the Creator, which enabled him to bring about
this Paradise creation. His own garden, his own family nest.
He may have died, this Russian, but his orchard has re-
mained, and is still bringing forth fruit, and feeding the chil-
dren of the neighbouring villages, who come here every au-
tumn to delight in the fruits. Some people gather them up
and sell them. And you, my fine Russian fellow, no doubt
wanted your grandchildren and great-grandchildren to live
here. Of course you did! I can tell that because you didn’t put
up just a mansion with a limited life-span, but something that
will last for eternity
But where are your grandchildren and great-grandchildren
today? Your family domain has been abandoned, it’s all grown
over with grasses, and your pond is drying up. But your allee,
for some reason, didn’t get overgrown with wild grass. In fact
the grass beneath it is like a carpet. Your comer of Paradise
which you created — your family domain — is no doubt still
awaiting the return of your descendants. Decades go by, even
centuries, but it is still waiting. So where are they? Who are
they now? Whom do they serve? Whom do they worship?
Who chased them away from here?
A garden for eternity
33
We did have a revolution — maybe that’s to blame for eve-
rything? Of course it is. Only a revolution is made by people
when some sort of qualitative change takes place in the con-
sciousness of the majority. What happened in the minds of
your contemporaries, my fine Russian fellow, that your family
domain has gone to waste?
The local old-timers told me how the ageing Russian land-
owner headed off a blood-bath on his domain.
When a group of revolutionary-inclined residents from two
nearby villages, pumped up on local beer, marched en masse to
pillage his family domain, the old landowner came out to meet
them with a basket of apples, only to be slain by a bullet from a
double-barrelled gun. He had known already the night before
that they were planning to pillage his house, and he had per-
suaded his grandson, a Russian officer, to leave the domain. The
grandson, a front-line veteran, decorated with St George’s Cross,
fled together with his comrades-in-arms with front-line Mosin
rifles 3 slung over their shoulders; their open wagon also carried
a trusty battle-worn machine gun. He probably went into emi-
gration and now has grandchildren of his own growing up.
Your descendants, my fine Russian fellow, are growing up
in another land, while in Russia, in your kin’s domain, the
leaves of the trees in your orchard are rustling in the breeze,
and every year your old apple trees are bringing forth fruit,
astounding all the residents around with a luxuriant harvest.
There isn’t even a trace ofyour house left, all the outbuildings
have been torn down, but the orchard lives on in spite of eve-
rything — no doubt in the hope that your descendants will
return to taste the best apples in the whole wide world. Yet
your descendants are still not coming.
3 Mosin rifle (Russian: vintovka Mosinci) — the standard army-issue three-line
(. triokhUneika ) rifle in both the Imperial and Soviet Russian armies, devel-
oped in 1891 by Sergei Ivanovich Mosin (1849-1902).
34
Book 5: Who Are We?
Why have things turned out like this and who is making
us seek our own happiness at the expense of others just like
us? Who is making us breathe air filled with noxious gases
and dust instead of floral pollen and beneficial ethers? Who
is making us drink water deadened by gases? Who? Who are
we today? Why do not your descendants come back, my fine
Russian fellow, back to their family nest?
In the second domain the apples were even tastier than in the
first. Around this orchard had been planted beautiful Sibe-
rian cedars. Local residents informed me that there had even
been more cedars earlier — now only twenty-three of them
were left. During the days following the revolution when
they still had a day-labour system, they said people were paid
for their work with cedar nuts. Now the nuts were there to
be collected by anyone who wanted to. The only thing was,
sometimes they would beat the trees very hard with logs 4 to
make the cones fall to the ground.
Twenty-three Siberian cedars, planted by the hand of Man
two hundred years ago, still stood there all in a row, like sol-
diers protecting this splendid orchard from freezing winds
and harmful pests. There had been more of them, but one by
4 The customary process of harvesting cedar nuts involves 5 to 10 strongmen
putting a log on their shoulders and, with a running approach, hitting the
trunk of the cedar with one end of the log. This is the most ‘efficient’ meth-
od of knocking the cones off the tree to the ground, yet the most damaging
to the tree. A milder alternative is to hit the trunk with a special bat, while
the best option — recommended by Anastasia (see Book 2, Chapter 31:
“How to produce healing cedar oil”) — is to gather the ripe cones that fall
naturally to the ground (or to climb the tree and pick them by hand).
A garden for eternity
35
one they perished, since in Siberia the cedars were always sur-
rounded by tall pines. A single cedar by itself could not with-
stand the blasts of wind, as its root system is not all that exten-
sive. Cedars are nourished not only through their roots, but
also absorb the surrounding space through their tops. That is
why the pines or young cedars protect them. Whereas here
the cedars were all standing in a row. They lasted the first
hundred and fifty years, but then, after their tops expanded,
they began falling, one after the other.
For the past fifty years nobody thought of planting pines or
birches beside them, and so the cedars were left to defend the
orchard, standing up against the angry winds all on their own.
It was probably just last year that one of them began falling,
but came to rest against the top of the one next to it in the
row. I looked at the sharply leaning tree trunk, whose top was
intertwined with that of its neighbour. Their branches had
grown together, and the falling tree was still living. Both trees
were green and bearing seed. There were only twenty-three
left. They are still standing there, supporting each other,
bearing seed and protecting the orchard.
Oh you Sibiriaks!’ Hang in there, just a little longer, please!
I’m going to write about you...
Oh, Anastasia, Anastasia! You taught me how to write
books, but why didn’t you teach me to write words that would
be understandable to a lot of people right off the bat? To
a whole lot of people?! Why can’t I manage to write in an
understandable way for a great many people? Why does my
thought get confused? Why do the cedars fall, and people
only look at them and not do anything?
Not far from these former domains, which have preserved
right up to our day their splendid orchards and shady allees,
'’Sibiriak (pronounced: sibir-TAK) — a native of Siberia, in this case referring
to the trees.
36
Book 5: Who Are We?
are located several villages. The sight of these villages spoils
the whole surrounding landscape. If you look at them from
afar, you get the impression that some sort of worm ran
amuck, laid everything waste and dug up the flower-covered
meadows. Slums full of grey village houses, farm buildings
thrown together out of various rotting materials, dirt from
roads broken down under the wheels of lorries and tractors,
all contribute to this impression.
I asked the local residents whether they had been to the
orchards laid out among the cedar and oak trees. Many had
been there, tasted the apples. Young people were accustomed
to going to the place for picnics.
“It’s lovely there!” was chorused by young and old alike.
But when I asked why nobody had tried to set up their own
homestead in the same ‘image and likeness’, I got pretty much
the same answer each time:
“We don’t have the kind of money the landowners who cre-
ated this beauty had.”
Older residents said that the cedar saplings had been
brought here by the landowner directly from Siberia.
When I asked how much it cost just to take a cedar nut from
one of these trees and plant it in the ground, I got a strained
silence in reply
Which brings me to the thought that it is not the lack of
opportunity or financial means, but our own inner coding
that is somehow to blame for all our woes.
Nowadays people with money are putting up a lot of fancy
houses in the country The land around these houses has been
either dug up or buried in asphalt. In twenty or thirty years
these houses are going to be in need of repair; they won’t look
like new any more. And their children won’t need this old
derelict. They won’t be needing a family domain — a Moth-
erland — like that, and so they’ll go off to find themselves a
new one.
A garden for eternity
37
But they’ll be taking with them this same mysterious coding
they got from their parents and repeating their life as tempo-
rary caretakers on the land, instead of creating something for
eternity Who will be able to remove it and how — this myste-
rious coding for hopelessness?
Perhaps what Anastasia has said and shown about the fu-
ture of Russia will somehow help in this regard. And just to
allay the doubts of the sceptics, I have put on the inside cov-
ers of this book photographs of these amazing Russian or-
chards, spreading out their fruit-laden branches to the Russia
of the future.
Chapter Seven
As Anastasia was telling me about the communities of the fu-
ture which would be comprised of family domains, I asked
her:
‘Anastasia, please show me the Russia of the future. I know
you can.”
“Yes, I can. What place in the future Russia would you like
to see, Vladimir?”
“Well, how about Moscow?”
“Would you like to go to the future alone, Vladimir, or to-
gether with me?”
“It’d be a lot better with you. You can explain anything I
see and don’t understand.”
The touch of Anastasia’s warm hand at once induced a
sleepy state, and I started to see...
Anastasia showed me the future of Russia the same way
she showed me life on another planet. At some point scien-
tists wall probably understand just how she does this, but the
means she used are quite irrelevant in this case. In my view,
the most important thing is information about what specific
actions will enable us to bring about this splendid future.
The Moscow yet to come was nothing like I had imagined.
The city had not expanded its geographical boundaries. There
were no skyscrapers, as I might have expected. The walls of
the old houses were decorated in cheerful colours, and many
were painted with pictures — landscapes and flowers. I later
found out that this was the work of foreigners. First they cov-
ered the walls with some kind of plaster, and then artists —
Anastasia ’s Russia
39
also from abroad — added the ornamentation. Intertwining
vines hung down the roofs of many of the houses, their leaves
rustling in the wind, as though greeting the passers-by
Almost all the streets and avenues of the capital were
planted with trees and flowers. Right down the middle of
Kalinin Avenue (or the NewArbat, 1 as it is called) stretched
a green boulevard about four metres wide. Concrete kerbs
rose about a half-metre above the pavement, enclosing earth-
en beds from which sprouted grass and wild flowers, inter-
spersed at brief intervals with various kinds of trees: rowans
with their clusters of red berries, birches, poplars, currant and
raspberry bushes and a host of other plants such as one might
find in a natural forest.
There were similar boulevard strips down the centre of
many of Moscow’s avenues and broad streets. And on the
reduced traffic portion of these streets there didn’t seem to
be very many motorcars — mainly buses carrying passengers
who did not look at all Russian in their appearance. The same
could be said of many of the pedestrians on the sidewalks. I
wondered for a moment whether Moscow had been occupied
by a technically more developed country. But Anastasia reas-
sured me, saying that the people I was seeing here were not
occupiers, but simply foreign tourists.
‘And what draws them to Moscow?” I asked.
I New Arbat (in Russian: Novy Arbat) — a broad thoroughfare leading west
from the Kremlin and city centre to the Novy Arbat Bridge across the
Moskva River ( Moskva is also the Russian name of the city itself). Offi-
cially known as Kalinin Prospekt (Avenue) in Soviet times (after Mikhail
Kalinin — see footnote i in Book i, Chapter i: “The ringing cedar"), Nov}'
Arbat was constructed in 1963 parallel to the old Arbat Street, which still
runs a short distance to the south and from 1974 to 1986 was turned into
a pedestrian mall. Novy Arbat’s imposing row of modern high-rise apart-
ment blocks gave 1960s Moscow a new Western appearance, complete with
contemporary-looking shops and restaurants.
40
Book 5: Who Are We?
“The atmosphere of a grand creation, refreshing air and
water,” came the reply. “Look and see how many people are
standing along the banks of the Moskva River and collecting
water in containers on strings they let down from the high
embankments, and drinking the river water with great de-
light!”
“But how can they drink water straight from the river with-
out boiling it first?”
“Look and see, Vladimir, how pure and transparent the wa-
ter is in the Moskva River. It contains living water, not water
deadened by gases like the kind sold in bottles throughout
the world.”
“It must be a fantasy — something impossible to believe!”
‘A fantasy? But when you were little, would you and your
friends have believed it if someone told you that before long
people would be selling water in bottles?”
“You’re right: when I was young nobody would have be-
lieved that. But how was it possible to make the water so pure
in such a big city as Moscow?”
“Stop polluting it, stop throwing harmful waste into it, stop
littering the river banks.”
“It was that simple?”
“Exactly Nothing fantasy-like — it is actually all quite sim-
ple. Today the Moskva River is protected even from the run-
off water flowing over the pavement, and it is closed to dirty
ships. They used to consider the Ganges in India sacred, but
now the whole world adores the Moskva River and its water,
they adore the people who restored the water to its pristine
vitality And people come here from many countries to see this
wondrous marvel, taste the water and find healing.”
‘And where are all the local residents? Why are there so
few passenger cars in the streets?”
“There are only about a million-and-a-half Muscovites ac-
tually living in the capital now; though the number of tourists
Anastasia’s Russia
4i
from various countries can be more than six times that figure,”
replied Anastasia, and added: “There are fewer cars because the
remaining residents have managed to arrange their day on a
more rational basis, reducing their need to move around. Their
work is usually close by, close enough to walk. And the tourists
get around using just the metro 2 and the buses.”
“And what’s happened to all the other Muscovites?”
“They live and work in their splendid family domains .” 3
“Then who works in the plants and factories? Who looks
after the tourists?”
And Anastasia told me the following:
‘As the year 2000 (according to the accepted Earth calen-
dar of the time) was drawing to a close, the Russian leadership
was still in the process of determining the country’s path of
future development. The majority of Russian citizens were
not particularly inspired by the path the so-called prosperous
countries of the West were taking.
“Russians had already tried the food products from these
countries, but did not have much of a taste for them. It turned
out that the development of what was termed technical
“ metro — Moscow’s “metropolitan”, or subway system, which has been op-
erating since May 1935. Over the years it has expanded to twelve lines and
some 200 stations.
The whole description of the Russia of the future in this chapter and else-
where in the Series bears striking similarities to the ideas of one of Russia’s
greatest economists, Alexander Chayanov (1888-1937). Back in the 1920s
he already foresaw the eventual return of the country to predominantly ru-
ral living after the fall of communism, and even described the Moscow of
the future as a garden-city populated mostly by tourists. He also accurately
predicted the rise of the dacha movement that would eventually dominate
the country’s agriculture. Some of these view's are expressed in his insight-
ful A journey of my brother Alexey to the land of peasant Utopia (dubbed a ‘uto-
pia’ only to allow the publication of the work under the Soviet censorship in
1920). After Stalin publicly attacked Chayanov’s views in 1929, he w r as incar-
cerated and, after years in prison, executed on Stalin’s personal order. Today
Chayanov’s works are better known abroad than in his native Russia.
42
Book 5: Who Are We?
progress in these countries came hand-in-glove with various
diseases of both the body and the soul. Crime and drugs be-
came increasingly rampant, and women were less and less in-
clined toward child-bearing.
“Russians were not attracted to the conditions in which
the peoples of the ‘developed’ nations lived. Neither did they
wish to revert to the old social order, but they had not yet
seen any new path. An increasing mood of depression took
hold of the country, affecting the whole society in ever great-
er numbers. Russia’s population was ageing and dying.
“At the beginning of the new millennium, at the initiative
of the Russian President, a decree was signed granting free
and unconditionally to each willing family one hectare of land
whereon to establish a family domain. The decree allotted
this land to the family for lifetime use, with the right to pass
it on to their heirs. Any produce grown in this domain would
not be subject to taxation of any kind . 4
“Russian parliamentarians supported the President’s initia-
tive and the Russian Constitution was amended accordingly
The primary aims of the decree, in the eyes of the President
and the parliamentarians, were: reducing unemployment in
the country guaranteeing a minimum income level to needy
families, and solving the refugee problem. But what subse-
quently happened was something none of them could have
fully imagined.
4 On 7 July 2003, less than three years after this book was released in Russian,
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into federal law the “Private Gar-
den-plot Act” ( Zakon o lichnorn pochobnom khoziaistve). According to this law,
Russian citizens can receive free of charge from the state plots of land in pri-
vate inheritable ownership. The maximum size of plots differs from one re-
gion to another, but in most cases is between i and 3 hectares. The produce
grown on the plots is not subject to taxation. Subsequently, on President
Putin’s instructions the Russian government developed and introduced into
the Russian parliament another law to further facilitate the acquisition of
land for gardening. This second law was passed in June 2006.
Anastasia’s Russia
43
“When the first allocation of land was made for organising
a community numbering more than two hundred families, the
plots of land in question were taken up not just by the needy,
the unemployed or poverty-stricken refugees, but primarily
by middle-income families and wealthy entrepreneurs who
had read your books, Vladimir. They had been anticipating
this turn of events. And they were not just idly waiting for
it — many of them had already been growing their own family
trees in their apartments from seeds planted in clay pots, and
the mighty cedars and oaks of the future were already sprout-
ing their first little shoots.
“It was these entrepreneurs who initiated and financed
plans for a community with an infrastructure facilitating a
convenient lifestyle, as you wrote in your book Co-creation.
These plans provided for a store, a medical clinic, a school, a
club, roads and a lot else besides. In fact, entrepreneurs made
up about half the number of people who expressed their de-
sire to rearrange their life and daily routine to live in the first
of the new communities.
“They all had their own businesses, their own source of in-
come. For the actual construction work and setting up their
plots of land they required a labour force. The ideal solution,
they discovered, was to hire their neighbours from among
the needy families as construction and landscape workers.
That way some of these families got jobs right away, which
gave them the wherewithal to finance their own construc-
tion projects. The entrepreneurs realised that nobody would
prove to be more meticulous and efficient workers than those
who were planning to live in the community themselves, and
so external specialists would be hired only where such could
not be found among the future community residents.
“Only the establishing of the future orchard and forest and
the planting of the family trees and living fences was some-
thing each family endeavoured to do on their own.
44
Book 5: Who Are We?
“Most of them did not yet have enough experience or
knowledge as to how best to establish their plot, and as a re-
sult among the future residents the elderly people who did
have this knowledge commanded considerable respect. The
principal focus was not on temporary structures or even hous-
es perse, but on the development of the landscaping. In each
case the actual buildings people were going to live in were con-
sidered just one small part of the larger living house of God.
“Within five years houses for permanent residence had
been built on all the lots. They were quite varied in size and
architectural style, but it was soon evident that the greatest
treasure of each domain was by no means the size of a house.
The greatest treasure lay elsewhere, and it was not long be-
fore it took form and outline in the splendid landscaping ele-
ments of each plot in particular as well as of the community
as a whole.
“The oaks and cedars planted in each plot were still very
young, and each plot was surrounded by a living fence, which
was only starting to grow. But with each new spring, apple
and cherry trees, even though still quite small, came stridently
into bloom in the young orchards, along with grass and flower
beds that were doing their very best to resemble a splendid
living carpet. The spring air was filled with delightful aromas
and floral pollen. The air became truly invigorating.
‘And every woman living in this new community had a de-
sire to bear children. This happened not only in young fami-
lies but even people considered elderly suddenly began to bear
children. People felt that even if they themselves did not live
to see the splendid piece of their Motherland their hands had
created, they wanted their children to — they wanted their
children to delight in the sight and continue the co-creation
begun by their parents.
‘At the beginning of the new millennium, in each plot, all
living shoots represented the first shoots of a splendid, happy
Anastasia's Russia
45
future for the whole Earth. The people that established for
centuries to come the first family domains had still not com-
pletely felt the significance of what they had done — they
simply began looking more joyfully at the world around them.
They were still not consciously aware of the great joy their ac-
tions were bringing to their Heavenly Father. The Father was
sending tears of joy and tenderness upon the Earth amidst the
drops of the hilling rain. And He smiled with the sunshine,
and was endeavouring to use the little branches of young
trees to give a secret caress to His children who had suddenly
become aware of eternity and had come back to Him.
“The Russian press began writing about the new communi-
ty, and many people wanted to see this splendid phenomenon
for themselves so that they could create one of their own like
it . 5 Perhaps even create a better one.
“Millions of Russian families were seized with the inspired
desire for a splendid co-creation. Communities similar to the
first one sprang up simultaneously in various regions or the
country. An entire movement began, not unlike our contem-
porary dacha movement.
“Within nine years after the first decree was signed allow-
ing people to establish their lives independently and make
their lives happy, more than thirty million families had be-
come involved in creating their own kin’s domains, their own
piece of the Motherland. They have been cultivating their
’This too came to pass. On 12 November 2002, less than two years after
this book was published in Russian, The Moscow Times , Russia s largest Eng-
lish-language daily newspaper, featured an article (entitled “Urban group
dreams of eco-friendly settlement”) on Rodnoe, one of Russia s first eco-vil-
lages created by inspired readers of the Ringing Cedars Series. This article,
describing the emerging Russia-wide eco-village movement which sprang
from the ideas expressed in Vladimir Megre's books, was followed by hun-
dreds of other reports in newspapers and in other mass media. Both Rodnoe
and other eco-communities now receive a steady flow of visitors from all
over Russia and abroad.
Book 5: Who Are We?
46
splendid plots of ground, using, in the process, living, ever-
lasting materials created by God. And, by so doing, they were
creating together with Him.
“Each of these families turned their hectare of land pro-
vided for their lifetime use into a little comer of Paradise.
Against the backdrop of the vast spaces of the Russian Moth-
erland, a single hectare seemed like a very small piece indeed.
But there were many such pieces. And all of them together
made up a vast Motherland. Through these pieces, all cre-
ated by loving hands, the whole Motherland flourished like a
garden in Paradise! This was their Russia!
“On each of the hectares were planted both evergreens and
deciduous trees. People were already aware how the trees
themselves would fertilise the ground and the balance in soil
composition would be maintained by the grasses growing
all around. And nobody had it even cross their mind to use
chemical fertilisers or toxic chemicals.
“The quality of Russia’s air and water improved and became
health-giving. The food shortage problem was completely re-
solved. Each family was able — easily and without undue ef-
fort — not only to provide for themselves from what grew in
their domain, but also to sell their surplus.
“Every Russian family with its own domain started to be-
come rich and free, and Russia as a whole began to grow into
the most rich and powerful state in comparison with other
countries in the world.”
Chapter Eight
The richest state
“Hold on, Anastasia, I don’t understand how the state as a
whole suddenly got rich. You yourself said that the produce
from family domains wasn’t subject to any kind of tax, so what
has made the state so rich?”
“How can you possibly ask what? Think about it more
carefully, Vladimir. You are an entrepreneur, after all.”
“Well, since I am an entrepreneur, I happen to know that
the state has always tried its hardest to squeeze just a little
more tax out of every citizen. And here you tell me it’s gone
and axed thirty million families from the tax roll. The fami-
lies, of course, could have got very rich, but at the same time it
should mean bankruptcy for the state.”
“The state did not go bankrupt. First, unemployment was
completely eliminated, since any Man who found himself
without a job in the industrial, commercial or public sectors
(as we know them today) was able to devote himself either
fully or partially to work — or putting it more specifically, to
co-creation in his own domain. The total elimination of unem-
ployment freed up significant financial resources.
“The abundant supply of food provided by the families
with their own domains spared the state from any kind of ex-
penditure on agricultural production. But, more importantly,
thanks to the vast number of families who established their
domains in accordance with the Divine plan, the Russian
state received an income significantly higher than it realises
today from the sale of oil, gas and other resources tradition-
ally regarded as its basic sources of income.”
48 Book 5: Who Are We?
“What could possibly bring it more income than oil, gas
and arms sales?”
“A great deal, Vladimir — for example, air, water, ethers,
loveliness, contact with the energy of co-creation, the con-
templation of pleasant things.”
“It’s still not completely clear, Anastasia. Couldn’t you
put it in more specific terms? Where did the money come
from?”
“I shall try my best. The extraordinary changes taking
place in Russia attracted the attention of many people all
over the globe. The world press began writing about the ma-
jor change in lifestyle most Russians were experiencing. This
became a burning issue for a good deal of the world’s popu-
lation. A huge flood of tourists began pouring into Russia.
There were so many that wanted to come, it was impossible
to accept them all, and many had to wait their turn, even as
long as several years. The Russian government was forced
to limit the length of stays by foreign tourists, since many of
them, especially the elderly, were attempting to stay months
and even years here.
“The Russian government collected huge levies from each
foreigner entering the country, but this by no means reduced
the number of those applying to come.”
“But why did they want to visit here in person, if they could
see it all on TV? You did say the world press was enlightening
people about life in the new Russia.”
“People all over the world wanted more — they wanted to
breathe Russia’s air which had become so health-giving. They
wanted to drink its living water. To take a taste of fruits un-
like any other in the world. To talk with the people who were
stepping forward into God’s millennium and thereby both
slake their souls’ thirst and heal their suffering bodies.”
‘And what unusual kinds of fruit appeared? What were
they called?”
The richest state
49
“The same as they were called before, only the quality was
completely different. You already know, Vladimir, how much
better tomatoes and cucumbers taste when they are grown in
the open air under the direct rays of the Sun, in comparison
to hothouse varieties. Well, fruits and vegetables grown in
soil free from harmful chemicals are even tastier and more
healthful. And they have even greater healing properties
when grown in the company of different kinds of herbs and
trees. The mood and attitude of the grower also plays a role.
And the ethers contained in the fruit also have a tremendous
benefit for Alan.”
“What do you mean by ethers ?”
“Ethers are fragrances. A fragrance you detect signifies the
presence of an ether which feeds not only the body but also
the invisible essence of a Alan.”
“Still not clear. Are we talking about the brain, perhaps?”
“One could say that ethers strengthen mental energy and
feed the soul. Such fruits were grown only in Russia, and
the greatest benefit is realised when used by Alan on the day
they are picked, and that is why so many people have come to
Russia from all over the world — to taste these fruits, among
other things.
“Produce from the family domains very quicldy took over
the market, squeezing out not only imported fruits and veg-
etables but those that were still growing in the ordinary large-
acreage fields. People began to appreciate and feel the differ-
ence in the quality of the produce. Pepsi-Cola and the other
soft drinks so popular today were replaced by fruit beverages
made from natural berries. And even the most sophisticated
and expensive liqueurs in today’s society could not compete
with the sweet wines prepared from natural berries right in
the domains.
“These drinks also contained beneficial ethers, since the
people preparing them in their domains knew that once the
50
Book 5: Who Are We?
berries were picked, they had only a few minutes to begin
making them into fruit liqueurs and wines.
“An even greater source of income for families living in their
domains was the sale of medicinal plants which they gathered
from their groves, gardens and surrounding meadows.
“In time the harvests of medicinal herbs from Russia be-
came a far more sought-after commodity than drugs manufac-
tured abroad — but only the herbs collected in the family do-
mains and not those grown in specialised operations on huge
tracts of land. A herb grown in a huge field among others of
its own kind cannot take from the soil and surrounding space
all the ingredients that are needful and useful to Man. Even
though the produce from the domains cost a great deal more
than what was produced by the so-called industrial method,
people all over the world still preferred it.”
“And why did the owners of the domains jack up the
price?”
“The minimum price was set by the Russian government.”
“The government? Why would it care? It doesn’t get any-
thing from family domain production. Why would it take
pains to enrich individual families?”
“You must remember, Vladimir, that the state itself con-
sists of individual families, who, as the need arose, took to
financing the infrastructure network in their communities —
schools and roads, for example. Sometimes they would put
money into projects on a national scale. Politicians and econ-
omists would publish their projects, but only those which
people put their money into passed.”
“Tell me, what kinds of projects were the most popular
among the majority?”
“The buying up of chemical conglomerates abroad, arms
factories and scientific institutes.”
“Now there’s a switch! You told me that these families had
a conscious awareness of the Divine, a sense of goodness.
The richest state
5i
That it was thanks to them that the whole world was being
transformed into a garden of Paradise, and now you’re talk-
ing about buying up chemical plants and arms manufacturing
companies.”
“But these ventures were not aimed at producing weapons
or harmful chemicals, but at destroying the factories mak-
ing them. The Russian government was involved in the re-
direction of the international monetary flow. The energy of
money, which had been feeding what was fatally harmful for
mankind, was now aimed at the liquidation of the same.”
‘And what happened — did the Russian government have
enough money for such extravagant projects?”
“It did. Russia not only became the richest country in the
world but it became immeasurably richer than all the other
countries. The whole world’s capital started flowing into
Russia. Not only the wealthy, but even people of modest
means flocked to deposit their savings exclusively in Russian
banks. Many wealthy people simply willed their savings to
the development of Russian projects — these were people
who realised that the future of all mankind depended upon
these projects being carried out. Foreign tourists who had
visited Russia and seen the new Russians could no longer live
by their former set ofvalues. They excitedly told their friends
and acquaintances about what they had seen, and the flood
of tourists kept getting bigger, and bringing ever increasing
profit to the Russian state.”
“Tell me, Anastasia, those people, you know, who live in
Siberia, what projects could they undertake to become as
wealthy as the people in central Russia? After all, in Siberia
the summer is shorter and you won’t get very rich on growing
garden produce.”
“People in Siberia, Vladimir, also began setting up their
domains. Siberians used their plots of ground to grow things
suitable to their climate, and they had one big advantage over
52
Book 5: Who Are We?
residents of more southern climes. Siberian families received
state allotments in the taiga, and each family took care of its
own lands and harvested their gifts. And out of Siberia came
health-giving berries and herbs. And... cedar nut oil.”
‘And how much did cedar oil fetch on the international
market, in terms of dollars?”
“One tonne of cedar oil cost four million dollars.”
“Wow! Finally it was priced at its true worth, which is eight
times higher than what it was fetching before. I wonder how
much of this cedar oil the Siberians would have prepared in a
season?”
“In the year you are looking at now: three thousand tonnes
were produced.”
“Three thousand?! Wow! That means they would have got
twelve billion dollars just for harvesting cedar nuts.”
“More, in fact. You forgot that pressed cedar nuts can be
made into excellent flour.”
“So how much would an average Siberian family make in a
year from their labours — in terms of dollars?”
“On average, three to four million dollars.”
“Wowed And you mean to tell me they still don’t pay any
tax?”
“No tax at all.”
“In that case, where on earth could they spend money like
that? Back when I worked in Siberia, I saw that anyone in
a Siberian village who wasn’t lazy could provide enough for
himself by hunting and fishing. But here you’re talking huge
sums!”
“Like other Russians, they invested their money in national
government projects. For example, initially, when the Russian
people still had not discovered how to control the movement
of the clouds, a great deal of the Siberians’ money went to the
purchase of aeroplanes.”
“Aeroplanes? What would they need planes for?”
The richest state
53
“To ward off clouds containing harmful deposits. These
clouds would form over countries where deadly industrial
pollution was still permitted. They were fought off by Sibe-
rian aviators.”
‘And what about hunting — has it been confined to re-
served family allotments in the taiga?”
“Siberians have totally stopped all hunting and the killing
of animals. Many of them built summer residences on their
allotments and spent their summers collecting herbs, berries,
mushrooms and nuts. Young creatures of the forest right from
birth saw human beings as not a threat to them, and got accus-
tomed to Man as an integral part of their territory They be-
gan communicating with people, malting friends with them.
“The Siberians taught many creatures to help them. For
example, squirrels would throw down cedar cones with ripe
nuts onto the ground, which gave the squirrels no end of
pleasure. Some people trained bears to pull heavy baskets
and sacks with nuts, and clear away trees felled by the wind.”
“Really! They even got bears helping!”
“There is nothing surprising in that, Vladimir. In times
which people today call ‘ancient’, a bear was one of the most
irreplaceable helpers in the household. He would use his
paws to dig edible tubers out of the ground and put them in
a large basket, and then take it upon himself to drag the bas-
ket on a rope to a pit cellar hollowed out of the ground not
far from Man’s dwelling. He would climb trees in the forest
to fetch log-hives filled with honey and bring them back to
Man’s dwelling. He would take Man’s children into the forest
to gather raspberry treats, as well as do a lot of other things
for the household.”
“Wow! The bear replaced both the tractor and the plough,
and brought home things to eat, and minded the children!”
“And all winter long he slept, needing no maintenance or
repairs. And when spring came he would return to Alan’s
54
Book 5: Who Are We?
dwelling once more, and Man would treat him to the fruits of
the previous autumn.”
“I see what’s going on: a reflex was trained in those bears
to make it seem as though Man had stored up those supplies
just for them.”
“You could call it a reflex, if that helps you gain a clearer un-
derstanding, but you could also say that is the way it was de-
signed by the Father. I will only tell you that tubers were not
the most important thing for the bear in the springtime.”
“What was, then?”
“After sleeping all alone in his lair the whole winter long,
when he awoke in the spring the first thing the bear did was
hurry over to see Man, to feel Man’s caresses and hear his
praise. All the creatures need Man's caresses.”
“If dogs and cats are any example, you’re right. But what
about the other creatures in the taiga — what did they do?”
“Gradually all the other taiga dwellers found themselves a
niche too. And the highest reward for these tamed residents
of the territory was a tender word or gesture, or petting or
scratching for those who had done an exceptionally good job.
But they could get jealous of each other some times, if one
of them seemed to win special favour from Man. They could
even have a quarrel over this.”
“And what have Siberians been doing during the winter?”
“Processing the nuts. Instead of husking the cones right
after gathering them, the way it is done in our time for ease of
transport, they keep the nuts stored in their resinous cones.
The nuts keep that way for several years. Also during the win-
ter women do handicrafts. For example, a hand-made shirt
woven out of nettle fibres and embroidered by hand fetches
quite a handsome price today. And in wintertime Siberians
receive people from all over the world and treat their ills.”
“But, Anastasia, if Russia has indeed become such a rich
land for Man to live in, surely that means that many other
The richest state
55
states have a desire to conquer Russia? Especially since, as
you said, the arms factories have been shut down. Are you
telling me Russia has become in fact an agrarian country, un-
protected against an external aggressor?”
“Russia has not been transformed into an agrarian country.
It has become a centre for world science.
‘And the factories manufacturing destructive weapons in
Russia were eliminated only after people discovered an ener-
gy, before which the most up-to-date kinds of armaments not
only proved useless, but even represented a threat to those
countries which maintained them.”
“What kind of energy is that? Where does it come from
and who discovered it?”
“This energy was possessed by the Atlanteans. But they
got hold of it too early, and so Atlantis disappeared from the
face of the Earth. And it was rediscovered by the children of
the new Russia.”
“Children?! You’d better run all this by me in the proper
order, Anastasia.”
“Very well.”
Chapter Nine
In one of the Russian domains lived a happy family — a husband,
wife and two children: a boy, Konstantin, who was eight, and a
little five-year-old girl named Dasha . 2 Their father was consid-
ered one of the most talented computer-programmers in Russia.
His study at home contained several state-of-the-art computers
on which he compiled programmes for a government military
agency Sometimes he would linger at his computers well into
the evening hours, completely absorbed in his work.
The other members of the family, accustomed to gather-
ing in the evenings, headed for his study, where each busied
themselves with their own activities. The wife sat in a com-
fortable armchair and sewed. Their son read or drew sketches
of the landscapes of the ne w settlements. Only five-year-old
Dasha would not always find herself an activity to her liking,
in which case she would cur! up in a chair with a good view of
everyone else, and spend a long time carefully observing each
member of the family Occasionally she would close her eyes,
and her face would show a whole range of emotions.
On what seemed to be a fairly routine evening the family
had gathered in the father’s study as usual, each one busy in
their own way The study door was open, which meant that
‘The whole of Chapter 9 and the first few paragraphs of Chapter 10 are told
directly in Anastasia’s words.
' Dasha — the diminutive form of the name Daria ; family and friends might
also call her Dasbenka, or (indicating a momentary negative emotion) Dash-
ka. Konstantin may also be known informally as Kostia or Kostienka. They in
turn could address their parents as Mamochka and Papochka.
Good shall prevail on the Earth
51
they could hear the cuckooing of an old-fashioned mechani-
cal cuckoo clock on the wall of the children’s room next door.
Usually it would sound off only during the daytime hours, but
now it was already evening. So the father glanced up from his
work and stared at the door, while the other family members
gave an astonished look in the same direction. All except for
little Dasha, who simply sat in her chair, her eyes closed, ap-
parently oblivious to everything. A smile — first barely no-
ticeable, then quite evident — crept across her lips. All at
once the clock cuckooed a second time, as though someone
standing in the children’s room had moved the hands forward
to announce the next hour. Ivan Nikiforovich , 3 as the father
of the household was called, turned his swivel chair in his
son’s direction and said:
“Kostia, please go see if you can fix the clock or at least
stop it. We’ve had it a long time, that gift of Grandfather’s.
Strange how it got broken like that... Strange... See if you can
do something about it, Kostia.”
The children were always obedient. Not out of fear of
punishment — in fact, they were never punished. Kostia and
Dasha loved and respected their parents. They got the high-
est pleasure out of doing something together or carrying out
their parent’s wishes. Upon hearing his father’s request, Kos-
tia at once rose from his seat, but, to his mother’s and father’s
surprise, did not head for the children’s room. Instead, he just
stood and stared at his younger sister sitting in the armchair
with her eyes closed. Then once again they heard a cuckooing
from the next room. But Kostia still stood there and stared,
his eyes fixed on his sister.
Galina, their mother, looked concernedly at her son, who
remained rooted to the spot. All at once, she got up and cried
out in fright:
3 Nikiforovich — a patronymic, derived from Ivan’s father’s first name Nikifor.
5 «
Book 5: Who Are We?
“Kostia... Kostia, what’s the matter with you?”
The eight-year-old boy turned to his mother, wondering
what she was frightened about, and replied:
“Everything’s fine with me, Mama. I wanted to do as Papa
asked, but I can’t.”
“Why not? Are you unable to move? You’re unable to go
to your room?”
“I can move,” replied Kostia, waving his arms about and
stamping his feet on the spot to prove it, “but there’s no point
in my going to our room — she’s here and she’s stronger.”
“ W'/.m's here? Who’s stronger?” Mother started getting more
and more upset.
“Dasha,” Kostia replied, pointing to his younger sister sit-
ting in the armchair, her eyes closed and with a smile on her
face. “She’s the one who’s been moving the hands forward. I
tried to put them back in place, but 1 can’t do it when she — ”
“What are you talking about, Kostienka?” Mother inter-
rupted. “You and Dashenka are both here with us — I can see
you. How can you two be here and at the same time move the
clock hands in the other room?”
“Well yes, we’re here,” answered Kostia, “but our thoughts
are in the other room, where the clock is. Only her thought
is stronger. That’s why the clock keeps cuckooing — her
thought is speeding up the hands. She’s been playing a lot of
tricks like that lately I told her not to. I knew it might upset
you, but Dasha doesn’t care. All she has to do is fall into a state
of contemplation, and she starts thinking up something.”
“What is Dasha contemplating on?” Ivan Nikiforovich
broke into the conversation. ‘And Kostia, why didn’t you say
anything about this earlier?”
“You yourself can see how she’s contemplating. The
clock hands aren’t important — she’s just amusing herself.
I can move the hands too when nobody’s interfering. Only
I can’t contemplate like Dasha. When she’s in a state of
Good shall prevail on the Earth 59
contemplation like that there’s no way anyone can counteract
her thought.”
“What is she contemplating on? Do you know, Kostia?”
“Sorry. Why don’t you ask her yourself? I’ll stop her con-
templation before she thinks up anything else.”
Kostia went over to the chair his sister was sitting in and
said distinctly in a louder than normal voice:
“Dasha, stop thinking! If you don’t stop, I shan’t speak to
you for a whole day And besides, you’ve frightened Mama.”
With a flutter of her eyelashes the little girl surveyed eve-
ryone present in the room with an observing glance and, as
though literally waking up, jumped up from her chair and
hung her head apologetically The cuckooing stopped, and
for a while the study was enveloped in complete silence — a
silence eventually broken by little Dasha’s apologising voice.
She raised her head, looked at her Mama and Papa with her
sparkling, tender eyes and said:
“Mamochka, Papochka, forgive me for frightening you.
But I had to... I just had to finish thinking it through — this
thought I had. Now I can’t help but think it through. I’ll be
thinking it through tomorrow too, when I’ve had a rest.” The
girl’s lips trembled, it seemed just as though she were about to
break into tears, but she continued:
“You, Kostia, can refuse to talk with me if you like, but I’ll
go on contemplating it all the same, until I think it through.”
“Come to me, daughter dear,” said Ivan Nikiforovich, try-
ing to act restrained. He held out his arms to his daughter,
ready to embrace her.
Dasha rushed toward her father, jumped up on his knees
and put her little arms around his neck, pressed her cheek
briefly against his, then jumped down and stood beside him,
bending her head down to him.
Ivan Nikiforovich for some reason had a hard time hiding
his emotion. He began telling his daughter:
6o
Book 5: Who Are We?
“Don’t worry, Dashenka! Mama will no longer get fright-
ened when you contemplate. Just tell us what you’re thinking
about. What is so important to think through and why do the
clock hands move forward so fast when you’re thinking?”
“You see, Papochka, I want to make everything that’s
nice even bigger in time, and everything that’s bad tiny and
unnoticeable. Or even... I want to think it through so that
the hands skip over the bad things and they aren’t there any
more.”
“But what is nice and what is bad doesn’t depend on the
clock hands, Dashenka.”
“It doesn’t depend on the hands, Papochka. I realise that.
But I move them along so’s I can feel the time. The cuckoo
counts off the speed of my thinking, ’cause I have to get it
done in time... That’s why I move the hands.”
“How do you do that, Dashenka?”
“It’s simple. I picture the hands of the clock out of the cor-
ner of my thought, then I think they should go faster — and
they go faster when I start thinking fast.”
“What do you want to achieve, daughter dear, by speeding
up time? What don’t you like about the present time?”
“I like it. I realise now that time isn’t to blame. It’s people
themselves who spoil their time. You, Papochka, are so often
at your computer, and then you go away for a long time. You,
Papochka, spoil the time when you go away”
“Me? Spoil it? How so?”
“We have a good time when we’re all together. When we’re
together we have very good minutes and hours, even days.
Everything around is joyful. Do you remember, Papochka,
when the apple tree began to bloom just a little? You and
Mama saw the first buds, and you took Mama in your arms
and twirled around. And Mamochka laughed so brightly
that everything around was joyful with us — the leaves on
the trees, and the little birds too. And I didn’t feel sore at all
Good shall prevail on the Earth
61
about your twirling Mama around in your arms instead of me,
’cause I love our Mamochka very much. I was so happy with
that time, just like everyone else.
“But then a different time came. I realise now that it was
you, Papochka, who made it different. You went away from
us for a very long time. Baby apples had even begun to ap-
pear on the apple tree. But still you didn’t come home. And
Mamochka went up to the apple tree and stood there all by
herself. But there was nobody there to twirl her around, and
she didn’t laugh brightly and nothing around had anything to
be joyful about. And Mamochka has quite a different smile
on her face when you’re not around. It’s a sad smile. And that
is a bad time.”
Dasha spoke quickly and excitedly All at once she seemed
to choke on something inside her, and then burst out:
“You shouldn’t make it bad when it is good... Time... Pa-
pochka!”
“Dasha... You’re right about one thing... Of course... But
you don’t know everything about the times we’re all in. The
times we live in...” Ivan Nikiforovich spoke disconnectedly.
He was feeling tense. Somehow he needed to explain how
necessary it was for him to go away. To explain it in such a way
that his little daughter could understand. Finding no better
alternative, he began telling her about his work, showing her
rocket models and schematics on the computer.
“You see, Dashenka. Of course it’s good for us here. And
it’s good for those who live in our neighbourhood too. But
there are other places, other countries in the world. And
they’ve got a lot of weapons, all sorts of them... To protect
our splendid garden, and the gardens and the houses of your
friends, sometimes Papa has to go away Our country must
also have a lot of up-to-date weapons to defend itself.
“But recently... Dashenka... You see, recently in another
country, not ours, they came up with a new kind of weapon.
62 Book 5: Who Are We?
For the time being it is stronger than ours. Look here, on the
screen, Dashenka!”
And Ivan Nikiforovich gave a tap on the keyboard, and the
image of a strange kind of missile appeared on the screen.
“Look, Dashenka. This is a large missile, and it holds fif-
ty-six smaller missiles. The large rocket takes off at Alan’s
command and heads for its assigned target, to destroy eve-
rything living there. This missile is very hard to shoot down.
When any object approaches it, an on-board computer kicks
in and sends out one of the smaller missiles to destroy the
object.
“The smaller missiles can travel faster than the big one,
since when they’re launched they can use the inertia speed of
the larger missile. To shoot down just one such monster, we
need to send fifty-seven missiles out against it.
“The country producing this so-called ‘cassette’ missile has
only three working models at the moment. They have been
carefully concealed in various places, in shafts deep under-
ground, but it only takes a single radio-transmitted command
to launch them. A small group of terrorists are already black-
mailing a number of countries, threatening to wreak havoc
on them. So you see, Dashenka, I have to decode the pro-
gramme of the cassette missile’s on-board computer.”
Ivan Nikiforovich got up and walked around the room. He
continued talking rapidly, getting more and more absorbed
in his thoughts about the programme, seemingly oblivious to
his little girl standing beside the computer. Ivan Nikiforovich
quickly went over to the monitor showing the external im-
age of the missile, gave a tap on the keyboard, and the screen
showed a schematic of the missile’s fuel supply system, then
one of the targeting radar devices, and then, once more, an
overall image. Even as he was switching the screen images,
Ivan Nikiforovich was no longer paying any attention to his
dear little daughter. Fie kept reasoning aloud:
Good shall prevail on the Earth
63
“They have obviously equipped each of the smaller missiles
with a targeting radar device. Of course, that would apply to
every single one. But there can’t be any difference in the pro-
grammes. The programmes have to be identical...”
All at once one of the other computers emitted an alarm
sound, demanding immediate attention. Ivan Nikiforovich
quickly turned to the respective monitor and froze in his seat.
The screen showed a blinking text message: “EMERGENCY
ALERT... EMERGENCY ALERT...” Ivan Nikiforovich
gave a quick tap on the keyboard, and an image of a man in a
military uniform appeared on the screen.
“What’s happened?” Ivan Nikiforovich asked him.
“Three unusual explosions have been recorded,” respond-
ed the man. “The whole defence complex has been put on
Emergency Alert. Explosions of lesser magnitude are con-
tinuing. There’s been an earthquake in Africa. Nobody’s of-
fered any explanations. According to international informa-
tion exchange networks all military blocs on the planet have
been ordered to high alert. Still no determination where the
attack originated from. The explosions are continuing and
we’re trying to shed light on the situation. All personnel have
been ordered to set about analysing the situation.”
The officer on the screen spoke in a clipped, military fashion.
At the end, his voice was already betraying signs of concern:
“Explosions continuing, Ivan Nikiforovich, explosions
continuing. I’m signing off...”
The officer’s image disappeared from the screen. Ivan
Nikiforovich, however, continued to stare at the darkened
monitor, intensely absorbed in thought. Slowly and pensively
he turned in the direction of his chair, where Dasha was still
standing as before.
All at once an incredible conjecture made him shudder. He
saw how his little daughter, her eyes screwed up and unblink-
ing, was staring at the screen showing the image of the modern
6 4 Book 5: Who Are We?
missile. Suddenly her little body gave a start. Then, letting out
a sigh of relief, she hit the ‘ENTER’ button on the keyboard.
When the image of the new missile appeared, she screwed up
her eyes again and began staring intently at the monitor.
Ivan Nikiforovich stood as though paralysed, incapable of
budging from the spot, feverishly asking himself — though
only in his thoughts — the same question over and over again:
Could she have set off the explosions? Set them off by her thought,
because she doesn’t like the bombs? Did she blow them up? Could
that be true? How?
He wanted to stop his daughter and called out to her. But
he did not have the strength to speak very loudly, and could
only whisper:
“Dasha, Dashenka, my dear daughter, stop it!”
Kostia, who had observed the whole scene, quickly got up
from his seat, ran over to his sister, gave her a little pat on her
bottom and began talking at a rapid pace:
“Now, Dashka, you’ve gone and upset Papa this time. Now
I shan’t speak to you for two whole days — one day for Mama,
the other for Papa. D’you hear? Do you hear what I’m say-
ing? You’ve frightened them!”
Gradually emerging from her state of concentration, Da-
sha turned to her brother and let her face resume its normal
appearance as she looked him pleadingly and apologetically in
the eye. Kostia noticed Dasha’s eyes were filling with tears.
Putting his hand on her shoulder, he spoke to her with a less
severe tone than before.
“Okay, I got carried away about not talking to you, but you’ll
have to tie your own hair ribbon in the mornings. You’re not
so little any more, you know.”
And telling her not to think about crying, he embraced
her tenderly The little girl nuzzled her face up against her
brother’s chest, her shoulders trembling, as she sorrowfully
repeated:
Good shall prevail on the Earth
65
“I’ve gone and frightened them again. I’m a very naughty
girl. I wanted to do the best I possibly could, but I’ve gone
and frightened them.”
Galina came over to the children, squatted down beside
them and began stroking Dasha’s head. The girl threw her
arms around her mother’s neck and sobbed quietly.
“How does she do it, Kostia? How?” Ivan Nikiforovich
asked his son as he slowly came to himself.
“The same way that she moves the hands of the clock,
Papa,” replied Kostia.
“But the clock is right here, while the missiles are a long
ways away, and their location is classified as ‘top secret’.”
“Papa, it doesn’t matter to Dasha where they’re located. All
she needs to see is the outward appearance of the object.”
“But the explosions... In order to set them off, the circuits
have to be connected. Quite a few circuits at that. There are
safety mechanisms, codes...”
“But Papa, Dasha’s able to go through all the circuits until
a connection is made. Before, it took her a long time to do
that, maybe fifteen minutes, but lately she’s got it down to a
minute and a half.”
“ Before. ?!”
“Yes, Papa, only not with missiles. That was the way we
played. After she started moving the clock hands forward, I
showed her my old electric car I used to love riding in when I
was little. You see, Papa, I opened the bonnet and asked her to
connect the headlamp wires together, since it was hard for me
to get at them myself. She did it. And when she asked to take
it for a drive, I told her she was still too young and wouldn’t be
able to brake properly, or even switch on the motor. But then
when she kept insisting, I gave in. I explained how to switch
the motor on, but Dasha did it all her own way.
“I tell you, Papa, Dasha simply sat down behind the wheel
and took off without switching on anything. She thought she
66
Book 5: Who Are We?
was switching it on, but I could see that she wasn’t doing any-
thing with her hands. Or rather, she was switching it on, but
she did it mentally Besides, Papa, she’s made friends with
microbes. They obey her.”
“With microbes ?! What microbes?”
“With the ones that are very prolific, that live everywhere,
all around us and inside us. We can’t see them, but they’re
there. D’you remember, Papa, over on the edge of our do-
main, in the forest, there used to be the remains of two metal-
lic posts sticking out of the ground? They belonged to an old
high-voltage electricity line.”
“I remember them. What of them?”
“They were rusty, resting on concrete foundations. One
day when Dasha and I went mushroom-picking, she no-
ticed these remains, said what a bad thing they were, that
they weren’t allowing the berries and mushrooms to grow on
that spot. Then she said: “You should eat them up very, very
fast!”
‘And...?”
‘And a couple of days later those rusty remains and the
concrete foundations were gone. There was only bare earth
there, without grass, at least for now. The microbes had eaten
the metal and the concrete.”
“But why — oh why, Kostia, didn’t you tell me earlier about
everything that was going on with Dasha?”
“I was afraid, Papa.”
‘Afraid of what?”
“I was reading up on history... In the recent past people
with unusual abilities have been subject to forced isolation. I
wanted to tell you and Mama all about it, but I couldn’t find
the right words so that you’d understand and believe...”
“Kostia, you know we always believe you. Besides, you
could show us. Or rather, ask Dasha to demonstrate her abil-
ity, only with something harmless.”
Good shall prevail on the Earth
67
“That’s not what I was afraid of, Papa. Of course she could
show you.” Kostia fell silent, and when he spoke again, his
voice was emotional. “Papa, I love you and Mama... And even
though Pm strict with Dashenka sometimes, I love her very
much, too. She is kind. Dasha is good to everything around
her. She wouldn’t even hurt a little bug. Nor would they hurt
her. She went up to a bee-hive one day, sat right down by the
hive entrance and watched. She watched how they flew. The
bees... A lot of bees crawled over her arms and legs and even
over her cheeks, but they didn’t sting her. She held out her
hand to the bees buzzing around her — they landed on it and
left something there. Afterward she licked the palm of her
hand and laughed. She’s kind, Papa.”
“Calm yourself, Kostia. Don’t worry Let’s calmly examine
what’s going on here. Yes, we have to think about it calmly...
Dasha is still a child. She’s blown up several state-of-the-art
missile complexes. She could start a world war. A terrible
war. But even without a war... Say she looked through some
pictures showing not only enemy missiles, but our own... Say
she started detonating all the missiles in all the countries that
have them, the world would be on the verge of a global catas-
trophe! Hundreds of millions of human lives could be lost!
“I too love our little Dasha. But millions!... I need some
advice. We must find away out. But for now — I simply don’t
know... Dashenka needs to be isolated somehow. Some-
how... Yeah... Maybe she needs to be put to sleep for a while.
Maybe... But what’s the solution? How can we possibly find
a way out?”
“Papa, Papa... Hold on. Maybe... maybe it’s possible to
eliminate all the deadly missiles she doesn’t like from the
whole face of the Earth?”
“Eliminate? But... We’d need a multilateral agreement.
From all the military blocs. Yeah... But there’s no way we can
get one quickly If we can get one at all. In the meantime...”
68
Book y . Who Are We?
Ivan Nikiforovich gave a sudden start and rushed over to
his computer, where the monitor still showed the image of
a missile, which Dasha was prevented from destroying. He
switched off the monitor, then sat down at his communica-
tions computer and began to transmit the following text:
To: Headquarters.
The following memo should be transmitted at once to all military
blocs and international news media. The series of missile complex
explosions was caused by bacteria capable of connecting circuits.
These bacteria are controllable. It will be necessary to destroy
all images of any live ammunition. All images!!! From the most
minute bullet to the most modern missile complex. The location of
the explodable object is immaterial to the controller of the bacte-
ria, who only needs to see its shape in an image.
Ivan Nikiforovich looked at Dasha, who by this time was
smiling and having a lively conversation with her Mama. He
then added the following text:
The locttation of the installation controlling the explosions is un-
known.
Finally, Ivan Nikiforovich encoded the transmission and
despatched it to headquarters.
The next morning there was an emergency meeting of Rus-
sia’s Security Council. A security detachment was posted to
stand guard around the community where Ivan Nikiforovich’s
domain was situated. The security personnel dressed as road-
repair workers, so as not to draw attention to themselves.
They pretended to be ‘building’ a five-kilometre-long road
around the perimeter of the community (working on all five
kilometres at once), maintaining round-the-clock shifts.
Good shall prevail on the Earth
69
Video cameras were set up in Ivan Nikiforovich’s domain
which followed every move of little Dasha’s life. The video
images were transmitted to a central monitoring station re-
sembling a launch-site mission control. The video monitors
were manned in shifts by dozens of specialists — including
psychologists and military personnel — ready to issue the
required orders in case of an emergency situation. The psy-
chologists used special communications devices to give a con-
stant stream of recommendations to Dasha’s parents on how
to distract her, whatever way they could, and keep her from
falling into a state of contemplation again.
The Russian government put out an international state-
ment — which many people thought strange — to the effect
that in Russia there were forces capable of blowing up any
type of live ammunition, no matter where it was located in
the world. These forces, it said, were not entirely under the
control of the Russian government, although negotiations
were underway
The extraordinary nature of this statement called for some
kind of confirmation to back it up. At an international coun-
cil meeting it was decided to prepare a series of unusual-look-
ing projectiles, mounted in square casings. Each country par-
ticipating in the experiment took twenty such projectiles and
hid them in various places on their respective territories.
“Why did they make the projectiles with square casings?
Why couldn’t they have just used ordinary ones?” I asked
Anastasia.
“They were afraid, Vladimir, that not only all the existing
projectiles in the world might explode, but that all the bullets
in police and army pistols might get blown up as well, wher-
ever there were guns with live ammunition.”
“Yes, of course... And how did the square-projectile ex-
periment go?”
7 o
Book 5: Who Are We?
Calling his daughter into his study, Ivan Nikiforovich
showed her a photo of a square projectile and asked her to
blow them up.
Dasha took a look at the photo and said:
“I love you very much, Papochka, but there is no way I can
do what you ask.”
“Why?” asked Ivan Nikiforovich in amazement.
“Because it won’t work with me.”
“What d’you mean, Dashenka? It worked before — you
blew up a whole series of modern missiles, and now it won’t
work?”
“You know, back then I was really upset, Papochka. I
didn’t want you to go away, or to spend so many hours in front
of your computer. When you’re at your computer, you don’t
talk with anyone and you’re not doing anything that’s inter-
esting. But now... well, you’re with us all the time. You’ve
become very good, Papochka, and I can’t make any more ex-
plosions.”
At this point Ivan Nikiforovich realised that Dasha was
unable to blow up the square projectiles because she didn’t
understand the purpose of the explosion — what it was for.
Ivan Nikiforovich started nervously pacing back and forth,
feverishly searching for possible solutions and trying to con-
vince Dasha to do something. But even as he was talking to
his daughter, it seemed as though he were mainly reasoning it
out for himself.
“It wont work... No, it won’t... Pity Wars have been
around for thousands of years. While wars have ended be-
tween some countries, others have begun fighting. Milli ons
of people have perished, and they are still perishing today.
Tremendous resources are being wasted on armaments... And
here finally is an opportunity to stop this endless disaster sce-
nario, but alas...” Ivan Nikiforovich looked at Dasha sitting
in the chair.
Good shall prevail on the Earth 71
His daughter’s face was composed. She watched with in-
terest as he walked about the room, constantly talking. But
she was not fascinated by what he was actually saying. She
did not have a full comprehension of what wars meant, what
resources her father was talking about and who was wasting
them.
She was immersed in her own thoughts: Why is Papa so agi-
tated, walking back and forth amidst these computers which don't
show any affection and don’t give us any energy ? Why doesn’t he
want to go out into the garden, where the trees are in bloom and the
birds are singing, where every blade of grass and every branch of a
tree caresses the whole body with something invisible? That’s where
Mama and Kostia are right now. I only wish Papa would finish his
boring conversation and the two of us could go together to the garden.
Mama and Kostia will be so happy to see us. Mama will smile, and
Kostia promised yesterday he would tell me about how to touch a far-
away star by putting your hand on a stone or a flower. Kostia always
keeps his promises. . .
“Dashenka, are you bored listening to me? You don’t un-
derstand what I’ve been saying? You’re thinking about some-
thing else?”
“I’ve been thinking, Papochka: why are we here, and not in
the garden, where they’re waiting for us?”
Ivan Nikiforovich realised that he had to speak to his
daughter sincerely and in specific terms. So he took a differ-
ent tack.
“Dashenka, when you blew up the missiles by looking at
their image, they wanted you to test that ability once more.
Or rather, to show the whole world Russia’s ability to destroy
all the ammunition on the planet. Then there won’t be any
point in making it any more. It would be senseless and dan-
gerous. As for the ammunition already existing, the people
themselves will destroy it. A global disarmament will begin.
The square projectiles were made especially so that you could
72 Book 5: Who Are We?
show your ability without killing anyone. Blow them up,
Dashenka!”
“I can’t do that any more, Papochka.”
“Why? Earlier you could, now you can’t?”
“I promised myself I would never blow up anything again.
And now that I’ve made that promise, I don’t have the ability
to do it any more.”
“Abu can’t? But why did you make such a promise to yourself?”
“Kostia showed me some pictures from a book of his — pic-
tures of parts of bodies strewn all over after an explosion. He
showed me how people are frightened by explosions, how trees
fall and die from explosions — and so I promised myself — ”
“Dashenka, does that mean you’ll never be able to now? Just
once more... Just once. You see these square projectiles...”
Ivan Nikiforovich again held out the photo of a square pro-
jectile for his daughter to see.
“They were specially made for this experiment and are hid-
den away in secluded places in various countries. There are no
people around, or anywhere near them. Everyone’s waiting to
see whether they’ll explode or not. Blow them up, daughter
dear! That won’t be breaking your promise. Nobody will per-
ish. On the contrary...”
Dasha again looked at the photo indifferently and calmly
replied:
“Even if I go back on my promise, these projectiles still
won’t explode, Papochka.”
“But why not?”
“Because you’ve been talking for so very long, Papochka.
When I first looked at the photo, I couldn’t stand these hor-
rid things right off. They’re ugly, and now — ”
“Now what? Dashenka — what?”
“Please forgive me, Papochka, but you went on talking for
so long after you showed me the picture, that by now they’ve
been almost all eaten up.”
Good shall prevail on the Earth
73
“Eaten up? What’s been eaten up?”
“Those square projectiles. They’re almost all eaten up. As
soon as they realised I couldn’t stand the projectiles, they got
into action and began to eat them up very fast.”
“Who are they?”
“You know, the ‘little ones’. They are everywhere around
us and inside us. They are good. Kostia calls them bacteria,
or micro-organisms, but I’ve got my own name for them, a
better name — I call them my ‘little ones’, my ‘goodies’. They
like that name better. I play with them sometimes. People
pay hardly any attention to them, but they always try to do
good for everyone. When Man is joyful — they feel good too
from the joyful energy; when Man is angry or hurts something
living — a lot of them perish. Others rush in to replace them.
But sometimes the others don’t manage to replace the ones
that have died — and Man’s body becomes ill.”
“But you are here, Dashenka. And the projectiles are far
away in various countries, hidden underground. How is it
possible for — well, for those ‘little ones’ of yours in other
lands — to find out so quickly about what you desire?”
“You see, they tell everything to each other very fast along
a chain, a lot faster than the electrons ran in your computer.”
“Computer... Communications... That’s it... I’ll check it
all now — video cameras have been set up around all the pro-
jectiles on our territory It’ll just take a moment.”
Ivan Nikiforovich turned to his communications monitor,
which was showing a picture of a square projectile. Or rather,
what remained of a projectile. The casing was rusty and full
of holes, while the warhead was lying to one side, significantly
reduced in size. Ivan Nikiforovich switched to another cam-
era, and then another, but the same thing was happening to all
the projectiles. Now the screen showed an image of a man in
military uniform.
“Hello, Ivan Nikiforovich. You’ve seen it all yourself by now.”
74 Book 5: Who Are We?
“What conclusions has the Council come to?” asked Ivan
Nikiforovich.
“The Council members have divided into groups and are
currently in consultation. Our security forces are trying to
work out supplementary measures to ensure the object’s
safety.”
“I’ll thank you not to call my daughter an object.”
“You’re nervous, Ivan Nikiforovich. That is not permissi-
ble under the circumstances. In ten minutes you’ll be getting
a visit from a panel of experts, comprising prominent special-
ists — psychologists, biologists, radio-electronic engineers.
They’re already on their way I want you to set up an interview
for them with your daughter. Prepare her ahead of time.”
“What opinion is the majority of the Council inclined to
favour?”
“At the moment they are leaning toward totally isolating
your family within the confines of your domain. You need
to immediately remove all technical pictures from your
daughter’s sight. Stay close to her and try to follow her every
move.”
Upon arriving at Ivan Nikiforovich’s domain, the panel of
experts sent by the Russian Security Council engaged little
Dasha in a lengthy conversation. After the child had been
patiently answering all the adults’ questions for about an hour
and a half, everyone, including the observers following the in-
terview on the huge video monitors at the Security Council’s
communications centre, were suddenly thrown into a state
of utter bewilderment when the door of Ivan Nikiforovich’s
study opened and in walked Dasha’s brother Kostia, carry-
ing the cuckoo clock which was now cuckooing incessantly.
Kostia put the clock down on the table. The hands showed
eleven o’clock, but no sooner had the mechanical bird given
the requisite number of cuckoos than the big hand on the
75
Good shall ' prevail on the Earth
clock quickly traced a full circle around the clock face and the
cuckooing began all over again. Those present were amazed
at this strange operation or the clock, alternating their silent
gaze between the clock and Dasha.
“Oh!” all at once Dasha exclaimed. “I quite forgot. I have
to go on a very important errand. That’s my friend Verunka 4
turning the clock hands. That was our arrangement, just in
case I forgot. I have to go.”
Two guards blocked the door of the study.
“What might you have forgotten, Dashenka?” Ivan Niki-
forovich asked his daughter.
“I might have forgotten to go to the domain where my
friend Verunka lives and stroke her little flower and water it.
And it really misses being caressed. It loves people to look at
it tenderly.”
“But it’s not your flower,” observed Ivan Nikiforovich.
“Why can’t your friend stroke it herself? Her own flower?”
“Papochka, you see, Verunka’s gone visiting with her par-
ents?”
“Where’s she gone visiting to?”
“Somewhere in Siberia.”
From all around the room whispered exclamations could
be heard:
“She’s not alone!”
“What kind of abilities does her friend have?!”
“She’s not alone!”
“How many of them are there?!”
“How can we tell who they are?!”
“We need to take measures immediately regarding every
child like that!”
But all the exclaiming ceased directly an elderly grey-
haired gentleman rose from his seat at the side of the room.
4 Verunka (pronounced: He-ROON-ka) — diminutive of the name Vera.
76
Book 5: Who Are We?
This man had the most senior title and position of all, and not
just in relation to those present in Ivan Nikiforovich’s study.
He was the chairman of Russia’s Security Council. Everyone
turned to him in reverent silence.
The elderly fellow looked at Dasha sitting in her little
wooden chair, and a tear rolled down his cheek. Then he
slowly went over to Dasha and knelt down on one knee in
front of her, holding out his hand to her. Dasha rose and took
a step to one side. Holding the frilled hem of her dress, she
made a curtsy, and put her little hand in his huge palm.
The elderly man looked at her for some time. Then, bow-
ing his head, he kissed Dasha’s hand in respect, saying:
“Please forgive us, little goddess!”
“My name is Dasha,” the girl answered.
“Yes, of course, your name is Dasha. Tell us, Dasha, what
will prevail on our Earth?”
The little girl looked into the elderly man’s face in surprise,
bent closer to him and with the palm of her hand carefully
wiped away the tear from his cheek, then touched his mous-
tache with her finger. Then she turned to her brother and
said:
“Kostienka, you also promised to help me talk with the lil-
ies on Verunka’s pond. Remember you promised?”
“I do remember,” Kostia replied.
“Then let’s go.”
“Let’s go.”
In the doorway having already passed by the guards which
had stepped aside as she approached, Dasha turned in the di-
rection of the elderly fellow still standing on one knee, smiled
at him and stated confidently:
“On the Earth shall prevail... Good shall prevail !”
Six hours later, speaking before an expanded session of Rus-
sia’s Security Council, the elderly chairman said:
Good shall prevail on the Earth
77
“Everything in the world is relative. Relative to our genera-
tion, those in the new generation may seem to us to be like
gods. It is not up to them to align themselves with us, but for
us to align ourselves with them. The entire military might
of the planet with its unique technological achievements has
proved itself powerless before a single little girl of the new
generation. And our job, our duty, our obligation to the new
generation is simply to clear away the garbage. We must make
every effort to rid the Earth of any kind of armaments. Our
technological achievements and discoveries, embodied in the
most modem and, it seemed to us, unique military complex-
es, proved nothing more than useless scrap in the face of the
new generation. And we must clear it away.”
Chapter Ten
race
An international congress was held, with delegates from the
security councils of the military blocs of various countries
and continents, to work out a plan for the emergency conver-
sion of military hardware and ammunition. Scientists from
different parts of the world exchanged their expertise. Psy-
chologists kept appearing in the media in an effort to head off
panic among a population possessing a considerable variety
of firearms. Panic had broken out after news of the Russian
phenomenon had been leaked to the media, and the facts had
become somewhat distorted.
A number of Western news sources were reporting that
Russia had launched an emergency programme to convert
all the ammunition on its territory, and at a designated hour
would be blowing up the ammunition reserves held by other
nations, destroying a large part of their population in the proc-
ess. People began disposing of their firearms and ammunition
in rivers, or burying them in wasteland sites, since the official
conversion centres could not keep up with the demand.
Heavy fines were levied for unauthorised conversion.
And even the fact that independent ‘brokerage firms’ start-
ed charging huge sums for each bullet or shell they accepted
did not deter the flood of people wishing to escape from
something that threatened the lives of whole families. Peo-
ple living in cities situated in the proximity of military bases
demanded the authorities immediately get rid of all military
facilities. But the arms industry, which had now been re-
oriented toward the conversion of the very products it had
The disarmament race
79
previously manufactured, was working to the limits of its
capacity
In many Western countries the press began circulating a
flurry of rumours to the effect that Russia was threatening
the world with disaster. The world was not in a position to
free itself from its accumulation of armaments so quickly, and
even though conversion plants were operating at full tilt, it
was impossible for them to destroy in a few months a stock of
arms that had been accumulating over decades.
Accusations were made that the Russian government had
known for some time about the existence of children with
unusual abilities, and that it had long been preparing for the
conversion of deadly weapons. To back up this claim, it was
noted that the Russian government had been buying up and
dismantling ecologically unsound enterprises — not just on
its own soil but in neighbouring countries as well. And that if
Russia could become the first to rid its territory of explosive
armaments, it would also be able to destroy nations that were
lagging behind in the disarmament race.
All sorts of destructive scenarios of an impending world dis-
aster and its consequences were deliberately exaggerated in the
media. This was quite advantageous for companies involved in
conversion, escalating the price of their sendees. Anyone hand-
ing in bullets from a handgun, for example, was obliged to pay
twenty dollars for each bullet. Unauthorised burial or disposal
of a weapon was treated as a criminal act. Another source of
panic was the lack of proposals for any real defence against the
abilities which had come to light in certain Russian children.
The Russian President then took what seemed to all to be
a desperate and ill-conceived action: he decided to go live be-
fore the world’s TV cameras in the company of children with
extraordinary abilities. And on the appointed day and hour
practically the whole planet gathered in front of their TV sets
to hear what the Russian President had to say
8o
Book 5: Who Are We?
In advance of the broadcast many factories stopped, stores
closed, streets emptied — all eyes were focused on Russia.
The President wanted to calm people’s fears and show the
whole world that the newly-emerging generation of young
Russians were not bloodthirsty monsters, but kind, ordinary
children, whom there was no reason to fear.
To appear even more convincing, the President asked his
advisers to invite thirty children with extraordinary abilities
to the Kremlin, proposing to remain alone with these chil-
dren in his office during the broadcast. All this was carried
out as he requested.
‘And what did the Russian President have to say to the world?”
I asked Anastasia.
“If you like, you can watch this scene for yourself and listen
to what he said, Vladimir.”
“I’d like that very much.”
“So take a look and see.”
The Russian President stood on a small podium next to his
desk. On either side of the podium sat children of varying
ages, from about three to ten years old. On the opposite side
of the room were arrayed a group of correspondents and a
flock ofTV cameras. The President began speaking.
“Ladies and gentlemen! My fellow-citizens! I have spe-
cially invited these children to meet you. As you can see, I
am with them here alone, with no bodyguards or psycholo-
gists or parents. These children are not monsters, as some
Western media are attempting to portray them. You can see
for yourselves that these are just ordinary children. There are
no signs of aggressiveness in their faces or actions. Some of
their abilities we regard as unusual. But are they really? It is
quite possible that the abilities which have begun to reveal
themselves in the rising generation are entirely normal for
The disarmament race
81
the human individual. Our own creations, on the other hand,
may turn out to be inimical to human existence. The human
commonwealth has created a communications system and
military potential capable of fomenting global disaster.
“Peaceful negotiations between states possessing the great-
est military potential have gone on for centuries, yet the arms
race has still not ceased. Today we have a real opportunity to
do away with this endless destructive process. Today the coun-
tries in the most advantageous position are those that do not
have a concentration of deadly weapons on their territories.
“We tend to think of such a situation as unnatural. But let us
ponder the question of why on the other hand, the production
of life-destroying weapons which now threaten whole nations,
has ever seemed natural to the human commonwealth, and why
such a conviction is so deeply rooted in our consciousness.
“The children of the new generation have changed our pri-
orities, causing us to take steps in the opposite direction —
namely, disarmament. The fear and panic and feverish activity
surrounding this process are largely due to a misrepresenta-
tion of the facts. The Russian government has been accused
of knowing for a long time about the extraordinary abilities
of children in our country. Such accusations are unfounded.
Up until now a huge military potential has been present on
Russian soil, and we, like many other countries, are doing the
best we can to effect its conversion.
“The Russian government has been accused of not taking suf-
ficient measures to identify all children with extraordinary abili-
ties and to isolate them — in other words, to force them into a
state of narcosis until the disarmament process is complete. But
that is a step the Russian government is not about to undertake.
The children of Russia are equal citizens of our country
‘And let us not overlook the question of why people might
desire to isolate those who reject murderous weapons instead
of those who manufacture them! The Russian government is
82
Book 5: Who Are We?
taking measures to prevent spontaneous emotional outbursts
in the children that might possibly transmit a signal and blow
up any kind of armaments they didn’t like.
‘All Russian television channels have completely banned
films showing murderous weapons. All toy guns have been
destroyed. Parents are constantly minding their children in a
bid to head off any negative reactions. Russia — ”
The President broke off his speech abruptly. A tow-headed
boy of about five rose from his seat and approached one of
the videocamera tripods. At first he just examined the screws
on the tripod, but when he touched them with his hand, the
camera-operator stepped back in fright and hid behind the
row of correspondents. The President rushed over to the boy,
took him by the hand and led him to the chair where he had
been meekly sitting before, admonishing him along the way:
“Would you please sit there quietly until I finish.”
But he could not continue with his speech. Two boys, about
three or four years of age, were now standing at the communica-
tions console, fiddling with the equipment. The children who
had been sitting quietly right from the start of the President’s
speech were now wandering all over the office, each one look-
ing into whatever they liked. Only the older children — and
they were few in number — still sat quietly in their seats, their
eyes focused on the correspondents and the TV cameras.
One of them was a little girl with ribbons in her braids. I
realised right off who it was. It was Dasha, the one who had
blown up the missile complexes. She was not behaving child-
ishly but attentively and intelligently sizing up the situation,
observing the reaction of the correspondents.
People all over the world with their eyes glued to their
TV sets caught a glimpse of the rather distraught face of the
Russian President. He surveyed the children now dispersed
around the room. Seeing two boys fiddling with the govern-
ment communications console, he glanced over at the door,
The disarmament race
83
on the other side of which his assistants, along with the par-
ents of the invited children, were waiting, but he did not call
on anyone for help. Excusing himself for the interruption,
he rushed over to the boys who were already in the process of
pulling one of the telephones off the desk, seized them one
under each arm and told them:
“Look, these are not toys!”
One of the boys looked over and saw his chum hanging
from the President’s other arm and burst out laughing. The
second boy managed to reach out and give a tug on the Presi-
dent’s necktie, uttering the word Toys!
“That’s what you think, but they are not toys,” the Presi-
dent responded.
“Toys!” the smiling lad cheerfully repeated.
The President noticed several other youngsters, evidently
attracted by the sounds and the flashing coloured lights, ap-
proach the console and start fingering the telephone receivers.
After setting the two fidgeters down on the floor, he rushed
over to the console, pressed one of the buttons and said:
“Cut all communications to my office immediately”
Next he quickly laid out on his desk a number of blank
sheets of paper. On each one he put a pencil or pen, turned
to the children clustering around the desk and said:
“Here you are. You can dr aw whatever you like. Start draw-
ing, and later we’ll decide all together who’s come up with the
best picture.”
All the children gathered around the desk and began tak-
ing paper and pen or pencil in hand. To those who were not
tall enough to reach the desk, the President offered chairs,
either seating or standing the littlest ones on the chairs.
Satisfied that he had succeeded in occupying the children’s
attention with drawing, the President once more went over
to the podium, smiled to the television viewers, took a deep
breath, and was about to go on with his speech. But to no
84 Book 5: Who Are We?
avail. A little boy came up to him and began tugging on his
trousers.
“What is it? What do you want?”
“Pee...” said the boy
“What?”
“Pee...”
“Pee, pee? You mean you want to go to the bathroom?”
And once more the President’s gaze turned toward the door
leading out of his office.
The door opened, and immediately two of his assistants or
bodyguards rushed toward him. One of the men, who had a
sombre and rather tense expression on his face, bent down
and took the little boy’s hand. But the boy, still clinging to the
President’s trouser leg, wriggled free, shaking his hand loose
from the grip of the sombre-looking man attempting to take
him out of the office. He held up his hand to the other men
approaching — a gesture of protest which caught them com-
pletely off guard. Once more the boy raised his head, looking
up to the President from below. Tugging on his trouser-leg, he
repeated the word pee and began to crouch down just a little.
“This isn’t the right time for your ‘pee’,” said the President.
“Not only that, but you’re being pernickety too.”
At that point the President picked up the boy in his arms,
excused himself to the media representatives and headed out
of the office, saying in passing: “We’ll be right back.”
In hundreds of millions of homes people watched as the
TV cameras switched back and forth between the children
playing, drawing and chatting with each other — and, more
often than not, the now-deserted presidential podium.
And then little Dasha rose from her seat. Dragging a chair
over to the podium, she climbed up on it, looked at the corre-
spondents and then directly into the lenses of the TV camer-
as focused on her. She straightened the ribbons in her braids
and began to speak.
The disarmament race
85
“My name is Dasha. And our Uncle President — he’s a
good chap. He’ll be back in a moment. He’ll come back and
tell you everything. He’s just a little anxious right now But
he’ll be able to tell everyone how life is going to be good eve-
rywhere you look on the Earth. And that nobody need be
afraid of us. My brother Kostia told me how people are afraid
of us children because I blew up some big new missiles. But it
wasn’t that I wanted to blow them up. I just wanted my Papa
not to go away for such a long time and for him not to think
so much about these missiles. Or look at them so much. He
should look at Mama instead. She’s much better than any
missile. And she likes it when Papa looks at her and talks with
her. But when he goes away for a long time or looks at the
missiles, Mama’s sad. And I don’t want Mama to be sad.
“Kostia, my brother, is very clever and intelligent, and Ko-
stienka told me that I’ve frightened a lot of people. I shan’t
blow up anything else. It’s quite boring, really. There are oth-
er things to do that are much more important and interesting.
They bring joy to everyone.
“kbu take care of dismantling the missiles yourselves. See to it
that nobody ever blows them up. And please don’t be afraid of us.
“Do come visit us. All of you. We’ll give you living water
to drink. My Mama told me how people here used to live.
They kept so very busy building all kinds of plants and fac-
tories and got so carried away that before they knew it there
was no more living water. The water had become dirty. And
water was something you could only buy in bottles in stores.
But the water in the bottles was dead, suffocated, and people
began to get sick. That was how it used to be, but there’s no
way I can imagine how people could possibly dirty the water
that they themselves drank. But Papa said that even now on
the Earth there are whole countries where there is no clean
living water, and that people in these countries are dying from
painful diseases. And there are no tasty apples or berries in
86
Book 5: Who Are We?
these countries — everything living is sick, and the people eat
sick things and feel wretched.
“Do come visit us, all of you come. And we’ll treat you to
healthy apples and tomatoes and pears and berries. When
you’ve tried them and go back home, you’ll say to yourselves:
‘Don’t do dirty things, it’s better to live clean!’ Then later
when everything’s clean in your country, we’ll come visit you
and bring you presents.”
The President, who by this time had come back, still hold-
ing the little boy in his arms, stood in the doorway and lis-
tened to Dasha’s speech. When she finished, he walked over
to the podium. With the little one still comfortably nestled
in his arms, he echoed Dasha’s words:
“Yes, of course... Do come, really, we have treatments for
the body here. But that’s not the main thing. We all need to
gain a better understanding of ourselves and our purpose. We
really have to understand that. Otherwise we’ll be swept off
the face of the Earth like garbage. We’ve got to get together
and clear away all this dirt we ourselves have brought forth.
“Thank you all for your attention.”
The scene in the President’s office faded. And Anastasia’s
voice continued:
“It is difficult to say whether it was the President’s or Da-
sha’s speech that had the greater effect on the viewers watch-
ing this live broadcast from Russia. But people were no long-
er inclined to believe the rumours that had been spread about
Russia’s aggressiveness. People wanted to live, and live a hap-
py life — they believed that a happy life was possible. After
the live broadcast from the Kremlin the numbers of people
wanting to visit Russia or even live there increased dramati-
cally. And upon coming back home from Russia these visitors
could no longer live the way they did before. A new conscious
awareness was sparked in each individual, like the first ray of
the Sun at the dawn of a new day”
Chapter Eleven
0
‘Anastasia, how have Russians managed to cope with such a
huge influx of visitors? It must have been quite a challenge
for them. I can just imagine living with your family in your
kin’s domain with a whole bunch of gawkers staring at you
from the other side of the fence.”
“The tourists and foreigners coming to Russia for treat-
ment, Vladimir, have been housed in the cities, in the flats
vacated by Russians. They get produce from the domains
delivered to them, but tourists are not allowed to go to the
domains themselves. Only a few have managed to visit the
places where the New Russians reside. Psychologists are con-
stantly reminding the owners of the domains that whatever
hospitality they show to visitors — especially visitors from
what used to be considered highly developed countries — can
lead to a nervous breakdown. The psychologists are correct.
About forty percent of foreigners who did visit the domains
returned home only to fall into a state of depression border-
ing on suicide.”
“How so? Why? You yourself said, Anastasia, that every-
thing in the domains is perfect — the surrounding country-
side, the food, the way family members help each other.”
“That is true, but for many foreign visitors what they saw
turned out to be too perfect. Imagine if you can, Vladimir, an
elderly person who has lived most of their life in a large city
Someone who has tried as hard as they could to earn as much
as they could — just to be, so they thought, no worse off than
others. In return for this money they received a root over
Book 5: Who Are We?
their heads, clothing to wear, a car to drive and food to eat.
And here is this person sitting in their furnished flat with a
car in the garage and food in the fridge.”
“Well, I am imagining it, and so far everything seems nor-
mal. What next?”
‘“What next?’, Vladimir, is a question you should be able to
answer yourself.”
“Next... Well, maybe this person will take a trip some-
where, maybe they’ll buy some new furniture or a new car.”
“And then?”
‘And then? I haven’t the foggiest!”
“And then this person dies. He dies forever, or at least for
millions of Earth years. His second self, his Soul, cannot re-
gain the earthly plane of being. It cannot because over the
course of his earthly existence he created nothing good for
the Earth. Each of us realises this intuitively, and that is why
people are so terrified of death. When a majority of people
have the same aspirations and a similar way of life, they have
the i mpression that they can and should live only the way eve-
rybody else does.
“But here Man has seen a totally different way of life on the
Earth. He has seen in fact an earthly Paradise — the Space
of Love — which can be created by Man’s own hand in the
Divine image, and this makes him look upon his own life as al-
ready gone by and spent in hell, and this Man dies in torment,
and his sufferings last millions of years.”
“But why doesn’t everybody fall into this state of depres-
sion after seeing the Russians’ new way of life?”
“There are some who realise intuitively that even in
their advanced years, if they put their weakening hand to
creating a Space of Love on the Earth, the Creator will pro-
long their life. And after straightening up and with a smile
brightening their face, they go and give a hand to younger
people.”
Science and pseudo-science
89
“Still, Anastasia, it doesn’t seem right that people who
come to Russia from so far away aren’t able to at least spend a
little time walking down the streets of the new Russian com-
munities and breathing the clean air.”
“Even the tourists who stay in the cities have the oppor-
tunity to feel the fresh breath of the Earth and drink health-
giving water. The cities are caressed by breezes which infuse
them with cleanliness, ethers and pollen from the luxuriant
greenery of the domains. And when they go on out-of-town
excursions, tourists can observe these oases of Paradise —
only from a respectful distance so as not to disturb the fami-
lies living there. Take a look and see how it all happens.”
And once again I glimpsed another scene from the future.
I saw the highway which runs between the city of Vladimir
and another town named Suzdal 1 thirty kilometres away — a
highway I had travelled a number of times before. Earlier I
had only caught the rare glimpse of tourist motorcoaches tak-
ing visitors to see Suzdal’s ancient cathedrals and monasteries.
Most of the cars on the road had borne local licence plates.
But now the highway was quite different. Beautiful motor-
coaches rolled along a roadway that was twice the width of
the old one. Electric vehicles, no doubt — I couldn’t detect
any exhaust gases or motor noise, only the quiet hum of the
tyres. The coaches were filled with tourists of various na-
tionalities. Many were observing their surroundings through
field glasses.
About a kilometre from the main road, beyond a motley
host of treetops, I could make out the roofs of detached
houses. That was where the Russians’ family domains were
situated, each surrounded by an evenly planted hedge, or liv-
ing fence’. On either side of the road, approximately two kilo-
metres apart, were located nice-looking two-storey buildings
Vladimir, Suzdal — see footnote 1 in Chapter 6: “A garden for eternity”.
90
Book 5: Who Are We?
housing shops and dining salons . 2 Each of these was fronted
by a small asphalt lot where an electric vehicle could park if
there was a space free. The electric motorcoaches spewed
forth a stream of tourists, who were impatient to taste the lo-
cal delicacies on the spot or to buy some to take home.
All the shops and cafes sold food products grown in the
domains. They also had hand-made Russian shirts, towels,
woodcarvings and many other things made by skilled craft-
speople. Anastasia explained that visitors were eager to buy
these handicrafts because they knew that a shirt embroidered
by the kind hands of a happy woman is immensely more valu-
able than something off a mechanised conveyor belt.
If you looked down from above at what was behind the
strip of forest visible from the highway, you would be able to
glimpse shady allees and domains outlined by living fences.
The strip of forest surrounded a community containing about
ninety family estates. About a kilometre distant, across open
fields, was another community surrounded by a strip of for-
est, and so on for the next thirty kilometres or so.
Even though they were the same size, the domain plots
were far from uniform in appearance. Some were dominated
by orchard trees, others featured wild-growing trees — slen-
der pines, loosely spreading cedars, oaks and birches.
Each domain invariably had a pond or a swimming pool.
The houses, surrounded by flower beds, were also quite dif-
ferent from one another — some were large two-storey de-
tached houses, others were smaller bungalows. They had
been built in various styles — both flat and sloping roofs were
to be seen. Some of the little houses were all white, resem-
bling the huts found in Ukrainian villages.
"dining salons — the Russian word here is trapeznye (pronounced: TRAH-pez-
nih-yeh), originally designating refectories in monasteries, but more recently
used in reference to ornately decorated halls (often with arched ceilings)
where large groups of people can gather to enjoy traditional Russian meals.
Science and pseudo-science
9i
I saw no motorcars on the lanes running between the do-
mains. Nor, for that matter, could I detect any special activ-
ity or work being done in the domains themselves. I had the
impression that all this extraordinary beauty was the creation
of Someone on high, and that all people needed to do was to
delight in His creation.
In the middle of each community there were beautiful
large two-storey structures. Around them scurried a host of
active children at play. That meant that schools or clubs had
been built in the centre of the settlements.
“ You see there, Anastasia, in the centre of the community,
where there’s a school or a club, there’s some kind of visible
life, but in the domains themselves it looks pretty much like
Dullsville. If their owners have managed to arrange the plant-
ings so that there is no need to fertilise or to battle with pests
and weeds, what is there left for them to do? In any case, I
think that Man actually finds greater joy in intensive labour,
creativity and inventiveness, but there’s none of that here.”
“Vladimir, right here in these splendid domains people are
involved with the very things you mention, and their deeds
are meaningful. It demands a significantly higher level of in-
telligence, mindfulness and inspiration than the work of art-
ists and inventors in the world you are accustomed to.”
“But if they are all artists and inventors, then where are the
results of their work?”
“Vladimir, do you consider an artist someone who takes
brush in hand and paints a beautiful landscape on a sheet of
canvas?”
“Of course I do. People will look at his picture and, if they
like it, they will either buy it or put it on display in an art gal-
lery”
“Then why would you not consider as an artist someone
who has taken, instead of a canvas, a hectare of land, and
used it to create an equally beautiful or even a more beautiful
92
Book 5: Who Are We?
landscape? After all, in order to create a beautiful landscape
out of living materials, the creator needs more than artistic
imagination and taste — he also needs a knowledge of the
properties of a great many living materials. In both instances
it is the task of what has been created to call forth positive
emotions in the viewer, and to delight the eye.
“But in contrast to a picture painted on canvas, a living
picture has a variety of functions besides. It cleanses the air,
it produces beneficial ethers for Man and feeds his body A
living picture changes the nuances of its colours, and it can
be constantly perfected. It is connected to the Universe by
invisible threads. It is incomparably more meaningful than
something painted on canvas, and so the artist who creates it
will be that much the greater.”
“Yes, of course, I really can’t disagree with that. But tell
me, why do you consider the owners of these domains to be
inventors and scientists to boot? Do they have any relation
to science at all?”
“They have a relation to science too.”
“What kind of relation, for example?”
“For example, do you, Vladimir, not consider as a scientist
someone who is involved in plant selection and genetic engi-
neering?”
“Of course. Everybody thinks of them as scientists, they
work in scientific research institutes. They come up with new
varieties of fr uits and vegetables, and other plants as well.”
“Yes, of course, they come up with these, but what is impor-
tant is the result of their work, its significance for humanity”
“Well, the result is that varieties of vegetables and potatoes
are brought forth that are frost-resistant and that will not be
eaten by the Colorado beetle. In highly developed countries
they have managed to grow a living being from a simple cell.
Now they are working on cultivating various organs for trans-
planting into patients — kidneys, for example.”
Science and pseudo-science
93
“Yes, that is true. But have you not wondered, Vladimir,
why in these highly developed countries there are also appear-
ing more and more types of diseases? Why is it that these same
countries have the highest cancer rates of all? Why do they
need an increasing number of drugs for treatment? Why do an
ever-increasing number of people suffer from infertility?”
“Well, why?”
“Because many of those you call scientists are not rational
beings at all. Their human essence is paralysed, and the forc-
es of destruction work through their merely external human
form.
“Think about it, Vladimir: these so-called scientists have
begun to fundamentally change the plants existing in Nature,
thereby also changing the fruits they bring forth. They have
begun changing them without first determining what pur-
pose these fruits have. After all, in Nature, as in the Universe,
everything is so closely interconnected.
“Let us take your car, for example. Suppose a mechanic
were to remove or alter some part — - a filter, let us say — the
car might go for a while, but what would soon happen?”
“The fuel-feed system would go out of whack, and the mo-
tor would choke.”
“In other words, every part of a motorcar has its function, and
before touching a part, it is necessary to determine its function.”
“Of course! You don’t have to be a mechanic to see that.”
“But Nature, after all, is also a perfect mechanism, and no-
body has yet fully fathomed it. Every part of this great living
mechanism has its purpose and is closely interconnected with
the whole structure of the Universe. A change in properties
or the removal of a single part inevitably affects the work of
the whole mechanism of Nature.
“Nature has many protective devices. First, it will signal an
impermissible action. If that does not work, Nature will be
obliged to destroy the ‘mechanic’ who fails in his calling. Man
94
Bookj: Who Are We?
uses the fruits of Nature for food, and if he begins to feed
himself with mutant fruits, he will be gradually transformed
into a mutant himself. Such an adulteration is inevitable, giv-
en the consumption of adulterated produce.
“This is already coming about. Man is already experiencing
a weakening of his immune system, his mind and feelings. He
is beginning to lose the abilities unique to him alone, and is
being transformed into an easily manipulable bio-robot. He
is losing his independence. The appearance of new diseases
only confirms this — it is a sign that Man has tried undertak-
ing an impermissible action.”
“Well, let’s say you’re right, Anastasia. I myself don’t think
much of these hybrid plants. There was a lot of hoopla about
them at first, but now quite a few national governments, in-
cluding our own, have started mandating special labelling of
genetically modified produce sold in stores. And many peo-
ple try to avoid buying these mutant products. But they say
there’s no way to avoid them altogether, at least for the time
being — there’s too many of them. There’s not enough real
produce, and it’s so much more expensive.”
“There, you see, that is because the forces of destruction
have: managed to lure humanity into a state of economic de-
pendency They have managed to convince Man that if he
does not consume their products, he will die of starvation.
But that is not true, Vladimir. Just the opposite: Man will die
if he does eat them.”
“Maybe, Anastasia, but not everyone will die. Many already
know about this and won’t eat mutant products.”
“How do you, for example, Vladimir, manage to tell the dif-
ference?”
“I don’t eat imported vegetables, for one thing. What local
residents sell at the markets from their own household plots
is a lot tastier.”
‘And where do they get their seeds?”
Science and pseudo-science
95
“What d’you mean, where do they get them? They buy
them. There’s a lot of firms dealing in seeds now They sell
them in pretty coloured packaging.”
“So, does that mean that people buy seeds according to the
information on the package, without knowing tor absolute
certain how accurate that information is?”
“You mean to say that even the seeds they buy may be mu-
tant?”
“Yes. For example, on the Earth today there are only nine
apple trees left bringing forth original fruit. The apple is one
of the most healthful and delicious of all God’s creations for
Man. But it was one of the first to be subjected to genetic ma-
nipulation. Even the Old Testament warns us against grafting.
But people went ahead stubbornly and did it, and as a result
the apples disappeared. What you now find in orchards or
grocery stores does not correspond to the Divine fruit. Those
that violate and destroy the original purity of God’s creation
you call scientists. But what can we call those who are restor-
ing the functioning of all the parts of Nature’s mechanism?”
“They’re scientists too, but more literate, no doubt, more
knowledgeable.”
“The Russian families living in the domains which you see
here are the same ones who are restoring that which was ru-
ined before.”
“And where did they acquire greater knowledge than the
geneticists and the biologists involved in genetic selection?”
“This knowledge has existed in every Man right from the
beginning. The goal, thought and conscious awareness of their
purpose afford each of these the opportunity to reveal itself.”
“Wow! So it turns out that the people living in the domains
are both artists and scientists. Who then are we — I mean,
the people living on the planet today?”
“Everyone can supply their own definition if they manage
to free their thought for at least nine days.”
Chapter Twelve
“What do you mean — to free their thought ? Everybody has
freedom of thought.”
“In the context of your technocratic society, Vladimir,
Man’s thought is enslaved by the limits and conventions of
this world. In fact, the technocratic world can only exist
when the freedom of Man’s thought is nullified and the en-
ergy of his thought is absorbed by it.”
“Something’s not clear to me here. Every Man over his life-
time can do a lot of thinking about a lot of different things.
There are limits on freedom of speech, for example. There
are countries in which there is greater freedom of expression,
in other countries less, but everyone is free to think whatever
they wish.”
“That is an illusion, Vladimir. The majority of people are
compelled to think about one and the same thing their whole
lives. This is easier to see if you take the topics a typical Man
of your world thinks about and analyse them in terms of dis-
tinct time segments, adding up the time he spends thinking
about each particular subject. By this simple method you can
determine the prevailing thought in contemporary human
society”
“Interesting. Let’s try determining this prevailing thought
together, you and I.”
“Very well. Then tell me, what would you consider Man’s
average life expectancy today?”
“Is that important?”
“Not all that important, given the uniformity of Man’s
Do we have freedom of thought? 97
thinking, but we need some sort of figure for our subsequent
calculations.”
“Okay. In our time let’s say a Man lives eighty years.”
“So, a Man is born. Or, to put it more accurately, he has
attained the material plane of his being.”
“Let’s just say he is born — it’s easier to understand.”
‘All right. Even as an infant he is looking at the world,
which is waiting for him to get to know it. Clothing, housing
and food are provided for him by his parents. But the parents
also attempt, either consciously or subconsciously, through
their behaviour, to impart to him their thoughts and the way
they see the world around them. The visible process of get-
ting to know what life is all about lasts approximately eight-
een years, and over the whole course of these years the tech-
nocratic world attempts to impress the young Man’s thought
with its own importance. Then, over the remaining sixty-two
years of his life, let us assume that Man himself can control
the tendencies of his own thought.”
“Indeed he can. But you were saying there’s something try-
ing to enslave his thought.”
“Yes, I did say that. So let us try and calculate how much
time he is free to think for himself.”
“Okay, let’s.”
“For a certain number of hours each day Man sleeps or
rests. How many hours a day does he spend on sleep?”
“Eight, as a rule.”
“We took 62 years of Man’s life as a basis. If you multiply
that by eight hours per day, taking leap years into account,
you find that Man sleeps for 587,928 hours of his life. Thus,
sleeping 8 hours a day equates to 22 years of constant sleep.
Now we subtract these 22 years from the 62 years of his life
and we have 40 years when he is awake.
“Now, at some point during their waking hours most
people are involved with the preparation of food. How
98 Book 5: Who Are We?
much time do you think Man spends on cooking and eating
food?”
“It happens that women generally do the cooking, while
men are obliged to spend more time earning the money to
pay for groceries.”
‘And how many hours would you say, Vladimir, go into the
preparation and consumption of food every day?”
“Well, if you take into account the time spent on buying
groceries, preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner, that’s prob-
ably about three hours — on a weekday, that is. Only not eve-
ryone in the family is involved in the cooking. The rest of
us... well, we eat, and maybe help do the grocery shopping, or
wash the dishes, so that Fd say about two and a half hours, on
average.”
“In fact it is more, but let us take your figure, two-and-a-
half hours per day Multiply that by the number of days a Ma n
lives and it comes to 61,242.5 hours, or 25,517 days, or 7 years.
Subtract this number from the 40 and there are 33 left.
“Now, in order to be able to obtain food, clothing and hous-
ing, a Man dwelling in the technocratic world is obliged to
perform one of the functions essential to this world — name-
ly work. And I should like to draw your attention, Vladimir,
to this fact: Man is obliged to work or engage in some busi-
ness not because he really likes it but for the sake of the tech-
nocratic world itself, otherwise Man will be deprived of what
is vitally important to him. How much time do most people
spend each day on work?”
“In our country it’s eight hours, with another two hours or
so spent getting to and from work, but every week they get a
couple of days off.”
“So now try to calculate how many equivalent years of his
life does a Man spend on work which is rarely satisfying?”
“It would take me quite awhile to figure out without a cal-
culator — you tell me.”
Do we have freedom of thought ?
99
‘All told, for the thirty years of so-called work activity he
spends ten years constantly working for someone — or, rath-
er, for the technocratic world. And now from those 33 years
of life we have to subtract another 10, leaving us 23.
“Now, what else does a Man do every day over the course
of his life?”
“He watches TV.”
“For how many hours a day?”
“No less than three.”
“These three hours amount to 8 years of constant sitting in
front of a television screen. If we take them away from the 23
remaining, we are left with 15. But even this time is not free
for activities native to Man alone. Man’s thought is subject
to inertia. It cannot make a sudden switch from one thing to
another. Some time is spent processing and making sense of
information received. All told, the average Man spends only
15 to 20 minutes of his life reflecting on the mystery of crea-
tion. Some do not think about it at all, while others spend
years contemplating it. Anyone can figure it out if he looks
back over the years of his life. Each individual is unique — he
is more important than all the galaxies taken together, for he
is capable of creating them. But each Man is a particle of the
human commonwealth , which may be regarded in its entirety
as a single organism, a single essence. And once humanity has
fallen into the trap of technocratic dependence, this great es-
sence of the Universe becomes closed within itself, it loses
genuine freedom and becomes dependent, at the same time
activating the mechanism of self-destruction.
‘Another way of life, quite distinct from your world’s every-
day norm, is lived by people in the communities of the future.
Their thought is both free and humane — it has merged into
a single aspiration, and is leading humanity out of its dead
end. The galaxies quiver in joyful anticipation when they see
the human dream merging into a single whole. Creation will
xoo
Book 5: Who Are We?
soon witness a new birth and a new co-creation. Their human
thought will materialise a beautiful new planet.”
“Wow! How grandiloquently you describe these commu-
nity dwellers! But outwardly they’re just ordinary people.”
“Even their outward appearance is distinctive. It is imbued
with the radiance of great energy Look more closely — here
come a grandmother and her grandson riding along...”
Chapter Thirteen
I saw a wagon emerging from the settlement, or rather a car-
riage with a folding top, drawn by a sorrel mare. On the car-
riage’s plush seat sat an elderly woman, with baskets of apples
and vegetables at her feet. Up in front a shirtless boy about
seven years old held the reins, but did not appear to be con-
trolling the horse. No doubt they had been along this route
many times before and the horse was simply trotting leisurely
along a familiar route.
The boy turned to the elderly woman and said something
to her. His grandmother smiled and began to sing. The boy
started singing along with her, picking up on the refrain. As
for the tourists in their electric motorcoach passing by on the
parallel highway about a kilometre distant, there was no way
they could catch the sound of their song.
Practically the whole coach had their field glasses trained
on the carriage and its passengers. They watched the spec-
tacle unfold with bated breath, as though they had seen a
miracle or an interplanetary alien, and again the thought
came to me that there was something not quite right here:
people had come from such a long ways away and couldn’t
even carry on a normal conversation with the local resi-
dents, but were limited to observing them from a distance.
And the two occupants of the carriage weren’t even looking
their w f ay.
One of the tourist coaches slowed down to keep pace with
the horse’s trot. The coach was filled with children visiting
from abroad, excitedly waving their hands at the little boy
102
Book 5: Who Are We?
and his grandmother riding in the handsome carriage, but not
once was there even a glance in return.
All at once a young equestrienne emerged from one of the
gates of the settlement, which were beautifully enwreathed
with living vegetation. Her chestnut-coloured racehorse
maintained a heated gallop in a bid to catch up to the carriage,
and was soon prancing daintily alongside. The elderly woman
smiled, listening as the young equestrienne spoke to her.
Even though the boy may not have been too happy at hav-
ing their duet interrupted, his voice could not help but betray
an inner joy as he said:
“Oh, Mamochka, you’re a regular jumping jack! You can’t
stay still for a moment!”
The young woman laughed, reached into her canvas sad-
dle bag and took out a pirozhok, 1 handing it to the little boy
He took a bite of it and then offered it to the elderly woman,
saying:
“Here you are, Granny, try it — it’s still warm!”
The boy gave a tug on the reins and stopped the carriage.
He leant down and with both hands picked up a basket of
yummy-looking apples. He held it out to the woman rider
with the words: “Please, Mama, take these to them” nodding
in the direction of the touring coach with the visiting chil-
dren on board.
Grasping the heavy basket of apples easily with one hand,
with the other hand she gave her prancing steed a pat on its
neck, and galloped off toward the children’s motorcoach.
Several other tourist coaches in the meantime had pulled up
beside it, all eyes fixed on the young woman rider galloping
toward them over the fields clutching the basket of apples
with one hand.
pirozhok (plural: piroshki) — a small Russian pas try with a filling, akin to a Ukrai-
nian pierogie. See footnote 2 in Book 2, Chapter n: “A sharp about-turn”.
Equestrienne from the future
103
Dashing up to the children who had now spewed forth out
of the coach, she reined in her steed, and without leaving the
saddle, deftly bent down and placed the apple basket on the
ground in front of the excited children.
After managing to give a dark-haired little boy a pat on the
head, she waved a greeting to all and headed off on her steed
right down the middle of the dual motorway The driver of
the children’s coach was talking on his two-way radio:
“She’s galloping right down the median strip! She’s marvellous!”
Many of the touring coaches along the motorway pulled
over to the side and stopped. People quickly got out and
spread themselves along the roadside, watching the beautiful
young equestrienne galloping along at full speed. No shouts,
but rather whispers of excitement emanated from many peo-
ple’s lips. And here was really something to be excited about.
Sparks flying from his hooves, the steed flew along unhindered
in his heated gallop. His rider carried no whip in her hand, or
even a switch, yet the steed kept quickening his step, his hooves
barely touching the asphalt, his mane streaming from the brisk
headwind. No doubt he was extremely proud of his rider and
wanted to prove worthy of this beautiful woman on his back.
Indeed, she was exceptionally beautiful in appearance. Of
course one could get excited about her perfect facial con-
tours, her light-brown braid and thick eyelashes. Of course,
beneath her white hand-embroidered blouse and flowered
skirt with white camomiles one could easily picture a shapely
supple waist on this girl with such a magnificent figure, whose
smooth, feminine lines seemed to frame some sort of irre-
pressible energy. The blush playing on her cheeks gave but
a glimpse of the majesty and boundless possibilities of this
unfathomable energy The young equestrienne’s unusually
healthy-looking appearance (she looked like a girl in her late
teens!) quite distinguished her from that of the people stand-
ing by the side of the road. She sat upright on her frisky steed
104
Book 5: Who Are We?
with not a trace of tension in her body She wasn’t holding on
to the pommel of her saddle, or even the reins. And her legs
were thrown over one side of the horse’s rump without a stir-
rup on either foot.
As she rode along with her eyelids lowered, she gracefully
wove her wind-tossed hair into a tight braid. And she had only
to raise her eyelids to inflame one of the crowd of people with
some kind of invisible but captivating fire. Whoever caught
her gaze felt himself straighten up inside and stand tall.
It seemed that these people could feel the light and energy
emanating from the equestrienne and were trying to let it at
least partially fill their being. She understood their desire,
and generously shared what she had, galloping on and just be-
ing beautiful.
All or a sudden an excited Italian man ran out across the
motorway right in front or the oncoming steed. He waved
his arms wildly to each side, crying out in excitement: Rossiya!
I love you, Rossiya ! 1 The young rider was completely unmoved
by her steed rearing up on its hind legs and prancing on the
spot. With one hand simply holding on to the pommel of her
saddle, she used the other to pluck a flower of the garland
adorning her hair and toss it down to the Italian. Catching his
gift, he pressed it tenderly to his chest like a valuable treasure,
constantly repeating: Mamma rnia ! Mamma mia!
But the beautiful equestrienne was no longer paying atten-
tion to the impetuous Italian. She had only to touch the reins
and the horse broke into a lightly prancing walk, and headed
over to the people standing on the roadside. As the crowd part-
ed, the young equestrienne gave a sprightly leap down from her
steed, coming face to face with a woman of European appear-
ance who was holding a baby girl fast asleep in her arms.
'Rossiya (pronounced: ros-SEE-ya ) - the Russian name for Russia, which is
similar in a number of European languages.
Equestrienne from the future
105
The mother was slouching a little, her face was pale and
eyes fatigued, and she seemed to have a hard time holding
her baby still without waking her. The equestrienne gave the
woman a big smile, and the two mothers’ glances met.
It was not difficult to notice the difference in the two wom-
en’s mental states. The mother with the baby had a depressed
look, which gave her the appearance of a fading flower in
comparison with the young woman who had just approached
her — a woman whose countenance suggested an irrepress-
ible explosion of blossoms from thousands of gardens.
The two women looked each other in the eye without a
word between them. And then all at once, as though startled
by a new conscious awareness of something, the woman hold-
ing the sleeping baby straightened up, and her face broke into
a broad smile. With a graceful, very feminine movement of her
hands, the Russian woman took the beautiful garland from her
own head and placed it on the head of the mother holding the
baby, though they still didn’t say a single word to each other.
Once more the beautiful equestrienne deftly mounted
her steed which had been standing meekly at her side, and
headed off. For some reason the people all gave her a round
of applause. The now-smiling slender woman, whose baby
d aughter had by this time awakened with a smile of her own
on her little face, kept watching as the figure of her new-found
friend receded into the distance. As for the impetuous Ital-
ian, he was running after her holding an expensive watch he
had taken off his wrist, calling out to her: A souvenir, mamma
mia! But by this time the beautiful rider was already far away
The adventuresome racehorse turned off the highway in front
of a patio decked out with long tables, where another group of
tourists was sitting, drinking m } and berry drinks. They were
'kvass — a fermented beverage made from rye, barley or other natural product s.
io 6
Book 5: Who Are We?
also sampling other delicacies waiters kept bringing to them
out of a building replete with beautiful Russian carvings. 4
Another building was in the finishing stages of construc-
tion next door. Two people were attaching to one of the
windows of the new building — probably a shop or dining
salon — a beautiful carved wooden nalichnik. Upon hearing
the hoofbeats, one of the men turned in the direction of the
approaching rider, said something to his fellow-worker and
jumped down from the scaffolding. Reining in hei hoise,
the impetuous equestrienne sprang down to the ground and,
quickly unfastening her canvas bag from the saddle, ran ovei
to the man and gently handed it to him.
“ Pirozhki ... With apple filling, just the way you like them.
They’re still warm.”
“You’re my little jumping jack, Ekaterinka,” 5 the man said
tenderly Whereupon he reached into the bag, took out a
pirozhok and bit into it. His face writhed with pleasure.
The tourists sitting at the tables stopped their eating and
drinking, admiring the young lovers. There stood the pair face
to face — the man working on the building and the beautiful
young equestrienne just dismounted from her fiery steed —
as though they were not already married with children, but a
courting couple fervently in love. And here was this beautiful
woman, who had just ridden fifteen kilometres, who seemed
so invincible and as free as the wind under the excited gaze
of the tourists, calmly standing in front of her beloved, first
* Russian carvings — these might include sacred solar symbols, such as
a horse at the front of the roof finial, believed to protect the house and
its occupants from evil. Such carvings are found on many a Russian tea en?
(mansion) or izba (hut). Some of these carvings are featured on a decorated
board known as a nalichnik (see footnote 3 in Book 3, Chapter 10: Wot k out
your own happiness”).
’’Ekaterinka — like Ekaterinushka , a diminutive of the Russian name Ekat-
erina (pron. ye-ka-te-REE-na) equivalent to Catherine in English.
Equestrienne from the future
107
looking him in the eye, then lowering her eyelids in embar-
rassment. All at once the man stopped eating and said:
’’Ekaterinushka, look, a wet spot has broken out on your
blouse — that means it’s time to feed Vanechka.”' 1
She covered the little wet spot on her milk- filled breast with
the palm of her hand and answered, somewhat embarrassed:
“I’ll manage it. He’s still sleeping. I’ll take care of everything.”
“Better hurry I’ll be home soon, too. We’re just finishing
up here. D’you like what we’ve done?”
She took a look at the windows framed by the decorative
carved nalichniks.
“Yes. "Very much. But there’s something else I -wanted to tell you.”
“Go on.”
She came up close to her husband and stood on tiptoe
as if to whisper something in his ear. He leaned over to lis-
ten, but she just gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. Then,
without even turning around, she sprang into the saddle of
her steed standing alongside her, her happy trilling laughter
mingl i ng with the hoofbeats. Then it was off to home she gal-
loped — this time not along the asphalt motorway, but across
the grasses of the open fields. As before, the tourists could
not take their eyes off her so long as she remained in sight.
What was so special about this young woman — a mother
with two young children — riding across the open fields on
her adventuresome steed? Yes, she was beautiful. Yes, one
could feel her overflowing energy Yes, she was kind. But why
couldn’t anyone take their eyes off her as she rode away?
Perhaps it was more than just a woman riding a horse across a
field. Perhaps it was Happiness incarnate hurrying home to feed
an infant and later welcome her beloved husband? And people
couldn’t help but admire Happiness hurrying back to her home.
” Vanechka — a diminutive of the Russian name Ivan (corresponding to the
English nam ejohn).
Chapter Fourteen
C
on
‘And have such changes been taking place in St. Petersburg
too, as well as in Moscow?” I asked Anastasia.
“Events happened somewhat differently in the city on the
Neva ,” 1 she replied. “There it was the children who, even be-
fore the adults, felt the need of doing something themselves
about creating a different kind of future. The children took
it upon themselves to start changing the city, without waiting
for a decree from the authorities.”
“Wow! Children again! And how did it all start?”
At the corner where the Nevsky Prospekt 2 crosses the Fon-
tanka 3 embankment some workers had dug a trench. An
eleven-year-old boy accidentally fell into it and injured his
'Neva (pron. ni-VAH) — the river that flows through the city of St. Peters-
burg into the Gulf of Bosnia and the Baltic Sea. The city was founded on
the swampy delta of the Neva River by Emperor Peter the Great in 1703 as
Russia’s new capital and ‘window on the West’. Partial to Western (espe-
cially Germanic) cultures, he gave the city a German-style name after his
own patron saint. In 1914, at the onset of the First World War, the name
was russified to Petrograd. The Bolsheviks who came to power with the 1917
revolution immediately moved the seat of government back to Moscow,
and after Lenin’s death in 1924 renamed the former capital in his honour.
During World War II Leningrad endured a 900-day siege and blockade by
the Nazis but was never captured. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a
vote by the city’s residents in 1991 restored its original name.
" Nevsky Prospekt (Nevsky Avenue) — the principal thoroughfare of St.
Petersburg, stretching more than four kilometres from the Admiralty to
the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Named after Grand Prince Alexander
Nevsky (1220-1263) who defended the territory against attacks by Swedish
City on the Neva
109
leg. While he was recuperating, he spent a long time sitting
at the window of his flat at No 25, Fontanka Embankment.
But his apartment windows looked out not onto the river, but
onto an interior courtyard. The view included a shabby brick
wall and the rusty spots covering the roof of the house it was
attached to.
One day the boy asked his father:
“Papa, isn’t our city supposed to be the best in the country?”
“Of course,” the father replied, “it’s one of the best in the
world!”
“And why is it the best?”
“What d’you mean, why? It’s got a lot of different kinds
of monuments and museums, and the architecture in the city
centre is world-famous.”
“But we live in the city centre too, and all we can see from
our windows is a shabby wall and the rusty roof of the build-
ing next door.”
“A wall... Well, yes, we didn’t do so well with the view.”
‘Are we the only ones?”
“Maybe a few others, but anyway...”
armed forces and German knights, the street dates back almost to the
founding of the city itself. It was designed by French architect Alexandre
LeBlond under commission from Peter the Great, and over the years has
figured prominently in the writings of major Russian authors, including
perhaps its most famous resident, Dostoevsky. Today, lined by cathedrals,
museums and hundreds of shops and apartment houses with neo-classical
facades, the Nevsky still forms the axis of the city’s business and cultural
centre.
3 Fontanka — one of the several channels of the Neva River flowing through
the delta on which the city of St. Petersburg is built. Embankments on
both sides give it more the appearance of a canal (the city boasts about fifty
canals and a hundred islands). Nevsky Prospekt crosses the Fontanka on
the architecturally unique Anichkov Bridge (built in 1715) - each of its four
corners is adorned with a bronze sculpture of a horse, all executed by Rus-
sian artist Piotr Klodt (1805-1867) in the mid-nineteenth-century.
no
Book 5: Who Are We?
The boy took a snapshot of the view from his apartment
windows and when he was able to go to school again, he
showed the photo to his chums.
Then all the children in his class took snapshots from their
windows and compared the photos. The overall picture was
not very pretty. The boy and his chums went to see the edi-
tors of one of the local papers and asked the same question he
had earlier asked his father:
“Why is our city supposed to be more beautiful than others?”
They tried explaining to him about Alexander’s Column 4
and the Hermitage;’ they talked about the Kazan Cathedral 6
and the legendary Nevsky Prospekt...
4 Alexanders Column (Russian: Aleksavdriyski stolp) — a prominent column in
the centre of Palace Square behind the Tsar’s Winter Palace, erected in 1834.
Auguste Ricard de Montferrand, a Russian architect of French descent, was
commissioned by Tsar Nicholas I to design this monument commemorat-
ing his predecessor (and elder brother) Alexander I’s victory over Napoleon
during the War of 1812. Atop the column is a sculptural representation of
an angel with Alexander’s face, designed by Boris Ivanovich Orlovsky (real
surname: Smirnov; 1796-1837). At 47.5 metres, the pink granite column is
the tallest structure of its kind in the world, eclipsing both the Colonne de
Vendome (44 m) in Paris and the Trojan Column (38 m) in Rome.
’ The Hermitage (Russian: Ermitazh) — one of the major art museums in the
world, begun in 1764 by Empress Catherine the Great, who wanted a place
to display (for family and invited guests) her own large private collection.
The Hermitage comprises a series of five ornate buildings erected over a
number of years along the banks of the Neva River, including the Tsars’
Winter Palace, designed by Bartholomeo Rastrelli (1700-1771). Following
the 1917 revolution, the whole complex was proclaimed public property
and today draws millions of visitors each year.
" Kazan Cathedral (Russian: Kazansky sobor) — a large cathedral on Nevsky
Prospekt, bordered on either side by double rows of columns in semi-cir-
cular formation. Built in the early 1800s by Russian architect Andrei Vo-
ronikhin (1759-1814), it is the burial place of Russian field marshal Mikhail
Kutuzov who led the Russian army in its successful repelling of the Napole-
onic invasion. During the Soviet period the cathedral was turned into the
State Museum of Religion and Atheism, but is now once again under the
jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church.
City on the Neva
in
“What makes the Nevsky so hot?” the boy enquired. “I
think it looks like a stone trench with flaking edges.”
They tried explaining to him about the architectural mer-
its of the thoroughfare, about the sculptural mouldings on the
building facades. About how the city at the moment didn’t
have enough funds to restore all the houses at once, but soon
there would be money available, and then everybody would
see how beautiful the Nevsky really was.
“But what’s so beautiful about a stone trench, even if the
facades are spruced up? Besides, it’ll only get shabby again
before long and they’ll only have to refill the holes and fix up
the parts that have fallen down.”
The boy and his chums went around to various editorial
offices, showing them their now considerable collection of
photos and asking the same question over and over again. At
first the journalists were irritated at his persistence. On one
occasion a reporter with a youth newspaper told him:
“Oh, it’s you again?! And now you’re dragging your hench-
men along with you — you’ve got more and more of them, it
seems, all the time. You may not like the city, the view from
the windows, but can’t you do at least something about it
yourselves? There’s enough criticising going on without you
kids adding your two cents’ worth. Go back to your homes
and stop interfering with our work!”
This admonition was overheard by a veteran journalist, who
after seeing the group of children make their way out of the
newspaper offices, spoke thoughtfully to the young reporter:
“You know, their audacity reminds me of a particular fairy
tale.”
‘A fairy tale? Which one?” the reporter enquired.
“ The Emperor has no clothes! Remember those words in the
story?”
After that the boys stopped bothering the editors with
questions and showing the huge collection of pictures they
112
Book 5: Who Are We?
carried around in a backpack. The school year ended, and
come September another began. And it didn’t take long for
the news to spread through the newspaper offices: the boy
and his churns are back again. The veteran journalist exclaimed
to his colleagues at the journalists’ club ror the umpteenth
time:
“He’s back... Yes, indeed... And just think, he finally man-
aged to get a hearing. And he wasn’t alone. They all sat qui-
etly waiting together in the reception room for about three
hours. I agreed to see them. I warned them to talk quickly, as
I had set aside only two minutes to hear what they had to say
They came in and spread out a huge sheet of drafting paper
across my desk. I looked at their masterpiece and was dumb-
founded. I kept looking, not being able to take my eyes away
or even to say a word. Two minutes must have gone by, for I
heard the boy say to everyone:
“Tt’s time for us to leave. We’ve outstayed our welcome.’
‘“What’s that?’ I called after them, just as they were on
their way out the door. He turned around, and I felt the look
of another age descend upon me. Yes, indeed... There’s a lot
we still have to think through, make sense or... Yes, indeed!”
“Well, did he say anything?” asked a colleague.
Others, too, became restless and asked:
“Don’t keep us in suspense — did he say he was coming
back?”
Whereupon the veteran editor replied:
“He turned around and answered my question like this:
‘“That’s our Nevsky you’ve got in front of you. For now' it’s
only on paper. But eventually the whole city will be that way’
And then the door closed.”
' We’ve outstayed our 'welcome — the original Russian phrase ( Vrernia sdes’ttzhe
tie nashe) can also be interpreted to mean: ‘The age you live in here is no
longer the age we live in’.
City on the Neva
113
For the umpteenth time the journalists bent over to exam-
ine the design, and marvelled at its amazing beauty.
The design showed the houses along Nevsky Prospekt no
longer one right smack up against the other, forming a con-
tinuous stone wall. Some of the old buildings were still there,
but every other building had been taken down. In place of
the razed houses there were now marvellous green and fra-
grant oases. Birds were shown nesting in the many birches,
pines and cedars, and it seemed as though one could hear
their song just from looking at the drawing. The people sit-
ting on benches beneath shady trees were surrounded by
beautiful flower-beds as well as raspberry and currant bushes.
These green oases jutted out a little into the street, and the
Nevsky no longer looked like a stone trench, but a splendid
living green allee.
The building facades had a multitude of mirrors built into
them. The thousands of splashes of sunlight reflected in the
mirrors played with the passers-by, caressed the petals of the
flowers and played in the streams of the little fountains set up
in each green oasis. People were shown drinking water along
with the splashes of sunlight and smiling...
‘Anastasia,” I asked, “did the boy ever show up again?”
“What boy?”
“You know, the one who kept pestering the editors with his
question.”
“The ‘boy’ was gone for good. He became a great architect.
Together with his like-minded chums he created splendid cit-
ies of the future. Cities and villages, in which happy people
began to live. But his first marvellous creation was the city he
designed on the Neva.”
II A
Book 5 : Who Are We?
‘Anastasia, in what year will Russia’s marvellous future appear?”
“You can determine the year for yourself, Vladimir.”
“What d’you mean, for myself? Is time subject to Man ’s will?”
“What Man does in his time is definitely subject to his will.
Everything created by a dream already exists in space. The
dreams of many human souls — your readers — will turn the
Divine dream into material reality What you have seen may
come about in three hundred years, or it could come right
now, this instant.”
“Right this instant? But you can’t build a house in an in-
stant, and a garden won’t grow up even in a year.”
“But if you, right where you are living at the moment, even
if it is just a tiny flat, plant a seed in a little clay pot of earth,
from which may grow a shoot of a family tree, this tree will
eventually grow to maturity in your future family domain...”
“You yourself are talking about what will be — that’s not
the same thing as right now. In other words, a dream cannot
materialise itself in a single instant.”
“What do you mean, it cannot? After all, that material seed
you plant — that is precisely the beginning of the dream’s
coming true. The shoot interacts with the whole Universe, it
materialises your dream, and you will be enfolded by splendid
bright energies, you will stand before the Father as the em-
bodiment of His dream.”
“Interesting, indeed. That means we should get started,
right away?”
“Of course.”
“Only where can I find the right words to get people to
understand?!”
“The words will be found if you can be sincere and true to
yourself in front of people.”
“I don’t know how, but I shall act. Your dream has sparked
something in my soul, Anastasia. And I very much want to
make the future I have seen come true.”
Chapter Fifteen
come true
First of all I had to determine whether there were any people
willing to get involved in the building of an eco-community
and then to work in it. I asked the Anastasia Foundation
for Culture and Assistance to Creativity based in Vladimir, 1
to circulate information on the building of an eco-village ac-
cording to Anastasia’s design. A scant two months later, one
hundred and thirty-nine people had responded, declaring
their interest in building the future community — including
Russians who had emigrated abroad. Once this book is out,
telling about the future of Russia and giving information on
Russians’ new lifestyle, that number may well rise a hundred
or a thousandfold, and be spread over a number of regions of
the country Hence the organisational work of building the
communities should be able to start in different regions at
the same time. In regard to this, the Anastasia Foundation,
which as an information clearing-house has reviewed the ex-
isting laws on the subject and suggested that any readers shar-
ing Anastasia’s views proceed as follows:
First: Start with your own region by organising a spearhead
group that could eventually be given legal status in accord
with prevailing legislation.
Some regions, possibly, already have readers’ clubs or com-
munity organisations bringing Anastasia’s readers together,
1 Vladimir — here referring to the name of the city of Vladimir (see foot-
note i in Chapter 6: “A garden for eternity”).
ii 6
Book 5: Who Are We?
which could get the project off the ground there. But if you
don’t happen to know of anything like that in your region,
you can get in touch with the Anastasia Foundation, which
receives a lot of correspondence on this and can provide you
with addresses. Overall, I have a lot of faith in entrepreneurs.
They have more experience in organisational matters and so,
even if community organisations are already set up in some ar-
eas, you should still try and get in touch with entrepreneurs.
You should appoint an authorised representative, at least
temporarily or on a trial basis — someone who can act on
your behalf in dealing with the authorities (submitting appli-
cations for land allotments, calling meetings when required,
etc.). Provide a small honorarium for your chairperson. The
representative’s role can be filled either by an actual person or
a corporate body.
In the latter case you might want to appoint, for example, a
well-known construction company, which could subsequently
enjoy priority rights in the awarding of contracts for erecting
single-family houses, as well as infrastructure buildings. Such
a major contract will be extremely profitable for the construc-
tion company, and so it may agree to take on the job of apply-
ing for land-use permits and compiling budget estimates.
Second: Submit a formal application to your region’s local
public authorities — and directly to the official at the top —
for a single allotment of land with an area of no less than 150
hectares. The size of the allotment will depend on how many
interested participants you have, as well as what kind of local
resources are available.
You will need to consider that in the future your community
will be home to quite a few families, and so it should include a
school, club and medical facility, and these are best supported
by a significant number of people. Small communities may
not be in a position to create the required infrastructure.
Making it come true
117
Third: In applying for an allotment, you should contact
land surveyors, architects and builders to draft blueprints for
the settlement. Another important reason for this is that you
will need to find out the depth of the water table under the
allotment, with a view to drilling wells to supply each house
with running water, to determine what depth house foun-
dations should be as well as the feasibility of constructing a
small pond in each domain. Drawing up a good overall plan
for the community is also important in determining the loca-
tion of the future school and play areas, as well as where the
access roads should go.
The Anastasia Foundation has already commissioned com-
petent specialists to work out a model plan, and if it is com-
pleted before you launch your spearhead group, you can con-
sult with the Foundation — it will cost you less. But then you
will have to adapt the model to your own locale, introduce
your own modifications and share them with other spearhead
groups. Successful proposals which have the greatest appeal
will be adopted by other groups, and eventually we shall joint-
ly put together a master design.
Fourth: After completing the design tor the settlement —
and this is something not only specialists but also future resi-
dents can participate in — you will receive a detailed set of
schematics, including an overall plan highlighting the indi-
vidual plots of at least one hectare each. Every participant
should be formally assigned a plot of land, perhaps by draw-
ing straws. Land use entitlement should be formalised with
an appropriate legal document, drawn up in the name of the
individual owner rather than the organisation, as was the case
in the Auroville community in India.
And so here you are standing on your own plot, on your very
own hectare of land. This is your kin’s domain, the place
Book 5: Who Are We?
118
where your descendants will be born and will live. They will
fondly remember its founder, their family patriarch, and they
may even rebuke him for certain mistakes in planning out the
place.
Right at the moment the design of everything to be situ-
ated on the assigned plot is completely up to you. Where will
you place your family tree — an oak or cedar, for example —
which will keep on growing for as long as 550 years, and may-
be looked upon by the ninth generation of your descendants
as they remember you?
Where will you decide to dig a pond, plant an orchard and
a small grove of woodland trees, build your house and set up
your flower beds? What kind of living fence will you create
around the perimeter of your kin’s domain? Maybe the one
Anastasia described, or maybe it will come out even more
fanciful and functional than the one depicted in my previous
book. It can be started even now, even before you get the of-
ficial documents, even before a spearhead group is organised
among the people who share your vision. You can start the
building process in your thoughts, pondering what will go in
each corner of your future kin’s domain.
You should remember that the house you build, even one
of fairly solid construction, will last about a hundred years and
then fall into disrepair. The living structures you set up, on
the other hand, will only become better and stronger, thriving
more and more as the ages pass. They will convey your living
thoughts to your descendants for centuries, and perhaps even
for millennia to come.
You can start building right away, and not just in your
thoughts. Even now you can plant the seeds of your future
majestic family trees in a clay pot on the windowsill. Of
course you can also buy grown saplings ready for transplant
at a specialised nursery or dig up young shoots in the forest
without damaging the growth around,, especially in places
Making it come true
J19
where the forest growth needs thinning out. That is possible,
of course, but I think Anastasia is correct here — it’s better
to grow the sapling on your own, especially when it comes to
your future family tree. A sapling from a commercial nursery
is like a baby from an orphanage. Besides, you need to grow
not only one sapling, but several different ones. Amd before
planting the seed in the pot of earth, you need to infuse the
little seed with information about yourself.
I realise that support on a national level may be needed to
overcome bureaucratic obstacles in certain regions. Or if not
support, then at least an absence of opposition. Appropriate
changes in legislative policies are required.
Instead of waiting around idly for this to happen all by it-
self, waiting for at least one of our existing political bodies to
mature into a state where it will support such a project, the
Anastasia Foundation, at my request, has worked out a draft
constitution for a new political party, a party of land-users.
This germinating social movement has been called Co-creation
(Sotvorenie) . Its platform, which still has to be discussed and
finalised, comes down to one central theme (as I see it): The
state should grant to every 'willing family one hectare of land for life-
time use, for the purpose of establishing their own family domain.
This movement is still young, and nobody is really in con-
trol of it at the moment, but I think that in time we shall see
literate politicians coming on board who are capable of work-
ing out a relationship to the new movement on the level of
federal policy-making. For the time being the Co-creation
Party functions mainly as an information clearing-house. A
legal department will get started as soon as sufficient funds
become available. For now the party’s administrative affairs
are being handled by the Anastasia Foundation for Culture
and Assistance to Creativity
The regional spearhead groups set up to organise new com-
munities will be quite successful after they gain the support
120
Book 5: Who Are We?
of the local public authorities. This should happen once the
authorities see the substantive benefits which will accrue to
their region. And these can be pinpointed right now. They
do exist and they are indeed substantive. Try to get a discus-
sion of the project going in the local press and see if you can
get specialists — ecologists, economists and sociologists — to
weigh in on the specific influences the project will have on
your region.
In an effort to do my part to help — at least in some way —
in getting land allotted for the purpose of setting up kin’s do-
mains, I have decided to publish in this book an open letter to
the President of Russia.
Chapter Sixteen
To Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin,
President of the Russian Federation
From Vladimir Nikolaevich Megre,
Citizen of the Russian Federation
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich!
We live in a generation which must be very lucky indeed. We
have before us a real opportunity to begin building a pros-
perous, flourishing state thoroughly protected from exter-
nal aggressors, internal conflicts and crime. A state in which
happy families will live in prosperity. Our generation has the
opportunity of not only building a splendid country, but of
actually living in it, provided there is enough good will among
the legislative powers that be to grant to every willing family
one hectare of land for the purpose of establishing thereon its
own kin’s domain. This simple action will suffice to call forth
an impulse to creative endeavour on the part of the majority
of people at various levels of society
The land should be granted free of charge, for lifetime use,
with the right of inheritance. The produce grown on these
kin’s domains should not be subject to any form of taxation.
You will agree, Vladimir Vladimirovich, that an abnormal,
illogical state of affairs has now come about: every Russian is
supposed to have a Motherland, but nobody can show exactly
122
Book 5: Who Are We?
where his piece of this Motherland is. If every family receives
one and transforms it into a flourishing corner of Paradise,
Russia as a whole will become a magnificent land.
Current policies on national development do not inspire
people into creativity, since it is not clear where or to what
kind of future they are leading. The forging of a democratic,
economically developed state on the Western model has been
rejected — intuitively, perhaps — by the majority of the pop-
ulation. And I think this is all to the good. Common sense
makes us ask ourselves: Why should any of us in particular, or
we as a nation, waste our efforts on building a state which will
only be racked by drugs, prostitution and gangsterism? All
those things are part of Western society
We used to think that the so-called developed societies
enjoyed an abundance of food products, but now it is clear
that this abundance has been achieved at the expense of ap-
plying all sorts of chemical additives and poisonous chemicals
to the soil, as well as genetic engineering. We have seen that
imported food products have nowhere near the taste quality
of our own. In Germany, for example, people gladly buy pota-
toes brought in from Russia.
In a number of countries the government has become con-
cerned over this situation and mandated special labelling of
genetically modified produce. Scientists, too, are becoming
more and more concerned. America and Germany are among
those countries that have the highest per-capita cancer rates
in the world. Do we have to go down the same path?
I don’t think it is a path that inspires very many people. But
our country has come to tolerate the promotion of foreign
goods and the Western way of life. We have become resigned
to the appearance in our midst of more and more diseases,
to the fact that we can now drink water only out of bottles
we buy at the store and that the population of Russia is de-
creasing by 750,000 souls a year. It’s all just like in the West.
“They hadn’t been dug around — they were just growing there
amidst the grasses, they hadn’t been sprayed for insects, but these
old apple trees were bearing fruit, and their fruit showed no sign of
worm infestation.”
— Chapter 6: “A garden for eternity r
“In the distance I could see tall trees growing densely together.
They appeared to cover about a hectare of ground. This place
seemed simply like a green isle of forest, all surrounded by fields
and meadows.”
“Just imagine: there inside were ancient apple trees with gnarled
trunks, spreading their branches out into space. Branches literally
dripping with fruit.”
‘As we drew closer, I could see in amongst the dense grove of two-
hundred-year-old oak trees and bushes an entrance leading to a
woodland oasis inside.”
“Twenty-three Siberian cedars, planted... two hundred years ago,
still stood there all in a row, like soldiers protecting this splendid
orchard from freezing winds and harmful pests. There had been
more of them, but one by one they perished.”
“Last year that one of them began falling, but came to rest against the
top of the one next to it in the row I looked at the sharply leaning tree
trunk, whose top was intertwined with that of its neighbour. Their
branches had grown together, and the falling tree was still living.”
“Your descendants, my fine Russian fellow, are growing up in an-
other land, while in Russia, in your kin’s domain, the leaves of the
trees in your orchard are rustling in the breeze, and every year your
old apple trees are bringing forth fruit — no doubt in the hope that
your descendants will return to taste the best apples in the whole
wide world. Yet your descendants are still not coming.”
Vladimir Megre arriving at the Ringing Cedars of Russia movement
conference held in the city ofVladimir on j June 2004.
The photo above and all apple-orchard photos © 2004 by Alexey
Kondaurov, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Used by permission.
Vladimir Megre
addressing the
audience at the
Ringing Cedars
of Russia move-
ment confer-
ence held in the
city of Vladimir
on 5 June 2004.
Photo © 2004
Anastasia Foun-
dation.
The confer-
ence brought
together over
400 delegates
from 150 eco-
villages from all
over Russia and
beyond.
Photo © 2004
Anastasia Foun-
dation.
The city of
Vladimir’sdown-
town still har-
bours hundreds
of private ho mes
surrounded by
vegetable and
fruit gardens.
Photo © 2006
by Leonid Shar-
ashkin.
Above: Two birds by Andrey and Natalia Patokin, © 2006 Leonid
Sharashkin. This watercolour was inspired by Andrey and Natalia’s
trip to the dolmens and the reading of Vladimir Megre’s Co-creation.
True to Anastasia’s promise, books in the Ringing Cedars Series
have produced a powerful creative outburst on the part of the read-
ers. Thousands of people started to write poetry, compose songs,
make paintings as well as changed their lifestyle and proceeded to
designing and establishing their kin’s domains.
Open letter to the President
123
After all, the birthrate has fallen in highly developed countries
too. We are trying our hardest to be like them. But I have
been hearing from people who live in these countries, hear-
ing about their hopes — their hopes that Russia is searching
for and will inevitably find its own path of development, and
show the whole world a happier way of life.
Mr President, you, no doubt, have received various pro-
posals for the future development of our country If this new
proposal appears questionable in comparison with others you
have seen, I would ask you to test it on an experimental basis
in regions where the respective governors can discern in it a
grain of common sense.
You will find further details of this proposal in the series of
books entitled The Ringing Cedars of Russia, of which I happen
to be the author. I would not imagine that you have had the
time to read them personally, caught up as you are in attend-
ing to a flood of affairs of state. Still, there are certain appro-
priate administrative bodies vchich are aware of these books
and have already rendered their verdict.
They conclude that these books have engendered a new re-
ligion in Russia, which is “spreading like wildfire” — an opin-
ion that is also being circulated in the press in .3 number or
publications. Their conclusion came as a complete surprise
to me. While I have expressed my feelings about God in these
books, I never thought of creating any kind of new religion.
I simply wrote books about an extraordinary and beautiful
recluse living in the Siberian taiga and the fervent dream she
entertains about what is splendid and beautiful in life.
One could say that the enthusiastic reaction on the part
of people of different social backgrounds and the popularity
of these books both in Russia and abroad bear some resem-
blance to a religious phenomenon. But I think this is quite a
different story here. The ideas, philosophy and topical aware-
ness of this Siberian recluse, not to mention the language in
124 Book 5: Who Are We?
which she expresses herself, have all deeply stirred people’s
hearts.
It will probably be quite a while before scientists reach a
unanimous conclusion on who Anastasia is and what is the
full significance of the books containing her sayings, or how
one should interpret the public reaction to them. Let them
keep on trying to figure it out. I am only concerned lest their
theoretical analyses overshadow the concrete proposals made
by Anastasia.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, so that you may be personally per-
suaded of the effectiveness of Anastasia’s proposals regarding
the land, I invite you to authorise an experiment, regardless
ofwho either Anastasia or Vladimir Megre maybe, which will
put some of her less significant statements to the test.
First: I suggest that your public officials will not be unduly
burdened if asked to commission an appropriate scientific re-
search institute to do a simple analysis of the effectiveness of
Anastasia’s proposal on cleansing the air in major cities from
harmful dust pollution. The gist of this proposal was set forth
back in my first book . 1
Second: I recommend you authorise an analysis of Siberian
cedar nut oil as a general remedial agent. Both data from an-
cient sources and modern research by scientists at the Uni-
versity of Tomsk 2 confirm Anastasia’s statement that this
natural product, provided it is obtained through a specific
technological method, is one of the most effective remedies
in the world for the cure of a broad range of diseases. You will
not find anywhere else on the globe a vaster array of plantings
than in Siberia, which is home to the nut-bearing cedar.
’See Book 1, Chapter 17: “The brain — a supercomputer”.
' Tomsk — a city of a half-million residents in southwest Siberia, founded
during the reign of Tsar Boris Godunov in 1604. The university was estab-
lished in 1880.
Open letter to the President
125
The Russian federal budget could realise substantial prof-
its from putting this product on the international market, as
well as from its use within our own country. We need to have
a state policy on the exploitation of Siberian flora. A policy
aimed not at the establishment of large-scale industrial enter-
prises but at the unfolding of a network of small businesses
involving people actually living in the remote regions of Si-
beria. The implementation of such a policy does not require
a huge outlay of capital, only a legislative decision allowing
the local residents to acquire land in the taiga on a long-term
lease basis.
Moreover, Vladimir Vladimirovich, life inevitably con-
firms even the statements of Anastasia’s that seem less plau-
sible at first glance. Personally, I am absolutely convinced of
our country’s splendid future. It is only a question of whether
those living today will accelerate its coming or slow it down.
I sincerely wish you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, along with all
of us alive today, the opportunity of being the creators of this
splendid future!
Respectfully
Vladimir Megre
C H AFTER S E V E N T E E N
Anastasia’s design intrigued me. I wanted to think and talk
about it on a daily basis. I wanted to stand up for it at all
costs, defend it against ridicule and dispel the doubts of the
sceptics. I talked about it at the readers’ conferences held
in the city of Gelendzhik 1 and at the Central Letters Club 2
in Moscow. The majority of the participants at these confer-
ences (there were more than two thousand in all, hailing from
various countries of the Commonwealth of Independent
States , 3 as well as from further afield) either supported this
design or at least expressed an interest. But in this chapter
I shall reproduce some of the basic questions and comments
by the doubters, along with my responses to them, based on
Anastasia’s statements and my own convictions, as well as in-
formation I have managed to glean from other sources.
Question. In today’s world no nation’s economy can sur-
vive independent of the global economic system. Today’s
1 Gelendzhik — see footnote 2 in Book 1, Chapter 30: ‘Author’s message to
readers”. On one of the readers’ conferences in Gelendzhik, see Book 4,
Chapter 34: “Anomalies at Gelendzhik”.
'Central Letters Club — in Russian: Tsentral’nyi Dorn litemtorov (literally: Cen-
tral House of Literati).
3 Commonwealth of Independent States — an organisation of countries com-
prising most of the former members of the Soviet Union. It was formally
launched at a conference in Alma-Ata (Kazakhstan) on 21 December 1991,
following the official dissolution of the USSR at a conference in Minsk (Be-
larus) earlier the same month.
Questions and answers
I2J
economic processes point to the need to create large indus-
trial structures, the need for specialised knowledge of today’s
markets and how they are set up, as well as the major direc-
tions of capital flow. It does not appear that you have training
in economics. Your proposal involves emphasising small-scale
commodity production, which may take away from more im-
portant things and ruin the national economy
Answer. It is true that I have had no training in economics.
But as to your point that large conglomerates are of prime
importance to the nation’s economy, I am in complete agree-
ment with you. I think you will also agree that a large factory,
say, is economically viable for the nation only when it oper-
ates to produce goods in high demand. When a large enter-
prise shuts down — and such cases are not infrequent in our
country, or in others — it inevitably means losses.
The state is obliged to pay workers unemployment bene-
fits. Hundreds of thousands are forced to eke out a wretched
existence on the strength of this paltry allowance. They don’t
know what to do, they’re so used to relying on their produc-
tion-line job to feed themselves and their families. Given
these conditions, they could make better use of their new free
time working intensively on their own plots of land.
One’s family domain is not just to provide a home base to
spend one’s leisure time in. It can also se we as a profitable work-
place, more profitable, even, than in many enterprises, even ma-
jor ones. In terms of the larger picture — on the national level,
that is — the state may be seen as not only made up of industrial
and financial conglomerates, both large and small, but its very
building-blocks consist precisely of these family nuclei.
For any family the domain can serve as a home base — an
insurance policy against any possible form of nationwide eco-
nomic disaster. I don’t see anything wrong with each family
being offered the opportunity to provide independently for
its own poverty-free existence.
128
Book 5: Who Are Wf.?
I also believe that personal freedom is impossible with-
out economic freedom. A working family, even one living in
a modern city apartment, cannot be free, dependent as it is
on an employer who determines one’s salary, on utility com-
panies with the power to supply or withhold heat, water and
electricity, on the availability or groceries and on the prices of
food products and consumer services. The family is slave to
all of these, and the children in such a family are born into a
slave mentality.
Question. Russia is an industrially developed country and a
mighty nuclear power. And only as such will it be able to guar-
antee the security of its citizens. If all its residents do noth-
ing but work the land, the country will be transformed into
a purely agrarian state and thus become defenceless against
external aggressors.
Answer I don’t think everybody’s necessarily going to agree
to work on their plots of land right off the bat. It’ll be a gradu-
al process, and the situation will unfold naturally, in an orderly
manner. National power depends not only on possessing a
sufficient number of nuclear warheads, but also on the overall
economic state of affairs, including sufficiency and quality of
food products. And when a state does not have sufficient food
production to feed its people, it is then obliged to sell off not
only its natural resources but its armaments as well, thereby
strengthening the position of any potential aggressor.
The proposed design has the power to strengthen the
economic position of the state as a whole, and as such offers
the opportunity not only for more effective scientific and in-
dustrial development but also a more efficient combat-ready
army.
In the near future, however, when this way of life has been
adopted on a massive scale, I think — indeed, I am quite con-
vinced — - that it will provoke considerable interest among
Questions and answers
129
many citizens of other countries, including countries we don’t
currently get along with. And people in those nations too will
want to reshape their lifestyle the same way many Russians
have done. The adoption of this design in a variety of coun-
tries will signal the start of a whole new era of peaceful co-
existence among peoples.
Question. The implementation of the proposal is feasible,
of course, in the more trouble-free regions of Russia. But isn’t
it naive to think of implementing it in an inherently crime-
prone republic such as Chechnya ? 4
Answer. A significant lowering of social tensions, especially
in the so-called ‘hot spots’, along with complete cessation
of conflict through the help of the proposed project I see as
something not only not naive, but absolutely realistic. If you
take the northern Caucasus, for example, and its most trou-
bled region, Chechnya, it has recently become clear (and this
has been reported in the press) that the basic conflict is cen-
tred around the struggle of a small group of people for control
of the republic’s oil reserves, as well as for money and power.
This situation is typical of most of the ‘hot spots’ today — in-
deed, of most of the conflicts the world has known through-
out the ages. That still leaves the question of why such a large
part of the population, especially men, has been drawn into
the Chechen conflict.
4 Chechnya (pronounced chich-NTAH) — a small, predominantly Muslim
republic of about 800,000 people in the Northern Caucasus area of the
Russian Federation. With its capital at Grozny, Chechnya is situated to
the north of Georgia (a former Soviet republic, now an independent coun-
try). Chechnya was forcibly annexed by the Russian Empire in 1859, and
throughout history, a part of the Chechen population has fiercely resisted
Russian rule. The Chechens’ striving for independence has been con-
stantly suppressed by the Russian Federation, and in the mid-1990s this led
to a military conflict which has not been settled to the present day (mid-
2006).
130
Book 5: Who Are We?
Chechnya used to have hundreds of illegal oil-refining op-
erations, belonging to a small group of people. Tens of thou-
sands of people from among the local population worked in
these enterprises. When the government tried to restore
law and order these people lost their jobs, leaving their fami-
lies without any means of support. The principal aim of this
class of people in joining the militants was to try and protect
their jobs and the welfare of their families, minimal though
it was. Besides, their participation in the rebel forces wasn’t
exactly volunteer work — they ended up earning quite a bit
more than the unemployment benefit they had been getting.
Consequently, for the majority of the ordinary fighters, tak-
ing part in the armed gangs was simply a job — no different
from being a policeman or a Russian army officer, only better
paid. As a result, many of these foot-soldiers don’t see much
in the way of hope for their families’ welfare if military opera-
tions were to cease.
How can we possibly do away with unemployment in Chech-
nya if we can’t completely do away with it in even a single re-
gion closer to home, especially one that is comparatively well
off? Let’s say the Government pours colossal resources into
Chechnya and starts setting up all sorts of enterprises there to
guarantee a job for everybody who wants one. But then an-
other problem arises — the size of the pay packet offered. Say
you offer a special raise for the Chechen population, then all
of Russia will be working to support the Chechens, since the
only way the raise can be implemented is on the backs of the
Russian taxpayers as a whole. Even then, not all the money
will reach its intended target, since the problem of getting al-
located funds through to those who actually need them has not
been resolved. In sum, we’d be faced with the same situation
we have today, only with a significant increase in expenditures.
The Chechen Republic is a region favourable to agricultural
production. Now let’s suppose a law granting land for family
Questions and answers 13 1
domains is already in effect. Suppose that the state is able
to protect these family domains from any kind of encroach-
ment. So a Chechen family receives land for its kin’s domain
where everything they produce belongs exclusively to them
and their future descendants, guaranteeing them a poverty-
free existence and a life not ruled by bombs, and not as out-
laws, but in their own splendid corner of the Earth — a piece
of their Motherland which they have established themselves.
I am certain that such a family will not oppose a government
which has given them an opportunity like that — ■ on the con-
trary, they will defend such jj government more zealously than
they now oppose it. They will defend such a government as
passionately as they would defend their family nest. T hey will
counter any attempt by agitators to separate Chechnya from
such a government, or any attempt at racial discrimination.
I am convinced that if the government launched a cam-
paign on a sufficiently large scale, introducing settlements
like that into Chechen territory, even on an experimental ba-
sis, the ‘hot spot’ we call Chechnya will be transformed into
not only one of the most stable regions of Russia, but one of
the major centres of spirituality on the Earth. We shall see
a complete hundre d-anci-eighty-degr ee turn. When Anasta-
sia spoke of ways to eliminate crime, I too had a hard time
believing what she said. But eventually, life inevitably kept
bearing out the truth of her words. And as far as the Chechen
Republic is concerned...
At the readers’ conference in Gelendzhik there were more
than a thousand people from all parts of Russia and the Com-
monwealth of Independent States. I was especially struck by the
fact that a delegation had come from Chechnya. Nobody had
invited them specially to the conference; the Chechens came all
on their own. Later I spoke with several of them personally
At the moment we are talking about Chechnya, but are
other parts of our country free of crime? It's there all right,
132
Book 5: Who Are We?
and in just about every form you can imagine. One of the
causes of crime is unemployment, and the fact that people
are released from prison with no opportunity to rebuild their
lives in our society. Anastasia’s project is capable of solving
this problem.
Question. If you give a hectare of land to everybody in Rus-
sia who wants one, there won't be enough land to go round.
Especially for the rising generation.
Answer. At the present time we are faced with a question
even more acute — namely that there are not enough people
to work the land. And I’m not talking just about wasteland
and land unsuitable for farming, but arable land as well. As to
the rising generation, it is unfortunately the case that every
year more Russians are dying than are being born. According
to Goskomstat (the government statistics agency), the Rus-
sian population is showing an annual attrition rate of 750,000
people. So the current concern is over whether there will be
a rising generation at all.
At first I too was under the misconception that a family, or
even a single person, living, let’s say, in a flat in a five-storey
apartment block, takes up less land than a family or person
with a private house and a garden plot. But, as it turns out, it’s
not that way at all. Any person, no matter what floor he lives
on, consumes as food all sorts of things that grow on the land.
To get those growing things delivered to him, roads, trucks,
warehouses and stores are required, and all of these take up
land-space too. So at any given moment every individual is
being supported by his own plot of land. It supports him re-
gardless of whether the individual has abandoned it or even
thinks about it at all.
Naturally I wasn’t able to give a full answer to this question
right off, as I didn’t have immediate access to all the figures,
but I looked them up later and can now include them here.
Questions and answers
03
Russia’s land: The total land mass of the Russian Federation
comprises nearly 1,710 million hectares, of which only 667.7
million hectares are fit for agricultural production. Figures
for the beginning of 1996 show 222 million hectares used for
farming at the time, or 13% of Russia’s total land resources.
Of these, 130.2 million hectares (7.6% of the total) were clas-
sified as arable land.
At the present time Russia’s population comprises 147 mil-
lion people. Hence the ‘problem’ of allocating a hectare of
land to any family wishing to have one simply doesn’t exist, ac-
cording to the statistics. Moreover, the real problem is quite
the opposite: the population of our country is shrinking dras-
tically And here’s what the analysts have to say in regard to
the general state of the Russian population: if current trends
continue, between 2000 and 2045 the number of children un-
der 15 years of age will be cut in half, while the number of sen-
ior citizens will increase by 50%. The capacity of the popula-
tion to reproduce itself will be pretty much exhausted.
Oh yes, and one more problem: the quality of the arable
lands of our country
Large areas of the nation are witnessing topsoil erosion.
Specialists are or the opinion that these processes have already
reached a critical stage at the regional and inter-regional lev-
els. In all of Russia’s agricultural zones erosion (or the threat
of erosion) has affected 117 million hectares (or 63% of all ag-
ricultural lands). Over the last 50 years the rate of erosion has
increased by a factor of 30; the rise has been especially steep
since the onset of the 1990s. According to the UN’s Food and
Agricultural Organisation (FAO) experts, Russia is among the
top ten countries of the world in terms of erosion rates, and
by 2002 erosion will affect as much as 75% of our farmland. I
could go on and cite even more detailed statistics about our
country’s land — they’re all pretty miserable. I shall include
them at the end of this book.
134
Book 5: Who Are We?
Now, after becoming familiar with the statistics cited above,
I can confidently state that Anastasia’s project is capable of
stopping the drunken orgy our nation is indulging in with its
land resources. To this day it is the only effective and feasible
project in existence. It envisages the restoration of the soil’s
fertility through natural processes. It does not require addi-
tional capital outlays on the government’s pant, and yet with
one fell swoop solves the problems of ecology, refugees and
unemployment, and completely eliminates the problems we
today are creating for our children by our attitude to the land.
Perhaps there is somewhere in Nature a more effective and
feasible project. In that case, let it be brought forward. At
the moment, all some agencies are doing is demanding more
money for the restoration of agricultural production by out-
moded means. The government does not have the money they
require. But the saddest scenario would be for such plans to
be realised by borrowing money abroad and having chemical
fertilisers poked into the soil to its further detriment, since
we do not have sufficient quantities of manure to go round.
That money will have to be repaid with interest, the condi-
tion of the land will deteriorate even further, and the whole
problem will fall on the shoulders cf the rising generation. I
shall do all I can to promote Anastasia’s project. Of course,
government officials will hardly accept a recluse from the
taiga as an authority, and I am no specialist in agriculture, and
so it will be a challenge for me to prove its effectiveness be-
fore our worldy-wise politicos, but nevertheless I shall keep
on trying with all the means at my disposal.
I will be most grateful to those readers who are familiar
with the intrigues of the workings of our government if they
can explain in a more professional language the effective-
ness of Anastasia’s project to our high-ranking government
officials. Perhaps this book will find its way, too, into the
hands of government agencies empowered to undertake such
Questions and answers
i35
measures, and so I am appealing to them once more with a
declaration on behalf of all willing participants. I don’t know
how many willing participants there are, but I am certain that
their numbers are in the millions. On their behalf I make the
following request, namely, that the Russian government...
...settle the land question on a legislative basis and grant each willing
family in our nation one hectare of land free of charge, affording the
opportunity to each willing family to establish its own kins domain,
dignify it and lovingly care for its own piece of the Motherland . ,
thereby making the Motherland as a whole beautiful and happy —
the Motherland, after all. consists of little pieces.
Question. In many regions of our country the ecological
situation is extremely complex. One could even call it dis-
astrous today. Wouldn’t it be better to first direct our efforts
toward the improvement of ecological conditions in gener-
al — as many ecological organisations are doing at the mo-
ment — before turning our attention to individual domains?
Answer You yourself say that there are a lot of organisa-
tions focusing on the ecological situation, but it is getting
worse. Doesn’t this mean that simply focusing attention on it
is not enough here, since the situation is continuing to dete-
riorate and even reaching disastrous proportions?
Let us imagine a beautiful garden, with all different kinds
of trees growing in just one splendidly laid out domain, just
one little corner of Paradise! Only one hectare in size. Of
course that’s not sufficient for a global change, either for a
country or the planet. But now let us imagine a million of
such little corners and we shall see the whole Earth as a flour-
ishing garden of Paradise. But still, it is up to each one of us in
particular to start by setting up our own little corner. Perhaps
then we shall be able to go from being totally focused on the
subject to being totally involved m concrete actions.
136
Book 5: Who Are We?
Question. Do you believe that an unemployed family can
get rich with the help of a single hectare of their own land?
If you believe that, then tell me why today’s rural areas are at
a standstill? People in these rural areas have land but they’re
still going hungry
Answer Let’s consider this phenomenon together, but first
I want to add a few more questions to the one you asked.
Why do millions of people say that for them four or five
hundred square metres of a dacha plot has been a significant
help to them in financial terms, significantly increasing the
amount of food available to them, and yet rural residents
with 1500 to 2500 square metres call themselves poor and
starving?
Why? In addition to other factors, doesn’t the state of our
well-being also depend on our level of conscious awareness?
The majority of the rural population thinks that you can have
a good life only in the cities, and that’s why you’ve got so many
young people leaving the rural areas altogether.
I think our own recent propaganda is at least partially to
blame. I’m sure you remember those glowing articles in the
Soviet press in the fifties and sixties — who were the heroes
back then? Miners, lumberjacks, machine operators, aero-
plane pilots, sailors...
Even paintings of cityscapes invariably featured a host of
smoking chimneys from industrial giants. There was occa-
sionally a condescending reference to the collective farmer,
but a Man tending his own garden plot was always negatively
portrayed. They even tried building city-type apartment
blocks in rural areas, thereby depriving people of their own
back yard and made them work only on so-called communal
land. Just as with the Auroville community in India — you
could live on the land and cultivate it, but you still couldn’t
have any land to call your own — all of which leads to some
pretty sad results.
Questions and answers
x 37
You hear constant talk from both politicians and the media
of the widespread poverty in the Russian countryside today,
just as in the majority of the population at large. There’s so
much talk about it that everybody en masse ends up convinced
that if you live in the countryside you must be poor. There
are hardly any examples cited indicating that your well-being
largely depends on you.
It must be in somebody’s interests to keep rehearsing the
scenario: Don’t rely on yourself — I am the only one that can make
you happy. That’s what you hear from a lot of religious leaders,
as well as a lot of politicians gathering their own circle of vot-
ers around them. If you want to be poor and destitute, you
can go right on believing them. I want to talk about not how
to be poor, but how to be rich. When someone asks me if it is
possible to live above the poverty line with one’s own parcel
of land, I answer: Yes! And here’s a concrete example.
In 1999 an acquaintance of mine, a Moscow entrepreneur
who had read Anastasia, invited me over for a visit. He in-
trigued me when he said that he could prepare a table almost
identical to the one Anastasia had set before me in the taiga.
When I arrived, his dining table was still empty We sat down
and chatted, and Audrey (that was the entrepreneur’s: name)
kept looking at the clock, apologising for someone he was ex-
pecting being held up.
Before long his chauffeur arrived with two large baskets.
The table was soon spread with tomatoes, cucumbers, bread
and much else besides. The room was filled with tempting
aromas. In a few minutes the women in Andrey’s household
had laid out a splendid table. No Pepsi-cola to drink, but some
marvellous, fragrant Russian kvass? Instead of French cognac
there was home-made wine — on top of it all infused with
'’kvass — a fermented beverage made from rye, barley or other natural in-
gredients.
138
Book 5: Who. Are We?
some sort of herbs. The tomatoes and cucumbers were not as
splendid as the ones Anastasia had in the taiga, but they were
far tastier than what you could get at the supermarket or even
at farmers’ markets.
“Where did you get all this from?” I asked Audrey in aston-
ishment, and this is what he told me.
At some point on their way back to Moscow from Riazan, 6
Andrey’s chauffeur had stopped the jeep at a small roadside
market. They bought a litre-jar of picldes and a jar of toma-
toes. Turning in to a small cafe, they decided to have a decent
meal. They opened the jars they had bought and took a taste.
After lunch Andrey told his driver to turn around and go
back to the roadside market. He bought from the elderly
woman behind the table everything she had, and offered to
give her a ride home in his jeep. The woman lived all alone
in a rather old-looking cottage with a small vegetable garden.
Her lot was situated in a wee village about fifteen kilometres
from the main road. Andrey’s enterprising mind was already
working quickly and here is how things unfolded.
Andrey purchased a house in the country with 2000 square
metres of land, on the edge of a forest, about 120 kilometres
from .Moscow in an ecologically clean zone. Ke registered
the house in the name of this woman, presented her with the
documents and a contract obligating him to pay her a month-
ly amount of 300 US dollars, while the woman in turn was
to give the produce from her garden to his family, except for
what she ate herself.
The woman’s name was Nadezhda Ivanovna,' she was 61
years old. And she really didn’t understand documents or
believe in them. Then Andrey took her to the local rural
b Ritizan — a city (whose history dates back to the late nth century) on the
Oka River about 200 km south-east of Moscow, with a population of slight-
ly more than a half million.
Questions and answers
139
council and asked the chairman to read her the documents
and assure her that they were in order from a legal standpoint.
The rural council chairman read over the documents and said
to the woman:
“What have you got to lose, Ivanna? Nobody’s asking you
to give up that tumble-down hut of yours. So if you don’t like
it, you can always come back.” Nadezhda Ivanovna was fi-
nally persuaded to accept the offer.
For the past three years she’s been living in a well-built
house. Audrey hired workers to dig her a well and put in a
heating system with a hot water furnace. They also dug and
outfitted a vegetable cellar. They put a fence around the
whole property, brought in all the furnishings she needed,
along with a goat, some chickens and animal feed. As well as
a lot of other things needed to set up a home.
Nadezhda Ivanovna’s daughter and wee granddaughter
came to live with her. Since Audrey has read what Anastasia
had to say about vegetable-growing, he cultivates seedlings
himself, but only with seeds he obtained from Nadezhda
Ivanovna. Each summer Andrey’s father, a retired restaurant
manager, takes the seedlings out to her home and gladly helps
the women with the garden work.
This arrangement has provided both Nadezhda Ivanovna
and her daughter with work and a place to live. Andrey and
his family (his wife, their two children and his father) are sup-
plied all summer long with fresh fruits and vegetables which
are really eco-clean, along with marvellous marinated pro-
duce during the winter. And all year long they have access to
health-giving herbs whenever they need them.
' Ivanovna (pron. ee-VAHN-av-na) — a patronymic derived from her father’s
name Ivan (not a surname). In informal circumstances older people can
be addressed by the patronymic alone, and the full form Ivanovna is nearly
always shortened to something like Ivanna.
140
Book 5: Who Are We?
Maybe somebody will say that the example I have cited
is an exception. Nothing of the sort! Ten years back, when
I was president of the Interregional Association of Siberian
Entrepreneurs, many of its members tried to set up their own
household plots, either for their companies or just for their
families. Today you can find such services advertised in the
papers. Only there is one but — it is very hard to find any ca-
pable workers, or rather, anyone who is competent to do what
Nadezhda Ivanovna did. And since such people are so hard
to find, let’s recall for ourselves what attitude we should culti-
vate toward the land. Let’s share our experiences of how to be
rich and happy on our own land, and not how to be poor.
Question. Vladimir Nikolaevich, I’m an entrepreneur. I too
happen to know that many well-off people use the services
of rural residents who are experts at cultivating and preserv-
ing agricultural produce, which is definitely superior in taste
quality to what comes out of large-scale enterprises. But if
everybody follows the same path, that will mean a saturation
or the market, and then how is a family going to survive on
income just from its own hectare of land, if it turns out that
nobody needs the tomatoes and cucumbers they grow?
Answer. The land yields not just tomatoes and cucum-
bers, but much more besides. However, even if half the to-
tal number of Russian families have their own domains, they
still won’t be able to satisfy the demand for their produce
over the next twenty to thirty years, since the demand wall
come not just from Russians but from many people abroad,
especially in the rich, developed countries. The reason is that
agricultural producers in most countries have got so caught
up in the business of artificial selection and chemical treat-
ment of crops that the original form of these crops has simply
got lost — and I’m not just referring to how they look but to
the fulness of their content. The example of cucumbers and
Questions and answers
141
tomatoes, though, gives everyone a chance to be convinced
independently of the following:
Go into any average supermarket — or, better still, into an
up-scale supermarket (there are quite a few these days in our
big cities) — and you will see very beautiful imported toma-
toes and cucumbers, priced from 30 roubles 8 per kilogram.
They are uniform in size and a treat for the eyes, and some-
times they re sold with the little green stems left on. But
there’s no aroma and no taste. They’re mutants! They’re an
illusion, a mock-up, only an external reminder of what ought
to be there. Most of the world today feeds on such mutants.
This is not my discovery — it’s something people are con-
cerned about in many of what we call the developed countries
of the world.
A decree was passed in Germany, for example, mandating
product labelling to include information about the presence
of artificial additives, and people who can afford to are boy-
cotting these products. Products grown in eco-clean regions,
using only limited quantities of chemical fertiliser, cost a lot
dearer in the West. Only the current Western agricultural
system does not permit farmers to grow produce that is ec-
ologically clean through and through. Farmers in Western
countries are obliged to use not only hired labour but all sorts
of technology besides, including weed-destroying chemicals
and chemical fertilisers, in their efforts to maximise their
profit margins.
Let’s say a Western farmer, and there are some of these al-
ready, wants to grow eco-clean produce, and even take what
Anastasia said into account. You may remember she said
that it wasn’t necessary to destroy all the weeds, since they
R ,’o roubles — at the time this book was written, 30 roubles in Russia was
worth more than 4 US dollars in terms of buying power — a price far great-
er then that fetched by domestically grown produce.
IA2
Book 5: Who Are We?
too perform significant functions. But let’s say a farmer still
wants to grow this kind of produce, if only for his family and
friends. Right off he’s faced with a challenging problem: seeds.
Artificial selection has done its work — the original varieties
have long since disappeared in the West. And there are few of
them left even in Russia. Especially after imported seed stock
was allowed on the Russian market.
If people use their own seed stocks, the variety of vegeta-
bles will gradually see a restoration of their original proper-
ties — drawing from the soil everything needed by Man — but
a complete restoration will take decades. In Russia, possibly
thanks to both poverty and the abundance of small private
plots, many people are using their own seeds, and this turns
out to be their greatest asset, the effects of which will soon be
multiplied a hundredfold in monetary terms.
We’re talking about seeds, about the necessity of growing
crops in eco-clean zones and the avoidance of chemical ferti-
lisers — all this is very good, something they’re talking about
in a lot of countries... But that’s it — only talk. There’s still a
very real shortage of healthful and tasty agricultural produce
in the world, especially in the developed countries. But that’s
not all! The processing and preserving are of the utmost im-
portance.
In spite of all the efforts of our technocratic world, our
highly equipped technological complexes are unable to match
many Russian grandmothers in their production of marinated
tomatoes, cucumbers and cabbages of superior taste quality
What’s the secret? Apart from the many pearls of wisdom,
few people realise that once the tomatoes or cucumbers are
plucked from the beds they have been growing in, no more
than fifteen minutes should go by before they are sealed in
preserving jars. The shorter this period the better. This is
■what preserves the marvellous aroma, the ethers and the aura.
The same applies to the additives — dill, for example.
Questions and answers
H3
Water is extremely important. What good can we possi-
bly derive from using chlorinated, dead water? We can boil
it, steam the jars, but there are people who take spring water
and add huckleberries, among other things... Would you like
to try it yourselves? Just take a tumbler, fill it a third full of
huckleberries, then fill it up with spring water, and you will be
able to enjoy drinking this water even six months later.
You will also notice the strikingly distinctive, superior quality
of the fruits and vegetables preserved for the winter, one jar at a
time, by these many Russian ‘crackerjacks’. These products’ pre-
eminence in quality of taste over produce from even the most
well-known food companies in the world is something each one
of us can confirm for ourselves by simply comparing the two.
Now let’s say a family living in its domain has canned a
thousand litre-jars of tomatoes and cucumbers. The result
is first-class produce, surpassing all others in many respects.
In terms of taste quality and eco-clean production there is
none like it anywhere on the planet. This produce becomes a
highly desirable commodity for the tables of many consumers
in various countries of the world, including American billion-
aires and tourists at Cyprus’ famed hotel resorts. And it will
say on the labels: From Ivanovs domain , From Petrov's domain,
From- Sidorov’s domain, 1 ’ etc.
Of course entrepreneurs won’t be interested in selling just
a thousand litre-jars. But let’s say there are three hundred
family domains in a community, they would end up with three
hundred thousand jars, and that would get a major business
firm’s attention. I would imagine that initially a jar would
cost the same as one currently in the supermarket, some-
where around a dollar, but once people actually taste it, the
price will go up, maybe as much as dozens of times.
<5 Ivanov (pron. ee-va-NOFF), Petrov (pe-TROFF), Sidorov ( SEE-da-raff ) —
three common Russian surnames.
144
Book 5: Who Are We?
I mentioned cucumbers and tomatoes just as an example.
There’s a whole lot of things that a domain can produce —
for example, wines, liqueurs, sweet berry wines — from cur-
rants, raspberries, blackberries, sweet rowanberries — and
so much else besides. Each person can make up their own
‘bouquet’, improving it more and more as time goes on. And
no super-expensive elite wines will be able to compete with
them. There aren’t any wine-making materials anywhere in
the world like those you can get in Russia. Besides, wines can
be prepared using herbs according to ancient recipes, and can
be made healthful and vitamin-enriched.
Anastasia says that soon the hand-embroidered Russian
kosovorotka 10 will be considered the most fashionable garment
in the world. So this is another line to think along. During
the winter months families can prepare hand-made wood-
carvings.
It all comes down to the folk saying: If you want to be happy,
be it. You could also say: If you want to be rich, be it. The main
thing is: not to program yourself for poverty You should at-
tune your expectations to wealth. It makes a lot more sense
to think about how to become wealthy, and not to constantly
tell yourself it’s impossible.
Question. Anastasia maintains that it is a lot easier for young
couples to hold on to their love for each other in a domain
such as you describe than in a typical apartment. Please tell
me whether you have discussed this point with psychologists
or people who research family problems, and if so, what do
they have to say about this, and what makes it happen?
Answer. I haven’t talked about this with any academics.
Just what precisely makes the love last longer is not something
10 kosovorotka (lit. ‘skewed-collar’) — a Russian men’s shirt with an off-cen-
tre buttoned opening near the top and embroidered collar, cuffs and hem.
Questions and answers
145
that frightfully interests me. The main thing is that it hangs
in there. The fact that it happens is something you could
possibly confirm for yourself after thinking it over. Consider
where you would like to see your own son or daughter liv-
ing — in a city flat, which is like a sack made of stone, or in a
house surrounded with a magnificent garden?
Consider what you would like to feed your daughter, or son,
or grandchildren — tinned goods or fresh, ecologically clean
produce? And in the long term, do you want to see your chil-
dren living healthy lives or living off the local pharmacy? Ask
any young woman who, other things being equal, she would pre-
fer to marry — someone who had set up his life and his future
family nest in a concrete apartment block or in a house with a
splendid garden? I think the majority would choose the latter.
Comment. The regeneration of any country can begin only
on the basis of its spiritual rebirth. Certain members of our
government, including the President, have realised this and
started talking about spirituality Anastasia is considered by
a majority of readers to be a highly spiritual individual, living
according to the laws of God the Creator. She speaks of spir-
itual values, while here you are leading people astray, calling
them in particular to get involved in business on their own
plots of land, thereby leading them away from spirituality
Response. In the long term, I think that nobody will ever
be able to lead mankind away from true values. It’s good that
our leaders today are talking about spirituality. As for Anas-
tasia’s sayings, even though I didn’t always understand them
myself at first, yet later they rvould still spill over into some
kind of concrete reality Concrete reality is more meaningful
to me than philosophical musings, and so here I am talking
about concrete things, which I consider most important on
the spiritual plane as well. The world probably has a great
many concepts of spirituality and God.
146
Book 5: Who Are We?
After talking with Anastasia and trying to make sense out
of what happened, such concepts started coming together for
me too. For me God is a person. A good, smart and life-af-
firming person. A person aspiring to a happy existence for
people, His children, to all alike and to each Man in particular.
God is the Father, loving and caring for each one of us. Yet to
each Man He has given complete freedom of choice. God is
the wisest person, striving every moment to do only good for
His children. And His Sun comes up each day, the grass and
the flowers grow Trees grow, clouds sail by and water gurgles,
ready at any moment to quench any Man’s thirst.
And I don’t believe, and nothing can ever make me believe,
that our wise Father could ever think spirituality is something
to be attained only by incessant talk about it without specific
concrete actions.
Ever since the so-called Iron Curtain fell, our country has
been flooded with hordes of all sorts of people passing them-
selves off as religious preachers, and quite a few home-grown
ones have popped up as well. All trying to tell us what God
the Father wants of us. Some say we need to eat a special way,
others teach us the best words to use in addressing God. Still
others — the Krishnaites, for example, maintain that you
have to jump up and down and chant mantras from morning
’til night. For me, all that’s balderdash. I can imagine no way
of paining God more than through antics like that — all that
jumping up and down and wailing. Any loving parent tries to
see to it that his son or daughter carries on his father’s work,
taking part in conjoint creations with him.
God’s first-hand creations are all around us. And what can
be a higher manifestation of our love for God than a caring at-
titude to them, or building our lives, our own well-being and
that of our children with the help of these Divine creations?
All these antics and meditations have not made us any
happier — either our country as a whole or any of its citizens
Questions and answers
147
individually. And the reason they have not made us happier
is that they are leading us in exactly the opposite direction —
away from truth, away from God. Their efforts have been
intense and constant, tossing out all sorts of new variations in
their antics as truth. Doctrines come and go. Some of them
which have been around for ages now only provoke mirth,
while others pop up for a few years and then disappear with-
out a trace like a flash in the pan, leaving only a trail of dirt,
garbage and ruined lives in their wake.
To my question as to why we are constantly compelled to
listen to various rantings about God from all sorts of preach-
ers, and why God does not speak His own words to us directly,
Anastasia replied:
“Words? The peoples of the Earth have so many words
with different meanings. There are so many diverse languag-
es and dialects. And yet there is one language for all. One
language for all Divine callings. It is woven together out of
the rustlings of the leaves, the songs of the birds and the roar
of the waves. The Divine language has fragrance and colour.
Through this language God responds to each one’s request
and gives a prayerful response to prayer.”"
God talks with us every moment, but is it not our spiritual
apathy that makes us unwilling to hear Him? All I have to do,
comes the thought, is chant a mantra or jump up and down and
heavenly manna will fall my way which will make me happy and
choose me as ruler over all Presto — no sooner said than done!
And here we have to spend years setting up our Paradise,
waiting until our trees grow and bear their fruit and our flow-
ers blossom... Yet if we don’t do that we are not only rejecting
God, we are actually insulting Him — degrading Him with
our antics and pompous verbalisations.
"Quoted from Book 4, Chapter 11: “Three prayers”.
148
Book 5: Who Are We?
Of course you can refuse to listen to Anastasia, and espe-
cially to me. But ultimately, at some point you will walk into
a springtime forest or garden, where you will stand still and
listen to your heart. Many people’s hearts will most certainly
hear the Father’s voice. As to the question of what God can
do in the face of the energies of annihilation holding sway on
the Earth, to say nothing of so many people taking His name
in vain even as they strive to gain personal power over others,
the Father (according to Anastasia) has replied:
“I shall come up as the dawn at the inception of the on-
coming day By caressing all creations on the Earth without
exception, the rays of the Sun will help My daughters and sons
understand that each one in their own soul can hold conver-
sation with My Soul.” 11
He believed — and still believes — in us, affirming:
“There is one main defence against all the many and var-
ied causes leading one into dire straits, against all the barriers
that a lie can throw up in one’s face — namely, the fact that
My daughters and sons aspire to the conscious awareness of
truth. A lie inevitably has its limits, but truth is limitless — it
will impart itself as a conscious awareness to the hearts of My
daughters and sons.”
So, there is no excuse for tardiness in retrieving from one’s
heart the conscious awareness of God’s son — not of a slave
or some half-crazed bio-robot jumping up and down to the
jingling of a bell.
But how much can one ask of the Father — “Give me!”
“Grant me!” “Set me free!”? Isn’t it time we ourselves did
something pleasing for our Father? And what could be pleas-
ing or bring joy to Him? In response to a question like this,
Anastasia once referred to a simple test we can make use of
‘'This and the following quotation are taken (with slight variations) from
Book 4, Chapter 6 : “First encounter”.
Questions and answers 149
to verify the authenticity of the many religious concepts and
tendencies we are faced with. She described it this way:
“When your heart is stirred by something someone says,
claiming to speak in the Father’s name, take a look at how the
preacher lives his own life, and then imagine what the world
would be like if everybody started to live that way.”
This simple test can help verify a lot of things. I tried im-
agining what mankind would be like if everybody to a man
started chanting mantras from morning ’til night the way the
Krishnaites do, and the immediate result was the end of the
world. Now imagine how it would be if every Man on the
Earth started growing his own garden. The Earth, naturally,
would be transformed into a blossoming garden of Paradise.
As an entrepreneur — all right, a former entrepreneur, but
still one at heart — I like specifics, and perhaps that’s why I
consider ‘spiritual’ someone who can take actions which will
be beneficial to the Earth, his family his parents and, conse-
quently, God. If someone who calls himself spiritual cannot
happify either himself or the woman of his heart, or his family
or children, then that is a false spirituality.
Question. Anastasia spoke of a fundamentally different ap-
proach to education for children, and a new school. Is this
something feasible only in the kind of community she has
designed, or in our major urban centres too? What does
Shchetinin 13 think about this? Back in your first book you
quoted Anastasia as saying she considers raising children a
top priority and was always trying to bring up the subject,
13 Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin — a well-known Russian educator who found-
ed an alternative school at Tekos in the Caucasus based on ideas similar to
Anastasia’s. For a description of the school — where pupils cover the 11-
year Russian school curriculum in only two years — see Book 3, Chapter 17:
“Put your vision of happiness into practice” and Chapter 18: ‘Academician
Shchetinin”.
150
Book 5: Who Are We?
whereas you seem to be constantly avoiding it — it almost
never comes up in your books. Why?
Answer. Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin set up his board-
ing school in the forest. As soon as the foundation is laid
for the first community consisting of families’ own domains,
we shall have to ask Mikhail Petrovich to work out a special
programme for the future school. And if he cannot teach in
it himself, I shall ask him to at least send his best pupils to
it, and select appropriate instructors from among those cur-
rently teaching.
I don’t think setting up a school like that in today’s urban
centres is really feasible. Anastasia’s sayings aside, let’s just
think back to our own schooldays. You hear one thing at
school, another in the street and still something else at home.
While you are trying to figure out where the truth lies, trying
to get a complete picture of the world, half your life goes by
I think we have to try and start living a normal life ourselves
before trying to educate our children. And once we have got a
life set up that’s worthy of human existence, then we can take
care of our children in partnership with the school, working
in harmony, complementing each other.
Anastasia, indeed, often speaks about bringing up chil-
dren, but she doesn’t talk about anything resembling a system
scheduled according to days, hours and minutes. And quite
often what she says is not all that clear. She says, for example,
that a child’s education begins with your own education, with
setting up a happy existence for yourself, with your own at-
tempts to get in touch with God’s thoughts. And one of the
principal points in this education is precisely the setting up of
a splendid kin’s domain.
C H APT E R E I G H T E E N
I visited this man three times in all. He lives in a prestigious
dacha community not far from Moscow. His two sons, who
hold some sort of fairly high positions in the government hi-
erarchy, built their ageing father a large two-storey mansion
and hired a housekeeper to look after both the house and
their father. At best they come to see their father once a year
on his birthday.
His name is Nikolai Fiodorovich , 1 and he’s already in his
seventies. His legs ache, and so almost the whole time he sits
in his imported wheel-chair. His huge mansion is designed in
the best European style, with half the ground floor taken up
by his study with its multitudes of shelves home to a consid-
erable collection of books in a variety of languages. Most of
these books are on philosophy, in expensive leather bindings.
Before his retirement, Nikolai Fiodorovich taught philoso-
phy at a prestigious Moscow university, and has several aca-
demic degrees. In his more senior years he settled into this
mansion, and spends almost all his time in his study, reading
and reflecting.
I got to know him thanks to the persistence of his house-
keeper G-alina, who came to one of my readers’ conferences.
I am grateful to her for introducing us.
1 Fiodorovich — a patronymic derived from the Russian name Fedor (also
spelt Fiodor in English, which is closer to the actual pronunciation). Simi-
larly, the feminine patronymic Nikiforovna (to be encountered presently) is
derived from Nikifor.
152
Book 5 : Who Are We?
Nikolai Fiodorovich had read the books about Anastasia,
and he was a most interesting chap to talk with. In spite of
his academic degrees, this old fellow could explain in simple,
straightforward terms things that had not always been clear
to me in Anastasia’s sayings, as well as reveal new aspects he
had discovered in them.
After the publication of my third book, The Space of Love,
the office of the Anastasia Foundation forwarded several let-
ters to me written by the leaders of various religious denomi-
nations, aggressively denouncing Anastasia, calling her a fool
and a scoundrel. One of them even wrote a long letter replete
with obscene language.
I was at a loss to understand why Anastasia had suddenly
started provoking such unmitigated aggression among cer-
tain religious leaders, and so I decided to send some of these
letters along to Nikolai Fiodorovich for his opinion. Two
months later his housekeeper Galina came to see me, hav-
ing looked me up at my hotel. She was very distraught and
pleaded with me to come see Nikolai Fiodorovich right away,
as she was concerned about his health. It was hard to resist
Galina’s insistence.
Galina had a gorgeous, solid physique. Not fat, she was
simply a large and physically strong Russian woman in her
early forties. She had spent her whole life in some Ukrain-
ian village, driving trucks and tractors and looking after cows.
She was an excellent cook with a good knowledge of herbs,
and was extremely neat. Whenever she got excited she would
lapse into her thick Ukrainian accent . 2
'Ukrainian accent — a ‘softer' and more relaxed pronunciation by compari-
son with the terser manner of speaking in north and central Russia (not
unlike the difference between the American Southern drawl and the more
clipped Canadian speech). In Ukrainian (and some south Russian dialects),
the name Galina would sound more like Halina.
The philosophy of life
153
I have no idea how Nikolai Fiodorovich’s sons happened to
find her and set her up as a nursemaid to their father, but it
was curious to see this ageing intellectual, a philosophy pro-
fessor, talking with a country woman of limited educational
background. Galina had been allocated a room of her own in
the mansion. It would have been fine for her simply to look
after the household affairs — she did this quite well — but she
couldn’t help listening to what Nikolai Fiodorovich and I were
saying to each other. She would invariably think up something
that needed doing in our presence and start dusting a particu-
lar spot over and over again, all the while commenting aloud
on what she was hearing, as though talking to herself.
This time Galina had come to collect me in the Niva , 3
which Nikolai Fiodorovich’s sons had purchased so she could
go grocery-shopping in the town when necessary, or drive into
the woods to gather herbs, or fetch medicines for their father.
I dropped what I was working on and went with her. Driving
through the streets of Moscow, Galina was very quiet — she
looked tense behind the wheel, and I even noticed drops of
sweat on her face — until we got past the outer ring road.
Once she found herself on a familiar route, she breathed a
noticeable sigh of relief. Now she was much more relaxed
behind the wheel and started quickly telling me about all her
concerns in her mixture of Ukrainian and Russian.
“He was sure quiet back then. The man would sit the whole
livelong day jest quietly in his wheel-chair, readin’ books and
thinkin’ to hisself. I’d make up hominy grits or oatmeal for ’im
every morning, I’d feed him and I could then go to the market
or mebbe into the woods to get some herbs — for his health,
ya know I could go with a clear conscience, see, knowing he’d
'Niva — a Russian make of four-wheel-drive sports utility vehicle, produced
since 1977 by the Volga Automobile Factory in Toliatti, which also makes
the Zhiguli — see footnote 1 in Book 4, Chapter 22: “Other worlds”.
i54 Book 5: Who Are We?
be siftin' in that chair of his thinkin’ his thoughts or readin’ a
book.
“But now it’s all different. I brought him the letters you
sent. He read ’em. Jest two days after that he says to me:
‘Take some money, Galina Nikiforovna, go an’ buy some of
those Anastasia books, an’ then go to the market, no need to
hurry home. Stay there at the market an’ watch the people.
As soon as you see somebody who looks sad or sick, give ’em
a book. I did this once, even twice, but there was no way he’d
quiet down. ‘Don’t worry about my dinner, Galina Nikiforov-
na,’ says he, ‘I’ll make do myself, if I get hungry’ But I still
always made it home in time for dinner.
“But the other day when I got home from the market I
went into his book room as usual to give ’im some herbal tea.
An’ hey, his chair’s empty and if he ain’t lying there face down
on the carpet! I rush over to the telephone and grab the re-
ceiver to dial the doctor’s number, jest like his sons told me to.
They even gave me a special number, not the one everybody
uses. So I call up and cry ‘Help!’ into the telephone. An’ jest
then he lifts his head an’ says to me: ‘Cancel the call, Galina
Nikiforovna, I’m okay... I’m jest doin’ some exercises... push-
ups.’ So I dash over to him, pick him plumb up off the floor
and set him back in his chair. How’d he ever get hisself up off
the floor with those achin’ legs of his?
“‘What kind of exercise is it,’ I says to him, ‘when someone
jest lays on the floor?’ And he replies: ‘I’d already done my
exercises an’ was jest restin’. No need for you to worry yer
little head over.’
“The next day he’d gotten out of his chair again onto the
floor to do his exercises. So I went out and bought him some
dumb-bells — not dumb-bells, exactly — something called an
ex-pan-der. With handles and elastic bands — you can hook up
jest one band to make it easier, four when you’ve got a bit more
strength. I bought him this expander, see, but he still keeps
The philosophy of life
155
tryin’ to get up out of his chair, jest like a kid who don’t know
any better. His heart ain’t any too young. An’ seein’ it ain’t too
young, he shouldn’t try things too heavy all at once, he has to
do it one step at a time. But he’s just like a foolish child.
“It’s pretty near five years I’ve been workin’ for him now;
an’ nothin’ like this ever happened before. An’ I haven’t a due
myself as to what’s goin’ on in my heart. You have a talk with
him, tell him to at least go easy on his exercises if he likes ’em
so much. Tell him to go easy”
When I entered Nikolai Fiodorovich’s spacious study, the
hearth was cheerily ablaze. The old philosophy professor was
not sitting in his wheel-chair as usual, but at his large desk,
writing or sketching out something. Even his outward ap-
pearance told me that something was different about him.
He was not wearing his customary dressing-gown, but sport-
ed a proper shirt and tie. He greeted me with more vigour
than usual, quickly invited me to take a seat and, bypassing
the traditional “How-are-you’s”, started in talking. Nikolai
Fiodorovich spoke fervently, passionately:
“Do you know, Vladimir, what marvellous times are com-
ing upon our Earth? I don’t want to die — I want to live on
this kind of Earth. I read the letters with all those obsceni-
ties directed at Anastasia. Thank you for passing them along
to me. In many respects it was a real eye-opener. They call
Anastasia a taiga recluse, an enchantress, a sorceress, whereas
in fact she is a warrior par excellence. Indeed, just think about
it, Anastasia is a warrior par excellence for the forces of light.
Fler significance and greatness are something that will be ap-
preciated by future generations.
“The human consciousness, mind and feelings expressed in
the sagas, folk tales and legends that have been passed down
to us were incapable of even imagining the greatness of this
warrior. Only please don’t be surprised, Vladimir, don’t get
156
Book 5: Who Are We?
touchy as you usually do about Anastasia. Yes, she is Man...
she is a woman endowed with all — and I mean all — of hu-
man nature, with all the feminine weaknesses and virtues, de-
signed to be a mother, but at the same time she is also a great
warrior! Right this moment!
“I shall try to express myself not quite so abstrusely It all
comes down to the philosophical concept. You see, Vladimir,
on the shelves of my study there are a great many books.
These are philosophical works of thinkers of different times
and from different parts of the globe.”
Pointing to his bookshelves, Nikolai Fiodorovich listed
them off one by one.
“That’s ancient rhetoric, talking about the living, animat-
ed body of the cosmos. Next to that is what’s been written
about Socrates — he himself didn’t write anything. Over to
the right you see Lucretius, Plutarch and Marcus Aurelius.
A little lower down are five epic poems of Nizami Ganjavid
Further along there are Aranif Descartes, Franklin, Kant, La-
place , 4 5 6 * Hegel and Stendhal. All of these men attempted to
learn the central essence of things, to fathom the laws of the
Universe. It was people such as these Durant 8 was referring
to when he wrote:
4 Nizami Ganjavi (also spelt Giandzhevi) (1141-1209) — one of the most cel-
ebrated historical Persian poets from the region of Azerbaidzhan. He was
learned not only in Arabic and Persian literature, but also in a variety of aca-
demic disciplines, including mathematics, geometry astronomy; medicine,
Islamic law and theology history, philosophy music and the visual arts.
5 Dr Taghi Aram (1904-1940) — Iranian Marxist intellectual, arrested and
tortured for his communist sympathies.
6 'Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749-1827) — French mathematician who used math-
ematics to study the origin and stability of the solar system, an early con-
tributor to the theory of probability
' Stendhal (real name: Marie-Henri Beyle, 1783-1842) — French realist writer
known for his detailed analyses of his characters’ psychological make-up.
The philosophy of life
U7
‘“The history of philosophy is essentially an account of the
efforts great men have made to avert social distintegration by
building up natural moral sanctions to take the place of the su-
pernatural sanctions which they themselves have destroyed .’ 8 9
“Great thinkers,” Nikolai Fiodorovich continued, “have at-
tempted, each in their own way, to get closer to the concept
of the Absolute. Their philosophical concepts gave rise to re-
ligion-like philosophical tendencies which in turn passed into
history. Eventually, having defied all the timid counter at-
tempts, the dominant concept in our lifetime has turned out
to be, to put it concisely, the concept of subjection to some
kind of Supreme Mind. Its precise location is unimportant,
be it in the infinite spaces of the Universe or localised in the
essence of a particular human soul. Much more important is
the fact that the concept of subjection or inclination domi-
nates over everything else. After that come the particulars — -
subjection to a teacher, a mentor or a ritual.
“My collections also include Nostradamus’ prophecies.
Taken as a whole, they constitute a philosophical concept,
namely that man is perishable, corruptible and insignificant,
and that he has a lot to learn. This concept is precisely what
distorts and destroys the soul of Man. No one who adheres
to this concept can be truly happy. Not a single person on the
Earth can be happy as long as such a concept is dominant in
Man’s consciousness.
“It weighs equally upon the philosopher and the one who
has never gone near philosophy in his life. It weighs equally
8
William (Will) James Durant (1885-1981) — American philosopher, histo-
rian and writer, of French-Canadian heritage. Two of his best-known works
are the eleven-volume epic The story of civilization (1935-1975) and The story
of philosophy (1962).
9 Will Durant, Philosophy and the social problem. New York: Simon & Schuster,
1928, p. 7.
158
Book 5: Who Are We?
upon the newborn and the aged. It weighs upon the fetus
in the mother’s womb. Many adherents of this concept are
living today. They have been around at different times, and
today their followers are proselytising human society with
their beliefs in the frailty and insignificance of Man’s essence.
But no! Other times are upon us! Anastasia’s words from
God were like a flash of light to me. You wrote them down,
Vladimir, I remember them. When Adam asked God:
“‘Where is the edge of the Universe? What will I do when
I come to it? When I myself fill everything, and have created
everything I have conceived ?’ 10
‘And God replied to His son, replied to us all:
“‘My son. The Universe itself is a thought, a thought from
which was born a dream, which is partially visible as matter.
When you approach the edge of all creation, your thought
will reveal a new beginning and continuation. From obscurity
will arise a new and resplendent birth of you, and it will re-
flect in itself your soul, your dreams, your whole aspirations.
My son, you are infinite, you are eternal, within you are your
dreams of creation.’
“What a perfect, philosophically comprehensive, precise
and concise response that explains it alii It stands head and
shoulders above all our philosophical definitions taken to-
gether. You can see for yourself, Vladimir, the vast collec-
tion of books on my library shelves, but the one Book which
is worth far more than all the volumes ever published on
philosophy taken together is missing. Many have seen this
Book, but few are afforded the opportunity to read it. The
language of this Book is not one that can be studied, but it
can be felt.”
“What language is that?”
lo Adam’s questions and God’s reply are quoted from Book 4. Chapter 8:
“Birth”.
The philosophy of life
159
“The language of God, Vladimir. May I remind you of how
Anastasia described it:
‘“The peoples of the Earth have so many words with differ-
ent meanings. There are so many diverse languages and dia-
lects. And yet there is one language for all. One language for
all Divine callings. It is woven together out of the rustlings
of the leaves, the songs of the birds and the roar of the waves.
The Divine language has fragrance and colour. Through this
language God responds to each one’s request and gives a
prayerful response to prayer.’"
‘Anastasia can feel and understand this language, but what
about us?... How can it be that we have let it go unheeded for
centuries? Think of the logic! Cold logic dictates that if God
created the Earth and the Nature that lives all around us, then
every blade of grass, every tree and cloud, the water and the
stars can only be His materialised thoughts.
“But we simply pay no attention to them, we trample them,
break them, disfigure them, all the while talking about our
faith. What kind of faith is that? Who are we really worship-
ping?
“‘The parade of worldly rulers, no matter what grand tem-
ples they might have built, will be remembered only by the
filth they have bequeathed to their descendants. Water will
prove to be the criterion, the measure of all things. Every
day that passes, water seethes with more and more contami-
nation .’ 12 That’s how Anastasia put it. That could only have
been said by a consummate philosopher, and it behoves all of
us to ponder that statement.
“Just think, Vladimir, anything we construct, even if it is for
worship, is temporal, just like religion itself. Religions come
"Quoted from Book 4, Chapter 11: “Three prayers”.
"Quoted from Book 3, Chapter 24: “Who are you, Anastasia?” (only with a
different sentence order).
i6o
Book 5: Who Are We?
and go, along with their temples and philosophies. Water has
existed since the creation of the world, just as we have. After
all, we too are composed, by and large, of water.”
“But Nikolai Fiodorovich, why do you think Anastasia’s
definitions are the most accurate?”
“Because they are taken from that one Book that covers
everything. And their logic, Vladimir, is the logic of philoso-
phy. There’s one preceding statement, given in God’s name,
in which God answers the question ‘What do you so fervently
desire?’, and His answer is directed to every single entity in
the Universe:
“‘Conjoint creation and joy for all from its contempla-
tion.’ 13
“Just one brief sentence! Only a few words, that’s all! Just
a few words to express God’s aspiration and desire. None of
the great philosophers have been able to give a more precise
and accurate definition. ‘One must perceive reality through
one’s self,’ says Anastasia.' 4 So any parent who loves their chil-
dren should determine whether this may not be what they are
really dreaming about. Who among us, being the son or the
daughter of God, would not desire conjoint creation with our
children and joy from its contemplation?
“What consummate power and wisdom are contained in
these philosophical definitions of Anastasia’s! They are ab-
solutely crucial for mankind! They are effective. The hosts
of doomsayers have lined themselves up against them. They
will continue to manifest themselves — not just in the form
of cursing Anastasia in correspondence, but in a variety of
I3 Quoted from Book 4, Chapter 2: “The beginning of creation”.
I4 An approximation of Anastasia’s words in Book 2, Chapter 8: “The cherry
tree”: “To perceive what is really going on in the Universe one need only look
into one’s self.” See also Anastasia’s grandfather’s advice in Book 4, Chap-
ter 33: “School, or the lessons of the gods”: “Decide what’s real by yourself.”
The philosophy of life
1 61
ways. Many small-minded preachers will gather a fistful of
followers around them and look as if they are preaching truth
to people — people who are too lazy to think for themselves.
Anastasia has already said about these:
‘“Woe unto you who call yourselves teachers of human
souls! Cool the passions of your heart, and may everyone now
know: the Creator has given all to each one right from the
start. The Truth has been there right from the start in each
one’s soul. And we need only refrain from hiding the Crea-
tor’s great creations under the murky domain of dogma and
conventions, the murk of inventions for the sake of one’s own
selfish interests.’ 1 ’
“These are the people who will try to pounce on Anasta-
sia. Because Anastasia is utterly destroying their philosophy
With her own philosophical concept she is actually forestall-
ing the end of the world. And this is our reality today: we are
witnessing and participating in the greatest deeds of all time.
Here we are at the threshold of a new millennium, and we
are entering upon a new reality. We are already living in this
reality”
“Wait, Nikolai Fiodorovich. I didn’t get what you said
about reality and deeds. Let’s say one — or maybe two — phi-
losophers said something. And Anastasia says it, too — what
have reality and deeds got to do with it? It’s all just words.
Philosophers talk, and life goes on unfolding in its own way.”
“The life of any human society has always been construct-
ed, as it is today, under the influence of philosophical con-
cepts. The Jewish philosophy was one way of life, the cru-
saders’ philosophy was another. Hitler had his own philoso-
phy and we under the Soviet regime had ours. Revolution,
after all, is only one philosophical concept taking the place of
’’These phrases are quoted (though not in the original order and with slight
variations) from Book 3, Chapter 24: “Who are you, Anastasia?”.
i6z
Book 5: Who Are We?
another. But all that amounts to details determined by local
conditions. What Anastasia has accomplished is much more
global in scale. It has an impact on human society as a whole
and on each member of society in particular. She said she
would transport mankind across the dark forces’ window of
time.' 6 She has done this, Vladimir. She has set up a bridge
over the abyss which everyone may cross, and each one is free
to decide whether to go across it or not.
“I am a philosopher, Vladimir. I can now see this very
clearly What’s more, I can feel it. Her philosophical con-
cept shines like a dear ray of light on the threshold of a new
millennium. And each one of us, at any given moment, acts
this way or that depending on our individual philosophical
convictions. If these change, then our actions change accord-
ingly. As I was sitting in my study, for example, and reading
through various philosophical works, I pitied all mankind, in-
evitably moving toward its doom. I wondered where I would
be buried, and would my sons and grandchildren come to my
funeral, or whether it would be too much trouble for them to
come see their grandfather. I pitied all mankind, and thought
of my own death. And then along came Anastasia, with an
entirely different philosophical concept, and my actions took
an about turn.”
“How would you do things differently now, for example?”
“Well, I’ll tell you. Now... Now when I get up in the morn-
ing I start acting in accord with my new philosophical con-
cept.”
Nikolai Fiodorovich got up, bracing his arms against the
table. Then, holding on first to the chair, then a bookshelf, he
managed to make his way on his aching legs over to one of the
bookcases. He looked at the titles on each spine, then pulled
out one book in an expensive leather binding and headed
lA See Book 1, Chapter 27: “Across the dark forces’ window of time”.
The philosophy of life
163
over to the fireplace, leaning on various pieces of furniture
as he went. Tossing the book into the blazing hearth, he ex-
plained:
“Those are the prophecies of Nostradamus about all sorts
of cataclysms and the end of the world. D’you remember,
Vladimir, Anastasia’s words on this? You should remember
them. She says:
“‘The dates you gave, Nostradamus, for fearful cataclysms
on the Earth, were not predictions. You created them out
of your own thought and persuaded people to accept their
implementation. Now they are still hovering over the Earth,
still frightening people with their sense of despair .’ 17 This
could only have been said by a consummate philosopher and
thinker, one who understands that a prophecy is nothing more
than an attempt to set a direction for future developments.
The more people believe in universal doom, the greater will
be the number of thoughts attempting to outline the image,
and it will come to pass.
“It can come to pass simply because human thought is ma-
terial and creates what is material. And whole sects immolate
themselves in different parts of the world — that is, the ones
who believe in doom immolate themselves, while the ones
who have faith in the future live. And she is fearless in the
face of despair. She completely destroys any notion of the
end of the world when she declares:
‘“But now they will no longer come true. Let your thought
join in fray with mine. I am Man! Anastasia I am. And I am
stronger than you.’ And again she says: All anger on Earth,
leave your deeds and make haste to me, join fray with me,
try your utmost.’ And again: ‘With my Ray I shall take but
"'These and the following quotations concerning Notradamus’ prophe-
cies are drawn (in fragmented order and with minor modifications) from
Book 3, Chapter 24: “Who are you, Anastasia?”.
164
Book 5: Who Are We?
a moment to burn up the murk of age-old dogma.’ She alone
has gone out to fight against the countless hordes. Against the
millions who outline an image of mankind’s total doom. And
she doesn’t want to involve us in this fight. She only wants us
to be happy, and so she says in her prayer addressed to God:
In your bright dream the coming ages all will live and share.
It shall be so! I wish it so! I am a daughter of Yours.
My Father, You are present everywhere A
‘And she will get her wish. Her philosophy is extraordinar-
ily potent. And the coming ages will indeed live in the Divine
dream, in splendid gardens of Paradise.
‘And she will not distract anyone with memories of her-
self. People will not build monuments to her nor reminisce
about her when it is clear to everyone where true humanity
lies. People will si mply drink in the Divine nature, they won’t
be thinking about her. But flowers will bloom in various gar-
dens, including one splendid flower named Anastasia.
“I am old, but I am willing to serve as her foot-soldier even
today. You say, Vladimir, that philosophy is just a bunch of
words. But these words, spoken somewhere in the far-off
taiga, have been enthusiastically taken in by my heart, and
here you have first-hand evidence of concrete material actions:
it is not mankind that is perishing in the flames, but predic-
tions of the doom of humanity That is why the doomsayers
are all stirred up and have set their forces in array Anastasia
has stirred up people who have built their philosophy on such
a scenario and manipulated mankind for their own purposes
with the threat of the ‘inevitable’ end of the world.”
“Hasn’t anyone before Anastasia come out against the no-
tion of the end of the world?”
’'’Quoted from Book 4, Chapter 11: “Three prayers”.
The philosophy of life
165
“There have been a few timid ----- but ultimately insignifi-
cant — attempts, but they’ve hardly received any attention.
Nobody, but nobody, has spoken out as she has. Nobody’s
words have been accepted so readily and joyfully as hers, in
any human heart. And not a single philosophical concept has
ever taken hold of people this way. But hers has taken hold.
It is burning up the murk of age-old dogma.
“How she does it — well, that’s not for us to grasp at the
moment. There is an extraordinary rhythm in her words, and
a consummate logic, possibly something else. Possibly... No,
undoubtedly! ‘The Creator,’ she says, ‘has shone forth with
some kind of new energy! An energy that tells us anew about
something we see around us every day ...’ 14
“Undoubtedly a new energy has made its appearance in the
Universe, and more and more people in our time are starting
to possess it day by day The fact is that decades and possi-
bly even centuries, as a rule, are required to spread a signifi-
cant philosophical concept. And here it’s only taken her a few
years... Amazing!
“You surmised, Vladimir, that her words were simply words.
But her words are so strong that — you see these hands?” He
raised one of his hands, looked at it and added: “Even these
old hands of mine are materialising her words. And the whole
prospect of the end of the world is burning up in flames. And
life will go on. These hands can still help life go on. The hands
of one of Anastasia’s foot-soldiers.”
Holding on to the furniture, Nikolai Fiodorovich made his
way over to the table and picked up a pitcher of water. Brac-
ing himself with one hand against the wail, he headed over to
the window. It was a challenge, but he made it. On the win-
dowsill stood a beautiful flower-pot, in which a green shoot,
still very young, was sprouting up from the earth.
“’Quoted from Book 4, Chapter 13: “To feel the deeds of all mankind”.
1 66
Book 5: Who Are We?
“Look, my baby cedar’s come up at last. And now my
hands will water it, materialising the words that are close to
my heart.”
Bracing one hip against the windowsill, Nikolai Fiodorovi-
ch grasped the pitcher with both hands and said:
“The water isn’t too cold for you, my dear?” After a mo-
ment’s thought, he took a swallow of the water, held it in his
mouth for a little while and then, resting his hands on the
windowsill, let a thin stream of water spew from his mouth
onto the earth beside the green shoot.
Galina was in the study during our conversation. She was
always thinking up some excuse to be in his study She would
bring tea, or start dusting, all the while muttering quietly to
herself, commenting on what she had heard and seen. These
last actions of Nikolai Fiodorovich evoked a rather louder
comment than usual:
“Now what’s the point of that? Any decent person might
wonder. Here he goes doin’ tricks like that in ’is old age. He
won’t ride in his wheel-chair, he goes an’ tortures his agein’
legs, maltin’ ’em walk like that. An’ somehow people ain’t sat-
isfied. Here it is nice an’ warm an’ comfy at home, but it ain’t
enough for them, jes’ ain’t enough!”
I remembered Galina being concerned about Nikolai Fi-
odorovich’s health and asking me to warn him about some-
thing, only now I couldn’t figure out what there was to warn
him about, and I asked him:
“What have you thought up this time, Nikolai Fiodor-
ovich?”
He was a bit emotional, but said distinctly:
“I have a big favour to request of you, Vladimir. I ask you
only to respect an old man’s wishes.”
“Go ahead. I’ll be happy to oblige if I can.”
“I’ve heard say you’re planning to get people together who
want to start building an ecological settlement. You want to
The philosophy of life i6j
see about having a hectare of land granted each family to set
up a kin’s domain.”
“Yes, I do. The Anastasia Foundation has already submit-
ted a proposal to several regional administrations about this.
But there’s been no decision on land grants as yet. They’ve
offered a few small allotments, just for a handful of families
each, but unless we have a minimum of a hundred and fifty
families, we shan’t be able to afford the cost of any infrastruc-
ture.”
“They’ll grant the land, Vladimir. Most definitely they’ll
grant it.”
“That would be good. But what about this favour you
want?”
“When they start handing out land for kin’s domains, and
they’ll definitely be doing this all over Russia, I would ask you,
Vladimir, not to forget about an old man. Please, don’t forget
to count me in. I too want to establish my own piece of the
Motherland before I die.”
Nikolai Fiodorovich started getting more and more excit-
ed, his words came quickly and with passion:
“To establish it for myself. For my children and grandchil-
dren. See, Fm growing my own baby cedar in this pot, so I
can plant the seedling in a piece of my Motherland with my
own hands. I shan’t be a burden to anyone. I’ll set everything
up on my own hectare of land, I’ll put in a garden and plant a
living fence. I’ll be able to help my neighbours. I have some
savings, and I keep receiving honoraria for various articles.
My sons — whatever else you say about them, they never
refuse any financial help. I’ll build myself a little house there
and I can help finance construction for my neighbours.”
“Now that’ll be a fine sight to see!” Galina was muttering
even louder than before. “People don’t stop to think of it —
how you can plant a garden when your legs don’t move. And
here he is plannin’ on helpin’ his neighbours. Oh, if decent
i68
Book 5: Who Are We?
folk could only hear that! What would decent folk think?
Here his sons have built ’im a house like this — he should jest
live and be happy, and thank his sons and God for it. But peo-
ple jes’ can’t sit still. They’ve gotta keep thinkin’ up things like
that right into their old age. What might decent folk think
about people like that?”
Nikolai Fiodorovich heard what Galina said, but didn’t pay
any attention to her, or at least pretended to ignore her, and
went on:
“I realise, Vladimir, that my decision may be treated as ex-
cessive emotionalism, but that’s not how it is. My decision
is the fruit of extensive reflection. I may appear to enjoy a
fine life, but that’s only an appearance. I have a mansion fully
equipped — practically a palace... I’ve got a housekeeper to
take care of it... My sons have done pretty well for them-
selves... But you know, before learning about Anastasia I was
as good as dead.
“Yes, Vladimir, dead. Look, Fve been living here for over
four years now. I spend most of my time in my study. I’m
useful to no one, and there’s literally nothing I can have an
impact on. And the same fate awaits my sons and grandchil-
dren. It’s the fate of experiencing your death while you’re still
alive.
“They call Man dead, Vladimir, when he stops breathing,
but that’s not the case. Man dies the moment he stops being
useful to others and is no longer in charge of anything.
“The neighbours’ houses around here aren’t quite so grand,
but I don’t have any friends among them. And my sons have
asked me not to announce my name even to the neighbours.
There are a lot of jealous types about, wondering whose house
this is — a house that’s practically a palace. Once they find
out, they’ll splash my name all over the media, enquiring how
I managed to finance this set-up. They’ll never believe it was
my own hard-earned money. The way I sit here, I may as well
The philosophy of life
169
be in prison, or even dead. I just sit here in my study, never go
upstairs — there’s no reason for me to. Certainly I have a lot
of philosophical publications to my name, but after finding
out about Anastasia...
“I’ll tell you right off, Vladimir — and please don’t take
what I say as a fantasy of old age — I’ll prove to you what I’m
about to say is true. You realise, Vladimir — right now, right
this very moment, God’s judgement is coming to pass.”
“Judgement? But where and horv? Why doesn’t anybody
know about this?”
“You realise, Vladimir, for so long we’ve imagined this
judgement to be the coming of some kind of terrible Being
from on high, with its terrible entourage. And this Supreme
Being is supposed to tell each of us where we’ve been right
and wrong. Then this Supreme Being is supposed to mete out
punishment in due measure, sending whoever’s being judged
to either heaven or hell. How r primitively we’ve pictured
God’s judgement!
“But God isn’t some primitive creature. He can’t judge
that way He has given Man eternal freedom, and any kind of
judgement is a violation of one’s person, it’s a deprivation of
freedom.”
“Then what did you mean when you said something about
God’s judgement coming to pass right this very moment?”
‘And I’ll say it again: God’s judgement is coming to pass
right this very moment. Everyone is given the opportunity
to judge himself.
“I realise now what Anastasia’s done. Her philosophy,
power and logic are speeding up the processes. Just think,
Vladimir, many people will believe her, and bring the idea of
these splendid Divine communities to fruition. Once they
believe, they’ll find themselves in a garden of Paradise. Oth-
ers won’t believe and will remain where they are now. Every-
thing in the world is relative.
Book 5: Who Are We?
170
“At the moment we are not in a position to compare our life
with any other, and so we think our lifestyle is tolerable. But
when it is put side by side with another kind of life, when the
unbelievers finally believe, they will see themselves in hell.
Some people count themselves happy simply because they
don’t know how unhappy they really are. God’s judgement is
coming to pass right before our eyes, but it is strange to our
way of thinking.
“This isn’t just my discovery I know of this psychologist in
Novosibirsk who’s undertaken a study of how various popula-
tion groups react to Anastasia’s sayings — she’s said practi-
cally the same thing. I don’t know her personally — I’ve only
read her conclusions in print, and they’re similar to my own.
“People in various cities and towns are feeling and realising
the majesty" of what’s been taking place. Professor Yeriomkin,
whose poems have been published in the people’s collection , 20
is another one who’s described the Anastasia phenomenon in
magnificent verse. I’d like to remind you, Vladimir, of these
lines he dedicated to Anastasia:
In you I have beheld a Man quite clearly,
Possibly from the end of another era,
Where, midst goddesses, my own grandchildren too
Will be an embodiment of you.
“I memorised these beautiful lines. I want my grandchil-
dren, too, to live among the goddesses, and therefore I want
to provide this opportunity for them, I want to begin estab-
lishing for them a piece of our splendid Motherland. Just to
people’s collection — a reference to the 544-page volume of readers’ poetry,
art and letters published in Russian under the title: V lucbe Anastasii zvuchit
dusba Rossi/'. Narodnaya kniga (The soul of Russia sings in Anastasia’s ray. A
people’s book).
The philosophy of life
171
buy a piece of property, even more than one hectare in size, is
no problem for me, but it is important to me who my neigh-
bours are. And so I want to set up my property in a circle
of people who share my way of thinking. To set it up for my
grandchildren. One of them will most certainly want to live
there. And my sons will want to come and rest there in their
father’s garden from the bustle of daily life. At the moment
they come and see me only on rare occasions. But they will
come to the garden I shall set up. I shall ask that I be buried
in this garden. My sons will come...
“I’m talking about my grandchildren, my sons, but above
all I need to create something inherent in the essence of Man,
otherwise... You see, Vladimir... All at once I have acquired
the desire to live and be active. I can do it. I shall become a
foot-soldier and enlist in Anastasia’s cause.”
“You can live jest as well right where you are. Why don’t you
jes’ live out a good quiet life right here?” Galina enquired.
This time Nikolai Fiodorovich took it upon himself to re-
ply. He turned to her and said:
“I can understand your concern, Galina Nikiforovna.
You’re afraid of losing your job and a roof over your head.
Please don’t worry — I’ll help you build a little house nearby,
you’ll have your own little house and your own plot of land.
You’ll get married — you’ll find the one meant just for you.”
All at once Galina straightened up to her full height, threw
her white rag down on the side-table — the rag she had been
pretending to dust with all during our conversation — and
placed her hands on her solidly built thighs. She looked as
though she wanted to say something, but couldn’t, as though
her emotional state had cut short her breath. Then, muster-
ing up her strength, she managed to pronounce quietly:
“Well mebbe I don’t like the idea of bein’ close to a neigh-
bour like you... Anyways, I can build my own house, jest as
soon as I get my land. When I was a kid I helped my father
172
Book 5: Who Are We?
build a log cabin. And I’ve saved up a pretty penny. Besides,
workin’ around here ain’t so pleasant. Who is there to clean
up for day after day upstairs? Nobody ever goes upstairs, yet
here I am, cleanin’ up like a damn fool after nobody. I don’t
want to live in a neighbourhood if the neighbours don’t have
their head screwed on right!”
Galina did a sharp about-turn and quickly headed off to
her room. But presently the door of her room opened, and
Galina re-appeared in the doorway, holding in her hands two
little pots with green shoots just like those in Nikolai Fiodor-
ovich’s fancy pot. She walked over to the window and put her
little pots down next to his on the windowsill. Then she re-
turned to her room and brought out a large basket filled with
a whole lot of little cloth bundles. She placed the basket at
Nikolai Fiodorovich’s feet and said:
“ Them’s seeds. Real ones, ’cause I gathered them meself
all summer long and right through the fall. They’re from real
medicinal herbs. The ones they sow in the fields to sell at
pharmacies, they ain’t got the power of these here. Jes’ scat-
ter ’em with your own hand on your land — they’ll multiply
your health and strength — when they’re growin’, and when
you make a herbal tea with ’em and drink it in the wintertime.
’Sides, that baby cedar of yours, it’s gonna be lonely — well,
there’s some friends an’ a brother for it.”
Galina pointed to the windowsill, where the three pots
with little shoots were now' standing, and then walked slowly
to the front door, calling over her shoulder:
“Good-bye, philosophers! Maybe you already know the
philosophy of death. But as for the philosophy of life, you’ve
still got a lot to learn.”
As far as anyone could tell, Galina had been deeply offended
by something, and she was walking away for good. Nikolai Fio-
dorovich took a step to follow her, but stumbled. He then tried
to catch himself by reaching out for the back of a chair, but the
173
The philosophy of life
chair fell over. Nikolai Fiodorovich started to sway back and
forth, flinging his arms out to the side. I jumped up to offer him
a hand, but I was too late. Galina, who by this time had already
reached the door of the room, turned at the noise of the falling
chair and saw Nikolai Fiodorovich swaying back and forth.
Quick as a wink she was at his side. With her strong arms
she managed to grasp the old man whose legs had already giv-
en way beneath him, and stood there holding him to her bos-
omy breast. Wriggling one hand free, she picked up Nikolai
Fiodorovich by the legs and carried him like a child to his
wheel-chair. She sat him down in it, then took hold of a plaid
rug and began covering his legs, gently chastising him:
“Some soldier of Anastasia’s you are! You ain’t no soldier,
jest a green recruit!”
Nikolai Fiodorovich put his hand in Galina’s. Fixing his
gaze on this drooping woman now sitting at his feet, he said,
switching to the familiar form of address ’ 1 for the first time:
“Forgive me, Galya. I thought you were laughing at my as-
pirations, and here you are...”
“I’m the one laughing? You think I’m crazy?” Galina blurt-
ed out. “Every night I sit and think only soul thoughts. ’Bout
how I’m gonna plant herbs — real medicinal herbs, ’bout how
I’m gonna use ’em to feed this bright-eyed falcon 22 here, to help
familiar form of address — similar to using tu instead of vous in French (see
footnote i in Book i, Chapter 2: “Encounter"). The informal form of ad-
dress is reciprocated bv Galina in addressing Nikolai Fiodorovich.
22 bright-eyed falcon (Russian: sokolyasny) — a reference to a Russian folk-tale
about a falcon named Finist. When Marya, the daughter of a rich mer-
chant, is brought a falcon feather by her father at her request, she waves
it in the air, whereupon a falcon appears and later turns into a handsome
young man. The two fall in love. Injured, however, thanks to the trickery
of Marya’s wicked elder sisters, Finist flies off and eventually recovers, but
Marya must set out on a long quest to find him, and rescue him from a
palace where a sly princess has her own designs upon him. The tale ends, of
course, with Marya and Finist marrying and living happily ever after.
174
Book 5: Who Are We?
’im get his strength back. I’ll make some real soup from fresh
cabbage that don’t smell of chemicals. I’ll give him some real
cow’s milk to drink, not that fancy pasteurised stuff. An’ jest
as soon as this of bright-eyed falcon gets hisself straightened
out, mebbe I’ll even bear him a child. Me, I wasn’t laughin’,
not one little bit. I’s just sayiri that to see how firm a decision
he'd made, to see whether he might change it in midstream.”
“It is firm, Galina, I’m not going to change it.”
“Well, if that’s how it is, then don’t chase me out to the
neighbourhood. Don’t hand me over to some other suitor.”
“I wasn’t chasing you out, Galya. It’s just that I had no idea
you wanted to be with me some place other than this well-ap-
pointed mansion. I am happy to accede to your wishes, Galya.
I am immeasurably grateful to you. I simply had no idea...”
“What’s there here to have no idea about? What woman
would turn away from such a determined soldier as yourself?
Oh, I’ve read about Anastasia, how I’ve read about her!...
Took me a long time, it did — had to read syllable by syllable,
but still I got it right off. All us gals today need to become
like Anastasia. So I’ve decided to be a little bit of Anastasia
to you. All us gals need to become a little bit like Anastasia.
She ain’t got too many soldiers jes’ yet, only a bunch of green
recruits, still wet behind the ears. Us gals are gonna make ’em
strong, an’ make ’em well!”
“Thanks, Galya. That means, you, Galina Nikiforovna ,’ 3 have
read the books — and pondered them during your evenings?”
“For certain. I’ve read all the books on Anastasia an’
thought about them during my evenings. Only please don’t
address me as a stranger any more. I’ve been meaning to ask
you for a good long time now. Just call me Galya.”
3 Galya/ Galina Nikiforovna — Nikolai Fiodorovich’s alternation of familiar
and formal forms betrays his temporary uncertainty as to how he should
address this woman.
The philosophy of life
175
“Okay, Galya. I was intrigued by what you said when you
were offended — really intrigued. You said we already know
the philosophy of death. But as for the philosophy of life,
we’ve still got a lot to learn. What a concise formulation of
two contrary philosophical tendencies. A succinct definition
indeed: the philosophy of death and the philosophy of life.
Simply amazing! Anastasia is the philosophy of life. Yes! Of
course, of course! Just amazing!”
Stroking Galina’s hand excitedly and tenderly, Nikolai Fio-
dorovich exclaimed:
“You’re a philosopher, Galina — I had no idea!”
Then he said, turning to me:
“There’s absolutely no doubt there is so much more we
need to figure out, both from the philosophical point of
view and through the help of esoteric definitions. I am try-
ing to evaluate Anastasia as Alan — a Man such as we must
all become. But there are certain unexplainable abilities she
has which prevent us from fully appreciating her as a Man
like us.
“Vladimir, I remember your describing an episode in which
she saved people at a distance from being tortured. She saved
them, but she herself, if you recall, lost consciousness, went
white all over and even the grass turned white around her .' 4
What kind of device was operating here, to make both her
and the grass turn white? I’ve never heard of anything like
that before, even though I’ve tried asking esoterics about it.
It’s not something either philosophers or physicists — or eso-
terics — know anything about.”
“Whaddya mean, they don’t know ’bout it?” Galina burst
into the conversation, still sitting on the floor at Nikolai Fio-
dorovich’s feet. “An’ what’s there to think about, when we
need to scratch their eyes out?”
2_t This incident is described in Book 1, Chapter 28: “Strong people”.
176
Book 5 : Who Are We?
“Whose eyes, Galya? Do you have your own opinion on this
phenomenon?” Nikolai Fiodorovich enquired in surprise.
Galina was only too ready and willing to provide an answer:
“It’s as plain as the nose on your face! Jest as soon as a Man
is attacked by somethin’ rotten, by some sort of wretched
news or threats, or cussed in anger, he goes all white. Turns
pale, you know He turns pale when he don’t return that anger,
but burns it up within ’imself — meaning he gets all shook up,
and burns up the anger within ’imself, and this makes ’im go
all white. You see lots of examples like that in life. Anastasia
too can take this rot and burn it up within herself, and the
ground goes all white, tryin’ to help her, and as for me, well, I
think you gotta scratch its eyes out — the eyes of any kind of
rot, I mean.”
“Wow! Really! Many people turn pale,” Nikolai Fiodorov-
ich exclaimed in surprise, fixing his gaze on Galina, and then
added: “but Alan truly turns pale when he does not recipro-
cate someone’s insult, but tries to keep a stiff upper lip and
hold it within. He bums it up within himself, as it turns out.
Why, that’s true! How simple it all turns out to be! Anastasia
burns up within herself the energy of aggression aimed at her.
If such energy were reciprocated, it would fail to dissipate in
space but would go off and find some other target.
‘Anastasia doesn’t want anyone to be a target. Just think
of all the filth that will be aimed at her! So much has been
building up over centuries, and is being produced even now
by the adherents of the philosophy of death. Who is strong
enough to withstand such an onslaught? Tell me, who? Stay
the course, Anastasia! Stay the cotrrse, noble warrior!”
‘And stay the course she will,” Galina chimed in. “We’re
gonna help her now. I’ve started givin’ away your books down
at the market, and the gals that have been readin’ ’em now
stand around on a street-corner in Hatches. I gave ’em some
cedar seeds too. They planted ’em. An’ I told ’em about the
The philosophy of life
*77
healin’ herbs too. The gals say: ‘We’ve gotta do somethin’!’
Sure, we ain’t gonna beat up our husbands, like one of ’em
there on the corner suggested. But we better think about
who we’re gonna have a child with.”
“What are you talking about, Galina?” Nikolai Fiodorovich
asked in surprise. “Don’t tell me you have your own activist
group already?”
“Noway! What kind of ‘activist group’ might that be? We
jes’ stand around on the street a bit an’ chit-chat about life.”
‘And where did the idea of beating up on men come from?
What arguments motivated that?”
“Whaddya mean, what arguments? Flow come our men
don’t come through for us? They want us to give ’em a child,
so we give ’em a child, but then there ain’t no nest for our
young ’uns. An’ if you can’t make a nest, why ask for a child?
What gal’s gonna be happy with her man when her kid jes’
wanders around aimlessly right before her very eyes?
“Teacher’s come to us twice already. Teacher says some sort
of psych factor stops ’em from gettin’ ahold ot themselves —
it’s all because of some kinda loan they’re waitin’ for from
some foundation overseas. It’s a ‘syndrome’, she says. Lack
of self-confidence. An this psych syndrome digs up ail sorts
of reasons to avoid buildin’ a nest.
‘An’ the teacher went an’ told the gals that these loans have
to be paid back in a certain number of years. Maybe twenty,
maybe thirty, I don’t remember. I only know, they need to
pay back a little bit more than they’ve been given. So it’s like
a man today ends up sellin’ his own kids?”
“Why would you make a comparison like that, Galina?”
“Whaddya mean, why? The men we’ve got today, they’ve
been foolin’ around, lookin’ to borrow money An’ who will
have to pay it back? For certain that’ll be their kids — the kids
that are still jes’ young ’uns. Yeah, an’ the kids who ain’t even
born yet. And our kids’ll have to pay back even more than
Book 5: Who Are We?
178
their dads have borrowed! When the gais began graspin’ this
picture of the future, they started goin’ crazy over concern for
their kids — they felt like bashin’ their men’s snouts in. As for
me, I thought we better not wait for help from anywhere, it’s
time we ourselves started helpin’ these poor men of ours.
“I once tried a taste of that overseas sausage, an’ my heart
broke out in tears, an’ I really wanted to send a piece of our
Ukrainian bacon to whoever made that sausage, along with
some of our own home-made sausage. Oh my dear God! Peo-
ple in those countries have no idea how sausage should taste!
“There’s no point in takin’ loans from people like that —
that’s bad money, it’s no good at all, it’ll bring us nothin’ but
harm. As for bearin’ up, I told you only one gal proposed
whippin’ all them men, the other gals didn’t go along. What’s
the point? So you can knock the last bit of sense out of ’em?
Even so, the gals tell each other how miserable their men have
made their lives. And I boast a bit, I say my man’s come to ’is
senses. He’s already started makin’ a nest.”
“Tourman? Who is he?”
“ Whaddya mean, who is he? I’ve been tellin’ ’em about you.
How you’ve gone an’ planted a baby cedar, how you sent me
to buy you a draftin’ board with a large ruler — the one on the
table over there,” Galina indicated, pointing to the drafting
table next to Nikolai Fiodorovich’s desk. “I told ’em how you
asked me what trees are best to plant around the hectare, and
made drawin’s on sheets of paper at your desk, and sketched
out a loverly community, where good people can live. You
didn’t have enough room on your sheets of paper, so you asked
me to bring you bigger sheets, an’ the board an’ the ruler too.
“I told the gals ’bout that, an’ we all went together to
choose the drafting board. We chose the biggest and best we
could find, an’ it sure cost a lot. The gals said to me: ‘Don’t be
stingy, Galina.’ They helped me, an’ I could see the envy in
their eyes. The bitches were jealous that my child would be
The philosophy of life
179
born in a marvellous garden, in his own native ground, with
good people all around. An’ I ain’t mad at them for bein’ jeal-
ous — after all, everybody wants to be happy.
“They pooled their money together an’ bought me a cam-
era so’s I could take a picture of your sketch. So I took the
camera, an’ they showed me what button to press and where I
should look through to take a snap. Only I never got the cour-
age to ask your permission so I never pressed the button.”
“You did the right thing, Galina, not talcing a photo of my
design without permission. When I’ve finished, then perhaps
I shall publish it as one proposal for the neve settlement.”
“That’s gonna take you a long time, and the gals right now
can’t wait to see this loverly, beautiful future, at least to sneak
a glimpse. You’ve managed to come up with a lovely drawin’
on one of them large sheets.”
“What makes you think I shan’t soon complete it? Every-
thing’s almost all ready to be published — I have the plans,
and colour drawings too.”
“That’s what I said — you already have a beautiful picture.
For certain it shouldn’t be published for people to use, but you
could still show it to the gals — the ones I meet with — an’ I’ll
just say it’s not quite right yet.”
Nikolai Fiodorovich quickly wheeled himself over to the
drafting table. I followed. There on the table lay plans, done in
coloured pencil, of several domains of the new settlement. The
drawings showed little houses, and gardens, and a living fence
made out of various lands of trees, and ponds too... The overall
impression was a fine, beautiful arrangement of everything.
“Where did you notice a mistake or an inaccuracy?” en-
quired Nikolai Fiodorovich of Galina, who had by now joined
us at the drafting table.
“ You didn’t put any Sun in the picture. An’ once you get the
Sun in, you have to put in shadows too. An’ if you’re go in’ to
put in the shadows, you’ll see that you can’t plant any tall trees
iSo
Book 5: Who Are We?
along the eastern fence — they’ll give too much shade on the
plant beds. The trees should be planted on the other side.”
“Really? Maybe you’re right... I wish you’d told me earlier.
But this is only a draft so far... Anyway, Galina, did you say
you’re going to have a child?”
“Well, it’s like this. You keep on doin’ your exercises for
now But once you stand on your own native ground, you’ll
crawl out of your catacombs. An’ I’ll feed you with what
grows in your native soil, an’ give you a healin’ tea to drink.
An’ spring’ll come, you’ll see, an’ everythin’ on that native
ground’s gonna come alive, and bloom. An’ you’ll feel your
own strength again. That’s when I’m gonna have my child.”
Once again Galina sat down on the carpet at Nikolai Fio-
dorovich’s feet and put her hands on one of his arms resting
on the side of his wheel-chair. Even though she wasn’t exactly
a spring chicken, Galina had a strong, powerful and attractive
body — she could even be called tender and beautiful. Their
conversation became more and more friendly in tone, as
though they were immersing themselves in some kind of phi-
losophy of life, while I stood around slightly stupefied, feeling
like a third leg. So I managed to get a word in edgewise:
“Excuse me, Nikolai Fiodorovich. It’s time for me to be
going. I don’t want to be late for the plane.”
“I’ll have some pies ready for you in a flash,” said Galina,
getting up. ‘An’ some preserves for your trip — I’ll get you
back to Moscow in a jiff.”
Nikolai Fiodorovich slowly got up from his chair. Brac-
ing himself with one hand against the table, he extended the
other to me in a gesture of farewell. His handshake was firm,
it no longer felt like that of an old man.
“Give my greetings to Anastasia, Vladimir. And please let
her know that the philosophy of life will definitely triumph
here. Our thanks to her!”
“I’ll tell her.”
Chapter Nineteen
o
Right from the very first appearance of the Anastasia book there
have been quite a number of articles written by various scholars
on the Anastasia phenomenon’. Many of them included refer-
ences to me. Whenever I heard or read unflattering remarks
about myself, even if they temporarily upset me, it wasn’t for
long — maybe a day or two, a week at the most. My insides would
get stirred up a bit, but then it was history But this time...
At a meeting in Moscow one of my readers handed me an
audiocassette. He said it was a recording of a talk given at
an academic conference by the leader of a scholarly research
group which was studying the ‘Anastasia phenomenon’.
I listened to the cassette a few days later. What I heard
was beyond belief. Its message (once it had sunk in) not only
knocked me off the rails, it seemed it was going to do me in
for good. Really do me in — especially in my own self-esteem.
Before listening to it, I was planning to head off again to the
taiga to see Anastasia and my son, but after hearing it I put
my plans on hold. Here’s what I heard (slightly abbreviated):
My respected colleagues, I should like to present you with
some of the conclusions and arguments worked out by a re-
search group I head on the basis of over three years’ investi-
gating the phenomenon we shall call Anastasia.
In my report I shall use the name Anastasia not just for
the sake of convenience, but because the subject of our in-
vestigation has presented itself under that name. This does
not rule out the possibility of giving it a more specific and
Book 5: Who Are We?
182
characteristic definition in the future. It is difficult to do that
at the moment, since I am persuaded that we are dealing with
‘something’ that surpasses the boundaries of traditional aca-
demic disciplines and possibly modem science on the whole.
We began by defining three research questions: (a) the
truthfulness of the events described by the author Vladimir
Megre in his books, (b) Megre’s books themselves and (c)
public reaction to Megre’s books.
By the end of the first six months it was clear that the truth-
fulness or untruthfulness of the events described in the book
was an irrelevant question. The wild emotional reaction of most
readers who have had contact with Megre’s books has nothing
to do with whether the events described are real or not. Pub-
lic reaction is determined by a different set of factors entirely
However, the time and resources and intellectual potential we
spent pursuing this question led to what is, in my opinion, a
rather interesting conclusion — namely, that the tendency of
individuals, including sociologists and academic circles in gen-
eral, to cast doubt on Anastasia’s existence is in fact a contrib-
uting factor to the very phenomenon we are studying.
It is this very hoopla surrounding the question Does she or
doesn’t she exist? that has enabled the phenomenon to pene-
trate unhindered into all levels of society today The denial
of the existence of Anastasia has actually served to neutralise
any opposition to her designs. If she doesn’t exist, after all,
then it follows that there is no object to study, nothing to op-
pose. On the other hand, the public reaction to Anastasia’s
sayings attests to the vital necessity of research to determine
her significance and intellectual capabilities.
As to the truthfulness of the events set forth in the books,
we can state the following:
In describing these events, the author not only presents
himself under his own name, but does not shield anyone else
connected with these events. He makes no effort to change
Who controls coincidences? 183
the real names of people or places, or to cover up embarrass-
ing facts about himself.
For example, the episode described in the first book —
where Megre, in the presence of the captain, flirts with the
local country girls visiting the ship during a pleasure cruise 1 —
has been fully documented as fact. Crew members have also
confirmed the presence that evening of a quiet and taciturn
young woman with a kerchief tied around her head. Megre
showed this woman around the ship, then spent some time
alone with her in his cabin. From the book we learn that this
was the first appearance of the Siberian recluse Anastasia on
Megre’s lead ship, the one that served as his headquarters. It
was the entrepreneur’s first encounter with the Siberian rec-
luse, and their first conversation together.
The chronology of many of the events described in the book
has been confirmed by documents and eyewitness accounts.
Not only that, but other situations even more extraordinary
have come to light which the author for one reason or another
did not describe in his books. A notable case in point is Meg-
re’s stay in a Novosibirsk city hospital, where medical records
indicate the progress of his illness, medical test results, the
prolongation of his illness, and his remarkable recovery.
We have determined that his recovery immediately fol-
lowed the doctors’ application of cedar oil which was left at
the hospital by an unidentified woman!
I shan’t deny that, carried away as we were in our pursuit of
the truth of the events described in the book and with access
to criminological facilities, for example, we were in a position
to prove or disprove a great deal. We were halted in this pur-
suit, however, by the public’s wild and extraordinary reaction
to Megre’s books, or, more specifically, to Anastasia’s sayings
therein recorded. The details of Megre’s intimate relations
See Book 1, Chapter 24: “A strange girl”.
184
Book 5: Who Are We?
were not a drawing card for most people — they were excited
instead by Anastasia’s monologues.
Even our initial investigations of this reaction — and espe-
cially its latest manifestations — clearly indicated that ‘some-
thing’ calling itself Anastasia is exercising an unmistakable in-
fluence on today’s society.
Her sphere of influence continues to increase in size even
today And we need to pay greater attention to even the most
improbable arguments — try to discern them and follow them
up. In all probability, the phenomenon known as Anastasia
possesses powers and abilities which our mind and conscious-
ness are not in a position to fully make sense of.
In Megre’s very first book, in the chapter entitled ‘Across
the dark forces’ window of time”, the phenomenon predicts
not only the appearance of the book, but also how and by what
means she will capture people’s minds and consciousness. In
her monologue Anastasia affirms that she has collected from
various ages the best combinations of sounds to be found in
the Universe, and that they will have a positive influence on
people. She affirms that this action is quite simple:
“As you can see, it is simply a matter of translating the com-
binations of signs from the depth of eternity and infinity of
the Universe — - exact in sense, meaning and purpose .” 2
Our group as a whole reached a unanimous conclusion: this
particular saying is an invention. This conclusion was based on the
following logical and (as we believed) irrefutable argument: Even
if certain unusual combinations do exist in the book, then they
cannot exercise any influence over the reader, since there is no
instrument to reproduce them. The book cannot utter sounds,
and consequently cannot convey to our hearing the ‘sounds of
the Universe’ said to have been collected by Anastasia.
Later, however, Anastasia did give the following answer:
"Quoted from Book 1, Chapter 27: ‘Across the dark forces’ window of time”.
Who controls coincidences?
185
“You are right, a book does not make sounds. But it can
serve as a score, like a musical score. The reader will involun-
tarily utter within himself any sounds he reads. Thus the hid-
den combinations in the text will resonate in the reader’s soul
in their pristine form, with no distortion. They are bearers
of Truth and healing. And they will fill the soul with inspira-
tion. No artificial instrument is capable of reproducing what
resonates in the soul .” 3
In his third book, The Space of Love, Megre sets forth Anas-
tasia’s dialogue with the scholars. But for some unknown rea-
son he abbreviates it. Or, if we assume that the phenomenon
itself participated in the book’s appearance, then it is possi-
ble that it deliberately omitted the continuation of Anasta-
sia’s response to the scholars. What for? Possibly to leave the
unbelievers in their state of inaction? The fact remains that
proofs of Anastasia’s incredible declaration do exist.
Here is the continuation of Anastasia’s dialogue with the
scholars. To her adversary’s statement that the blending within
Man of certain sounds not part of human speech has never been
anywhere established as fact , 4 Anastasia replied as follows:
“It has been established. And I can give you an example.”
“But it must be an example everybody can relate to.”
“Fine. Ludwig van Beethoven.”
“What about him?”
“His Ode to Joy. That was the name he gave to his Ninth
Symphony It was written for a symphony orchestra and
mass choirs.”
“Okay, but how can that prove your statement about the
evocation of sounds within the reader’s mind? Sounds that
nobody’s ever heard?”
3 Quoted from Book 3, Chapter 4: “Chords of the Universe”.
4 See Book 3, Chapter 4: “Chords of the Universe”.
i86
Book 5: Who Are We?
“Sounds evoked within the mind of the reader of a book
are heard by the reader alone.”
“There, you see? By the reader alone. That means there’s
no proof. And your example with Beethoven’s symphony
isn’t convincing.”
‘At the time he wrote his Ninth Symphony, Ode to Joy,
Ludwig van Beethoven was deaf,” responded Anastasia.
This fact is attested by Beethoven’s biographers. Not only
that, but the deaf composer himself conducted the first per-
formance of his symphony
In the light of this particular historical fact, Anastasia’s
next saying no longer raised any doubts:
“Every letter or combination of letters from any text, being
uttered, can be transformed into sound. A page of text can be
compared to a page from a musical score. It is simply a ques*
tion of who is able to set forth the note-letters and how. Will
they comprise a great symphony or simply audible chaos?
And another question: does everyone have an instrument of
sufficiently high quality within themselves to reproduce the
fall orchestration?”
The researchers in our group subsequently came to the fol-
lowing conclusion:
Anastasia’s sayings in respect to the derivatives of explosion?
transportation by creating a vacuum, purification of the air, agro -
technical methods, the significance of cedar oil in the treatment
of many diseases, the energy of Man-produced thought, as well
as many other phenomena, deserve the most meticulous study by
scientific circles.
5 derivatives of explosion — see Anastasia’s declaration to Vladimir in Book i,
Chapter 16: “Flying saucers? Nothing extraordinary'”: “The functioning of all
your machines, every single one of them, is based on the energy of explosion.”
Who controls coincidences?
187
In arriving at this conclusion, our group does not make any
claim to be the first to discover it. Scholars in Novosibirsk
came to it at the same time or even a little ahead of us, as may
be seen in a presentation by the leader of the Novosibirsk
Scholars’ Circle, Sergei Speransky 6 In a published paper en-
titled “It’s more useful to believe”, the Novosibirsk psycholo-
gist Nina Zhutikova came up with the following conclusion
on the basis of her sociological research:
“One’s relationship to Anastasia is not dependent on the
presence or absence of academic degrees, but very much de-
pends on a Man’s character, his scale of values, on his conscious
and subconscious mindset — i.e., on a Man’s personality and all
its elements; it depends on whether this Man wants Anastasia
to be real or not; it depends on how open a Man’s consciousness
is, on the degree that it is ready to accept amazing phenomena
that go beyond the bounds of commonality What is revealed
to us and how — this depends on the characteristics of our time
and corresponds to the level of our own self-awareness.”
Possibly the Novosibirsk researches could have gone even
farther than ours, but the Siberian branch of the Russian
Academy of Sciences declined to finance them. Today our
group, having received a commission — and consequently
prearranged funding, — is already in a position to state with
confidence and the support of evidence the following fact:
Our civilisation has witnessed a phenomenon never before subject
to scientific measurement nor, consequently, to scientific definition.
Our research must attract not only representatives of modern sci-
entific disciplines — especially physicists and psychologists — but
esoterics too. The processes taking place in our society today under
6 Sergei Vladimirovich Spemnsky — see footnote 1 in Book 3, Chapter 19:
“What to agree with, what to believe?’’.
iSS
Book 5: Who Are We?
the influence of the Anastasia phenomenon are evident and ac-
tual, and we cannot — in fact, we do not even have the right
to — leave them unstudied.
Some of the events described in Megre’s books indeed look
like fiction at first glance, and we have endeavoured to treat
them with scepticism. Nevertheless, the subsequent events
that happened to the author but are not described in the
books are even more incredible. But the incredible has hap-
pened. And we find ourselves obliged to draw conclusions
which are difficult even for us to believe.
One of these conclusions is that Vladimir Megre does not
exist, and that there’s no point in studying his biography for
an explanation of what has happened.
What appears at first glance to be a rather far-fetched
conclusion removes and explains a whole host of improb-
abilities — namely: how did it happen that an ordinary Si-
berian entrepreneur suddenly became capable of writing a
book — a series of books, now, which has become one of the
most popular in Russia? The speculations put forth in the
press, upon closer inspection, turn out to be unfounded:
A bankrupt entrepreneur decides to settle bis affairs by becoming
a writer. But we have a lot of bankrupt entrepreneurs. Yet not
one of them has ever become a famous writer.
He managed to think up a sensational story-line. But the story-
line has nothing to do with it. Our esoteric press does noth-
ing but publish sensational stories about unusual phenomena
week after week — superhealers, flying saucers and aliens —
yet the public hardly bats an eyelid. And these stories are pre-
pared by professional writers and journalists.
Megre’s books have a powerful publicity engine workingfor them.
Just the opposite: many publications are now trying to pro-
mote themselves on the back of Alegre’s books. We have es-
tablished beyond a doubt that Megre’s first three books were
Who controls coincidences?
189
published without even any exposure in bookstores — not by a
publishing firm with a large distribution network but by Mos-
cow Printshop Number Eleven which doesn’t deal in the book
trade at all. And yet here people have been standing in queue
for Megre’s books, and wholesalers have been paying advances
up front to carry them, even before they’re published.
I11 the minds of many book dealers, the popularity of Meg-
re’s books flies in the face of all book business norms, and goes
against experts’ predictions concerning consumer demand.
So what is the result? Did Vladimir Megre miraculously
become a genius out of the blue? Nothing miraculous about
it. I repeat: Vladimir Megre — the entrepreneur who was
well-known in Siberia — simply does not exist today Evi-
dence in support of this argument may be found through a
careful reading of Anastasia’s sayings back in the first book.
Let’s recall her words addressed to Vladimir:
“You will write this book, guided only by feelings and your
heart. You will not be able to do otherwise, since you have
not mastered the technique of writing, but through your feel-
ings you can do anything. These feelings are already wdthin
you. Both mine and yours.”
Note carefully Anastasia’s last words cited here: These feel-
ings are already •within you. Both mine and yours. This means that
Vladimir Megre’s own sense-perception of the world has been
supplemented with that of Anastasia’s. We shall not examine
how and by what means this supplementing was effected. We
shall accept it as a fact which engenders the following logi-
cal conclusion: if to one defined magnitude another is added,
then the aggregate of the two magnitudes engenders a third
independent magnitude.
Hence the present Megre’s date of birth cannot be deter-
mined by the date registered on his official birth certificate.
Quoted from Book 1, Chapter 27: 'Across the dark forces' window of time”.
Book 5: Who Are We?
190
There is more justification in considering his birthdate to be
in 1994 ~ be., the moment he met Anastasia.
Even though the outward appearance of the new individ-
ual corresponds to the former Alegre, the radical difference
between the two is all too apparent. This includes, for ex-
ample, both his literary talent and his ability to hold an audi-
ence’s attention for an extended period of time — five hours
or more — as has been twice attested by witnesses to his ap-
pearance at a readers’ conference in the city of Gelendzhik in
the Krasnodar region. 8 This fact is reflected in accounts in a
number of national magazines.
Many researchers and journalists have got caught up in
comparisons and investigations of events connected with the
activities of Vladimir Megre, just on the basis of the descrip-
tions in the books. They have been attempting to prove, either
subconsciously or openly and aggressively that this cannot be sol
My dear colleagues, I am inclined to believe, and not with-
out some justification, that the following communications
will convince you that such a feeling is nothing more than a
defence mechanism found in those whose mind or conscious-
ness is incapable of making sense of what is really going on.
Vladimir Megre himself — or, more accurately, part of his
own seif — is even less capable than that of malting sense of
the events he is involved in. It is just that he has gradually
become accustomed to them, and is beginning to categorise
ermn the most incredible phenomena as normal or common-
place — which has also screed to keep him from having a
nervous breakdown. I think that, like many readers, he did
not pay any special attention to what Anastasia said to him
back at that first meeting with him in the taiga. When Alegre
protested: “I shan’t even make an attempt to write anything,”
Anastasia responded: “Believe me, you shall. They have
s
Described in Book 4, Chapter 34: “Anomalies at Gelendzhik”.
Who controls coincidences?
191
already created a whole network of circumstances that will
make you do this.”' 5
This dialogue is given right in Book 1, but in Megre’s sub-
sequent books there isn’t even an attempt to return to this
question: who in fact are these mysterious They ? Upon re-
ceiving specific information, the members of our group once
more delved into the dialogues reproduced in the first book
to select all the references to this They scattered over its pag-
es. I shall cite these references in Anastasia’s words:
“If it had not been for them — and for me too, a little —
your second expedition would not have been possible.”
“I want you to be purified. That is why I thought back then
about your trip to holy places, about the book. They have ac-
cepted this, and the forces of darkness are always fighting with
them, but never have the dark forces scored a major victory”
“My plan and conscious awareness were precise and realis-
tic, and they accepted them.” 10
“They are answerable only to God.” 11
The following conclusion can be drawn from Anastasia’s
sayings: some indeterminate forces will set in place for Alegre
some kind of network of circumstances compelling him to
carry out action somebody’s pre-programmed for him. And
if that is so, then Megre’s role as an individual in his creations
amounts to nil, or at least something very insignificant. Eve-
rything is simply being handed him on a platter through this
network of supposedly coincidental circumstances. This also
means that the individual of the past known as Alegre has evi-
dently been violated.
q These and the following passages (except as otherwise noted) are quoted
from Book 1, Chapter 26: “Dreams — creating the future”.
‘“Quoted from Book 1, Chapter 27: ‘Across the dark forces' window of time”.
"Quoted from Book 1, Chapter 24: “A strange girl”.
192
Book 5: Who Are We?
We decided that if we succeed in establishing certain
anomalies in Alegre’s behaviour — or, rather, the presence of
a network of circumstances or so-called coincidences, such a
presence could confirm or disprove (a) the reality of what hap-
pened in the taiga, (b) the degree of participation of Megre as
an individual in the events taking place in society surrounding
the publication of his books, and (c) the existence of some
kind of forces capable of producing coincidences influencing
Man’s destiny.
The episode in Alegre’s life which we have managed to exam-
ine in the greatest detail, right down to individual nuances, is
his behaviour on Cyprus in June 1999, during the time when
he was working on his fourth book, Co-creation. It would even
be more accurate to say that he was in the process of figur-
ing out the meaning of his dialogues with Anastasia (which he
had already transcribed) about the creation of the Earth and
Man. What we discovered on Cyprus can only be summed
up in one short phrase: What is it? Let me acquaint you with
certain events that took place there.
At the end of May 1999 Vladimir Alegre took a Transavia 12
flight to Cyprus, but not as a member of a tourist group. There
was nobody he knew on Cyprus. He did not know any of the
languages spoken on the island. The Cyprus travel agency,
Leptos,' 1 * 3 placed this individual Russian tourist in a single room
on the second floor of a small hotel. The room had a balcony
overlooking a fair-sized pool, where tourists (mainly from
England and Germany) would lounge around and have fun.
1 Transavia — an international airline company, part of the Dutch-based
KLM Group.
13 Leptos — a large conglomerate headquartered in Paphos (Cyprus) that
includes both tourist services and property development.
Who controls coincidences?
193
Megre’s Russian travel ageirt had informed the manager of
Leptos that this particular tourist was a Russian writer. But
that was hardly news to a major travel firm like Leptos, ac-
customed to hosting world-famous celebrities. As far as they
were concerned, Megre was just an ordinary tourist. Never-
theless, on the second day of his stay he was approached by the
senior company manager responsible for the Russian tourist
market with an offer to show him around the city, including
the estates the company itself had developed. They brought
along a Russian-speaking interpreter employed by the firm. I
am now going to quote, my friends, from a transcript of the
statement provided to us by the Leptos interpreter, Marina
Pavlova , 14 during an interview:
I accompanied Nikos, the manager of Leptos, and Megre,
and interpreted during their conversation. Megre distin-
guished himself from most Russian tourists by his uncom-
promising attitude, which bordered on tactlessness. For
example, we were standing on a mountain with a terrific
view of the sea and the city of Paphos . 11 Nikos was giving
the usual spiel:
“Look at ail this natural beauty around us. What a fan-
tastic view!”
I translated the sentence, but Megre responded:
“It’s a depressing view. Nice and warm... The sea... But
look, the vegetation’s all stunted, just an occasional bush
here and there. So unnatural in a climate like this.”
' ''Pavlova (pronounced PAHVla-va) — a Russian surname (feminine form).
11 Paphos — a bustling seaport on the south-west coast of the island, which
before the time of Constantine served as the capital of Cyprus. An even
earlier settlement by the same name (with ruins dating back to 3000 B.C.)
is located some 16 km to the southeast. The Paphos District covers the
whole western tip of the island and according to local legend is the birth-
place of the goddess of love , Aphrodite.
194
Book 5: Who Are We?
Nikos began to explain:
“Earlier the island was covered with cedar forests, but
when the Romans invaded, they cut down the forests to
build their ships. Besides, there is very little rainfall here.”
To which Megre retorted:
“The Romans were here many centuries ago. Over that
time new forests could have grown up, but you have not
been planting them.”
Nikos tried to explain that there is very little rainfall on
the island, and even drinking water must be collected in
special reservoirs.
But Megre sharply responded:
“There is no water because there is no forest, and the
wind carries the clouds on past the island. If there were
a forest, it would slow down the movement of the lower
air currents, as well as the movement of the higher-altitude
clouds. It would rain more often on the island. I think the
reason they don’t plant a forest is that they are trying to sell
all the land for development.”
Having said this, Megre turned aside and became lost in
thought. We didn’t say a word. An oppressive pause hung
over us. There was nothing anyone could say
The next day as we were having lunch at a cafe, Nikos
enquired as to what he might do to make Vladimir’s stay
more comfortable. Megre replied in all seriousness:
“There should be more Russian spoken on the island.
The restaurants should serve proper fish, instead of some
kind of perch. The hotel rooms should be quieter. Besides,
I’d rather have a forest around me than people who smile
when they don’t mean it.”
Then there was the meeting between Megre and the
head of the Leptos agency. How this came about I have no
idea. The CEO has never met with any tourists in person,
and even many of his employees have never seen his face.
Who controls coincidences?
195
I was present at the meeting as an interpreter. But even
here Megre said the company should change the layout of
the sites where it was constructing its new estates. Each
site should be no less than a hectare in size, a place where
people can plant trees and look after them, and that way
the whole island will be transformed. If this doesn’t hap-
pen, it won’t be long before the island becomes an undesir-
able tourist destination, and Leptos will see a significant
decline in business.
After a moment’s pause, the CEO began expounding
with considerable aplomb on the island’s legendary tour-
ist sites and the most famous site of all, the Baths of the
goddess Aphrodite .' 6 He concluded by offering Megre
an opportunity to suggest anything that might make his
stay more comfortable. While the CEO of Leptos might
have been able to satisfy the wishes of many Western mil-
lionaires, what Megre said to him in response completely
threw him for a loop — it sounded like a joke, as though
Alegre were making fun of him. Megre in all seriousness
replied:
“I need to meet with the granddaughter of the goddess
Aphrodite.”
I tried translating this sentence as a joke, but nobody
laughed. The shock of the remark left everybody speech-
less.
By and by news of this Russian tourist’s eccentricities
reached the ears of the hotel staff where Megre was stay-
ing, and they began to make fun of him. Nikos told me in
conversation that there was something abnormal in Meg-
re’s behaviour.
' h Baths of Aphrodite — a serene, shady grotto and pool near Polis on the
Akamas Peninsula, about 50 km north of Paphos, where the goddess Aph-
rodite, according to legend, teas wont to take her baths.
196
Book 5: Who Are We?
Nikos and I made regular morning visits to the hotel on
administrative matters, and each time Nikos would joking-
ly ask the clerk on duty at the main desk whether Aphro-
dite’s granddaughter had checked in yet. The clerk would
laughingly respond that she hadn’t arrived yet, but there
was always a room waiting for her!
Megre evidently felt the mocking glances of the hotel
staff whenever he came down to the bar from his room in
the evening, or to breakfast in the morning. It seemed to
bother him. As a Russian, I too felt uncomfortable about
seeing my fellow-countryman being ridiculed, but there
was no longer anything I could do.
On the morning of the last day of Megre’s scheduled stay
on Cyprus, Nikos and I went to the hotel as usual. Nikos
wanted to say good-bye to Megre. Once again he greeted
the desk clerk with his customary jocular enquiry, but this
time the clerk’s usual response was not forthcoming. The
clerk, in a rather emotional frame of mind, told Nikos that
Megre had not spent the night in his room and was not in
the hotel at the moment. He went on to report in all seri-
ousness, without even the hint of a smile, that the evening
before, Aphrodite’s granddaughter had come to the hotel
in a motorcar and collected Megre along with his things.
She had told the clerk on duty in Greek that there was
no need to be concerned, that Megre would not be return-
ing to the hotel and so his room could be reassigned as
needed, and that they need not bother booking Megre’s
return flight to Moscow. She also asked him to tell Nikos
that she would bring Megre to the hotel at ten o’clock the
next morning to say good-bye. The clerk repeated that
Aphrodite’s granddaughter had talked with the hotel staff
in Greek but with Megre in Russian. Without a clue as to
what was going on, Nikos and I seated ourselves in two of
the comfortable armchairs in the lobby and silently waited
Who controls coincidences?
197
for the appointed hour to arrive.
At ten o’clock on the dot the big glass doors of the main
entrance swung open, and we saw Vladimir Megre accompa-
nied by a beautiful young woman. I had seen her before. She
was Elena Fadeyeva , 17 a Russian who lived and worked on Cy-
prus as a representative of a Moscow travel firm. I told you I
recognised her, but not right away This particular morning
Elena Fadeyeva looked exceptionally beautiful. Wearing a
long light-weight dress, she sported an attractive hairdo and
had a cheery sparkle in her eyes. The slender young woman
accompanying Megre immediately drew the attention of the
hotel staff in the lobby Bartenders, maids and clerks froze
in their tracks, their eyes fixed on the approaching pair.
In talking with them Nikos and I learnt that Megre had
decided to extend his stay on Cyprus by a month. When
Megre temporarily withdrew to see about something at the
bar counter, Nikos remarked on Megre’s fussiness, saying
he was making demands which neither he nor the Leptos
CEO could possibly fulfil. Whereupon Elena responded:
“I have fulfilled all his wishes. I think I shall be able to
fulfil any others, too, that may arise.”
Nikos continued to question Elena as to how she was
able to do the impossible in just twelve hours. How could
she make Megre’s favourite Siberian freshwater fish ap-
pear on Cyprus, or cause cedars to grow on the island in
just twelve hours, or make all the Cypriots suddenly be able
to understand Megre speaking Russian? Where could she
have found a place for him to stay where nobody could in-
terrupt the solitude he so desired?
Elena replied that everything Megre needed just sim-
ply appeared as though by coincidence. She put Megre up
17 Fadeyeva (pron . fa-D’AT-a-va) — a Russian surname (feminine form). The
first name Elena is pronounced ye-LEN-a.
198 Book 5: Who Are We?
at her own villa, which just happened to be vacated at the
right moment. The villa was located not far from Paphos
at the edge of the village of Peyia, lfi where nobody could
possibly disturb him. She provided him with transporta-
tion by hiring a motorscooter especially for him. It turned
out that her Russian friend Alla who was also working on
Cyprus just happened to have some Siberian freshwater
fish on hand. And cedars grow on a hillside not far from
her villa. Besides, Alegre had brought with him two little
Siberian cedars, and she put them in pots right at the villa’s
entrance. The language barrier would present no further
problem for Alegre, since there are telephones in all the
places he wants to visit, including shops and cafes, and she
always has her own mobile phone with her and that way
she can interpret for Alegre whenever necessary — i.e.,
whenever he has something he wants to say to someone.
As Elena and Vladimir were already making their way
toward the door under the fixed stares of everyone present,
I reminded Nikos that he had forgotten to ask how Elena
would be able to fulfil Alegre’s request concerning the
granddaughter of the goddess Aphrodite. Nikos looked at
me in surprise and replied?
“If that Russian girl isn’t the living embodiment or Aph-
rodite or her granddaughter, then for certain the spirit of
Aphrodite is present in her at this moment.”
My dear colleagues, after hearing Marina Pavlova de-
scribe these events ofVladimir Alegre’s life during his stay on
Cyprus, the question naturally arose: whence came this chain
lS Peyr'a — one of the four municipalities in the Paphos District of Cyprus,
close to the tourist resort of Coral Bay — a picturesque village of white-
washed houses hugging the steep Mediterranean coastline. A quiet haven
in comparison to the bustle of Paphos, Peyia also features the remains of
two Christian basilicas on its outskirts.
Who controls coincidences?
199
of coincidences which fulfilled all Alegre’s stated demands
in the blink of an eye? Was it really just coincidence, or was
someone — like Anastasia, or the mysterious They she talks
about — somehow shaping these coincidences? Note how
immediately after the people around Alegre at his hotel began
to wonder what was going on, a situation turned up to remove
him from the curious observers’ field of vision — he retired to
Elena Fadeyeva’s villa.
As far as the people back at the hotel were concerned, this
ended the unusual chain of coincidences. But we wondered
whether it had really come to an end, and so we reconstructed
subsequent events in as much detail as we could, thanks to the
help of what we were told both by Fadeyeva personally and by
people who know her. And what did we learn? It turned out
that not only did the series of extraordinary coincidences not
stop, but they became even more mysterious. I’ll cite just a
few excerpts from our records.
So — here we have Vladimir Alegre staying all by himself in
Fadeyeva’s small but cozy villa. Fie was most probably in the
process of deciphering Anastasia’s sayings about God, about
the creation of the Earth and Alan, and Alan’s destiny. He had
just finished working on this part of the book. But he didn’t
understand everything himself yet. And true to his nature, be-
fore publishing the book, he wanted to find somewhere (or in
some thing) at least a modicum of confirmation of Anastasia’s
unusual sayings. From time to time he would ring up Elena
and ask her to come and see him, to take him somewhere in
the car. And each time the young woman would drop whatev-
er she was doing at the moment to fulfil Alegre’s request, even
if it meant reneging on a commitment to greet people arriving
from Russia. Twice she had to reassign her duties to one of
her colleagues, losing part of her income in the process.
So, where did Alegre go? We established that, apart from
the usual tourist spots, he paid a visit to two churches, which
200
Book 5: Who Are We?
none of the other tourists went to, along with a monastery
not on the tourist circuit and a vacant castle in the Troodos
mountains / 9 On several occasions he climbed the ridge not
far from Fadeyeva’s villa. He would take solitary walks among
the cedars growing on the ridge while Elena waited for him
down by the road.
We were also able to establish that all Alegre's visits to
the churches and monasteries were spontaneous — i.e., not
planned in advance. More specifically, they formed part of
the same chain of coincidences. Here is what Elena Fadeyeva
told us about Vladimir Megre’s night-time visit to one of the
churches:
I went to see Vladimir at around nine p.m., directly after
he called. He told me he simply wanted to go for a ride
around the city Fie got into my car and we headed for
Paphos. Vladimir seemed absorbed in his own thoughts
and scarcely offered a word of conversation. We drove for
about an hour or so. As we passed by all the cafes along the
embankment, I suggested we stop for something to eat,
but he declined. When I asked where he would like to go,
he said he felt like visiting some vacant church.
I turned the car around and headed full speed (I’m not
sure why I was in such a hurry) to a little village. I knew
there was a church there that hardly anybody visits. We
drove right up to the entrance and got out of the car. Not
a soul around. The night-time silence was broken only by
the roar of the waves. We walked up to the main door. It
was dark, but just below the door-handle I could feel a large
19 Troodos mountains — the largest mountain range on Cyprus, spread across
the western end of the island and capped by Mount Olympus (1,952 me-
tres high). The range is home to a number of monasteries and Byzantine
churches; nine of the latter are listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Who controls coincidences?
201
key sticking out. I turned it and opened the door. Vladimir
went in, and for a long time stood in the middle of the floor
below the dome. I stayed by the entrance. Then Vladimir
went through the archway the priests come out of and
must have lit a candle or something. Anyway something
there began emitting a bright glow, and the whole church
interior brightened a bit. I stood for a while longer and
then went out to the car. Some time later Vladimir ap-
peared and we left.
Here is the second incident Fadeyeva told us about:
I wanted to show Vladimir a village way out in the country,
so he could see how the local people lived. There were so
many turns going off the mountain road we were trave llin g
and somehow (probably by mistake) I took a wrong turn,
since instead of ending up at the village, we presently found
ourselves in front of the gates to a little monastery. Vladimir
wanted to go in at once and asked me to go with him to in-
terpret with the monks, but I said I couldn’t. I was wearing
a rather short skirt and had no head covering, and that’s not
permitted in a monastery So I staved outside.
I watched as Vladiinir walked across the courtyard. All
at once he noticed a young monk in front of him. They
stopped to face each other and began conversing. Then
they came over to me. I could hear the young monk speak-
ing with Vladimir in Russian, and presently Vladimir was
approached by an older grey-haired man — the Father Su-
perior — and the two of them sat and talked for the longest
time on one of the benches in the courtyard. The monks
and I were standing a little distance away and we couldn’t
hear what they were talking about.
Then the Father Superior and the monks gathered to see
us off. But on his way out the gate Vladimir stopped, and
202
Book 5: Who Are We?
everybody else stopped, too. Vladimir turned and headed
across the courtyard to the church. Nobody followed him.
We were still waiting at the gate when he came out of the
vacant monastery church.
And so the chain of coincidences continued, just to re-
mind you, Vladimir Alegre was working on deciphering what
Anastasia had said about God. Was it just a coincidence that
at the very moment when he wanted to visit a vacant church,
there at his side, coincidentally, was Elena Fadeyeva, who just
happened to know about such a church? Was it just a coinci-
dence that a key was sticking out of the door of this vacant
church? Was it just a coincidence that Elena made a wrong
turn and ended up taking Alegre to a monastery hardly any-
body goes to? Was it just a coincidence that he encountered
a Russian-speaking monk? We are dealing here with a chain
of events, real-life situations, practically a series of seeming
coincidences, sequentially arranged, all leading to some kind
of predetermined end.
Now that we know about such coincidences, can we still
talk about the philosophical conclusions Alegre comes to in his
books as being purely random or coincidental? Perhaps it was
in some of these churches where Alegre (as we now know) stood
alone under the dome, that God’s words became consolidated in
his mind, afterward to appear in his fourth book, Co-creation ?
Time and again we have tried to trace in detail the sequence
of the coincidences surrounding Alegre. Among a great many
others there was one that interested us in particular — name-
ly, how Alegre just ‘happened’ to meet Elena Fadeyeva. We
shan’t speculate as to whether this young woman was actu-
ally imbued with the spirit of the goddess Aphrodite. Well
leave such speculation to the esoterics. But let’s consider just
why this girl dropped what she was doing at the very first call
and rushed to Alegre’s side, made him borsch and carted him
Who controls coincidences?
203
around Cyprus in her motorcar? Why did she change so radi-
cally even in her appearance, after meeting Megre? Why did
her eyes suddenly begin to sparkle upon meeting Megre (as
claimed by people who know her)?
Perhaps it was just from meeting a celebrity? But as a repre-
sentative of a travel agency affiliated with Mosestrada, Elena
gets to meet much bigger celebrities than Vladimir Megre.
Money, perhaps? But Megre couldn’t have had much mon-
ey — otherwise he wouldn’t have booked into a three-star ho-
tel to begin with.
There is only one conclusion to be drawn from all this:
Elena Fadeyeva fell in love with Megre. This is confirmed by
something she said to one of her acquaintances. When the
acquaintance asked her:
“Well, Lena, you haven’t fallen in love with this Megre
chap?”
Elena responded:
“I don’t know — it’s a rather strange feeling... But, if he
asked me...”
And so we have yet another incredible coincidence before
us: here’s a twenty-three-year-old woman — slender, warm
and outreaching, independent and pragmatic, not lacking in
a fair share of attention on the part of the many men around
her, suddenly falling in love at first sight with a forty-nine-
year-old man. I think you will agree that such coincidences
are extremely rare indeed.
We’ve tried analysing in still greater detail — even moment
by moment — the first meeting between Vladimir Megre and
Elena Fadeyeva. We spoke with the employees at the Maria
Cafe who witnessed it first-hand. From what we were told
20 Mosestrada (in full: Moskovskaya estrada - lit. ‘Moscow Musical Stage’) — a
large Moscow-based entertainment enterprise. In Soviet times it was in
virtual control of Moscow’s pop-music entertainment sector.
204
Book 5: Who Are We?
by Elena herself and by the people who know her, we have
reconstructed the day of that meeting. As a result we have
been presented with yet another coincidence — but this time
what a coincidence! It could explain Elena falling in love with
Megre a few minutes before she met him for the first time!
A kind of coincidence that can have an effect on both Alan’s
consciousness and his subconscious simultaneously
Picture to yourself Elena Fadeyeva driving her car on the
way to the Maria Cafe in a resort town. One of the waiters
had rung her up and asked her to come to the cafe if at all pos-
sible, as there was a Russian man sitting at one of the tables
and getting very nervous. The cafe’s sign featured its name in
Russian, as well as names of Russian dishes, all of which prom-
ised a Russian-speaking waiter — but, as it turned out, this
person did not happen to be on the premises at the time.
Elena at first declines, but then a little break happens to
come up in her work. So she gets into her car and heads for
the cafe where some kind of Russian man is waiting. Along
the way she takes care to powder her sun-tanned nose, picks
an audiocassette at random and slips it into the player in her
car. The car’s speaker system fills the interior with the words
and melody of a Russian popular song . 21
I am now going to remind you of the words of that song, and
you, my dear colleagues, can draw your own conclusion. Here
are the words Elena heard resonating from her car speakers
just moments before her encounter with Megre in the cafe;
I myself am a rather young god,
My experience? Perhaps there’s not much to say.
Russian popular song — these are the words to the song “Don’t let him go’’
{Ne daj emu iiyti) by the well-known St. Petersburg singer-songwriter Maxim
Leonidov (1962-)- The third stanza shown here is actually the song’s refrain
and is repeated at the end.
Who controls coincidences?
205
But still, n ry dear girl, I just know I coidd
Help you, and shine sunlight upon your dark day.
No moments to spare — you ’re in a crunch.
Id 11’ve a break coming up, hardly any time at all.
So you powder your nose, and, head off to lunch
To meet him at a cafe — at a table by the wall.
Somewhere far away trains are flying through the wood,
And ’planes are off course — just why, we don’t know.
If he should take off, he’ll be gone for good,
So the answer is simple — just don't let him go.
Why are you suddenly quiet, my dear?
Just look into his eyes and do not be shy.
I’ve been closing this circle for many a long year...
The one who has brought him to meet you is I.
And she, or someone acting through her, did not let him go.
And she, or someone acting through her, fulfilled all his wishes,
providing more and more information to confirm his philo-
sophical conclusions. He returned to Russia and submitted the
manuscript of his fourth book, Co-creation, to the publishers.
Thus Vladimir Megre’s life really turns out to be like the
life of Ivan the Fool 22 in the Russian folk tales, the only differ-
ence being that the events that happened to Megre are abso-
lutely real.
22 Ivan the Fool (Russian: Ivan-durak ) — the main character of many Rus-
sian folk tales: in their more recent versions, Ivan is a simpleton who in-
variably wins considerable favours through no effort of his own. In the
older versions of the same tales he is portrayed as a wizard able to control
natural forces. The term durak is based on the ancient root ra signifying the
Sun, but which over the centuries has been perverted to take the opposite
meaning of ‘fool’.
20 6
Book 5: Who Are We?
Faced with the reality of such phenomena, we cannot deny
the existence of some kind of forces capable of purposefully in-
fluencing the destiny of an individual Man. This begs a number
of questions: are these forces capable of influencing the des-
tiny or all mankind? How active have these forces been in the
past? Have they become more active in our century? What
kind of forces are they? The events we have witnessed suggest
the need to pay more careful attention to Anastasia’s sayings.
My dear colleagues, the majority of our research group is
inclined toward the following conclusion: the Siberian recluse
Anastasia , while leaving the governments of the different countries
in position for the time being is actually taking personal control of
the whole human civilisation. Note the distinction — not ‘seiz-
ing power’, but ‘taking personal control’.
Upon coming into contact with Megre’s books, the major-
ity of readers experience a desire to change their way of life.
His readers already number more than a million, and their
numbers are steadily growing. Once they have reached a
critical mass, they will be capable of influencing the decisions
of the world’s governments. But even today in these govern-
ments there are to be found enthusiastic supporters of the
conclusions reached in the books.
In other words our society as a whole will become just as
controllable as Vladimir Megre himself. I hope there is no
longer any doubt in your minds, my dear colleagues, that this
Megre is an entity completely under the control of some kind
of forces. I believe it is incumbent upon us, through our joint
efforts, to figure out just who this Siberian recluse Anastasia
is. Where is she, anyway? What are her capabilities? What
kind of forces are helping her? Where are they trying to lead
our society? These are the questions that modern science
must answer.
Chapter Twenty
I listened to the unknown speaker’s report on the audiocas-
sette a second time. It made absolutely no difference to me
who this person was. The conclusions he reached had such
an effect on me that not only did I not have any desire to con-
tinue writing, but my life itself began to seem meaningless.
Anastasia’s concept of Alan’s significance was actually start-
ing to grow on me — about how each Man is the beloved child
of God, that he can be happy right here on the Earth. One
only needs to gain a proper understanding of one’s purpose. I
believed Anastasia and believed in the possibility of changing
our life today for the better by transforming our lifestyle and
building new communities.
But all my faith collapsed after hearing what was on the
cassette. The thing was that the facts cited by the speaker re-
garding the coincidences that had happened to me — which,
in his words, formed a pattern — were spot on. Everything
he said actually happened, and more. There were other
things I knew about besides — things they hadn’t been able
to establish.
It all did happen the way he said, and that means that I’ve
simply been a puppet in somebody’s hands. It doesn’t really
matter whose — Anastasia’s, or some kind of forces or ener-
gy — that’s not important. What matters is that I, as a Alan,
am nothing — I don’t exist. What exists is my flesh, which is
so easily controllable by someone through arranged ‘coinci-
dences’. It would be all right if I were the only one who could
be controlled. But there may very well be other people under
208
Book 5: Who Are We?
someone’s control from above, or maybe someone on high is
controlling all humanity, and all humanity is just a plaything
for an invisible someone, someone imperceptible to our hu-
man minds.
I didn’t want to be anyone’s plaything, but the facts cited
in the report argue incontestably that Fm nothing, I’m being
controlled — and this is clearly manifest. I can see it backed
up by facts I know all too well myself.
Whatever happened to me on Cyprus wasn’t bad — quite
the contrary, it was good! But that’s not the point! If an invis-
ible someone has arranged a chain ofwonderful coincidences,
then tomorrow it may come into somebody else’s head to ar-
range another, not so wonderful chain of coincidences. This
is relegating Man to the status of a plaything. And what about
mankind as a whole? How could I not have realised before
that some kind of forces are playing with all mankind, like
children with toy soldiers?!
When Anastasia talked about God and co-creation back in
the taiga, it was as though some kind of curtain had parted as
a result of her words.
For the first time in my life I pictured God not as some kind
of amorphous, incomprehensible being or an old man sitting
on a cloud — but as a Person, capable of feeling, experiencing
concern, dreaming and creating. My impressions from what
Anastasia told me were more vivid and more comprehensible
than anything I had ever heard or read before on the subject.
And that wasn’t all! When she spoke, my heart felt good and
not so lonely. Which means: He exists! He can be understood
and He acts. He is wise and good. And this is confirmed by
His creation all around us — the cedars, the grass, the birds
and the beasts. There in the taiga, in Anastasia’s glade, they
are all somehow kindly, not aggressive.
We’re so accustomed to taking His creations for granted —
we hardly pay any attention to them, but we try to appreciate
Breakdown
209
Him through something else instead. Through some kind
of secret doctrines. And we wander the planet looking for
hidden sacred places, looking for teachers, looking for teach-
ings. Now if that isn’t truly absurd! A complete absence of
logic! If we talk about God as our good Father, then how can
we assume that He will conceal something good from His
children? There is nothing Fie has hid or concealed from
people — His children. On the contrary, He always endeav-
ours to be right beside them. What power is it that opposes
Him? What power has so mesmerised us that we through our
lifestyle have placed the whole planet — this splendid Earth
which Fie has given us — under the threat of global disaster?
What power is toying with us?
Every evening we see the glow emanating from the win-
dows of our many-storeyed apartment blocks. Behind every
window people’s lives are unfolding. And how many of them,
how many of these lives are really happy in this world? We
talk about morality, love and culture, we all try to present an
appearance of decency. But in reality? But in reality, even
by the most conservative estimate, every other man, though
outwardly decent, is fooling around with women on the sly —
unbeknownst to his family which still presents a decent ap-
pearance.
What is one of the most lucrative sources of our national
government’s income? Vodka and cigarettes. The State still
maintains a tight hold on its monopoly here. But who does
the drinking? The winos lolling about our fences and apart-
ment-block lobbies? Well, of course, they drink, too. But
they don’t have the financial clout to sustain the hundreds of
our flourishing factories spewing out rivers of spirits. No, it is
the outwardly decent and respectable folk who constitute the
bulk of the consumer market here.
We maintain huge police forces, not to mention personal
security services and private investigative teams. What for?
210
Book 5: Who Are We?
To round up all the winos and philanderers? Nonsense! With
the forces at its disposal Internal Affairs 1 could go and collect
them all in a single day; It’s not them they’re after, but out-
wardly decent folk.
Just think here we have a whole army of “special serv-
ices”, and believe me, they do not sit around with time on
their hands. Which means there must be a whole army out
there working against them! Which means that here a con-
stant warfare is being waged, and we are all sitting right on
the border between the warring parties, financing both sides.
We attempt to improve the technical capabilties of one of the
belligerents — namely, our organs of law enforcement, yet at
the same time the other side is also upgrading its own techni-
cal prowess, and financing it from our pockets, too. After all,
money has only one source — human labour. And the war is
being waged on an ever more technically advanced level.
And it’s not just a one-year or two-year conflict. It’s all
been going on for millennia. And nobody knows where it
all started or who can put an end to it. And we’re right in
the midst of the action, and not one of us is neutral — we’re
all participants. We’re all participants in a never-ending war.
Some of us are directly involved in the fighting, some finance
it willingly or unwillingly, others manufacture the arms for it.
But we all proceed under the mask of decency, talking about
science, technology and culture.
As an intensively developing, intelligent civilisation, we
make ourselves look smart and utter the slogans of scientific
and technical progress. Well, you smart civilisation, what
about all the stinking water coming out of your taps? How
did you ever think up, especially with that smart appearance
1 Internal Affairs — the Russian ministry in charge of national security, in-
cluding the “special services” branch which deals with any perceived threats
against the State.
Breakdown
211
of yours, this business of forcing people to buy their drinking
water in bottles? Water which gets more expensive clay by
day?
We are unwilling to take off our masks of decency But
why? Why do we inevitably complicate our lives this way year
after year? Why are we moving so inexorably toward some
stinking cesspool? And we are moving toward it, even if we
don’t want to admit it to ourselves. Why is nobody stopping
this movement?
We have religious denominations aplenty But not one
of them can stop this movement. What if they can’t stop it
completely, but just slow it down? If so, then that would be
a form of sadism, only prolonging the period of torture. We
go on thinking of ourselves as being a smart and decent civi-
lisation, but why, in this smart civilisation, are women losing
interest in having children? Statistics are already showing us
that our nation is dying out. What kind of forces are making
a complete nutcase out of Man?
For a whole week I was depressed and apathetic about every-
thing. I simply lay in bed the whole time and hardly had a bite
to eat. Toward the end of the week I was suddenly overcome
by fits of anger — even rage. I felt like doing at least some-
thing to counteract these forces. It didn’t matter what kind
of forces they were — dark or bright. Just to spite anything
that was trying to control us... To show them that Man is ca-
pable of coming out from under their control.
But what could I do to spite them? If they — or Anastasia
along with them — wanted me to write, then I would refuse
to write. If meat was off limits, then I’d eat meat, and smoke
212
Book 5: Who Are We?
and drink too. Judging by their actions, they wouldn’t like
that. Well just let them try and stop me!
I drank every day for a whole month. The stupor relieved
me temporarily, but then came the sobriety of the following
morning, and all the bad thoughts flared up in me once more.
Why had I been writing? I was trying to be honest, while
all along I was simply becoming a toy of amusement in good-
ness-knows-whose hands.
At night-time, after getting thoroughly drunk, I would
make my way along the "wall to my bed. And how I wanted to
cry out — cry out so that my grandchildren and great-grand-
children could hear! So that they could hear and understand!
Understand!!! I’d been writing because I couldn’t take the lie
of the mask any longer! I was trying to find a way out!
Chapter Twenty-One
Occasionally in the morning I would reel a desire to break
free of my drunken stupor. And then I would head for the
bathroom to shave off my several days’ growth of stubble. Re-
membering Anastasia, 1 tried not to think of bad things, but
of the good she had managed to accomplish. I tried to con-
vince myself that she was doing something good, but life kept
on tossing more and more destructive arguments my way
And so on one particular morning, as I was routinely try-
ing to come out of my stupor, a good friend of mine rang the
doorbell of the flat I was renting. It was still early, and I hadn’t
finished shaving yet. I still had shaving cream on my face as I
opened the door.
Vladislav was in some kind of emotional state. After say-
ing hello he announced:
“We gotta talk. Go finish your shaving while I start.”
I did so, and he began telling me that he had finally read the
book. He was excited about it, and could agree with Anasta-
sia on a lot of things. He thought her logic was ironclad, but
there was something else that he was even more concerned
about.
“So, because of this meeting with her, you broke up with
your family and lost your business... You don’t feel like carry-
ing on with business any more, eh?”
“That’s right.”
‘And you tried to organise a commonwealth of entrepre-
neurs with purer thoughts, like she suggested?... So, are you
writing your next book?”
214
Book 5: Who Are We?
“I’m not writing at the moment. There’s something I’m
trying to work out.”
“That’s just it — you’ve got to work it out. Tell me, just
what have you accomplished after five years’ acquaintance
with this recluse — what do you have to show for yourself?”
“What d’you mean, what? I’ll give you an example. Here in
the Caucasus you can already see the first glimpses of a change
in people’s attitude toward the dolmens.' You can imagine
how many scientific papers had been written about them ear-
lier, but they never made anyone excited about them. People
just plundered them and carted things away.
“But what Anastasia said had an immediate effect. In just
the Druzhba sanatorium 1 2 alone they had no sooner read my
book than the employees got together and went to the nearby
dolmen to lay flowers. And in other places too, people are
changing their attitude toward their forebears, they’re think-
ing about — ”
“Stop! I completely agree with you. Her words are hav-
ing an effect. And the fact you mentioned just now not only
confirms this, but something else too. She’s turned you into a
zombie — you’re not really yourself anymore.”
“What makes you think that?”
“It’s simple. You’re an entrepreneur who even back in the
early days of perestroika w as able to build up major commercial
enterprises from scratch — even without any starting capital.
You were the President of the Association of Siberian Entre-
preneurs. And all of a sudden you stopped doing business,
and now you’re doing your own washing and cooking — hey,
you’re a completely different person!”
1 dolmens — ancient megalithic tombs; see footnote r in Book i, Chapter 30:
“Author’s message to readers”.
” Druzhba sanatorium — the name Druzhba means ‘Friendship’. This inci-
dent is described in Book 2, Chapter 33; “ Tour sacred sites, O Russia!”.
Attempt at deconditioning
215
“I’ve heard these arguments before, Vladislav But what
Anastasia said got me excited. She has a beautiful dream:
‘Carry people across the dark forces’ window 7 of time’. She
believes in it. She asked me to write a book. I promised I
would. She’s alone, after all, waiting and dreaming. She prob-
ably somehow associates the book with that dream of hers.
You said yourself that what Anastasia says in the book can
have a tremendous influence on people.”
“That’s just it — another illustration confirming her inter-
ference in things. Judge for yourself. An unknown author,
an entrepreneur, ail at once writes a book. And about what?
About the history of mankind. The Cosmos. The Mind of
the Universe. The raising of children. She’s beginning to have
an effect on people in their day-to-day real life, she’s influenc-
ing their behaviour.”
“But it is a positive influence.”
“Possibly But that’s not the point. Haven’t you ever
thought what made you suddenly able to write a book?”
“Anastasia taught me.”
“Flow did she do that?”
“She took a stick and outlined the letters of the alphabet
on the ground . 3 And she said:
“‘Here are the letters which you know. All your books, both
good and bad, are made up of these letters. It all depends
on how and in what sequence these 33 letters are arranged.
There are two w 7 ays of arranging them.’”
“So that’s it? All you have to do is arrange those 33 little let-
ters in a specific sequence? You just arrange them, and then
whole groups of people will head into the mountains to lay
flowers at the dolmens? That’s preposterous! Too much of
’Described in Book i, Chapter 15: “Attentiveness to Man”. There are 33 let-
ters in the modern Russian version of the Cyrillic alphabet (see footnote 2
in that chapter).
21 6
Book 5: Who Are We?
a stretch for an ordinary mind. It has to be the presence of
some power we can’t fathom yet. Whether she’s zombified
you, or reprogrammed you, or hypnotised you, I don’t know.
But she’s done something.”
“Whenever I called her a witch or used words like mysticism,
fiction or incredible, Anastasia herself would get very upset and
start claiming that she was just an ordinary human being, an
ordinary woman — it was just that she had a lot of information
in her. But it’s only a lot by our standards. She says that back
in the days of our pristine origins anybody might have abilities
like that. But later... And, after all... She bore me a son.”
‘And where’s your son now?”
“In the taiga, with Anastasia. She says that it would be
more difficult to raise a child in the conditions of our techno-
cratic world and make him into a real Man. Because the little
one can’t comprehend artificial objects. They only lead him
away from the truth. We can’t show them to him until he’s
already assimilated this truth.”
‘And why aren’t you in the taiga? Why aren’t you with her,
helping raise your son?”
‘A normal Man can’t live in those conditions. She’s not
even willing to light a fire. She’s got her own way of eating.
Besides, she says... that I shouldn’t communicate with my
child for the time being.”
“So, she’s not able to take it here in our normal living con-
ditions. You can’t live there. Then what’s next? Ever thought
about it? Here you are alone, without a family What if you
fall ill?”
“I’m not ill at the moment. I haven’t had anything for well
over a year now She cured me.”
“Does that mean you’re never going to fall ill again?”
“I’ll probably get ill at some point. Anastasia said that all
one’s little aches and pains will try to come back again, since
there’s a lot of the dark and harmful stuff in Man, and of
Attempt at deconditioning
217
course in me, just like in everyone else. You see, I still smoke.
I’ve started drinking again. But that’s not the main thing.
She says people don’t have too many bright aspirations and
thoughts. And they’re the principal defence against one’s
aches and pains.”
“In other words, it’s unlikely you’re going to have the same
kind of future us normal people have. Anyway I’ve come to
you with a business proposal. I’ll dezombify you, dehypno-
tise you, and then, once you’re back to a normal state, you’ll
be able to help me. You can help me get my firm back on
track. After all, you’ve had experience, and you were a tal-
ented entrepreneur. You’ve got connections.”
“I shan’t be able to help you, Vladislav I’m not thinking
about business at the moment. My thoughts are occupied
elsewhere.”
“It’s quite clear you’re not thinking at the moment. You’ve
got to pull out of this first, get back to a normal state of mind.
Just believe me. I’m asking you as a friend. You’ll thank me
for it by and by After all, once you get back to a normal state,
you’ll be able to evaluate what’s happened for yourself.”
“How can you define what is the most normal?”
“It’s very simple. You live a normal, natural human life at
least for a few days. You have some fun with girls. And then
you take a look back at the past few years of your life. If you
like what you see, you can go on working and living as you are
now. But if, from a normal state of mind, you see that you
were hypnotised, you can get back into business again. It’ll
be good for you, and you can help me.”
“I can’t go out with prostitutes.”
“Who says anything about prostitutes? Well take up with
those who want it themselves. Well have a party and enjoy
some music and other people’s company We can have it at a
restaurant or out in nature. I’ll get everything organised, all
you have to do is go along.”
2i8 Book 5: Who Are We?
“I need to work out things within myself first. I need to
think.”
“Come on, enough with the thinking! Look at my proposal
as an experiment. I’m asking you as a friend — just give me a
week, and then you can think.”
“Okay — let’s go for it...”
The following day we went by car to a neighbouring town,
where some nice girls (as Vladislav put it) lived — girls he said
he’d known for a long time.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The woman who opened the door for us was attractive and al-
luring. Thirty-something, feminine and shy, pleasingly plump.
No, she wasn’t fat. Tier body preserved and even accentuated
all the man-enticing curves — which were hardly obscured
under the sheer gown she was wearing. Her childlike voice
and welcoming smile at once made us feel at home.
“Hello there, travellers! Come on in, come on in. Svetlana
told me about you. She said you’d like to see the town, and
then go to a restaurant and have a great time!”
“That’s just the ticket! We want to do all that, and of course
with you, my lovelies,” Vladislav blurted out. ‘And how’s my
dear Svetlanka — still out partying, eh what?”
“Now when would we have time to go out partying, and
who with? Seems the rest of us have to wait a lifetime...”
“Why wait? See here, I’ve brought a pal along. He’s from
Siberia, and he’s one-hundred-per-cent entrepreneur!”
She straightened her tight-woven braid and raised her
timidly lowered eyelids to reveal a sparkling pair of eyes that
looked as though they could be full of passion and desire. She
offered me her hand.
“I’m Lena. 1 Hello!”
“Vladimir,” I introduced myself, shaking her cream-puff
hand-
While Lena got some coffee ready for us in the kitchen,
Vladislav and I washed up and then took a look around her
'Lena — like Lenka, an informal form of blend.
220
Book 5: Who Are We?
two-room apartment. I really liked her flat. The layout was
pretty much like any other flat, but hers looked especially clean
and cozy, well cared for. Everything was arranged in place, no
clutter. The bedroom featured turquoise flowered wallpaper
and matching curtains with frills. This colour, also picked up
by the rug and the counterpane on what looked like close to a
king-size bed — together with the tidiness of the room — had
a soothing effect. The bed especially was truly inviting.
We sat ourselves down in comfortable armchairs in the
other room, which was a little bigger. Vladislav switched on a
rather expensive -looking tape player, and asked me:
“Well, what do you think of her?”
“Jolly good. I’m just wondering, how come she’s not married?”
“How come millions of other women aren’t married?
Haven’t you heard? There’s not enough of us — men, that,
is — to go round!”
“Sure I’ve heard it, but she’s not just everyone. She’s really
nice, and she’s managed to make a cozy nest for herself here.”
“Yes, she has. She gets a decent salary She’s a top hairdresser.
Not just a hairdresser — a stylist to boot. She goes in for compe-
titions, and as for her clientele — let’s just say she has more than
one wealthy lady waiting to pay good money for her sendees.”
“D’you think she sleeps around?”
“No way Svetka 2 said that back when they were in school
together, Lenka took up with this dim-wit from the next class
up. Then after they finished school she dumped him, but he
kept after her for the longest time, and picked a fight with
anyone who tried to go out with her. There were quite a few
lads he and his pals left in a pretty bad way — right before her
eyes. He even got hauled up on delinquency charges. She
felt sorry for him and never testified against him. She always
claimed she wasn’t fully conscious and couldn’t remember. So
’ Svetka — like Svetlanka, an informal form of Svetlana.
Our reality
221
they were only able to get him once — for beating up on some
lad who had a high-placed daddy.”
“Then maybe she’s frigid — maybe she doesn’t need a man?”
“Frigid? I should say not! Didn’t you notice the way she
looked at you with those eyes of hers? Like a boa-constrictor
sizing up a rabbit! She was ready to jump into bed with you
right off!”
“Don’t exaggerate.”
“Now don’t you go with your faultfinding, just enjoy your-
self Carpe diem! We agreed we were going to relax and have a
good time, so let’s just relax and have a good time.”
Lena brought in cups of coffee on a beautiful tray She had
changed into a body-hugging sun-dress and had put on a bit of
makeup. Looking even better than before, she suggested:
“If you’re hungry, I can throw something together.”
“No,” replied Vladislav “We’ll eat at a restaurant. Ring up
one of the better places here and reserve a table for four.”
While we sat and drank our coffee, Lena telephoned a
restaurant and reserved a table with some manager she ap-
parently knew quite well, as she used the familiar form of ad-
dress , 3 instructing him:
“Try to find a good spot — I’m coming with some very nice
gentlemen.”
That evening, Lena took us on a ride in her car to see the
sights of the city and its environs, ending up at the restaurant.
An obliging doorman in a richly adorned uniform opened
the door for us with a gallant sweep of his hand. The Maitre
D’ escorted us to a table on the far side of the dining room. It
was indeed a nice spot, on a slightly raised floor, with a good
view of the whole restaurant and the stage. The dining room
with its beautiful plaster mouldings on the walls and ceil-
ings, indicating a rather expensive establishment, was already
3 familiar form of address — similar to tu instead of vans in French.
222 Book 5: Who Are We?
almost filled to capacity. Probably only the wealthy could af-
ford to enjoy a meal here. We decided we would hold nothing
back — we ordered the most expensive hors d’oeuvres, some
good wine and a bottle of vodka for me.
The orchestra struck up a dance tune — some kind of tango.
Vladislav immediately suggested we all take to the dance floor,
and we started off. Lena’s womanly body swayed cozily and
comfortably in my arms. Already a wee bit tipsy, I was even
more intoxicated by the fragrance of her perfume, not to men-
tion those spariding eyes of hers. Her lowered eyelids lifted
from time to time to reveal a tender gaze, burning, as it seemed,
in anticipation of forthcoming passion. And then they lowered
once more, as though embarrassed all of a sudden.
By the time we got back to our table, all my sense of being a
seeker on the straight and narrow vanished out the window. I
felt good and light-headed, and I was grateful to Vladislav and
Lena and everything in general. So, it was possible to live a
good life, as long as one didn’t dig into it too deep, but simply
enjoyed its benefits.
I poured everyone a glass of wine, vodka for myself. I was
just about to propose a toast when Vladislav interrupted.
After dancing with his Svetlana he looked very nervous for
some reason. He immediately lit a cigarette, carelessly drop-
ping the ashes into his salad. Without waiting for anyone else
he took a large gulp of wine and didn’t say a word, only fidg-
eted in his chair. I was on the point of picking up my glass and
proposing my toast when he started muttering:
“Wait, something’s come up... Something serious. Let’s
step out for a bit. We gotta talk.” And without waiting for my
reply he rose sharply from his seat. “ You birds stay here and
swap a bit of gossip. We’ll be right back.”
We went out into the spacious restaurant lobby. Vladislav
beckoned me over into a far corner by the fountain and in a
sour, muffled voice spat out:
223
“She’s a bitch! You were right... A damned bitch!”
“Who’s a bitch? If you’ve had a falling out with Svetka,
then don’t spoil the evening for others.”
“Not Svetka... Lenka’s set us up, or rather set you up,
though I’m in for it, too. I’m gonna stick with you.”
“D’you mind telling me just how she could set me up, or set
us up? Who or what for?”
“Svetka told me while we were dancing. I ’d been telling her all
about you, and she felt sorry for you... As soon as she saw you...
And while we were dancing she told me the whole story ”
“What story?”
“Lenka’s a bitch. Some kind of sick masochist. A pervert.
You can see how men fall for her, she flirts with them, and
then she takes them to this restaurant. She invariably gets a
table reserved through her friend there, and that lackey right
off contacts this mafia bloke.”
“What mafia bloke?”
“That dim-wit over there, the one she got to know in
school. I was telling you how even when he was younger he
and his chums would beat up on anyone talcing her out. And
now he’s making like a kind of local gang boss, running some
sort of racket. Anyway she knows that as soon as she asks for a
certain table through her pal there, he’ll automatically contact
this mafia bloke. And right here in the restaurant, or more
often afterwards in some secluded spot he’ll lie in wait with his
thugs and beat Lenka’s companion half to death. The whole
business is supposed to take place right before her eyes. She
gets a real high from it, maybe even starts to ‘come’. Svetka
says it’s already a disease with her. She once admitted to Svetka
that these scenarios can even sometimes give her an orgasm.”
‘And the dim-wit, what does he get out of it?”
“Who knows what he does it for! Maybe he loves her like
he did before. Maybe he too gets some perverse pleasure from
it. Svetka says Lena pretends she’s ‘out of it’, and then after
224
Book 5: Who Are We?
the scene’s over he takes her home and spends the night with
her. And goodness knows what they do there in her flat.”
“So why doesn’t he just go ahead and marry her?”
“What difference does it make to you why they don’t get
married? I tell you, it’s like Lenka’s sick! Like she doesn’t
want to let go of her youth. You get married, and all you’ve
got is humdrum everyday life. This way she gets her high, but
what high would she get in married life? She’s sick, Svetka
says. What’s it to us? We gotta think of ourselves, how to get
outta this now.”
“Let’s just leave the restaurant, since you say they might
contact that mafia jerk.”
“Too late. He’s already here with his henchmen. Watching
us... Svetka says the first thing he’ll do is come over to our
table, and very politely ask to have a dance with Lenka. If her
companion says okay, they’ll have a dance. Otherwise, he’ll
calmly walk away. But it all ends up the same — they lie in
wait and then beat him half to death. If there’s any valuables,
his henchmen will grab them. I’ve already given my Rolex to
Svetka. If you’ve got anything like that, let me give it to her
too for safekeeping.”
“I don’t have any valuables. Tell me, how come they’re not
afraid of the cops?”
“Listen, I tell you they’ve got it all set up... He’s got a law-
yer... Not only that, but they can make the whole situation
look like they were protecting the woman from a rapist.”
‘And that means Lena won’t testify?”
“She’ll shut up, the bitch, fake a memory lapse, like she was
in shock or had a fainting spell... It’s all my fault. We’ve land-
ed in this pile of crap, but I think I have an idea. I’ve got an
idea. Let’s pretend to start something, pick a fight, get into a
rowwith each other, so the police will come and take us away.
Better to spend a night in the drunk tank and pay a fine than
end up scarred for life!”
Our reality
225
“No, no way. I’m not going to punish myself for their sakes.
Can’t we go out through a back door, then you could ring up
Svetka, order a taxi to go and collect her?”
“We shan’t make it — they’re already sitting out there. If
we leave, they’ll only come after us and bring us back. We’ll
get it doubly hard in that case. And then they’ll claim we were
trying to run off without paying our bill.”
“If there’s no escape, then let’s go all out — sky’s the limit!
At least play on the nerves of these bastards. It’s a shame the
evening’s spoilt — I was having such a good time.”
“How’re we gonna ‘go all out’? Tell me, how?”
“We’ll go and get really soused, then we shan’t have a care
in the world. Let’s pull out all the stops, while we still can.
Only don’t let on that you know — don’t get nervous in the
meantime.”
“What d’you mean? I’m not afraid for myself — I’m wor-
ried about you.”
“Let’s go.”
We returned to our table. The spacious and luxurious
restaurant sparkled with the grandeur of the ladies’ refined
attire, and the jewels adorning them were to all appearances
genuine. A lot of the still very young beautiful girls in the
company of their suave escorts also sported fancy jewellery
These were the so-called ‘new Russians’ out for a good time.
But they are Russia too. Which meant that here was Russia
herself out for a good time in away she alone was capable of.
With daring and pizzazz. And the pizzazz will most certainly
show itself in due time, even if for now everything is done
with decorous grandeur and luxury.
As soon as we sat dorvn at our table, I filled our wine-glass-
es to the brim and proposed a toast:
“Here’s to satisfaction! Let each of us sitting here tonight
bring at least a moment’s satisfaction to those around us. To
satisfaction!”
226
Book 5: Who Are We?
Vladislav and I emptied our glasses, while the women
drank half of theirs. I edged my chair right up to Lenka’s, put
my arms around her right away, rested my hand on her half-
exposed cleavage and whispered in her ear.
“ You’re beautiful and cute, Lena. You’d make a terrific wife
and mother!”
Initially feigning embarrassment at my embrace and my
hand upon her breast, she made an attempt to withdraw, but
not a serious attempt. On the contrary she began inclining
her head toward me. Thus the game was afoot — playing
by their (or her) rales. And I played along as best I could,
without really thinking about why I was doing it, as though
rushing headlong, ever closer to a sad result for someone’s (or
some dark forces’) sport. And the result came.
From a table beside the stage rose a stout-looking fellow
with a neck like a bull’s. He stood there for some time, star-
ing at us. Directly the music began he buttoned his jacket and
confidently strode over to our party’s table.
But half-way across the floor he suddenly stopped and
began to stare just as hard in the opposite direction. And
throughout the room many heads turned in the same direc-
tion. A number of couples even got up from their chairs in
astonishment. I too followed their gaze, and nearly fainted
from shock.
There, making her way from the main entrance to the stage
was none other than Anastasia! And not a single person could
be left unastonished at her sprightly — I would have to say:
defiantly sprightly — step, not to mention her outfit!
And what an outfit it was! She was still wearing her old
but clean cardigan, skirt and mother’s kerchief, but this time
they looked as though the world’s most celebrated fashion de-
signer had come up with a super-ensemble especially for her,
outshining all the other women’s attire that had seemed to
me so refined and fashionable up ’til now.
227
Perhaps it seemed that way on account of the fact that her
usual clothing was supplemented by some rather unusual jew-
ellery, or perhaps it was her posture, or the manner in which
she carried herself?
From Anastasia’s earlobes hung (as though clipped on) two
little green twigs with fur-like needles. Her head was encir-
cled by a garland of grasses woven into a braid, keeping in
place a thick golden shock of hair. Over her forehead a lit-
tle flower, burning bright as a ruby, had been woven into the
band. And she was wearing makeup — there was just a tint of
green shadow above her eyelids.
She had on the same skirt as before, but with a slit almost to
her thigh. Around her waist was a belt made from a kerchief
and tied with a knot. The incredible ensemble was topped
off with an extraordinary, superfashionable purse, into which
she had transformed her bundling cloth. Folding the cloth
in half, she had tied two or the corners to one end of a bark-
covered stick and the other two corners to the other end, and
then used a little grass belt she had woven to fasten it all to-
gether into a kind of hippie-style handbag. And to top it all
off she strode with a freedom and confidence that models and
supermodels could only dream of.
Upon reaching the dance-floor, where a few couples were
launching in to some kind of a quick-paced dance, Anastasia all
at once spun gaily around several times in time with the music,
whereby every limb of her supple body bent and twisted with
beautiful, fluid movements. Then she arched her arms over
her head and clapped her hands with a delightful laugh, and all
the men in the room responded in enthusiastic applause.
As she then headed for our table, two alert waiters ap-
proached her enquiringly, and I could see her gesturing in
our direction. One of them picked up an elaborately carved
wooden chair and followed her. As she walked past Lenka’s
friend with the bull neck who had been about to head over to
228
Book 5: Who Are We?
our table, Anastasia paused for a bit and looked him straight
in the eye. It almost seemed as though she gave him a wink
before heading over to us.
There I was sitting with my arm around Lena, watching
the proceedings with open-mouthed astonishment. None of
us were talking, only staring.
Anastasia approached our table as though nothing unusual
had happened, and greeted us as though she were an expected
guest:
“Hello and good evening! Hello, Vladimir! If you will allow
me... You will not mind if I join you for a bit?”
“No, of course not, Anastasia — do sit down!” I began, recov-
ering from the shock of her arrival. I rose to offer her my seat,
but the obliging waiter had already put the additional chair in
place. The second waiter moved my plate to one side and, set-
ting a clean plate in front of Anastasia, offered her a menu.
“Thank you,” she responded. “But I am not hungry at the
moment.”
Reaching into her hippie-style purse, she brought out a
cluster of berries wrapped in a large leaf — huckleberries and
cranberries. Putting them on a plate in the middle of the ta- ■
ble, she invited us to help ourselves.
“How did you happen to show up here all of a sudden,
Anastasia?” I asked. “Have you been taking in the restaurant
scene lately?”
“I came to visit you, Vladimir. I had a feeling I would find you
here, and so I decided to come. I am not imposing on you?”
“You’re not imposing at all. Only what’s with the fancy get-
up? And the makeup?”
‘At first I did not have any makeup or fancy clothes, but
when I tried to enter the restaurant, the doorman would not
let me in. He let others in, and bowed to them as he held the
door open for them, but he told me:
“‘Outta here, sister, this ain’t your local greasy spoon!’
Our reality
229
“I stepped aside to a more shaded place, and watched to see
how others managed to get in. I realised they were wearing
different attire and did not walk the same way I did. I caught
on to it ail quite quickly. 1 found two twigs handy that had
fallen from a nearby tree, split them with the ends of my nails
and attached them to my ears as decoration. Look!” Where-
upon Anastasia turned sideways to me and showed me her in-
vention. “What do you think — did they turn out well?”
“Very well indeed.”
“So I quickly made myself a purse, and a belt out of my
kerchief, and some makeup from leaf and flower sap. Pity,
though, I had to tear a slit in my skirt...”
“You didn’t have to make such a huge tear, practically to your
thigh! Just to your knees, that would have been enough.”
“I wanted everything to be as perfect as possible, so they
would let me in.”
‘And where did you get the lipstick? That’s real lipstick
you’re wearing!”
“That I obtained here. When the man at the entrance
opened the door for me, I went over to the mirror in the lob-
by to see how I looked. Naturally, I was curious. There were
some women standing in front of the mirror, looking at me.
One of them came over, all excited, and asked me where I
got my outfit from. She offered to do a ‘full swap’ — said she
would give me her ring and costume jewellery. She even of-
fered me some ‘greenbacks’. 4
“I explained to her that it would not take her long to put
together a dress like this on her own. I started by showing her
the clip-on twigs. The other women looked on, and one of
them kept saying ‘Oh, wow! Ohwow!’ Another started asking
me where she could find magazine pictures and descriptions
4 ‘greenbacks’ — American banknotes have commonly functioned for many
years as a second currency in Russia, though not always legally.
230
Book 5: Who Are We?
of such fashions. And the first one said that if I wanted to
‘turn tricks’ here, she was the Madam and wouldn’t allow any
pimps, since her girls are free agents and she’s quite capable
of smashing any protection racket.”
“That must have been Anka-putanka,” 5 said Sveta. “She’s
one tough cookie — they’re really afraid of her. If anyone
crosses her, she can come up with all kinds of schemes and
arrange an ‘incident’ where so many heads will be banged to-
gether they’ll really be sorry”
‘“One tough cookie’...” Anastasia echoed moodily “But her
eyes are full of sadness — I feel sorry for her. I wanted to do
at least something for her. When she started to sniff me over
and ask about my perfume, I gave her a little twig containing
the essence of cedar oil and showed her how to apply it. She at
once daubed it on herself and on her girlfriends, and in return
she gave me some lipstick and a pencil to highlight the edges.
I could not get it right at first, and we had a good laugh over
it. Then she helped me put it on, and said anytime I needed
anything, I could come to her. She offered to have me join
them at their table, but I said I had only come to see my — ”
Anastasia paused in mid-sentence, then continued after a mo-
ment’s thought: “to see you, Vladimir, and the rest of you.
“Vladimir, could we take a little walk outside? There is a
breeze blowing off the sea — the air is better there. Or would
you like to stay here a little while longer with your friends? I
can wait until you have finished. Or I — Are you certain I am
not imposing?”
“Not at all, Anastasia!” I replied. “I’m really happy you
came. It’s just that I was so surprised to see you at first.”
5 Anka-putanka (pron. ANN-ka poo-TAHN-ka ) — a play on words derived
from the rhyme oiAnka (derivative of the name Anna) and putanka (hooker).
Two other variants of Anna which will be encountered later are An (highly
colloquial) and An/a (endearing).
Our reality
231
“Indeed? So, perhaps you and I could take a stroll by the
sea? Just the two of us, or all together? Which would you
prefer?”
“Let’s go, Anastasia. Just the two of us.”
But getting out of there wasn’t all that easy Elena’s friend
was heading our way. He too, it seemed, took a while to re-
cover from the unexpected arrival of Anastasia. We should
have left earlier — - right off, I thought to myself, but now it was
too late. They had already set their dastardly scenario in mo-
tion. And Elena, as though getting herself mentally prepared
for it, began sitting up straight, lowered her eyes and made a
show of smoothing out her hair.
He came over to our table, but instead of approaching Ele-
na, he went directly to Anastasia. With a slight bow of his
head he began addressing her, taking no notice of anyone else.
Elena’s jaw dropped in surprise at hearing him ask Anastasia:
“Miss, allow me the pleasure of asking you for this dance.”
Anastasia rose, smiled and responded:
“Thank you so kindly for the invitation. Please, have a seat
in my- chair. They will miss your company otherwise. As for
me, I really do not care to dance at the moment. My... my
gentleman friend and I have just decided we would like to go
for a walk in the fresh air.”
In obedience to her suggestion he sat down in her chair,
not taking his eyes off her for a moment. Anastasia and I
headed for the exit.
My plan was to get as far away from the restaurant as pos-
sible, go for a bit of a walk as Anastasia wanted, then grab a
taxi and go back to my flat. It was around ten o’clock at night.
We walked through a shady allee and then down to the rocky
seashore.
We hadn’t yet reached the water’s edge when I heard the
screech of brakes. I turned around to look. From a jeep
parked at the side of the road up above, five tough-looking
232
Book 5: Who Are We?
lads were heading in our direction. As four of them encircled
us, I recognised the fifth as the dim-wit with the bull neck —
he took up a position just a little distance away. But it was he
who kicked off the conversation:
“Hey, pal, you’d better get back to the pub. Your lady’s
missing you.”
With no response from me, he started up again:
“Hey, you deaf or what? We say you’d better go back to
your lady. But you got this lady mixed up with another and
split. We’re gonna help you back — right this instant.”
The oversized lad standing nearest me took a step closer,
and I made a decision.
“Run, Anastasia!” I cried, and decided to let him have it
first, and keep them at bay as long as I could so that Anastasia
could get away. I tried to land the first blow on the chap ap-
proaching me, but he seized hold of my arm, punched me in
the solar plexus, and then wham! — right in the face. I tum-
bled to the ground, right on the rocks. I would probably have
landed right on my head, but Anastasia reached out her hand
and cushioned my fall.
My head was spinning and I could hardly breathe. I lay
there and watched the big fellow’s feet — shod in steel-rein-
forced boots — come right up to my face. Uh-oh, he’s going to
use his foot on me next! the thought flashed through my mind.
Now he came really close and lifted his leg...
Only right at that point Anastasia did what just about any
woman would have done under the circumstances — she
screamed. But what a scream! It was a regular scream only
for a split second. The sound associated with it quickly van-
ished, and her inaudible scream rose wildly in intensity to
the point of shattering one’s eardrums. I could see the lads
around us letting some kind of objects fall from their hands
as they grabbed hold of their ears. Three of them collapsed to
the ground and began writhing on their knees in pain.
Our reality 233
Anastasia, having covered my ears with her own hands,
kept refilling her lungs with fresh breaths of air and scream-
ing again. Her scream was evidently something akin to ultra-
sound, causing all our would-be attackers to writhe in pain.
They had no idea what was happening, or where this pierc-
ing, unbearable sound was coming from. Through her hands
I could feel the sharp penetrating sensation — maybe not as
strongly as the others, but it still hurt.
Then I noticed a group of women running down toward
us from the road. Anastasia stopped screaming and took her
hands off my ears, I sat up on a rock. I could see the two
Zhigiilis 6 the girls had arrived in standing beside the jeep.
The women were armed — one was carrying a bottle, an-
other a tyre iron, a third brandished a policeman’s truncheon,
while the fourth held a massive candlestick in her hands. Out
in front was Anka-putanka, holding in her hands the neck of
a broken champagne bottle, while following behind, slowly,
came yet another — a plumpish woman clad only in a night-
gown, who had apparently come straight out of bed and hadn’t
had time to get dressed. Somehow the Madam-in-charge had
managed to sound the alarm and rope all her ‘workmates’ into
the task at hand.
The fearsome, dishevelled Anka stopped just a few metres
from our little group, which was now picturesquely sprawled
over the rocks. Anastasia was the only one of us standing, and
Anka spoke to her:
“How now, friend! You’ve got so many lads after you —
they wouldn’t be botherin’ you, would they now?”
“I just wanted to have a talk with one of them,” Anastasia
calmly replied.
‘And the rest of them — what are they doin’ here?”
6 Zbiguli — a car produced at Toliatti on the Volga River (see footnote 1 in
Book 4, Chapter 22: '“Other worlds”).
234 Book 5: Who Are We?
“They followed us for some reason. I have no idea what
they want.”
“ You have no idea? I know what those scumbags want,”
replied Anka and burst into a torrent of expletives in the di-
rection of Lena’s friend. “How many times have I told you,
muttonhead, not to lay a hand on me girls?!!”
“She isn’t one of yours,” the ‘dim-wit’ responded gruffly
“She’s my ‘professional colleague’. That means she’s mine.
Got it, you overgrown school-kid? If I see your pimp-snout
so much as anywhere near one of me friends, I’ll smash the liv-
in’ daylights outta you an’ your cronies. Just remember that!
I’m not puttin’ up with a single pimp on my territory — not a
single scumbag will I allow. You’re not satisfied with sucking
blood from the suits? You wanna be pimpin’ for us too?”
“You’ve gone crazy. She’s not yours. She’s a novice. I just
wanted to have some fun with her myself. This time, Anka,
you’ve gone too far. What’s all the fuss about her? What’s she
to you?”
“She’s me friend. Got that? An’ you’ve got your hands full
with that sadist of yours.”
“You’ve gone bonkers! Before you know it every last bird’s
gonna be your friend — eh what?”
The leader’s voice in him was now no longer stifled by fear.
And I realised why: while Anka was talking with him, his
henchmen had come to, and the short, stocky fellow standing
beside the leader was holding a gun in his hands, aimed right
at Anka. A second man had his own gun trained on the group
of hookers standing behind her.
Here was this group of young women, armed with whatev-
er they could lay their hands on, standing directly in the path
of the thugs’ guns. The situation, as it now turned out, was far
from being in their favour. One thing was absolutely certain:
another moment and their morale would be broken and their
bodies maimed, not to mention the loss of their freedom and
Our reality
23 5
income. I really felt like doing at least something to influence
the proceedings and head off the inevitable dreaded result.
Anastasia was standing beside me, intently observing the
situation. I jerked her arm. Putting my hands over my ears,
I quickly said:
“Scream, Anastasia! Scream as quick as you can!”
Lowering my arm, she enquired:
“Why scream, Vladimir?”
“Eh? Don’t you see what’s going on? These women are
about to get their heads bashed in, maimed for life. Their
bluff’s been called. It’s all over for them.”
“Not for all of them. The spirit is still fighting in three of
them.”
“But what can the spirit do against guns? They’re done
for.”
“They are not ’done for’ yet, Vladimir. As long as their
spirit is still fighting, nobody should interfere. Outside in-
terference may take care of the situation at hand, but it will
weaken their self-confidence, and mean that a whole lot or
other situations in their lives will not turn out favourably for
them. They will come to rely on outside help.”
“Staff that philosophy of yours, at least for now. Can’t you
see the situation’s hopeless?” I fell silent. It was clear Anas-
tasia’s mind was made up. And I thought wistfully: Oh, if only
I could scream like that!
Seeing his cronies ready and alert, Lena’s boyfriend (the
pimp) spoke up — it was clear from the tone of his voice that
he was already feeling he had the situation well in hand.
“I told you, Anka-putanka, you’ve gone too far. But this
time we’ve won. So you’d better drop your toys, you little
tarts! Drop them, and get those rags off — we’re gonna screw
all of you, one at a time.”
Anka looked around at the thugs standing .or concealing
themselves, guns at the ready, and answered with a sigh:
236
Book 5: Who Are We?
“Maybe you don’t need all of us — maybe just me’s enough?”
“Ha, ha, bitch! See, nowyou’re singing a different tune,” the
leader responded over the laughter of his buddies. “We shan’t
be satisfied just with you — we’re gonna teach you all a lesson
here. After this you’re gonna be working for us, bitches!”
‘An’ jest where are you goin’ to get the stud power to take
on all of us?” Anka responded with a laugh. “You’ll be lucky if
you have enough for just one!”
“Shut your trap, bitch! We’ll screw all of you, several times
over!”
“I doubt that! I bet you won’t be able to take on even one
of us!”
“We’ll keep screwing you all night long!”
“You know, sweetcheeks, you’re startin’ to get on my
nerves — • you an’ your ‘promises’. I don’t believe ’em, I don’t
believe you’re man enough!”
“You’ll find out soon enough, bitch! I’m gonna smash that
pretty face of yours in!” wheezed the leader, already seething
with rage, putting on a pair of brass knuckles as he moved
toward Anka.
Anka retreated a bit and called out to her group:
“Step aside, girls!”
The group of hookers took several steps back. Only the
sullen plumpish ‘cow’ in the nightdress stood on the sidelines
as though rooted to the spot, and when the tall and lanky
leader took another step in Anka’s direction, the ‘cow’, who
before this had not spoken a word, suddenly said blandly:
“Hey, An — what’re you waitin’ for, An? Let’s get started,
eh?”
“Don’t be in such a hurry, Mashka,” 7 replied Anka, taking
another couple of steps back. “Well, go ahead, seein’ you’re
itchin’ to get on with it!”
'Mashka — like Masha and Mashenka, a colloquial variant oi Maria.
Our reality
237
The plumpish Masha, calmly and coquettishlv tore open
the flaps of her nightdress, scattering the buttons to the
winds, exposing not only her bare breast and bikini briefs, but
something else as well...
Under her nightgown the ‘cow’ was carrying a Kalashnikov
assault rifle with a silencer and night-vision telescopic sight.
She pulled the bolt, raised the butt stock to her shoulder,
pressed her cheek to the stock and peered into the sight.
“Only remember, Masha, no automatic,” Anka suggest-
ed. “This ain’t no war zone. Just one bullet at a time. You
know — every bullet costs money”
“Uh-huh,” answered Masha, her eye still pressed to the
sight, and fired off five shots, each about a second apart. But
what shots they were! The first bullet tore off the heel from
one of the leader’s boots, apparently wounding his foot in the
process. He jumped back in the direction of the water, limp-
ing. The other four shots landed right by each of the thugs in
turn. Immediately they began looking for cover behind the
rocks, and the ones who didn’t have any cover handy lay face
down on the ground.
‘An, tell them to crawl into the water! Or they may get
blasted by a ricochet!” Masha blurted out, her Kalashnikov
still at the ready
“You heard her, sweetcheeks! Into the water!” Anka or-
dered the big thugs already crawling toward the water’s edge,
gently reminding them: “Mashenka’s not yet a good enough
shot to be responsible for ricocheting bullets!”
A moment later, and all of them, including their leader,
were standing waist-deep in the sea.
Ania went up to Anastasia, and for a while the two sim-
ply looked at each other, face to face, without saying a word.
Then Ania said quietly, with just a hint of sadness:
“You, friend, wanted to go for a stroll with your companion
there. So go ahead. It’s a fine evening, quiet, warm...”
238
Book 5: Who Are We?
“Yes. There is indeed a pleasant air blowing over the city,”
Anastasia replied, adding: “You are tired, Apia, perhaps you
would care to relax in a garden of your own?”
“Perhaps... but I feel sorry for me girls, an’ Pm still so mad
at those... blokes. Say, are you from the country?”
“Yes.”
“Nice place, where you live?”
“Very nice. But I do not always feel at peace, especially
when things are not going well for everyone in other places,
as here right now”
“Don’t mind them. Come whenever you like... Anywait
I’m off. Gotta work. Have a nice quiet stroll here.”
Ania headed toward the cars, her entourage in tow. As they
walked past the ‘cow’ still sitting on the rock, the Kalashnikov
lying across her bare knees, Ania said:
“You stay and relax here a bit, Mashenka. Well send a car
for you later.”
“I’ve got a client waitin’ — I was with 'im when you called
me. An’ he’s paid already!”
“We’ll take care ofyour client. We’ll sayyou had an upset stom-
ach. Like, the quality of the champagne wasn’t up to scratch.”
“I had vodka. And only half a glass.”
“Well, then, maybe you ate something...”
“I didn’t have anything to eat — just a bit of candy and
some pastries.”
“So that’s it, then — the pastries weren’t too fresh. How
many d’vou eat?”
“Don’t remember.”
“C’mon — she never eats less than four at a time,” said one
of the girls. “Right, Masha?”
“Well, maybe you’re right. At least leave me a cigarette.
So’s I don’t get bored out of my skull.”
Ania put a package of cigarettes along with a lighter on the
rock beside Masha, and the girls walked on.
239
Our reality
“Hey;” came a voice from the water, “yon gonna leave this
gal of yours here on the rock?”
“She’s stayin’, sweetcheeks, she’s stayin’!” replied Ania. “I
told you right off, one of us is enough for the likes of you. You
wanted all of us. And now it turns out it’s goin’ to be pretty
boring for just one of us to stay here with you.”
“Once this gets out, about how conniving you are...” one of
the thugs called out. “Once it gets out... Well, no one will ever
want to shag with you again. Even if you offer to pay them.”
Five muffled shots rang out from the rock in quick suc-
cession. And five little splashes popped up in the water, one
right beside each of the men standing there, making them re-
treat even further out from the shore. Ania turned to them
and warned:
“Look, boys, just make sure you don’t rile Mashenka here.
When we like someone, we can be sweet and tender. An’ loy-
al as dogs. When we like someone, understand? No matter
who...” And then, as she clambered up the hill toward the
cars, she struck up a song in a resonant, wistful voice:
The paths and roads are a.ll overgrown there
Which my dear lover’s feet have known there.
And the young prostitutes following her picked up on the
tone of her voice, on the intonations of sadness and despair:
Overgrown there with mosses and grasses:
He’s taken up with another of the lasses.
Where does he travel, my lover f
It makes my heart only sorrow and suffer.
And off they drove, still singing the song about the path-
ways and roads, as they headed back to work.
Chapter Twenty-Three
It was almost midnight by the time Anastasia and I got back
to my apartment. As I put the key into the lock, I felt a sense
of exhaustion after all the intense experiences the day had
brought. Upon seeing my bed, I told Anastasia that I was ex-
tremely tired, and went to take a shower. When I came out of
the shower, Anastasia told me she’d already made up my bed,
and that she herself would lie down on the balcony
It’s probably too stuffy for her in one of these ■mass-produced apart-
ment blocks, I thought, and went out to the balcony to see what
kind of bed she had made for herself there. It turned out she
had put a little strip of rug down on the balcony floor and
covered it with some white paper, which my landlord had got
ready for wallpapering the flat. In place of a pillow she had
folded her cardigan, and put a small tree-branch at the head
of her makeshift bed.
“How can you get a good night’s sleep here, Anastasia? It’s
hard, and you’ll be cold. At least let me fetch you a blanket.”
“Not to worry, Vladimir. I shall be fine here. The air is
fresh, and I can see the stars. Look up and see how many
stars there are! There is a soft, warm breeze blowing — I shall
not be cold. You go lie down, Vladimir, and I shall sit on the
edge of your bed for a while, and once you fall asleep, I shall
lie down, too.”
I lay down on the bed Anastasia had made up for me and
thought I was so tired that I’d nod off right away, but it didn’t
work out quite like that. The thought, or realisation, that
Man — i.e., every single individual — was nothing more than
Tour desires
241
a plaything in the hands of some sort of coincidences, kept
gnawing away at my mind, giving me no peace. This led to a
growing feeling of irritation at those who had arranged these
coincidences, and Anastasia too. Anastasia in particular, since
I considered it a definite possibility that she had actually par-
ticipated in the formation of these coincidences, at least as
far as my life was concerned.
“Is something disturbing you, Vladimir?” Anastasia calmly
enquired, and I even raised myself slightly on my elbows.
‘As if you didn’t know!... I believed you... I wanted to be-
lieve... I particularly wanted to believe that Man — every
Man — is capable of making his own lire happy. I especially
believed in the eco-communities you talked about, where
people can live a secure existence thanks to their own fam-
ily plot of land, and raise their children to have a happy life.
And that there would be good schools there for the children.
I believed you when you said that every Man is the beloved
child of God. ‘Man is the summit of creation’ — - you did say
that, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Vladimir, I did tell you that.”
“Of course you did! And how convincing you made it all
sound! I not only believed you, I started acting on it, started
organising a community I’ve already submitted the necessary-
paperwork to the authorities. The Anastasia Foundation is
collecting people’s applications. A design’s been commis-
sioned, along with a layout for gardens and all sorts of plant-
ings. It would have been all right just to believe you and
all that, but I actually started carrying things out, and with
pleasure! Ton knew! You knew I’d carry things out!”
“Yes, Vladimir, I knew After all, you are an entrepreneur.
You are always ready to carry out practical actions, to make
things happen...”
‘Always ready?” I echoed. “How simple it all is! Of
course. No need to be a clairvoyant to see that. As long as an
242
Book 5: Who Are We?
entreprenur believes in something, he will start to act. And I,
fool that I was, started too.”
I couldn’t stay lying down any longer. I jumped out of bed,
walked over to the window and opened the fortochka , 1 since
I felt a sudden wave of heat — either in the room or within
me.
“Why did you think your actions foolish, Vladimir?” Anas-
tasia calmly asked.
And her equanimity along with her feigned ignorance, as I
then considered it — made me even more angry.
“And you just sit there talking all calm-and-collected-like?
Calm and collected! As if you didn’t know all along that Man
is a puppet in somebody’s hands. They control Man through
various circumstances. Each Man is easily controllable by
some kind of forces. If they feel like it, they can plunge half
the human race into war. They plunge people into war and
then take up a position somewhere up above or on the side-
lines to watch us kill each other. If they feel like it, they’ll slip
some sort of religion into the proceedings and watch, once
again, as people go to war over their faith. If they feel like it,
they can play with just a single individual. I’m convinced of
it. I’ve been convinced by people who are smart enough to
analyse what’s going on.”
‘And just how did these ‘smart people’ succeed in convinc-
ing you that Man is just a plaything in the hands of some kind
of forces?”
“i listened to a report. They were talking about me. Some
smart people became interested in public reaction to the
books. They became interested in you, and in me too. They
followed my every move during my time on Cyprus, while I
was working on the fourth book. They recorded everything
1 fortochka — a small openable window in the upper corner of a larger win-
dow-frame.
Tour desires
243
and then analysed it. And, if you can believe it, I’m not mad
at them for following me. I’m even grateful to them — for fi-
nally opening my eyes. They showed how Man is being toyed
with. Coincidences don’t just happen, they’re arranged, and
I’ve become convinced of this through my own experience.”
“What experience is this, Vladimir? Have you been con-
ducting an experiment?”
“I haven’t, but they’ve been conducting an experiment on
me. When I was on Cyprus, I happened to mention freshwa-
ter fish, and presto! — freshwater fish appeared. I mentioned
cedars, and cedars appeared. I wanted to pay a night-time
visit to a church — and, lo and behold, there was a church,
and the church doors were open at night. A whole lot of other
things happened — all I had to do, no doubt, was write what
they wanted me to.
“But the main thing — the granddaughter of the goddess
Aphrodite appeared. I mentioned to several people on Cy-
prus that I wanted to meet with her granddaughter, since I
had had it up to here with their Aphrodite. There were post-
ers everywhere about her Baths, and people were forever car-
rying on about her. Anyway I told them I was going to meet
with the granddaughter of this goddess Aphrodite. I men-
tioned this, and a few days later along comes this girl with fire
in her eyes — anyway, the way things turned out, everybody
decided that Aphrodite had indeed sent her granddaughter,
and was working miracles through this girl, and the girl her-
self underwent some kind of transformation.
“But who arranged all these circumstances one after an-
other? Who? I certainly didn’t arrange anything. If only one
thing like this happened to take place, well, okay, but here
was a whole chain of them together, and if you take them al-
together, it’s no longer a coincidence, it’s a pattern. This is
the conclusion the academics came to. And I’m convinced
they’re right. And you can’t persuade me otherwise.”
244
Book 5: Who Are We?
“But I was not about to deny that there is a pattern to what
has been happening, Vladimir,” Anastasia calmly observed.
I felt my whole insides turn cold, and I was suddenly over-
whelmed with some kind of extraordinary sense of apathy fol-
lowing these last words of Anastasia’s. I did have a hope — a
faint one, but still a hope — that she would be able to dissolve
the whole feeling that had been building up in me of Alan’s
utter insignificance — not just my insignificance but all man-
kind’s — but this she didn’t do. In any case, how could she
have? Who would dare deny what is so patently obvious? In-
different to everyone and everything, I stood by the window
in a room lit only by moonlight, and looked out at the stars.
Somewhere out there, perhaps on one of those very stars,
lived those who were controlling us, toying with us. They were
living, they were real! But could our existence really be called
life? A toy in subjection to somebody’s will cannot be said to
live an independent life — which meant only one thing: we were
not living. This is why we are indifferent to so many things.
Once again Anastasia began talking in that same quiet and
calm voice. But this time her voice didn’t arouse in me any
emotions whatsoever — ■ it was more like some kind of extra-
neous sound.
“Vladimir, you and the people who sent you that cassette
with the report were right: there really are energies out there
capable of changing time, joining together into a single chain
various events or, as happened with you, arranging a chain
of circumstances required to achieve a predetermined goal.
Pure coincidences do not happen — that is already clear to
many people. Coincidences, even those which seem to be
the most far-fetched, are programmed. Everything that hap-
pens to each individual is programmed. And what happened
to you on Cyprus, which served as a clear illustration for the
researchers as well as, naturally, for you, was also programmed,
and then turned into reality.
Tour desires 245
“Tell me, please, Vladimir, would you not like to know
where the one directly responsible for programming your co-
incidences is now?”
“What difference does it make where he is? Doesn’t matter
tome. On Mars, the Moon... Whether he feels good or bad.”
“He is right here in this room, Vladimir.”
“That means, it’s you?... If so, that still doesn’t change any-
thing. I’m not even surprised. And I’m not angry. I simply
don’t care. We are manipulable, and that’s the hopeless trag-
edy of the human race.”
“I am not the one in charge of programming your coinci-
dences, Vladimir. I am able to exercise but a tiny speck of
influence.”
“Then who is in charge? There’s only two of us in the room.
Or is there a third — a programmer who’s invisible?”
“Vladimir, this programmer is right within you — it is your
desires
“How so?”
“Only Man’s desires and aspirations can launch any kind of
programme of action. This is the law of the Creator. Nobody,
none of the energies of the Universe, can ever break that law.
Because Man is the master of all the energies of the Universe!
Man!”
“But I didn’t launch anything on Cyprus, Anastasia. Every-
thing happened all by itself, by coincidence, apart from me.”
“There were indeed certain minor incidents that were not
part of the more significant events — though they contrib-
uted to their realisation — and these incidents did happen
apart from your will. But the basic events themselves were
preceded by your desires. Was it not you who wanted to meet
with the granddaughter of the goddess Aphrodite? You ex-
pressed your wish in the presence of witnesses and repeated
it a number of times.”
“Yes, I did...”
246
Book 5: Who Are We?
“And if you remember that, then how can you call servants
carrying out the will of their lord masters, and how can you
call the master a plaything in their hands?”
“Yes, that would be silly Interesting, how all this is turn-
ing out! Wow! Desires... But why then aren’t all our desires
fulfilled? Many people wish for things, but their wishes aren’t
fulfilled.”
“So much depends on how meaningful the goal is. On
whether the desire corresponds to the light or the dark. On
how strong the desire is. The more substantial and bright the
goal, the more the forces of light are drawn to fulfil it. To
bring it about.”
“And if the goal is a dark one — let’s say, for example, to get
drunk, or get into a fight, or plan a war?...”
“Then the dark forces take over — Man through his desire
has given them the opportunity to act. But, as you can see,
it is still Man’s desire that is first and foremost! Your desire,
Vladimir.”
I began to ponder what Anastasia had said, and my heart
felt better and better. The very pleasant moonlight filled the
whole room, and it seemed as though the stars in the sky were
shining not with a cold light, but with a warm one. And Anas-
tasia, sitting there on the edge of the bed, seemed to look
even better than before. I said to her:
“You know, Anastasia, back there, when I first arrived on
Cyprus, to be honest with you, I very nearly went on a binge.
Because at first I couldn’t find anything there I liked. No-
body spoke Russian. It was too noisy to work — people were
whooping it up all around. Why on earth did I end up here, I
thought, maybe to get to know some hookers? There are lots of
women there, shall we say, of loose behaviour — from both
Russia and Bulgaria.”
“You see, Vladimir? You had the desire, and there they
were. You got drunk on vodka, and set up a date with them.
lour desires 247
With one woman from Bulgaria, and another from Russia.
Only even before that you wanted to meet with Aphrodite’s
granddaughter — your first desire proved to be stronger, and
she appeared, and saved you from all the wretched stuff. She
helped you.”
“ Yes, she did. And just how might you know about the Bul-
garian girl?”
“From my feelings, Vladimir.”
“I don’t understand that, but never mind. Tell me rather:
this girl, Elena Fadeyeva, she’s not the daughter of the god-
dess Aphrodite — she’s Russian, she’s simply an employee of a
tourist agency on Cyprus. But I was talking about Aphrodite’s
granddaughter. Does that mean these forces of light were too
puny to show me the real granddaughter of Aphrodite?”
“They are by no means ‘puny’. And they did show you. The
goddess Aphrodite today exists as energy She is capable of
connecting for a time with the energy of any Man — if she
can see some meaningful reason to do so. That Elena Fadeye-
va, whenever she was with you, had two energies inside her.
There was a lot she could do during those days. There was
a lot she succeeded in doing, and she managed to help you,
too.”
“Yes, Fm grateful to her. And to the goddess Aphrodite.”
All my concerns and unpleasant sensations, connected
with my assumption that all people were simply pawns in the
hands of some kind of forces, literally flew out the window.
Now, after my talk with Anastasia, a sense of confidence and
peace set in.
For some time I just watched silently as Anastasia sat on
the edge of my bed in the moonlight, her hands meekly fold-
ed atop her knees. And then... to this day I cannot figure out
how this happened, but I suddenly came out with:
“I realise that you, Anastasia, are a great goddess.” And as
I said this I fell on my knees before her.
Book 5: Who Are We?
248
A cry of pain and despair burst from Anastasia’s lips. She
immediately rose and stepped back from me, leaning against
the wall and clasping her hands to her breast as though in
prayer.
“Vladimir, I beg of you, get up off your knees — you should
not bow down to me. O God, O God, I have overdone it, I
have been in too great a haste — forgive me for not making
myself clear enough to Your sons. In God’s sight, Vladimir, all
people are equal. They should not bow down to one another.
I am simply a woman — I am Man!
“frbu are so vastly different from all other people, Anasta-
sia, so if you are simply Man, then who are we? Who am If”
“You are Man, too, only as you are living out your life in
vanity, you have not yet been able to think of what your pur-
pose is.”
“Moses, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Rama , 2 Buddha — who
are they? And how do you relate to them?”
“Those are my elder brothers you have named, Vladimir. I
am not in a position to judge their works, but I shall say one
thing: none of them had their fill of earthly love.”
“That can’t be — every single one of them has millions of
worshipping followers, even today”
“But worship does not mean love. It only exhausts the
worshipper’s power of thought — a power exclusive to Alan.
Great is the egregor 3 of my brothers — for millions of years
many people have fed it through their worship, and in so do-
ing each worshipper lost some of his energy Over the centu-
ries there have been many willing to condemn the deeds of my
brothers. And I could not understand why they made such
z Rama — a god-king and an earthly incarnation of Vishnu (in the Hindu
tradition).
3 egregor — a unifying collective psychic entity or field — see footnote 3 in
Book 3, Chapter 24: “Who are you, Anastasia?”.
Tour desires
249
great efforts to feed their own egregor, building up its energy
over thousands of years. Nobody has been able to guess their
secret until the dawn of the present age. And my brothers de-
cided to gather the accumulated energy into a single whole, in
order to distribute it to souls now living on the Earth. A new
millennium will soon be given birth, in which the gods will
settle the Earth — those people whose conscious awareness
will allow them to accept this energy in all its worth.
“Vladimir, I beg of you, get up off your knees! It is painful
for any father to see his son bowed down and enslaved. It is
only the dark forces that have always tried to demean Man’s
significance. Vladimir, get up off your knees, refuse to betray
yourself. Do not separate yourself from me.”
Anastasia was extremely upset, and I did as she asked. I
got up off my knees and said:
“I wasn’t separating myself from you. On the contrary, it
seems I’ve just begun to understand you. Only I don’t agree
that worship interferes with love. On the contrary, all believ-
ers say that they love God. And I am bowing before you as a
goddess, but you are frightened for some reason, you’ve be-
come upset.”
“We have known each other for five years now, Vladimir. A
lot of time has gone by since that night when our son was con-
ceived, but ever since that time, not once have you had the de-
sire to touch me, to give me the look you give to other women.
Lack of understanding — and now, worship — do not allow
love to reveal itself. Worship does not bring forth children.”
“Well, that’s because you’re not exactly a woman, Anasta-
sia. You’ve become a kind of information node. It’s not just
me — others too don’t get your meaning right off. For exam-
ple, what does ‘don’t betray yourself’ mean? Why did you say
that in reference to me?”
“You wrote a letter to the President of Russia, Vladimir,
but at the same time you have come to doubt yourself — you
250
Book 5: Who Are We?
almost perished. You have ceased creating on your own and
handed your problems to others — basically to a single Presi-
dent.”
“That’s because he’s the only person in Russia who can re-
alistically do anything.”
“One person cannot do it by himself — the will of the ma-
jority is required. Besides, why did you send your letter only
to one president? There are presidents in Ukraine, Belarus,
Kazakhstan...”
“But you’ve always talked about Russia. Besides, Russia is
my Motherland.”
“But your passport 4 says you are a Belarusian.”
“That’s right. My father was Belarusian.”
‘And you spent your whole childhood in Ukraine.”
“Well yes, I did. And that was the best part I remem-
ber from my childhood. I remember the white cottage with
its straw roof, and the weir where I fished for mud loaches
along with the neighbourhood lads. And my grandma and
grandpa never once quarrelled in my presence, and never
punished me.”
“Yes, yes, Vladimir, and remember howyou and your grand-
father planted tiny seedlings in the garden...”
“I do remember. Grandma would water them from a
bucket.”
“But you know that even today in the village of Kuzdnichi,
in Ukraine, in the village where you were bom, that garden
has been preserved, its trees are all crusty now, but they are
still bearing fruit — they are waiting for you.”
“So then, where is my .Motherland, Anastasia?”
“It is within you.”
“In me?”
4 passport — in this case, an internal identity document, which states one’s
ethnic origin.
Tour desires
251
“In you! You can materialise it forever on the Earth, wher-
ever your soul indicates.”
“You’re right — I have to figure it all out somehow. At the
moment I get the feeling I’m scattered all over the land.’
“Vladimir, you are tired. This whole day has brought a lot
of emotion upon us. Lie down and go to sleep. By morning
your sleep will have built up fresh strength for you, and you
will have a new conscious awareness...”
I lay down on the bed, and could feel Anastasia taking my
hand in hers. Now a deep sleep would ensue, and I already
knew that she could make it deep and peaceful, so that every-
thing would be all right by morning. But just before I dropped
off I managed to say:
“You know, Anastasia, could you please see to it that I
shall be able once again to catch a glimpse of Russia’s splen-
did future?”
“Fine, go to sleep, Vladimir. You will see it.”
And Anastasia started singing very quietly — a wordless
song, like a lullaby. Anyway, it’s great that people can program eve-
rything for themselves, I managed to think before plunging into
a peaceful and pleasant dream about the future of Russia.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The rising Sun shone through the uncurtained windows
straight onto the bed, waking me up. I had such a wonder-
ful sleep! Some kind of extraordinary strength (fantastic!)
was making its presence known inside me — I even felt like
I wanted to do push-ups or some other kind of physical exer-
cise. And I was in an excellent mood.
From the kitchen I could hear the clatter of dishes. Wow!
I thought, Don’t tell me that’s Anastasia trying to make break-
fast. ?! She doesn’t know how to cope with all the kitchen gadgets, or
even how to turn on the gas. Maybe I’d better help her? I put on a
track suit and opened the door to the kitchen. No sooner
had I caught sight of Anastasia than a hot flash seemed to run
through my entire body
This was the first time I had seen the Siberian recluse
not in a taiga forest, not in her glade or by the seashore, but
in a modern city woman’s most typical surroundings — the
kitchen. She was leaning over the gas stove, trying to regu-
late the burner. She kept turning the gas knob up and down,
but the old cooker was not designed for any settings except
‘high’ and ‘low’.
In the kitchen Anastasia appeared to be a completely nor-
mal woman. Now why did I go and scare her last night by
bowing down on my knees? I’d probably had too much to
drink and was beastly tired to boot.
Anastasia felt my gaze upon her, and turned to face me.
One of her cheeks sported a dab of flour, and from underneath
her bandana a braid of hair clung to her slightly perspiring
Eternity lies ahead for you and me 253
forehead. Anastasia smiled. And her voice — that marvel-
lous voice of hers!
“A splendid good morning for the coming day to you,
Vladimir! You see, I have almost finished preparing break-
fast. Just a wee bit more to do. You go and wash up, and by
then everything will be ready You go wash up, and do not
worry — I shall not damage anything here — I have figured
things out.”
Instead of heading for the bathroom right off, I stood there
dumbfounded, just looking at Anastasia. For the first time in
the five years we’d known each other I caught a glimpse of just
how extraordinarily beautiful this woman really was. There
are no words to describe a beauty like this. Even with a flour-
spotted cheek, even without a fancy hairdo (her hair was sim-
ply tied back in a bun) — not to mention her plain, unrashion-
able clothing — she was still extraordinarily beautiful.
I headed off to the bathroom, did a careful job of shaving
and took a shower. During all this time I could not get my
thought off this woman’s beauty. When 1 came out of the
bathroom, I sat down on the bed (which by this time had al-
ready been made). Instead of going into the kitchen, I just sat
there, my mind still racing with thoughts about Anastasia.
It’s been five years now that I’ve known this woman, this
recluse from the Siberian taiga. Five years... And how my
whole life has changed over these five years! Even though we
rarely get together, it seems she’s always around. And it’s re-
ally her!
Of course, it was thanks to her that I was able to patch
up my relationship with my daughter. We get along famously
now. And as for my wife, well, even though I haven’t been
home in five years, I have talked with her on the telephone,
and I can tell by her voice that my wife now speaks to me
without any sense of coldness or resentment. She tells me
that everything’s fine with the family
254
Book 5: Who Are We?
Anastasia... After all, she was the one who cured me. The
doctors weren’t able to, but she was. I knew myself that I
was in danger of dying, and she cured me, and she made me
famous, too. Now I’m getting big royalties for my books,
but they’re still her words, after all. And she always talks so
tenderly never gets angry. Even if I get mad at her without
meaning to, she still won’t get angry Of course she’s changed
my life drastically but she’s changed it for the better. It was
she who bore me my son! Sure, it’s not your normal situa-
tion — my son lives in her glade in Siberia, but it’s probably
better for him there, with her.
She’s so very kind. I need to say something nice to her, and
do something nice for her. Only what? There’s nothing she
needs. Funny how it turns out — even if you owned half the
world, she’d still have more than von. Still, I really felt like
giving her some kind of gift. A long time ago I had bought her
a pearl necklace. Not artificial, but large, natural pearls.
I decided this was a good moment to go and give it to her. I
took the little jewellery box out of my suitcase, but instead of
heading straight for the kitchen I decided, for some reason,
to change my clothes. In place of the track suit I put on a pair
of trousers, a white shirt and even a tie.
1 hen I put the necklace in my trouser pocket, but I was
still too excited to go out to the kitchen. So I stood by the
window, looking neat as a pin, until I managed to get a hold of
myself. What’s going on here, anyway ? I thought to myself. It’s
high tune! Enough of this silly emotionalism ! And I walked out to
the kitchen.
Anastasia was sitting at the table she had got all set for break-
fast, waiting for me. She rose to greet me. By this time she had
done her hair and put on a very neat appearance. She got up
and silently gave me one of her tender looks with her greyish-
blue eyes, while I just stood there, not knowing what to say
Then I said, unexpectedly using the formal form of address:
Eternity lies ahead for you and me
2 55
“Good day to you, Anastasia!” My formality completely
took me aback. But she replied in all seriousness, as though
she hadn’t even noticed:
“Hello, Vladimir! Please, sit down. Breakfast is waiting.”
“Okay, I’ll take a seat. But first I wanted to say... I have
something to tell you...” But I couldn't remember the words.
“So, tell me, Vladimir.”
But I completely forgot what I was going to say. I went up
close to Anastasia and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Whereup-
on my whole body flared up — I felt hot all over. And Anasta-
sia’s cheeks flushed a deep red, and her eyelids fluttered faster
than usual. And when I spoke, it didn’t sound like it was me at
all, but some kind of constrained voice:
“That’s from all my readers, Anastasia. So many people are
grateful to you.”
“From your readers? A big thank-you to all the readers.
Thank you yery much!” Anastasia quietly whispered.
And then I gave her a quick kiss on her other cheek and
said:
“That one’s from me. You are extremely good and kind,
Anastasia. And you are extremely beautiful. Thank you for
being you.”
“You think I am beautiful, Vladimir? Thank you... Do you
really think so?”
She was excited, too. I didn’t know what to do next. But
then I remembered the pearl necklace in my pocket. I hastily
pulled it out and began trying to undo the clasp.
“This is a gift for you, Anastasia. Those are pearls... real
ones... they’re not fake. I know you don’t like anything artifi-
cial, but those are real.”
But the clasp wouldn’t budge. I jerked at it, and the thread
broke, and all the little pearls that had been threaded onto
it clattered to the floor and scattered in different direc-
tions. I sat down on the floor to pick them up. Anastasia
256
Book 5: Who Are We?
began picking them up too, only she managed to go faster.
I watched as she deposited the pearls into the palm of her
hand. She took a careful look at each one, and I just sat there
entranced with her movements. I sat there on the floor, lean-
ing against the wall, and watched her in astonishment.
I thought to myself how common the standard kitchen
was, but howuncommon and marvellous I felt everythingwas
in my heart. Why? Probably because she was here in this very
kitchen — Anastasia. She was right beside me, but for some
reason I couldn’t muster up enough resolve to embrace her.
This woman, who back there five years ago in the taiga had
seemed to be a somewhat abnormal recluse, now appeared as
a star which had dropped in for a few moments from heaven.
Here she was right beside me, yet as a star she was unreach-
able. And the years... Pity, the difference in years between
us! I watched intently as Anastasia rose and put the pearls
she had collected into a saucer on the table. Then she turned
her head toward me. Entranced, I went on sitting there on
the kitchen floor, leaning against the wall, and looking into
her greyish-blue eyes. And she never averted her tender gaze
even for a moment.
“Here you are right beside me, Anastasia, but now I can’t
touch you. I reel as though you’re a distant star in the sky”
“A star ? That’s how you feel? Why? Look! Here she is at
your feet — this little star, turned into an ordinary woman.”
Anastasia quickly got down on her knees and sat next to
me on the floor. She put her hands on my shoulder and rested
her head on her hands. I could hear her heart beating, only
my heart was beating a lot stronger. And her hair smelt of the
taiga. Her breath was like a warm breeze infused with the
intoxicating scent of flowers.
“Oh why, Anastasia, why couldn’t I have met you when I
was young? You’re so young, and just look at how old I am!
I’ve lived almost half a century already!”
Eternity lies ahead for you and me
257
“But it has taken me ages to break through to your wander-
ing soul! Do not chase me away now.”
“I’m getting old, Anastasia. And my life will soon be at an
end.”
“But while you are getting old, you will be able to plant
your own family tree, and lay the foundation for a city with a
splendid future, and a marvellous garden.”
“I’ll try Pity I shall have such a short time to live in this
garden myself. It’ll take quite a few years to grow.”
“If you set it up, you will always live there.”
‘Always?”
“Of course. Your body will grow old and die, but your soul
will take flight!”
“The souls of the dead take flight — I know that. The soul
takes flight, and that’s the end of it.”
“Oh, what a marvellous day we have today! Why are you
creating a joyless future, Vladimir? You are creating it for
yourself.”
“It’s not me creating it. That’s objective reality, plain and
simple. First comes old age, then death — for everyone. And
even you, my dear, sweet dreamer, cannot come up with any
other scenario.”
Anastasia shuddered all over and moved slightly to one
side. Her kind and cheerful eyes peered into mine and spar-
kled — radiating a joyful confidence that nothing could
withstand.
“I have no reason to ‘come up with’ anything. There is only
one truth. Death exists for the flesh — that is clear to eve-
ryone. For the flesh! In every other aspect death is a dream,
Vladimir.”
‘A dream?”
“Yes, a dream.”
Anastasia got up on her knees and began talking, look-
ing me straight in the eye. But somehow the way she talked
258
Book 5: Who Are We?
silenced the kitchen radio, the sounds of voices and other
noise outside the window, as she spoke in a gentle voice:
“My dearest! Eternity lies ahead for you and me. Life will
always claim its own, you see. The littlest ray of sunlight glis-
tens in the spring, and the soul enrobes itself in its new things.
But the decaying body does not embrace the ground in vain.
Come spring, from our bodies will sprout new flowers and
grass again. You shall forever hear the birds sing, and drink in
the drops of rain. In the blue sky above, the clouds — again
and again — will entrance you with their dance.
“And if you, my dearest, should find yourself scattered
across the unfathomable Universe as little specks of dust, still
refusing to believe, then from these specks of dust wandering
through eternity I shall begin to gather you up. And the tree
you plant will help me do this: in the early spring, to the place
where your soul lies in unfeeling peace, it will stretch out its
branch above. And those you have been kind to upon the
Earth will remember you with love. And if the sum total of
earthly love is not enough to materialise you once again, then
there is one — one whom you know, and on every plane of be-
ing she will be flaming with a single breath of desire, namely:
materialise yourself, my love! — there is one who will give herself
over, for a moment, unto death.”
“That will be you, Anastasia? Are you sure you will be able
to do such a thing — really?”
‘Any woman possesses the ability to do it, if only she can
compress the Logos into her feelings.”
‘And what about you, Anastasia? Who will help you return
to the Earth once more?”
“That I can do for myself I need not bother anyone about it.”
“But how shall I recognise you? After all, our lives will be
quite different from before.”
“Once you materialise upon the earthly plane, you will be-
come a youngster once again. You will notice a snotty little
Eternity lies ahead for you and me 259
red-haired girl in the garden next door to yours. Say a kind
word to this slightly bow-legged youngster, pay attention to
that little maid. After you grow into your teens, you will start
to notice pretty girls. Do not be in a hurry to join your des-
tiny to theirs. In the meantime, in the garden next to yours
your friend will be growing, too. Her race will be all freck-
led — she will not appear beautiful yet. At some point you
will notice her following you out of the corner of her eye. But
do not laugh at her, do not chase her off when she approaches
you to draw your attention away from a more mature beauti-
ful woman. Three springs will pass, and the neighbour girl
will become a truly beautiful young lass. One day you will
look at her and feel yourself aflame with love. And you will be
happy with her. And she will be happy, too. And it is my soul
that will be living in that happy girl you choose.”
“Thank you for that marvellous dream, Anastasia, my pre-
cious storyteller!”
I carefully embraced her by the shoulders and drew her
close to me. I wanted to listen to how excitedly her heart
was beating, to feel the fragrance of this marvellous woman’s
hair — a woman who believes only in good, in eternity. And
possibly to grasp hold of, if only like a straw, her incredible
dreams. Her words about the future made everything around
me seem more and more joyful.
“Maybe what you say Anastasia, is all just words, but still
they are marvellous words, and I feel more joy in my soul
when I hear them.”
“The words of a dream can set a tremendous energy in mo-
tion. Man creates a future for himself through his dream,
through the thoughts he cherishes. Believe me, Vladimir,
everything will happen for the two of us exactly as I have de-
scribed. But you are free in your dream, and you can change
anythingyou like just by speaking different words. You are free,
you have the liberty, and every Alan is a creator for himself.”
26o
Book 5: Who Are We?
“I shall change none of the words, Anastasia, spoken by
you. I shall try to believe in them.”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not spoiling eternity for the two of us.”
On this splendid sunny day the two of us swam in the sea and
sunned ourselves on the deserted seashore. That evening
Anastasia took her departure. As usual, she asked me not to
see her off. I stood on the balcony and watched as she made
her way along the pavement by our building, her head covered
with her kerchief, wearing the plainest of clothing and carry-
ing her hand-made cloth bag. She walked along, trying not to
stand out among the other pedestrians — this same woman
who had created a splendid future for the whole country.
And it will definitely come. People will turn her dream
into reality and start living in this splendid world themselves.
Before disappearing around the corner, Anastasia paused,
turned in my direction and waved. And I waved back in fare-
well. I could no longer make out her facial features, but I was
sure she was smiling. She is always smiling, because she be-
lieves in and creates only good. Perhaps it has to be that way.
I waved back, whispering to myself: Thank you, my dear, sweet
Anastasia !
Desertification has affected the lands of the Rostov Region 1 *
(up to 50% of the Salesian Steppes), the Altai Territory 1 (a
third of the Kulunda Plain) and thirteen other regions within
the Russian Federation. Altogether 6.5 million hectares of
Russian farmland have now been taken over by blowing sands,
the largest single segment being in the Caspian Lowlands,
covering as much as 10% of their total area. 3 The overall area
of Russian farmland subject (either actually or potentially) to
desertification approaches 50 million hectares.
According to agrochemical indicators, Russia’s agricultural
lands are, on average, not very productive, especially outside
the Chernozem Belt. 4 The layer of topsoil does not con-
tain a sufficient quantity of nutrients for proper cultivation:
1 Rostov Region (Russian: Rostovskaya oblast) — a prairie region comprising
just over 100,000 square kilometres around the city of Rostov-on-Don,
bordering on the Sea of Azov (just north of the Black Sea) in Russia’s south,
including the fertile Salesian Steppes (Russian: Sal’skie step/').
~ Altai Territory (Russian: Altai ski kray ) — a partially mountainous territory
of 169,100 square kilometres in the south-western part of Siberia, south of
Novosibirsk at the headwaters of the Ob River, centred around the capital
Barnaul. Almost two-thirds of its area is covered by the Kulunda Plain ( Ku -
lundinskaya ravnina), which is suitable for farming.
'Caspian Lowlands (Russian: Prikaspiiskaya nizmennost ) — a semi-arid lowland
area (as low as 28 metres below sea level) covering approximately 200,000
square kilometres around the northern end of the Caspian Sea in both the
Russian Federation and Kazakhstan.
4 Chernozem (lit. 'Black Earth’) Belt — a zone of forest and farmland con-
taining a layer of dark-coloured soil (ranging from 1 to 6 metres in depth)
262
Book 5: Who Are We?
nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, mi-
cronutrients (especially cohalt, molybdenum and zinc). At
least a third of the farmlands have acidic soil, and soil con-
taining low concentrations of available phosphorous and po-
tassium amount to 30% and 10%, respectively.
Over 43% of arable lands have a low humus content; in 15%
of them (45% outside the Chernozem Belt) the proportion
is critical. More than 75% of the farmlands ot the Kaluga,
Smolensk, Astrakhan and Volgograd Regions, 1 as well as the
Republics of Kalmykia, Adygeya, Buryatia and Tuva" are low
in southern Russia and Ukraine. It is characterised by a high percentage
(up to 15%) of humus, as well as large quantities of acids, phosphorous and
ammonia. A similar belt (also known as Chernozem) is found in the prairi-
elands of the province of Manitoba in Canada. (The original Russian term
is pronounced chenwz-TOM .)
’These regions are all named after the cities at their respective centres:
Kaluga — a city on the Oka River about 200 km southwest of Moscow,
originally the domain of the princely Vorotynsky family, Smolensk — one of
the oldest cities in Russia (dating back to AD 863), located about 360 km
west-southwest of Moscow, and described in an ancient history text as one
of the key stations on the trade route between Scandinavia and the Medi-
terranean. .istmkhm — at the mouth ot the Volga, on the Caspian Sea.
in the Caspian Lowlands; formerly the capital of a Tatar khanate, the city
was conquered for Russia by Ivan the Terrible in 1556. Volgograd (originally
Tsaritsyn, known as Stalingrad from 1925 to 1961) — a city founded in 1598 at
the confluence of the Volga and Tsaritsa Rivers, about 400 km northwest
of the Caspian Sea.
"These republics are all part of the Russian Federation: Kalmykia — just
southwest of the Astrakhan Region in the northern Caucasus, covering
an area of 76,000 square kilometres, bordering on the Caspian Lowlands.
Adygeya (pron. a-di-GAT-ya ) — a small republic (7,600 sq. km) surround-
ed by Russia’s Krasnodar Territory (northwestern Caucasus), with prairie
lands in the north and mountains in the south. Buryatia — a large, primarily
mountainous republic of 351,000 sq. km in south central Siberia, situated
on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal. Tuva (pron. too-VAH ) — also in south
central Siberia, covering an area of 170,500 sq. km, not far to the west of
Lake Baikal; the western section ofTuva comprises a dry lowland.
Appendix
263
in humus. Experts believe that, on average, with irregular and
insufficient applications of organic fertiliser and improper
cultivation practices, a significant depletion has taken place
in Russia’s soil content. Humus levels have been reduced to
a minimum — 3. 5-5.0% of topsoil in the central Chernozem
regions and only 1.3— 1.5R& outside the Chernozem belt. An-
nual humus losses in farmland topsoil are pegged at o. 6-0.7
tonnes per hectare (as much as 1 tonne per hectare in Cher-
nozem areas). This means an annual nationwide loss of ap-
proximately 80 million tonnes.
It has been proved that there is almost a perfect linear re-
lationship between the humus reserves in basic soil types and
the productivity of major agricultural crops. A one-tonne-
per-hectare increase in humus levels means an increase in av-
erage long-term productivity of cereal crops of 10-15 kg/ha.
For a number of crops cultivated under various soil/climatic
conditions, this amount corresponds to 30 kg of cereal crop
units. For every i-centimetre decrease in humus depth in
Chernozem topsoil under the influence of either natural or
man-made factors (e.g., erosion), cereal crop productivity falls
by 100 kg/ha.
Over the course of many years Russia’s soil resources have
been extensively exploited' by various means, and nutrients
have often been eliminated through the harvesting process at
a faster rate than they could be replenished.
Agricultural scientists warn that such extensive exploita-
tion of the soil’s fertility will lead to an irreversible degrada-
tion. Trends in overall cereal output are cited as evidence of
this. The annual manure application required to maintain
constant humus levels in the soil should amount to between
extensively exploited — In Russian the term ‘extensive’ ( ekstensivnoe ) here re-
fers specifically to using up more and more land resources, as opposed to
increasing fertility on the lands already under cultivation.
264
Book 5: Who Are We?
7 and 15 tonnes per hectare. This means adding to the soil a
minimum of 1 billion tonnes of organic fertiliser every year.
Russia today employs only about 100-120 million tonnes, or
approximately 10 times less than is required.
What is the current situation with regard to conservation of soil
resources?
Centralised financing of soil-improvement projects has
been completely cut off, and the scope of these projects has
been drastically reduced. Financing now comes out of lo-
cal budgets — since 1993 out of land taxes, with 30% of the
conservation-programme expenses to be paid by land-users.
As a result, from 1994 to the present all projects for apply-
ing peat-manure compost in non-Chernozem areas, as well
as lime treatment of acidic soils, delivery of liming materials
and bone-meal, and phosphate application have pretty well
ceased on most Russian territory because local authorities do
not have funds for carrying out agrochemical projects.
This has contributed to the failure of practically all com-
prehensive federal soil-improvement and agricultural devel-
opment programmes initiated by the Russian government
and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.
In view of the above, we can now speak of the escalating
degradation of Russia’s topsoil, which threatens its ecological
and food security, as well as its national security as a whole.
THE AUTHOR, Vladimir Megre, born in 1950, was a well-known
entrepreneur from a Siberian city of Novosibirsk. According to his
account, in 1995 — after hearing a fascinating story about the power
of ‘ringing cedars’ from a Siberian elder — he organised a trade ex-
pedition into the Siberian taiga to rediscover the lost technique of
pressing virgin cedar nut oil containing high curative powers, as well
as to find the ringing cedar tree. However, his encounter on this trip
with a Siberian woman named Anastasia transformed him so deep-
ly that he abandoned his business and went to Moscow to write a
book about the spiritual insights she had shared with him. Vladimir
Megre now lives near the city of Vladimir, Russia, 190 km (120 miles)
east of Moscow. If you wish to contact the author, you may send a
message to his personal e-mail megre@online.sinor.ru
THE TRANSLATOR, John Woodsworth, born in Vancouver
(British Columbia), has over forty years of experience in Russian-
English translation, from classical poetry to modern short stories. Since
1982 he has been associated with the University of Ottawa in Canada
as a Russian-language teacher, translator and editor, most recently as a
Research Associate and Administrative Assistant with the University’s
Slavic Research Group. A published Russian-language poet himself, he
and his wife — Susan K. Woodsworth — are directors of the Sasquatch
Literary Arts Performance Series in Ottawa. A Certified Russian-
English Translator, John Woodsworth is in the process of translating the
remaining volumes in Vladimir Megre ’s Ringing Cedars Series.
THE EDITOR, Leonid Sharashkin, is writing his doctoral dis-
sertation on the spiritual, cultural and economic significance of the
Russian dacha gardening movement, at the University of Missouri at
Columbia. After receiving a Master’s degree in Natural Resources
Management from Indiana University at Bloomington, he worked for
two years as Programme Manager at the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF Russia) in Moscow, where he also served as editor of Russia’s
largest environmental magazine, The Panda Times. Together with his
wife, Irina Sharashkina, he has translated into Russian Small is beauti-
ful and A guide for the perplexed by E.F. Schumacher, The secret life of
plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, The continuum concept-
by Jean Liedloff and Birth without violence by Frederick Leboyer.
ORDERING INFORMATION
USA:
° on-line — www.RIngingCedars.com
0 tel. /fax (toll-free) — 1-888-DGLMENS (l-888~365~6367)
0 tel. / fax (from outside US & Canada) — i-646-429-1986
° e-mail — sales@RingingCedars.com
0 mail (US) — send USS14.95 per copy plus S3.95 shipping and
handling for the first copy and S 0.99 s&h for each additional copy
in your order to:
Ringing Cedars Press
415 Dairy Rd., Suite E-339
Kahului, HI 96732, USA
Make a check or money order payable to “Ringing Cedars Press’’.
Please indicate clearly the quantity and title of the book(s) you
are ordering and be sure to include your US postal address with
your payment. Allow 2-4 weeks for delivery Prices are subject to
change without notice.
UNITED KINGDOM:
0 order on-line — www.SingingCedars.co.uk
0 by phone (toll-free) — 0800-011-2081
0 e-mail — books@RingingCedars.co.uk
AUSTRALIA:
0 order on-line — www.RingingCedars.com.au
0 by phone — 1800-248-768
0 e-mail — books@RingingCedars.com. an
NEW ZEALAND:
0 order on-line — www.RingingCedars.co.nz
0 by phone — 64-9232-9792
0 e-mail — sales@RingingCedars.co.nz
SOUTH AFRICA:
0 order on-line — www.RingingCedars.co.za
0 e-mail — books@RingingCedars.co.za
who Arc Wc? by Vfacfimir Mcpi*c y nmalir >
~ / • O Nature /
Book 5 ol The Rindine Cedars Series Childrcaril
Rin^ln^ Cedi
ul i in ir
Who are we? describes the author’s search for real-life ‘proofs’ of Anastasia’s
vision presented in the previous volumes. Finding these proofs and taking
stock of ongoing global environmental destruction, Vladimir Megre describes
further practical steps for putting Anastasia’s vision into practice. Full of
beautiful realistic images of a new way of living in co-operation with the Earth
and each other, this book also highlights the role of children in making us
aware of the precariousness of the present situation and in leading the global
transition toward a happy, violence-free society
: I .
*■
■
Sc Encrt
m
Mr
ISBN 978-0-9763333-4-0
II III III 5 1 4 9 5 >
780976
333340
Vladimir Megre
The Ringing Cedars Series
English translation byjohn Woodsworth
• Book i Anastasia
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-0-2)
0 Book 2 The Ringing Cedars of Russia
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-1-9)
0 Book 3 The Space of Love
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-2-6)
® Book 4 Co-creation
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-3-3)
• Book 5 Who Are We?
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-4-0)
• Book 6 The Book of Kin
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-6-4)
0 Book 7 The Energy of Life
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-7-1)
• Book 8, Part 1 The New Civilisation
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-8-8)
® Book 8, Part 2 Rites of Love
(ISBN: 978-0-9763333-9-5)
Published by Ringing Cedars Press
www. RingingCedars . com
Anastasia herself has stated that this book consists of words
and phrases in combinations which have a beneficial effect on the
reader. This has been attested by the letters received to date
from thousands of readers all over the world.
If you wish to gain as full an appreciation as possible of the
ideas, thoughts and images set forth here, as well as experience
the benefits that come with this appreciation, we recommend
you find a quiet place for your reading where there is the least
possible interference from artificial noises (motor traffic,
radio, TV, household appliances etc.). Natural sounds, on the
other hand — the singing of birds, for example, or the patter
of rain, or the rustle of leaves on nearby trees — may be a
welcome accompaniment to the reading process.
Ringing Cedars Press is an independent publisher dedicated
to making Vladimir Megre’s books available in the beautiful
English translation by John Woodsworth. Word of mouth is
our best advertisement and we appreciate your help in spread-
ing the word about the Ringing Cedars Series.
Order on-line www.RingingCedars.com ordering
call /fax toll-free 1-888-DOLMENS details
or call / fax 1-646-429-1986 see last page
Generous discounts are available on volume orders. To help
spread the word as an independent distributor, or to place the
books in your bookstore, or to be kept up to date about future
book releases and events, please email us at:
info @ringingcedars .com
orwrite to the Publisher, Ringing Cedars Press, 415 Dairy Rd.,
Suite E-339, Kahului, HI 96732, USA. We also welcome
reviews, poetry and artwork inspired by the Series.
Translated from the Russian by
John Wandsworth
Edited by
Leonid Sharashkin
Ringing Cedars Press
Paia, Hawaii, USA
The Book of Kin by
Vladimir Megre
Translation, afterword and footnotes by
John Woodsworth
Editing, footnotes, design and layout by
Leonid Sharashkin
Cover art by
Alexander Razboinikov
Copyright © 2002 Vladimir Megre
Copyright © 2007 Leonid Sharashkin,
translation
afterword, footnotes
cover art
design and layout
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, except for the
inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2006920097
ISBN: 978-0-9763333-6-4
Published by
Ringing Cedars Press
www. RingingCedars . com
1. Who raises our children? i
2. Conversation with my son 36
A distorted view of history 42
“You loved Mama, hut did not recognise it” 50
A book of pristine origins 52
One plus one equals three 36
“I shall make a Universe Girl happy”. 59
How to bridge the gap?. 64
“I shall save my Mama” (>9
3. An invitation to the future 78
4. A dormant civilisation 89
5. The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 101
Vedism toi
A union of two — a wedding 103
Raising children in the Vedic culture 121
Rituals 13 2
Feeding life in the flesh. 137
Life without violence and crime 143
6. Imagery and trial 148
7. The secret war with Vedic Rus’ 167
In which temple should God dwell (Anastasias first parable) 168
vi Book 6: The Book of Kin
The best place in Paradise (second parable) 775
The wealthiest groom (third parable) 1 79
A change of priestly tactics 186
8. Occultism 193
The priest who still rides the world today ipf
9. A need to thi nk 203
Who saved America?. 210
Who is for, who is against?. 223
They defamed oar forebears too 228
Glad tidings 235
10. The Book of Kin 242
A good and attentive grandmother 255
To live in a marvellous reality 260
Translator’s Afterword 267
About the Ringing Cedars Series 274
Readers’ comments 277
Chapter One
There was a large sign on the office door of the private clinic
giving the M.D.’s full name, along with a title indicating an
advanced academic degree, and identifying him as a special-
ist in child psychology. He had been recommended to me as
one of the best scientific minds on the subject of parent-child
relationships. I had put my name down for his last appoint-
ment of the day, as I didn’t want to limit the length of our
consultation — if it proved useful, I was prepared to pay him
extra to continue as I was in such desperate need of advice. I
opened the door and walked in.
Behind the desk was seated a gentleman of retirement age
with a drawn face, listlessly stuffing sheets of scribbled paper
into a file. After inviting me to take a seat, the doctor placed
a clean sheet of paper before him and said:
“So? How can I help you?”
To avoid getting into a long, extended story about every-
thing that had happened after meeting with Anastasia, I did
my best to put the essence of my question in a nutshell:
‘Alexander Sergeevich , 1 I need to learn how to get along
with my child — my son — who will soon be five years old.”
“So, you believe you have lost contact with your son?” the
psychologist asked blandly and dispiritedly
“There has been practically no meaningful contact as such
to date. The way it’s turned out, since his birth I’ve hardly
1 Alexander Sergeevich — first name and patronymic, the usual polite form of
address in Russian among adults.
2
Book 6: The Book of Kin
had any communication with him at all. I did see him one
time while he was still an infant, but after that... I haven’t
talked with him even once. So, I have to say, he’s started
learning about life without me. We’ve been living quite apart
from each other.
“But now I’m going to have a chance to meet with my five-
year-old son and actually talk with him. Maybe there are
some ways to help make him favourably disposed toward me?
Like when a man marries a woman who already has a child,
and wants to get along with him, to become his father and
friend.”
“There are ways, certainly,” Alexander Sergeevich ob-
served, “but none which are guaranteed to be effective in all
cases. There’s so much in parent-child relationships that de-
pends on individual nature and character.”
“I realise that, but still, I’d like to become familiar with
whatever specific hints you may have.”
“Specific... Hmm... When you make your appearance in
the family — and you have to remember that even a single
mother with a child constitutes a family — try to interfere as
little as possible with the way of life they have already estab-
lished. It will take some time before you become anything
beyond an outsider to your son, and that’s something you’ve
got to accept. At the beginning stages you will have to spend
some time sizing up the whole situation AND... give them a
chance to size you up.
“You could try tying in your appearance with the fulfilment
of some dream or desire the child has had but which has been
impossible to fulfil. You could find out from his mother some
kind of toy he’s had his eye on which she hasn’t been able to
buy for him. But don’t buy it yourself in advance. Start talk-
ing with him about your own childhood and the toys you had,
and tell him how you dreamt of getting this one in particular.
If he picks up on that and mentions about how he wants the
Who raises our children?
3
same thing, then you can suggest the two of you go to the
store together and get it. What’s important here is the actual
conversational process, and the outing itself. The boy should
get to the point of trusting you with his dream, allowing you
to have a hand in making it come true.”
“The toy example really won’t work in my case. My son has
never seen store-bought toys.”
“Strange... So, that won’t work, eh?... Well, my friend,
you’ve got to be frank with me. If you want to hear some use-
ful advice, then you’ll have to give more details about your re-
lationship with your child’s mother. Who is she? Where does
she work? Where does she live? What’s her family 5 s financial
situation? What do you think led to the break-up?”
It was dawning on me, finally. If I wanted to get more
specific advice out of the psychologist, I would have to go
into my relations with Anastasia, which I still hadn’t fully
fathomed myself, so how was I going to explain them to a
psychologist?
Without mentioning her name, I began describing the sit-
uation as follows:
“She lives in a very remote area, in Siberia. I happened to
make her acquaintance while I was on a trade expedition. I’ve
been doing business there since the beginning of perestroika —
on a ship which took me to some isolated settlements along
the Ob River, selling various manufactured goods and bring-
ing back fish, furs and wild mushrooms, berries and nuts.”
“I see. So, like Paratov , 2 this tradesman makes everyone
jealous with his romantic exploits along a Siberian river?”
“No romance, just work. Plaven’t you heard? Entrepreneurs
work like dogs!”
“ Sergei Paratov — a cynical, hard-nosed character in Alexander Ostrovsky’s
drama The dowerless bride ( Bespridannitsa ), who betrays the affections of a
poor girl named Larissa in a small town on the Volga River.
4
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“Well, let’s say they do, but... entrepreneurs also find time
to have fun, do they not?”
“Believe me, with this woman it wasn’t a question of hav-
ing fun at all. I wanted to have a child by her. I’d been want-
ing a son for a long time, but then I seemed to forget about
that particular dream. The years went by... But as soon as
I saw her — how wholesome, young and beautiful she was...
It seems just about every woman today is sick or sickly, but
she — well, she was simply beaming with energy the picture
of health! So I figured her child would turn out healthy and
good-looking too.
“She bore me a son. I went to see them when he was still
quite little, before he could walk or talk. I held him in my
arms. But since then I’ve had no contact with him.”
“And why is that?”
How on earth was I to explain to this gentleman during our
brief conversation everything that it had taken me several
books to describe? How could I tell him that Anastasia had
refused to leave her taiga glade and move with our son into
town, while I on the other hand was not adapted to life in
the taiga? Or that she was the one who would not let me
even communicate with him, let alone give him traditional
toys?
Every summer I had gone back to Siberia, to the very glade
where Anastasia and my son made their home, but I never
managed to see my son again after that one time. Each time
he would be somewhere else — with her grandfather and
great-grandfather, who lived not far away, in the wilds of the
endless Siberian forest. Anastasia refused to take me to visit
them, and further insisted each time that I should first pre-
pare myself for conversation with my son.
In attempting to find out more about child-raising, I would
put a single question to many of my friends and acquaintances,
Who raises our children?
5
which was invariably greeted with misunderstanding and as-
tonishment, even though it was quite a simple question:
“Have you ever had a serious conversation with your
child?”
It would always turn out that the topics of conversation
were pretty much the same: “Come to the table... Time for
bed... Stop fooling around... Pick up your toys... Got your
homework done?...”
The child gets older, goes to school, but talking about the
meaning of life, Man’s destiny or even just about what his fu-
ture path in life will be — well, most of them don’t have time
for that, or even think it anything worth discussing. Maybe
they feel the time isn’t right yet, that they’ll still have a chance
to... But they never do. The child grows up...
But if we ourselves never even try having a serious conver-
sation with our children, who then is raising them?
Why has Anastasia not allowed me to communicate with
my very own son all these years? I have no idea what she’s
been afraid of or trying to ward off.
Anyway the day came when she all at once asked me
whether I felt I was ready to meet and talk with my son. I
replied that I did want to meet with him, but I still couldn’t
quite bring myself to say I was ‘ready’.
All these years I had been reading anything I could lay my
hands on concerning parent-child relationships. I kept writ-
ing my books, giving talks at conferences in various countries,
but wrote and said almost nothing about the most important
thing that interested me during all this time — the raising
of children and how older generations should interact with
them.
I kept thinking about all the different words of advice I
had encountered in child-raising literature, but each time
I would find myself coming back to what Anastasia said:
“ Raising children means also raising yourself” 1 It took me a long
6
Book 6: The Book of Kin
time to comprehend the meaning of that saying, but I finally
managed to reach a definite conclusion:
Our children are not raised by parental admonition, nor by kin-
dergartens, schools and colleges. Our children are raised by the way
people live — the way we ourselves live and the way society in gener-
al lives. And no matter what kids hear from their parents or teachers
in school or any other institution of learning no matter what clever
systems of education are adopted, children will follow the lifestyle
practised by the majority of people around them.
That means that the raising of children depends entirely
on your own understanding of the world, on how you live your
own life, how your parents live and how society in general
lives. A sick and unhappy society can only give birth to sick
and unhappy children.
“If you don’t tell me in detail about your relationship with the
mother of your son, I’ll have a hard time finding any real ad-
vice to give you!” said the psychologist, interrupting a rather
lengthy pause.
“That’s a rather long story,” I mused. “To put it briefly the
way things turned out, I’ve had no communication with my
son for several years, and that’s all there is to it.”
“Okay, then tell me, in all these years have you given any fi-
nancial support to your child’s mother? I think, for an entre-
preneur, financial support would be the simplest way to show
your interest in the family”
“No, I haven’t. She believes she is fully provided for.”
“So, she’s a wealthy woman, then?”
“Let’s just say she has everything she needs.”
Alexander Sergeevich rose sharply from behind his desk
and blurted out:
3 See Book 4, Chapter 30: “In His image and likeness”.
Who raises our children?
7
“She lives in the Siberian taiga. She lives the life of a rec-
luse. Her name is Anastasia, your son’s name is Volodya , 4 and
you are Vladimir Nikolaevich Megre. I recognise you. I’ve
read your books — more than once, in fact.”
“Yes...”
Alexander Sergeevich started pacing the room excitedly
Then he began talking again:
“Well, well, well! I was right, eh? I guessed it! So, would
you please answer me one thing. I need an answer! It’s very
important to me. To science... But no, don’t answer. I’ll say
it myself. I’m beginning to understand... I’m sure that all
these years since you first met Anastasia you’ve been doing
intensive studies in psychology and philosophy You’ve been
constantly thinking about child-raising. Am I right?”
“Yes.”
“But the conclusions you reached after reading these ‘schol-
arly’ books and articles did not satisfy you. And so you started
looking for answers within yourself, or in other words, you
started reflecting on the rising generation, on child-raising?”
“More or less. But most of all about my son.”
“That’s an inseparable part of it. You came to see me in
desperation, and without too much hope for answers to the
questions you’ve come up with. And if you don’t get them
from me, you’ll go on searching on your own.”
“Probably.”
“So... Amazing! I’m going to mention the name of someone
who is immeasurably stronger and wiser than me in all this.”
“Who is that person and how can I arrange an appoint-
ment?”
“That person is none other than your Anastasia, Vladimir
Nikolaevich!”
4 Volodya — an endearing form of the name Vladimir.
8
Book 6: The Book of Kin
‘Anastasia? But she’s hardly said anything about child-rais-
ing lately. And she’s the one who wouldn’t let me communi-
cate with my son.”
“That’s just it — she’s the one. And up to this moment I
haven’t been able to find any logical explanation for this deci-
sion on her part. Such strange behaviour! A loving woman
suddenly announces to the father-to-be that he shouldn’t
communicate with his own son. A most irregular situa-
tion — never come across it before. But the result!... The
result is simply amazing! ’You see, she’s succeeded in making
you... No, that word isn’t applicable here. Anastasia’s suc-
ceeded in attracting... And who? If you will pardon me, she’s
made a not-very-well-educated entrepreneur get interested
in psychology, philosophy and the problems of child-raising.
You’ve been thinking about that through the years — I can
tell as much just by the simple fact that you came to see me.
She’s been raising your son all these years by herself, but at the
same time she’s also been educating you! She’s been prepar-
ing you for this meeting of father and son.”
“Yes, she actually has been raising our son alone. As for
educating me, I don’t think so. We don’t get together all that
often. And only for a brief time.”
“But that information she gives you, even during those
‘brief’ moments, as you say, you’re still having to sort out
even today The information is truly amazing. Tou, Vladimir
Nikolaevich, say that Anastasia rarely talks about child-
raising, but that isn’t so.”
Alexander Sergeevich quickly went over to his desk and
pulled a thick grey notebook out of one of the drawers.
Tenderly stroking it in his hands, he continued:
“I took all Anastasia’s sayings in your books about the
birth and raising of children and wrote them out in order,
leaving out the details of the plot. Maybe, though, it wasn’t
right to take these quotations out of context. After all,
Who raises our children?
9
there’s no doubt the plot makes them a lot easier to com-
prehend.
“These sayings of Anastasia’s are fraught with great mean-
ing — a great philosophical meaning, I would say, and wisdom
from an ancient culture. I’m inclined to suppose — and I’m
not alone here — that these principles are set forth in some
kind of ancient book, maybe millions of years old. What
Anastasia says has the kind of depth to it and the accuracy of
expression that one associates with what I think are the most
important thoughts set forth in ancient manuscripts, as well
as modern scholarly works.
‘After I had written out everything I could find concern-
ing the birth and raising of children, what I had before me
amounted to a treatise with no equal anywhere in the world.
I am sure it will be used as the basis for a great number of
dissertations and awardings of academic degrees, along with
amazing discoveries. But even more importantly, it will give
rise to a new race on the Earth known as Man \ ”
“But Man 5 already exists right now.”
“I think, when people look back from the future, the fact
of Man’s existence maybe in some doubt.”
“How can that be? You and I exist. How can our existence
ever be placed in doubt?”
“Our bodies exist, and we call them people. But in the fu-
ture the content, or mental makeup of the human individual
will be vastly different from yours and mine today, and so to
underline the difference, the name will have to be changed.
Possibly today’s people will be called ‘Such-and-such-a-period
Man’, or else they’ll find a new name for those who are born
in the future.”
5 Man — Throughout the Ringing Cedars Series, the word Man with a capi-
tal M is used to refer to a human being of either gender. For details on the
word’s usage and the important distinction between Man and human being
please see the Translator’s Preface to Book i.
IO
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“Is it really that bad?”
“It is — no question about it. You’ve gone and read a lot of
books about child-raising — books written by scholars. Now
tell me, at what point does child-raising begin?”
“Some writers think it should begin when the child’s a
year old.”
“Precisely. At best, starting at a year old. But Anastasia
showed how Man is formed even before... I know you’re
thinking ‘in the mother’s womb’. But she showed that par-
ents can form their future offspring even before the sperm
and the egg get together. And this is explainable scientifically
Anastasia stands head and shoulders above all other psycholo-
gists who exist or have ever existed on the Earth. Her sayings
are potent, they cover all stages of the development and the
raising of the child — the pre-conceptual, the conceptual, the
foetal stage and so forth.
“She covers topics which neither wise men of the past nor
contemporary scholars have been able to grasp hold of. She
has specifically highlighted what is absolutely essential to
bearing and raising a fully fledged Man.”
“But that’s not something/ remember. I never wrote about
developmental stages.”
“The books you wrote just documented the events you wit-
nessed. Anastasia realised that that is just how you would be
writing. Her next move was that she herself began giving spe-
cific form to these events, effectively clothing a great scien-
tific work in an entertaining narrative form. She created your
book with her very life, using it to bring invaluable knowledge
to people.
“Most readers feel this intuitively. Many are ecstatic over
the books, but they are unable to fully make sense of the
cause of their excitement. They are absorbing information
they never knew about before, on a subconscious level. But it
can be taken in consciously too. I’ll prove it to you.
Who raises our children?
ii
“Look, here before you is a transcript of Anastasia’s sayings
about the birth of a Man. My colleague and I have gone over
them very carefully and noted down our comments. He is a
sexopathologist with a post-graduate degree in medicine, and
has the office next to mine. We conducted experiments and
analysed the situation.”
Alexander Sergeevich opened his notebook and began
speaking excitedly, almost exultantly:
“So, we have the beginning... The pre-conceptual stage. This
is hardly ever looked upon as an aspect of child-raising, either
in the present time or in the past as we know it. But it is quite
clear today that at some point on the Earth, or somewhere in
the limitless expanses of the Universe, there existed or still
exists a culture in which the relationships between men and
women were immeasurably more perfected than our own.
And that the pre-conceptual stage was an important compo-
nent — perhaps the basic component — in the upbringing of
Man.
“Following the cultural traditions of a civilisation hitherto
unknown to us, Anastasia carries out specific preparatory
steps before conceiving a child. First, she dulls your sexual
appetite. This is quite evident to me as a psychologist from
the events described in your first book. Let me remind you of
the order in which these events take place.
“During a rest stop on your trek through the taiga, you
drink some cognac and have a bite to eat, but Anastasia does
not respond to your offer of food and alcohol. She takes off
her outer clothing and lies down on the grass. You are awed
by her natural beauty, and you are aroused by a natural desire
to possess this beautiful womanly body Driven by a sexual
impulse, you attempt to penetrate her, you touch her body
and then... you lose consciousness.
“We shan’t go into the details of just how she manages to
make you lose consciousness. The important thing as that as
12
Book 6: The Book of Kin
a result of this you no longer look upon Anastasia as a sexual
object. And you yourself mention this — I wrote down your
words: ‘I had no thought of wanting to possess her.’” 6
“Yes. You’re right — after the incident at the rest stop I
had no further sexual desires in regard to Anastasia.”
“Now to the second event — conception — you tell about the
proper way to conceive a child.
“Night-time in a cosy dug-out, with the fragrance of sweet
grass and flowers. But you are not accustomed to spending
the night alone in the taiga, and you ask Anastasia to he down
beside you. You already realise that if she is with you nothing
bad will happen. She lies down beside you.
“So it turns out that in this intimate situation you find this
most beautiful young womanly body right next to yours — a
body which has the added attraction of being radiant with
health. Unlike most women’s bodies you have known before,
this one actually luxuriates in health. You sense the fragrance
of Anastasia’s breath, yet at the same time you feel no sexual
inclination. It has been expelled from you. The space it oc-
cupied has been cleansed to make way for another mental
state — - an aspiration to ensure the continuation of the fam-
ily line. You are thinking about a son! A son that doesn’t yet
exist. This is what you wrote in your book:
‘“It would be good if my son could be borne by Anastasia!
She is so healthy That means my son will be healthy and
good-looking too.’ 7
“You involuntarily place your hand on Anastasia’s breast
and start caressing it, but not with the same caresses as be-
fore. This time they are not sexual. It is as though you are ca-
ressing your son. Then you write about the touch of the lips,
about Anastasia’s gentle breathing, and then — a complete
6 Quoted from Book i, Chapter 9: “Who lights a new star?”.
Quoted (with slight variations) from Book i, Chapter 9.
Who raises our children?
13
lack of any kind of details. Then you jump to describing the
following morning, your excellent mood, and the feeling that
an extraordinary feat has been performed.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if your publishers tried to per-
suade you to describe that night in greater detail, to increase
the book’s popularity”
“Yes, they actually did try to do this, several times.”
“But still, you did not describe that night in any of the sub-
sequent editions of your book — why?”
“Because — ”
“Stop! Please, don’t go on. I want to see if my own conclu-
sions are correct. You did not describe the sexual details of
that night because you simply didn’t remember anything after
touching Anastasia’s lips.”
“You’re right, to this day I can’t remember anything
about it. Except for that unusual sensation the following
morning.”
“What I’m going to say to you now you may find incred-
ible. On that marvellous night you spent with Anastasia, ab-
solutely no sex took place.”
“No sex? But what about my son? I saw my son with my
own eyes.”
“What you experienced that night was indeed physical in-
timacy. There was sperm involved — in fact, everything that
accompanies the conception of children, but there was no
sex. My colleagues and I kept going over and over what hap-
pened with you. Just like me, they too concluded that you did
not have sex with Anastasia.
“You see, the word sex in our time implies the satisfaction
of fleshly needs, the aspiration for the pleasure of fleshly grat-
ification. But in the context of the events of that night in
the taiga, that particular motivation was lacking — in other
words, you were not aiming to achieve sexual satisfaction.
This time your aim was quite different — namely, a child.
H
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Consequently, even the name of that event must be different.
It’s not just a question of terminology here — we are talking
about a fundamentally different way of giving birth to Man.
“I’ll say it again: this is a fundamentally different way of giving
birth to Man. This is not an abstract statement — it is easily
provable by means of scientific comparisons. Judge for your-
self: no psychologist or physiologist today would deny the
influence of external mental factors on the formation of the
foetus in the mother’s womb. Among other factors a major
one (and frequently the dominant one) is the man’s attitude
toward the mother-to-be. Similarly, we cannot deny that a
man’s thoughts about a woman at the moment of their sexual
intimacy has an unmistakable influence on the formation of
the future individual. In one instance he is thinking of her as
an object of sexual gratification. In the other he looks upon
her as a co-creator. The result will naturally be different. It is
possible that the child born under such circumstances will be
just as strikingly different intellectually from contemporary
Man as contemporary Man is different from the ape.
“Sex and the pleasure associated with it during the moment
of co-creation is not an end in itself, but merely a means to an
end. Other mental energies will govern the couple’s bodies,
and the child’s psyche will be formed quite differently
“Here is the first rule following from what I have said: a
female desiring to bear a fully fledged Man and create a sol-
id and happy family must be able to capture the moment at
which the male wishes to join with her for the purpose of giv-
ing birth to a Man, cherishes the image of their child-to-be
and desires its birth.
“Under these conditions the man and the woman achieve a
mental state which allows them to obtain the highest possible
satisfaction from their intimacy And the child-to-be obtains
a kind of energy which is absent in those who are born in the
traditional manner — i.e., haphazardly”
Who raises our children?
i5
“But how does the woman feel this moment? How is she to
know about the man’s thoughts? Thoughts, after all, are not
something you can see.”
“Caresses! That’s how she can tell. The mental state is al-
ways expressing itself through outward signs. Joy is shown in
smiles and laughter, sorrow in a telltale expression of the eyes,
position of the body etc. In this particular case, I think, it is
not too hard to distinguish purely sexual caresses from the
way he would touch his future child. Only with this kind of
touch a certain ‘something’ happens that Man alone, of all the
creatures living on the Earth, can experience. Nobody will
ever be able to describe or scientifically explain this ‘some-
thing’. At the moment when it occurs any kind of analysis is
impossible.
‘As a psychologist, I can only assume thatwhat is paramount
in such an event is not the coming together of two physical
bodies, but something immeasurably greater: the merging of
two thoughts into one. More specifically: the merging of two
complexes of feelings into one. The pleasure and bliss expe-
rienced through this are significantly superior to mere sexual
gratification. Its continuity is not fleeting as with ordinary
sex. The inexplicable pleasant feeling that it brings can last
for months and even years. This is what makes a strong and
loving family. This is what Anastasia is talking about.
“This also means that once the man has experienced it, he
cannot bring himself to exchange the new sensation for mere
sexual gratification. He will not be able to, or even desire
to, betray his wife — his beloved. That is the moment that
marks the beginning of the formation of the family. A happy
family!
“There is a saying that ‘marriages are made in heaven’. The
saying is quite true in respect to this particular case. Judge
for yourself. What is generally considered today to attest
to a heavenly marriage? A scrap of paper issued by the Civil
1 6
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Records Office, or all sorts of church rituals. Funny, isn’t it?
Funny, yet at the same time sad.
‘Anastasia is quite right when she says that a marriage made
in heaven can only be affirmed by the couple’s extraordinarily
splendid mental state, which leads to the birth of a new and
fully fledged Man.
“And I might add that the majority of children born today
are born out of wedlock... And now... Now I’d like to read
to you some comments made by my colleague, the sexopatho-
logist:
The mutual sexual relations between a man and a woman as de-
scribed in the book Anastasia, bring out a whole new meaning
of sex. All currently existing textbooks on the subject, beginning
with those of Ancient India and Greece right up to our contempo-
rary treatises, may be seen as naive and ridiculous in comparison
to the significance of what Anastasia has to say. All the research
described in all known works on sex, both ancient and modern,
is focused solely on discovering various body positions, caressing
techniques and sexual aids. But people have different physiologi-
cal and psychological abilities and capabilities.
For any given individual there may be just a single most effec-
tive and acceptable position and just one particular sex aid that
will match his character and temperament.
One would be hard put to find anywhere in the world a spe-
cialist capable of pinpointing with any degree of accuracy the most
appropriate technique (out of the thousands of possibilities) in the
case of a particular individual.
To carry out such a task the specialist would need to know the
thousands of existing techniques with all their nuances, and study
the physical and mental abilities of the individual in question,
and that is patently impossible.
Evidence that the questions raised in regard to men and wom-
en’s sexual relations have not been solved by modern science may
Who raises our children ?
i7
be seen in the ever-increasing loss of potency on the part of the ma-
jority of men and women in today’s society. There is a growing
number of sexually dissatisfied family couples. But this joyless
picture can be changed.
Anastasia has shown that there exists in Nature some kind of
mechanism, some kind of higher power capable of solving a seem-
ingly insoluble problem in an instant. Through a couple’s — a
man and a woman’s — specific mental state, this mechanism or
power will help them find the conditions and techniques of sexual
intercourse appropriate solely to them.
Undoubtedly, the pleasure experienced in this particular case
will achieve the highest level attainable. It is quite possible that
the man and woman who have experienced such satisfaction will
maintain their conjugal fidelity for ever, quite independently of
the dictates of laws and rituals.
“Conjugal fidelity! Conjugal infidelity. Betrayal.”
Alexander Sergeevich got up from behind his desk and
continued to talk while standing.
‘Anastasia was the first to show the nature of this phenom-
enon. I remember by heart not only isolated phrases, but
whole monologues. Listen to what she says: s
They try all sorts of tricks to persuade people that satisfaction is
something you can easily obtain, thinking only of carnal desire.
And at the same time they separate Man from truth. The poor de-
ceived women who are ignorant of this spend their lives accepting
fiothing but suffering and searching for the grace they have lost.
But they are searching for it in the wrong places. No woman can
restrain a man from fornication if she allows herself to submit to
him merely to satisfy his carnal needs.
S This and subsequent quotations (unless otherwise indicated) are taken
from Book 1, Chapter 9: “Who lights a new star?”.
i8
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“And again... I’ll have it in a moment... Yes, here it is:
They will strive to possess body after body, or make paltry and
fateful use of their own bodies, realising only intuitively that they
are drifting farther and farther away from the true happiness of
a true union!
“Here is an absolutely accurate explanation of the cause of
conjugal infidelity. I can also explain it as a psychologist. It’s
all quite logical: a man and a woman — the so-called husband
and wife — engage in sex just for the sake of sex. When they
intuitively feel they are not getting sufficient satisfaction,
they turn to a specialist and read supplementary literature
on the subject. They are advised to try various positions and
ways of caressing each other — in other words, to engage in
a search for greater satisfaction through switching sexual
techniques.
“Note what I said — ‘engage in a search’. They may not
say this explicitly, but if they themselves, as Anastasia has cor-
rectly pointed out, have an intuition about the existence of a
higher happiness, they will engage in a search. But... where
are the limits of this search? Is it just limited to a change of
positions? The logical next step is a change of bodies.
“Aha!’ society cries. ‘That’s conjugal betrayal!’ But there’s
no betrayal going on here. There’s no betrayal, because there
is no married couple!
“A marriage dependent on a scrap of paper is not a mari-
tal union. It is nothing but a convention thought up by
society.
‘A marital union should be established by a man and a
woman through their attainment of the highest mental state
Anastasia describes. She not only talked about it, she showed
how to achieve it. This is an entirely new culture in male-fe-
male relationships.”
Who raises our children?
!9
“Does that mean, Alexander Sergeevich, that you are rec-
ommending young people engage in intimate relations before
a marriage is officially recognised?”
“Most people today are doing just that. Only we’re ashamed
to talk about it openly But what I am proposing is to refrain
from engaging in sex just for the sake of sex, either before or after the
marriage is registered.
“We consider ourselves a free society We have the pos-
sibility of freely engaging in debauchery And oh, how we en-
gage in it!
“Debauchery has become a whole industry Look at the
cinema and the endless stream of all kinds of pornography,
look at prostitution or the rubberised dolls you can buy at
sex-shops. What more evidence do you need?!
“In the face of this whole sexual orgy, which only attests
to the failure of modern science to understand the nature
and function of the mechanisms involved in the union of two
people, Anastasia’s words come as a discovery — literally a
revelation!
‘As a psychologist I have been able to appreciate the grand-
ness of Anastasia’s discovery She has brought to light a whole
new culture in male-female relationships.
“The primary role in them is taken on by the woman.
Anastasia has succeeded in bringing you, too, to the under-
standing of this culture. She has been able to do this, using —
intuitively, perhaps — the knowledge of some kind of ancient
civilisation. But... we — or rather, my colleague — he has
proved it in practice. He has proved that even a man can...
“He’s a sexopathologist. He and I have worked together
to analyse Anastasia’s sayings. He was the first to talk about
the new culture in relationships that has been unknown up
to now. He was especially struck by this saying — you should
remember it — she said:
20
Book 6: The Book of Kin
...who — what individual — would want to come into the world
as a result of carnal pleasures alone? We would all like to be cre-
ated under a great impulsion of love, the aspiration to creation
itself, and not simply come into the world as a result of someone’s
carnal pleasure.
But that is precisely how our children have come into the
world — as the result of carnal pleasure. My wife and I want-
ed a child, so we had sex. I don’t even know which day it was
my wife conceived. It wasn’t until after she became pregnant
that we started thinking more specifically about the child.
But Anastasia says that a particular mental state and aspira-
tion is required right at the very moment preceding intimacy
Anyway, my colleague, no doubt, got more out of those say-
ings of hers than I. Or he felt more. He wanted to experience
this mental state. He wanted them to have a child — a son.
“My colleague is already past forty, and his wife is two years
younger than he. They have two children. He himself admit-
ted that they have rarely had any sex these past few years. But
he began talking with his wife about a child.
‘At first she was quite surprised at his desire. She said it
was too late for her to bear children. But her attitude toward
her husband took a turn for the better. He gave her the book
with Anastasia’s sayings to read. And now the woman herself
would start a conversation — no, not about her desire to have
a child, but about how true the sayings in the book were.
‘And then one night my colleague began caressing his
wife — only not thinking about sex, but about their future
son. He probably managed to do the same thing you did. The
only difference is that you were led to that point by Anastasia,
while he achieved it all on his own. Whether it just happened
that way or not, it’s hard to say, but he managed to achieve,
in all probability, precisely the mental state you experienced.
His wife responded with the same land of caresses.
Who raises our children ?
21
“These are not young people, and naturally they were not
feeling the same strong sexual inclinations as in their youth.
Their thoughts about their future child, no doubt, pushed
any concerns about sexual techniques into the background.
‘As a result... as a result, that ‘something’ happened. Neither
my colleague nor his wife could remember any of the details
of their intimacy Just like you, they don’t remember anything.
But, as you did, they talk about the unforgettable, marvellous
sensations they experienced the next morning. My colleague
tells me that he has never felt anything like it in all his life, from
intimacy either with his wife or with any other women — and,
believe me, there were quite a few of those.
“His forty-year-old wife is now pregnant, in her seventh
month. But that’s not the main thing. The main thing is that
his wife has fallen in love.”
“With whom?”
“With her husband, my dear Vladimir Nikolaevich! Just
imagine, here’s this woman who used to be rather irritable and
nagging, now coming to our clinic and waiting for her husband
to finish work. She sits in the reception room and waits like
a young girl newly in love. I have often caught the expression
on her face out of the corner of my eye. It too has changed,
and a barely noticeable hidden smile is now evident.
“I’ve known this family quite some time. About eight
years. This plump, depressed woman has suddenly become
ten years younger. And she is beautiful, in spite of her all-too-
obvious pregnancy.”
“What about your colleague’s attitude toward his wife —
has it changed too, or has it remained the same?”
“He’s changed too. He’s completely given up drinking,
even though he didn’t really have a serious problem with it
before. He’s stopped smoking. He and his wife have a new
favourite pastime — painting.”
“Painting? What do they paint?”
22
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“They paint their future family domain, the kind Anastasia
talks about. They want to get a piece of land and build on
it — wrong word: not to build a house, but to lay the founda-
tion for a future corner of Paradise for their children- to-be.”
“You said, children-to-be ?”
“Exactly. His wife’s only regret is that the conception
took place in an apartment, and not in their own domain,
as Anastasia recommends — in the Space of Love built with
their own hands, where the woman should stay during the
whole period of her pregnancy and where the birth should
take place.
“My colleague’s wife is convinced she can have still another
child beyond this one. And my colleague thinks so too.
“I am convinced that the instinct one finds among animals
to perpetuate the species differs from the human condition in
the fact that the animals’ mating is governed only by the call
of nature. When Man engages in so-called sex, he is merely
imitating the animals. A child brought into the world as the
result of this process is half-man, half-animal.
‘A true Man can be born only when the energies and feel-
ings inherent in Man alone are involved — i.e., love, a vision
of the future, an awareness of what is being created. In fact,
the word sex isn’t really applicable at all. It only trivialises the
event taking place. The term co-creation is much more accu-
rate here.
“When a man and a woman achieve the mental state where
co-creation takes place, it is at that point that they enter into
a marriage made in heaven. This is not a union sealed by a
scrap of paper or a ritual, but by something immeasurably
greater and more meaningful, and hence it will be solid and
happy.
‘And you mustn’t think that only young people can enter
into a union like this. The example of my colleague shows
that it is available to people of all ages. Such a union is possible
Who raises our children?
23
only on the condition that they themselves are able to com-
prehend the significance of what Anastasia has set forth.”
“So what does all this mean?” I asked. “Does it mean that
all the people whose passport 9 is stamped with a marriage
registration aren’t married after all?”
“A passport stamp is nothing but a convention thought up
by society The pieces of paper and all the rituals practised by
different peoples in different historical periods may be out-
wardly different, but in essence they all amount to the same
thing — an attempt to impress the mind and artificially cre-
ate at least an appearance of union among two people. As
Anastasia correctly points out:
A false anion is a frightening thing.
Children! Do you see, Vladimir? Children ! They sense the
artificiality, the falsity of such a union. And this makes them scep-
tical about everything their parents tell them- Children sub-con-
sciously sense the lie even during their conception. And that has a
bad effect on them.
“It turns out that in Nature there is not an artificial, but a
natural, Divine union. And Anastasia has shown people living
today how it can be achieved.”
“So what you’re saying is that even people who are mar-
ried — even the ones with a stamp to that effect in their pass-
port — should really be marrying their spouse a second time?”
“Not the second time, but for the firsttime in actual fact, it would
be more accurate to say,” observed Alexander Sergeevich.
“That’s going to be a hard one for most people to under-
stand. In every country of the world sex is held up as the
9 'passport — in this case, an internal document issued by the Russian govern-
ment as proof of one’s identity, which includes a record of marriage where
applicable.
24
Book 6: The Book of Kin
highest form of pleasure, and every last individual engages in
it for the sake of pleasure.”
“All a lie, Vladimir Nikolaevich! Ninety percent of men are
incapable of satisfying a woman.
“The myth that the majority of people derive supreme
delight from sex is nothing but a psychological sugges-
tion. Human beings’ appetite for sex is the basis of a whole
commercial industry. The flood of legal and underground
porno-magazines is a veritable gold-mine. And they know
how to pull the wool over people’s eyes. Films where all
sorts of supermen freely satisfy their partners — that’s all
business too.
“The simple fact is: we are too timid and too afraid to ad-
mit to each other that we don’t have the right partner. But
the fact remains — an indisputable fact — that sixty percent
of marriages do not last. And the other forty percent are far
from perfect, as is evidenced by continual spousal betrayals
and the tremendous increase in prostitution.
“The gratification we derive from sexual experiences today
is hardly satisfying. It is no more than an infinitesimal part of
the satisfaction Man experiences from the genuine co-crea-
tion appointed by God, in partnership with Him — some-
thing we search in vain for all our lives.
“We’re ‘searching for it in the wrong places’! The truth of this
saying is indisputably borne out in our very lives.
‘Anastasia represents a culture of some kind of ancient
civilisation which our historians probably haven’t the faintest
concept of. She completely destroys prevailing stereotypes.
Just how perfect this culture was can be seen by considering
how it dealt with pregnant women, who upon conception
were expected to stay in the same place for nine months, and
give birth there. How important is this?
“The advantage of this policy can be corroborated by infor-
mation from modern science and comparative analysis. The
Who raises our children ?
25
place where the mother conceives and carries her child-to-be
is termed a domain. In this domain a man and a woman have
established a garden with their own hands, a garden contain-
ing all sorts of plants. Physiologists recognise the importance
of proper nourishment for pregnant women — this has been
written up in dozens of scientific and popular publications.
But what of it? Is it necessary for every pregnant woman to
study these? Just forget about everything else and set about
studying the literature on the subject? That would be rather
hard to swallow!
“Even if every single pregnant woman took to studying
these scientific treatises, she would inevitably be faced with
another insoluble problem: where could she obtain the prod-
ucts recommended?
“Let’s suppose a couple had unlimited funds at their dispos-
al and could buy whatever they liked. An illusion ! No money
will or even can buy what a pregnant woman desires, and right
at the very moment she desires it. I’m thinking, for example,
of an apple of the quality a woman can pick in her own garden
and eat on the spot.
“Then there are the psychological considerations, which
are no less important than the physiological. Let’s take and
compare two situations.
“The first is a standard scenario, which happens with the
vast majority of people. Let’s take a young family with an av-
erage or slightly-above-average income. A pregnant woman
lives with her husband in a flat. Is she able to feed herself
with the proper quality of food? No! Modern supermarkets,
even those with upscale prices, are unable to offer us good-
quality food. Tinned or frozen foods are not something natu-
ral for Man.
“Well, what about the farmers’ markets, then? Even there
the quality is doubtful, to put it mildly. Private farmers too
have learnt to use all sorts of chemical additives in raising
2 6 Book 6: The Book of Kin
their crops. When they’re growing things for themselves,
that’s one thing, but when they’re growing to sell, that’s when
their desire to make money pushes them to use all sorts of
stimulating devices. Everyone knows about it, and so there is
naturally a feeling of concern and alarm over using food from
unknown sources.
“A feeling of alarm ! A feeling that has become modern Man’s
bosom companion!
“Pregnant women today are overwhelmed by an endless
flood of information about constant social cataclysms and ec-
ological disasters. Both her consciousness and sub-conscious
become home to an ever-increasing fear over the future of her
child-to-be. Where can we possibly find anything positive to
counteract it? There are no positive aspects — indeed, under
the monstrous circumstances of contemporary life we have
doomed ourselves to, there cannot be.
“Even in a comfortably appointed apartment we get used
to our surroundings and they cease to delight our eye with
anything new. We also get used to everything in the apart-
ment ageing and breaking, even as we are accustomed to our
tap water being undrinkable.
‘All this all of a sudden starts to weigh upon a pregnant
woman’s acute sensibilities. All she can do is to hope for a
miracle. Under the constant pressure of hopelessness, this is
the most she can count on.
“In the second scenario, the woman is surrounded by a
Space of Love, as Anastasia terms it, where in addition to the
satisfaction of her physiological needs she is also given a pow-
erful psychological boost.
“Modern science is capable of explaining and demonstrat-
ing the truth of practically every one of Anastasia’s sayings.
They are altogether simple and logical. The only wonder is
that in spite of all our studied speeches on the subject we have
never given them much heed.
Who raises our children?
27
“But Anastasia also talks about mysterious phenomena
that modern science cannot explain : 10
Parents should impart to their co-creation the three most impor-
tant points, the three primary planes of being.
“She further says that for all three planes of being to merge
into one in one spot, namely, in one’s family domain, the fol-
lowing must occur:
The thoughts of two in love will merge into one... Here is the first
point — it is called parental thought... The second point, or
rather, yet another human plane, will be born and light a new star
in the heavens when two bodies merge into one — merge in love
and with thoughts of a splendid creation... And a third point, a
new plane of being should come about in that space. Right there
on the spot where the conception occurred the birth should take
place. And the father should stay close around. And the great all-
lovingFather will raise over the three of them a crown.
“I am certain that physiologists and psychologists will be
able to explain the advantages of conceiving, carrying and giv-
ing birth to a child all in the same spot — in a splendid kin’s
domain. But Anastasia talks about something even greater.
She says that in such a case the individual who is born experi-
ences a complete connection with the Universe. Why? How
does it happen? How important is this approach to a child’s
birth for his future as a Man? Scholars today can only guess.
“I tried juxtaposing what Anastasia said with the prog-
nostications of the horoscopes that are popular today The
question naturally arose, which of the three points Anastasia
“These passages are quoted (with a slight variation) from Book 4,
Chapter 30: “In His image and likeness”.
28
Book 6 : The Book of Kin
mentions is the most important constituent of a Man’s
birth — the thought, the physiological conception or the
emerging of the infant from the mother’s womb?
“It is generally accepted today that one’s birthdate is de-
fined by the moment of emergence from the mother’s womb.
This is what horoscopes are based on. But science has already
determined that the foetus, even before it has emerged from
the womb, is alive, it has feelings. And if that is so, then the
Man already exists. He is already born. He can move — the
mother can feel the push of his little legs and arms. Perhaps,
then, it would be more accurate to calculate a Man’s birthdate
from the moment the sperm fertilises the egg? Certainly from
the physiological point of view, this could be considered the
most accurate defining moment of somebody’s ‘birth’. But...
“The meeting of the sperm and the egg is still not a cause —
it is an effect. It is preceded by the couple’s thoughts. Could
it be that these thoughts define one’s birthdate? Of the three
moments we have mentioned, it is generally accepted today
that one’s birthdate is the moment of emergence into the
world. Tomorrow, though, the calculation could be different.
‘According to Anastasia’s theory, Man’s birthdate is the
point where these three moments merge into one. And here
may be seen her irrefutable logic. But we (and here I am re-
ferring to religious teachings as well as modern science) are
afraid even to mention this.”
“What is there to be afraid of?” I queried.
“There is something, actually... You see, Vladimir
Nikolaevich, if we accept the irrefutability of Anastasia’s
statements, then we are obliged to admit that by comparison
with the people of the culture she represents, we are not fully
fledged people. Most of us today are lacking one or two of the
components inherent in a fully fledged Man. So that’s why
we’re afraid not just to talk about it, but even to think about
it. And yet we should be thinking about it...”
Who raises our children?
29
“But perhaps we don’t think or talk about these statements
because they’re too controversial?”
“On the contrary! They are too z/wcontroversial — they are
incontrovertible!
“First, think about this: who will deny that a situation
where thought rather than debauchery precedes the birth of
a child — the meeting of the sperm and the egg — is more
moral and more psychologically fulfilling?
“Second: it is also absolutely indisputable that a pregnant
woman should receive a wholesome variety of nourishment
and avoid stress. One’s own family domain, as Anastasia de-
scribes it, is ideal for this.
“Third: giving birth in familiar surroundings, in a setting
one is accustomed to, will create a much more favourable
condition for the birthing mother and, more importantly, for
the newborn. This is also an irrefutable fact in both psychol-
ogy and physiology Now, are you in agreement with these
three points so far?”
“Of course I am.”
“You see, they are indeed irrefutable, and not only for
scholars. Consequently, we cannot deny the positive influ-
ence produced by the union of these three positive compo-
nents into a single whole.
‘As a psychologist, I can conjecture that in such a union, a
psychic reaction takes place in space. The whole Space of the
Universe reacts to it — accepting the newborn and establish-
ing an information link with him.”
“Possibly But what is the significance here of establishing
an exact birthdate for Man?”
“A tremendous significance! A global significance! This
is what determines the level at which we perceive the
world. If we give priority to the emergence of the foetus
into the world, that means matter is primary in our world-
view.
3 °
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“If on the other hand we give priority to the moment at
which the man’s and woman’s thoughts merge together, then
consciousness takes precedence in our world-view.
“The upshot is that we are dealing with the formation of
two different cultures which determine our way of life. In
the first instance matter takes predominance, in the second,
it is spirituality. This conflict has been going on for ages, ei-
ther openly or below the surface. But now I am beginning to
see the absurdity of such a conflict. Anastasia talks about the
merging not only of these two concepts, but of a third as well,
into a single whole. On the basis of her statements one can
postulate not only a theory of the birth of a fully fledged Man,
but also the possibility of its realisation in practice. It comes
right down to something that is available to everyone. But
why do we not take advantage of the opportunities we have?
Why is there chaos in our consciousness, and why does life
evaporate into vanity? — there’s the question!”
“I still think,” I said, “you should use the date and hour
when the infant emerges into the world from the mother’s
womb as one’s birthdate. Only phrase it more accurately: ‘the
moment of emergence into the world’.”
“Possibly Quite possibly! But as to the moment of the
birth itself, I still think you’d better ask Anastasia.”
“I shall indeed ask her. I’ll be interested to know myself
exactly when I was born, and when my son was born.”
“Oh, your son! You came to me asking for advice, and here
I’ve been rambling on about my own — Sorry, I got talking
too much. It’s something that’s been nagging at me. You see,
I hold consultation three times a week. People come to me
with their problems.
“They all ask the same kinds of questions: How to raise
a child? How do I establish contact with my son or daughter?
And the child may be already five, or ten or even fifteen
years old.
Who raises oar children?
3i
“If I tell someone: ‘Well, old chap, it’s too late to think
about raising them now!’, then I’m killing his last hope. So
my real task is basically one of comforting.”
“Well, my son too will soon be five years old. Does that
mean it’s too late for me too?”
“You, Vladimir Nikolaevich, are in quite a different situa-
tion. Your son’s got Anastasia watching out for him. It’s just
as well she prevented you from tossing your child out into the
routine of our world. She’s raising him in the context of a
totally different culture.”
“Does that mean my son and I are of different cultures, and
so we’ll never be able to understand each other?”
“Parents and children always represent what seem to be
different cultures, different world-views. Each generation
has its own priorities. Granted, the distinction is generally
not so sharp as in your case. My advice to you is this: before
attempting to communicate with your son, have a talk with
Anastasia about how best to approach it. Pay careful atten-
tion to whatever she says. After all, you’ve been reading a lot
and thinking a lot about the raising of children. Now it’ll be
easier for you to understand her.”
“Understanding her doesn’t always work out,” I countered,
“even after a long time goes by Some of her sayings still pro-
voke doubts in me. They are mystical and not the kind you can
prove. In fact, I’ve deliberately refrained from publishing a lot
of her sayings — a lot of them sound more like fantasy and — ”
Alexander Sergeevich suddenly banged the palm of his
hand down on the table and sharply — even somewhat rude-
ly — interrupted me:
“You’ve no right to do that. If your mind won’t allow you
to make sense of something, at least give others the oppor-
tunity.”
I did not appreciate the psychologist’s sharp tone of voice
or his message. This wasn’t the first time I had heard or read
32
Book 6: The Book of Kin
such accusations directed at me. They would reduce me to
some kind of half-wit and say that my role was no more than
transcribing as accurately as possible everything this Siberian
recluse had said. But in making such statements these smart
alecs weren’t taking the whole picture into account. I decided
to put this suddenly aggressive psychologist in his place:
“Naturally you count yourself among those — those others,
who are able to understand everything she says. I may not
be a psychologist with an academic degree, but there is one
simple truth even I can comprehend: if I were to publish all
her mystical sayings without back-up evidence, people would
be inclined to treat everything written in the books as a fairy
tale. And all the practical stuff that can be put into practice
today would get lost. By not publishing some of her mysti-
cal sayings, it is quite possible that I have saved the practical
message she has for people.”
“Can you tell me specifically what kind of ‘mystical sayings’
you’re talking about?”
“Well, here’s a good example. She said that she’s taken the
best combination of sounds in the Universe and hidden them
in the text of the book and they will have a beneficial influ-
ence on the readers .” 11
“Yes, I remember that. I remember it very well. It’s writ-
ten right in the first book. It also says there that the effect is
increased if the reader listens to natural sounds while read-
ing.”
“You remember that, eh? And the fact that these words
can be found not only in the text itself, but right at the front
of the book. Remember? The publishers suggested I put
them there, to intrigue the readers. And I did...”
‘And rightly so.”
II
See Book i, Chapter 27: “Across the dark forces’ window of time”.
Who raises our children ?
33
“You think so? But you know, that particular saying right
up front turned a lot of people off the book. Many saw it
as just an advertising gimmick, and said so in the media. I
removed it in some of the editions. Many people consider it
mystical, or just something made up.”
“Idiots! Don’t tell me... Don’t tell me the mind of society
can atrophy to that extent! Or has mental laziness switched
off any logical thinking on the part of the masses?”
“What’s mental laziness got to do with it? If the saying is
impossible to prove?”
“Prove? What is there to prove? This saying is nothing if
not a psychological test ingenious in its simplicity and effec-
tiveness. It has the power to identify at a single glance com-
plete dullards with atrophied mental capacities. If they go
ahead and mention this in the media, it’ll be as though they’re
saying: Look at what utter klutzes we are! A most ingenious test,
indeed.”
“What’s this about a test? The saying in question is simply
not provable.”
“Not provable, you say? Well, it’s not a matter of proving
anything. What Anastasia says here is an axiom. Judge for
yourself. The text of any book — and I mean any book, any
letter, any oral speech — consists precisely of combinations
of sounds. Does that make sense? Do you agree?”
“Well, yes, in general, I agree. It’s true that the texts of all
books are made up of combinations...”
“ You see how simple it all is? It is this very simplicity that
people who are too lazy to think logically have stumbled over.”
“Possibly... But, after all, she did say she had found and
collected the best combinations from the expanses of the
Universe and that they would exercise a beneficial effect on
the readers.”
“But there is absolutely nothing ‘mystical’ in that. Judge
for yourself: when you read any kind of book, or newspaper or
34
Book 6: The Book of Kin
magazine article, doesn’t it have an effect on you? The read-
ing can leave you indifferent, provoke irritation, satisfaction,
anger or joy Well? Get it? D’you agree?”
“Yes.”
“Okay As for the beneficial effect of Anastasia’s texts, it’s
clearly evident in the reaction of the readers. I’m not talk-
ing about published reviews, which are sometimes paid for.
The fact of beneficial influence is confirmed in the creative
urges shown by the readers. It is evident in the multitude of
poems and songs your readers have composed. I myself have
bought five audiocassettes of songs dedicated to Anastasia.
They have been written by people who are very simple, or
maybe just the opposite — quite possibly they’re not so sim-
ple after all. I bought these cassettes and listened to them.
What Anastasia said has been confirmed by life itself. After
all, the poetry came about under the influence of the read-
ing. And you call it ‘mystical’. You have no right to censor
Anastasia.”
“Okay. That’s it — I’m leaving. Thanks for the advice.”
I had already taken hold of the doorknob and was about to
walk out, when I heard the doctor say:
“Hold on a moment, please, Vladimir Nikolaevich. I can
see you’ve taken offence at what I said. I’m sorry if I sounded
a bit sharp. I don’t want us to part with bad feelings.”
Alexander Sergeevich was standing in the centre of the
room. A little bit pudgy around the middle, getting along in
years. He neatly buttoned up his jacket and went on:
“You should understand that you have a duty to publish
everything Anastasia says. Don’t worry if not everything she
says is clear to you, or to me or to someone else. Don’t worry
about that. It’s important for them to understand.”
‘And who’s they ?”
“Young women still capable of bearing healthy children.
If they get it, that means everything will change... Anyway,
Who raises our children?
35
look at how little we’ve talked about your son, and that is the
whole reason you came to see me!”
“Of course it is.”
“There’s no concrete advice I can really give you. Your
situation’s too irregular. Maybe you could take some picture-
books to Siberia for him. History books, for example. You
might also try dressing up. Maybe this all sounds silly, but I
just want to make sure you don’t paint too harsh a picture of
our reality for him.”
“What picture would you like me to paint? All prettied up
and glossed over?”
“That’s not what I’m talking about. Remember, you’ll be
introducing yourself to your son as a representative of our re-
ality, and this may mean you’ll be compromising yourself in
his eyes.”
‘And why should I alone be expected to answer for all the
perversions of our society?”
“If you show your son that you are incapable of changing
anything in our society for the better, you’ll simply be dem-
onstrating how powerless you are. You’ll be compromising
yourself in your son’s eyes. I have a feeling he has been raised
in such a way that he will not understand how anything /im-
possible can exist for Man.”
“I guess you’re right, Alexander Sergeevich. Thanks for
the practical advice. Really, it’s not a bad idea to put a good
face on our life as far as the child is concerned. Yes, definitely
it’s worth it, or else he’ll think...”
We shook hands and, as far as I could tell, parted friends.
Chapter Two
Conversation with my son
Having trekked from the river the whole way to Anastasia’s
glade all on my own, I felt right at home as I approached the
familiar places. This time nobody was there to greet me. It
even gave me a good feeling to walk through the taiga all on
my own, without a guide.
I wasn’t about to cry out, or call Anastasia’s name. Perhaps
she was occupied with her own affairs. When she was free,
she would feel my presence and come to me on her own.
Spying my favourite spot on the lakeshore where Anastasia
and I were wont to spend time together, I decided I would
change my clothes first before sitting down and relaxing after
my trip.
I took out of my backpack a dark grey wrinkle-resistant
suit, a thin white sweater and a new pair of comfortable shoes.
In getting ready for my trip I had also thought of taking along
a white shirt and tie, but then decided that the shirt would
only get wrinkled, and there would be no place to iron it in
the taiga. But I had the suit packed in the store so it wouldn’t
wrinkle.
I decided I should present myself to my son in a solemn,
elegant manner, and so I spent a great deal of time and effort
in thinking about my outward appearance.
I had brought along a battery-powered razor and a mirror.
Resting the mirror on a tree-branch, I proceeded to shave and
comb my hair. Then I sat down on a small hillock, took out
a notepad and pen to round out my plan for meeting my son
with some thoughts that had come to me along the way
Conversation with my son
37
My son will soon be five years old. Of course he can talk
already The last time I saw him he was still very little, he
wasn’t talking yet, but by now there must be a lot of things he
can understand. He probably natters on with Anastasia and
his grandfathers for days on end. I had it all set in my mind
that just as soon as I saw Anastasia I would let her know how
I had planned out my meeting with our son and what I would
say to him.
For the past five years I had been diligently studying all
the various systems of child-raising, taking from them what I
considered the best and easiest to understand. After talking
with educational experts and child psychologists I had arrived
at the conclusions I needed for myself. Now, before meeting
with my son, I wanted to talk with Anastasia about these con-
clusions, along with the plan I had worked out — to think
through everything once again in detail, this time with her.
Perhaps Anastasia could suggest what first words I should say
to him, and what pose to adopt while saying them. I had de-
cided the pose was important, too, since a father should ap-
pear to his son as a significant person. But first Anastasia had
to introduce me to him.
The first point on my notepad read: Anastasia presents me
to my son.
All she had to do was introduce me with some simple
words, such as: “Here, son, here before you is your birth
father.”
But she had to say them quite solemnly, so that our son
would be able to feel from her tone of voice his father’s sig-
nificance, and subsequently treat him with respect.
All at once I felt everything around become quiet, as though
put on alert. The sudden onset of silence didn’t frighten
me. This always happened every time I met Anastasia in the
taiga. The taiga and all its residents literally froze, listening,
3 8
Book 6: The Book of Kin
watching and deciding whether the newcomer might have
brought their mistress any kind of unpleasantness. Then, if
no aggression were detected, everything would calm down.
I surmised from the ensuing silence that Anastasia had qui-
etly approached me from behind. It wasn’t a difficult thing
to sense her presence, especially since I always experienced
something like a warming sensation in my back — something
only Anastasia was capable of producing with her look. I
didn’t turn around right away, but continued sitting there for
some time, luxuriating in the pleasant and cheering warmth.
Finally I turned, and lo and behold...
There before me was standing my little son, his bare feet
planted firmly on the ground. He had grown. His straw-
blond hair was already falling in curls down to his shoulders.
He was dressed in a collarless shirt woven from nettle fibres.
His features resembled those of Anastasia’s — perhaps mine
too, though this was not obvious at first glance.
Turning to face him, my hands pressed against the ground,
I found myself standing on all fours, watching him intently,
oblivious to everything else in the world. He in turn kept his
eye silently trained on me, watching me with Anastasia’s kind
gaze. Perhaps the unexpectedness of it all would have contin-
ued to prevent me from saying anything for a long time, but
he was the first to speak.
“Greetings to your bright thoughts, my dear Papa!”
“Eh?... And greetings, of course, to you as well,” I re-
sponded.
“Forgive me, Papa.”
“Forgive you for what?”
“For interrupting your important reflections. I have been
standing at a distance, so as not to interfere, but I wanted to
come and be close to you. Please, Papa, let me sit beside you
quietly until you have completed your reflections.”
“Eh? Okay. Sure, have a seat.”
Conversation with my son
39
He quickly approached, sat down a half-metre away and
didn’t move a muscle. I continued kneeling distractedly on all
fours. As he was settling in, I managed to think: I must adopt
a deep-thought pose while I finish my ‘reflections’, as he put it. I need
to think of what to do next.
I took up what I thought was a dignified pose, and for a
while we just sat there side by side without saying a word.
Then I turned to my little son and asked him:
“Well, how are things going with you?”
Upon hearing my voice he gave a joyful start, turned to me
and looked me straight in the eye. His look told me he felt
tense, not knowing how to answer my simple question. But
he finally responded:
“I cannot, Papa, give you an answer to your question. I do
not know how things are going. Here, Papa, life is going on.
It is something very good, life is.”
Somehow I’ve got to carry on the conversation, I thought. I
can’t afford to lose the momentum. And so I asked him another
traditional question:
“Well, how are you doing here? You minding your Mama?”
This time he replied at once:
“I am always happy to mind my Mama when she speaks.
And when my Grandfathers speak, it is interesting to listen
to them too. I talk to them as well, and they listen to me.
But Mama Anastasia thinks that I talk too much — I ought
to think more, says Mama Anastasia. But my thoughts come
very quickly and I want to talk differently.”
“What do you mean, differently?”
“Like my Grandfathers, I want to arrange my words one
after another, like Mama does, like you do, Papa.”
“And how do you know how I arrange my words?”
“Mama showed me. I get very interested when Mama
starts talking with your words.”
“Really? Wow!... Well... and what do you want to be?”
40
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Again this very ordinary question, which adults frequently
ask children, was apparently beyond his understanding. After
a brief pause he replied:
“But I already tfw, Papa.”
“I know that you are, but I meant: what do you want to
become? When you grow up, what are you going to do?”
“I shall be you, Papa, when I grow up. I shall carry on what
you do now:”
“How do you know what I do?”
“Mama Anastasia told me.”
‘And what all has she been telling you about me?”
‘A whole lot. MamaAnastasia tells me that you are such a...
What is the word? Oh yes, I remember — that you are such
a hero, my dear Papa!”
“A hero?”
“Yes. It is hard for you. Mama wants life to be easier for
you. She wants you to be able to rest in normal conditions
for Man, but you go to a place where many people find it very
hard to live. That is why you go away, to do good to people
there. I was very sad to learn that there are people who do
not have their own glade and they are always being frightened
and made to live in a way they themselves do not want. They
cannot pick their own food. They have to... well, work, I think
it is called. They have to do not what they want themselves
but what somebody tells them to do. And for this they are
given paper — money — and they then exchange this money
for food. They have simply forgotten a bit how it is possible
to live otherwise and enjoy life. And you, Papa, you go to that
place where it is hard for people to live, to bring good to the
people there.”
“Eh? Yes, I do go there... There should be good every-
where. But how do you plan to carry on with the good? —
how are you preparing for it right now? You need to study, to
learn.”
Conversation with my son 41
“I am learning, Papa. I like learning very much, and I try
my best.”
“What are you learning, what subject?”
Again, he didn’t understand the question right off, but then
replied:
“I learn the whole subject. Just as soon as I chase it up
to the speed Mama Anastasia has, I shall immediately under-
stand the whole subject, or all the subjects. Yes, it is better to
say: all the subjects.”
“What do you chase up to the speed your Mama has?”
“My thought. But for the time being I cannot chase it up
as quickly. Mama’s thought runs more quickly Her thought
is quicker than my Grandfathers’ — quicker than a ray of sun-
shine. She is so quick that only He thinks faster.”
“Who? Who’s He?”
“God — our Father.”
“Oh yes, of course. Still, you have to try Yes, you must try
your best, my son.”
“Fine, Papa, I shall try even harder.”
In an effort to continue the conversation about learning
without saying something stupid and meaningless, I reached
into my backpack and pulled out a book at random — one
of the books I had brought with me. It turned out to be a
Grade 5 textbook called A history of the ancient world. I ex-
plained to my son:
“You see, Volodya, this is one of the many books people are
writing today. This book tells children about how life began
on the Earth, how Man and society developed. It’s got a lot of
colour illustrations along with a printed text. This book out-
lines the history of mankind. Scholars — they* re such smart
people, well, smarter than others, or so people say — have
described in this book the life of primordial people on the
Earth. When you learn to read, you’ll be able to learn a lot of
interesting stuff from books like this.”
42
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“I know how to read, Papa.”
“Eh? Really? Your Mama’s teaching you to read?”
“Mama Anastasia once drew the letters for me in the sand
and said their names aloud to me.”
“D’you mean to tell me you memorised all the letters right
off?”
“I did. There are very few of them. I was sad to learn there
are so few.”
I didn’t pay any attention at first to his remark about the
fewness of the letters in the alphabet. I was interested in
hearing whether or not my son could actually read a printed
text. I opened the book to the first page, handed it to him
and said:
“Here, try to read this.”
© S>
A distorted view of history
He took the open book, in his left hand for some reason, and
spent a few moments silently looking at the printed text, be-
fore starting to read:
The earliest people lived in hot climates, where there were no
frosts or cold winters. People did not live by themselves, but in
groups, which scholars call human flocks. Everybody in the flock,
from, the littlest to the greatest, collected food. They would spend
whole days searching for edible roots, wild-growing fruit and ber-
ries, and birds’ eggs.
Conversation with my son
43
After reading this text aloud, he raised his head from the
book and began looking me straight in the eye, enquiringly. I
said nothing, not understanding his query. His voice betrayed
concern as he began talking.
“I do not have any concept from this.”
“What kind of ‘concept’ do you mean?”
“No concept at all comes to me. Either it is broken, or
it cannot present a concept of what is written in this book.
When Mama Anastasia or my Grandfathers speak, I have a
clear concept of everything they say. When I read His book,
the whole concept is even clearer. But from this book I have
only a distorted kind of concept. Or it is somehow broken
within me.”
“What do you need this ‘concept’ for? Why waste time on
a concept?”
“The concepts come all by themselves, when there is truth
being told... but here, it is not happening — that means...
One moment... I shall try to check. Perhaps the people writ-
ten about in this book had no eyes, if they had to search all
day long for food? Why did they spend days searching for
food if it was always right with them?”
Then something inexplicable began happening with the
child. He suddenly shut his eyes tight and began feeling the
grass around him with one hand. Upon finding something,
he picked and ate it. Then he got to his feet, and said without
opening his eyes:
“Perhaps they did not have noses either.”
He pinched his nose tight together with his fingers and be-
gan walking away from me. After proceeding about fifteen
metres, he lay down on the grass, his hand still covering his
nose, and uttered a sound something like a-a-a.
At that point it seemed as though everything around sprung
into motion. Several squirrels jumped down together out of
the trees, spreading their paws and fluffing out their tails like
44
Book 6: The Book of Kin
a parachute. Running up to the child lying on the grass, they
would put something down beside his head, then dash back
up into the trees and again parachute down to the ground.
Three wolves standing some distance away also came run-
ning up to the boy lying on the grass and began hovering anx-
iously around him.
With a noisy crunch of branches a young bear appeared,
toddling quickly along, then a second bear, a little smaller but
more agile.
The first bear sniffed the child’s head and licked his hand,
which was still holding on to his nose. Various other creatures
of the taiga, big and small, kept popping out of the bushes.
They all began to hover anxiously around the little fellow ly-
ing on the grass, completely oblivious to each other’s pres-
ence. It was quite evident they didn’t understand what was
happening to him.
I too could not understand at first my son’s strange actions.
Then I figured it out. He was portraying a helpless person
deprived of sight and smell. The little a-a-a sounds he kept
making from time to time were to signal to those around him
that he was hungry.
The squirrels kept arriving and departing as before, bring-
ing cedar cones, dry mushrooms and something else besides,
and piling them up on the grass beside the child.
One squirrel stood up on its hind legs, its front paws hold-
ing a cedar cone. With its sharp teeth it quickly began ex-
tracting the nuts inside. Another squirrel bit the nuts open
and made a pile of the freshly shelled kernels.
But the boy did not take the food. He continued lying
there with closed eyes, his hand holding his nose, and utter-
ing his a-a-a with growing insistence.
At this point a sable came running headlong out of the
bushes. A beautiful fluffy creature with a luxuriant coat of
fur. It ran two circles around the boy paying no attention to
Conversation with my son
45
the gathering cluster of animals. And the creatures, whose
attention had been totally focused on the unusual behaviour
of the child, didn’t seem to take any notice of the sable at all.
But when it suddenly pulled up sharply and stopped at the
pile of cedar nuts the squirrels had shelled and began eating
them, the creatures reacted.
The first ones to bare their teeth and have their hair stand
on end were the wolves. The bear, which had been swaying
back and forth, shifting its weight from one paw to another,
first froze still, his gaze trained on the glutton, then he gave it
a slap with his paw. The sable flew off to one side and flipped
over, but immediately jumped up again and made a nimble
dash for the child, putting its front paws up on his chest.
Directly the little one tried making his usual demanding a-a-a,
the sable brought its muzzle right up to the boy’s open mouth
and deposited therein the food it had just chewed.
At long last Volodya sat up on the grass, opened his eyes
and let go of his nose. He surveyed all the creatures around
him, who were still showing signs of concern. Then he got to
his feet and began calming them down.
Then each creature in its turn, according to a hierarchy
known only to them, approached the boy. Each one received
a reward. The wolves got a friendly clap on the mane. With
one of the bears Volodya took its muzzle in both hands and
gave it a shaking, then for some reason rubbed the second
bear’s nose. He used his leg to press the sable squirming at his
feet to the ground, and when it flipped over onto its back, he
proceeded to tickle its tummy
After receiving their due reward, each creature in turn re-
spectfully withdrew.
Volodya picked up a handful of shelled cedar nuts from the
ground and made a sign to the squirrels which by all appear-
ances was intended to let them know that they need not bring
any more gifts. Even though the child had been calming the
4 6
Book 6: The Book of Kin
creatures down, up to this point the squirrels had been continu-
ing to feed him, but stopped immediately upon Volodya’s signal.
My little boy came over to me, handed me a fistful of nuts
and said:
“In the concept I have within me, Papa, when the first peo-
ple began to live on the Earth, they did not need to spend en-
tire days searching for and gathering food. They did not need
to think about food at all. Forgive my concept, Papa — it is
not at all like what the intelligent scholars wrote in the book
which you brought me.”
“Yes. I realise it is quite different.”
I sat down again on the hillock. Volodya immediately fol-
lowed suit, and asked:
“But why are they different — my concept and the one in
the book?”
I’m sure my own thought must have been working faster
than ever before. Indeed, why did this book, a textbook for
children, contain such hocus-pocus? Even an adult unfamil-
iar with the wilds of nature must grasp the fact that in a warm
climate, especially a tropical climate, there would be all sorts
of food in abundance. So much so that even the huge crea-
tures — mammoths and elephants — had no trouble in find-
ing enough to eat. And the smaller animals didn’t go hungry
either. And yet here was Man, the most intellectually devel-
oped creature among them, having difficulty feeding himself!
Really, a virtually impossible scenario!
It turns out that the majority of people who study history
simply do not think about the implications of what is written
in history textbooks. They do not evaluate what they read
against the criterion of the most elementary logic, but simply
accept the historical past in whatever form it happens to be
served up to them.
Try telling a dachnik, 1 for example — a dachnik with just six
hundred square metres of land — that his neighbour spends
Conversation with my son
47
his day walking among the food growing there and can’t find
anything to eat. The dachnik would get the impression that
his neighbour must be sick, to put it mildly.
By the same token, how could a child who has grown up in
the taiga and tasted all the various fruits and growing plants,
imagine any need for searching for them if they are always at
hand? Especially when the creatures around him are ready at
any moment to serve him, to spare him the necessity of climb-
ing trees to fetch nuts and even the task of shelling them?
Earlier I had observed still another phenomenon. All the
female creatures living on Anastasia’s family territory accept-
ed the child born to her as their own . 2 And I am not the only
one to have described this phenomenon. There are many
instances recorded where animals have nourished human
children. And many people, no doubt, have observed a dog
feeding a kitten or a mother cat feeding a young puppy But
animals have a special relationship to Man.
Creatures in the taiga always mark out their territory It
is on such a territory that Anastasia’s family lives, and hence
their special relationship to her too. How is it that all the
creatures are so drawn to Man and ready to serve him with
heartfelt desire? How is it that Man’s loving attitude is so es-
sential to them? Just like household pets in a modern apart-
ment — a cat, a dog or a parrot, for example — each and every
one tries to get at least some kind of attention from Man, and
treats any indication of love as the ultimate reward. They are
even jealous when a Man shows attention to some pets more
than others.
'dachnik — one who has a dacha — something like a country cottage but
always with a garden where enough fruits and vegetables are grown to feed
the family right through the winter (for further details, see the Translator’s
Preface to Book i: Anastasia').
2 See Book 3, Chapter 14: “A. father’s role”.
48
Book 6: The Book of Kin
While this is something we easily take for granted with
pets, it may seem a little unusual here in the taiga, and yet fun-
damentally it is the same amazing phenomenon — all animals
aspire to feel the invisible light of grace (or feelings, or some
other kind of radiance) emanating from Man. The specific
term may vary, but the fact is incontestable. The important
thing is that this is a real natural phenomenon, and we need to
understand its specific purpose.
Did this phenomenon exist right from the very beginning,
or has Man trained the animals over the centuries? It is quite
possible that every single one of them has been trained. After
all, look at how many different animals and birds on all con-
tinents serve Man today! They know who their master is. In
Indiawe are talking about elephants and monkeys, in Central
Asia — camels and donkeys. And almost everywhere this ap-
plies to dogs, cats, cows, horses, chickens, geese, hawks and
dolphins — so many kinds of creatures, it is hard to name
them all. The important thing is that they are in service to
Man — a fact practically everyone is aware of. But when did
it begin — three thousand years ago? Five, ten thousand years
ago? Or possibly this was part of the Creator’s thought right
when He created Nature? Most likely the latter.
It says in the Bible: “To determine the purpose of every
creature .” 3 And if all this was planned and implemented right
from the beginning, then Man could not possibly have had
any problems finding food.
Why then do our history books — those written for adults
as well as children — say exactly the opposite? This happens
3 The reference here is apparently to Genesis 2: 15, [8-20. In Anastasia’s
(and Megre’s) interpretation, based on what they understand to be the logic
of the biblical text, Adam’s naming actually refers to an assignment of function
to each creature in respect to the task of tending the Paradise garden and
its human resident.
Conversation with my son
49
not just in our country; but such absurdities are inculcated in
people the world over. A mistake? Probably not! Whatever’s
behind this is more significant than a mere mistake. Design!
If so, that means it’s important to someone. To whom? Why?
What would happen if history were written differently? If
the truth were written? What if textbooks all over the world
stated something like this:
The first people living on oar Earth did not have any probletns
finding food. They were surrounded by a great variety of high-
quality and nourishingfood.
But then... Then the question would arise in the vast ma-
jority of minds: What happened to this great variety and abun-
dance? Why is Man today forced to work as a slave for someone
just to earn a piece of bread? And perhaps the most important
question of all: How flawless is the course of human society’s devel-
opment today?
How was I now to answer my son as to why this ‘intelligent’
book — - a textbook — was spouting such absurdities? People
in the tropics spending whole days searching for food? To one
brought up in the taiga surrounded by faithful creatures, these
sayings of so-called ‘intelligent people’ were patently absurd.
I remembered Anastasia’s words: To perceive what is really
going on in the Universe one need only look into one’s self 4 In an at-
tempt to extricate myself from the situation, I tried explain-
ing to my son:
“This is not a simple book. You should examine everything
written here against your own concept. Why write about
something that you have such a clear concept of already?
Here everything is presented upside-down. You need to use
your own concepts to verify whether something you read is
4 Quoted from Book 2 , Chapter 6 : “The cherry tree”.
50
Book 6: The Book of Kin
the truth, or whether it’s turned upside-down. You need to be
more attentive to that. Do you understand me, Volodya?”
“I shall try to understand, Papa, why people write what is
not true. At the moment I do not understand. I know that
some creatures use their tails to wipe out their tracks. Others
build fake burrows, and there are those that even construct
traps. Only why do human beings need to be so deceptive?”
“I told you, it’s for their self-development.”
“But can they not develop themselves through the truth?”
“They could do that too... But it would be different.”
“Where you live, Papa, do they develop themselves through
the truth or through lies?”
“They tty all sorts of things — sometimes truth, some-
times lies — whatever will get them ahead most effectively...
Anyway, Volodya, do you often read books?”
“Every day”
“What kind of books do you read? Who gives them to you?”
“Mama Anastasia has given me all the books to read that
you wrote, Papa. I read them very quickly But every day I
read other books. Books that have lots of different happy
letters of the alphabet.”
At first I didn’t pay any attention to his words about some
kind of strange books with ‘lots of different happy letters’.
010
“You loved Mama, but did not recognise it”
A fearful conjecture flashed through my mind: If my son
has read all my books, then he is well aware of my relationship to
Conversation with my son
5i
Anastasia during those first few days after I met her. He knows
how I insulted her and even wanted to hit her with a stick. What
child who loves his mother can forgive such shameful treatment?
There can be no question that every time my son remembers this, he
will think evil of me. Why did she give him my books to read? It
would have been better if he hadn ’t learnt to read at all. Or maybe
she remembered to tear out the pages describing my despicable be-
haviour?
Grasping at this latter hope, I carefully asked Volodya:
“So, Volodya, you’ve read all the books I wrote, eh?”
■‘Yes, Papa, I have.”
‘And did you understand everything in them?”
“Not everything, but Mama Anastasia explained to me
how to figure out what I could not understand, and then I
understood.”
“What did she explain to you? Could you give me at least
an example of something you didn’t understand?”
“Yes, I can. I did not understand at first why you got angry
at Mama Anastasia and wanted to hit her. She is very good,
kind and beautiful. She loves you. And if you got angry at
her, that must mean you did not love her. But then Mama
explained everything to me.”
“What? What did she tell you?”
“Mama Anastasia explained how you loved her very much
but did not recognise it. But all the same, even with your love
that you did not recognise, when you returned to the place
where people find it hard to live, you began doing what Mama
askedyou to. She says that you, Papa, did everything your own
way, the way you thought best. But when you remembered
Mama, you wrote a book which people liked. People started
writing poems and songs. People started thinking about how
to do good. Now there are more and more of them — people
thinking about what is good. That means that good shall pre-
vail on the Earth.
52
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“Yet people both criticised you and envied you over the
book. But then, Papa, you wrote another book, and then an-
other and another. Some people got even more angry at you.
But others clapped their hands when you went to meet with
them, they understood what you wrote in the books. They
felt the energy of Love — which you still did not recognise —
helping you write those books. And I was born, because you
very much wanted to see me, and so did Love. You wrote the
books, Papa, because you wanted to make the world better for
my birth. Only you were not able to make it completely better
by the time I was born. Because the world is very, very big.
“Mama Anastasia told me I must be worthy of you and the
world. I need to grow up and understand everything. And
Mama told me too that she has never been offended at you.
She recognised at once the energy of Love. Then Mama
Anastasia read you a book written with letters of the alphabet
that are not sad. She did not read you the whole book. But
what she read, you were able to write with letters which peo-
ple could understand. And you got almost all of it right.”
“What book? What do you mean, Mama read you a book?
What’s it called?”
“It is called Co-creation
“ Co-creation ?”
&)&
A book of pristine origins
“Yes, Co-creation. And I love to read it every day. Only not
with your letters, Papa. Mama taught me to read this book
Conversation with my son
53
with different alphabetical letters. I love all sorts of happy
letters. This is a book I can read my whole life. It tells about
everything. And soon a new book will appear on the Earth.
And you, my dear Papa, will write about this new book.”
“I don’t think you said that right, Volodya. You should have
said: ‘will write this new book’.”
“But your ninth book, Papa, will not be one you will write.
It will be co-created by many people — grown-ups and chil-
dren. It will be a living book. It will consist of a whole lot of
splendid chapters — paradise domains. People will write this
book on the Earth with their Father’s happy letters. It will
be eternal. Mama taught me to read these living and eternal
letters, to make words from them.”
“Wait,” I interrupted my son. “I have to think about that
one.”
Pie meekly fell silent at once.
Incredible, I thought. That means, somewhere here in the taiga
Anastasia has an ancient book written in letters nobody else knows.
She knows these letters, and she has taught our son to make words out
of them and read them- . She read me chapters from this book for my
Co-creation. The chapters about how God created the Earth and
Man, and I wrote them down. That’s how it worked out, according
to my son. But I never saw Anastasia with any kind of book in her
hands. And yet my son tells me that she translated the letters of this
book for me. I shall have to find out everything through my son.
And I asked him:
“Volodya, you know that in the world there are a whole
lot of different languages — for example, English, German,
Russian, French and many others?”
“Yes, I know”
“What language was it written in — the book Mama can
read, and you too?”
“It is written in its own language, but its letters can speak
in any language. And they can be translated into the language
54
Book 6: The Book of Kin
you speak, Papa. Only not all the words can be translated,
because in your language, Papa, there are so few letters.”
“Can you bring this book to me — the one with ‘all sorts of
happy letters’, as you put it?”
“I cannot bring you the whole book, Papa. I could bring
you some of the little letters. Only why carry them around —
it is better for them to stay where they are. If you wish, Papa,
I can read you the letters right from here. Only I cannot read
as fast as Mama.”
“Well, read it as best you can.”
Volodya rose to his feet, and pointing his finger out into
space, began ‘reading’ sentences from the chapters of Co-
creation-?
The Universe itself is a thought, a thought from, which was born
a dream, which is partially visible as matter. ... My son, you are
infinite, you are eternal, within you are your dreams of creation.
He read syllable by syllable. I followed the expression on
his face as it slightly changed with each syllable — now show-
ing wonder, now attentiveness, now joy. But when I looked in
the direction his finger was pointing, there were no letters, let
alone syllables, to be seen out there in space, and so I inter-
rupted this strange reading:
“Hold on a moment, Volodya. Does this mean you see some
kind of letters out there in space? Why can’t I see them?”
He gave me a quizzical look. He thought for some time
before saying hesitantly:
“Do you not see, Papa? Do you not see that birch tree over
there, the pine, the cedar, the rowan-tree?”
“Sure I see them, but where are the letters?”
'Quoted from Book 4, Chapter 8: “Birth”.
Conversation with my son
55
“Those are the letters, the ones our Creator writes with!”
He began to read further, his finger pointing to each plant
or tree in turn. And at last I grasped this incredible phe-
nomenon. The whole area of the taiga surrounding the lake
where my son and I were sitting (and where I had sat many
times with Anastasia) was filled with growing things. The
name of each tree or plant began with a particular letter, and
some were known by different names. Name by name, let-
ter by letter — and out came a syllable, then a word, and a
sentence.
It was much later that I learnt that the trees, bushes and
herbs throughout the whole area of the taiga around the
glade were not just arranged randomly, but that they actually
formed living, growing letters. It was an incredible book that,
it seemed, one could read ad infinitum. It turned out that the
very same plant names made up one set of words and sen-
tences if read from north to south, but a whole different set if
read from west to east. A third set resulted if one read strictly
around the perimeter. And the names of the plants made up
yet another series of words, sentences and images if one fol-
lowed the movement of the Sun’s rays, which acted literally
as a pointer.
I understood why Volodya called these letters “happy”. In
traditional books all the printed letters are pretty much uni-
form. But in this situation, the living letters, even those as-
sociated with the same species, were always different. Under
different angles of the Sun’s illumination, they greeted Man
with their rustling leaves. Indeed, one could go on ‘reading’
them indefinitely
But who wrote this amazing book and when, and how many
centuries did it take to write? Generations of Anastasia’s
forebears? Or...? Later I heard from Anastasia this brief, la-
conic answer: For thousands of years generations of my forebears
preserved the letters of this book in their original order.
56
Book 6 : The Book of Kin
I looked at my son and feverishly tried to find a topic of
conversation on which we could reach a complete mutual un-
derstanding.
00
One plus one equals three
Arithmetic! Mathematics! Of course, there will be no disa-
greements over an exact science like that. If Anastasia has
taught our son to count, then a conversation on that subject
cannot include any contradictions or superiorities. Two times
two is always four, in any language at any time. Encouraged
by my ‘discovery’, I asked hopefully:
“Volodya, has your Mama been teaching you how to count,
add and multiply?”
“Yes, she has, Papa.”
“Good. Where I live there is a science known as math-
ematics. It is very significant. A lot of things are based on
calculations and computations. People have invented a good
many devices to make it easier to add, subtract and multiply,
and it would be difficult to get along without them today I
brought you one of them — it’s called a calculator.”
I took out a solar-powered Japanese pocket calculator
which I had brought, switched it on and showed it to my
son.
“You see, Volodya, this little device can do a great deal. You
know, for instance, what you get when you multiply turn by
two?”
“You want me to say ‘four’, do you not, Papa?”
Conversation with my son
57
“That’s right, four. But the fact that I want you to say it is
not important. That’s just what it is. Two times two is always
four. And this little device too can count. Look at the little
screen. When I press the ‘2’ button, the screen lights up with
the figure ‘2’. Now I press the multiplication sign and then
the ‘2’ again. Then I press the ‘equals’ sign to find out what
the result will be, and the figure ‘4’ lights up on the screen.
“But this is a very simple arithmetical calculation. This
device can count in a way impossible for human beings. For
example, 136 times 1,136. I only have to press the ‘equals’ sign
and we can find out how much it is.”
“154,496,” Volodya blurted out, ahead of the calculator.
After that I began to multiply and divide four-, five- and
six-digit numbers, but each time my son beat the electronic
calculator. He named the correct figure immediately and
without any trace of tension. The competition with the cal-
culator resembled a game, but my son showed no sign of any
real interest. He simply named the figures, all the while evi-
dently thinking about something else.
“How do you do that, Volodya?” I asked in amazement.
“Who taught you to compute so quickly in your head?”
“I’m not computing, Papa.”
“What d’you mean, you’re not computing? You’re telling
me the result, you’re answering the questions.”
“I am simply naming the figures because they are always
invariable in a dead dimension.” 6
“Don’t you mean ‘exact dimension’?”
‘You may call it that, but it amounts to the same thing.
Figures always come out invariable if you picture time and
space as frozen. But time and space are always in motion,
6 The Russian word for dimension ( izmerenie ) can also be taken in the sense
of measurement (which is how the author interprets it); hence in Russian the
phrase ‘exact dimension’ in fact can also mean ‘exact measurement’.
58
Book 6: The Book of Kin
and their movement changes figures, and then calculations
become more interesting.”
Volodya went on to name some incredible formulas or ar-
ithmetical operations which turned out to be way beyond my
comprehension. I only remember that the formula was ex-
tremely long — in fact, it really didn’t have an ending. He
quite animatedly told me the results of some arithmetical
operations, but they invariably turned out to be transitional.
Each time after naming a figure, Volodya would add excit-
edly:
“When interacting with time, this number produces...”
“Hold on there, Volodya,” I interrupted my son. “I don’t
understand this ‘dimension’ of yours. One plus one is always
two. Look, I’m taking here... one twig.”
I picked up a small twig off the ground and placed it before
my son. Then I found another twig, put it beside the first and
asked:
“How many twigs?”
“Two,” Volodya replied.
“Exactly — two, and it can’t be anything else, not in any-
body’s ‘dimension’.”
“But in the living dimension the calculation is completely
different, Papa. I have seen it.”
“What d’you mean, you’ve seen it? The calculation with
this other ‘dimension’ — is that something you can show me
on your fingers?”
“Yes, I can, Papa.”
He raised his little hand in front of me with his fingers
compressed into a fist and began to demonstrate. First he
unfolded one finger and said: “Mama”. Then a second finger
with the words: “Add — Papa — equals...” and, finally out
came a third finger: Me.”
“You see, three fingers. In order for there to be only two, I
would have to take one away But I do not want to take away
Conversation with my son
59
any of these fingers. I want them to be even more, and in a
living dimension that is possible.”
Neither did I want any one of the three fingers to be taken
away. So long live this other ‘dimension’ — this ‘living dimen-
sion’, as he puts it. And may the calculation increase. Oh,
wow! One plus one equals three! Most extraordinary! Still,
the most incomprehensible thing for me remains the book of
the taiga with its living letters.
“I shall make a Universe Girl happy”
I looked at my little son, who could read and had revealed to
me the most extraordinary and probably the ‘livingest’ book
in the world. I realised it would take a very long time to read
it in its entirety Besides, I would need to know the names of
all the plants. But for some reason I had a good feeling in my
heart just from the fact that it existed — this book with “all
sorts of happy letters” (the way my son expressed it). And he
will read it.
But what then? What will happen when he grows up? He
said he would be like me. That means hell go into our world.
Into a world full of wars, drugs, violent crime and poisoned
water. Why should he go there? And yet he’s got himself
ready for it. He’s ready to go into our world when he grows
up and do something good in it. I wonder what? I asked
him:
“Volodya, when you grow up, what kind of task or job do
you think will be the most important for you?”
6o
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“Mama Anastasia told me. First and most important when I
grow up is... I need to make a particular Universe Girl happy.”
“Who? What kind of Universe or Girl?”
“Every girl living on the Earth is the likeness of the Universe.
At first I did not understand this. Then I read, I read the
book, and understood. Every girl is like the Universe. Each
girl has within her all the diverse energies of the Universe.
Universe Girls should be happy And I must be sure to make
one of them happy”
“And how do you intend to carry out your project when you
grow up?”
“I shall go where many people are living and find her.”
“Who?”
‘A girl.”
“She will, of course, be extraordinarily beautiful?”
“Probably. But perhaps she will be a bit sad, and not eve-
rybody will think she is beautiful. Perhaps she will be some-
one who is ill. Where you live, Papa, many people are ill from
‘anti-living’ conditions.”
‘And just why would you pick a girl who is not the healthiest
and most beautiful?”
“I am the one, Papa, who will make her the happiest,
healthiest and most beautiful Universe Girl.”
“But how? Though by that time, when you’re grown up,
you’ll probably have learnt how to make another person —
your girl — happy But, Volodya, you don’t know everything
there is to know about the world in which I live. It could be...
it could turn out, after all, that the girl you pick may not even
want to talk with you.
“You know who today’s girls notice? You don’t know. I’ll
tell you. The pretty ones and the not-so-pretty, the sick and
the healthy — they notice first and foremost men who have
heaps of money, and a car — men who dress smartly and have
a good social position. Not all of them, of course, but the
Conversation with my son 61
majority are that way. And where are you going to get heaps
of money?”
‘“Heaps’ — how much is that, Papa?”
“Well, for example, let’s say at least a million. Better still, a
million dollars. You know about currency units?”
“Mama Anastasia told me about the scraps of paper and
coins which people love. She said people give out clothes,
food and all sorts of things in exchange for them.”
“They do. But where do they get the money, d’you know?
To get this money, you have to work somewhere. No, just
working isn’t enough, if you want a lot... You have to get into
business or invent something. For example, Volodya, could
you really invent something people need, something they’re
really missing?”
‘And what kind of invention are people missing the most,
Papa?”
“What kind? Well, all sorts. A lot of regions are being hit
by an energy crisis, for example. There’s not enough electric
power. People don’t want to build nuclear power plants —
they’re dangerous, they can explode. But they can’t get along
without them.”
“Nuclear? Where radiation from them can kill people and
growing things?”
Y)u know about radiation?”
“Yes, it is everywhere. It is energy. It is good. Needful.
Only it should not be collected in a large quantity in one
place. Grandfather taught me how to control radiation. Only
it must not be talked about openly — some people turn good
radiation into weapons to kill other people.”
“Yes. Better not to talk openly about it. I should think you
would really be able to invent something and earn a good deal
of money for your girl.”
“Probably I shall be able to. But money does not make
people happy”
62
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“What do you think makes people happy?”
“The Space they make for themselves.”
I pictured to myself my son becoming a young man. Maybe
knowing a lot of unusual things, all sorts of phenomena, albeit
naive. Capable of coping even with radiation, but still naive
in respect to the intricacies permeating our lives... and there
he’ll be, off to look for his girl to make her happy
He’ll try not to stand out amidst other people. That was al-
ways Anastasia’s strategy when she left the taiga and went out
among people. He will try not to stand out, yet all the same,
he will never be able to completely blend in. He’s preparing
himself, he’s acquiring a colossal amount of knowledge, he’s
trying to become physically fit and all for the sake of one
lonely girl!
I thought Anastasia would prepare our son for great deeds
and to this end would share her own knowledge and abilities
with him. And now it turns out that he sees a man’s main goal
in life as simply making just one woman happy My son’s con-
vinced that every woman is the likeness of the whole Universe.
Could it really be like that? An extraordinary philosophy but
in any case the point is: my son is convinced of it and one of
his chief aims in life will be to make just one girl happy — a
girl he doesn’t even know. Maybe she hasn’t even been born
yet. Maybe she can crawl already, or she’s just taking her first
steps. Or — maybe no girl will want to, or rather, maybe no
girl is capable of loving him.
Initially, when he fulfils her wishes and brings her money,
she may pretend to love him. Oh, how many women there are
like that in our world! They’re even ready to jump into mar-
rying some oldster for the sake of his money. They’ve learnt
how to feign love.
My son will grow up and meet some girl like that, he’ll keep
fulfilling her wishes, she’ll keep telling him she loves him, but
what will happen when he starts talking about the need to
Conversation with my son
6 3
create a Space of Love and plant a garden? Will she laugh at
him? Will she call him crazy, or will she understand? Maybe
she’ll understand. But maybe... No, it’s better to prepare him
for the worst.
“You see, Volodya, when you find this girl and you manage
to make her healthy and very beautiful — absolutely the most
beautiful, as you say — something might still happen that you
know nothing about. The prettiest girls in our world aspire
to become models and actresses and go into show-business.
They like it when all the men around them pay them compli-
ments. So, just imagine she wants to dazzle the public like
a queen, and here you start proposing to create a Space of
Love. Maybe she’ll hear you out, but that’ll be it. She’ll leave
you and go off somewhere where there’s lots of bright lights,
compliments and applause, and she could even — God for-
bid! — leave you holding a baby! What’ll you do then?”
Volodya replied unhesitatingly:
“Then I shall build a Space all on my own. First on my own,
and then with the child she leaves me — and together we shall
preserve Love in this Space.”
“Preserve it for whom?”
“For myself, Papa, and for the girl, who, as you say, will go
off into the world of artificial lights.”
“Then why preserve a Space of Love specifically for her?
Don’t you see how naive you are in such matters? You’ll have
to look for another girl. And be more careful the next time.”
“If I look for another, then who will make the girl who left
happy?”
“Let anyone who wants to try to, do that. It’s not worth
breaking your neck over. She’s gone, and that’s it.”
“She will come back. And she will see the marvellous for-
est and garden. I shall make it so all the creatures serve and
obey her. Every one and every thing in this Space will sin-
cerely love her.
<5 4
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“She will probably come back all tired out. She will wash
herself in pure water and have a good rest. She will become
even more beautiful and will never want to leave her Space of
Love ever again. Our Space. She will be happy And the stars
above her will shine brighter and happier than anywhere else.
But if you, Papa, had not thought all this up, if you had not
brought about such a situation with your thought about her
leaving, she would not have left.”
“I? I brought it about?”
“Yes, Papa. After all, you are the one that spoke about it.
It was your thought. Man creates all kinds of situations with
his thought, and this is what you have created.”
“But you, your thought — can’t it change the situation?
Can’t it counteract mine? You did say it was quick, almost as
quick as Anastasia’s.”
“It could counteract it.”
“So go ahead, counteract it.”
“I do not want my thought to run counter to yours, Papa. I
shall seek out another way”
How to bridge the gap?
I could not talk with my son any longer. Everything I said
he automatically checked against his ‘concept’, with which he
easily distinguishes between truth and falsehood. He even
discredited the conclusions of the historians outlined in the
textbook. There was no question here of a father’s superior-
ity over his son. The conversation did not endow me with any
Conversation with my son
65
more authority and probably erased the authority I had be-
fore thanks to Anastasia. Moreover, his unusual confidence
in the power of thought frightened me and put a gap between
us. We were so different. There was no father-son contact
with the child. I could not feel in him my own birth son. On
the whole he seemed like another being to me.
We didn’t say a word to each other. And then I remem-
bered Anastasia’s words: With children one must be absolutely
sincere and truthful. I even felt anger over the hopelessness of
the situation. So, I’m supposed to be sincere? I’m supposed
to be truthful? I tried to be that way, but what came of it?
Indeed, if I were to be completely sincere and truthful, then
in the present situation I’d have to resort to some pretty bad
language. So I said, spilling it all out on one breath:
“Volodya, if everything is to be said absolutely sincerely,
you and I cannot hope to have a father-son conversation. We
are different, you and me. We have different concepts, infor-
mation and knowledge. I do not feel as though you are my
son. I’m even afraid to touch you. In our world a father can
show affection to his son pure and simple, and even punish
him or strike him for insubordination. But doing anything
like that with you is something I can’t even imagine. There’s
an unbridgeable gap between us.”
My outburst at an end, I sat silently, not knowing what
to say next or how. I sat and looked at my little son, who
seemed to be lost in thought — and what strange thoughts
he has!
At last he turned his curly little head in my direction, and
reinitiated the conversation, but this time I could feel a note
of sadness in his voice:
“Is there some kind of gap between you and me, Papa? You
say it is hard for you to accept me as your own birth son? You
spend a long time in that other world, where things are not
exactly the same as here. I know, Papa, that parents there
66
Book 6: The Book of Kin
sometimes beat their children... Everything is a bit different
there. I have been thinking, Papa... Just a moment...
He quickly got up and ran off a little ways. He returned
carrying a branch with dry needles and handed it to me.
“Take this branch, Papa, and beat me with it. The way par-
ents beat their children in that other world which you spend
so much time in.”
“Beat you? Why? What have you thought up now?”
“I know, Papa, that over there, in the world you have to
spend so much time in, parents beat only their own birth chil-
dren. I am your birth son, Papa. You can beat me so you can
feel yourself to be my birth father. Perhaps it will be easier for
you that way. Only do not strike this arm or this leg — this
arm will not feel pain and this leg will not feel at all — they are
still a little numb. But all the rest of my body will feel pain.
Only I probably shall not be able to cry the way children do.
I have never cried in my life.”
“Nonsense! Sheer nonsense! Nobody ever beats their chil-
dren, not even in that ‘other’ world — - as you call it — without
a reason. Sometimes, yes, they punish them, and give them a
light slap. But only when children do not obey their parents,
when the kids don’t do as they’re supposed to.”
“Yes, of course, Papa. When parents decide that their chil-
dren have behaved improperly”
“Exactly.”
“So, Papa, I want you to consider something in my behav-
iour improper!”
“What d’you mean, you want me to ‘consider’? When be-
haviour’s improper, it’s clear to everyone that it’s improper —
it’s not up to the parent to ‘consider’ it proper or improper.
Everyone should understand that it is improper.”
“And the children who are beaten should understand?”
“The children too. That is why they beat them, to make
them realise that they were wrong.”
Conversation with my son
67
‘And cannot they understand this before being beaten?”
“They can’t, obviously.”
“Even when parents explain it to them, they cannot under-
stand?”
“They cannot, and that’s why they’re at fault.”
And the one who did not explain it to them understand-
ably is not at fault?”
“Well... no... that is... Now see howyou’ve thrown me off
completely with your misunderstanding!”
“Good! Now that I cannot understand, that means you can
beat me. And there will be no more gap between us.”
“Oh, why can’t you understand? Punishment comes when,
for example... Well, for example... Let’s say Mama tells you in
no uncertain terms: ‘Volodya, don’t do that.’ And in spite of
her telling you not to, you go ahead and do what she told you
not to. D’you understand now?”
“I do.”
“Have you ever done something Mama told you not to?”
“Yes, I have. Twice. And I will do it again, no matter how
many times Mama Anastasia tells me not to do it.”
My conversation with my son continued to unfold quite
differently from the way I had planned. There was no way I
could present modern civilised society — and, consequently,
myself — to him in a favourable light. I got so upset over my
son’s latest arguments that I banged my fist on a tree-trunk. I
spelled out to him — or perhaps more to myself:
“Not all parents, even in our world, punish their children
by beating them. On the contrary, many of them look for a
better system of child-raising. I tried to find one, but it didn’t
work out. The last time I saw you here, you were still quite
little. I wanted to hug you and squeeze you. But Anastasia
said I shouldn’t interrupt a child’s thoughts even to give him
a pat on the head. She said a child’s thought-process was an
extremely important matter. And so I just watched you, and
68
Book 6: The Book of Kin
you were always busy with something. And now I’ve come to
the point where I don’t know how to talk with you.”
‘And today, Papa, you no longer want to give me a hug?”
“I want to, but I can’t — my head has been turned upside
down with all these systems of child-raising.”
“Then may I do it, may I give you a hug, Papa? After all, our
thoughts are the same now”
“You? You want to hug me too?”
“Yes, Papa!”
He took a step toward me. I gradually lowered myself to
my knees — it felt as though my whole body was sinking to
the ground. He grasped me firmly around the neck with one
arm and pressed his head to my shoulder. 1 could hear his
heart beating. My own heart was beating fast and irregularly.
I started finding difficulty in breathing. It must have been
just a few seconds, though — a minute at the most — before
my heartbeat began to even itself out, as though tuning in to
the rhythm of another heart. My breathing became natural
and gentle. In fact, my whole feeling of well-being suddenly
changed. I wanted to say or cry out: How wonderful every-
thing is around! How splendid Man’s life is! Thank you to whoever
thought up this world! And I felt like saying a whole lot of other
good things. But the words came together only inside me.
I stroked my son’s hair and asked him, for some reason in a
whisper:
“Well, tell me, son. What could you possibly have done
that your Mama told you not to? And that you would still do
even now?”
“It was once when I saw Mama Anastasia...” he replied,
also in a whisper to start with, without raising his head from
my shoulder. “It was when I saw...”
And at this point he detached himself from me, sat down
on the ground and stroked the blades of grass with his little
hand. “The grass is always green when it feels good.”
Conversation with my son 69
For a while he didn’t say a word. Then he raised his head
and continued talking.
“I shall save my Mama”
“One time I did not see Mama for a long while,” Volodya be-
gan. “I wondered where she was, and decided Mama must
have gone to the neighbouring glade, the one next to ours. It
is similar to ours, but it is not as nice there. I walked over to
the neighbouring glade. There I saw Mama. She was lying on
the ground without moving, and was all white. And the grass
around her was all white too.
‘At first I stood there wondering why this had happened —
Mama’s face and the grass around should not be all white like
that. Then I decided to touch Mama. She managed to open
her eyes, only just, but she did not stir. Then I took her by
the hand and began to drag her out of the white circle. She
helped me with her other hand, and we got ourselves out of
the white circle.
“When Mama got back to her normal self, she told me
never to touch her if this should happen again. She said she
herself could cope with it, but that I could not. After being
in the white circle and dragging Mama out, my arm and leg
grew numb and are taking a long time to recover. Mama gets
better very quickly, but my arm and leg have still not fully re-
covered.
“When I saw Mama once again in the same circle... When
I saw her lying there all white, I was not going to touch her
70
Book 6: The Book of Kin
myself. I cried out, I called the strong she-bear to help, the
one I slept on when I was little. I told the bear to drag Mama
out of the circle. The bear stepped onto the white part of
the grass, and fell down, and now she is no more. Only her
children remain.
“The bear died at once, as soon as she stepped on the white
grass. Everything dies on the white grass.
“Then once again I entered the white circle and began to
drag Mama Anastasia out. The two of us pulled ourselves
away from the dead grass. This time my arm and my leg did
not grow as numb as before, only my whole body was trem-
bling a little. Now it does not tremble any more. You see,
Papa? My body does not tremble, it obeys me. And I s hall
soon be able to raise my arm when I want to. I can already lift
it a little. Before I could not raise it at all.”
I listened to my son’s story in astonishment. I remembered
how once I had seen Anastasia in a similar situation — I too
had instinctively tried to pull her out of the white circle. I re-
membered the elderly philosopher Nikolai Fiodorovich talk-
ing about it . 7
But why does she put herself in that kind of danger? Even
risking her own son? Can it be so important to her — burning
within herself some sort of invisible energy directed at her?
A number of times on TV there have been reports on unu-
sual circles with perfect geometrical shapes. They have ap-
peared in various countries — usually in grain fields. Right
in the middle of ordinary grain crops people have discovered
circles with the stalks trampled to the ground. Not just tram-
pled at random but with all the stalks pointing in the same di-
rection and forming perfect geometric figures. Scientists are
' See Book i, Chapter 28: “Strong people” and Book j, Chapter 18: “The phi-
losophy of life”.
Conversation with my son
7i
studying these mysterious phenomena, but so far haven’t been
able to come up with any explanation for them. In Anastasia’s
case the grass has also been trampled down in a circle, but in
contrast to what’s been shown on TV, the grass here has gone
all white besides, as though it hadn’t got enough sunlight.
Anastasia says that this is human-generated negative en-
ergy Maybe it is, but why has it been focused so strongly
on Anastasia? What kind of people are aiming it at her?
Forgetting myself, I said aloud:
“Why does she struggle with it? Whom does the struggle
benefit? Who is made better by it?”
“Everybody benefits a little,” I heard my son’s voice say.
“Mama says that if the energy of evil lessens — if she is able to
reduce it by burning it up inside her so that it is not reflected
back into space — there will be less of it. And those who pro-
duce it will mellow somewhat themselves.”
“Show me, how many of these white circles are there? And
where are they?”
“Next to our glade there is a very small glade. The white
circles are always appearing there. Afterward the grass be-
comes green again, but it has not yet greened over completely,
and you can still see the circles. If you wish, come with me
and I can show them to you, Papa.”
“Let’s go.”
I quickly rose to my feet and took my son’s hand. The child
trotted quickly along on his little legs, though I noticed that
he was limping slightly, and so I endeavoured to walk a little
more slowly
From time to time Volodya tried to look into my eyes. Fie
chatted away the whole time, telling me about something
as we walked. But all I could think about were the strange
white circles and Anastasia’s inexplicable behaviour, and the
reasoning behind her actions, about this whole unusual phe-
nomenon.
72
Book 6: The Book of Kin
To somehow keep the conversation going with my son I
asked him:
“Volodya, why do you sometimes call her Mama, and some-
times Mama Anastasia?”
“I know a lot of Mamas who lived earlier on the Earth.
Mama Anastasia told me about them. I can call them grand-
mothers, or great-grandmothers, but I can also call them ma-
mas. My grandmothers gave birth to Mama. I can also call
them mamas. When I hear them being talked about, I can
feel them, and see them, and picture them, and sometimes
I picture them all on my own. But so as not to get confused,
I sometimes call my mama Mama Anastasia. All mamas are
good, but for me Mama Anastasia is the closest and the best,
and she is more beautiful than the flowers and the clouds.
She is very interesting, and cheerful. I hope she is for ever.
As soon as I chase my thought up to speed, I shall always be
able to bring her back.”
I wasn’t listening carefully enough to grasp what he was
trying to say By this time we had arrived at another little
glade, and I saw four whitish circles on the grass. The circles
were about five or six metres in diameter. They were barely
noticeable, but one of them was whiter than the rest — it had
probably been made quite recently.
Now I realised why Anastasia had not come to meet me
and why she wasn’t with me at the moment. It meant that she
was lying helpless somewhere. And she didn’t want us to take
pity on her, or become upset by her appearance.
I looked at the white circles, and my thoughts kept rac-
ing and intertwining. Of course, a lot of people can turn
pale from troubles which befall them unexpectedly. Almost
all people turn pale when anger is unexpectedly directed at
them. But here? Can it be possible to feel it just like that,
at such a great distance away? Can such a huge amount of
hateful human energy be concentrated into a single stream?
Conversation with my son 73
So huge that not only Man, but all the growth around him
turns pale?
Apparently so. There they are — the traces of the most
wicked attempts... And once again I remembered her words,
which I cited in the fourth book:
All anger on Earth, leave your deeds and make haste to me, join
fray with me, try your utmost. ... I stand alone before you. Try
to defeat me. To defeat me, all of you come meet me together. The
fight will be fightless...
I thought these were just words. But everything she says
comes true. The books, just like she said, and the bards’
songs, and the poems... She’s not just whistling in the wind.
But why did she say: “The fight will be fightless”? The up-
shot is that she tries to simply burn up the anger inside of
her. And she tries to do this alone! As far as I’m concerned,
I think one should fight them out and out! Smash their rot-
ten mugs in! But she’s all alone. No! You shall not be alone,
Anastasia! I can at least try... I can at least take a little of this filth
upon myself. And I shall fight it. Oh, if I could only speak the way
she does. . . I’d tell them!. .. I probably got a little too carried away
and blurted out:
“Hey you, malice-mongers, come’n try to get me, and I’ll
burn at least a few of you!”
Little Volodya all at once let go of my hand and ran on
ahead, then looked me intently in the eye with amazement.
Then he stamped his little foot and, grasping hold of his in-
jured arm with his healthy one, he raised both arms above his
head and cried out, imitating my tone of voice:
“Hey come’n try to get me too, you malice-mongers. You
see, my arm is getting better. Mama Anastasia is not alone. I
8 • >
Quoted from Book 3, Chapter 24: “Who are you, Anastasia?”.
74
Book 6: The Book of Kin
am here too, and my thought will be racing faster and faster.
Hurry and come on, you malice-mongers, leave what you are
doing and hurry over to me. Look at how I am growing!”
And he got up on his tiptoes in an attempt to raise his arms
even higher.
“So, my fine warriors, my dashing young braves! Who are
you about to make war on today, my gallant knights?” came
Anastasia’s quiet voice.
I turned around and caught sight of Anastasia, sitting un-
der a cedar tree. She was evidently very tired — her head was
even resting against the tree-trunk. And her shoulders and
arms were sinking, and her hands were resting on the ground.
Her face was pale, and her eyelids slightly lowered.
“Papa and I were standing up against malice, Mama!”
Volodya responded on my behalf.
“But to fight against malice, you have to know where to
find it, what forms it takes. It is essential to know everything
about your enemy” Anastasia said quietly, and with difficulty.
“Mamochka, you rest here while Papa and I try to do that.
If we do not do it properly, you can tell us later.”
“Papa has had a long journey, little one. He should have a
rest first.”
“I’ve had a rest, Anastasia. In any case, I’m not all that
tired... Hello there, Anastasia! How are you?”
For some reason I was overwhelmed by the sight of her
helplessness and couldn’t move. I started talking discon-
nectedly not knowing what to say or do next. Volodya came
over to me, took me by the hand, and went on talking to his
mother.
“I shall give Papa some refreshment after his journey and
bathe with him in the pure water in the lake. And I shall col-
lect some cleansing herbs. You, Mamochka, just rest here in
the meantime. Do not waste your energies on conversation.
I shall take care of everything myself. Then Papa and I shall
Conversation with my son 75
come to you. I want you to recuperate your strength as quick-
ly as possible...”
“I shall go bathing with you too,” Anastasia declared.
“ Wait, and I shall go with you.”
Supporting herself with her hands against the cedar trunk,
Anastasia tried to get up. She managed to raise herself a little,
but again sank back down to the ground, her hands slipping
against the trunk. Her whisper was barely audible:
“Oh, how could I have failed so badly?! I am unable even to
rise to greet my son and my love?!”
Once more, leaning against the cedar trunk, she began
the challenging task of raising herself off the ground. She
probably would not have made it this time either. But all at
once something incredible happened. The huge cedar tree
Anastasia was leaning against suddenly began to extend the
needles of its lower branches out toward her. The needles
began emitting a barely noticeable pale-bluish glow. Slowly,
almost imperceptibly the glow enveloped Anastasia. Then I
heard a craclding sound coming from above, not unlike the
kind one hears when standing under high-voltage transmis-
sion lines.
I looked up and saw that the needles of all the surround-
ing cedar trees had also started glowing with the same faint
bluish light. But that wasn’t all. They were all pointing in the
direction of Anastasia’s tree. This tree’s upper branches were
receiving the light emanating from the neighbouring cedars.
And the glow of its lower needles kept increasing in intensity
This phenomenon lasted approximately two minutes.
Then there was a pale blue flash, and the light coming from
the needles was extinguished. The needles looked to me as
though they had become slightly withered.
Anastasia was scarcely visible in the bluish radiance still
enveloping her. After it had dispersed, or gone into her — I
could not tell — I saw...
7 6
Book 6: The Book of Kin
There beneath the cedar tree, back to her normal self, full of
life, stood Anastasia, looking unusually beautiful, smiling at me
and our son. Looking up, she quietly said “Thank you!” Then...
Can you imagine a grown woman showing off this way?
Anastasia sprang into action, making a dash over to the
largest of the white circles. Upon reaching its edge, she made
another leap in the air, this time quite high. A triple somer-
sault landed her in the very centre of the circle. Another leap,
and this time she did a leg-split just like a ballerina. With a
trill of her alluring laughter, she twirled in a dance over the
white circles.
All around, the forest seemed to come to life and echo
her joyful excitement. Squirrels leapt from branch to branch
around the perimeter of the glade. Through the bushes some
kind of creatures’ eyes gleamed like precious stones. Two
great eagles flew down one after the other from the sky and
circled over the glade, rising and descending by turns.
Anastasia continued laughing and dancing like an acrobat
and a ballerina. And gradually the grass beneath her feet be-
gan to turn green. And even the whitest circle became barely
noticeable. My heart kept feeling lighter and lighter from her
dancing, her laughter and everything around. And then all at
once...
All at once my little son ran out and did a double body roll
across what remained of the white circle. Then, quickly re-
gaining his feet, he leapt in the air and spun around, trying
to imitate his mother’s dance. Even I couldn’t refrain myself,
and joined in the fun, dancing or just jumping up and down
for joy alongside my son.
“Let’s go! To the water! Who can catch up to me?” ex-
claimed Anastasia as she made a headlong dash for the lake,
with Volodya and me in hot pursuit.
Slightly panting from all the jumping, I began to lag a little
behind. But I saw how Anastasia leapt and somersaulted in
Conversation with tny son
11
the air before plunging into the lake. A few moments later
Volodya took a flying leap from the shore and his bottom hit
the water with a loud smack.
I began taking my clothes off on the run, tossing them on
the ground along the way I plunged into the water still wear-
ing my undershirt, trousers and boots. As I surfaced, I caught
Anastasia’s shrill trill of laughter. Our son was laughing, too,
with a surfeit of emotion, slapping the water with his hand.
I was the first to come out of the water. I began to peel off
my wet clothes and wring them out. Upon reaching the shore
Anastasia immediately put on her light dress right over her
wet body. Then she helped me spread out my trousers over a
bush so that they would dry more quickly in the breeze.
I fetched a track suit from my backpack and put it on.
Anastasia stood beside me, and her dress was already dry. I
wanted to give her a hug, but for some reason could not bring
myself to go through with it.
She came up very close to me, and I could feel the warmth
emanating from her. I felt as though I wanted to say some-
thing nice to her, but nothing came to mind. All I could mus-
ter was:
“Thank you, Anastasia!”
She smiled, put her hands on my shoulders, rested her head
on my shoulder and responded:
“And thank you, Vladimir.”
“Great!” Volodya’s cheerful voice rang out. “I shall be off
now”
‘And where are you off to?” Anastasia enquired.
“I shall go and see my elder grandfather. I shall give him
permission to bury the body, and I shall help him. So I am
off.”
Volodya quickly departed, with hardly a limp to be no-
ticed.
Chapter Three
“What did he mean when he said he would give his grandfa-
ther permission to bury the body?” I asked in some bewilder-
ment.
“You will see for yourself, and understand,” replied
Anastasia.
A little while later I saw Anastasia’s great-grandfather, alive,
but no signs of any funeral. That was how he remained in my
memory — alive and unfathomable.
Anastasia was the first to sense her grandfathers’ approach.
We were walking together across the glade at the time. All
of a sudden Anastasia stopped, and gestured to me to stop as
well. As she turned in the direction of the tallest and mighti-
est cedars, I followed her gaze, but saw no one. I wanted to
ask her what was going on, but could not. She took my hand
and gave it a squeeze in a silent plea to refrain from uttering
a sound.
It wasn’t long before I caught sight of the figure of
Anastasia’s great-grandfather making his way among the ma-
jestic cedars. The majestic elder was wearing a long light-grey
shirt which went down below his knees . 1 As he entered the
glade at an unhurried but confident pace which betrayed no
sign of ageing, I noticed our son — his great-great-grandson,
Volodya — trotting along beside him, holding his hand tight.
The old man’s own son, Anastasia’s grandfather, followed at a
little distance behind.
’This is typical of many Russian peasant-style shirts,
An invitation to the future
79
It seemed that everybody, including me, felt some land of
solemnity surrounding the approaching encounter, and only
the child accompanying the elder was behaving his natural
and unaffected self. Volodya kept chatting away the whole
time to his great-great-grandfather. Occasionally he would
run slightly ahead and turn to look him in the eye, or suddenly
stop, let go the old man’s hand and bend down to the grass
to inspect something that had captured his attention, where-
upon the old fellow would stop too. Then Volodya would take
his hand once more and begin telling him animatedly about
what he had seen, all the while leading him over to where we
were standing.
As they drew near, I couldn’t help noticing that the usually
severe- and majestic-looking elder was sporting a faint smile.
His bright face was radiant with grace and, at the same time,
a degree of solemnity Even as he stopped but a few steps
from us, his gaze was still aimed somewhere far off in the dis-
tance. We were all speechless — only Volodya’s voice was to
be heard, speaking at a fairly rapid pace:
“Here, Grandpakins, here right before you are my Papa
and Mama. They are good people. Even though your eyes
cannot see them, Grandpakins, you can still feel everything.
But I can see them with my eyes. You can look at what is good
through my eyes, my dear Grandpakins, and that will be good
for you too.”
Then, turning to us, Volodya all at once announced even
more joyfully:
“Mama and Papa, a little while ago, when we were all swim-
ming together, I realised something, and I have allowed the
body of Grandfather Moisey 2 to die. We have already found a
spot for me to bury the body of my Grandfather Moisey”
"Moisey (pronounced: ma-yi-SAT) — a Russian man’s name, the equivalent
of Moses in the Bible.
8o
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Volodya pressed his whole head and body against
Grandfather Moisey’s leg. The majestic grey-haired elder
carefully and tenderly stroked his great-great-grandson’s
head. The love, tenderness, understanding and joy inher-
ent in their mutual relationship was only too palpable. It
made the conversation about burial all the more bewilder-
ing to me. In line with the way I was brought up, I felt like
stopping my son and telling him his great-great-grandfather
looked terrific and still had many years ahead of him. That
is what we always say, even to an elderly person who is very
ill, and I wanted to say that to him — in fact the words were
already on the tip of my tongue — when Anastasia suddenly
gave my hand another squeeze, and I stopped myself from
speaking my mind.
Grandfather Moisey then turned to Anastasia and said:
“Granddaughter Anastasia, the Space you are creating, how
is it being limited by your thought?”
“My thought and my dream have merged into one, without
encountering any limitations,” replied Anastasia.
Whereupon Grandfather Moisey asked her another ques-
tion:
“Human souls are accepting the world you are creating...
Tell me, what energy is driving your creation?”
“The same energy that grows a tree and unfolds the buds to
turn them into the flowers we see.”
“What kind of forces might interfere with your dream?”
“When I dream, I do not visualise any interference. All the
challenges I can see on my path ahead can be overcome.”
“You are free in everything, Granddaughter Anastasia.
Order my soul to embody itself as you see fit.”
“I cannot permit myself to order anybody’s soul. The soul
is free — the work of the Creator. But I shall dream, my dear
Grandfather, that your soul find a worthy embodiment in the
most splendid garden you have ever seen.”
An invitation to the future
81
A pause ensued. Grandfather Moisey did not ask any new
questions, whereupon Volodya once more began talking
apace:
“Neither shall I order you, Grandpakins. Only I shall urge
you most strongly to embody yourself soon once more upon
the Earth. You will appear once more, young as before and
will be my best friend. Or you will become someone else for
me... I am not ordering... I am simply talking... My dear
Grandpakins Moisey, let your soul be always within me and
beside me.”
Upon hearing these words the majestic elder turned to
Volodya, and slowly got down on one knee in front of him,
then on both knees, bent down his grey head, raised the
child’s little hand to his lips and kissed it. Volodya put his
arms around the elder’s neck and started whispering some-
thing quickly in his ear.
Then Grandfather Moisey got up from his knees with only
one small child helping this very old man. Even now, when
remembering this scene for the umpteenth time, I still can’t
figure out how it happened. They simply held hands, and the
great-great-grandfather rose to his feet without leaning on
anything.
Upon standing, he took a step in our direction and made
a bow Then, without uttering another word, he turned and
held out his hand to Volodya. Off they walked, hand in hand,
chatting away to each other. The younger grandfather fol-
lowed a few paces behind, without interrupting their conver-
sation.
I now realised that Anastasia’s great-grandfather was going
away for good. He was going away to die.
I could not take my eyes off the receding figures of the
child and Grandfather Moisey Earlier Anastasia had told me
about her attitude toward modern cemetery rituals and fu-
nerals, and I even wrote about that in my previous books . 3
82
Book 6: The Book of Kin
She and, of course, all the other members of her family who
had either lived or were currently living in the taiga, believe
that there should be no cemeteries. Cemeteries are like
refuse dumps, places where people toss out the lifeless bod-
ies of the deceased as useless garbage. People are afraid of
cemeteries, they believe, because things happen there that go
against the laws of nature. They believe that the relatives of
the deceased, through their very thoughts about their depart-
ed loved ones as gone forever, prevent them from reappearing
in a new earthly embodiment.
In going over in my mind the various burials I have wit-
nessed, I’m inclined to agree. There are simply too many
falsehoods involved. People practically kill themselves over
a deceased family member, but after just a few years... well,
you go to a cemetery, and you rarely find a grave of someone
who died ten or twenty years ago well tended. In fact at some
untended gravesites workers are already digging new pits.
In the meantime the people who are buried are forgot-
ten by everyone. Nothing remains of their brief sojourn on
the Earth, and nobody even needs their memory any more.
If that is how they end up, why were they born in the first
place? Why did they live? Anastasia says the bodies of the
deceased should be buried in their own domain with no spe-
cial headstone to mark the burial place. The grass and flow-
ers, trees and bushes that come up will be the continuation
of the life of their bodies. That way the soul upon leaving
the body is afforded greater opportunity for splendid rein-
carnations.
In the kin’s domain the thoughts of the deceased before
they die will have been creating a Space of Love. Their de-
scendants will stay on to live in this Space, in contact with
3 See Book 4, Chapter 31: “But who is to blame?” and Book 5, Chapter 1:
“Two civilisations”.
An invitation to the future
83
everything growing therein, which means keeping in contact
with the thoughts of their parents as they take loving care
of what their parents have created. And the Space itself will
take care of those living therein, consequently maintaining
one’s earthly life forever.
But what about people who live in the cities? How are they
to get along without cemeteries? Well, perhaps their lifestyle
will give them pause to reflect — at least in their old age — on
how they shouldn’t live a life devoid of thought for the future,
for eternity.
And I am in agreement with Anastasia’s philosophy But it
is one thing to agree in thought, quite another to witness the
departure of a great-great-grandfather in real life. Though
in this case he — or, rather, his soul — will not die. It will
evidently stay somewhere in the vicinity or very quickly em-
body itself in a new life — most certainly a good one. After
all, neither Anastasia nor our little son, nor her grandfather,
nor even Great-Grandfather himself, is projecting any kind of
tragedy, even in their thinking. They have an entirely differ-
ent approach to death from ours. For them it is not a tragedy,
but simply a transition to a new and splendid existence.
Stop! Even Great-Grandfather himself showed no sign
of grief. Quite the opposite. So that’s it! That’s the ticket!
“When you go to sleep overwhelmed by heavy, dark and un-
pleasant thoughts, you will most probably have a nightmare.
If you go to sleep with bright thoughts, you will have pleas-
ant dreams,” says Anastasia. And again: “...death is not a
tragedy, it is only a dream — shorter or longer, it makes no
difference. Man should enter into any dream contemplating
what is beautiful — then his soul will not suffer. Through his
thoughts Alan can create a Paradise — or anything else — for
his soul.”
And Great-Grandfather knew this. He did not suffer. But
what was it that brought him such obvious joy during those
8 4
Book; 6: The Book of Kin
final hours? Something happened. He wouldn’t have been
smiling like that just for no reason at all. But what did hap-
pen? I turned to look at Anastasia and saw...
There she was standing a little distance away from me,
her arms outstretched to the Sun, and whispering, it seemed,
some kind of prayer. The Sun’s rays would hide themselves
behind a cloud, then shine brightly, reflected in a single tear
rolling down Anastasia’s cheek. But her face showed no sign
of sadness, only peace. After whispering, she listened, as
though somebody were answering her. I stood and waited,
not daring to approach her or even utter a word. It was only
when she turned, caught sight of me and headed over my way
that I asked:
“Were you praying for the peace of your great-grandfather’s
soul, Anastasia?”
“My great-grandfather’s soul will rest in great peace, and its
earthly life still lies ahead when the soul itself desires it. I was
actually asking about our son, asking the Creator to furnish
him with greater strength.
“Our son, Vladimir, has been doing works undertaken by
few people today He has now accepted within himself all of
Great-Grandfather’s strength, which Great-Grandfather im-
parted to him with his soul. Because he is still in the process
of maturing, he will find it difficult to contain the multitude
of diverse energies within him as a single whole.”
“But why,” I asked, “after all this happened, did I not notice
any particular change in our son?”
“Our son, Vladimir, uttered some special words before
Great-Grandfather knelt in front of him. He uttered words
whose meaning is comprehensible only to those who are able
to fathom the process of the Creator’s work. Possibly the child
did not fully understand this, yet he told Great-Grandfather
sincerely and confidently that he was capable — through his
own self — of helping him and his soul stay on the Earth. I
An invitation to the future 85
was not able to say the same for myself. I do not feel that kind
of strength within me.”
“I noticed that afterhearing thesewords Great-Grandfather
began simply radiating with joy,” I observed.
“Yes, few indeed are those who have heard words like that
in their grand old age. You see, Great-Grandfather received
from the child’s own lips an invitation to the future — an in-
carnation of the Future.”
“It looks as though they had a strong love for one another.”
“Our son, Vladimir, had begged Great-Grandfather to
keep on living when he could not go on living any longer. And
Great-Grandfather did live — he could not refuse the child’s
request.”
“But how is such a thing possible?”
“It is very simple. But not automatically so. After all, doc-
tors, too, are able to bring back people from a state of uncon-
sciousness or oblivion. And not just doctors, but someone
close to this person may call or stir them out of a faint or a state
of unconsciousness, and they will live. Great-Grandfather’s
will and his love allowed him to prolong his life at his great-
great-grandson’s request. Great-Grandfather is the descend-
ant of priests who did tremendous works through the centu-
ries. Once he even stopped a huge explosion through his will,
through his gaze, but it made him blind.”
“What d’you mean, through his gaze? Is it possible for
one’s gaze to stop an explosion?”
“It is possible if the gaze is consciously directed with confi-
dence in Man’s power and unshakable will. Great-Grandfather
knew where the disaster was about to happen and went there.
He was just a little late with his foresight and an initial ex-
plosion did take place. But then he stood facing the source
of life-threatening danger and through his gaze was able to
tame the manifestations of the dark forces already whirling
through space. Just one explosion happened, and that not at
86
Book 6: The Book of Kin
full strength, and two others could have taken place. But if
Great-Grandfather had flinched even for a moment...
“You see, Vladimir, he stopped the explosion. Only he
went blind.”
“But why are you so concerned about our son’s abilities
which he has inherited from his great-great-grandfather?”
“I thought that the abilities he had inherited from you and
me were sufficient. I taught him to conceal his additional
abilities so that he would not appear strange to people. I
wanted our son to go out and live in the world and not stand
apart from others in his appearance. After all, there is a lot
one can do without standing out from others.
“But something too extraordinary has happened. Who our
son is now, and what his purpose in life is — that is something
we must definitely try to decipher. And so I was asking the
Creator to give him the strength to remain, at least for just a
little longer, a simple child.”
“You’re concerned about this now, Anastasia. But I think
in many respects it is you and your method of upbringing that
are at fault here. You talk a lot about the soul, about Man’s
purpose in life. You have taught the child to read that ex-
traordinary book about co-creation. So he’s gone and formu-
lated his own peculiar world-view.
“Why should a child at that age have to know about Soul,
about God? You see, he calls me Papa, and at the same time
he says he has a father. I realise he’s calling God his Father.
Even I have a hard time understanding that, but you’ve gone
and given him an information overload. It’s the way you’ve
brought him up that’s to blame, Anastasia.”
“Remember, Vladimir, how I replied to Great-Grandfather
that I could not order anyone’s soul. And our son heard what
I said. And yet some power higher than I has allowed him
to act otherwise. But you should not worry. I shall be able
to understand what has happened, even though our son may
An invitation to the future 87
possibly look at me now in a different light. It will not be long
before his strength exceeds both of ours combined.”
“Well, okay. Every generation should be stronger and
smarter than the one before.”
“Yes, you are right, of course, Vladimir, but there is an ele-
ment of sadness when someone is stronger and more insight-
ful than his own generation.”
“Eh? I don’t understand what kind of sadness you’re talk-
ing about, Anastasia.”
She didn’t reply, only hung her head, and her facial expres-
sion became sad. She is rarely sorrowful or sad. But this time...
I understood... I understood the great tragedy of this Siberian
recluse — Anastasia. She is all alone. Incredibly alone. Her
world-view, her knowledge, her abilities are so vastly different
from those of other people. And the more pronounced they
are, the more tragic is her loneliness. She lives in another di-
mension of conscious awareness. This other dimension may
be marvellous, but she is all alone there. Of course she could
come down to other people’s level, she could be like everyone
else. But she has not done this. Why? Because to do that she
would have to betray herself and her principles — perhaps
even betray God. And then Anastasia decided to do some-
thing amazing. She began calling others into this splendid di-
mension. And there have been those capable of understand-
ing her. And I, it seems, am just beginning to understand her,
to really feel... Six years have passed and I am only beginning,
just barely, to understand. And she has been patiently wait-
ing all this time, calmly explaining everything without getting
angry. Perseverant, unshakable in her hope.
Christ Jesus was probably the same way. Of course he had
his disciples and people were constantly coming to hear him.
But who could have been a friend to him? A friend who could
finish his sentences and help him in a pinch. But not a single
kindred spirit was at hand. Not one.
Book 6: The Book of Kin
God! How do most people perceive Him? As an unreach-
able, amorphous, feelingless being! All they can say to Him
is “Gimme this!” or “Judge that!” But if God is our Father, if
He has created the world around us, then, quite naturally, the
fundamental desire of our Parent can only be for a meaning-
ful existence for His children, along with their understanding
of the essence of creation and the opportunity to co-create
together with them. But how can we talk about a meaningful
existence when we constantly trample down everything God
has created around us — trample on His thoughts — and yet
all the while engage in various forms of worship to someone,
only not Him?
But He doesn’t need to be worshipped. He is waiting for
our co-operation. But we... Well, we can’t even comprehend
such a simple truth as: if you’re the son of God and can under-
stand your Father, take just one hectare of land and create a
Paradise on it, bringing joy to your Father. But no! All man-
kind is striving for something like crazy, but what? Who is it
that is constantly making idiots of us all? And what does He,
our Father, think when He sees all this earthly debauchery?
Fie watches and waits for His earthly sons and daughters to
wake up and come to their senses. He watches and causes
the Sun to illuminate the whole Earth, so His children can
breathe.
How are we to comprehend the essence of being? How
are we to make sense of what is really happening to us? Is it
mass psychosis? Or the deliberate influence of some kind of
forces? What forces? When will we be free from them? Who
are they?
Chapter Four
This conversation took place on the second day of my stay.
Anastasia and I were sitting quietly together in our long-
time favourite spot by the lake. Evening was coming on, but
the cool evening freshness had not yet set in. A barely per-
ceptible breeze fanned our bodies from constantly changing
angles, as though designed to delight us with the many and
variegated fragrances of the taiga.
With just a trace of a smile on her face, Anastasia contem-
plated the mirror surface of the lake before us. She seemed to
be waiting for me to ask her the questions I wanted answers
to. Only somehow I wasn’t able to reduce my questions to a
brief and concrete formulation. It appeared that what I man-
aged to formulate in my mind did not reflect the main thing I
really wanted to know. So I approached it circuitously:
“'You see, Anastasia, here I am writing books using many of
the words you have given me, even though I don’t understand
all your words right off, but it’s not so much the words but the
reaction to them that has me baffled most of all.
“Before I met you I was a simple entrepreneur. I worked
and, like everyone else, wanted to make as much money as
I could. I could afford to enjoy a drink and have a rousing
good time, but nobody laid into me or my company’s workers
with the kind of criticism that the media is now overwhelm-
ing me with.
“Strange as it may seem, back then nobody faulted me for
earning money, but as soon as the books came out, some per-
sonages began right off publishing articles saying I was nothing
90
Book 6: The Book of Kin
but a gold-digger, if not a charlatan and a bigot. It’d be okay if
it were just me, but they’ve also gone and insulted my readers
too, calling them bigots and fanatics. And goodness knows
what they write about you. Either they argue that you don’t
exist at all or they say you’re the queen of the heathens.
“It’s funny how everything’s turned out: here in Siberia there
are a lot of minority ethnic groups, with different cultures and
beliefs, some of them still practise shamanism, and nothing
bad is ever said about them — on the contrary, they say these
peoples’ cultures need to be preserved. And here you are, all
alone — well, apart from your grandfather and great-grand-
father, and now your son — you live all alone here. You don’t
ask for anything, and yet the words you say provoke a storm of
emotions. Some people absolutely delight in the words you
say and get all excited, and start acting on them, while others
attack you with unabashed fury and anger. Why is that so?”
‘And you, Vladimir, can you not answer this question your-
self?”
“Myself?”
“Yes, yourself.”
“I’ve got very strange thoughts running through my head.
I get the impression that out there in human society there are
some kind of unknown people or forces who will do every-
thing they can to make people suffer. These forces thrive on
wars, the drug trade, prostitution and disease. And on their
constant increase. How else to explain it? They don’t attack
books about murders or magazines with half-naked women,
but there’s something about books on Nature, or books on
the soul, that isn’t to their liking. And in your case it’s even
more peculiar. Here you are calling upon people to build
their Paradise domains for happy families, and many people
are strongly behind you in this endeavour.
‘And not just in their words. People are starting to act.
I myself have seen people who have taken land and begun
A dormant civilisation
9i
working it, as you said, building their own kin’s domain. These
include young and old, rich and poor, and yet somebody’s re-
ally uptight about that. And the media’s constantly trying to
distort what you say. They resort to outright lies, to put it
bluntly I can’t understand how the words of a single woman
living in the taiga and apparently not bothering anyone can
be so powerful.
‘And why would anybody try to engage in direct conflict
with your words? There’s also the claim that behind those
words of yours lurks some kind of great power — occultism,
maybe.”
‘And what do you think — is there a power behind them or
are they just words?”
“I think there must be some kind of occult power in them,
yes. That’s what some of the esoterics are saying.”
“Be careful, Vladimir, and try not to take in what others
say Try listening instead to your own heart and soul.”
“I’m trying, only I haven’t got enough information.”
“What information, specifically?”
“Well, for instance, what ethnic background are you
Anastasia? What religion are you and your relatives? Or
maybe you don’t have any ethnic background?”
“I have,” replied Anastasia, rising to her feet. “But if I tell
you now, the dark forces will rise up and scream in fright.
Then they will try to come down with all their might — not
just on me, but to crush you too. You will be able to withstand
it once you have got beyond noticing their attempts and give
your thought over completely to the marvellous reality. But
as long as you consider yourself defenceless in the face of their
anger, you should withdraw your question and forget about it
until the right time.”
Anastasia was now standing in front of me, her arms hang-
ing loose at her side. I gazed up at her from below and couldn’t
help noticing how proudly, splendidly and unassailably she
92
Book 6: The Book of Kin
carried herself. Her tender and enquiring look was awaiting
my response. I had no doubt that what she was about to say
was indeed capable of provoking some kind of extraordinary
reaction. I had no doubt because over the years I have known
her I have seen a feverish reaction to her words on the part of
many people. And for that reason I didn’t doubt the possibil-
ity of danger either, but I responded:
“I’m not afraid. Even though I’m sure it’s all going to come
about just as you say Maybe I’ll be able to hold out myself,
but then I’m not the only one... We have a son now. I don’t
want anything to threaten him.”
At this point Volodya suddenly appeared and went over to
Anastasia. He must have been quietly standing somewhere
nearby and listening to our conversation, without interfering.
But now that the topic had turned to him, he probably felt it
was time to make himself known .
Volodya took Anastasia’s hand in his own little hands,
pressed his cheek against it, lifted up his head and said:
“Mamochka Anastasia, go ahead and answer Papa’s ques-
tion. I can take care of myself. Elistory need not continue to
be hidden from people on my account.”
“Yes, that is true,” observed Anastasia, stroking the child’s
little head. “You are strong, and you are getting stronger with
each passing day.” Then, raising her head and looking me
straight in the eye, she pronounced the letters more distinctly
than usual, as though introducing herself for the first time:
“I am a Ved-russ, Vladimir.”
I actually felt a kind of extraordinary sensation within me
from the word Anastasia pronounced — it felt like a mild elec-
trical current was running over my whole body like a pleasant
heat wave, as though imparting some kind of news to every
cell of my being. And something unusual, it seemed to me,
had happened in the space around me too. The word itself
meant nothing to me, but for some reason I rose to my feet
A dormant civilisation
93
upon hearing it. I stood there, as though trying to remember
something.
Once again, this time quite joyfully, Volodya spoke up:
“You, Mamochka Anastasia, are a Vedruss beauty, and I too
am a Vedruss...”
Then he looked at me with a happy grin and said:
“You are my Papa. Just like me, you are a Vedruss, only dor-
mant. I’m talking too much again, eh, Mama? I’ll go now. I’ve
thought up something marvellous for you and Papa. Before
the Sun sets behind the trees I shall create what I have thought
up!” And catching an affirmative nod from Anastasia, off he
went trippingly into the forest.
I looked at Anastasia standing there in front of me and
though t to myself: The Vedruss must be one of the Tugra minori-
ties still living in the Far North and Siberia . 1
In 1994 in Khanty-Mansiysk Province there was an interna-
tional documentary film festival devoted to the Yugra minori-
ties. At the request of the provincial administration many of
the festival participants were quartered aboard my ship on the
Ob River. I had the opportunity to talk with them, watch the
films in the competition and travel with the film-makers to
some of the more remote Siberian settlements where shamans
were still practising their craft. I couldn’t remember much
about the culture and customs of these minority peoples. But
I did recall feeling a tinge of sadness over the fact that these
'Yugra — the original name of the Khanty, one of the two major aboriginal
groups in the Province of Khanty-Mansiysk, located around the north-
ern reaches of the Ob River, just before it flows into the Arctic Ocean.
Together with the neighbouring Mansi, the Khanty are classified as part
of the Siberian branch of the Finno-Ugric peoples, which include Finns,
Estonians and Hungarians. Since the first recorded arrival of Russian ex-
plorers and colonists in the nth century, the Khanty have co-existed with
the Russian state, often with a greater degree of autonomy than other parts
of the Russian empire or federation.
94
Book 6: The Book of Kin
extremely small populations were dying out. And people were
treating them as some kind of exotic curiosity which would
soon be disappearing completely from the face of the Earth.
I did not recall hearing anything from the participants at
this film festival (which could really be considered a major na-
tional event) about the Vedruss people, so I asked Anastasia:
“Have your people died out, Anastasia? Or rather, are
there just a very few of them left? Where were they settled
previously?”
“Our people have not died out, Vladimir, they are dormant.
Our people happily thrived on the territories now known as
Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, England, Germany France, India,
China and many other states both large and small.
“Up until quite recently, only five thousand years ago, in
the real world our people were thriving on lands from the
Mediterranean and Black Sea to the farthest northern lati-
tudes.
“We are Asians, Europeans and Russians, as well as those
who recently called themselves Americans — in fact, god-
people, all from a single Vedruss civilisation . 2
“There was an age of life on our planet known as the Vedic
Age.
“During the Vedic Age mankind reached a level of sensi-
tive knowledge allowing it to create energy images through
collective thought. And then it underwent a transition into a
new era of existence, known as the Image Age.
“With the help of energy images, created by collective
thought, mankind was afforded the opportunity of co-creating
in the Universe. It could have had the ability to create Earth-
like life on other planets. And it would have, if it had not com-
mitted any mistakes in passing through the Image Age.
Ved is a Slavic root signifying ‘knowledge’ or ‘to know’. The words Vedic
and Vedas are derived from this root.
A dormant civilisation
95
“In the Image Age, however, which lasted for nine thou-
sand Earth years, mistakes were repeatedly made in the co-
creation either of a single image or several images simultane-
ously.
‘A mistake occurred if there remained in the Earth’s hu-
man society people with insufficient purity of thought, with
an insufficient culture of feelings and thoughts.
“Such mistakes had the effect of obscuring the opportuni-
ty to create in the expanses of the Universe, and led mankind
into occultism.
“The Occult Age of human life has lasted for one thousand
years now. It began with an intensive degradation of human
consciousness. Ultimately, a degradation of consciousness
and an insufficient purity of thought, coupled with knowl-
edge and opportunity at the highest level, would always lead
mankind to a global disaster.
“This was repeated many times over billions of Earth years.
“Now we are in mankind’s Occult Age. And, as always, a
disaster of global proportions was supposed to take place. It
was supposed to, but the deadline has passed. We have passed
the end of the Occult Millennium. Now it is up to everyone
to take stock of their purpose, their essence and where the
mistake was made. We should help each other in mentally re-
tracing the course of our history in the opposite direction and
pinpoint the mistake. Then an era of joyous life on the Earth
will be ushered in — an era such as no one has ever witnessed
before in global history The Universe is anticipating it with
bated breath and great hope.
“In the meantime the forces of darkness are alive and prev-
alent, feverishly trying to control people’s minds. But for the
first time they failed to notice the Vedruss’ unusual behaviour
back five thousand years ago.
“When an image was born by a perverted consciousness
upon the Earth — an image which desired to exercise control
96
Book 6: The Book of Kin
over everybody, that was when the first war began. It was un-
der the influence of this image that people started killing each
other. This has happened many times on the Earth just before
a global disaster. But this time... For the first time the Vedruss
civilisation did not enter the fray on a non-material plane.
“Instead, the Vedruss fell asleep on their territories both
large and small, switching off a part of their consciousness
and feelings.
“Man’s life on the Earth seemed to carry on as before: chil-
dren were born, houses were built, the decrees of the attackers
were obeyed. It seemed as though the Vedruss had submit-
ted to the dark forces, but therein lay a great secret: by falling
asleep, the Vedruss, unconquered, remained alive on all planes
of being. And this happy civilisation is dormant right to this
day, and will continue to sleep until those who are awake search
out the mistake in the image creation. That same mistake that
led the Earth’s civilisation to its present-day situation.
“Once the mistake has been identified with absolute preci-
sion, the dormant ones may hear the words of those who are
awake and begin to rouse each other out of sleep.
“Just who thought up this particular move, I cannot say It
is probably someone very close to God.
“You, as a Vedruss yourself, should try to wake up, at least a
little, and take a look at the course of history
“Our people went to sleep on various continents. Three thou-
sand years ago they were thriving only on what is now Russian
territory At that time the age of the dark forces had already
come upon the whole Earth. And the Vedruss continued their
happy existence only on the ‘island’ now known as Russia.
“They needed, very much needed to hold out another thou-
sand years. They had to decide how to convey their knowl-
edge to future generations, figure out what was happening
on the Earth and determine how a repetition of the mistake
could be avoided in the future. They managed to hold out
A dormant civilisation
97
another fifteen hundred years on this ‘island’. They fended
off the attacks, but not on a material plane. The darkness had
already taken control of people’s minds over the whole Earth.
The priests placed themselves above God and decided to cre-
ate their own world of the occult. They had already managed
to intoxicate a third of the world.
“But all the forces of darkness could do no harm to our
people on this ‘island’ that is today called Russia.
“It was only fifteen hundred years ago that this last ‘island’,
too, fell asleep. The civilisation of the Earth, the people who
knew God, fell asleep in order to awaken to the dawn of a new
reality
“The forces of darkness supposed that they had succeeded in
destroying this people’s culture and the aspirations of their soul
forever. This is why they are trying so hard to conceal the histo-
ry of the Russian people from those living on the Earth today.
“In reality there is much more to the story In covering
up the history of the Russian people, which can serve as a
stepping-stone into the world of the beautiful, they are ac-
tually trying to cover up the joyously living civilisation of
the Earth — cover up the culture, knowledge and feeling of
knowing God which are inherent in that glad civilisation your
forebears were a part of.”
“Wait, Anastasia! Could you tell me a bit more specifically
about this extinct — or, as you put it, dormant — civilisation
using simpler terms, terms easier to understand? And can you
prove the existence of this civilisation?
“I can try, using simpler words. But it will be a hundred
times better if each one tries to visualise it for themselves.”
“But is it possible for everyone to see what happened ten
thousand years ago?”
“Yes, it is. Only in varying degrees and detail. But every-
one can get an overall feeling of it, and even see one’s fore-
bears and one’s self in this joyous world.”
98
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“How can everyone do that? How can I do it, for example?”
“It is all very simple. To start with, Vladimir, try to evalu-
ate and compare events you are familiar with just with your
own sense of logic. When questions come up, find your own
answers to them.”
“What d’you mean, by logic? How can one learn about the
history of Russia, let’s say, by logic? Anyway, you said that our
Russian history and culture have been destroyed, or hidden
from all the people of the Earth. . . But how can I — or anybody
else, for that matter — verify what you say just using logic?”
“Let us try reasoning through this together. I can do a little
to help you get in touch with history”
“Okay, then. What needs to be done to start with?”
“To start with, you should answer yourself a question.”
“Which one?”
‘Avery simple one. Remember, Vladimir, the history text-
book you brought for our son. It is called A history of the an-
cient world. There are chapters in it discussing the history of
Ancient Rome, Greece and China. They describe what Egypt
was like five thousand years ago. But nothing is said about
what Russia was like during this time. Never mind five thou-
sand years — Russia’s history and culture even from a thou-
sand years ago are kept in the strictest secret. The textbook
is written in the Russian language, aimed at Russian children,
but there is not a word in it about the Russia of only two thou-
sand years ago. Why?”
“Why?” I echoed. “Indeed, a most peculiar situation. A
Russian textbook on the history of the ancient world and
nothing said about Russia itself. Not a word about the history
of the Russian people, either during the time of Ancient Rome
and Egypt or even later. Strange! Very strange... as though
there were no Russian people living during those times.”
In trying to recall what I knew of history, I remembered
hearing about the existence of the ancient philosophers of
A dormant civilisation
99
Rome, Greece and China. I never read their works, just heard
about them. I also knew that their works were accepted by so-
ciety as brilliant and outstanding. But I could not recall a sin-
gle Russian philosopher or poet of that time. Indeed, why?
Aware that Anastasia wanted me to try to figure out the
answer myself, I said:
“Neither I nor anyone else can answer this question, Anas-
tasia. It’s a question that’s probably not possible to answer.”
“It is possible. Only one must not be lazy in one’s logical
reasoning. You see, we have come to our first conclusion:
the history of the Russian people is unknown not only to the
world at large but to the Russians themselves. Do you agree
with this, Vladimir?”
“Well, maybe not entirely unknown. We still have descrip-
tions of what happened a thousand years ago.”
“The description was written under censorship and with
significant distortion. Besides, the commentaries are the
same for every historical event. Russia’s past millennium —
the Christian era — is like a single day of history We have
Christianity in Russia still today, but can you tell me what pre-
ceded it?”
“They say that before Christianity, Russia was a heathen
land. People worshipped various gods. But the description
is very superficial. There are no writings or even any legends
about that period. There are no descriptions either of the
political system or of people’s way of life.”
“So, you have reached Conclusion Number Two: the
Russian people had a different culture then. Now, use your
logic and tell me under what circumstances do attempts arise
to hide or distort history?”
“Well, there’s a clear answer to that question. People try
to falsify history when it’s necessary to show the benefits of
following a new order, a new authority, a new ideology. But to
completely conceal any trace of it... Wow! That’s incredible!”
IOO
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“The incredible happened, Vladimir. It is an incontestable
fact. Now, tell me something else — and do not slacken in
your thinking, please. Did this fact come about all by itself, or
is it the result of a deliberate effort on somebody’s part?”
“Judging by the fact that people have always burnt books
when they wanted to stamp out knowledge or ideology, I
would say that someone deliberately stamped out all knowl-
edge about pre-Christian Russian culture too.”
“Who do you think would have done that — who?”
“Most likely the ones who were imposing a new culture and
religion on Russia.”
“One might say that. But possibly there was somebody be-
hind it, somebody controlling the new religion and those who
imposed it? Someone with their own agenda?”
“But who? Who can control religion? Tell me!”
“You are still looking for answers from the outside, you are
too lazy to search for them within yourself. I can give you
an answer, but an outside answer may seem to you incred-
ible — it may provoke a degree of doubt. Everyone can hear
the answer within themselves, once they have liberated their
soul and logic and awakened even a wee bit from sleep.”
“It’s not that I’m lazy. It’s just that searching for answers
within myself will take a lot of time. Better you tell me your-
self what you know about history. If I start having doubts, I’ll
question you further. I shan’t just take your story for granted,
but I shall verify it by logic, both now and later on, as you
suggest.”
“Let it be as you wish. But I shall merely give you a rough
outline of the whole, and let everyone try to fill in the details
as they perceive them. Today’s reality, along with the past and
the future, is something that needs to be determined only
within one’s self, with one’s own soul.”
Chapter Five
Anastasia
People have been living on the Earth for billions of years.
Everything on the Earth was created perfect right from the
start. Trees, blades of grass, bees and the whole animal world.
There is a direct connection between everything living on
the Earth and the entire Universe. The apex of creation is
Man. And in the great pristine Harmony of all things Man
was created harmonious.
Man’s purpose is to learn about all his surroundings and
create perfection in the Universe. To create the likeness of
the world of the Earth in other galaxies. And with each new
creation of his to add more splendour to earthly creations.
The way will open for Man to create on other planets when
Man is able to overcome temptation — when Man is able to
hold in unity the grand and diverse energies of the Universe
inherent in himself. And when he does not allow one of them
to take precedence over the rest.
The day when the whole Earth is a Paradise garden will
mark the opening of the path of creation in the Universe.
And once Man becomes aware of the whole harmony of the
Earth, he will be able to contribute his own splendour.
Man takes it upon himself to take account of his actions
once in every million years. Whenever he makes a mistake,
whenever he allows one of the many diverse energies he
102
Book 6: The Book of Kin
contains to dominate at the expense of the rest, a global ca-
tastrophe takes place. Then everything starts again from the
beginning. This has happened many times.
One of mankind’s million-year periods may be divided into
three ages: first, the Vedic Age, second, the Age of the Image,
and third, the Age of the Occidt.
The first age of human society on the Earth, the Vedic,
lasts 990,000 years. During this age Man lives in Paradise
like a gladsome child, maturing under parental care.
During the Vedic Age God is known to Man. All God’s
feelings are inherent in Man, and through them Man is able
to obtain any advice he needs directly from God. And if Man
should suddenly make a mistake, God is free to correct it sim-
ply by giving a hint, without disturbing the general harmony
or infringing on Man’s freedom in anyway
In the Vedic Age Man does not raise questions about how
or by whom the world, the Universe, the galaxies — along with
his marvellous planet called Earth — were created. Everyone
is completely aware that everything around, either visible or
invisible, has been created by their Father, namely, God.
The Father is everywhere! All that grows and lives — are
His living thoughts, His programme. And one can use one’s
own thought to commune with the Father’s thoughts. And
one can contribute to His programme, provided one first un-
derstands it in detail.
During the Vedic Age Man did not bow down before God,
nor was there the multitude of religions which sprang up af-
terward. There was a culture to life. People lived a Divine
way of life.
There were no diseases of the flesh. Feeding and clothing
himself in a Divine manner, Man simply did not think about
food and clothing. Thought was otherwise occupied — with
the excitement of discovery And no rulers reigned over human
society. There were no boundaries marking off states as today
The history oftnankind, as told by Anastasia 103
Human society on the Earth consisted of happy fami-
lies. The various continents were inhabited by families.
They were all united by their aspiration to create a Space of
Splendour.
There were many new discoveries, and each family, upon
making a splendid discovery, felt the need to share it with
others.
Families were formed by the energy of Love. And everyone
was fully aware that a new family would create one more oasis
of splendour on their native planet.
There were many rituals, holidays and carnivals among the
people of the Vedic Age, each imbued with great meaning,
sensitivity and a conscious awareness of the real Divine exist-
ence on the Earth.
Each ritual served as a grand school and a grand examina-
tion for each Man that took part in it. An examination in the
eyes of others, in the eyes of one’s self and, consequently, in
the eyes of God.
I shall tell you about and show you one of these rituals. It
was a wedding rite — or, rather, the recognition of the union
of two people in love. Look and see. Try to compare the level
of knowledge and culture with that of today.
©10
A union of two — a wedding
The wedding rite — a bonding of two hearts — ■ took place
with the participation of the whole village, sometimes several
neighbouring (or even distant) villages together.
104
Book 6: The Book of Kin
The lovers-to-be could meet in various ways. It could hap-
pen that two young people from the same settlement might
fall in love. More frequently this occurred at one of the major
festivals where a number of villages got together, when two
gazes met and a spark of feeling was ignited in their hearts.
It did not matter whether he approached her or the other
way round. They could tell a lot about each other’s feelings
simply by looking into each other’s eyes. But there were
words too, which, when translated into today’s language,
might sound something like this:
“With you, my beautiful goddess, I could create a Space of
Love to last forever,” he would tell his intended.
And if the girl’s heart responded in kind, she might answer:
“My god, I am ready to help you in your grand co-creation.”
Next the young lovers would jointly select a location for
their future home.
They would go together and visit the area around the set-
tlement where he lived, and then visit a corresponding area
near her village. And there was no need for the lovers to tell
their parents of their plans. Everyone in both settlements
knew what was going on and was fully aware of the grand hap-
pening that would soon take place.
After mutually agreeing upon a site where they would make
their future life together, the lovers would often retreat there,
just the two of them.
Sometimes they would spend the night there under the
open sky or in a shelter they had constructed from tree
branches. They would greet the dawn and bid farewell to the
day there. After returning briefly to their parents’ houses,
they would hurry back to their chosen site. It called them,
and drew them to itself, much as an infant inexplicably draws
to itself a pair of loving parents.
The parents did not ask the young lovers any questions.
They simply waited in eager and joyful anticipation for their
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 105
children to ask questions of them, all the while watching as
their son or daughter spent time in deep meditation.
And the children once more went off to their grand retreat.
This might go on for months, or even a year or two. And all
during this time there would be no physical intimacy between
the lovers.
People in the Vedic settlements knew that these two lov-
ers’ hearts were creating a grand design, inspired by the en-
ergy of Love.
Right from birth both he and she had been absorbing from
their parents the lifestyle, knowledge and mindfulness of the
Vedic culture. They could share their deep knowledge either
of the stars burning in the night sky or of the flowers unfold-
ing their petals with the rising of the Sun, or of the purpose of
bees, or the diverse energies existing in space.
From early childhood both he and she had been bearing wit-
ness to the marvellous domains, oases and Paradise gardens
their parents had created in love, and now they were aspiring
to co-create their own.
On their chosen plot of land, a hectare or more in size,
the lovers laid out a plan for their real life ahead. The task
before them was to mentally formulate a design for their
home and work out an arrangement for a wide variety of
plant life, where everything could work in mutual support
and harmony
Everything would be arranged to grow on its own, with-
out requiring any physical effort on Man’s part. There were a
whole lot of factors to be taken into account here, including
the disposition of the planets, as well as the day-by-day flow
of air currents.
Come spring and summer, plants would exhale ethers and
give off a delightful fragrance. The young lovers would try to
arrange them so that whenever a breeze blew a bouquet of
many different ethers would waft into their dwelling.
106 Book 6: The Book of Kin
All this foreshadowed the birth of a grand and extraordi-
nary complex. It consisted of Divine creations. Besides, the
place the lovers selected was to be transformed into a scene
of splendour which would delight the eyes. Not on a canvas,
but on living ground — a living design was being created in
thought, one that would last for ever.
Even today people can imagine how involved and con-
centrated thought can become when one is endeavouring to
come up with a design for one’s own home.
A dachnik, 1 too, will understand how, especially in the
spring, one’s thought can get absorbed in what one’s plot of
land will look like in the future. And a talented artist, in plan-
ning out a picture, also knows how he can get carried away by
his thoughts.
All these aspirations were now concentrated in the two
loving hearts. Their knowledge was enhanced by the energy
of Love, fostering new inspiration. This is why they did not
even think about what we call today the pleasures of the
flesh.
Once the design was complete in their thoughts, the lov-
ers first paid their respects to the bridegroom’s home village,
where they went around to every house and invited the resi-
dents to come for a visit. Each household awaited their ar-
rival with great excitement and anticipation.
The people of the Vedic culture knew that when lovers
came to see them, a new energy of Divine Love would visit
their domain, albeit just for a moment. And the marvellous
Space of each domain would smile at the energy of young love.
There was no question of imagination or occult beliefs here.
After all, even today anyone finds the company of a good per-
son more pleasant than that of an angry one. Lovers cannot
be angry, especially when they come visiting as a couple.
dachnik — see footnote i in Chapter 2: “Conversation with my son “.
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 107
But in every family in the village there was also a feeling of
anxiety. Whenever the young couple dropped in on a garden,
a courtyard or a house, they would say just a few words to the
residents. Just a sentence to each one. Something like: Oh,
what a splendid apple tree you have! or Tour cat has a knowing look!
or Tour bear is a real worker, very considerate!
To any resident hearing the lovers praise a tree growing in
the garden or the household cat, this was a sign of respect
shown by the younger generation to their elders’ way of life.
The appraisal was always sincere, for the one giving it was
indicating that he too would like to have a tree or a bear of
similar worth.
It was with great pride and joy in the face of the whole vil-
lage that each resident aspired to present the young couple
with the object of their praise as a gift. And all would wait
with anticipation for the day the couple had selected, when
they would present their gifts to the bride and groom.
In the meantime the couple would also go from house to
house in the bride’s village. Sometimes it took three days to
visit every family in the two settlements. Sometimes more
than a week. When the couple finished making their rounds
and the selected day arrived, people both young and old would
rise at dawn and begin hastening to the site of the young cou-
ple’s new home for a visit.
People would take up a position around the perimeter of
the couple’s selected domain, marked out by dry branches. In
the middle, next to the shelter, a little mound rose out of the
earth, decorated with flowers.
Look now and you will behold a most extraordinary scene!
There he is! Look! Here is a young man coming out to
greet the residents of two villages. He is magnificent, a vir-
tual Apollo’! With hair of russet brown and eyes of bright
blue, he ascends the mound. Now on top of the mound,
Radomir 2 — that is his name — is excited. The eyes of all the
io8
Book 6: The Book of Kin
people present are fixed on him alone. And in the ensuing
silence he begins his speech.
In front of everyone assembled he sets forth the design of
a new Space which he has co-created with his beloved. With
the aid of hand gestures, Radomir tells where the apple tree
will grow, as well as the cherry tree and the pear tree. He
shows the location of future groves of pine, oak, cedar and al-
der, along with what berry bushes will grow in between, what
grasses and herbs will send forth their pleasant fragrances.
And how easy it will be for bees to build their home among
the trees. And where that workhorse of a bear will hibernate
during the winter.
He speaks quite quicldy, with great inspiration, setting
forth the carefully thought through design. He goes on
speaking for about three hours, and the whole time the peo-
ple listen with rapt attention. And each time the young man
points to a spot where some living thing will grow, according
to his grand design, someone from the group of people lis-
tening will go over and stand on the future site of the apple
tree, pear tree or cherry tree. Sometimes this individual is a
woman, sometimes a man or an elderly person, but it could
also be a child with eyes full of awareness, wisdom and joyful
contentment.
Those stepping forth from the assembly are already hold-
ing in their hands saplings of the tree or plant designated for
the selected spots where beauty is to unfold.
As each one steps forth, the people bow to him, inasmuch
as he has shown himself worthy of the young couple’s appre-
ciation — as they did the rounds of the village domains — for
being able to bring forth beauty Which means he has been
"j Radomir — an ancient Slavic name derived from the roots rad (joyful) and
mir (peace). The word rad. \ in turn, is a derivative of ra (Sun).
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 109
found worthy of appreciation on the part of the Creator —
the Father of all, the all-loving God.
That is not a conclusion reached through superstition. It
is quite logical.
People of the Vedic culture were wont to treat the young
couple designing the splendid oasis as deities. Such treatment
was not unfounded. After all, the Creator had performed His
creations in an impulse of inspiration and Love. And these
young lovers, likewise inspired by Love, have now created a
splendid design.
Look — the young man has finished speaking. He comes
down from the mound and goes over to where his bride is
standing. She has been following the whole proceedings with
great excitement and emotion. He grasps her hand and leads
her to the mound, where they take up a position together.
And the young man utters these words in front of everyone
assembled:
“I have not created this Space of Love in isolation. Here is
my marvellous inspiration standing beside me before you all.”
The girl — it would be better to refer to her as a maiden 3 —
initially lowers her eyes in the face of the whole gathering.
Every woman has her own particular charm. But there
come special moments in the life of every woman when she
rises over everyone else. Such moments are not found in to-
day’s culture. But back then...
Look! Standing on the mound, Liubomila 4 (as she is called)
has raised her eyes to greet the people around her. The cries
of excitement of the whole crowd have merged into one. The
girl’s face has broken into a smile — a bold smile, not a saucy
3 maiden — The Russian word deva (here translated ‘maiden’) is identical to
the Sanskrit word denoting the nature spirits which help plants to grow.
4 Liubomila — an ancient Slavic name derived from the roots liub (love) and
mil (dear).
no
Book 6: The Book of Kin
one. She is overflowing with the energy of Love. Her cheeks
glow more intensely than usual. The maiden’s clear eyes and
body vibrant with health reach out to envelop the people and
the whole space around them with a radiant warmth. For a
moment the whole scene falls silent, still. The young goddess
shines before the people in all her beauty.
And so there is no question of haste as the maiden’s par-
ents, accompanied by the whole family, both young and old,
solemnly make their way to the mound where the young cou-
ple are standing. They pause at the mound and bow to the
couple, then the maiden’s mother asks her daughter:
‘All the wisdom of our family line lies in you, my daughter.
Tell me, do you see the future of the land you have chosen?”
“Yes, Mama, I see it,” replies the daughter.
“Tell me, daughter dear,” the mother continues, “do you
like everything about the future you have been shown?”
A young maiden might answer this question in a variety of
ways. Most often she would say:
“Yes, Mama. Here will be a splendid Paradise garden, a liv-
ing home.”
But look and see, this particular temperamental girl, her
cheeks flush with a bright glow, comes forth with a non-tra-
ditional response:
“The design is not bad, I really do like it. But, you know,
still I should like to add just a little something.”
Quickly jumping down from the mound, she all at once
runs through the crowd to the edge of her future garden,
where she stops and says:
“Here is where an evergreen should grow, with a birch be-
side it. When a breeze blows from that direction, it will first
meet the branches of the pine, then the birch, and after that
the breeze will ask the trees of the garden to sing a tune. It
will not be repeated exactly the same way each time, but it
will always be a delight to the soul. And here,” the maiden
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia m
adds, running off a little to one side, “here flowers are to grow
First there will be a flush of red, then over here a little later
violet will spring up, and burgundy over there.”
The maiden, all aglow like a fairy, starts dancing around her
future garden. And once more the people remaining in the
circle set themselves in motion, hurrying about to carry the
seeds in their hands to the spots on the ground the high-spir-
ited girl has pointed out.
Upon finishing her dance, she once more runs up to the
mound. Here, standing next to her chosen one, she says:
“Now the Space here will be splendid in its sheen. The
earth will produce a most marvellous scene.”
“Tell everyone, my daughter,” her mother once more ad-
dresses her, “who will be crowned to reign over all this mar-
vellous Space around? Of all the people living on the Earth,
upon whom could you bestow the crown?”
The maiden takes a sweeping look at all the people stand-
ing around holding saplings and seeds in their hands. Each of
them stands in a spot indicated by the young man according
to his plan and the maiden’s outline of the splendid scene to
be. But no one is yet planting a seed in the ground. The sa-
cred moment for that has not yet arrived. And at this point
the maiden turns to the young man standing beside her on
the mound, and says, almost in song:
“He is worthy to wear the crown whose thought is able to
create a future that will be splendid all around.”
With these words the girl touches the shoulder of the
young man standing beside her. He gets down on one knee
before her. And the girl places on his head a most beautiful
crown, a garland woven from sweet-smelling grasses by the
maiden’s own hand. Then, running her fingers three times
through her fiance’s hair with her right hand, she takes hold
of his head with her left and draws it a little closer to herself.
Upon her signal the young man stands up. Then the girl runs
112
Book 6: The Book of Kin
down from the mound, and bows her head ever so slightly in
a sign of meekness.
Right at this moment the young man’s father, accompa-
nied by his whole family, is making his way over to the newly
crowned groom. Approaching the mound, he stops and paus-
es in respect. Then the father begins speaking, his gaze fixed
on his son:
“Who are you whose thought is capable of creating a Space
of Love?”
Whereupon the young man replies:
“I am your son, and I am the son of the Creator.”
“A crown has been placed upon your head, a sign of a great
mission to come. You who are wearing the crown, what will
you do as you reign over your domain?”
“I shall create a future that all around most splendid will
remain.”
“Where will you gain the strength and inspiration, my son,
and crowned son of the Creator?”
“In Love!”
“The energy of Love is capable of wandering through the
whole Universe. How will you manage to see the reflection of
universal love on the Earth?”
“There is one girl, Father, and for me she is the reflection
of universal love on the Earth.”
With these words the young man comes down to where
the girl is standing, takes her by the hand and leads her back
up to the mound.
Holding hands, they watch as the two families merge into
a single group, sharing hugs and jokes and laughter, from the
youngest child to the eldest present. Everything becomes
quiet once more when the young man holds up his hand and
proclaims:
“My thanks to all who heard me in this place. My soul has
spoken of the creation of a new Space. My thanks to all who
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 1 13
have held the energy of Love in such high esteem. May what
has been conceived by the soul’s dream now sprout from the
earth!”
These words have the effect of setting all the people stand-
ing around in joyful motion. And with pride and joy and
great emotion the people plant the seeds and saplings in the
ground. Each one plants just one sapling in the spot indicated
by the young man as set forth in his plan. Those not assigned
a specific spot set about to walk around the perimeter of the
plot which has already been marked out, and to the song of
the khorovocP throw the seeds they have brought with them
into the ground.
Within the space of a few minutes a marvellous garden has
been planted — the Space which has been created through a
dream.
And now the people retreat once more beyond the plot’s
perimeter. Only two families remain surrounding the mound
where he and she — the young lovers — are still standing.
Drops of rain from the skies are falling onto the ground. The
very warm rain is unusual and lasts but a short time — these
are tears of joy and tenderness falling from the Creator’s eyes
to water the marvellous Space co-created by His children.
What could be dearer for a parent than the marvellous
creations of His children?
And once again the young man with the crown holds up his
hand, and when all is quiet, says:
“Let all the creatures given to Man by the Creator live to-
gether with us in friendship!”
Whereupon the girl and the young man come down from
the mound and head over to the shelter where they stayed
while working out the design.
5 khorovod (pronounced hur-a-VOT) — a circle dance accompanied by choral
singing, traditionally popular among Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.
Book 6: The Book of Kin
114
After these words, out from the circle of people standing
around someone approaches the couple, accompanied by an
old dog and a pup. The dog is one that greeted the couple in
a friendly way on their tour of the domains and which they
have taken a great liking to.
The visitor bows and presents the bride with the puppy At
his signal the old dog goes and lies down at the young ma n ’s
feet. This dog has been trained to help Man teach all the oth-
er animals.”
The young man orders the dog to sit by the entrance to the
shelter, and presently the girl lets the puppy inside. Other
people approach the shelter one by one, carrying in their arms
a kitten or a lamb, or bringing a colt or a bear cub on a lead.
People quickly fashion tree branches into a wicker fence
to attach animal pens to the shelter. And soon the dwelling
which just a short time ago was used by people as sleeping
quarters is now filled with young animals. And there is tre-
mendous significance in this. For in mixing with each other
this way, these animals will forever live together in friendship,
caring for and helping each other. No mysticism in this. It
is the law of the Creator of Nature. After all, you can find
examples of this even today If a puppy and a kitten grow up
together, they will remain friends as adults.
One of the other characteristics of the Vedic period was
that people were fully aware of the purpose of the various
creatures. And all animals served Man.
Man did not bother feeding the animals; on the contrary,
they fed him. During the Vedic age both Man and his house-
hold pets were vegetarians, and never ate meat — they would
not even think of it. The tremendous variety of plants around
were able to supply Man’s taste abundantly — not only his,
but that of the animals surrounding him.
In this instance the bride and groom are presented by the
residents of the two villages with the best they have.
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 115
After accepting the gifts, the young couple once more as-
cend the mound:
“Our hearty thanks to everyone,” the bridegroom express-
es their gratitude to those gathered. “Thank you all for co-
creating this Space. My descendants will care for it over the
centuries to come.”
“Our thanks to the mothers who bore the creator,” says the
bride.
And, turning to the young man, she adds:
“For the joy of the Creator of the Sun, the Moon, the sprin-
kle of stars in the sky and our most beautiful Earth, we shall
co-create everything you are able to think of.”
“Together with you, my splendid goddess, and with peo-
ple!” the young man answers, and adds:
“You alone are capable of inspiring my dreams.”
Once again the young couple come down from the mound.
They are immediately surrounded by their respective fami-
lies, all congratulating them.
And the people dance a khorovod around the plot, accom-
panied by a joyful song.
By this time it is getting on toward evening. The young
people each go back to their own home. For two nights and a
day they will not see each other.
Upon reaching home, after having spent so much effort
creating, the young creator falls into a deep sleep. His beauti-
ful bride does the same in her own bed.
Those who remain at the spot where the co-creation took
place in love will go on singing songs in a khorovod. Older cou-
ples will go off by themselves with resurrected memories of
how it all happened to them on a similar day of their own.
And over the course of the following night and day the
best craftsmen from both villages will build the couple a lit-
tle house to the accompaniment of songs and the khorovod.
They will fit the rows of timbers tight together, the moss and
ii 6
Book 6: The Book of Kin
grass between them making a sweet-smelling bouquet. And
by the end of that day the women of the villages will place the
best fruits of their harvest in the new home. The two moth-
ers will cover the bed with a linen counterpane. And by the
second night every last one of the visitors will be gone from
the domain.
In the meantime, after a good night’s sleep, the young man
awoke on this day to see the Sun rise over the Earth, illumi-
nating his parents’ house with its glad rejoicing. His first
thought was for the crown he had been given the day before.
He took this and put it on his head, smiling at everyone, the
picture of bliss.
Accompanied by his brothers and sisters he went over to a
nearby stream to wash in fresh spring water. Passing through
the garden on his way back to the house, Radomir caught
sight of his mother.
With a restrained smile the mother began admiring her
son.
Whereupon the young man, bursting with excitement,
could no longer restrain himself at the sight of his own mother.
He picked her up in his arms with delight. Spinning around
like a child, he exclaimed:
“How marvellous is life all around, my dear Mama!
Mama!”
“Oh!” his mother exclaimed, breaking into a laugh.
Grandfather smiled behind his moustache. Grandmother
then approached the happy pair, carrying a beautiful carved
wooden ladle, and said:
“Young god of ours, stop right there. You must spare your
gladsome energies. Drink this tea of calming herbs, so that
your energy does not burn you. Its time will come the follow-
ing day.”
After drinking the tea, the young man began conversing
with his grandfather about the Universe and the meaning of
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia
117
life. But the tea soon inclined him to sleep. And the young
man whom his grandmother called a “young god” had soon
nodded off to sleep on the hand-crafted counterpane.
What was happening? Why did the grandmother call her
grandson a ‘god’? Was she exaggerating, delighting in her ad-
miration of the young man? Not at all! It was simply the case
that her grandson had done deeds worthy of God’s name.
God had created the Earth and everything living and grow-
ing upon it. And with all the knowledge he had assimilated
from his forebears, the young man was able to distinguish the
purpose and function of a multitude of creations, much to the
delight of the Creator. This enabled him to create from them
a marvellous living oasis, one capable of bringing joy not only
to him and his beloved, but also to the generations of their
children, and to people who would over the centuries look
upon this splendid domain which was created with love.
Could any of all people’s deeds on the Earth have delighted
God more? What better and more significant thing could
a Man do within the space of one human lifetime on the
Earth?
In the Vedic culture the wedding rite was no occult ritual.
As an aspiration to the likeness of the Divine being it is of
tremendous practical significance.
In showing his knowledge and aspirations to the people
gathered, the young man in love was, in effect, being tested
in front of them. Elis deeds showed that he included the
knowledge of all the generations of his family beginning with
its pristine origins. And he added his own contribution too.
His creation was appraised as worthy by all the people, and
it was with great joy that they planted trees and herbs in the
spots he indicated. And the marvellous co-creation will flour-
ish each spring in ever more beautiful form.
Yet for all this, not a single neighbour would feel the slight-
est envy at the sight of it, since everyone has been involved
n8 Book 6: The Book of Kin
in co-creating this marvellous Space of Love. Each one now
has their own little shoot they planted in the new splendid
domain. When domains like this begin to multiply, the whole
Earth will be clothed in God’s own flourishing garden. And
in the Vedic culture everyone knew that Man has been given
life eternal, and that a splendid life repeats itself when those
living now aspire to beauty and perfection!
Domains! Domains of the Vedic culture ! Domains that were to
be known in subsequent occult books as ‘Paradise’, as people lost their
vast store of knowledge and imagined that this Paradise coidd be per-
ceived only over the distant horizon beyond the clouds. And all to
enhance the significance of so-called ‘modern science’ and covering up
the poverty of their own thought.
There’s no point in debating this without practical proof. But de-
bate-settling actions can be quite simple. Let all those ‘worthy’ schol-
arly luminaries now living on the Earth try, for example, to set up
just a single oasis for a single family — a task which, in the Vedic
culture, every young man in love had to cope with.
A domain which is home to a happy family should be able to satis-
fy all the food requirements of everybody living in it, hour by hour.
Disease should not be permitted to have even a foothold. The
changing reality of the scene before Man should moment by moment
gladden his gaze. It should delight the ear with an infinite variety of
sounds, and the nostrils with flowering fragrances.
And provide ethereal food for the sold, nursing the newborn and
preserving love for ever. And so no member of the family shoidd be
wasting their energies on mundane concerns — their thought should
remain free. Thought is given to all people for creative purposes.
The world of academe takes pride in its illusions:
“See, our ships are flying into space for the benefit of mankind!”
“For mankind’s benefit, you say?”
“See all those bombs going off? They are to protect you!”
“But are they really to protect us?”
“See how this learned doctor has saved your life!”
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 119
But up to that point life was in the process of being annihilated,
moment by moment, by everyday concerns. They saved the life of a
slave to prolong his suffering.
The world of academe is in no position to create even the similitude
of a splendid domain because, again, there is a law of the Universe
which says: A single Creator inspired by love is stronger than all the
sciences combined, which are deprived of love.
Now the newly-wed young man has slept his second night,
his deep sleep undisturbed by anything. Only the image of
his beloved sparkled and flashed like the stars. In his sleep
this image merged with the Space they had created, the might
and infinite variety of the Universe.
Radomir awakes before dawn. And without a word to
anyone, he puts on his garland and picks up a shirt that has
been hand-embroidered by his mother. Then he goes to the
spring-fed stream.
The moon illumines his path through the pre-dawn dark-
ness, while garlands of stars twinkle in the heavens. After
washing in the stream, he puts on his shirt, and quickly makes
his way to his sacred creation. The heavens begin to brighten.
And there he stands alone on the spot where the two vil-
lages recently celebrated their joy — the place he created
through his dream.
The power of the feelings and sensations within a Man at
such a moment can scarcely be comprehended by anyone who
has not experienced them at least once for himself.
It can be said that these sensations and feelings are Divine
in nature. And they increase in quivering anticipation of
the first ray of dawn, in which... There she is! His marvellous
Liubomila ! Illumined in the dawn’s rays, she runs to greet him
and their co-creation.
This vision incarnate runs to meet Radomir. While perfec-
tion, of course, knows no real limit, it seems as though time
has suddenly stopped for the two of them. Enveloped in the
120
Book 6: The Book of Kin
mist of their feelings, they enter their new house. The table is
spread with delicacies, and a tempting fragrance of dried flow-
ers wafts from the embroidered counterpane on the bed.
“What are you thinking about right now?” she asks him in
a heated whisper.
“About him — our future child,” and Radomir gives a quiver
as he looks at Liubomila. “My, how beautiful you are!” No
longer able to contain himself, he very tenderly touches her
shoulder and cheek.
Both are enveloped in the warm breath of Love and carried
away to unknown heights.
Nobody in a million years will ever be able to describe in
detail what happens between him and her when, merging into
one in the impulse of mutual love, two people work out the
likeness of themselves and God.
But the god-people of the Vedic culture knew precisely
that after the inexplicable miracle takes place, merging two
into one — each of them still retains their individuality. And
at the same time, for one inexplicable moment the Universe
quivers at the sight: the soul of a newborn child runs trip-
pingly, barefoot, through the stars to the Earth, embodying in
himself the union of two — plus a third — as one.
This act of sanctifying the union of two people in love dur-
ing the Vedic age can by no means be considered a manifesta-
tion of the occult. It was an entirely rational act, correspond-
ing to their way of life. The ever-increasing feeling of love for
one another in every family coupling bore witness to the level
of this culture.
In our modern day this feeling of mutual love in married
couples always tends to dissipate after a while. The energy
of Love is no longer within them. And this is something ac-
cepted as a given by human society. But this scenario is un-
natural to Man. It tells us that the lifestyle people lead today
is unnatural.
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 121
A loving couple in the Vedic culture realised not with their
mind but with their heart and soul that the spark of the feel-
ing of Love is a call to a Divine co-creation.
Take note ofwhat the couple originally aspired to. Together,
in an impulse of inspiration, they mentally worked out their
design — the design of a Space for their love. It was in this
Space they had created that their child was conceived. Three
significant feelings of love merged into one for eternity. After
all, a Man — for reasons he cannot explain, even to himself —
retains a strong reverence all his life for his family domain —
his Motherland, for his child and for the woman with whom
all this was co-created. It is only three feelings of love, not a
single feeling all by itself, that can live for eternity
The birth of a son or daughter to a Vedic-age family was
also the occasion for a grand celebration and a life-significant
rite. And there were many other celebrations back in those
days. And there was absolutely no marital infidelity Millions
of happy families made the Earth a delightsome place. It is
the ranks of historians today, in their efforts to please the
powers that be, who say that Pristine Man was once stupid,
that this Man killed animals, ate their meat in a frenzy and
dressed himself in their skins. A monstrous lie is necessary to
people trying to cover up their monstrous deeds.
00
Raising children in the Vedic culture
Mankind is ever looking for a perfect system of raising chil-
dren. It endeavours to seek out the wisest teachers, and
122
Book 6: The Book of Kin
then hands over its children to be raised by them. And you,
Vladimir, in preparing to talk with your son, spent five years
seeking out the best system of child-raising. A system capa-
ble of explaining everything to you and teaching you how to
communicate with your own birth son. And you kept on ask-
ing advice from recognised teachers and various scholars. But
not one piece of advice, not one system did you find satisfying
or indicative of perfection. Doubts came to you with increas-
ing frequency: If there did exist a perfect system of education, many
people would surely be using it. And sotnewhere on the Earth there
would be living a people that is truly happy. But it seems that in
every society all you find is the same or different kinds of problems.
Ton have to search for a happy family — it is like looking for a needle
in a haystack. So that means there is no miraculous system, of child-
raising and there is no point in searching since there is nothing to
search for.
Forgive me, please: I had no other choice but to keep
track of your thought the whole time. I was trying to de-
termine through you what leads people away from what is
so obvious.
And then one day I felt you thinking: Lack of trust and fear
of making a mistake are what make people hand over their children
to schools and academies so that afterward they can blame their
teachers — anyone but themselves.
On another occasion I saw how you turned pale and be-
came scared stiff at the thought that children are raised by
their parents’ and society’s lifestyle. Your thought was true
and accurate. But you were afraid of it, you kept trying all
along to forget about it. But you did not succeed in forgetting
what is all too obvious.
Then you tried disagreeing with your own thought. You
reasoned like this: How is it possible to become a scholar, an artist
or a poet ? How can one learn about astronomy or history without
studying at a special school ?
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia
123
But you were thinking in terms of subject categories of
knowledge, and they are not the most important in raising
children.
Much more important is the culture of feelings, which are
capable of compressing all knowledge into a tiny nucleus. You
were in a position to understand this since you yourself are a
vivid example of what I have been saying. After all, you were
able to write a book without studying in a special school.
Yrn and I spent only three days together in this glade, and
now you are a writer, known in various lands. You can step
out in front of a huge audience including prominent teachers,
scholars, poets and healers. And you can go on speaking to
them for as long as three hours or more. And people listen to
you with rapt attention. You are often asked questions such
as: How can you hold an infinite store of information in your mem-
ory? How can yon recite pages of your books from, memory without
a copy in front of you? You generally responded to such ques-
tions with a mumble. But you concluded within yourself that
I must have been working some kind of invisible charms on
you. In fact, everything that happened to you is a good deal
simpler than that.
During those first three days you were with me here in the
taiga, on all three days it was the Vedic school that was exer-
cising an influence on you. And it is certainly not pushy or
intrusive, and it does not have any treatises or dogmas. It is
capable of transmitting all information through feelings.
At times you would get angry, or get excited and laugh, or
become fearful. And every time a new feeling arose in you,
new information was taken in. That information was truly
vast in scope. It is being revealed only later on, when you re-
member the feelings it aroused in you at the time.
Feelings, after all, represent a tremendous amount of con-
centrated information. And the clearer and stronger the feel-
ing, the more knowledge of the Universe it contains.
124
Book 6: The Book of Kin
For example, remember that very first night in the taiga,
when you awoke and saw the she-bear beside you. Right off
you were frightened. Please take note and think about those
words “right off you were frightened”.
But what is this feeling of fear? Let us try translating it into
informational terms. What do we get then? You thought: Here
beside me is a huge beast of the forest. It weighs considerably more
than my body weight. Its paws are far stronger than the muscles of my
arms. A beast of the forest can be aggressive, it can attack me and tear
my body apart. I am defenceless. I had better jump up and run.
To make logical sense of this whole tremendous amount of
information requires not just a moment, but a considerably
longer time. But this same information, when compressed
into a feeling — in this case, fear — allows one to react in-
stantaneously to the situation. When one experiences a vivid
feeling, a large amount of information passes through Man
in a flash. It would require a whole scholarly treatise just to
describe it, which could take years to work out without the
aid of feelings.
A correct complex of feelings sequenced in the right order
can multiply a Man’s existing store of knowledge by a thou-
sandfold.
For example, your fear of the bear passed as instantaneously
as it arose. But what made it go away? After all, it was not nat-
ural for it to go away You were still in the taiga as before, still
defenceless, and the bear was not far away — besides, there
might be a multitude of other beasts out there in the forest.
But that sense of fear in you was instantaneously replaced
by a feeling of security You felt this sense of protection even
more strongly than when you were on your boat, or in the city,
surrounded by armed guards.
This feeling of protection came over you just as instanta-
neously. It came over you just as soon as you saw that the
bear took pleasure in carrying out my orders, reacting to my
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 125
words and gestures. The feeling of protection enabled you
to perceive information in a whole new way. A detailed de-
scription of everything that happened to you could fill a great
many pages of a scientific treatise. And in your books you
have devoted quite a few pages to the animals’ relationship to
M a n. But the theme is infinite in scope. In terms of feelings,
however, it can be expressed in the twinkling of an eye.
But something still more significant took place. Within
the space of just a few seconds two opposite feelings turned
out to be in perfect balance. I became to you someone in
whose presence you could feel completely protected, even
though at the same time one you could not fully explain and
even found a little frightening.
The balance of feelings is very important. It is a confirma-
tion of Man’s equilibrium, yet at the same time, as though con-
stantly pulsating, feelings engender more and more streams
of information.
The culture and way of life of each family in the Vedic
civilisation, as well as the way of life of the whole human so-
ciety of the time, constituted a most remarkable school for
the raising of the next generation, an intense regime of self-
perfection for Man, advancing him to the act of creation in
worlds of the unfathomable Universe.
In the Vedic age children were not raised the way they are
in our schools today, but through participation in merry festi-
vals and rites. These were either celebrations within a single
family or ones where the whole community took part, or sev-
eral neighbouring communities together.
More specifically: the multitude of celebrations during the
Vedic age were crucial tests for both children and adults, and
a means of information exchange.
The way of life in the family and the preparation for these
celebrations afforded the opportunity to acquire a tremen-
dous systematic store of knowledge.
126
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Children were taught without the compulsion they feel
when they are made to sit and listen to a teacher against their
will. The learning process unfolded moment by moment for
both parents and their children, cheerfully and not obtrusive-
ly It was something desirable and fascinating.
But it did include some methods that would be considered
unusual today Ignorant of their tremendous significance for
Man’s education, modern scholars might call parents’ actions
during Vedic times superstitious or even occult-like.
For example , you thought that way and were very concerned
when you saw our son, still so very young and helpless, as yet
unable to stand on his own two feet, being picked up by the
mighty eagle. The eagle held the little boy in its claws, and
circled over the glade, rising and descending by turns. 6
That happened with children in all Vedic families, though
they did not always employ eagles for this purpose. They
might be able to show the Earth from on high from the top
of a mountain, if there happened to be a mountain close to
where they lived. Occasionally a father might take his infant
son or daughter and climb to the top of a tall tree. Sometimes
they would build a special tower for this purpose. And yet
the effect was more dramatic when an eagle circled over the
ground with an infant in its claws. In just a moment or so the
child would experience a whole gamut of feelings, and in that
very moment he would take in a whole multitude of informa-
tion. And when he was older, he could discover this informa-
tion within him through these feelings whenever he wanted,
whenever the need arose.
Remember, for example, I showed you what a perfect
design the handsome Radomir created together with his
bride Liubomila for their domain. I told you that the most
recognised scientists in the world today are unable to create
6 See Book 3, Chapter 13: “A bird for discovering one’s soul”.
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 127
anything like that. They would not be able to do it even if
they all joined together as one.
But how could the young man bring about such a miracle
back then? Where did he acquire the knowledge of all the
plants, the significance of the winds, the functions of the
planets and so much else besides? After all, he never sat at a
traditional school-desk. He did not study science. Then how
did the young man learn the purpose of each and every one
of 530,000 species of flora? He might make use of only nine
thousand of them, but he could accurately tell the interrela-
tionship each species had with the others.
Naturally Radomir had been observing his father’s and
their neighbours’ domains right from childhood. Yet he nev-
er wrote anything down, and did not consciously memorise
anything. He never asked his parents what grew for what pur-
pose, and they would never vex him by preaching at him. And
yet this young man in love still managed to create his own
domain, and even a better one than his parents had.
Please do not be surprised, Vladimir! Try to understand.
You see, Radomir did not set forth a logical plan for his gar-
den, although indeed it turned out that way in his domain.
What happened was that Radomir outlined through his feel-
ings a splendid picture for his loved one and his future off-
spring. And in this his flight with the eagle over his family
domain contributed to his impulse of love, to his inspiration.
During the time the infant Radomir looked down from the
height of the eagle’s flight on the landscape of the domain, a
picture was being imprinted on his subconscious just as on
a reel of movie film. He was still not able to appreciate the
beauty of the scene with his mind. But his feelings! His feel-
ings were able to scan all the information from the variegated
countryside below into a permanent imprint. And through
his feelings, not through his mind or intellect, he was able to
perceive what he saw as beautiful.
128
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Not only that, but there amidst the beautiful landscape
seen from the sky stood his very own Mama, smiling at him.
What can be more marvellous for a little one than his moth-
er’s smile? And his mother was waving to him. Yes, that was
her! The one whose breasts contained warm, life-giving milk.
For a suckling child, nothing could be more marvellous than
that. And from the height of the eagle’s flight everything the
young Radomir beheld seemed to him to be a single whole,
inseparable from his Mama. In the twinkling of an eye the
knowledge of this part of creation entered into him with a
flash of exhilaration.
Young people displayed great competence in such modern
sciences as zoology, agronomy and astronomy People also ap-
preciated their artistic taste.
Of course, there were also professional teachers in the
Vedic age.
During the winter, elderly people who were especially
learned in various disciplines would come to the commu-
nity. Each settlement had a common meeting-hall, where
they could set forth their wisdom. And if one of the chil-
dren listening to them suddenly showed a special interest
in astronomy, for example, the teacher would go and talk
to the child’s parents in their home. The teacher would al-
ways be warmly welcomed in the home. This scholar would
talk about the stars with the child as many hours and days
as the youngster wished. And there is no definitive answer
to the question as to who learnt more from whom during
these discussions. After all, it was with considerable re-
spect that the great elderly scholar asked questions of the
child. He could argue with him without being preachy. In
the Vedic age there was no need to record the discussion,
or the conclusions or discoveries arising therefrom. Free
from daily routine and the multitude of concerns that oc-
cupy us today, the human memory could take in a great deal
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia
129
more information than the best computers that have been
invented in our times.
Besides, any discoveries made, provided they were ration-
al, were at once shared with everyone to use and put into
practice.
The parents and other members of the household might
also listen to these scholarly discussions, and sometimes even
contribute to them, albeit tactfully. But still, it was the child
who was inevitably the centre of attention. When a budding
astronomer came to what the adults judged to be a wrong
conclusion, they might say something like: “Excuse me, I
can’t understand you.”
The child would try to explain. And it often happened that
the child would prove himself right.
As spring approached each year, all the residents of the set-
tlement would gather in the common meeting-hall and take
note of their children’s most recent achievements. Reports
were given during these days. A six-year-old lad, for example,
might astound everyone, telling about the meaning of life like
a philosopher. Children might show everyone the marvellous
things they had made. Others might delight the gathering
with a song or an unusual dance. You could call these acts a
kind of test, or simply a time of fun for all — the label was un-
important. What was important was that everybody derived
joy from the act of creating. The stream of positive emotions
and revelations during this event were joyfully put into prac-
tice. To the question as to who remained the most important
figure in the raising of children, one could confidently answer
that it was the culture and way of life lived by families in the
Yedic age.
What lessons can be drawn from that culture for chil-
dren of our present day? Which of our current systems of
child-raising is the best, can we say? Judge for yourself, none
of them is perfect. Mind you, when we distort the history
130
Book 6: The Book of Kin
of mankind, we cause children to lie to themselves. And we
force their thinking into a completely false way And that is
why we suffer and cause our children to suffer too.
Above all, everybody ought to know the truth about them-
selves. Without truth, life bogged down in false dogmas is
like a hypnotic sleep.
The sequence of three pictures in children’s textbooks
needs to be rearranged. The history of people living on the
Earth needs to be presented to children correctly, for a change.
First of all one must verify in one’s own heart the accuracy of
what has been reported. And then once children have learnt
the essence of this history undistorted, a new path must be
selected in consultation with them.
Children’s books about the history and development of the
Earth and its people tend to feature three pictures that are far
from harmless. Consider what these pictures impress upon
them from a very young age:
The first picture shows an impression of Primitive Man.
Take a look at how he is portrayed: he stands there all covered
with thick hair, with a beastly grin and a dumb expression on
his face, holding a wooden club and surrounded by the bones
of the creatures he has killed.
The second picture features a Man clothed in armour, car-
rying a sword, a dazzling decorated helmet on his head. He is
off to conquer cities with troops under his command, while a
crowd of slaves bows low before his hand.
In the third picture Man is shown with a noble face and an
intelligent expression. He is healthy-looking, and dressed in
a suit, and surrounded by a multitude of appliances, contriv-
ances and mechanical gadgets to boot. Happy and delightful
is the overall impression of modern Man.
All three pictures are false, as is the sequence in which they
are arranged. This whole lie is stubbornly rigidly and deliber-
ately drilled into our children. Later I shall be able to tell you
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 13 1
who is responsible and why they find this lie so indispensable.
But first I want you try to verify the accuracy of these three
pictures using your own sense of logic.
Judge for yourself: the trees, bushes and grass you can still
see today in their primitive form. Even though they are bil-
lions of years old, you can still look at them and delight in
their perfection.
What does all this tell us? The works of the Creator were
made perfect right from the very beginning. And so? Did He
make Man, the favourite of all His creations, to be some kind
of monstrosity? Of course not! Right from the beginning,
Man, the most perfect work of the Creator, was the most glo-
rious creation on the Earth.
The first picture ought to show history as it actually was: it
ought to show a family of happy people, with a look on their
faces expressing both intelligence and child-like purity. And
love on the faces of both parents. Human bodies in harmony
with their surroundings, striking in their beauty and graceful
power of spirit. A flourishing garden all around. Creatures
always on the alert to render service with gratitude.
The second picture, too, should present to children an
image of historical fact — two armies in monstrous armour
rushing at each other, their commanders standing on a height
of land, being entreated by priests. Some of their faces show
fear and disorientation, while those of others, after yielding to
the priests’ entreaties, are inflamed with a beastly fanaticism.
In just a moment a senseless slaughter will begin. People will
start killing their own kind.
The third picture shows people in today’s world. We
should see a group of people of pale and sickly countenance
in a room filled with an array of artificial things. Some have
extremely obese figures, others are bent over, faces are full
of heaviness and gloom. The kinds of faces you see on most
passers-by along big-city sidewalks. Through the window one
132
Book 6: The Book of Kin
can see cars exploding on the street. And dirty ashes raining
down from the sky
All three of these true pictures of history should be shown
to the child and the question asked: “Which of these lifestyles
would you like to live?”
The pictures are only arbitrary illustrations. Of course the
child should also be told the true account, sincerely and skil-
fully presented. The child should know the whole history of
the human race without misleading distortions. Only after
that can his actual education begin. The question should be
asked: “How can we change the situation today?”
And the child will come up with an answer — not right off,
not in the twinkling of an eye. But he will find it! Another
thought will take over — a creative thought. Oh, the raising
of children!... You see, Vladimir, just a single sincerely asked
question, together with the parents’ desire to hear their child’s
answer, is capable of uniting parents with their children — of
making them happy — for ever. This joint quest for happi-
ness is infinite. But even the beginning of the quest can be
called a state of happiness.
Everybody today should learn their true history
Rituals
At a later period the occult priests undertook tremendous
efforts to distort and besmirch the significance of the ritu-
al acts of Vedic times. They started a rumour, for example,
that the Vedic people mindlessly worshipped the element of
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 133
water. And that they held a yearly sacrifice of young girls who
had not yet known love, throwing them into a lake or a river.
Or that, tying them to a raft, they pushed them off from the
shore and despatched them to their doom.
The element of water — a lake or a river — was indeed con-
nected with many acts among the Vedic people. But it had
a completely different significance — in support of life, not
death. Let me tell you about just one of these. It is still prac-
tised today in a superficial form. But the resemblance is only
superficial. In today’s variant its great rational and poetic sig-
nificance has been replaced by obscurity and occultism.
In various countries today there is a celebration involving
water, whereby wreaths or small rafts with beautiful lanterns
or candles are set afloat on a water surface and pushed away
from the shore in a plea to the water to grant good fortune.
But let us see where this particular celebration originated and
how rational and poetic a significance it had in its pristine
form.
In Vedic times it sometimes happened that one or two girls
(how many is of no importance) did not find someone they
could love within their own community. And even at large
festivals involving several communities they did not succeed
in choosing their intended. This would not have been on ac-
count of a limited selection. Indeed, they were presented
with a whole array of splendid young men with intelligent
countenances — almost like gods, who shone in their cele-
bratory performances. But while the heart and soul of the
girl in question were filled with great expectations, they were
not visited by love. The girl was dreaming of someone, but
of whom? She herself did not know. Even today, no one can
explain the mystery or freedom of choice inherent in the en-
ergy of Love.
This is why on a designated day the girls would go down to
the river, and in one of the little bays set a small raft afloat. Its
134
Book 6: The Book of Kin
edges were decorated with a garland of flowers. In the middle
stood a small jug of wine or fruit infusion. Pieces of fruit were
placed around the jug. The drink was to be prepared by the
girl herself, and the fruit to be plucked by her from the trees
she had planted by her own hand in her family garden. She
might also place on the raft a woven linen headband, or some
other object, but it had to be something made with her own
hands. Lastly she would place on the raft a little lampadka. 1
Around a fire burning on the shore the girls danced their
khorovod and sang about a beloved of whom they were not yet
fully aware. Then, taking one of the branches burning on the
fire, they lit the wick of the lampadka. They pushed their rafts
out of the bay into the mainstream of the river, where the cur-
rent would catch it and tenderly convey it down to the river’s
farthest unknown reaches.
And each girl followed her raft with a hopeful gaze as it
receded into the distance, until only the little light of the lam-
padka was still visible. But the girls’ hearts were aflame with
the fire of hope. A feeling of joy and tenderness grew within,
directed to one whom they were yet to know.
Hastening back to their homes, the girls retreated to their
rooms and excitedly began preparing for the anticipated
meeting. He, the desired one, might come with the dawn or
at sunset time — the hour did not matter. But how did it hap-
pen? What would draw him to her? Was the meeting the re-
sult of mysticism or rationality? Or perhaps of the knowledge
to which the Vedic people had access through their feelings?
Decide for yourself which way
After all, the girls’ rafts were carried along by the current
on specific days. All the communities, even the distant ones,
were aware of these particular days.
' lampadka — a small vessel filled with tree oil and a wick which could be
lit.
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia
135
Their journey might last a day, or two or three. On all these
days and moonlit nights young men who had not yet known
love were waiting hopefully in their loneliness all along the
river’s bays.
Upon seeing the little lights in the distance being carried
along by the current, a young man would at once leap into the
water and swim toward the little lights of love he had seen.
The current did not inflame the young man’s heated body, but
tenderly cradled it with the transparent water of the stream.
Closer and closer came the little lights and now the young man
could make out the outline of the rafts — each one prettier
than the next, it seemed. He chose one of them. It was not
clear why this particular one fell under his special esteem.
He drew the raft from the middle of the stream to the
shore, either pushing it with his hand or nudging it along by
pressing his cheek to its side. It seemed as though the river
current was engaging him in play. But his body was constantly
being arrayed with strength, more and more, and he scarcely
noticed the river’s play Besides, his thought was already on
the shore.
Placing the little raft carefully on the land, the young man
snuffed out the lampadka, took an excited drink from the jug
and quickly headed home to prepare for his journey. He took
with him whatever he had found on the little craft. Along the
way he took a taste of the fruit, and was thrilled by its taste.
By and by he arrived at the village from where the raft had
been launched, and was able to accurately determine which
garden and tree whose fruit had sweetened his journey
Aha! — some might wonder — one cannot escape mysticism
entirely: how on earth coidd young men of that time find their future
loved ones with such accuracy ?
One could say that it was Love leading them by a path
known solely to Love. But I can simplify the explanation —
the lampadka also played a role. Notches had been cut in the
T 3 6
Book 6: The Book of Kin
small vessel carrying the brightly burning wick floating in the
oil, so that everyone could tell how long the lampadka had
been alight. The speed of the river’s current was also widely
known. It was a very simple calculation, and quickly execut-
ed. For a young man of the Vedic age, it was no task at all to
find in the village the particular tree from which the fruit he
had eaten had been plucked.
Pieces of fruit resemble each other only superficially The
fruit of trees and plants of the same species, even two trees
growing side by side, can show marked differences in shape,
colour, fragrance and taste.
There is only one thing that cannot be explained with com-
plete accuracy. How was it that he and she always fell in love
with each other upon meeting for the first time? And their
love was extraordinarily passionate.
“It is all quite simple,” a philosopher of the present day
might say. “Their feelings for each other were already being
set afire by their own dream even before they met.”
But back then a wizened wise-man would have responded
to such a question with a wink: “Our river has always had a
mischievous streak in her!”
Of course, if he wanted to, the wise-man could always go
into the details of each moment of the ritual I have told you
about and explain the purpose of each one of those moments.
He could write a great treatise on it. But no wise-man would
bother wasting his thought on such a venture. The whole
point is, Vladimir, that they... They did not analyse life, they
CREATED it!
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia
137
Feeding life in the flesh
People living in the Vedic age did not know a single disease
of the flesh. Even at the age of a hundred and fifty or even
two hundred years they maintained a lively spirit, a joy of liv-
ing, and remained completely healthy. They had no doctors
or healers such as exist in great numbers today Diseases of
the flesh were impossible because the way of life in one’s own
domain, the natural Space of Love which they themselves had
established, completely regulated their intake of food. Man’s
body was supplied with everything it needed in the required
quantity and at the time most favourable for its consumption,
and at the most favourable planetary alignment for the intake
of food.
Take note, Vladimir: in Nature it is no arbitrary phenom-
enon that during the whole spring, summer and autumn sea-
sons the various plants mature and bring forth their fruit in a
particular sequence.
First come the blades of grass — the dandelions, for ex-
ample. They are also pleasing to the taste, especially when
mixed with winter fare.
Then we see early currants maturing, wild strawberries
and raspberries — both earlier in the full sun and later in
the shade; sweet cherries; later sour cherries and a great
many other fruits, herbs and berries, all of which, at the
appropriate moment of their own choosing, attempt to at-
tract human attention by their unusual shape, colour and
fragrance.
There was no science of nutrition back then. What and
how much one should eat and at what time — that was not
something anyone even thought about. And still Man con-
sumed everything needful for his body, with an accuracy down
to the last gram.
138
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Each berry; little herb and piece of fruit has its own day,
hour and minute when it is the most beneficial to the human
body — when it will complete the process of its own growth
in conjunction with the celestial bodies. By this time it will
have taken account of the specifics of what lies under the
ground and of other plants growing around it, as well as of the
Man that has bestowed his gaze upon it, and then evaluate
and determine what his greatest needs are. And on that very
day when it is ready to serve Man, Man will honour it by his
acceptance, and allow perfection itself to become his food.
I have said that a woman with child should spend all nine
months of her pregnancy in her own garden, in the Space she
has created together with the one she loves. This is no occult
mystery — it manifests the great rationality of the Divine be-
ing. Judge for yourself: in Nature there are many plants that
can even painlessly terminate a woman’s pregnancy — garlic,
for example, oregano, the male fern, birthwort and many
others. On the other hand, there are plants capable of help-
ing the foetus develop harmoniously in the mother’s womb.
Which ones should be taken and in what quantity is not
something anybody will ever be able to tell. He is the only
one who knows — the one inside the mother’s womb. And
he is taking care of not only himself but his mother too. That
is why it often happens that after having a child a mother be-
comes healthier, younger-looking.
In order for this to occur, the pregnant mother must defi-
nitely be in her own garden, where every blade of grass is ac-
quainted with her and every piece of fruit grows exclusively
for her. She has also come to know each one’s taste and fra-
grance. Her desires are quite natural and are in the best posi-
tion to determine what kind of food she needs to take in and
in what quantity
Such accuracy is not possible in someone else’s domain or gar-
den, even if the vegetation in that garden is many times richer
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 139
and more diverse. Besides, another factor making the ideal food
intake impossible in another garden is that before consuming a
particular berry or piece of fruit the woman will try it first.
Take an apple, for example. If she wishes to eat it, she
plucks it from the tree and takes a bite. After swallowing the
bite she at once feels that here is something her body does
not need and has thereby caused harm to herself and to her
child. Why does this happen? The fact is that even outwardly
similar pieces of fruit can be made up of different substances.
In her own garden, having tasted fruit from the various trees
on a number of occasions, she could not make such a mistake.
In another garden mistakes are inevitable.
What kind of law or knowledge provided such fine-tuned
assistance in feeding Man at that time? It was the absence
of laws and treatises! Man could depend only upon the
Divine. Today they say that Man is in unity with — is at one
with — Nature. But what is this unity right now — have you
ever thought about it? In today’s day and age Man consumes
mainly artificial food — only what the system offers him as
convenient to itself. And the schedule of consumption of
food is also artificially determined by this artificial system.
Back then, in the Vedic age, everything was determined for
Man by his God-given feelings. And the slightest sensation of
hunger was satisfied by the Space of Love back then. After all,
Man’s feelings, in harmony with his Space of Love, could deter-
mine down to the minute — as accurately as the most perfect
mechanical device ever invented or the smartest instructions
ever penned — what food Man should take in and when.
Whenever Man walked through the Space of his own co-
creation, his free thought could create or work out plans on
the scale of the Universe. Temptingly beautiful fruit sur-
rounded him. Intuitively he would pluck and eat a sample, or
two, or three, without having his thought distracted by these
sweet delicacies supplied him by God.
140
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Back then, Man did not think about food. He fed himself
in much the same manner as we today breathe. The Space
he had created, in conjunction with his intuition, accurately
worked out how and when the flesh should be fed.
In the wintertime the whole multitude of plants freed it-
self from its fruit and foliage in preparation for rest. Winter
was for the creation of the spring to come.
But even in winter Man did not waste his time thinking of
food, even though he did not prepare any comestibles in ad-
vance. All this was done for him by household creatures with
great effort and love. Squirrels amassed a whole collection of
nuts and mushrooms. Bees collected honey and flower pollen.
Every autumn the bear would dig root-crop storage cellars.
Upon awakening in the spring, the bear would come to the
Man’s dwelling and either give a low roar or knock lightly with
his paw upon the door. The bear would summon the Man,
who would in turn show him which of the cellars should be
dug up. Perhaps the bear had forgotten where he had stored
away the food. Perhaps he was longing for communication
with Man. Any member of the family might come out to him
in response, but most of the time it was the child. After giv-
ing the hard-working beast a pat on the muzzle, he would go
to the place designated by a marker and stamp his foot on the
ground. The bear then began scraping the earth away in that
spot and opened up the stores. Upon seeing his accomplish-
ment he would jump all around for joy before delivering the
stored food up to the surface with his paw. But he would not
be the first to partake of the food — he would wait until Man
began carting off at least some of the goods to the house.
Man himself could also prepare provisions, but this was not
so much work as an art form. Many families would produce
their own wine and infusions from different kinds of berries.
Such wine was not strong and intoxicating like vodka. The
result was a most healthful drink. Useful food provided to
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia 141
Man by animals included milk, only not from just any animal.
Man selected only those that were considered kind, tender
and keen of mind — those who demonstrated an eagerness to
offer Man what they produced.
Let us say one of the children or the elders of a household
went up to a goat or a cow and touched its udder, and the ani-
mal suddenly began moving away Man would not attempt to
drink the milk of any animal that did not want to share it with
him. This did not mean that the animal did not love the Man.
It often happened that animals subconsciously determined
that at that moment the composition of their lactic mixture
would not be useful to the Man.
People of the Vedic civilisation would feed themselves
from the various kinds of food growing only on their own plot
or produced by their household animals. This approach was
not determined by any kind of superstition or law Rather, it
was the result of a vast store of knowledge.
Though there is a difference between ‘knowing’ (znat’) and
‘being fully aware of’ (‘ vedat ) something. 8 ‘Being fully aware
of’ is not just to ‘know’. It is to feel with one’s whole being —
body and soul — a multitude of phenomena, the purpose of
each Divine creation, as well as TIis system.
And every Man of the Vedic culture was fully aware that
what he consumed as food not only fed the body, but filled the
soul with conscious awareness. At the same time it conveyed
information directly to him from all the worlds of the Universe.
g
The words znat’ and vedat’ in Russian are often used interchangeably in
the sense of ‘know’, whereas in fact there is a significant distinction be-
tween them, as Anastasia points out here. While znat’ specifically refers
to ‘knowing’ through the mind or logic, vedat’ (from an ancient Sanskrit
root) covers other kinds of knowing as well — inspiration, intuition, emo-
tional feelings etc.) — in other words, not just ‘knowing’ per se, but being
fully aware of all dimensions of a subject through the various channels of
knowledge available.
142
Book 6: The Book of Kin
This is why these people were many times superior to their
modern-day counterparts in terms of inner energy, keenness
of mind and quickness of thought.
The animals and plants living in Man’s family Space reacted
to Man as to a god. The animals, herbs and trees were constant-
ly thirsting for a tender look or a kind touch on Man’s part.
And this power of the energy of feelings was what prevent-
ed unwanted weeds from growing in the garden or vegetable
plot. Many people are now aware how a household plant can
suddenly shrivel up when it meets with disfavour on the part
of someone in the family. On the other hand, a feeling of love
and communication directed toward the same plant can cause
it to flourish.
This is why the Vedic people never went near their gar-
den with a hoe. Even today, we have expressions such as ‘give
someone the evil eye’. It originated in those times. People
could create a lot through their energy of feelings.
Suppose a Man is walking through his domain. Everything
around catches his kindly gaze. He might look at a weed, and
think; Why are you here? The weed would quickly wither from
sorrow. On the other hand, if one were to smile at a cherry
tree, it would cause its sap to run through its veins with twice
the energy as before.
And if someone among the Vedic people happened to set
out on a long journey, that Man would not bother to take
along a supply of food. He would be able to find more than
enough along the way to feed himself. Whenever he came to
a settlement, he would see the splendid domains and ask for
food and drink. It was considered an honour to serve tasty
fruit, vegetables and drink to a traveller.
06 )
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia
143
Life without violence and crime
Among the people of the Vedic civilisation, over the thou-
sands of years of its existence, there was not a single act of
violence or theft, or a mere fight. Even insulting words were
absent from people’s vocabulary Tet at the same time there
were no laws to punish such behaviour.
Laws can never protect one from evil deeds. But the
knowledge and culture of the Vedic peoples completely ruled
out conflicts in interpersonal relationships.
Judge for yourself, Vladimir: you see, every family living in
their domain was aware that should any kind of unpleasant-
ness happen to anyone, even a stranger, on the territory of
their own domain or nearby, even on the very edge of the set-
tlement, the whole Space would then suffer.
The universal energy of aggression would have an effect on
every growing thing and on everyone living in that Space. It
would upset the balance of energies. The energy of aggres-
sion might grow and leave its impression on adults and chil-
dren alike, and infect their offspring with illness.
By contrast, if a passing traveller leaves a feeling of joy be-
hind, the Space will radiate even greater beauty
Not only that, but a Man visiting another settlement
would be physically incapable of eating food plucked from a
tree without the owner’s permission or picked up from the
ground in a garden upon which he had intruded.
People of the Vedic culture had a highly refined sensitiv-
ity. Their physiological makeup would immediately notice
a significant distinction in the taste of pilfered food from
that served by someone’s generous hand. The whole range
of foodstuffs sold in our modern supermarkets has nowhere
near the fragrance and taste of the pristine produce of the
Vedic age. Completely indifferent to Man, it has no feeling or
144
Book 6: The Book of Kin
soul. It does not belong to anyone and is beholden to no one.
It is simply merchandise for sale.
If modern Man could actually taste and compare the food
known in Vedic times, he could never eat the produce of to-
day
A newcomer could not, would not even think to take what
was owned by somebody else without asking. Every single ob-
ject, even a stone, contains information within itself known
only to the family living in that particular domain.
In the Vedic civilisation, every domain was a fortress that
loomed impenetrable to evil in whatever form. At the same
time it served as a mother’s womb for the family dwelling
therein.
Nobody back then built high walls for fortification. The
territory of each domain was protected by a living green
hedge — a hedge which, along with everything living within
its boundaries, protected the family from a whole host of
harmful influences on the human body and soul.
I already mentioned to you that the bodies of deceased
family members were buried only in the garden or among the
trees of their own domain.
Those people were fully aware that while the human soul
is eternal, the material body, too, cannot disappear without
a trace. All objects, even those which appear to be soulless,
carry within themselves a great deal of information from the
Universe.
In the Divine nature nothing ever disappears into oblivion.
It only changes its state and its fleshly form.
The bodies of the deceased were not covered with head-
stones, and even the places of their burial were not marked in
any way. The Space created by their hands and soul served as
a great monument to them.
And, changing their state, the now soulless bodies gave
rise to trees, herbs and flowers. New children were born and
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia
145
walked among them. Oh, how everything around just loved
the children! The spirit of their ancestors lingered over the
Space, loving and protecting the children.
Children treated the Space of their Motherland with love.
Their thought created no illusion about life being finite. On
the contrary, the life of the Vedic peoples was infinite.
The soaring soul passes through all the dimensions of the
Universe, and after visiting a number of different planes of be-
ing, it is once again embodied in conventional human form.
Upon waking in the garden of his Motherland, the child
will once again give a bright smile. The whole Space responds
to his smile. And the little rays of light, the breeze rustling
the leaves on the trees, the flowers and the stars in the dis-
tant sky will sigh: “We are at one, embodied by you, child of
Divine being.”
Even today people cannot figure out why elderly people liv-
ing on foreign strands ask to be buried in their Motherland.
Such people intuitively suspect that only their Motherland
can bring them back to the Earth in a Paradise garden, while a
foreign strand rejects their souls. To have their bodies buried
in the Motherland has been the aspiration of people’s souls
for millennia. But can a cemetery be called a piece of the
Motherland in any nation?
Cemeteries are a markedly recent phenomenon, designed
to tear human souls apart in hellfire, demean and subjugate
them, make them into lowly slaves.
Cemeteries are like... Well, they are like cesspits, where
people go to get rid of their useless junk. The souls of the
dead are tormented over cemeteries, while the living are ter-
rified of cemetery plots.
Picture to yourself, by contrast, a kin’s domain of Vedic
times. Bodies of many generations are buried there. Every
little herb aspires to tenderly care for those living therein, to
be useful to Man’s life in the flesh.
146
Book 6: The Book of Kin
But every herb and every fruit in the garden can suddenly
become poisonous when faced with aggression on the part
of a newcomer. That is why nobody even thought of taking
anything without asking.
The domains could not be seized by force. They could not
be bought for any amount of money Of course, who would
dare trespass upon a place that is capable of destroying the
trespasser?
And each individual here endeavoured to create their own
marvellous oasis. The whole planet grew more beautiful with
each passing year.
When modern Man surveys a city from on high today, what
does he see, pray tell? The whole ground covered with an ac-
cumulation of artificially erected stones. Dwellings spread in
all directions — upward and outward. Here, there and every-
where lie miles and miles of vast expanses blanketed by stone
landscapes. There is no clean water anywhere, and the air is
polluted. How many happy families can dwell under their
own piles of stone?
If one compares modern families with those of the Vedic
culture, the answer is: not a single one. And one could go
further: amidst these piles of artificial stone people do not
dwell — they sleep.
And yet in this hypnotic sleep a single living cell still strays
like a tiny nucleus through the body Sometimes at rest, some-
times in motion, this living cell touches teeming multitudes of
others, attempting to awaken those that are asleep. Its name
is Drea/nl And it will awaken them! Then human families will
once again create marvellous oases upon the Earth.
As it was before, so will it be again. And in looking down on
the Earth from on high, Man’s gaze will once again be much
charmed by a multitude of living scenes. And each of these
marvellous scenes will mean that the Earth has been touched
in that spot by the hand of an awakened Vedruss. And once
The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia
H7
again a happy family of people will be dwelling in their own
plot of the Motherland — people who have learnt to know
God and the meaning and purpose of life.
The Vedic people knew why the stars are in the sky. Their
numbers included a great many poets and artists. There was
never any rivalry among the communities. There was no cause
for crime or violence. And there was a complete absence of
hierarchical structures. The Vedruss culture flourished on
the territories of our modern nations of Europe, India, Egypt
and China, and there were no lines of demarcation dividing
the various areas of land. There were no rulers, either impor-
tant or petty. The sequence of grand celebrations provided a
natural order of things.
People of the Vedic age possessed a knowledge of creation
far in advance of modern Man. Their inner energy allowed
them to enhance the growth of some plants and arrest that of
others. Household animals endeavoured to carry out Man’s
commands not to obtain food, which they already had in
abundance, but to receive from Man a reward in the rays of
the energy of grace emanating from him.
Even today a word or gesture of praise from Man is pleas-
ant to everyone — to people, animals and all growing things.
But in earlier times people’s energy was immeasurably
greater — all living things were drawn to it as to the Sun.
Chapter Six
Toward the end of the Vedic Age of human life a great dis-
covery began to take place — a discovery unparalleled over
the whole course of the history of human civilisations on the
Earth . 1
People became acutely aware of the power of collective
thought.
And here we must clarify: what, exactly, is the thought of
Man? The thought of Man is an energy unparalleled any-
where in space. It is capable of creating marvellous worlds on
the one hand or, on the other, weapons capable of destroying
the planet. And all the matter that we see today, without ex-
ception, has been created by thought.
Nature, the animal kingdom, Man himself, have all been
created with great inspiration by the Divine thought.
And the proliferation of artificial objects, machines and me-
chanical devices which we see today are the creations of Man’s
thought. You may think that it is Man’s hand that has produced
them. Yes, today hands must be employed. But to begin with,
everything down to the last detail is created by thought.
It is believed today that Man’s thought is more perfect now
than in the past. But that is far from being the case.
For each member of the Vedic civilisation it was many mil-
lions of times superior to that of modern Man in terms of the
'This chapter is a continuation of Anastasia’s narrative on the history of
mankind, which, with one or two interruptions, carries through to the end
of Chapter 8.
Imagery and trial
149
speed and fulness of information involved. This can be seen
in the knowledge we have taken from the past about using
plants for medicines and food. But Nature’s devices are far
more perfect and complex than anything artificial.
It was not just that Man summoned a whole lot of beasts
to serve him. It was not just a case of defining the function
of all growing things. Once he realised the power of collec-
tive thought, he found that he could use it to control even
the weather, or cause springs to well up from the depths of
the Earth. If he were not careful in handling his thought, he
could make a bird fall from the sky while in flight. Or affect
life on distant stars — either to plant gardens on them or to
utterly destroy them. This is no fiction, but fact, and it was
all given to mankind.
Everyone today knows how Man, having launched him-
self on the path of technocracy, has been attempting to build
space ships capable of reaching the stars.
People have gone to the Moon, but only by wasting valu-
able resources and energies and with great harm to the Earth.
But they have changed nothing on the Moon. This kind of
approach is short-sighted — it is doomed to failure and is dan-
gerous for everyone on the Earth as well as for other planets.
There is another approach which is much more effective.
Through thought alone it is possible to grow a flower on the
Moon, create an atmosphere capable of supporting human life,
plant a garden there and find one’s self with one’s beloved in
that garden in the flesh. But, before that can happen, thought
must transform the whole Earth into a flourishing Paradise
garden. And that has to be done through collective thinking.
Collective thought is indeed powerful — in the whole
Universe there is no energy that can interfere with its opera-
tion. Matter and today’s technology are the reflection of col-
lective thought. It is this collective thought that has invented
all the mechanical devices and armaments we have today.
I 5°
Book 6: The Book of Kin
But remember I was saying that in those Vedic times every
living Man’s thought had far greater power and energy than
now. Objects such as rocks weighing many tonnes could be
moved by as few as nine people gathered together. To make it
easier to use collective thought for the benefit of the majority
without wasting time getting a whole lot of people to congre-
gate in one place, people invented images of various gods and
began to control Nature with their help.
The Sun-god appeared in its own image, likewise the gods
of Fire, Rain, Love and Fertility. Everything needed for life
was created by people through images on which human
thought was concentrated. It performed many useful acts.
Rain, for example, was necessary for watering the ground,
and so one person directed his thought just to the image of
the Rain-god. When rain was really essential, then a whole
lot of people concentrated their energy on the image of rain.
When enough energy had been accumulated in the image,
the clouds gathered and the rain fell, watering the harvests.
Unlimited opportunity has been given to Man by the
Divine Nature. If mankind could only overcome the tempta-
tions associated with unlimited authority and hold all the en-
ergies of the Universe in perfect balance within themselves,
then gardens — as the fruit of human thought — would ap-
pear in other galaxies. And Man would be capable of happify-
ing other worlds with his thought.
What is called the Age of the Image was now coming
into bloom. In it Man not only created, but felt himself to
be a god. But then what else could the son of God turn out
to be?
In what is called the Age of the Image, Man exists in the
likeness of God and begins to create his own images. This
period lasts nine thousand years. And God does not interfere
in Man’s deeds. All the diverse energies of the Universe are
set in motion and actively try to seduce Man.
Imagery and trial
151
Particles of all the diverse energies of the Universe are to
be found in Man. They exist in great numbers, and play op-
posite roles. But all the particles of the diverse energies of
the Universe ought to be perfectly balanced in Man, brought
together in a harmonious whole.
If one of these particles dominates, the rest are denigrated
and their harmony is disrupted, and then... Then the Earth is
transformed and becomes inharmonious.
Images can lead people to a many-splendoured creation,
but if their inner unity is surrendered they can also lead to
annihilation.
But what, exactly, is an image ?
An image is an entity of energy invented by human thought.
It can be created by a single Man or by several together.
A clear example of the collective creation of an image
may be seen in stage-acting. One Man describes the image
on paper, while another portrays the described image on the
stage.
What happens to the actor who portrays the image invent-
ed? For a time the actor exchanges his own feelings, aspira-
tions and desires for those inherent in the invented image. In
the process the actor may change the way he walks, his facial
expression, his usual clothing. In this way the invented image
acquires a temporary embodiment.
The ability to create images is something only Man is en-
dowed with.
The image created by Man can remain in space only so long
as it is held in Man’s thought — either by a single Man or by
several at once.
The greater the number of people feeding the image with
their feelings, the stronger it becomes.
The image created by the collective thought can possess
colossal destructive or creative potential. It has a reciprocal
connection with people and is capable of shaping character
152
Book 6: The Book of Kin
and behaviour on the part of groups of people both large and
small.
In exploiting the great possibilities they have discovered
within themselves, people became carried away with creating
the life of the planet.
But it happened, back in the early stages of the Age of the
Image in the life of Man, that there were six people — just
six — who found themselves unable to hold within their
bodies, hearts and minds the balance of those energies of
the Universe which God gave to Man upon creating him.
Perhaps they needed to make their appearance to test all
mankind.
At first it was in just one of the six that the energy of gran-
deur and self-importance predominated — then in another,
and then in a third, and finally in all six.
They did not meet together at first. Each one lived inde-
pendently But like attracts like. And they ended up concen-
trating their thought on how to become masters of all the
people of the Earth. There were six of them, and in public
they referred to themselves as priests.
Through the process of reincarnating themselves over the
centuries, they are still living to this day.
Today all the peoples of the Earth are governed by just
six people — these are the priests. Their dynasties are ten
thousand years old. From generation to generation they have
been transmitting their knowledge of the occult to their
heirs, along with the science of imagery, which was also par-
tially known to them. They have taken great pains to hide the
Vedic knowledge from other people.
Among the six there is one who is considered chief, and he
is called the High Priest. Today he considers himself to be the
chief ruler of human society
Through a few sentences I have uttered which you have re-
corded in your books, as well as through the reaction of many
Imagery and trial
153
people to them, the High Priest has begun to suspect who I
really am. Just in case, he attempted to destroy me by using
a negligible amount of power. He did not succeed. He was
surprised. And he has tried again, applying a greater amount
of force, still not completely convinced of who I am.
Now I have uttered the word Vedruss, thereby exposing my-
self completely. The current High Priest living on the Earth
today is afraid even of the word Vedruss. You can just imagine
how shaken he is, since he knows what lies behind it. Now
he will muster his soldiers — bio-robots to a man — along
with the forces of all the dark occult sciences, to bring about
my termination. And he himself will be working minute by
minute on a plan of annihilation. Let him do that — it means
he will not have time to be busy with his other plans.
You were telling me about the angry attacks in the recent
press, Vladimir. Now you will see them intensify even more.
And they will be even more cunning and sophisticated. You
will see slander and provocation. You will see the whole ar-
senal of devices which the dark forces have been using over
the millennia to bring about the devastation of our people’s
culture.
But what you will see at the beginning is only the tip of the
iceberg. Not all people can witness the occult attacks at first
hand. But you will understand them, you will feel them, you
will see them. Do not be afraid of them, I beg of you. What is
fearsome is powerless to affect a fearless Man. Whatever you
see, you should forget immediately and forever. No matter
how omnipotent a monster may seem, once it is forgotten it
ceases to exist altogether.
This is an unusual fact, and I can tell you are doubting. Do
not be hasty to give in to your doubts. Think it over calmly.
After all, even a small group of people who have gathered
together for the purpose of building something inevitably has
a leader — we may call him a ruler.
i54
Book 6: The Book of Kin
A small enterprise has an official in charge. A large enter-
prise has several people in charge, under a chief executive of-
ficer. There are many rulers over all sorts of territories which
are known by different names: provinces, regions, states,
communities, republics etc. The particular name is not im-
portant. Each nation has a ruler, who is aided by a whole host
of assistants.
The ruler of a nation — is that the limit? That is what people
often think. Does that mean nobody is governing the whole
human society living on the Earth? And are there no claim-
ants wishing to ascend the throne of the Earth?
There have indeed been claimants. There still are. You
know from recent history many names of military command-
ers who have tried to dominate the world by force. But not
one of them has ever succeeded in talcing power over the
world. Whenever they found themselves close to seizing uni-
versal authority, something would inevitably happen, result-
ing in the destruction of both the pretender to world domi-
nance and his army
And the nation aspiring to world domination, which be-
fore had been considered strong and flourishing, suddenly
dropped to the level of a run-of-the-mill state.
That is the way it has always happened over the past ten
thousand years. But why? All because there is already a secret
ruler in the world, and has been for a long time. He toys with
nations and their rulers, along with individual people.
He calls himself the Bligh Priest of the whole Earth, while
his five assistants refer to themselves as priests.
Consider one other fact, Vladimir. Think about how in
various parts of the Earth over the millennia wars between
people have never ceased. In every country crime, disease
and various disasters are increasing day by day, but there has
been a strict (indeed, the strictest) prohibition on discussing
a particular question: Is human civilisation really on the path of
Imagery and trial 155
progress, or is human society being further degraded with each pass-
ing day?
There can be but one simple answer to such a question.
Only first take a look and see how the priests acquired their
authority and how they have managed to maintain it to date.
Their first step leading to the accomplishment of their
secret purpose was the creation of the Egyptian state. The
Egyptian state is more familiar than others to historians of to-
day. But once you eliminate personal, commentary and mysti-
cism and look only at the facts, you will be able to uncover
many secrets.
Fact Number One — history calls the Pharaoh the su-
preme ruler of Egypt. And the many military achievements
and defeats of the pharaohs of old have been well document-
ed. Even today their magnificent tombs astound the imagi-
nation and prompt scholars to probe the mysteries they hold.
Nevertheless, the grandeur of the pyramids distracts us from
the most important secret of all.
Not only were the pharaohs considered as rulers over all
the people, but they were worshipped as gods. It was to them
that the people turned with pleas for an auspicious crop year,
pleas for rain and an absence of pernicious winds. History
can tell us about many of the factual accomplishments of
the pharaohs, but after learning all these historical facts, you
should ask yourself: could any of the pharaohs really have
been a ruler over a large nation-state, let alone a god over the
people? And once you weigh all the evidence, you will realise
entirely on your own that the pharaoh was nothing more than
a bio-robot in the hands of the priests.
Now here are the facts — they are also known to us from
history.
During the age of the pharaohs there also existed priests
in magnificent temples, and one of them was the Eligh Priest.
There were always several candidates for the pharaohship in
156
Book 6: The Book of Kin
training under their supervision. The priests would inculcate
in the young boys whatever the priests desired — among them
the notion that the pharaoh was chosen by God. Along with
this they told them that the High Priest himself could hear
God speaking to him in a secret temple. Later the priests
would decide which of the candidates would become the next
pharaoh.
And so the day of the coronation arrived. The new phar-
aoh, clothed in special robes and holding the symbols of of-
fice in his hands, took his place majestically on the throne.
In the eyes of the people he was an omnipotent king, a god.
Only the priests knew that it was their own bio-robot that sat
on the throne. And having studied the new pharaoh’s charac-
ter from his childhood, they knew exactly how he would rule,
they knew what gifts he would offer up to the benefit of the
priesthood.
There was the occasional attempt on the part of certain
pharaohs to come out from under the High Priest’s author-
ity But none of them ever succeeded in becoming a free Man.
After all, the power of the priests was just as invisible as the
pharaoh’s royal robes were visible to all. You see, the priests’
authority did not require any verbal proclamation or manifest
communication for its enforcement. After all, in exercising
their power over any individual ruler the priests did not re-
lent, even for a moment. And it was exercised over the masses
in turn with the aid of invented suggestions as to what con-
stitutes the order of the Universe. If only the pharaoh could
have liberated himself from the images inculcated in him by
the priests and reflect by himself in peace, perhaps he would
have been able to become a real Man. But there was no way the
pharaoh could free himself from the day-to-day cares and con-
cerns — this had been part of the plan right from the start.
And what concerns there were! Couriers, scribes and lo-
cal governors by turns brought in a daily flood of information
Imagery and trial
157
from all over the vast nation. Situations calling for immedi-
ate solutions. And then a war would break out, absorbing the
ruler’s full attention. And the pharaoh would take his chariot
and keep following his daily trajectories, respecting or reject-
ing the deeds of his subjects, often not getting enough sleep
himself. The priest, on the other hand, would spend his time
quietly reflecting, and in this lay his greatest advantage.
The priest directed his efforts to gaining single-handed
control of the world as a whole. And even more than that —
he meditated on how to resurrect his own world, distinct
from the world God had created.
And did he care in the least about the stupid boy-pharaoh,
not to mention the crowds which were subject to the phar-
aoh? For the priest they were all merely toys.
The priests studied the science of imagery in secret, while
the masses of people remembered less and less about the law
of Nature.
It was these priests, Vladimir, who channelled the energy
of the interaction between people and the living Deity — the
creations of Nature — into the temples they had invented.
They fed on it — the energy of the people — giving nothing
in return.
What had been surely clear to everyone in the age of the
Vedic culture now became obscure and surreptitious. The
people became stupefied, as though under a hypnotic spell,
and unthinkingly followed the commands in a kind of semi-
sleep. And they began to destroy the world of the Divine
Nature, while building an artificial world for the priests’
benefit.
The priests held their science under their strictest secre-
tive control. They did not even dare write it all down on
scrolls. They invented a language of their own for communi-
cation with each other — and this is a fact you can also learn
from history. They needed a different language lest someone
i 5 8
Book 6 : The Book of Kin
should inadvertently overhear their conversation with each
other and become party to their secrets. And so even today
these simple truths which have now become shrouded in a
cloak of secrecy are passed down to new generations of the
priesthood.
Six thousand years ago the High Priest, one of the six, decid-
ed to take control of the whole world.
He reasoned as follows: There is no way I can seize power by
military force, with the pharaoh’s armies — even if I taught the com-
manders how to make use of weapons more advanced than others
possess. Besides, what could an army of raving mindless didlards
do? Go and plunder gold, but there is so much of that as it is. There
are slaves aplenty, but there is an unfavourable energy emanating
from them, and it woidd not be proper to accept food from the hands
of a slave. The food woidd be savourless and harmful to health. I
must bring human souls into subjection, and direct all their love and
tremulous affection back to myself. But in this case it is not an army
that is needed, but scientific thought. The science of imagery — that
is my invisible army. The deeper l become acquainted with it, the
more faithfidly this army ought to serve me. The less that is known
by the crowd, immersed as it is in occultism and unreality, the more
it will be in subjection to me.
The High Priest devised his plan. Even today it finds its
reflection in the historical events of the past six thousand
years.
You and everyone else are aware of recent events. The only
difference is in their interpretation. But you should try and
give your own, and then the truth will be made known to you.
Look and see.
There in the council of those six priests the plan was laid
out, and was later revealed to many — it is mentioned in the
Bible, in the Old Testament. By order of the High Priest the
priest Moses led the Jewish people out of Egypt. The people
Imagery and trial
159
were offered a most marvellous life in the Promised Land,
prepared by God especially for them.
The Jewish people were declared to be God’s chosen ones.
The tempting news set minds afire, and a part of the people
followed Moses, who for forty years led his people about from
region to region in the wilderness. The priest’s assistants con-
stantly preached sermons about their being a chosen people
and inspired the people to make war and plunder cities, all in
His (God’s) name.
If anyone should happen to awake from his psychosis and
demand a return to his former life, he was declared a sinner to
be reformed, and given a deadline by which he had to be re-
formed. If he failed to do this he would be killed. The priests
acted not in their own names, but by pretending they were
carrying out the deeds of God.
What I am telling you is no fantasy or dream. This may
be clearly seen by everyone for themselves by looking for an-
swers in the Old Testament of the Bible — a great historical
book. A reliable portrayal of historical events can be learnt
by anyone who wakes at least a little from the millennia-old
hypnotic sleep and reads how and by what means the Jewish
people were programmed and turned into troops of the
priesthood. Later Jesus tried to deprogram his people and to
use his manifest gift for acquiring new wisdom to prevent the
priests from carrying out their designs. In his journeys among
wise-men, he endeavoured to glean inklings into the science
of imagery And after he had learnt a great many truths, he
decided to save the Jewish people, his own people. He suc-
ceeded in creating his own religion — one which could serve
as a counterbalance to the terror.
His religion was not for all the nations upon the Earth. It
was intended only for the Jewish people. He himself men-
tioned this more than once. His words were written down by
his disciples, and you can still read them to date.
160 Book 6: The Book of Kin
See, for example, St Matthew’s gospel, Chapter 15, verses
22-28:
A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying
out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter
is suffering terribly from demon-possession.
Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to
him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying
out after us.”
He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of
Israel.” 2
What does it mean: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of
Israel”? Why are Jesus’ teachings only for the Jews? Why did
he consider the Jewish people to be lost?
I tell you, Vladimir: Jesus knew that as a result of the forty-
year programming in the Sinai wilderness, the majority of the
Jewish people were lost in a hypnotic dream. This part of the
people as, indeed, Moses himself, thus became a tool in the
hands of the High Priest. They were his foot-soldiers, whom
he compelled to seize power over all the Earth’s people to sat-
isfy his own vainglory
And they will be running their battles in various parts of
the Earth for thousands of years. Their weapons will not be
primitive swords or bullets, but cunning and the creation of a
way of life subjecting all the world’s peoples to occultism — in
other words, to the selfishness of the priests.
And they will do whatever it takes.
But any battle presupposes the presence of two opposing sides, you
may well be thinking. And if so, then where are the victims? In
any battle there have to be victims on both sides.
Matth. 15: 22-24 (New International Version; emphasis added by the author).
Imagery and trial
161
You could probably find evidence of these battles yourself
through searching by the dates mentioned in the various his-
torical sources. But to make it easier for you to locate these
fearful dates I shall cite just a few of them right now. If you
wish, you can look up their historical confirmation for your-
self.
Everybody knows today, including you, Vladimir, how
children and elderly people are perishing from terrorism in
Israel. It was not all that long ago that what you call the Great
Patriotic War 3 took place. And it is well documented how
during that war the Jews — old people and children, moth-
ers and young pregnant women, young men who had not yet
known love — were systematically burnt in ovens, poisoned
with gas and buried alive in common graves.
Not just one person, not an hundred, not mere thousands,
but millions of people were brutally slain during this brief pe-
riod. Historians lay the blame squarely on Hitler. But who was
to blame back in 1113, in Kievan Rus’, 4 when popular hatred
of the Jews suddenly boiled over? Jewish houses in Kiev and
other parts of Rus’ were plundered and burnt, while Jews —
even children — were killed. The people of Rus’, caught up
by a brutal rage, were ready even to topple the ruling princes
from their thrones. And when the princes gathered together
within council, they decided to pass a law expelling all Jews
from the whole territory of Rus’ and henceforth letting none
in. An order was given to rob and kill any who surreptitiously
entered therein.
3 Great Patriotic War (Russian: Velikaya Otechestvennaya voina ) — the com-
mon Russian term used to refer the events of the Second World War that
directly involved Russia or the Soviet Union.
^ Kievan Rus’ ( pron. ROOSS ) — the name given to the East Slavic state dom-
inated by the city of Kiev between 880 and the mid-i2th century.
162
Book 6: The Book of Kin
In 1290 there was a sudden move to effect the physical ex-
termination of all Jews in England. The rulers were obliged to
eject the whole Jewish population from the country
In 1492 Jewish pogroms began in Spain. A threat of physi-
cal annihilation hung over all Jews living in Spain, and once
again they were obliged to leave the land.
Right from the moment when the Jews left the Sinai wil-
derness they became the target of hatred by peoples of vari-
ous countries. The hatred kept increasing, and here and there
manifested itself in cruel pogroms and murders.
I have cited just a few dates of these fearful pogroms —
ones that you can easily verify for yourself in histories people
have written down. There have been many more conflicts
besides for the Jewish people. Any one of them by itself is
naturally not as significant as the instances everybody knows
about. But when the range of small-scale conflicts is exam-
ined as a whole, it takes on an unprecedented scale and pro-
portion, perhaps the most extreme of all the most terrifying
phenomena in human history
If something like that has happened throughout the mil-
lennia, one could conclude that the Jewish people are to be
blamed in people’s eyes. But what are they to be blamed
for? Historians both ancient and modern have said that the
Jewish people have conspired against authority That they
have aspired to deceive everyone, from the least unto the
greatest. In the case of the poor, to try to trick them out of
at least a little, in the case of the rich, to bring them to utter
ruin. And this is evidenced by the fact that among the Jews
there are many wealthy people capable of even influencing
governments.
But there is one question you should ask yourself: How
righteous are the ones who have been deceived by the Jews?
The ones that had amassed such wealth, did they acquire it all
by honest means? As for those condemned to be in authority,
Imagery and trial 163
can we believe them to be so smart if they could be so easily
deceived?
Besides, most rulers are dependent on someone else, as the
Jews have demonstrated quite clearly One could go on ex-
ploring this topic for a long time, but the answer is simple: in
the Occult world everybody lives by deceit. Then should we
only condemn the one who has succeeded in achieving more
than the rest? 3
And as far as the Jewish people are concerned, we could
easily substitute any one of the other peoples we know to-
day Any one — if they were subjected to the same totally un-
precedented programming as the Jews were during their forty
years of wandering in the wilderness, heeding only occultism
and not seeing what had been created by God.
Jesus tried to remove this programming and save his peo-
ple. He came up with a new religion for them — one differ-
ent from what they had before. For example, in contrast to
the previous saying: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”,
he said: “whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn
to him the other also”. 6 In contrast to the verse which said:
“God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself”
he called his people “the servants of God.”'
’Vladimir Megre has always emphasised in his writings and public speeches
that any individual should be judged by his actions and not by his religion,
ethnicity, nationality or race. The raising of the ‘Jewish question’ in this
chapter is aimed solely at exposing the roots of (and thus helping to allevi-
ate) the inter-ethnic conflict and the anti-Semitic feelings so prevalent in
today’s Russia and elsewhere in the world. See also Book 7, Chapter 16: “To
Jews, Christians and others”.
6 See Exod. 21: 24; Matth. 5: 38, 39 (quotation from the Authorised King James
Version).
'Quoted from Deut. 7: 6; I Peter 2: 16 (Authorised King James Version)-, see
also Rom. 6: 22.
164
Book 6 : The Book of Kin
Jesus could also have told the truth to his people. He could
have told them about Vedic times, about how Man was able
to live happily in his domain, in contact with the creations
of the Father-Creator. But the Jewish people were already
programmed. They believed only in occult deeds, their con-
sciousness was oppressed by the world of the unreal. And so
Jesus decided to act in an occult manner himself. He founded
an occult religion.
The High Priest at the time was able to guess Jesus’ inten-
tion. The High Priest racked his brains for many a year before
he found what he considered the smartest solution: There is no
point in fighting Jesus’ teachings. Through the minds of the soldiers
I have selected from, among the Jews I must spread them through all
the peoples of the Earth, while maintaining the old religion for Israel.
And so it happened, exactly as the High Priest had conceived.
And two essentially different philosophies began to co-
exist.
According to one, the Jews are a chosen people, as Moses
taught, and all other peoples ought to be subject to them.
According to the other, expressed in Jesus’ words, all are equal
before God, and people should not try to take precedence
over others; instead one should love one’s neighbour and even
one’s enemy.
The priest realised that if the Christian religion, which calls
everyone to love and humility, should succeed in spreading
throughout the world, and at the same time Judaism, which
elevates one over the rest, is preserved, the world would be
subdued. While the world might bow before the Jews, they
are but foot-soldiers. The world would actually be bowing be-
fore the priest.
And the priest’s preachers went out into the world as ear-
nest teachers of the new doctrine.
The doctrine of Jesus? Not quite. The priest had by now
added a great deal of his own teachings to it. What happened
Imagery and trial
165
thereafter you already know Rome fell. It was not external
foes, however, that destroyed the great empire. Rome was
destroyed from the inside after adopting Christianity The
emperors were under the impression that Christianity would
enhance their power and authority. They were quite flattered
by one of the postulates, namely, that all power was derived
from God, and that the ruler was ordained to the Emperor’s
throne by God’s grace. 8
In the fourth century A.D. Christianity celebrated its vic-
tory in Rome, both officially and in actual fact. In great de-
light the High Priest gave a silent, non-contact command
to the Byzantine emperor. And Christian Rome burnt the
Library of Alexandria* to the ground. Altogether 700,033
volumes were lost. Bonfires of books and ancient scrolls
burned in many cities. The burnt books were largely from the
heathen period, but they also included the few that recorded
the knowledge of Vedic people. These were not burnt — they
were salvaged, concealed and studied in turn by a narrow cir-
cle of the devoted, and only afterward were destroyed.
It seemed to the High Priest that now that people were
getting further and farther away from a knowledge of their
pristine origins, he would encounter no more obstacles on his
path. Feeling bolder, he issued yet another tacit command,
resulting in an anathema being issued at the Second Council
of Constantinople 9 against the doctrine of reincarnation. For
8 Compare Rom. 12: 1: “...there is no power but of God: the powers that be
are ordained of God. “ {Authorised King James Version).
' The Library of Alexandria [footnote appearing in the Russian edition] —
the most famous library of antiquity, containing every single work in exist-
ence at the time. In Caesar’s time its collection numbered something on
the order of 700,000 items. In 391 A.D., during the time of bloody wars
between the heathens and the Christians, the Temple of Sarapis, which
housed the library was destroyed. — Slovar’ antichnosti (Dictionary of an-
tiquity), Progress Publishers [Moscow], 1989.
1 66
Book 6: The Book of Kin
what reason? — you may ask. To keep people from thinking
about the essence of earthly life.
To keep them thinking that a happy life exists only beyond
the Earth’s borders. And many peoples of the Earth began
believing precisely that.
The priest was truly delighted. He knew what would hap-
pen next. He construed that since nobody had experienced
other-worldly life, Man would have no idea of how to reach
Paradise the Good or how to avoid ending up in a fearsome
Hell. So now he would offer to Man a little occult hint which
would favour his own plan.
And so the priests have kept on giving out hints to the
world which bring benefit to themselves. But they were not
able to immediately obtain full power over the world, even
when it seemed to them that the strongest bastion of hea-
then culture, Rome, was destroyed. Even then, there still re-
mained on the Earth one small island which was impervious
to the priests’ usual charms. Even back before Rome, even
before the appearance ofjesus’ teachings, the High Priest had
aspired to destroy the culture of the last Vedic state — Rus’.
Second Council of Constantinople (also known as the Fifth Ecumenical
Council) — an assembly held at Constantinople (5 May-2 June, A.D. 553),
summoned by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and attended mainly by
Eastern bishops. Its purpose was to head off ‘contamination’ of official
Christian doctrines by ‘heretical’ Christian-based teachings such as rein-
carnation and Nestorianism (a belief in Jesus as two persons, human and
divine).
Chapter Seven
secret war
9
The war with Vedic Rus’ began long before Jesus’ appearance
on the Earth, long before the fall of Rome. This thousand-
year war was not waged with iron swords. Occultism execut-
ed its military raids on a non-material plane.
Preachers of the occult religion came to Russia — dozens
of their names are mentioned in various ecclesiastical books.
But they actually numbered in the tens of thousands. They
were not to blame for their ignorance. They were fanatics,
which means their mind was unable to fathom even the mil-
lionth part of creation. As foot-soldiers to the priest, rever-
ently carrying out his orders without so much as a murmur,
they attempted to explain to people how to live. They tended
to say exactly the same things they had said when preaching
to once-majestic imperial Rome.
They tried introducing ritual. And proposed the con-
struction of temples, instead of paying attention to Nature
or earthly existence. Then the kingdom of heaven would
come for everyone. I shall not burden you by reciting their
sermons. If you wish, you can still read their words today. I
shall tell you why for thousands of years they did not succeed
in doing anything with Vedic Rus’.
Every other person living in Rus’ at that time was a poet
and a wit. And there were bards in Rus’ — they were called
bayans 1 back then. And this is how it all took place in those
times. For decades the priest’s foot-soldiers waged a propa-
ganda campaign to the effect that God had to be bowed down
to. And here and there people began to listen and reflect on
i68
Book 6: The Book of Kin
the message. Upon seeing this, the bayan would simply laugh
and make up a parable, which he would then sing. And the
parable would quickly spread throughout Rus’. And over
the next ten years or so Rus’ would have a good laugh at the
priests’ sermons.
The priest was furious and launched new attacks. But once
again in Rus’ a parable would be born, and Rus’ would laugh
once more. Of all the many parables of those times I shall tell
you just three.
In which temple should God dwell
(Anastasia’s first parable)
In one of the many populated settlements on the Earth peo-
ple went happily about their daily life. In this particular
community lived ninety-nine families. Each family lived in
a splendid house decorated with fanciful woodcarvings. The
garden around the house brought forth fruit every year in
abundance. Vegetables and berries grew all by themselves.
Every year people met the spring with joyful greeting and
delighted in the summer. A series of cheerful friendship
celebrations brought forth songs and khorovods. 1 2 In the
1 bayan (pron. bab-TAHN) — see footnote 4 in Book 4, Chapter 33: “School,
or the lessons of the gods”. On the role of bards, see Book 2, Chapter 10:
“The ringing sword of the bard”.
‘ khorovod — See footnote 5 in Chapter j: “The history of mankind, as told
by Anastasia”..
The secret war with Vedic Rus’
169
wintertime people rested from their daily exhilarations. And
they looked up to the heavens and tried to decide whether
they might be able to weave the Moon and the stars into even
better patterns.
Once every three years in July those people gathered in a
glade at the edge of their community Once in every three
years God would respond to their questions in an ordinary
voice. Even though He remained invisible to ordinary eyes,
each one could feel Him. And He, together with all the resi-
dents of the community, decided how best to build their life
in the days to come. The people’s conversation with God
might be philosophical, but sometimes quite simple and even
funny.
So, for example, one middle-aged man stood up and ad-
dressed God this way:
“C’mon, now, God, for our celebration this summer, when
we all gathered together with the dawn, You decided to drench
us all with a monsoon? The rain poured down like a waterfall
from heaven, and the Sun began to shine only around noon.
What, did You sleep in till noon?”
“I was not asleep,” God replied. ‘At this morning’s dawn I
thought about how to make your celebration truly glorified.
I saw how some of you on their way to the celebration were
too lazy to wash themselves with clean water. How so? Such
reprobates would spoil the show with their appearance. And
so I decided to first wash everyone, and then have the clouds
sweep in and allow the rays of the Sun to caress the water-
washed bodies with tenderness.”
“Well, okay, if that is how...” the man agreed, brushing off
food crumbs from his moustache and wiping the blackberry
stains around his son’s mouth.
“Tell me, God,” asked an elderly and pensive philosopher,
“there are many stars shining in the sky overhead. What does
their fanciful alignment mean? If I should select a star that
Book 6: The Book of Kin
170
is pleasing to my soul, and then when I get bored with my
earthly life, could I remove there with my family?”
“The alignment of the heavenly bodies twinkling in the
dark tells about the life of the whole Universe. An alertness
in your soul, but without tension, allows you to read the Book
of the Heavens. This Book will not open for idleness or cu-
riosity, but only for pure and meaningful thoughts. And yes,
you can settle on a star. And each of you can choose for your-
self a planet in the heavens. There is only one condition that
you must observe, hbu must become capable of producing on
your selected star creations more perfected than those pro-
duced on the Earth.”
A very young girl jumped up from the ground and tossed
her light-brown braid of hair over her shoulder. Raising her
little face with its turned-up nose heavenward, she placed her
hands saucily on her hips and suddenly declared to God:
“I have a complaint to make to you, God. For two years
now I’ve waited patiently to tell you about it. Now I shall tell
you. Some kind of disorder or abnormality is taking place on
the Earth. All the people are living as people — falling in love,
marrying and being happy. But am I to blame for something?
Every year, just as soon as spring arrives, my cheeks break out
into freckles. There is nothing that’ll wash them off, and I
can’t paint them over. Did you think this up as some kind
of a joke, God? I demand that as of next spring not a single
freckle ever appears on my face again!”
“Oh, My daughter! Those are not freckles, but spring
speckles that appear on your beautiful little face each spring.
But I shall call them as you wish. If you find your freckles to
be such an annoyance, I shall remove them come next spring,”
God answered the spunky g ir l
But then a handsome young lad got up at the other end of
the glade, and meekly addressed God, though not in a loud
voice:
The secret war with Vedic Rus’
171
“We have a lot of work ahead of us in the springtime. You,
God, try to take part in everything we do. Why would you
waste your time on removing her freckles? Besides, they are
so beautiful that I cannot picture a more beautiful image than
a young maiden with freckles in the spring!”
“So what am I to do?” God thoughtfully responded. “The
maiden asked, and I promised her...”
“What’s this about ‘what to do’?” the girl once more broke
into the conversation. “You heard the people say it’s not
freckles, but other more important things, that we should be
concerned about... Butwhile we’re on the subject of specldes,
I’d like to ask for two more — right here, on my right cheek,
so that it’s all symmetrical.”
God smiled — this was evident from the fact that all the
people were smiling. Everybody knew that it would not be
long before a new splendid family would be lovingly born into
their community
So the people lived with God in that remarkable community.
And then one day a hundred wise-men came to see them. The
hospitable residents always greeted guests with all kinds of
good things to eat. The wise-men tasted their splendid fruit
and were amazed at its extraordinary flavour. Then one of
them said:
“Oh, people, what a splendid, orderly life you lead! You
have abundance and coziness in every home. But your com-
munication with God lacks sophistication. There is no glori-
fication or adulation of Deity.”
“But why?” the residents tried to protest in alarm. “We talk
with God the way we talk with each other. We talk and reason
with Him every three years. But every day He rises with the
Sun. As a bee He busies Himself around the gardens beginning
in every spring. Every winter He covers the ground with snow.
Elis tasks are clear to us, and we are glad for all the seasons.”
172
Book 6 : The Book of Kin
“You are doing things the wrong way,” said the wise-men.
“We have come to teach you how to talk with God. All over
the Earth an array of temples and palaces has been built in
His honour, where people can talk with God every day. And
we shall teach you to do the same.”
For three years the residents of the settlement heeded the
words of the wise-men. Each of the hundred insisted on his
own theory about how to best construct a temple to God,
and what should be done in the temple each day. Each of
the wise-men had his own theory The residents of the com-
munity had no idea which of the hundred wise theories they
should choose. Besides, how could they choose without of-
fending the wise-men? And so they decided to heed them all
and build all the temples proposed. One for each family But
there were only ninety-nine families in the village, and there
were a hundred wise-men. When they heard the decision of
all the residents, the wise-men became very concerned. It
meant one of them would not get his temple built, and would
not receive the anticipated offerings. And they began argu-
ing among themselves as to whose theory of worshipping
God was the most effective. And they began dragging the
residents into the dispute. The dispute heated up, and for the
first time in many years the villagers forgot about their time
of communication with God. They did not gather as before
in the glade on the appointed day.
Another three years went by. Ninety-nine magnificent
temples were scattered about the settlement, and it was only
the villagers’ huts that had lost their lustre. Some of the veg-
etables lay uncollected on the ground. And the fruit of the
garden began to become infested with worms.
“This is all because,” the wise-men preached in the various
temples, “you do not have full faith. Bring more and more
gifts to the temple, try harder and bow down to God more
often.”
The secret war with Vedic Rus’
m
But there was one wise-man — the one who had been left
without a temple — who whispered first to one, then to an-
other:
“You have been going about everything the wrong way,
people. All the temples you have built are of the wrong con-
struction. And you do not worship the right way in your tem-
ples, you are not saying the right words as you pray I am the
only one who can teach you how you can communicate with
God every day”
Just as soon as he managed to bring someone over to his
side, a new temple would be erected, and one of the existing
ones would fall into disrepair. And again one of the wise-men,
the one newly deprived of the people’s offerings, tried to sur-
reptitiously slander the others in front of the villagers.
A number of years passed. Then one day the people re-
membered about the gatherings they used to have in the glade
where they heard God’s voice. Once again they gathered in
the glade and began asking questions in the hope that God
would hear them and give an answer as before.
‘Answer us, how did it happen that our gardens are bring-
ing forth worm-infested fruit? And why do our vegetables
no longer yield an abundant harvest every year? And why do
people quarrel, fight and argue amongst themselves, but can-
not possibly choose the best faith? Tell us in which of the
temples we built for you do you dwell?”
For a long time God did not answer their questions. And
when a voice finally sounded in space, it was not a happy voice,
it sounded weary God answered those gathered:
“My sons and daughters, the reason for the desolation in
your houses and the gardens around them is that I am sim-
ply not able to do everything by Myself. Everything has been
designed by My dream right from the start in such a way that
I can create splendour only in conjunction with you. But
you have in part turned away from your homes with their
174
Book 6: The Book of Kin
gardens. Creation is something I cannot ever manage on My
own — there must be co-creation by the two of us together.
Moreover I want to say to you all: you yourselves include love
and freedom of choice, and I am ready to follow your aspira-
tions with My dream. But you must tell me, My dear daugh-
ters and sons, in which of the temples I am to dwell. Before
me you are all of equal worth, so where abouts should I reside
so that no one feels left out? When you have decided on your
own in which of the temples I should make my home, I shall
be glad to follow your collective will.”
After responding to all with these words God fell silent.
The people of the once beautiful village are continuing their
conflict even to this day Their houses are filled with deso-
lation and dust. Around them the temples rise higher and
higher, even as the conflict grows bitterer and bitterer.
“Well, Anastasia, that is quite an unrealistic, fairy-tale parable
you told. There must have been some pretty dumb people in
that settlement. Didn’t they realise that God wants to work
with each one of them to care for their garden? Besides, you
say that those dullards in the settlement are still arguing, even
today. And where is that settlement, in what country? Can
you tell me?”
“lean.”
“Then tell me.”
“Vladimir, you along with people from different lands are
living in this very settlement right now.”
“Eh? Oh, I see, precisely: we are the ones! We are still en-
gaged in a dispute about whose faith is better. While our gar-
dens are full of worm-infested fruit!”
The secret war with Vedic Riis’
i75
The best place in Paradise
(second parable)
Four brothers came to a gravesite to honour the memory of
their father who had died many years before. The brothers
wanted to know whether his soul was dwelling in Paradise
or in hell. They were all eager for their father’s spirit to
appear before them and tell how it was doing in the next
world.
Their father’s image appeared before them in a wondrous
radiance. The brothers were awed and their hearts were afire
when they saw this miraculous vision. When they finally re-
gained their composure, they enquired:
“Tell us, Father, does your soul dwell in Paradise?”
“Yes, my sons,” their father replied, “my Soul delights in a
wondrous Paradise.”
“Tell us, Father,” the brothers started asking, “what fate
awaits our souls after our own flesh dies?”
And the father responded to each of his sons in turn with a
question of his own:
“Tell me, my sons, how do you appraise your deeds to date
upon the Earth?”
And each brother answered his father in turn. The elder
son began:
“I have become a great military leader, Father. I have de-
fended my native land against its foes, and never allowed an
enemy foot to tread upon it. I have never offended the poor
and infirm. I have endeavoured to take good care of the sol-
diers under my command. I have always honoured God, and
therefore I hope to enter into Paradise.”
The second son replied to his father:
“I have become a prominent preacher. I have preached
goodness to the people. I have taught them to worship God. I
176
Book 6: The Book of Kin
have reached great heights and achieved high standing among
my peers, and therefore I hope to enter into Paradise.”
The third son replied to his father:
“I have become a prominent scientist. I have designed a
great many devices to benefit people’s lives. I have raised a
large number of handsome buildings for mankind. Each time
I start a new construction project, I give praise to God and
celebrate and honour His name, and therefore I hope to enter
into Paradise.”
The youngest brother answered his father:
“I, Father, cultivate a garden and work daily at raising veg-
etables. From my splendid garden I send fruits and vegeta-
bles to my brothers and try not to do anything dishonourable
or displeasing to God, and therefore I hope to enter into
Paradise.”
The father replied to his sons:
“Your souls, my sons, will indeed dwell in Paradise after
your flesh dies.”
The vision of their father faded. Years went by, the broth-
ers died and their souls met in the Garden of Paradise, only
the soul of their younger brother was not among them. The
three brothers then began to call out to their father, and when
he once again appeared before them in his wondrous radiance
they asked him:
“Tell us, Father, why is the soul of our little brother not
among us in this Garden of Paradise? It has been a hundred
earthly years since we last spoke with you at your gravesite.”
“Do not be concerned, my sons,” replied the father.
“Your little brother’s soul, too, is dwelling in the Garden of
Paradise. Only he is not here with you right now because
your little brother is at this moment communicating with
God.”
Another hundred years went by, and once again the broth-
ers met in the Garden of Paradise. But again their younger
The secret war with Vedic Rus’
177
brother was not with them. And again the brothers called for
their father. When he appeared, they asked:
“See, another hundred years has gone by, but our little
brother has not come to meet us, nor has anyone seen him
in the Garden of Paradise. Tell us, Father, where is our little
brother now?”
And the father answered his three sons:
“Your little brother is communicating with God, and that
is why he is not among you.”
And the three brothers began asking their father to show
them where and how their younger brother was communicat-
ing with God.
“Take a look,” the father replied. And the brothers saw the
Earth, and there was the marvellous garden which their lit-
tle brother had cultivated during his life. In this wondrous
earthly garden their brother, looking so much younger, was
explaining something to his child. His beautiful wife was
busying herself nearby.
The brothers asked their father in astonishment:
“There is our little brother in his earthly garden as before,
not in the Garden of Paradise as we are. What is he to blame
for before God? Why has his flesh not died? Several cen-
turies have passed in Earth years, and here we see him as a
young man? Does that mean God has somehow changed the
order of the Universe?”
And the father answered his three sons:
“God has not changed the order of the Universe, which He
established right from the start in great harmony and inspired
love. Your brother’s flesh has died, and on more than one oc-
casion. But the place of one’s soul in the Garden of Paradise
is best created by one’s own hands and soul. Just as for any
loving mother and father the child of their own creation is
always the most glorious. According to the Divine order of
things, the soul of your little brother should assuredly be
i 7 8
Book 6: The Book of Kin
granted entrance to the Garden of Paradise, but seeing this
garden is on the Earth, it is immediately incorporated into a
new body in the earthly garden so dear to it,”
“Tell us, Father,” the brothers went on, “you were saying
that our little brother is communicating with God, but we do
not see God with him in his garden.”
And the father responded to his three sons:
“Your little brother, my sons, is looking after God’s crea-
tions — the trees and the grass — they are the Creator’s own
materialised thoughts. In treating them with love and con-
scious awareness, your brother is thereby communicating
with God.”
“Tell us, Father, shall we ever return to the Earth in fleshly
form?” the sons asked their father. And they heard him an-
swer:
“Your souls, my sons, now dwell in the Garden of Paradise.
They can take on earthly form only if someone creates agarden
for your souls on the Earth similar to the one in Paradise.”
The brothers exclaimed:
“Gardens are not created with love for other people’s souls.
We ourselves, once we are given a fleshly form, shall cultivate
a Garden of Paradise on the Earth.”
But the father replied to his sons:
“You were given that opportunity already, my sons.”
After this response the father began to quietly withdraw.
But once again the three brothers cried out and asked their
father:
“Dear father, show us your place in the Garden of Paradise.
Why do you withdraw yourself from us?”
The father stopped and replied to his three sons:
“Look there! Do you see that leafy apple tree flowering
beside your little brother in his garden? Under that apple tree
is a little cradle, and in that cradle is the beautiful body of a
tiny infant that has just wiggled its little hand as it begins to
The secret war with Vedic Rus’
179
awake. My soul is alive in that little body. After all, that was
the marvellous garden I began creating myself...”
The wealthiest groom
I shall make a few changes in this parable to put it in a modern-
day context.
In one village lived two neighbours. The families were
friends with each other, and enjoyed working their land.
Every spring gardens bloomed on the two plots, and their lit-
tle groves of trees grew taller.
Into each family a son was born. After their sons had
matured, one day, while gathered around a festive table, the
fathers took a firm decision and handed everything over to
their sons’ control.
“Let those sons of ours now decide what to sow and when,”
one of them said to the other. “And you and I, my friend,
shall not oppose them, or even give them hints or question-
ing looks.”
‘Agreed,” replied the other. “Let our sons even make
changes around the house if they wish. Let them choose the
clothing they like, and let them decide what livestock and
other things to buy.”
“Fine,” replied the first. “Let our sons become self-suf-
ficient. And let them choose worthy brides for themselves.
We shall go together, my friend, to seek brides for our
sons.
180 Book 6: The Book of Kin
And this is the decision that emerged from the two friends
and neighbours’ conversation. Their idea was supported by
their wives, and the families began living under their grown-
up sons’ administration. But thereafter the two families’ lives
significantly diverged.
In one family the son became an active member of the
community and paid his respects to everyone, which led to
his being defined as the ‘first citizen’ of the village. The other
son seemed to be slow and serious of mind to all around; he
came to be called the village’s ‘second citizen’.
The first neighbour’s son felled and sawed up the trees of
the grove his father had planted and hauled them to market.
He bought himself a family car in place of his horse, along
with a small tractor. The first son here was considered very
enterprising. The new entrepreneur calculated that the com-
ing year would see a sharp increase in the price of garlic, and
he was not mistaken. He pulled up all his plantings and sowed
his fields with garlic. His father and mother did their best to
help him in everything — they had made a promise and it was
not forsaken.
The family sold the garlic at a profit. They set about build-
ing a huge mansion using the most modern materials invented
and hired construction workers. And the enterprising son did
not relent — he spent from morning ’til night trying to figure
out what the most profitable crop would be to plant in the
spring. And by winter’s end he had calculated that this spring’s
most profitable crop would be onions. And again he sold his
harvest at a profit, and bought himself a fancy new car.
One day the two neighbours’ sons met along the road.
One was driving a car, the other a wagon harnessed to a frisky
mare. The successful entrepreneur stopped his car and the
two neighbours had a conversation.
“See, neighbour, I’m driving a fancy car, while you’re getting
around in a horse-drawn cart just like before. I’m building a
The secret war with Vedic Rus’
181
big house, while you’re still living in that old house of your
father’s. Our fathers and mothers have always been friends,
and I too am ready to help you in a neighbourly way — if you
like, I can tell you what is the most profitable crop to plant
your whole field with today”
“Thank you for your willingness to help,” responded the
second neighbour from his wagon, “only I happen to cherish
a great deal my freedom of thought, indeed I do.”
“I certainly don’t want to encroach on your freedom of
thought. It’s just that I sincerely want to help you through.”
“I thank you for your sincerity, good neighbour. But free-
dom of thought is eroded by non-living things — that car, for
example, you are sitting in.”
“How can a car erode...? It can easily overtake that old
farm-cart of yours, and by the time you get to the city I’ll be
able to have my business all taken care of. And all thanks to
my motor car.”
“Yes, your car, of course, can certainly overtake my wagon,
but it requires you to sit behind the wheel and hold on to it con-
stantly as you drive, while you as the driver have to keep jerking
some kind of stick with your hand and looking continually at
the dashboard and the road. Maybe my horse is slower than a
car, but it doesn’t require any attention, and doesn’t distract my
thought either. If I should take a snooze, the horse will find its
own way home. You say you have problems with fuel, whereas
my horse fills itself up in the pasture over there. Anyway, tell
me, where are you in such a hurry to get to in your car?”
“I want to buy some spare parts to keep on hand. I know
exactly what could go wrong with my car at any moment.”
“So, you know enough about technology that you can ac-
curately predict all your breakdowns?”
“Yes, I’m pretty good at that! I took special mechanics
courses — for three years in all I swotted through. If you re-
call, I asked you to join me in those courses too.”
182
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“So for three years of your life you had only this technol-
ogy to give your thought to. Something that can get old and
break down.”
“Your horse, too, will get old and die.”
“Yes, of course, she will get old. But before that happens
she will be able to give birth to a foal. The foal will grow, and
I shall be able to ride him. What is living will eternally serve
Man, never fear, while what is dead only shortens his years.”
“The whole village makes fun of your ideas,” remarked the
entrepreneur. “They all think of me as successful and wealthy,
while they see you just sit and live off your father’s fortune.
Besides, you haven’t introduced any new species of trees or
bushes on your father’s land, not even a bit.”
“But I’ve come to love these. I’ve been trying to understand
each one’s purpose and how they interact with each other.
And I’ve been able to invigorate the ones starting to wither,
just by looking at and touching them. Now, come each spring,
everything is blossoming in harmony, all by itself, requiring no
outside attention. It’s just waiting eagerly for summer, and
then for the fall when it will offer up its fruit for the year.”
“Really, friend, I must say you are queer,” sighed the entre-
preneur. “You walk around entranced with your domain, your
garden and your flowers. At the same time, you say, you are
giving freedom to your thoughts.”
“Yes, I am.”
“What do you need a free thought for, anyway? What’s the
point in freedom of thought?”
“So that I can make sense of all the grand creations. So
that I can be happier myself, and help you.”
“Me? What’s got hold of you? I can marry the best girl in
the village, any one of them will go for me. They all want to
be rich, live in a spacious house and ride in my car.”
“Being rich doesn’t mean being happy.”
“And being poor?”
The secret war with Vedic Rus’
183
“Being poor isn’t so good either.”
“So if you’re not poor and not rich, then what?”
“You ought to have just enough of everything. Being self-
sufficient — that’s not bad either. And be consciously aware
of what’s going on around. After all, it’s not by chance that
happiness can be found.”
The entrepreneur grinned and quickly went on his way
A year later the two neighbouring fathers got together to
talk. They decided it was time to be courting brides for
their sons. When they asked them which of the village girls
they would like to wed, the entrepreneuring son replied to
his father:
“The daughter of the village elder really appeals to me,
Father. I would rejoice to have her as my wife.”
“I can see, my son, that you have made an excellent choice.
The village elder’s daughter is renowned as the most beauti-
ful girl in the county. All the visitors to our village from both
near and far are entranced at the sight of her. Mind you,
she can be quite capricious. The girl has a mind of her own
that even her parents can’t figure out. Some people might
think her strange — more and more women keep coming
to her from various settlements for advice and to be healed
of their ills, and they even bring their children to see this
young girl.”
“What of it, Father? I’m made of sterner stuff. In all our
village there is no more spacious house or better car than
mine. Besides, twice now I have seen her give me long and
thoughtful looks.”
On being asked which of the village girls he most fancied,
the second son told his father:
“I love the village elder’s daughter, Father.”
‘And how does she act toward you, my son? Have you no-
ticed a look of love in her eyes?”
184
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“No, Father. Whenever I happen to meet her, she lowers
her eyes.”
Both neighbours simultaneously decided to woo the maid-
en for their sons. Arriving at their house, they seated them-
selves sedately. The village elder summoned his daughter and
told her:
“Look, my daughter, two matchmakers have come to see
us. On behalf of two young lads, each wishing to have you to
wife. The three of us have decided that you should choose
from the two. Can you tell us your decision now or would you
like to think about it until tomorrow morning?”
“I have spent many mornings thinking about it in my
dreams, Father,” the young girl quietly said. “I can give you
my answer right now.”
“So tell us. We are all eagerly awaiting your decision.”
The beautiful girl answered the matchmakers like this:
“Thank you, fathers — thank you all for enquiring. I
thank your sons for desiring to join their life with mine. You
have indeed raised splendid sons, and it might have been
very difficult to choose to which of two destinies I should
myself resign. But I do want to have children, and I want my
children to be happy, to stand tall in prosperity, freedom and
love, and so I have fallen in love with the one who is wealthi-
est of all.”
The father of the entrepreneur rose to his feet in pride,
while the other father sat glumly in his chair. But the girl
went over to the second father, knelt down before him, and
said, without raising her eyelids:
“I wish to live with your son.”
At this point the village elder rose to his feet. Fie wanted
to see his daughter living in what was deemed by all the rich-
est house in the village, and so he said to her rather harshly:
“ You spoke correctly, my daughter — your smart reasoning
brought gladness to your father’s heart. But you for your part
The secret war with Vedic Rus’ 185
did not go and kneel before the richest man in the village.
Someone else here is the wealthiest. This is he.”
And the elder, gesturing to the entrepreneur’s father,
added:
“Their son has built a spacious home, honey. They have a
car, a tractor... and money.”
The girl went over to her father and responded to his harsh
and bewildering words:
“Of course you are right, Papa dear. But I was talking about
children. What use will our children have for those things you
mentioned? The tractor can break down while they are still
growing up. The car may rust and the house fall into decay.”
“That may be — maybe what you say is true, granted. But
your children will have a great deal of money, and they can buy
for themselves a new tractor and a new car and new clothes.”
‘And just how much is ‘a great deal’, might I ask?”
The entrepreneur’s father proudly stroked his beard and
moustache, and answered solemnly and seriously:
“My son has heaps of money — enough so that if he needed
to buy three of everything our household already has, he could
do so all at once. And those horses our neighbour keeps, we
would be able to buy not just two, but a whole stable full.”
The girl meekly lowered her eyelids and responded:
“I wish you and your son great happiness. But there is no
amount of money on the Earth that would buy a father’s gar-
den where every branch reaches out in sheer love to the one
cultivating it. And no money in the world can buy the loyalty
of a steed that has played with a child as a colt, 'four domain
may indeed make money, but my beloved’s domain will make
a space for sufficiency and love.”
i86
Book 6: The Book of Kin
A change of priestly tactics
During the thousand-year war the priest changed his tactics
a number of times, but all to no avail. Rus’ still laughed, as
before, at his occult intrusions. The people referred to those
preachers as miserable wretches. At that time wretchedness
was not equated with physical affliction but with occultism.
People in Rus’ took pity on the wretched preachers, they fed
them and offered them shelter, but did not take any of their
sermons seriously.
After four hundred centuries the priest realised he would
never achieve victory over the Vedic land. He accurately de-
termined wherein the extraordinary power of Vedism lay
Vedism was based solidly on a Divine culture. Everyone’s
way of life was Divine. And every family created in its domain
a Space of Love, they felt the wholeness of Nature and, conse-
quently, of everything God had created.
What happened in Vedism was that people spoke with
God through Nature. Instead of bowing down before Him,
they attempted to understand Him. They loved God as a son
and daughter love their kindly parents.
And so the priest came up with a plan which would be able
to break this dialogue with the Divine. To this end it was nec-
essary to separate people from their domains, from the Divine
gardens, from their co-creation together with God. It was
necessary to divide the whole territory where the Vedic peo-
ple lived into different states and to destroy their culture.
New preachers went to Rus’. They put a new approach
into practice. This time they sought out people in whom self-
ishness — pride — dominated even just a little over the other
energies of feelings. Whenever they found such a Man, they
tried enhancing the sense of pride within him. This is how
they operated:
The secret war with Vedic Rus’
187
Imagine a group of stately-looking elders arriving at the
home of a happy family. But there is no attempt, as before,
to preach or teach them how to live. On the contrary, they all
at once bow down before the head of the household, present
him with outlandish gifts and say:
“In our far-off land we climbed to the top of a high moun-
tain — the highest mountain on the Earth. Standing at the
summit, above the clouds, we heard a voice from heaven tell-
ing us about you. And it was told to us that you are the wisest
of all people on the Earth. You alone were chosen, and we are
honoured to bow down to you, present you with our gifts and
wait upon your words of wisdom.”
And if they saw the Man taking their bait, they would con-
tinue their sly talk:
“It is your duty to make all other people happy — the voice
told us so on the mountain-top. You should not waste your val-
uable time on other concerns. Abu should be in charge of peo-
ple and make decisions for them — decisions that have been
entrusted to you alone. And here is your heavenly head-dress.”
At this point a head-dress decorated with precious stones
was presented to the Man as though it were the grandest
treasure.
And so the head-dress was placed upon the head of the Man
who now believed in his own majesty and his chosen status.
And at that very moment all the visitors fell to their knees be-
fore him in great reverence. And they began to praise heaven
for the honour of being worthy to bow before this majesty.
Next, the foreign visitors built him a separate house to live in
that looked very much like a temple.
This is how the first princes rose to power in Vedic Rus’.
The new prince’s neighbours looked upon this Man sitting
on his throne in the temple as some sort of curiosity. They
watched as the foreign visitors bowed before him, indulged
his every whim and plied him with all sorts of questions.
i88
Book 6: The Book of Kin
At first they took this scenario for some kind of game from
overseas, and some decided, either out of curiosity or out of
compassion, to play along with the foreigners and with their
neighbour. But people gradually got drawn into the game.
And little by little they sank into a state of serfdom, and with-
out their realising it, their thoughts turned more and more
away from co-creation.
It was not easy for the priest’s emissaries to get the prince-
doms established. In the beginning, for more than a hundred
years, their attempts proved unsuccessful. But still it finally
came about, and Vedic Rus’ was carved out into princedoms.
And then events took their natural course: the princes be-
gan fighting over who was greater, and dragged their neigh-
bours into internecine feuds.
Later historians would claim that grand princes arose who
managed to join the isolated princedoms of Rus’ together into
one mighty state. But think for yourself, Vladimir — could
that really have been so? And what kind of unification exactly
do the historians have in mind? It is all very simple, in fact.
Yes, one prince was able to kill or conquer others. But people
can be united only by culture and away of life.
The setting up of borders always indicates separation.
Once a state was established, not on the basis of a cultured
way of life but on the artificial greatness of one or more peo-
ple by virtue of their armies, a whole lot of problems immedi-
ately made themselves heard: how to maintain those borders
and expand them as the opportunity occurred — and so arose
the need for a sizeable army
A large state cannot be governed by one Man alone — so
clerks and scribes soon appeared, and they have been mul-
tiplying each day right up to the present time. The princes,
clerks, scribes, merchants — and all their servants — to-
gether form a category of people who have been separated
from God’s creations. Today their functional designation is
The secret war with Vedic Rus’
189
the creation of an artificial world. They have utterly lost the
ability to perceive true reality, and so constitute fertile soil for
occultism.
Only a thousand years ago Rus’ was considered pagan.
Paganism still carried within itself a lingering sense of the
Divine Vedic culture. With the advent of the princes and
their princedoms — first little princedoms, and later large
ones — the rulers found they needed a force more powerful
than an army A force capable of creating a type of Man in-
clined to unquestioning submission to authority
Here too the priest’s messengers came to the ruling princ-
es’ assistance and offered them a suitable religion.
The essence of this new development was very much to
the princes’ liking. Though there was hardly anything new in
it. It contained everything that Egypt had had five thousand
years earlier.
Like the pharaoh, the prince was considered to be appoint-
ed to his position by God. The occult ministers of the new
religion were his advisors — again, just as in Egypt. Everyone
else was a mere slave. It was not a simple task to inculcate
the new order into the minds of free people whose memories
could still savour the celebrations of Vedic culture. And so
once again the priest came to the princes’ aid. His foot-sol-
diers began spreading false rumours to the effect that there
were pagan settlements where people were being more and
more frequently sacrificed to God.
It was noised abroad that pagans sacrificed to their gods
not just various animals but also beautiful girls, or young men,
or even little children. This false rumour is still rampant
among us today More and more it became a source of an-
ger to the pagan people. And now here was this new religion
being offered which placed a strict prohibition on burnt sac-
rifices. It talked about equality and brotherhood — exempt-
ing, of course, the princes. Thus this new religion was little by
190
Book 6 : The Book of Kin
little introduced into pagan Rus’. Eventually one of the ruling
princes decreed that Christianity be recognised as the only
true religion in the land, Rus’ came to be called Christian and
all other religions were banned.
Now let anyone whose forebears — mothers and fathers —
were called pagan just a thousand years ago ask themselves
this question: did pagans really sacrifice either animals or
people to their gods? And the true picture of events will be-
come clear to anyone who is able to do at least nine minutes
of logical reasoning.
And you, Vladimir, once you have applied your own logic
to the discovery of the truth, can see the facts for yourself. I
shall be glad to give you a little help.
First ask yourself a logical question: If pagans, as their ac-
cusers claim, actually offered up someone as a sacrifice to
God, then why did the mere rumour about such offerings so
greatly trouble their mind and feelings? It would have been
more logical in that case to welcome such claims and enthu-
siastically try to repeat them, instead of greeting them with
outrage and accepting the new religion’s entreaties. But the
people were outraged — why? Naturally, because the pagans
could not entertain even the thought of sacrificing animals,
let alone people.
That is why no one can come up with even a single source
in support of burnt sacrifices among the people of pagan
Rus’. It was only the chroniclers of Christianity that claimed
that. But then they never lived in pagan Rus’, and did not
even know the language of pagan Rus’. And what about the
sources and manuscripts of pagan Rus’ itself? Some of them
were hidden, some were burnt in bonfires, just as in Rome.
What exactly was seditious in those scrolls? What did they
disclose? Without being able to read them, everyone today
can make their own guess. They would have exposed the
falsity of the accusations against paganism. And they could
The secret war with Vedic Rus
have transmitted the knowledge of Vedism. There was more
to it than the fact that none of the people of pagan Rus’ ever
indulged in burnt sacrifices. They did not eat meat at all.
They could not even imagine such a thing. They were friends
with the animals. Their daily diet was varied enough, but it
was strictly vegetarian. Who can come up with a single recipe
from ancient Russian cuisine that even mentioned meat? No
one!
Even our epic folk tales tell about how the turnip was re-
spected in ancient Rus’, about how the people drank mead-
beer. Let anyone today, even meat-eaters, try drinking this
warm mead made from flower pollen and herbs — after
drinking that, you will not want to eat anything else, certainly
not meat. Those who force themselves to do so may find the
meat will only make them vomit.
Besides, judge for yourself, Vladimir, why should anyone
eat meat when all around them a whole lot of easily digest-
ible, high-energy food was available?
During the winter bees feed on nothing but honey and
pollen, and so can go the whole winter without excreting at
all. The whole intake is assimilated by the bee’s body. And
sbiten’ — a drink made with boiled honey — was always served
to guests directly they entered the home. And who would
start eating meat after tasting a sweet drink?
It was the nomads that introduced meat to the world.
There was hardly any edible fruit to fend for in the prairie-
lands and deserts they moved about in, and this is why they
ended up killing cattle. And the nomads ate the meat of those
animal herds that served as their beasts of burden — animals
that carried their belongings, fed them with milk and gave
their wool for clothing.
Thus the culture of our forebears was destroyed, and Rus’
was plunged into religion. If the people had learnt genuine
religion, purely Christian, it is possible that life would have
192
Book 6: The Book of Kin
turned out differently. But the priest managed to inject his
own twists into the Christian teachings. And the one religion
became subject to various interpretations. And the Christian
world became divided into a multitude of denominations, of-
ten in conflict with each other.
The High Priest spent a great deal of effort on Rus’. In oth-
er places on the Earth people saw what he was doing and did
not permit his preachers within their borders. Japan, China
and India did not become Christian. But the High Priest won
them over by another way The Age of Occultism began one
thousand years ago. People all over the Earth lived in the Age
of Occultism. And are still living in it today.
Chapter Eight
Occultism
It lasts only a thousand years.
During the Age of Occultism mankind is plunged into a
world of unreality.
Mankind begins to direct its tremendous store of diverse
energies toward made-up images and abstract worlds exist-
ing beyond the boundaries of real life. The real world with
its diversity receives less and less of the life-creating warmth
of Man. It maintains its existence only at the expense of past
accumulation and its original charge from the Divine.
Mankind ceases to fulfil its main purpose. It becomes dan-
gerous for the Universe, and planetary-scale disasters take
place.
Today all mankind still lives in the world of the occult. But
that age ended in the year 2000. Of course, in reality the
name 2000 is a misnomer.
You know yourself that only recently the traditional year-
count was radically changed. The latest temporal borderline
represented the millionth anniversary of civilisation on the
Earth.
And as always a global disaster was slated to happen. More
specifically, mankind was supposed to launch a new attempt
toward populating the Universe through its own perfection.
But no disaster occurred during any year of the Occult Age.
It took only three of the Vedic people who were not asleep
to partially remove the soporific occult spells from people to-
day. Remember how the hearts of those reading your books
began to flutter and recall their love for the Earth? They are
194
Book 6: The Book of Kin
still asleep, but the power of God’s Vedic culture is coming
back to them. And God is gaining new hope. While still not
fully awake, they through their love averted a disaster. Now
it will not happen on our planet.
Soon all people will come out of the hypnotic occult sleep.
They will start coming back to reality.
Are you surprised that mankind today is either asleep un-
der a hypnotic spell or dwelling in an unreal world? You might
wonder: How can that be? Here I am, and in the cities both large
and small there are millions of people living. Cars go up and down
the streets.
You should not be all that surprised by my words, Vladimir.
Think about it and judge for yourself — at what times, on
what day or at what hour do people actually live in a real
world? 'Think, for example, how many different religions
there are on the globe. They all have a different interpreta-
tion of Man’s being and the order of the Universe, and each
has its own set of rituals, distinct from the others.
Let us say that there is indeed one religion which is truer
than all the rest. But that would mean that the worlds the
rest of them are creating are unreal. But after all, people be-
lieve in them too. And if they believe, they live in submission
to the laws of the unreal world.
All over the Earth greater and greater numbers of people
are wanting to have more money But what is money? It is
simply a convention. People think that everything can be
bought with money. That is an illusion. No amount of money
can buy the true energy of Love, or a mother’s feelings, or
one’s Motherland, or the taste of fruit intended only for the
one who grew it with mindful attention.
As a convention, money can be used only to buy conven-
tional, conditional love — along with a multitude of soulless
things around — but in the process you are dooming your soul
to a state of loneliness.
Occultism
i95
In the Occult Millennium mankind is completely disori-
ented as to the Space created by God. And people’s souls sim-
ply flounder about as though in darkness.
Look closely, Vladimir. Just over the past hundred years in
the country where you live, look how society has kept chang-
ing its direction.
There was a tsar, the social elite functioned according to
prescribed behavioural rites, and people of prominence were
decorated with various emblems, medals and orders with col-
oured ribbons. They wore gold-embroidered uniforms. And
monasteries and temples were built throughout the country
where you live now And then all of a sudden that was con-
sidered contemptible. Uniforms, medals and the ribbons at-
tached to them came to be considered no more than clown
outfits. Temples were part of the dark ages. Those who
served in the temples were called swindlers.
And people enthusiastically sacked the temples and angrily
slew the occult servers therein. Later it was announced to
all that only the Soviet authorities were to blame. Yes, the
authorities did officially encourage the people to do this. But
then the people did not protest — they simply responded to
the call of their ruling idols.
After all, you know from documents existing today how in
the Kuban” forty-two Christian priests were brutally slaugh-
tered. Not just killed, but brutally tortured. Their bodies
were tossed in cesspools. This was not just the work of the
rulers, the people themselves willingly participated in such
acts. The rulers’ only role was to allow them to happen.
As a result, priests were slain by the thousands in different
parts of the country. The ones that could not run ended up
1 Kuban — the area around the Kuban’ River in the northwestern Caucasus,
which flows from Mount Elbrus to the Sea of Azov.
196
Book 6: The Book of Kin
renouncing their faith. Very few in those times managed to
save both their life and their faith.
The majority of the people in the country became sincere
atheists. They changed their clothes; the emblems and rib-
bons on their uniforms became different, with different col-
ours. Many analysts and historians have written books about
the Soviet years, but... In the future Lenin and Stalin will be
remembered for just one thing : For the first time mankind has
been shown clearly that occultism- is obsolete. Even in their sleep peo-
ple do not accept occult religions. Occultism is supported only by ar-
tifice and force. But, you see, it was not their faith in God that
was destroyed. It was only the occultism that had infested
their faith that was brought down.
Over the past millennium, in Russia alone a startling change
of philosophy has managed to occur among the people as a
whole. Religion became significantly denigrated and people’s
faith in it was transferred to communism, though that too is
a faith.
Quite recently, you saw yourself how once again the people
in the country where you live sharply changed their direction.
The path everybody in the country had been enthusiastically
following was declared to be the wrong one. And priorities
changed once more.
Did the people choose a new way? No way! The path is not
at all clear to the people. In the unreal world of the occult the
people do not choose their own path. Someone always points
it out. But who? The High Priest, who still today rules the
world.
How does he rule the people of the modern world? And
why can nobody ever overthrow him? Where is he located?
Take a look — I can show him to you.
Occultism,
197
The priest who still rules the world today
Now you see an elderly man. Do not be surprised at his modest
appearance. In terms of clothing and behaviour he is indistin-
guishable from most other people, and as you can see, he is sur-
rounded by ordinary things. And his house is not that big — his
staff comprises just two servants. He has a family: a wife and
two sons. But even his family do not know who he actually is.
And yet he does have one outward distinguishing fea-
ture: if you observe him closely, you can see that he spends
the whole day in isolation. And on his face you can see the
depth of his meditation. Whenever he eats, or talks with his
wife (although their conversations are rather rare), his eyes
look as though they are concealed behind a foggy film. And
even when he watches television, his eyelids are slightly low-
ered, he never shows surprise and never laughs. In fact he
hardly watches any television at all. He merely pretends to
watch, and during this time he is deep in intensive thought.
He is working out grandiose plans. And exercising control
of events in whole countries. He is the High Priest from a
dynasty of priests, having inherited from them a knowledge
of the occult, which he will also be able to transmit to one
of his sons. It will take him just a year to convey everything
orally to his successor, whom he is training in secret without
his even knowing it — the priest has long been developing
specific abilities within his son.
All the world’s money belongs to the High Priest. All the
world’s money works for him — including what you have in
your pocket right now Do not be surprised. I shall show you
how this happens, and by what means and for what reason
the High Priest prefers not to live in a castle surrounded by
an army of guards, why he prefers commonplace routines to
special luxury.
198
Book 6: The Book of Kin
The High Priest has no bodyguards because he knows per-
fectly well that the more visible authority is to all, the greater
the need for armed protection. Besides, there is no guarantee
that any number of bodyguards, even hundreds of thousands,
will succeed in protecting any earthly ruler. Indeed, there
have been instances where the guards themselves betray or
even kill the ruler. Besides, having bodyguards may entail a
lot of problems. There are times when the ruler is compelled
to submit to the guards’ terms. Compelled to tell the guards
about his intentions — forthcoming trips, for example.
With a bodyguard a ruler is always under observation, and
so meditation becomes more difficult for him.
It is much simpler and more reliable to conceal one’s iden-
tity This also wards off intrigues on the part of one’s adver-
saries, fanatics and challengers to one’s authority
Now you may well be thinking: But how is it possible to con-
trol huge numbers of people without assistants, managers and depu-
ties, without drafting laws and disciplining those who fail to carry
them out ?
It is all very straightforward. The vast majority of the peo-
ple have been immersed in occultism for a very long time.
The High Priest knows all the tricks of occultism. He
does have assistants, managers, drafters of laws, prisons and
executioners. He has armies and commanders, though not a
single one of those who carry out his missions has any suspi-
cion himself of who is secretly commanding him and by what
means the orders are issued.
It is a simple system of control without visible and personal
contact.
In cities both large and small of any country there are peo-
ple who all at once start to hear voices from a source they can-
not pin down. And this voice from an unknown source may
order a Man to carry out some kind of action, and the Man
obeys the order.
Occultism
199
Sometimes there is a clearly audible voice, sometimes this
Man does not know himself what is happening to him — it is
just that he feels some kind of attraction within and he carries
out the action ordered.
This kind of phenomenon is known to modern science.
Psychiatrists along with other scientists have been attempt-
ing to study it for a long time, but to no avail.
Modem science classifies this kind of phenomenon as a
type of mental disorder. People who go to doctors and re-
port hearing voices coming out of nowhere and giving them
orders are invariably carted off to a hospital. What kind of
hospital? A psychiatric institution. In many countries these
are very much like prisons. There are a great many of them
today in America, Europe and Russia. Patients are treated
with all sorts of pills and injections to quiet the mind — this
dulls their sensations, making them sleep a lot and become
extremely sluggish. And some of these people stop hearing
voices as such. Others feign cure in an attempt to procure
their release.
But not everyone who hears voices will go see a doctor.
Just imagine now that someone submitting to a voice com-
mand is in charge of an atomic missile, or in command of an
army, or assigned to guard a container of deadly bacteria. And
this voice then gives him a bizarre order...
Science has not been able to define the exact nature of this
unusual phenomenon. It definitely exists today and they are
afraid to publicise it, but that does not help. In the meantime,
they should have been focusing their attention on something
more basic: if there is a signal receiver, there must somewhere
be a signal transmitter as well.
The High Priest and his assistants know how to transmit
voice-commands. They also know what kind of Man each of
the many religions is capable of shaping. The priests are the
originators of these religions, of occultism itself. They need
200
Book 6: The Book of Kin
it in order to control people. The fanatic who believes in the
unreal world is like a bio-robot, predisposed to hear the voice-
commands and to carry out any order unquestioningly
The High Priest and his assistants know how to set people
at odds with each other and start wars among people of dif-
ferent faiths.
Wars may have different specific causes, but in any war the
basic weaponry has consisted of discrepancies in people’s be-
liefs.
All technology and all artificial information channels are
similarly controlled by the priests through people. And for
this they do not have to control every television broadcast
themselves or look over every reporter’s shoulder as he writes.
They need only create a general condition whereby all media
are out to make money
Television advertising, for example, has become more and
more sophisticated, intrusive and aggressive. Any psycholo-
gist will tell you that it is nothing less than aggressive mental
suggestion aimed at individual viewers — often not to their
benefit, but to their harm. People are shamelessly told that
commercial advertising cannot be helped — that is what pays
for the programmes people watch. But then every TV viewer
pays for all these adverts by purchasing products at the sug-
gestion of the advertisers. Advertising costs are included in
the retail price of the product. What can be more sorry than
a situation like that?
And money acts as a huge and powerful lever for the priest’s
influence.
I told you that even the money you have in your pocket
right now serves the High Priest. Here is how it all happens.
A simple pattern may be observed in the convoluted bank-
ing system we have: money withdrawn by someone from
a bank increases the bank’s capital. For example, let us say
Russia as a country borrows on credit from an international
Occultism
201
bank. It is then obliged to pay back with considerable inter-
est much more than it originally borrowed. How is the differ-
ence made up? From the taxes you pay — or, let us say, even
when a pensioner buys a quarter-kilo of bread, a tax is also in-
cluded as a percentage of the price. And that percentage, or
at least a part of it, goes to the international bank. Thus capi-
tal flourishes, but whose? The High Priest’s. Without even
touching the capital himself, he is able to direct the flow of
money into wars, occult activities or the production of deadly
medicines.
His goal is simple. Pride dominates in him, and it con-
stantly aspires to create its own world, distinct from the world
God made, and hold it in subjection. And the priests partially
succeed in achieving the objectives they desire. People’s con-
cerns about their everyday lives are a great help to them in
this. And they themselves stir up concerns among the people
to distract them.
Note how when people are distracted by everyday concerns
they do not notice that less and less information is being pro-
vided them. There are stricter and stricter prohibitions on
bringing up the one basic question: is the path to which all
mankind is now aspiring the right one?
If they could only free themselves from distraction, many
might be able to come to a conclusion for themselves: seeing
how every year diseases are on the rise, wars are not ceasing
and each day brings greater and greater disasters, the path we
are on is doubtful, to say the least. But oh the distractions!
They do not allow for any kind of contemplation. The priest,
on the other hand, is engaged minute by minute in medita-
tion, creating designs and having them carried out by the
hands of millions of people...
I spent a long time listening to Anastasia’s emotional nar-
rative. I refrained from interrupting her or asking her for
202
Book 6: The Book of Kin
clarification along the way This time I stayed longer than
usual in the taiga. As I was leaving, I realised I was suffering
from information overload and that it would be difficult for
me to set everything down in a book. Besides, the things she
said were so extraordinary, raising questions about religion
and authority In our religious denominations today there are
a great many fanatics, all kinds of them. They are ready to
go after anyone who encroaches on their beliefs! What do I
need these problems for?
Chapter Nine
After I got home and was preparing this book to submit to
the publisher, I still couldn’t decide, even up to the last mo-
ment, whether or not I should include all of Anastasia’s say-
ings in the manuscript.
When Anastasia spoke of a splendid future for Russia
which could be realised through the establishment of family
domains, everything she said made sense. Her idea quickly
caught on among my readers. People began to act.
Then in the book Who are we? when in an emotional an-
swer to a question she referred to Christ Jesus as her older
brother, and I wrote about it , 1 a number of readers, mainly
faithful Christians, began to object.
In the book before that, I had written how, in answer to my
question as to whether she might name any clerics who could
understand her, she replied that Pope John Paul II would
help her . 2 This prompted fresh doubts on the part of a few
Catholic readers.
Such sayings of hers left me with a constant series of doubts
of my own: should I write in my books about Anastasia’s
unusual actions, words and behaviour? Are they beneficial
or harmful? Will they not cause some readers to entertain
doubts about the obvious practical ideas of transforming so-
ciety through the improvement of the living conditions and
way of life on the part of individual families?
'See Book 5, Chapter 23: “Your desires”.
2 See Book 4, Chapter 24: “Take back your Motherland, people!”.
204
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Besides, I wasn’t completely free of doubt in regard to the
content of her sayings — now I ask you, what am I to make
of phrases like “Christ Jesus’ sister” or “Pope John Paul II will
help”? If you look through the Bible, there is no mention any-
where that Jesus had any brothers or sisters.
And then all at once there occurred an event that could
be called super-sensational, and in connection with this
Anastasia’s unusual sayings again and again gave me pause for
reflecting on the tremendous scope of Man’s true possibili-
ties. This is what happened.
All at once I heard that the Vatican had publicised sources
mentioning two of Christ Jesus’ sisters. Only I don’t remem-
ber whether they were sisters or cousins... I heard this brief
news report while I was alone in my apartment, taking care of
some routine tasks.
The radio and the television were both on at the time, and
so I can’t say for certain where I heard it. I think it may have
been the TV news.
After hearing this, each time I sat down at my desk I
couldn’t help picking up my notes with Anastasia’s unusual
sayings, which I had previously decided not to include in the
new book. Now I was having second thoughts about whether
I had made the right choice. Among these sayings there was
this one in particular:
The American President, George Bush, in a highly unconventional
move, without being aware of it himself, will save his country from
a terrible disaster and protect the world from a war unprecedented
in its potential destructive influence over the whole Earth.
Following the disastrous acts of terrorism in America on n
September 2001 and the subsequent military operation (war,
in fact) in Afghanistan with direct American involvement, this
saying of Anastasia’s seemed to completely contradict what
actually happened. However, upon analysing the information
available in the press and on the TV, I became more and more
A need to think
205
convinced that the events of 11 September in America could
help people uncover a major mystery — could help head off
even larger-scale, global acts of terrorism in various countries
of the world. And they will be averted only providing this
secret is exposed. Again and again I read over all Anastasia’s
extraordinary sayings. And here is what I discovered.
On 11 September 2001 in the United States of America there
occurred a series of large-scale acts of terrorism. Several jets
with passengers aboard took off with unknown pilots from
New York airports and immediately altered their scheduled
flight path. One after the other the planes tore into the twin
towers of the World Trade Centre along with other strategic
targets.
Over and over again gruesome images of the crashes lit up
TV screens all over the world. Soon afterward Osama bin
Laden and his organisation were declared to have mastermind-
ed the attack. A little while later the American President and
government secured the support of a number of European
countries and Russia and began bombing Afghanistan, where,
according to available intelligence, the chief culprit and mem-
bers of his organisation were hiding out.
So then, what is the mystery here? After all, images of the
results of these terrorist acts and the ongoing anti-terrorist
military operation were shown many times over and are still
being used in TV news clips several times a day
The mystery lies in the complete absence — or cover-up —
of the causes of the acts of terrorism — in the complete ab-
sence of logic, not on the part of those who carried them out
but of those who thought them up.
The mystery lies in the fact that the press didn’t even try
to make even a half-way significant analysis of the causes of
what happened, as though somehow all the mass media had
been issued an injunction not to investigate them. What we
see and hear in the media on a daily basis touches upon only
20 6
Book 6: The Book of Kin
the fact of what occurred. The constant repetition tends to
make the extraordinary commonplace, something as routine
as the daily reports of highway accidents.
According to media briefings this is what happened: Some
extremely wealthy terrorist — generally assumed to be bin
Laden, planned and carried out through his agents a series of
notorious acts of terrorism which resulted in a huge number
of casualties and exerted an unprecedented effect on people
the world over.
Just what, in sum, did the mastermind behind these terror-
ist acts achieve? A significant part of the world community,
on the head-of-state level, united against him. The most up-
to-date technology and well-trained military units were em-
ployed to capture and destroy him.
According to the official version, terrorist Number One is
hiding out in caves in the Afghan mountains. These moun-
tains have been bombed from the air, along with Taliban forc-
es, considered as collaborators with the mastermind.
The developed countries, led by the USA, have joined forc-
es to put an end to all the camps of terrorist organisations, no
matter what country such camps are located in.
Could the mastermind have failed to foresee the subse-
quent development of events? Sheer nonsense! Of course he
knew that it would happen precisely that way For a man able
to evade capture by the special forces for such a long time, to
plan and carry out terrorist acts requiring serious analysis and
calculation, it should not have been a difficult task to calcu-
late the course of events which followed.
Thus it turns out that this mastermind, from one point of
view, is an astute strategist and tactician capable of meticu-
lous analysis, while from another standpoint he is an utter
fool. It turns out that through his terrorist activities he has
brought doom upon himself, his organisation and all terrorist
organisations, even those not connected with him.
A need to think
207
The situation is utterly illogical and, consequently, the
actions of the world community in the struggle against ter-
rorism may not be effective — and, if the full truth be told,
dangerous, since logic dictates that the mastermind behind a
terrorist act remain above suspicion.
Be that as it may, one thing is clear: the picture of events
that emerges from the facts reported in the mass media is a
highly illogical one.
In the beginning, of course, I, like many other people,
didn’t pay much attention to this, but... The news from
America immediately resurrected in my thought several of
Anastasia’s sayings — sayings which I had decided to refrain
from publishing because of their strange and extraordinary
nature. But now, after what happened in America, these same
sayings explain a lot. Though it didn’t become clear right off,
by any means. Here’s one example:
Right from the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, the rul-
ers of states both large and small have been the least free
people on the Earth. They spend the greater part of their
time in an artificial information field, compelled to submit
to accepted rituals of behaviour. They constantly receive
a tremendous amount of routine and monotonous infor-
mation, but time constraints do not allow them to analyse
even that. If a ruler should make the transition from an
artificial information field to a natural one even for just
three days, this is something dangerous for all levels of the
priesthood. Dangerous, too, for the ruler’s secular rivals.
The danger lies in the possibility that the ruler might start
analysing a whole range of processes on his own, thereby
freeing himself from the yoke of occult influences and
freeing his people from them.
A natural information field is Nature at large — its ap-
pearance, fragrances and sounds. It is only the Nature of
208
Book 6: The Book of Kin
one’s own domain — a place where flora and fauna treat
Man with love — that can protect Man from occult influ-
ences on him.
Now, as I sat at my desk (made of the cedar wood which
Anastasia had given to me), I recalled these words, though
this time they no longer seemed strange to me, as they had
before.
Indeed, look at what is happening, even with our own
President of Russia. He is constantly meeting either with
foreign heads of state or with officials from our own country
None of them just stop by to take tea — they come with all
sorts of problems, and are impatient for an immediate solu-
tion. And the press? No sooner does some sort of unusual
event happen in the country than immediately the press won-
ders what the President’s reaction will be. Or more bluntly:
Why didn’t the President himself go to Ground Zero? And he wins
approval ratings when he actually visits the place where a
flood or something else happened. But is that a good thing?
And when does he have time to calmly think about and ana-
lyse the information coming in? Give us the President! the peo-
ple demand the moment something occurs. That’s the way
it happens. That’s the way it’s scripted. But what if it were
scripted another way? The President should not be dashing
off in all directions like a firefighter. He shouldn’t be briefing
officials, wasting time on meetings.
It is essential that he be given the opportunity to sit in his
own garden, and from that perspective follow what is going
on in the country, then analyse the incoming information,
and from time to time take some kind of decisions. Perhaps
then the people, too, would start to live better.
“What kind of nonsense is that?” many might react, as I did
at first. Nonsense? But is it normal not to give someone the
chance to think? Indeed, there is someone who finds it very
A need to think
209
profitable for the presidents of various countries to think as
little as possible. What would happen in our country if our
President were given uninterrupted time to quietly think
about things? What if he were afforded the opportunity to
step out of the artificial information field, at least for a time?
And all at once... I was struck by a thought which made
me feel as though an electric current was running through my
whole body. All at once I could feel my desk warming up. An
incredible stroke of intuition hit me... For some reason in my
excitement I grabbed the telephone receiver and, without di-
alling any number (since she doesn’t have a telephone) I cried
into the mouthpiece: Anastasia. 1
There was no customary dial tone. And a moment later I
heard a familiar voice, easily distinguishable from all other voic-
es in the world — the calm, pure voice of Anastasia, saying:
“Hello, Vladimir! You should try not to get so excited. You
see yourself what unnatural actions excessive excitement can
lead to. I shall not talk with you on the telephone. Please,
calm down. Get up from your desk and go out into the fresh
air, into the grove of trees near your house.”
The dial tone returned. I put the receiver down.
Wow! I thought, I really did get stirred up. I wonder whether
that was really Anastasia talking to me or was I just hallucinating
from excitement? I really must go outdoors into the fresh air and
calm down.
A short time later I got dressed and went out to the grove
of trees next to the house. Deep in the grove I caught sight
of... her! There was Anastasia, standing under a pine tree, just
by the side of the pathway and smiling. Not paying any atten-
tion to her extraordinary arrival, I began talking immediately.
210
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Who saved America?
Anastasia, I’ve got it... I did some analysing, comparing your
sayings with the events which took place in America, and it
all became clear... Listen to me, and correct me if I’m wrong.
The series of terrorist acts which occurred on 11 September in
America — it wasn’t complete. The organisers were prepar-
ing something a lot bigger, weren’t they?... Of course they
were. Only I can’t fill in the details. In general, I think, I’ve
got it. But the details... Can you help me here?”
“I can.”
“Then tell me.”
“The mastermind behind this was counting on six terrorist
groups to act in succession. Each of the six groups was to act
independently at its appointed time, without knowing any-
thing about each other. And their leaders did not know who
was behind it all or what the ultimate goal was. Each group
was made up of religious fanatics, ready to die for the cause.
“Only one group was comprised of people who had agreed
to carry out the dirty deeds for money.
“The first group was to simultaneously seize control of
all civil aircraft in the skies over the country, as well as those
taking off from airports and those approaching American air-
space. All the seized aircraft were to be used to destroy tar-
gets of national importance.
“Six days prior to this another group was to infect the wa-
ter-supply system in twenty major hotels. The plan was drawn
up in such a way that it would be virtually impossible to trace
the source of the infection and the location of the perpetrat-
ing agents. Each agent was supposed to take a room in one
of the hotels, place a special device on the cold-water tap and
open the tap. Instead of water flowing from the tap, the air
pressure would force a deadly powder back into the whole
A need to think
211
system. After this the tap would be shut off and the following
morning the perpetrator would be making his way to a hotel
in another city
“The bacteria released into the water-supply system would
become glutinous upon contact with the water, sticking to
the sides of the pipes, swell up, multiply and flow downward.
In twelve days they would have proliferated a great deal. In
an ordinary, natural-water setting they would be incapable
of proliferating — they would be destroyed by other bacte-
ria. But such a balance is absent in an artificial supply sys-
tem, where Man has deprived the water of many of its natural
properties.
“During peak consumption periods — when people would
be washing themselves in the morning, for example — the wa-
ter flow would cause a part of the bacteria to come loose, and
contaminated water would come out of the tap. People wash-
ing themselves would feel nothing at first. But after eight to
twelve days small abscesses would appear on their skin at an
increasing rate. They would grow in size and suppurate. The
disease would be highly infectious and very difficult to cure,
though the attack organisers possess an antidote...
“A lot of people would be infected in many countries. Soon
it would be discovered that these people had all stayed at
hotels, but this would become evident only after the planes
crashed.
“It pains me to talk about the wretched deeds to be carried
out by the other perpetrators. The net result of all the acts of
terrorism taken together were designed to produce a climate
of panic and dread.
“Many people would begin leaving the country, taking their
families with them. They would attempt to relocate their cap-
ital to banks in lands where they considered it less dangerous
to live. But not every nation would agree to accept refugees
from the USA. Most countries’ populations would be gripped
212
Book 6: The Book of Kin
by fear and terror — especially if what had been considered
the most powerful state in the world could not cope...”
“Stop, Anastasia! Let me try to guess. After that the mas-
terminds would announce themselves — I mean, put forward
their demands through some kind of intermediaries.”
“Yes.”
“But they didn’t succeed in carrying out all the attacks they
had envisaged. They didn’t succeed in wholly frightening
Americans. They didn’t manage to do everything they had
planned because they were forced to start acting quite a bit
before they were fully prepared. That’s how the illogicality
arose. The terrorist acts took place, but they didn’t follow
through with any demands. The whole process got cut off!
And I think I can guess why. Because the real masterminds
are to be found among the priests who are alive today And
they were frightened by Bush’s actions and were obliged to
jump the gun. Right?”
“Yes. They...”
“Wait, Anastasia! I’ve got to understand all this for my-
self — I’ve got to learn how to understand. This is very im-
portant. If I can get it, that means others like me will also be
able to discern the reality we live in. That means everybody
will understand what must be done to better our lives.”
“Yes, Vladimir. If you have been able to understand, other
people will too. Some right off, with others it will take time,
but people will start building their lives in a splendid reality
Go on, only a little more calmly — there is no need to get so
emotional about it.”
“But I’ve almost got myself calmed down now Or maybe
not. This is hard to talk about without getting emotional.
But hey! — The President of America, Bush, has really stirred
things up for those smart asses. I realised how horrified they
must have been when he... When President Bush all at once
upped and left for his ranch in Texas.
A need to think
213
“Just six months after taking office, the President takes a
holiday and goes away for close to a month! And where does
he go? Not to some fashionable resort. Not to some exotic
castle. He goes to his ranch, where he has a small house. Even
the usual lines of presidential communication are missing. All
he’s got there is one very ordinary telephone. And no prolif-
eration of TV channels, seeing he hasn’t got a satellite dish.
The media commentators mentioned these facts, but nobody
realised what was behind them. I read on the Internet every-
thing I could about Bush’s trip to his ranch. Just the fact was
stated. They were surprised that he took a holiday so early in
his mandate. And for such a long time. He spent twenty-six
days at his ranch. He didn’t allow any press people to visit,
and didn’t invite a bunch of officials.
“Nobody, but nobody, understood! Here was George Bush,
the President of the United States of America, taking a colos-
sal step which not a single president had ever taken before in
the whole history of the country. Maybe not a single ruler has
ever thought of doing something like that over the past five
or ten thousand years!”
“You are right, they have not.”
“The beautiful thing is that for the first time the ruler of a
huge country, the most important country in the world, much
to the horror of all the priests, suddenly tore himself away
from his artificial information field. He simply picked him-
self up and left it behind. And with that he came out from
under the control of the occultists.
“Now I understand: rulers are always kept under control.
Their daily pronouncements are vigilantly followed, right
down to their intonations and facial expressions. Their ac-
tions are subject to correction through all kinds of informa-
tion tossed their way But when Bush escaped from that field
they were horrified. They tried reaching him through occult
means — you know, the way you put it, through remote voice
214
Book 6: The Book of Kin
commands. But that didn’t work — they didn’t reach him!
Just as you said — d’you remember? You said that Nature —
the flora and fauna — constituted the natural world, and it
does not permit harmful occult influences to reach Man. It
protects Man, provided Man has made contact with the natu-
ral world — the one he has created himself.”
“Yes, that is it, exactly”
“George Bush, of course, evidently did not create what was
growing on his ranch. But he was the one who selected the
location. He treated it with love — love for the Nature there,
which is obvious from many facts. And Nature reacted to his
love. It responded to him in kind. It protected him in the
same way as the vegetation growing in one’s family domain.
Is something like that possible, Anastasia, when someone
hasn’t planted things himself, yet they still react?”
“It is possible. Sometimes they will react when Man treats
his surroundings with sincerity and love. A similar thing hap-
pened in the case of George Bush.”
“So there! I was right. Here was the President on his very
own ranch. Everybody thought he wasn’t receiving any infor-
mation. But in actual fact the flow of artificial information
from the artificial world significantly lessened. And the flow
of natural information from the world around him signifi-
cantly increased. The President took it in through the rus-
tling of the leaves, the splashing of the water, the singing of
the birds and the whistling of the wind, and he meditated. He
analysed! He thought! This fact is something they will try to
‘wipe out’, to forget, or to refrain from talking about. They’ll
try to change the subject. But they won’t succeed! Bush will
still go down in millennial history.
“I’ve got it, Anastasia. Of course one can say a lot of intel-
ligent things and write a lot of songs and poems, like King
Solomon did in the Bible. Or one can act more radically and
convincingly, like Bush, and thereby say to the world: Look
A need to think
215
here, people. I’m rich, I have supreme power over the strongest coun-
try in the world. But none of this is the most important thing for
Man’s being. Man’s soul, along with its Divine essence, prefers some-
thing else: not an artificially created world . , but the natural world,
created by God. My ranch is dearer to my soul than gold and techno-
cratic achievements. And that is why I am going to my ranch. Ton
too should be thinking people, about your aspirations in life!
“The American President has come up with the best, the
strongest and most convincing advertisement for the fam-
ily domains you spoke of. The future family domains of
Russia — of the whole world! If people don’t understand it
after this, then mankind really is asleep. Or just about eve-
ryone’s under somebody’s hypnosis. And that’s why they’re
sick and in agony, that’s why they use drugs and go to war and
kill each other. If mankind doesn’t come out of this hypnosis
after your words, after Bush’s actions, then it’s going to take
a disaster.
“Bush is the President. He’s the most informed person
in our technocratic world, since he has access to informa-
tion from special services and various think tanks. And he
is aware of the information offered by the natural world. He
can do comparisons and analyses. He did this and showed
with his actions...
“Wait — another incredible coincidence. No, a whole se-
ries of coincidences — if, indeed, they are coincidences. You
were saying... You say things, and they come to pass... You
told me that at the start of the new millennium the Russian
President would pass a law concerning the land, to grant every
Russian family a hectare of land free of charge.
“Well, on the 21st of February 2001 all the TV news pro-
grammes carried a report on a session of the State Council of
governors under the chairmanship of the Russian President,
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. The session looked at the land
question — specifically, private ownership of land, including
21 6
Book 6: The Book of Kin
farmland. The various governors assembled had different
opinions on the question. The majority of regional leaders —
members of the State Council — were in favour of making
land available to Russians as private property
“Judging by his remarks and his address, as well as by the
fact that he was the one who had put the land question before
the State Council, it appeared that the President was also in
favour of allocating land to people as private property with
the right of inheritance.
“And so the upshot of the session was a directive to the gov-
ernment to prepare draft legislation on the land issue by May
of 2002 and present it to the State Duma for consideration.
“Of course they’re talking about selling, not giving the land
away for family domains, and farmland isn’t even on the table,
but all the same, it’s a palpable step in the right direction.
“Anastasia, is all this a chain of coincidences or did you
exert some kind of influence on people? Eh? You can give
remote voice commands too, can’t you? Of course you can.
And you do. Have you been talking with them?”
“Vladimir, I have not been talking with anyone except you,
and that has only been today, on the telephone. I have not
talked with anybody at a distance, as you suppose. And I nev-
er influence anyone against their will.”
“But one time when I was in Moscow I could hear your voice,
Anastasia. Yau weren’t around, yet I still heard your voice .” 3
“Grandfather, Vladimir, was near you at that time. Many
people can catch thoughts existing in space. It is a natural
ability of Man. Earlier all people could do this, and there is
nothing bad in it. Because there is no forcing. One Man can
touch another at a distance with his thought-ray, send him
warm cheer and thereby speed up the thinking process. Every
Man possesses this thought-ray, only in varying degrees.”
Preference to Book 2, Chapter 25: “The Space of Love”.
A need to think
217
“But your ray is very strong — have you tried touching peo-
ple with it?”
“Yes, I have. But I shall not mention their names.”
“Why not?”
“The touch of the ray is not important here. What is im-
portant is their ability to perceive reality”
‘Ml right, then, don’t name names. Only... Hey, I’ve got
an idea! You know what I just thought of? It’s terrific! After
all, you’re able not just to warm people with your ray at a dis-
tance, but to burn them too. You can even turn a stone into
dust — you demonstrated that once . 4 So what you should
do is burn up the perpetrators of terrorist acts. Burn up the
priests — along with all the demonic forces. You were telling
me. I remember writing it down: ‘With my Ray I shall take
but a moment to burn up the murk of age-old dogma. Stand
not between the people and God ...’ 5 And so forth. You re-
member those words of yours?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then what are you waiting for? Why don’t you burn them
up? After all, you said that...”
“I was talking about dogmas. I would never dare burn up
people with my ray.”
“Even the masterminds behind acts of terrorism?”
“Even with them I would not dare.”
“Why not?”
“Think about what you are saying, Vladimir.”
“What’s there to think about? Everyone knows the ter-
rorism masterminds and their accessories need to be de-
stroyed, right away. Armies of various countries have al-
ready been mobilised to this end. Special forces. People
are dying.”
4 See Book 3, Chapter 7: “Assault!”.
’See Book 3, Chapter 24: “Who are you, Anastasia?”.
2l8
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“Their efforts are to no avail. They will never find and nev-
er destroy the real masterminds. They will never be able to
stop terrorism that way.”
“All the more reason. If you can pinpoint and burn up the
masterminds and their accessories in a flash, then do it. Burn
them up!”
“Vladimir, perhaps you might give some thought to — you
might determine — just who are the masterminds’ accesso-
ries, and how many of them there are?”
“Well, sure, I could think about that. Only I doubt I’ll be
able to come up with an answer. If you know who, tell me
their names.”
“Very well. One of the accessories to terrorism is none oth-
er than you, Vladimir — along with your neighbours, friends
and acquaintances.”
“What? What are you saying, Anastasia? As for myself,
and my friends too, I’m absolutely certain that we are not ac-
cessories.”
“The lifestyle of most people, Vladimir, is fertile soil for
terror, disease and all sorts of catastrophes. Is not someone
who works in a factory producing machine guns and cartridg-
es an accessory to killings?”
“If they manufacture weapons, well, maybe, indirectly But
you were talking about me. And I don’t work in an arms fac-
tory.”
“But you smoke, Vladimir.”
“Well, yes. But what’s that got to do with it?”
“Smoking is harmful, hence it follows that you are terroris-
ing your own body”
“My own...? But we were talking about terrorising other
people...”
“Why bring up other people right off? Everyone should
carefully examine his own lifestyle. Especially those who live
in cities. Do people who ride in motor cars not know what
A need to think
219
deadly gas their motor car is polluting the air with? Do peo-
ple who live in large buildings divided up into a whole lot of
flats not know that it is harmful and dangerous to live in these
apartments? The way life is organised in big cities is aimed at
destroying Man and disorienting Man in respect to natural
space. The majority of people who live that way — they are
the ones who are accessories to terrorism.”
“Well, let’s say you’re right. But now many are beginning
to understand, and they’re going to change their lifestyle. So
help people, burn up the masterminds of terrorism with that
ray of yours.”
“Vladimir, in order to carry out your request, I would have
to charge my ray with a great deal of malicious energy capable
of destroying Man.”
“So, what of it? Go ahead and do it. After all, this Man is a
mastermind of terrorism.”
“I understand that. But before I can aim malicious en-
ergy at another, I would need to concentrate and produce
in myself a large amount of this energy. Afterward it can in-
ject itself into me again or be scattered in particles among
other people. Yes, I can destroy the High Priest, but his
program will continue to operate. And evil will find an-
other priest, and he will be even stronger than the one I
destroyed.
“You must understand, Vladimir, that terrorism, mur-
ders and crime are many thousands of years old. In Egypt
the pharaoh was poisoned by the priests for trying to oppose
their actions. When scientists opened his grave in the past
century, they discovered that Tutankhamen was only eight-
een years old.
“You have read in the Bible about the war of the priests.
You yourself might remember that it talks about it in the Old
Testament. Before all the Jews were to come out of Egypt,
the priests quarrelled among themselves.
220
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“The priest Moses asked for exclusive authority over the
Jews, but the other priests would not accede to his request,
and then the locusts came and attacked the Egyptian crops.
Then a plague came over all their children. Many people and
cattle fell victim to the disease. And finally the pharaoh let
the Jews go. The residents of Egypt were so frightened they
gave them cattle and weapons, as well as gold and silver.
“In the Old Testamen t it says that God was behind these at-
tacks in Egypt. But could such attacks really have come from
God? Of course, they could not have. God creates life to be
happy for everyone. The priests caused the terrorism in Egypt
when they were attempting to divide the authority among
themselves. And then they blamed God for their evil deeds.
“Remember, too, Vladimir, how Jesus was crucified on the
cross. Who was crucified along with him, on the crosses next
to him? Criminals! That is what the New Testament says.
And that was more than two thousand years ago. But they
had crime back at that time too. They executed criminals.
But what was the result? Crime still exists today It goes up
with each passing day Why? Spending thousands of years in
constant commotion, people have not realised that you can-
not fight evil with evil. In that kind of a fight evil will only get
bigger. That is why Vladimir, I cannot respond to evil with
malice.”
“Well, either you can’t or you don’t want to — I don’t sup-
pose it makes much difference overall. When you speak,
Anastasia, your arguments are very weighty indeed. It is quite
true that mankind has not been able to cope with lawlessness
for thousands of years. Maybe they’ve been using the wrong
methods all this time. Only when you look at the current sit-
uation in the world, no alternative to suppressing terrorism
by armed force comes to mind.
“And another thing: more and more often today we hear
the term religious extremism.. You’ve heard about that?”
A need to think
221
“Yes.”
‘And they even say: Islamic religious extremism. They say it’s
the strongest religious extremism of all.”
“Yes, so they say”
“So what’s to be done? After all, I have heard Islam is the
fastest-growing religion today. Many of my acquaintances are
Muslims, and these aren’t bad people, but on the other hand,
there are also extremists among the Islamists. They engage in
large-scale terrorist activities. How can we counteract them
except with military force?”
“The first thing is, not to lie.”
“Not lie to who?”
“To yourself.”
“How so?”
“You know, Vladimir, you have heard about Muslim reli-
gious extremism. Many people have been called terrorists.
You are not the only one who knows that — people have been
deliberately spreading the news all over the world. It is not
difficult to make a lot of people believe a notion like that,
when acts of terrorism are actually taking place and Muslims
participate in them. But when we talk about Muslim terror-
ism, we forget about another weighty argument.”
“Which one is that?”
“Those that are called extremists and terrorists believe
that it is they who are attempting to put an end to terror
and save their people from calamities. And their arguments
have substance to them. They believe that they are saving
the whole world from the plague brought on by the Western,
non-Muslim world.”
“You said that their arguments have substance to them.
But I have never heard anything about their arguments. If
you know about them, please tell me.”
“Fine, I shall tell you. But try to reason things through
for yourself, and then tell me which of the two warring sides
222
Book 6 : The Book of Kin
is right. The Muslim spiritual leaders say something along
this line to their flock: Look, people, look at what the unfaithful
bring. The Western world has sunk into the mire of promiscuity and
adultery. It wants to inject its fearful diseases into our children too.
Allah’s troops must stop the invasion of the unfaithful
“Wait, Anastasia, those are mere words. Where are their
arguments?”
“They cite facts showing that promiscuity, prostitution
and homosexuality are widespread in Western, non-Muslim
countries. Crime is prevalent. And every day more and more
people are using drugs. And they are unable to stop terrifying
diseases — AIDS, for example, and drunkenness.”
‘And you mean to say they don’t have any of that in the
Muslim countries?”
“Vladimir, in the Muslim world, in the Muslim countries,
there are far fewer drunkards and smokers. There are far
fewer cases of AIDS. Their birthrate is not falling as it is else-
where and there is much less marital infidelity”
“So, it turns out, both sides are convinced they are fighting
for a right cause?”
“Yes.”
“So, what’s ahead?”
“The priests believe they have already done everything
necessary to initiate and spread large-scale war. The Western
countries, the Christians, have joined together to attack the
Muslim world. Following this, the Muslim world will come
together, ready to fight. But the sides will not be equal: the
Muslims have no modern weapons. Then, upon seeing their
faithful brethren perish, they will get ready thousands of ter-
rorists to make the Western world quit. War will start, but it
will be stopped — they will not let it go ahead.”
“Who will stop it?”
“Your readers. A new world-view is being formed in them,
different from the one that has prevailed throughout the past
A need to think
223
millennia. They are creating in their dreams. Once dreams
begin to turn into reality, all wars and diseases will cease.”
“D’you mean to say that this will come about when con-
struction of family domains begins? But how do family do-
mains relate to the cessation of conflicts and religious opposi-
tion throughout the world?”
“The glad tidings of these domains will keep spread-
ing throughout the world. People all over the globe will be
roused out of their hypnotic incarceration, they will awaken
from their millennial sleep. They will change their way of life
and build a Divine world on the Earth with inspiration.”
“Of course, Anastasia, if what you say begins to take place,
and takes place everywhere on the Earth, then the world will
indeed change. I know that you dream about this. You be-
lieve in your dream and will never betray it. And many people
have understood your idea in regard to the family domains.
These people are really starting to take action.
“But, Anastasia, you don’t know everything. Come! Come
to my flat, to my office. I have something I want to show
you right now, and you will see, you’ll understand for yourself
what these people are up against.”
“We shall go, Vladimir, and you will show me what has
troubled you so.”
Who is for, who is against?
Upon entering the flat, Anastasia took off her cardigan and
kerchief, letting her golden hair fall to her shoulders. She
224
Book 6: The Book of Kin
gave her head a light shake, and the flat was at once filled with
the enchanting fragrances of the taiga.
I took a chair and put it next to my own arm chair by the
desk, turned on my computer and logged on to the Internet.
Not all people in Russia today will know what that is. And
so I shall give a brief explanation. The Internet is an electron-
ic information network, or ‘web’, which has been developing
at an intensive pace in many countries of the world. With the
aid of a computer one can tap in (or ‘log on’) to this network
through a telephone line connected to a server. A server is a
special powerful computer containing all sorts of information
pages. On most servers one has the opportunity of posting
one’s own messages.
The Anastasia Foundation for Culture and Assistance to
Creativity, based in Vladimir , 6 together with the Moscow
firm known as Russki ekspress (Russian Express) has also set up
its own server and its own site at the address: Anastasia.ru.
Thus any readers with a computer can type in the address
on their keyboard and not only visit our site, but they can send
us an electronic message expressing their opinions about the
books, find out what other readers have said about them, and
argue or discuss any particular question.
Those that do not have their own computer can gain access
to our website through one of the Internet cafes which now
operate in all the regional and provincial centres of Russia, as
well as, I am sure, in most major cities.
From time to time I too log on to the Internet and look up
what my readers have been saying. I have not been able to do
this very often, as I simply have not had time to respond to all
the correspondence I receive by regular mail. And last year
the Anastasia.ru site received more than fourteen thousand
1 The Anastasia Foundation for Culture and Assistance to Creativity, Vladimir —
see Book 5, Chapter 15: “Making it come true”.
A need to think
225
postings. People discussed concrete questions connected
with Anastasia’s ideas on family domains. They suggested
draft changes to the Russian Constitution; some were think-
ing to hold a referendum on this issue.
The substance of Anastasia’s idea about granting every will-
ing family no less than a hectare of land on which to organise
a family domain was set forth in appeals to President Putin
more accurately and with more cogent back-up arguments
than I had expressed in my own appeal, published in the book
Who are we? 7 In any case, you can judge for yourselves. For
those readers without Internet access I am reproducing here
an excerpt from one of the appeals.
Open letter to the President of the Russian Federation
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,
Over the years of Soviet power, which even today many of
us still remember as the best years of our lives, a most frightful
thing, you know, happened: we — the citizens of this Great
Country, Russia, historically a mighty Power, which emerged
victorious from the terrible Second World War and in an in-
credibly short period of time was able to build up its war-ruined
economy — we transformed ourselves, without our even being
aware of it, into weak-willed... parasites and welfare bums.
Look back — in Soviet times we all went to work without ever
worrying about a job opening, and received a stable salary on
which we could lead a normal life. We handed over our children
to be schooled and were assured of their future. We knew that
upon reaching retirement age we as pensioners would receive a
stable pension and quietly live out our years... And this stability,
See Book 5, Chapter 16: “Open letter to the President”.
226
Book 6: The Book of Kin
this mighty totalitarian system, played a dirty trick on us: hav-
ing got accustomed to social passivity social apathy and indif-
ference, and now no longer enjoying access to a stable source
of income, we have begun to get very upset, liou see, we did
not start to take action or improve our lives — we just started
vilifying and railing like the blazes at the powers that be — each
President and each Government in turn — blaming them and
them alone for our Present Situation. After all, we figure it is up
to them to pay us a stable salary and take care of our present and
our future, while we simply live our lives for our own pleasure,
and do nothing to support this Stability and Prosperity I think
you will agree that when there is movement only in one direc-
tion — that is parasitism. If all we want to do is receive and give
nothing in return, well, that’s parasitism for you.
And now something amazing has happened: thousands and
tens of thousands have risen up under the impulse to make
something happen, to create !
To create — - a splendid flourishing corner of their
Motherland — - Russia.
To create — a splendid Present and Future for themselves
and their children.
To create — their own Material and Spiritual Prosperity
To create — ■ Russia to be the wealthiest and most flourish-
ing country in the world!
And for that these people need nothing more than a small
plot of land a mere hectare in size. Along with the assur-
ance that this land will not be subsequently taken away from
them — their Motherland, where they will Create for ever a
Space of Love for themselves and their children. A Space of
Love — which will be comprised of all the flourishing corners
of our vast Russia and proclaim to the Whole World the Great
Miracle — the Renaissance of Russia the Great!
It seems to me that even now in Russia a situation has
come about that any Ruler — you can call him a President,
A need to think
227
if you like — might dream about: a situation where people
themselves desire to work and create their own material and
spiritual well-being, asking nothing from the state except a
plot of land and a sign of stability expressed in Law.
Isn’t this the dream of any state — to open up an inexhaust-
ible source of wealth and well-being within itself, to find stabil-
ity within itself and independence from external troubles?
Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Like thousands of other Russian
citizens, I should like to affirm once more my intention to create
my little comer of my Motherland, Russia, to make it into a flour-
ishing garden for many generations of my descendants.
Like thousands of other Russian citizens, I hereby reaffirm
my intention of labouring for the good of my family and for
the good of my Motherland.
Like thousands of other Russian citizens, I have stopped
unthinkingly and relentlessly criticising either you or our
Government, realising the complexity' and responsibility of
your work.
Like thousands of other Russian citizens, I believe in your
wisdom and far-sightedness, and am confident that you will take
a responsible approach to appraising the current situation.
The time has finally come for you and us to work together
as a fraternal team, a team of like-minded thinkers, for us to
understand and accept you as a close friend, and then you will
feel our love and support and look after us, too, with love, as
the People entrusted to your charge.
And together we shall create a splendid Present and Future for
our children, for our Russia!
20 July 2001
Vadim Ponomaryov, citizen of Russia
228
Book 6: The Book of Kin
They defamed our forebears too
One day on my computer I opened up an Internet search
engine, which lists all the various websites containing any
key word you type in. I typed in the word Anastasia. And
the monitor immediately lit up with an impressive list: 246
Russian-language sites, together with links to their web ad-
dresses.
Still not believing that they all related to the Siberian
Anastasia, I began following the links and familiarising my-
self with the content of these pages. It turned out that the
vast majority of them did in fact discuss at varying length
the Siberian Anastasia. Her ideas were treated favourably
on many of the sites. At first I was delighted by this, but as
I delved deeper into the volume of information available on
the Internet, I began coming up against an even more incred-
ible phenomenon. Several of the sites offered a selection
of articles from the press, along with anonymous messages,
claiming that the movement associated with Anastasia was a
sect, and all the readers of the books were categorised as sec-
tarians. One of the sites featured a list (either full or partial)
of the existing sects in Russia, and the list included Anastasia 1
and her supporters. There was no mention of the basis for
such a conclusion or of who was spreading such rumours —
they were simply set forth as though they were a given fact
that apparently everybody had known about for a long time.
The articles and brief comments from various national and
regional publications posted on different websites were very
similar to each other, and they always came to the same con-
clusion: that the Ringing Cedars of Russia movement was either
a sect or a business. The Anastasia movement was lumped
in with such sectarian organisations as Aum Shinrikyo , 8 and
classified as a ‘totalitarian sect’. They even used words like
A need to think
229
‘bigots’ and ‘destructivism’. No concrete facts were cited, just
the conclusion, and that was it.
Not knowing the exact definition of the word totalitarian-
ism, I looked it up in my Great Encyclopedic Dictionary S * * * 9 and
read the following:
Totalitarianism is one of the forms of domination, charac-
terised by its complete control over all spheres of a soci-
ety’s life along with the virtual liquidation of constitutional
rights and freedoms, also by repression of political opposi-
tion and dissenters (for example, the various forms of total-
itarianism in Fascist Germany and Italy or the Communist
regime in the USSR).
Now that’s pretty steep! What they’re saying in effect is
that I or Anastasia have been in control of some flashy totali-
tarian sect ready to overthrow authority, abolish constitution-
al freedoms and institute a fascist regime. But I categorically
deny that I have had any governing role in any kind of organisa-
tion, all the more so in the case of Anastasia. Throughout the
past six years I have been working exclusively on my books,
and once or twice a year I give talks at readers’ conferences
which are open to anyone who wishes to attend. My talks have
been recorded on tape, and anybody can have access to them.
But why, for what purpose and by whom is this bald-faced
lie being spread abroad? In one of the newspaper articles,
S Aum Shinrikyo (also spelt Senrikyo ) — a Japanese Buddhist religious group
founded by Shoko Asahara; some of its members were held responsible for
the 1995 gas attack on a Tokyo underground (subway) line. In 2000 the
organisation’s name was changed to Alepb (the first letter of the Hebrew
and Arabic alphabets). In 2006, after years in prison, Shoko Asahara was
sentenced to death.
9 Great Encyclopedic Dictionary ( Bol’shoi Entsiklopedicheski Slovar '), edited
by A.M. Prokhorov, 2nd ed. Moscow & St. Petersburg, 2002.
230
Book 6: The Book of Kin
this one in the Vladimir-region supplement to Komsomol’skaya
pravda, it says that in the Anastasia books readers are en-
couraged to give up their city apartments and go off into the
woods.
How can that be? I thought. After all, Anastasia says the ex-
act opposite. Here are her direct words: “There is no need to
go live in the forest. You need to clean up the place you have
been polluting first .” 10 And she calls upon people to build
their family domains near big cities, and gradually change
their lifestyle to one more civilised and more favourable to
one’s soul and physical health.
Not having the opportunity to personally review the tre-
mendous amount of information, let alone analyse it, I turned
to several well-known experts in political science to examine
the situation independently of each other and draw their
conclusions. Each of them asked considerable compensation
for their work, given that they had to read through all five
books plus the huge amount of information connected with
the books which had been posted on the Internet. I had no
choice but to accept their terms.
Three months later I received the first expert’s conclusions
and, not long afterward, the remaining reports. Even though
they expressed their findings in different words, since they
did not know each other and were working independently,
they came to pretty much the same conclusions. I shall cite a
few typical excerpts from one of the reports:
There is a whole targeted, clearly formulated campaign di-
rected against the Ringing Cedars of Russia series of books,
with the aim of preventing the spread of these books
among the population at large...
'“Quoted (from two separate sentences) from Book 3, Chapter 2r: “Should
we all go live in the forest?”.
A need to think
231
The pivotal ideas of the books are the strengthening of
the state, the achievement of the greatest possible unanim-
ity in the various social strata of the population through
the well-being of each individual family. This condition of
well-being is achieved by virtue of each willing family being
allotted no less than one hectare of land for lifetime use.
In the context of the books this idea is the most persuasive
and takes precedence over all others. Consequently, the
series’ opponents, whatever the arguments they put for-
ward, are in fact denouncing this particular idea.
The next question raised by the Ringing Cedars of Russia
series — the Divine nature of Alan, his spiritual origin —
may provoke animosity on the part of many religious de-
nominations. The book’s main heroine declares that Man’s
existence in Paradise should be built here on the Earth and
by Man himself. Man is eternal, only changing his fleshly
form from one century to the next. Our whole natural
environment is created by God and comprises His living
thoughts. It is only by making contact with Nature that
Man can comprehend what God has programmed and the
substance of His purpose for Man on the Earth...
This whole concept, the reasoning behind it and its ex-
treme persuasiveness cannot fail to provoke opposition,
especially among religious fanatics who believe that the
end of the world is inevitable and that some people will be
transported into a Paradise beyond the clouds while oth-
ers are sent to hell. Such a concept is favourable to many
people who have been unable to make their own life happy
during their existence here on the Earth.
The opposition to the ideas of the series’ main heroine
(Anastasia) is being effected by the circulation, through the
mass media, of rumours that its readers, who have taken the
initiative to put a number of the projects suggested by the
books into practice, belong to some sort of totalitarian sect.
232
Book 6: The Book of Kin
This approach is quite deliberate, inasmuch as it serves
to distance the authorities from contacts with enterpris-
ing readers and from examining their specific proposals, as
well as from discussing the problems raised in the books
in the mass media. It also serves to interfere with the cir-
culation of the books and the ideas put forward in them.
It should be pointed out that the opposition has achieved
their aim. According to reports on hand, claims about the
readers belonging to a sect are being circulated in many
government agencies.
The specific objectives of the opposition are not clearly
presented — they remain quite enigmatic.
As a rule, when candidates competing for office use
dirty tricks in their campaigns, it is easy to guess who is
instigating them. Similarly in the economic sphere, when
individual firms are competing for business, it is not dif-
ficult to determine who is behind a smear campaign and
why The goal is always clear — to knock off or weaken the
competition.
Anastasia talks about a new consciousness for Man, a
new way of life, establishing the state on a more perfect
foundation.
Who would oppose an aspiration like that? Only forces
interested in the destruction of individual families, states
and society as a whole. The existence of such forces can
be traced through their conspicuous opposition — in this
case, in launching actions directed at Anastasia herself
and her ideas, as well as against the readers of the Ringing
Cedars of Russia series. To all appearances they are acting
through agencies either directly or indirectly under their
jurisdiction, as well as through individuals.
I showed Anastasia isolated excerpts from the discussions
of the subject on the Internet, and read her the expert’s con-
A need to think
233
elusions, in the hope that the situation portrayed would some-
how move her or rouse her into taking corrective action.
But Anastasia continued sitting quietly beside me on her
chair, her hands resting on her knees, her face showing absolute-
ly no concern. On the contrary, it even betrayed a little smile.
“What are you smiling for, Anastasia?” I enquired. “Doesn’t
it bother you at all that they are slandering your readers? The
fact that they are blocking their initiatives to obtain land for
the family domains?”
“I am delighted, Vladimir, by the inspired impulse on the
part of so many people, by their understanding of the es-
sence and significance of what they are undertaking. See how
thoughtfully they are setting forth their thoughts and draw-
ing up plans for the future. And the appeal to the President
is better than the one you formulated in your earlier book.
As well as their making plans to hold a conference with that
wonderful title: Choose your future ! 11 It is very good when peo-
ple start reflecting on their future.”
“They certainly are making plans, Anastasia. But don’t you
see how their plans are being thwarted? What a tricky move
someone thought up — to call them all sectarians, striking
fear into the population and discouraging administrative
bodies from contact with them? Don’t you see that?”
“I see it. But there is nothing new or sophisticated in such
opposition. The same approach was used to destroy the cul-
ture, lifestyle and knowledge of our forebears. And now the
dark forces are using the old methods again. And they will
even come up with provocations, and then spread frightening
rumours. This has happened before, Vladimir.
n The conference later took place in February 2002 in Moscow’s Palace of
’'rbuth ( Dvorets molodiozhi) and was attended by hundreds of readers from
all over Russia and abroad. The conference’s Proceedings, including pres-
entations on economics, law, ecology, public policy and other subjects were
subsequently published as a separate volume.
234 Book 6: The Book of Kin
“Exactly — this happened before. And they won. You said
yourself — they destroyed the culture of our forebears. They
distorted history That means that now, too, using a tested
method, they’ll win again. If they haven’t won already Hey,
just a simple question like granting every willing family a hec-
tare of land — it’s been impossible to solve for a year now.
It would have been okay if they’d asked for that hectare
for something obscene. But it’s impossible to get land for the
purpose of organising one’s family domain, for normal living
conditions and a supply of food. Those refugees that have
been living in tent cities for more than three years now ' 3 — if
they — at least the ones who wanted it — had each been given
a hectare of land, by now they could have turned it into a de-
cent human place to live. I’ve thought quite a bit, Anastasia,
about what colossal changes could take place in our country, if
only the authorities would not oppose but help people aspir-
ing to create their own domains. But such a simple little ques-
tion regarding the allocation of land is not being solved.”
In October 2006 a central Russian daily newspaper with a circulation of
1.6 million featured an article (subsequently reprinted in other editions
throughout the country) claiming that destructive behaviour on the part
of readers of the Series had reached the point of feeding their children to
wild beasts and copulating on tombstones of the dolmens — all at Vladimir
Megre’s instigation. Similarly, a thousand years earlier Christian ‘histori-
ans’ alleged that pagans were offering human sacrifices and engaging in
public orgies.
’’A reference to the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the war
in Chechnya — see footnote 4 in Book 5, Chapter 17: “Questions and an-
swers”.
A need to think
235
Glad tidings
“This question is far from simple, Vladimir. It actually in-
volves major changes on our planet and in the Universe.
When millions of happy Earth families begin to consciously
transform the planet into a flourishing garden, the harmony
reigning on the Earth will have an effect on other planets and
the whole space of the Universe. Right now the planet Earth
is sending a poisonous stench into the Cosmos. And more
and more garbage is piling up in orbit. And a malicious energy
is radiating from the direction of the Earth. A different en-
ergy will be emitted when there is a change in the conscious
awareness of Earth dwellers. And then the grace emanating
from the Earth will bestow flourishing gardens upon other
planets.”
“Wow, how grand! And has there never been such an op-
portunity before in human history? After all, in Russia back
before the revolution landlords had their family estates. And
now in many countries there is private ownership of land. We
have farmers too who rent out land for extended periods. But
nothing comes of it. Why not?”
“There has been no conscious awareness — the kind that
is growing today in human minds and souls as little shoots
of the Divine. What you called a straightforward question,
Vladimir, during the occult millennia was the greatest secret
held by the priests. Many religions through the ages have
talked about God, but not one of them has ever stated the
obvious: in consciously communing with Nature, Man com-
munes with the Divine thought. To understand Space is to
understand God.
‘And even the thought or the dream of a family domain,
where everything is in harmony with you, embodies much
more closeness to God than a whole lot of convoluted rituals.
236
Book 6: The Book of Kin
All the mysteries of the Universe will be unfolded to Man.
And all at once Man will discover within himself capabilities
that he cannot even imagine today And Man will become
truly Godlike — the Man that begins to create the Divine
world around him.
“Think, why do not ‘wise-men’ ever mention this anywhere?
All because once Man understands his earthly essence and
his capabilities, he will become free from occult spells. The
power of the priests will disappear. Nobody and nothing will
ever have power over a Man who has created a Space of Love
around him. And no harsh and threatening judge will the
Creator be for such a Man, but rather a father and a friend.
“This is why through the centuries they have come up with
so many tricks to turn Man away from his purpose. Land!
Such a straightforward question, you say, Vladimir. But think
about how centuries have passed and Man still does not have
family land of his own. You were mentioning farmers and
landlords. But with their family domain they hired other peo-
ple to work the land. They have endeavoured to get as much
profit as possible out of their land. People who did not work
the land themselves could not treat it with love. And often
seeds were sown in the ground in anger, and malice grew.
“For thousands of years simple truths have been hid from
the people. Other people’s hands and thoughts should not be
compelled to touch one’s family land. In different ages rulers
have offered people land allotments, but in such a way that the
meaning of their earthly deeds has not been clear to people.
“If a Man is given just a small piece of land — a quarter of a
hectare, for example — his family will not be able to build an
oasis there which will serve him effortlessly. A large tract of
land is too much for a Man to govern independently and he
will end up hiring helpers, thereby involving other people’s
thoughts. So people have been drawn away by trickery and
chicanery from what is important.”
A need to think
237
“Does this mean, Anastasia, that not a single religion over
thousands of years has ever called upon people to create
Divine oases on the Earth’s land? On the contrary, they have
spent all their time calling people’s thought away from the
land, somewhere else. So it turns out that they...”
“Vladimir, do not say unflattering words about religion.
Your spiritual father, the monk Feodorit,' 4 led you to where
you are today And it is largely thanks to him that you and I
met in the first place. The time has come today when congre-
gations of all the various denominations need to think about
how to save our spiritual leaders from disaster.”
“What kind of disaster?”
“The same kind that happened in the past century — when
people sacked the temples and put ministers of various faiths
to death.”
“Yju mean under the Soviet regime... But now, you see, we
have democracy freedom of religion and the authorities treat
all religions — or at least the major ones — with respect. How
could the events of bygone years all at once repeat themselves?”
“You should take a closer look at what is happening today,
Vladimir. You know that many countries have joined togeth-
er in the struggle against terrorism.”
“Yes.”
“They have pointed their finger at other countries as the
ones promoting terrorism. And they have publicised the
names of the instigators. They have accused, among oth-
ers, some spiritual and religious leaders, and special forces
have been assigned to hunt them down. But that is only the
beginning. Reports have been given to the leaders of coun-
tries both large and small exposing the nature of many reli-
gions, and they include a whole lot of examples of how these
14 Feodorit — see Book 2, Chapter 24: “Father Feodorit”.
238
Book 6: The Book of Kin
religions themselves were responsible for fomenting acts of
terror and wars on the Earth. In these reports, which have
already been prepared, analysts have set forth everything ac-
curately and convincingly. Information about many terrible
crimes will now gradually come to light. They will remind
people of an endless succession of wars like the Crusades, in-
trigues, perversions and greed among the ministers of the oc-
cult. When anger builds up in a whole lot of people, pogroms
may be launched in many places, and these may include the
destruction of temples.
‘At the moment, clerics from a number of religions are try-
ing to put a stop to religious extremism, making declarations
to the effect that the extremists have nothing in common
with them — indeed, these clerics openly condemn extrem-
ism. For the moment, these declarations are being accepted.
Or, rather, the political leaders feign ignorance... and say they
are satisfied with the declarations.
“In the meantime, these secret reports are already claim-
ing that religions are programming people, using any kind of
pretext. The pretext may be well-intentioned — calling the
faithful to good works, for example. But any faith in some-
thing a Man cannot see, especially one which he accepts un-
questioningly as truth from a preacher, is always fraught with
the danger that the thoughts of the programmed believer
may be redirected at the will of the preacher, and so today’s
believers may easily be transformed into tomorrow’s suicide
bombers. And a whole lot of different facts from both past
and present are cited in the reports as evidence in support of
this conclusion. Before long the rulers will become inclined
to the opinion that they should select one religion and put it
completely under their control, at the same time declaring all
others harmful and deserving of elimination.
“Subsequently, if they do not succeed in drawing all the
people into one religion, then the next step is to destroy all
A need to think
2 39
religions, at least within their own borders. Such a decision
will lead to a never-ending war. This war has already started,
it is already going on. It must be stopped. And this can only
be done in one way — by giving birth to a conscious aware-
ness on the part of our spiritual leaders. Only glad tidings
can restore peace to all the Earth. Those that accept the glad
tidings and proclaim them in temples both great and small —
they will fill the temples with multitudes of people. Those
that do not perceive the sayings will find themselves in tem-
ples that are empty and decaying.”
“What glad tidings are your referring to, Anastasia? Can
you explain it a little more simply?”
“People who call themselves spiritual leaders, who talk of
God and teach children in the schools today, should recognise
as a God-pleasing deed the co-creation of a Space of Love in
the personal domain of every family dwelling on the Earth.
Not only to recognise this but to create designs as well for fu-
ture projects together with their parishioners. To endeavour,
along with the people, to bring back the knowledge of pris-
tine origins. To dream and discuss such a theme, and then to
bring the design to perfection in all its detail. The process of
creating the dream will take many years. Then, when all this
comes to prevail upon the Earth, people will live in harmony,
in a real, Divine Space of Love.”
“I’ve got it, Anastasia. You want everyone to begin study-
ing Nature in all the temples of whatever religious persua-
sion, and in the schools and in institutions of higher learning.
To master the science of creating a family domain according
to a special design. Let’s say this can actually bring various
religious denominations together into a common alliance —
not just in words but in deeds. Let’s suppose it could really
awaken people from their hypnotic sleep, put an end to ter-
rorism, drug use and a whole lot of other negative tendencies
in society.
240
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“Let’s suppose. But... How will you be able to convince
all the patriarchs and all the clerics, and in so many differ-
ent denominations? How will you be able to convince all the
secular educational institutions? A lot of things you say come
true, Anastasia, but what you’re talking about at the moment
is completely unfeasible, sheer pie in the sky!”
“It is feasible. They have no other choice now”
“But that’s just what you think. Just you. These are mere
words that you’re saying.”
“But the One who allows me to utter these ‘mere’ words, as
you put it, possesses power unsurpassed. You may remember
back seven-plus years ago, back when you were still an entre-
preneur, that I stood before you and drew letters in the sand
by the lake in the taiga.”
“Yes, I remember, but what of it?”
‘And then all at once you began to write books, and now
a whole lot of people are already reading them. Who do you
think was mainly responsible for this? The sand by the taiga
lake? Or the stick I drew with? Or the words I articulated?
Or perhaps your hand created the books all by itself? And
later poetry welled up like a sacred spring in human hearts.
Who was the chief Creator behind these works of art?”
“I don’t know Possibly all the factors played a part.”
“Believe me, Vladimir — please try to understand. It is His
energy that stands behind everything that was created. It is
His energy that inspired human hearts. And it will continue
to inspire them.”
“Perhaps, but somehow it is hard to believe that church
ministers will start to act the way you say”
“You should believe in this. And visualise a gladsome pros-
pect within yourself, and then it will come to achievement.
All the more so, since that is no longer hard for you to do.
You remember how an Orthodox village priest came to you
to cheer up your crestfallen spirits . 15 Another priest paid for
A need to think
241
your books with his own money and then distributed them to
the prisons. And your Father Feodorit talked with you about
a lot of things... Do you remember?”
“I do.”
‘And you should realise, too, that not all church ministers
share the same world-view. There are those who will proclaim
the glad tidings.”
“Yes, I think you’re right. But there will be others who will
begin to oppose them. Especially the Fligh Priest you spoke
about — his occult agents will think up some kind of new in-
trigue.”
“Of course they will, but all the dark forces’ endeavours
will now be in vain. The process has begun and it has already
attained the point of no return. People will learn first hand
of their earthly Paradise. These are mere words, you will say.
But here, I shall now utter two simple words — and a part of
the darkness will be illumined with light. Let the rest of the
darkness tremble and begin to conceal their names, as they
fail to win the possibility of turning into reality And these
words are utterly simple: The Book of Kin .” 16
’’See Book 4, Chapter 24: “Take back your Motherland, people!”.
l6 Tbe Book of Kin — a translation of the two-word Russian phrase Rodovaya
kniga.
Chapter Ten
“Yes, the words are certainly simple, all right,” I observed.
‘And just why are all the forces of darkness supposed to trem-
ble at hearing them?”
“They are afraid of what is behind the words,” replied
Anastasia. “Do you know who will write this book? And how
many pages it will have?”
“How many? And who will write them?”
“Just a few days will go by, and millions of fathers and moth-
ers in many a land will be writing the Book of Kin, filling in its
pages with their own hand. There will be avast multitude of
them — these Books of Kin. And all of them will contain the
truths which begin in the heart, for their children. There will
be no room in these books for artifice or guise. Before them
all the lies of history will fall.
“You can surmise what would happen, Vladimir, if you
could take into your hands today a book which your ancestor
of old had begun to write especially for you. Then another
would continue the writing, eventually your grandfather, and
your father and your mother.
“The books read by Man today include many that are de-
vised with a specific aim in mind — namely, the distortion of
history and of the meaning of life. Many false dogmas are es-
pecially designed to disorient Man in space. This is not easily
discernible all at once. But clarity comes directly a son reads a
book of his forebears, which his father and mother have con-
tinued personally for him.”
“But wait, Anastasia, not everyone knows how to write a book.”
The Book of Kin
243
“Everyone can if they feel the demand to do so — if they
are looking to protect their children, and in the future them-
selves, from false dogmas. In Vedic times every father and
mother would write a book of kin for their future children
and grandchildren. This book was not comprised of words,
but of deeds. Children could read created space like a book,
and understand the deeds and thoughts of their parents, and
were happy to inherit a happy space. Only one thing was
missing from that book — children were not alerted to the
world of the occult. It was not part of the complete aware-
ness of the omniscient Veduns . 1 Now that all mankind has
been able to detect in their own experience the devastating
influences exerted on themselves by the occult dogmas, they
will certainly be able to protect their children from them.
“Even if there are not yet any domains to bloom in the
spring, thoughts about them are already alive in many human
hearts. They need to start writing a book precisely about their
thoughts, for their children.”
‘And why, Anastasia, does every parent need to write? Look,
I’ve written books about domains and an architect from the
suburb of Medvedkovo 2 is working on a design for a whole
settlement. Besides, there is a flurry of Internet discussions
on the subject — isn’t that enough?”
“It is not enough, Vladimir. Take a closer look at what has
been going on. You have been writing books, but other peo-
ple are writing books too, to counteract yours. There are so
l Vedtm (pron. ve-DOON) — in Slavic and Hindu traditions: a revered wise
man. Like the word Vedic, it is derived from, the Old Slavic (originally Indo-
European) root vet i- meaning knowledge ox full awareness.
~ Medvedkovo — a northern Moscow suburb, founded in the 16th century
as the estate of Vasili Fiodrovich Pozharsky, who bore the nickname ot
Medved’ (Bear). Note that this word includes the roots med- (honey) and
ved- (know) — the bear was originally named in Russian for his knowledge
of where honey could be found.
244
Book 6: The Book of Kin
many books that a Man could not hope to read even half of
them over his lifetime. And look, there is a daily flow of in-
formation to Man that does not come from books. And even
though it seems very diversified, all that information really
comes down to the same result: it justifies and glorifies the
unreal world of the occult. What can help the newcomer to
the world determine where the truth and where the false-
hood lies?
“The holy temple of the family will help in this — the Book
of Kin. In it a mother and father will write for their son and
daughter about what is the most important thing that needs
to be created for happiness in life. The children will continue
to record the Book of Kin. There will be no wiser and truer
books for families anywhere on the Earth. All the knowledge
of their pristine origins will be poured into it.”
“But how, Anastasia, how can knowledge of one’s pristine
origins turn up in a book which people are only beginning to
write today? Where are they to find such knowledge? You
said that the culture of our forebears, their books, were all
destroyed.”
“Those that will begin to write already have this knowledge
concealed within themselves. It is preserved within each one
of us. When people think deeply and begin to write not just
for anyone, but for their children, all the knowledge of their
pristine origins will be revealed within them and come to
light.”
“So that means that before they start to write, they first
need to think, so that wise thoughts may be set forth right
from the very fust pages of the book?”
“The first pages maybe outwardly very simple.”
“Can you give me some examples?”
“When was the Man who began to write this Book of Kin
born? What was his name? For what purpose and with what
thoughts did he take pen in hand and approach the pages of
The Book of Kin 245
this most important book? And what did he plan to create in
the future?”
“Such a book,” I observed, “would be easy to begin for any-
one who, let’s say, has been a famous artist, or a governor, or a
scholar, or a die-hard entrepreneur. But what about someone
who has simply lived a life? Say someone’s been working and
can barely make ends meet, he scarcely earns enough for food
and clothing. What could he possibly write for his children,
what advice could he give them?”
“The rulers of today, and those who bask before the public
in rays of glory, and those who have accumulated a whole lot
of money, will find it difficult from now on to have an answer
for their children. People quicldy forget their deeds of yes-
teryear. But what a Man has contributed to his future will be
appreciated by future generations. Are you or anyone else in
the habit of recalling past governors, famous artists or entre-
preneurs?”
“Not very often — or, rather, I don’t really think about
them at all. I don’t even know their names. But children will
take great pride in remembering what their parents did.”
‘And their children will try to forget — they will be ashamed
just at the mention of their parents’ names.”
“Why should the children be ashamed?”
“Because fate offered their parents such great opportuni-
ties, but they could not grasp the fact that fate is affording us
opportunities only — invariably — for the purpose of creat-
ing the future. In his one lifetime, Man should be endeavour-
ing to create the next life for himself — a life in which he can
embody himself anew and live for ever.
“Every Man can even today plan out a domain and a Space
of Love, they can create their design and try to obtain the land.
They can use that land to plant a few saplings or plant seeds of
family trees. Perhaps they will not be able to grow to maturity,
say, a whole grove, or a green hedge, or a splendid garden, in
246
Book 6: The Book of Kin
their lifetime. Perhaps a poor old man will not even be able to
lay a foundation for his house. But he will be able to write in
the Book of Kin for his grandchildren, for his children: I was
poor, it was only in my old age that I began to think on the meaning of
life, on what I have handed to my children. And I have created a plan
for a space for our family, I have described it for you, my children, in a
book. I have been able to plant nine fruit trees in the garden, as well
as just one tree on the spot where a grove will grow.
“The years will flow on, the grandson will read that book
and remember his grandfather. He will go up to the mighty,
majestic cedar or oak growing amidst a lot of other trees on
the land of his kin’s domain. His thought, overflowing with
love and gratitude will soar into space, will merge with his
grandfather’s thought, and then a new plane of being will be
born for both of them. A whole life in eternity is afforded
to Man. The settling of the Earth and the planets of the
Universe is nothing more than a transformation for each Man
within himself.
“The Book of Kin will help convey the glad tidings to one’s
descendants, and help the soul of the beginning writer to once
again embody itself upon the Earth.”
“Well, Anastasia, you attach such importance to this book
that I too have the desire to start writing one for my descend-
ants. I have the intuitive feeling that in this idea of yours
about the book is something most unusual and grand. Wow!
That’s quite a name: The Book of Kin, The Kin’s Book, the most
holy book for the family.
“But what should it be written on? Ordinary paper will
soon yellow and disintegrate. And the binding on notebooks
and albums tends to look rather primitive. After all, if the
book is destined for one’s descendants — if, as you say, it is
of such great importance — then the paper and the binding
should correspond too. What do you think? What should be
used?”
The Book of Kin
2 47
“That kind, for example...” And she nodded in the direc-
tion of a book lying on my desk. I followed her gaze, and a
moment later I was holding something quite extraordinary
in my hands...
Some time ago a man named Sergei from Novosibirsk had
sent me a copy of my Anastasia. The customary publisher’s
binding had been cut off, and the pages transferred to anoth-
er — I was going to say binding, but that’s not the right word
for what these pages had been put into. A Siberian craftsman
had created an extraordinary work of art. The whole cover,
including the spine, had been made out of valuable species of
wood — the edges were of beech with cedar inside the frame.
All the details were decorated with finely carved ornaments,
text and illustrations. One could hardly apply the ordinary
term cover to all this. The term casing \\ T ox\\d probably be more
appropriate. The front and back parts were fastened togeth-
er on one side by the spine, on the other by a little lock. All
the little parts were finely fitted together. When the book
was closed, the pages were evenly positioned between the
front and back parts of the casing, thus preventing the paper
from buckling under conditions of either high or low humid-
ity The pages would not flutter even from a draught of air, in
contrast to some other books which I put beside it for com-
parison. Many visitors who saw this work of art would hold
it for a long time in their hands, looking it over carefully with
joyful admiration.
Following Anastasia’s gaze, I took the book with the wood-
en casing into my hands, felt its warmth and began to under-
stand. Perhaps it was thanks to this extraordinary work that
I really understood the tremendous significance of the Book
of Kin Anastasia had been talking about.
She sat there meekly on the chair beside me, her hands
modestly resting on her knees. But I got the feeling that she
was wiser than all the priests and dynastic leaders right from
248
Book 6: The Book of Kin
ancient times, wiser than our modem analysts. And through
her wisdom and purity of thought she is able to overcome all
the negative manifestations in human society. Where did
these capabilities of hers come from? What school or system
of child-raising can endow Man with such abilities?
Wow! What an unusual, incredible step to think up — a
Book of Kin! I couldn’t stop myself from letting my mind get
carried away and... Just look what a grand thing she’s come
up with!
Nobody has so far been able to counteract the flood of var-
ious kinds of suggestions which has been rushing at people in
different countries minute by minute — first and foremost,
at our children.
Suggestions! Our TV features a constant parade of action
films supposedly for the purpose of public entertainment, but
in actual fact demonstrating how splendidly Man can provide
for his financial well-being through violence.
Suggestions! How great it must be to be a famous singer, to
bask in the spotlight and the applause, to gad about to recep-
tions in luxury limousines!
Suggestions! If it weren’t for the power of suggestion, they
would also need to show other, considerably longer segments
from the life of these people. The most challenging everyday
work routines, the never-ending intrigues instigated by enter-
tainment rivals, the never-ending attacks by jealous wanna-
bes, not to mention the paparazzi hoping to make money on
the backs of celebrities under the so-called ‘freedom of the
press’.
One particularly monstrous suggestion comes in the form
of aggressive and sophisticated advertising, which is ready to
promote anything as long as you pay the money.
Suggestions! Never-ending news about all sorts of inter-
national do-good foundations coupled with wonder-boy
politicos — and people are left with the impression that it
249
The Book of Kin
is only thanks to our politicians that they can live all warm,
fed and cozy in their homes. And then when the radiators
go cold, people no longer bother asking themselves questions
about how they can change their lives, how they can become
independent of central heating, electricity and water-supply.
Instead, they rush madly into the streets and shout Gimme! A
suggestion of their own helplessness! Such false dogmas are
being suggested to adults and children alike.
Children! How can we talk about raising children as long
as we parents just stand on the sidelines? First we entrust the
delivery of our children to strangers in an unfamiliar medical
institution. Then we allow strangers to teach them in kin-
dergarten and school. Then we allow them to be exposed to
a plethora of explicit or disguised pornographic literature on
our store shelves.
We allow strangers to recommend books and textbooks to
our children to read. We allow strangers to produce TV pro-
grammes for them. Who? Who finds it profitable to hold the
whole system of child-raising in their hands? Maybe that’s
not the important question. Maybe what’s more important is
our feeling of utter helplessness and insignificance? We feel
we’re totally incapable of putting a stop to such lawlessness.
But this isn’t true! Any parent can do it! If only he wants to.
If only he thinks about it.
The Book of Kin! What a super idea! The end of law-
less commercial suggestions! Such lawlessness may still flex
its muscles and show off a little. But it won’t be long before
Man takes in his hands the Book of Kin, and finds there writ-
ten — by the hand of his grandfather, grandmother, father
and mother — a statement of Man’s purpose in life.
We, today’s parents, shall certainly be able to figure out
what this purpose is. Most definitely! We are experienced,
we’ve seen, heard and gone through a lot already. We only
need to pause for just a wee bit, turn away from the flood of
250
Book 6: The Book of Kin
suggestions and think for ourselves, with our own heads. For
certain, every parent must think about this. By himself! Only
by himself. There’s no point in looking for answers to ques-
tions on the meaning of life in books ofwisdom from past cen-
turies. No matter how celebrated or promoted these books
are. And there’s no point in seeking answers in the works of
wise-men whose reputation is thousands of years old.
These wise-men were great preachers and messiahs. They
endeavoured to preach and leave writings for future genera-
tions. But there is not one — ■ not even one of these great
works that we shall ever see. They have been most cleverly
destroyed. This can be clearly understood if one but stops
and thinks.
Just look and see what a difference it makes — how switch-
ing a single comma around in a brief sentence can change the
whole meaning of a message. Remember the famous exam-
ple: Execute never, show mercy! / Execute, never show mercy ! And
how many similar alterations have crept into the works of
the ancient thinkers, either deliberately or inadvertently, at
the hands of copyists, translators, publishers and historians?!
And we are talking here not just about changes in punctua-
tion, but the deletion of whole pages, whole chapters, and the
writing of one’s own interpretations.
The result is that we today are living in some kind of il-
lusory world. Mankind is constantly at war. People keep de-
stroying each other like hell and can’t understand why wars do
not stop. But how can they stop if mankind has not even once
been able to determine who has been instigating these wars?
It hasn’t been able to because there has been no independent
thought, and without independent thought it accepts sugges-
tion as truth.
Who started the Second World War? Who fought with
whom? Who won? The whole world community is convinced
that the war was started by Hitler’s Germany under Hitler.
2,-1
The Book of Kin
Victory was achieved by the Soviet Union under Stalin. And
these half-truths — or, rather, delusions — are accepted by
the majority as absolute, unequivocal, historical facts.
And only a very few historical researchers occasion-
ally mention Hitler’s spiritual mentors — for example, the
Russian lama Gudzhiev, f acting through Karl Haushofer . 4
Hitler had one other spiritual mentor — • Dietrich Eckhart.l
Historians know of contacts these spiritual mentors had with
their superiors, part of a more elevated hierarchy But at this
point nobody any longer mentions names. Researchers say
only that they have traced the connections to the Himalayas
and Tibet, as well as to both open and secret occult societies
existing at the time in Germany, and confirm Hitler’s partici-
pation in them.
Germany witnessed the rise of organisations such as the
German Order 6 and the Thide Society' — the latter’s emblem
was the swastika together with a wreath and sword.
"Georgi Ivanovich Gudzhiev (also spelt Gurdjieff, Gurdzhiev) (187SI-1949) —
a Greek-Armenian mystic, later based in Paris. In 1922 he founded the
Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man. He emphasised the
principle of ‘self- awareness’, the need to awaken from the dream- like state
that most of human existence seems to be. Gudzhiev authored a number
of books, including the well-known Beelzebub’s tales to his grandson (Rasskazy
Vel’zevula svoemu vnuku).
4 Karl Ernst Haushofer (1869-1946) — German geopolitician, believed to
have influenced Hitler’s expansionist policies. He was an avid student of
Japanese culture and was instrumental in forging Germany’s alliance with
Japan following Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. His link to Gurdjieff is a mat-
ter of some controversy.
’ Dietrich Eckhart — German occultist, who was very close to Hitler.
6 German Order (in German: Deutsche Orden ) — a religious order founded
for charitable purposes, known from the 12th century as the Teutonic Order.
abolished on occasion by both Napoleon and Hitler (it still exists today in
both Germany and Austria). The term German Orderwas also applied to the
highest decoration awarded by the Nazi Party
252
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Someone was clearly and deliberately shaping their own
unique, brand-new ideology in Germany inculcating in its
population a specific type of world-view The upshot was
large-scale war and masses of human casualties, followed by
the Nuremburg trials where Hitler’s cronies were tried. But
those who appeared before the court were ordinary soldiers —
even if they happened to be generals or field marshals, they
were still soldiers, including Hitler himself. Foot-soldiers to
the unseen priest who shaped the ideology He — the chief
strategist and organiser — was not even mentioned in the tri-
al records. Who is he? Who are his closest secret associates
and assistants? Is it all that important to know about them?
It is important! Extremely important! After all, it is they who
masterminded the war. And as long as they are allowed to re-
main in the shadows, they will start it again. With their grow-
ing experience, new wars will be even more sophisticated and
on an even more massive scale.
What were these people really after, the masterminds be-
hind the Second World War? Perhaps an examination of the
following fact will bring us closer to solving the mystery
For the Nazi ideologists in Germany at that time, there was
an organisation known as Annenerbe which collected ancient
books from all over the world. In the first place they were in-
terested in Old Russian editions of the pre-Christian period.
One can trace a rather bizarre chain — the Himalayas, Tibet,
lamas, secret societies — all leading to a relentless hunt for the
knowledge of our forebears from pagan Russia. We Russians
saw no need to preserve these manuscripts, but someone else
found them to be a vital necessity. Why? What secrets did
'Thule Society — a German occultist group in Munich, named from the
Greek word meaning ‘farthest [northern] land’, founded in 1910 by Dietrich
Eckhart. It is said to have sponsored the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German
Labour Party), which Hitler later transformed into the Nazi Party
The Book of Kin 253
this knowledge harbour within itself? Secrets which evident-
ly had much more of an edge to them than anything known to
the Tibetan monks.
But how to gain access to even one of these secrets? Just to
one?! And if it turns out to be significant, then what kind of
lost world might open up to people today if a few more — or,
indeed, all — of them should be revealed? But where and in
what millennia should we look for an answer?
Rome! Ancient Rome! Something extraordinary hap-
pened there four thousand years ago. More extraordinary
than the exploits of the Roman legion. Oh, yes! That’s it, an
incredible discovery! The Roman senators were the highest
elite group of that period. They were slave-owners, but all at
once they began to give their slaves, who were skilled and de-
sirous of growing food crops on the land... They began to give
them land... for their lifetime use with the right of succession.
Funds were allocated to a slave’s family to build a house. A
slave’s family could not be transferred to another owner with-
out their land. It — the land — became an inseparable part
of the slave’s family.
But what suddenly moved these slave-owners to such a
humane and altruistic act? Was it purely from kind and no-
ble motives, or did they receive something in return? What
they received was ten percent of the harvest for their table.
That is probably the smallest tax of the whole known period.
This begs the question: why did the Roman elite do such a
thing? After all, the slave-owner could have simply ordered
his slaves to work in his fields by the sweat of their brow and
take as much of the harvest as he wanted. But no! Why?
Because back in pagan Rome they had still hung on to the
Vedic knowledge. And the patricians and senators knew that
the same product grown by a slave on land other than his own
would differ sharply in its properties from that grown on his
own ground and raised with love.
254
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Back then they still knew that everything growing in
the ground carries in itself a psychic energy To be healthy,
one must feed one’s self with lovingly grown produce. This
was mentioned in several ancient books in the Alexandria
Library , 8 which was destroyed. What further knowledge,
what wisdom was lost along with these books? Anastasia says
that it is possible to resurrect this knowledge and all its at-
tendant wisdom, beginning with their pristine origins, within
one’s self. Everyone has the ability to do it. I want to believe
that statement, but I’m still not fully convinced. Where can
we find proof that such a thing is possible? What facts can
we draw upon from memory so that we can fully accept what
she says?
Are we to remember everything we heard from our father
and mother, or that we were taught in school, or read some-
where over our whole lifetime? But our recollections still do
not contain any significant or absolute proof. What if I could
remember everything I was told by Father Feodorit? But he
didn’t say all that much. He spent most of the time listening,
and while he did give me some ancient books to read, there
was no evidence in them. Then how? Flow can modern Man
suddenly unfold within himself this treasured knowledge of
his pristine origins? He can!!! No doubt there exist charac-
teristic examples and proof in the recollection of every Man!
In my own recollections I did come across one.
g
Alexandria Library — see special footnote (from the original text) near the
end of Chapter 6: “Imagery and trial”.
2 55
The Book of Kin
A good and attentive grandmother
Grandmother! My grandmother was a witch. Not a fairy-
tale witch, but a real, actual white witch. Oldsters, perhaps,
will remember her incredible marvels. She lived in Ukraine in
the village of Kuznichi in the Gorodnia district of Chernigov
Region. She was called Efrosinya, and her last name was
Verkhusha. On one occasion, when I was very young, I was
present at one of her miracles.
Back then I hardly understood anything about them, but
now it has all become crystal clear to me. O God, what sim-
plicity there is in the most puzzling incredible phenomena! I
have an idea at least half of the population today, especially
the healers, would be able to freely duplicate her results. To
provide a few more details, here is what happened.
All my early childhood I spent in the Ukrainian countryside,
in a small white, straw-covered hut. I loved to watch my grand-
mother busyingherself about the stove. Once after a scuffle with
one of my classmates, someone taunted: “Your grandmother’s a
witch!” Other kids started to defend my grandmother, saying,
for example: “My mummy says she’s a good woman.”
On a number of occasions I saw how my grandmother
treated people’s physical ills. I didn’t attach any particular
significance to it at the time — after all there were many heal-
ers in different villages back then. Some had better success
treating one particular disease, some another. And nobody
was called a witch. But my grandmother’s abilities did not fall
under the usual healing methods.
It turned out that my grandmother, who was only semi-lit-
erate, easily cured many animals. She did this by a method
that seemed at first glance incredible. She would disappear
for a day along with the sick animal, and by the time she re-
turned it would have made a full recovery, or at least a partial
256
Book 6: The Book of Kin
one, in which case she would instruct its owner on how to
continue the treatment.
When I heard my classmate insulting my grandmother
by calling her a ‘witch’, even though children are generally
afraid of witches, I did not begin acting any worse toward my
kind grandmother. On the contrary, she — or rather, her ac-
tions — only awakened a greater fascination in me.
One day the collective-farm chairman’s horse was brought to
my grandmother. It was a purebred, recently bought for the
chairman to travel about on his daily business. We local kids
always admired this particular mare when the chairman hap-
pened to ride by The mare held her head high, and her gait
was friskier and more elegant than that of all the other horses
in the area. But this time she was brought to Grandmother not
harnessed to a wagon and not saddled. She was being led just by
the bridle, looking very downcast and moving very slowly This
was a rare event for me — the chairman’s horse right in our yard!
I began following the proceedings with considerable interest.
Grandmother walked up to the mare and began stroking
her, first from one side on her muzzle, and then around the
ear, all the while quietly whispering soothing words. Then she
unbridled the mare (taking the metallic bit out of her mouth).
Carrying a bench out into the yard, she laid out bunches of herbs
on the bench, then brought the mare over to them and began
offering the animal various dried herbs in turn. With some of
them the horse didn’t pay any attention and turned away, while
others she sniffed at and even took a small taste of them. The
bunches that caught the mare’s attention, Grandmother threw
into a water-filled iron pot which was standing over a coal fire,
and finally dropped her night-cap into the mixture.
I heard her tell the people who had brought the horse to
come the day after next, in the morning. After the people
had left, I realised that Grandmother was once again getting
ready to disappear somewhere together with the mare, and
The Book of Kin
2 57
I started pleading with her to take me along. Grandmother,
who had always granted all my requests, did not refuse this
one either, though she did stipulate one condition: I was to go
to bed earlier than usual that night. I obeyed.
Grandmother awoke me at dawn. The mare was standing
in front of the house; she was covered with a small piece of
canvas. After washing my face with the mixture from the iron
pot, Grandmother gave me a small bundle containing some-
thing to eat, then took hold of the rope-lead (which she had
fastened to the horse’s bridle). Presently we set off along the
border between the garden plots in the direction of the little
forest that started just beyond. We walked very slowly along
the edge of the forest. To be more specific, Grandmother
walked alongside the mare and stopped each time the mare
bent her head down to the grass to taste some kind of herb.
Grandmother held the lead so loosely that it even slipped out
of her hands whenever the mare, having spied something in
the grass, jerked her head sharply to one side.
Occasionally Grandmother would still keep on leading the
horse further, but after coming to a new place, she would once
again give her free rein. We kept walking, either along the
edge of the forest, or just a little ways in.
It was already past noon when we came to a mudhole in the
middle of the field. We sat down by a haystack from the first
haycutting for a little rest and a bite to eat. After snacking
on milk and bread, I was tired from our long trek and felt like
sleeping. On top of it all Grandmother took out of her bun-
dle a small sheepskin coat, spread it out beside the haystack
and encouraged me:
“Lie down and have a rest, little one. I guess you must be
pretty tuckered out.”
I lay down and began to fight off sleep, fearing that
Grandmother might magically disappear along with the mare
and without me, but sleep won out.
258
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Upon awakening I saw Grandmother picking some sort of
herbs right next to the mare’s muzzle and sticking them in
her bundle. Not long afterward we started heading for home,
but a different way this time. As it began to get dark, I again
felt as though I needed a rest, and once more Grandmother
put me down on the sheepskin coat. When she woke me up it
was still dark, and we continued once more on our homeward
journey
From time to time I could hear Grandmother saying some-
thing to the mare. While I don’t recall the content of her
words, I clearly remember her voice intonations — soothing,
tender and cheerful. When we reached home Grandmother
at once began to give the horse water, adding the mixture
from the iron pot to the pail.
Later I saw her give the people who came for the horse the
bunches of herbs she had picked during our walk and explain
something to them.
The mare, who had by this time become a little friskier, was
reluctant to leave our yard. She had already been harnessed
again and kept turning her head to look at Grandmother,
pulling on her lead.
For several days afterward I was angry at my grandmother
for not showing me how she could magically disappear like
a witch, but the whole time she had just kept on feeding the
horse, picking herbs and tying them into bunches.
I might have soon forgotten about the walk and the witch-
ery, but when I told the boy who had called her a witch that
my grandmother didn’t disappear anywhere, but simply fed
sick animals, he — and he was just a bit older than me — cited
a significant fact that neither I nor any of the village kids who
were on my side could counteract:
“Why is it then that each time the chairman rides by your
yard, the horse stops trotting, and goes by just at a walk — she
doesn’t even obey the whip?”
The Book of Kin
259
I don’t remember how Grandmother explained this to me.
It is only now that I understand the reason. I am confident
that a lot of people today who have kind hearts and have an
attentive relationship to Nature and animals could also treat
creatures’ ailments the way she did.
Now I realise that she allowed the horse to try bunches of
various herbs simply to determine what specific herbs the ail-
ing animal required. She also used this to decide the route she
would take the next day, counting on finding these herbs along
the way, and at the same time replenishing her own stock.
She needed to make this a whole day’s trip, since each plant
has a particular time when its consumption is especially ben-
eficial. She held the lead loosely so as to allow the mare to
determine for herself which herbs and how many she needed
to take in. Animals can feel this in an inexplicable way Since
the mixture was prepared from herbs chosen by the mare her-
self, Grandmother’s use of it for washing, as well as letting her
night-cap soak in it, was probably to make the animal more
predisposed to her.
See how simple everything turns out to be! Only it’s still
not clear to me how all this was known by my semi-literate
grandmother. Oh, how we have complicated this simplic-
ity! May that not be the reason for the large-scale epizootic
(‘mad-cow-disease’) that recently swept across Europe, and
our modern scientific thought came up with nothing better
than to destroy thousands of diseased animals!
I have cited just one example attesting to the fact that the
achievements of our modern medicine are illusory Indeed,
I could cite a whole lot of similar examples of the illusory
achievements of our contemporary society. But why talk of
specific details when we can go right off to the main thing?
z6o
Book 6: The Book of Kin
To live in a marvellous reality
What kind of society are we living in today anyway? What
are we striving for? What do we suppose we can build in the
future? The overwhelming majority of the Russian popula-
tion will answer without hesitation:
“We live in a democratic state and are striving to build a
free democratic society, just like in the developed, civilised
Western countries.”
That is exactly what the majority of politicians and politi-
cal strategists will say
That is exactly what they say on TV and in newspaper col-
umns.
That is exactly what the majority of people in our country
think.
That majority opinion exactly confirms Anastasia’s state-
ment that a part of the people in our modern civilisation
are asleep, while the rest, because of their programming, are
mere bio-robots in the hands of a bunch of priests who imag-
ine themselves to be the rulers of the world.
If one can just stop and withdraw one’s self, even a little,
from the world’s feverish daily monotonous commotion and
think independently it should be possible to understand the
following facts.
Democracy! Just what is democracy anyway? What con-
cept does the word itself denote? The majority will answer
by quoting the well-known Great Encyclopedic Dictionary 9
or the Dictionary of the Russian Language , 10 both of which
offer pretty much the same terse definition:
9 See footnote 9 in Chapter 9: “A need to think”.
IO Dictionary of the Russian Language ( Tolkovy Slovar’ Russkogo Tazyka), ed-
ited by S. I. Ozhegov and N.Yu. Shvedova, Moscow, 2002.
The Book of Kin
261
Democracy is a form of political system or social order in a
state, based on the recognition of the people as a whole as
the source of authority. The basic principles of democracy
are the authority of the majority, the equality of citizens...
And in highly developed countries people choose their
parliaments and presidents by majority vote.
‘Choose? Utter nonsense! A complete illusion! There
are no choices or elections! Not once, not even in a country
which considers itself the most democratic and civilised on
the globe, have the people themselves ever held power.
But the elections? They are a complete illusion! Remember
what always happens before elections in any so-called demo-
cratic country. Teams of political strategists working for each
candidate fight among themselves, spending huge sums of
money and sophisticated methods of psychological influence
on people through the mass media, TV and graphic promo-
tional campaigns.
And the more highly developed the country, the more
sophisticated the technological methods of suggestion em-
ployed.
It is clearly evident that the victory always goes to the team
of political strategists that can exert the most influence and
the greatest power of suggestion. It is under the influence of
this suggestion that people go and vote. They think they are
voting by their own will. In fact they are merely carrying out
somebody else’s will.
Thus it turns out that modern democracy is an illusion of
the masses. It is their faith in an unreal social order — an unreal,
illusory world.
It all boils down to this: subordination to the majority does
not exist in the natural world. All the groups of plants, ani-
mals and insects may be subject to instinct, the movement of
the planets, the order established by Nature, or the leader of
262
Book 6: The Book of Kin
a herd. And in human groupings it is always the minority that
is in control.
It is not the majority that has fomented revolutions and
wars, but the majority participated in revolutions and wars at
the consciously directed suggestion of a minority That’s the
way it has been and that’s the way it is now
Democracy is the most dangerous illusion people have
been exposed to en masse. It is dangerous because in the dem-
ocratic world it is only too easy for any democratic country to
end up being ruled by one person, or a small group of people.
For that, all they need is a pile of money and a good team of
psychologists and political strategists.
And we — today’s parents, living under the influence of
illusions, are still trying to raise our children. But in actual
fact what we are doing is introducing — pushing, one might
say — their consciousness into a world of illusion... We are in
fact handing them over into somebody else’s clutches... Only
not to God. We are handing them over to some kind of op-
posite of God.
God’s world is not illusory, it is real and beautiful. It has its
own unsurpassed fragrances, colours, shapes and sounds. The
gates to this world are always open, and we are always free to
enter, if only we can shake off the illusions that have been fet-
tering our consciousness.
I too shall write my own Book of Kin for my descendants —
indeed, for myself. And among other things I shall most cer-
tainly write the following:
I, Vladimir Megre, lived in an age when mankind did not
exist in the real world. Their flesh fed on the gifts of the
real world, but their consciousness wandered in a world of
illusion. This has been a very challenging period in people’s
lives. Right now I am attempting to bring my conscious-
ness back to the real world of the Divine. This Divine
The Book of Kin
263
world of Nature has suffered at the hands of people’s con-
sciousness. Suffered terribly. I realise this and am trying
to correct the situation. I will do whatever I can, even if it
is only creating a design for my domain. Perhaps even just
a part of it. The main thing is to understand and have my
children understand.
As before, Anastasia sat quietly by and listened while I
vented my reasonings aloud. When I stopped, she got up,
walked over to the window and observed:
“The stars are beginning to twinkle in the sky It is time for
me to go, Vladimir. You are right in many respects. But be
careful not to let these new visions of reality make you want
to control others. Get the better of such a temptation and
do not join any organisations. Other people, too, are seeing
this reality Once they have organised, they will bring about
a significant achievement on the Earth. You will understand
your own destiny in life.”
“I’m not aiming to join anything or control anybody,
Anastasia. But what is this destiny of mine you speak about?”
“The time will come when you will feel this for yourself.
Right now lie down on the bed, go to sleep and rest. You are
excited. It is possible that an untrained heart will not be able
to withstand such excitement.”
“Yes, I know. But if I go to sleep, you will go away. You al-
ways do. Sometimes I have a strong desire for you to stay and
not go away I want you to be always beside me.”
“I am always beside you. Whenever you think of me. You
will soon begin to feel and understand this. Now wash your-
self with water and go to sleep.”
“I can’t sleep. Lately I haven’t been sleeping all that well.
My thoughts have been keeping me awake.”
“I shall help you, Vladimir. Would you like me to read some
of the poetry your readers have sent in, and sing you a lullaby?”
264
Book 6: The Book of Kin
“Go ahead and try, perhaps I really shall nod off to
sleep.”
After I washed and lay down in my bed which had already
been made up, Anastasia sat down beside me and placed her
hand on my forehead. Then she ran her fingers through my
hair and softly sang a song written by one of my readers from
Ukraine. Anastasia sang very softly, only it seemed that many
people and the stars in the sky were listening to her song —
listening to her pure voice and her words:
Take my hand this hour...
Tomorrow, you will see,
Is another day, but now
You can press your cheek to me.
Thus hour after hour
You may sleep in sweet relief,
For from your strands of hair
I’ll gather up the grief.
And I shall spread a blanket fine,
Blue with stars all woven,
I shall stay a long, long time,
Just so you won’t get frozen.
If only you’ll receive me.
From the night I’ll come and stand
All throughout the ages.
I’ve learnt to heal ills by my hand,
Which all pain assuages.
If only you’ll believe me.
Down from a high incline
Past us stones will tumble.
The Book of Kin
265
I know ahead of time
Where you’re going to stumble.
Into church and palace
You’ll go, a hero bright.
All the pretty lasses
I shall keep from your sight.
In a world of black and white
I too’ll live unimpeded,
So that swords and bows drawn tight
Will never more be needed.
If only you, if only you
If only you will love me.
I’ll let loyal Sparrow fly up and team
With Crane in the heavens above you.”
I dare not come into your dream...
Too tenderly I love you.
Before immersing myself in a deep and calm sleep, I man-
aged to think: Of course, tomoirow is another day. It will be better.
I shall describe the dawn of a brand new day. And many people will
start writing in their Books of Kin about how a splendid new begin-
ning has been dawning on mankind. And these will be the greatest
n A reference to the Russian proverb: Luchshe sinitsa v rake, chem zhuravl’na
nebe (lit. ‘Better [to have} a sparrow (titmouse/chickadee) in one’s hand than
a crane in the sky’). Like its English counterpart, A bird in the hand is worth
two in the bush, it suggests a cautious, conservative approach to life which
the poet’s heroine now finds herself ready to give up, releasing the sparrow
so that she may join the crane in the sky
266
Book 6: The Book of Kin
historical books for their descendants for thousands of years of time.
And one of them will be mine. Tomorrow I shall start writing a new
book, and now I shall be able to give it a more coherent-sounding
design. And the new book will define a new historic turning-point
for the people of the Earth — a turning to the marvellous reality of
the Divine.
Until we meet again, dear readers, in this new and marvel-
lous reality!
Vladimir Megre
To be continued...
Suppose you’ve lived all your life in the same town at the base
of a huge mountain. You’ve looked at that mountain day in
and day out as you walked to and from school, ploughed your
fields, shopped at the outdoor market, or cycled around the
town on errands. You are familiar with everv detail of its
J
craggy surfaces, and on occasion have even climbed up part
way to explore the foothills. But you have never been round
to the other side.
Then one fine day you decide to take the night train to a
town some distance away, about a quarter of the way around
the mountain, where the local residents speak a completely
different dialect from yours. Upon arriving the next morn-
ing, you set out to take a look at the mountain from this side.
And there it is, looming just as large, just beyond this new
town. Only at first it doesn’t look like the same mountain
at all, even though your angle has changed by a mere 90 de-
grees. What was familiar from a frontal view you now see in
profile. Features you knew before in profile are now facing
you head on.
Some of these features require a closer examination to
identify In fact, many of your fellow residents who made this
trip before you and didn’t bother to examine the scene in de-
tail say the mountain here looks nothing at all like the one
back home. Some of them refuse to believe it is the same
mountain. A few even associate the unfamiliar appearance
with something hostile and threatening.
Such impressions are further fuelled by the different way
the locals describe the mountain in their own dialect — either
268
Book 6: The Book of Kin
with completely different words, or using the same words but
with different connotations. Indeed, the terminological dis-
crepancy is rather disconcerting at first. But little by little,
the more you examine these features in detail and even try a
bit of climbing exploration, the more you become convinced
that you are dealing with the same mountain you have known
all your life. And as you hear local residents speaking about
it, you gradually acquire the ability to translate between their
dialect and yours and realise they are talking about the same
concepts you have known all along.
In sum, you find yourself simply amazed at what you are
learning about a familiar landmark from a brand new perspec-
tive. That does not necessarily mean, however, that you have
any plans to suddenly relocate your residence. But you are
certainly able to make use of your new knowledge to enhance
your appreciation and exploration of the mountain from your
own home base.
This little story pretty much describes my experience in ap-
proaching Vladimir Megre’s Ringing Cedars Series. Having been
raised in the Protestant denomination known as Christian
Science 1 (though I am sure people of many different faiths
have had a similar experience), I was amazed, even ‘blown
away’ by the new vistas of ‘Mount Spirituality’ that opened
up to me from my initial reading of the Series. At first glance,
like the mountain in the story above, some of the features,
1 Christian Science — a Christian denomination founded in 1879 in New
England by Mary Balter Eddy, designed to “reinstate primitive Christianity
and its lost element of healing” (Eddy, Manual of The Mother Church, p. 17).
Eddy’s principal statement of her ideas is found in a 700-page volume en-
titled Science and health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston, 1911). As with
Megre, one of Eddy’s basic aims w'as to change the human perception of
God’s laws in action from one based on mysticism and the promise of fu-
ture rewards to one based on reason and fact, demonstrable in our earthly
experience here and now.
Translator’s Afterword
269
especially those given new names or whose names were in-
terpreted differently, presented something of a recognition
challenge. But the more I read, the more I realised I was not
being presented with a new God or even a new religion, but
simply with new views on the same God and spirituality I
had known all along, only from a different angle. And these
insights have indeed enhanced my appreciation and explora-
tion of spiritual concepts from my own faith’s home base.
One particularly striking example of being ‘blown away’
by a new view of familiar territory was my initial reading of
Chapter 1 in the present volume (“Who raises our children?”),
which seems to pick up right where Mary Baker Eddy’s chap-
ter on “Marriage” in Science and health (pp. 56-69) leaves off.
Not only that, but a friend of our family’s — a Catholic writer
on theology — told me of a number of instances where inti-
mate relations have been linked to a more spiritual outlook,
including certain practices among Orthodox Jews and native
peoples of North America. 2 She also referred me to the Book
ofTobit (or Tobias) in the Apocrypha for an additional illus-
tration. These examples, however, while fascinating, differ
from the approach outlined in Chapter 1 in that their atten-
tion is still concentrated on the physical act of intimacy (albe-
it seen from a more spiritual standpoint), while the principal
focus of Megre’s discussion with the psychologist is children,
the physical conditions playing but an incidental role. 3
“For further exploration, see : Philip Sherrard, Christianity and Eros (London:
SPCK Holy Trinity Church, 1976); Linda Sabbath, The radiant heart
(Denville, NJ, USA: Dimension Books, 1977); Mary Shivanandan, Natural
sex (New 'York: Rawson Wade, 1979).
3 Compare Eddy’s statement in Science and health (pp. 61-62): “If the propa-
gation of a higher human species is requisite to reach this goal [of spiritual
unity], then its material conditions can only be permitted for the purpose
of generating.”
270
Book 6: The Book of Kin
Another group that has much in common with Anastasia’s
viewpoints on life are the Doukhobors — a sect that was per-
secuted in Tsarist Russia for their pacifism and opposition to
the dictates of official church hierarchy In 1899 they were
helped to emigrate to Canada by the writer Leo Tolstoy, who
recognised in them a living embodiment of his own simple,
straightforward approach to a Christianity of the heart with-
out ecclesiastical trappings. 4
This past year I had occasion to present a conference pa-
per entitled: “Links across space and time: the life and works
of Leo Tolstoy, Mary Baker Eddy and Vladimir Megre”, point-
ing out some of the many similarities not only in the ideas of
these three spiritual thinkers, but also in their personal and
professional lives. As specific examples, the paper compares
similar statements from all three writers on the subjects of
life and prayer. I have no doubt that the comparison could be
extended to include some other spiritual thinkers too.
Indeed, to me one of the most remarkable features of
Megre’s whole account of Anastasia and her sayings is its sense
of inclusiveness. Megre does not purport to take his readers
into another universe, where all the worthy values they have
held dear for so long must suddenly be regarded as worthless
and forsakeable in favour of some new doctrine. He is not
presenting them with a ‘new mountain’. Rather, he is simply
showing them the spiritual values they already have from a
brand new point of view, thereby enhancing the significance
of these values and helping his readers put them into practice
more effectively
As a translator, I was delighted to find that this sense of in-
clusiveness embraces not just people and their values, but the
4 See, for example: Andrew Donskov, Leo Tolstoy and the Canadian Doukhobors
(Ottawa: Centre for Research on Canadian-Russian Relations, zooj).
Translator’s Afterword
271
whole underlying foundation of language as well. Often seen
as a divisive element in human society, in the Ringing Cedars
Series (particularly the present book) language becomes a uni-
fying force as fragments of its ancient roots are uncovered,
enabling us to trace equivalent words in different languages
back to their common origin.
At the beginning of Chapter 10, footnote 2 on the name
Medvedkovo explains that medved’, the Russian word for the
animal we call a ‘bear’, is comprised of the roots med- (honey)
and ved- (know). 5 Surprisingly, both these roots have their
counterparts in English: mead (an alcoholic drink made from
fermented honey and water) and wit (an obsolete word mean-
ing ‘know’, now more commonly used in the sense of ‘quick
understanding’ or the ability to play intelligently with words
and their meanings). 6 Historically, knowledge and sight were
related concepts (we see, therefore we know), and hence words
like video and vision can also be traced (through Latin videre =
‘to see’) back to this same root, as can the word white (some-
thing clearly seen). These examples show some of the many
layers of meaning inherent in the original root.
But even more interesting, as my editor, Leonid Sharashkin,
has pointed out to me, is the realisation of how these linguis-
tic changes reflect the evolution of the underlying concepts
in human consciousness: in both Russian and English the
roots ved 5 and wit - have yielded in general usage to zna- and
know-, respectively, indicating mankind’s greater interest
today in superficial, technological knowledge than in the
’On vedat’ and its distinction ixomzngt ’ please see footnote 8 in Chapter j:
“The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia”.
6 The word wit may be familiar to readers of the Authorised (King James)
Version of the Bible in its variant wot — see, for example, Exodus 32: 1,
where the people tell Aaron they “wot not what is become of” Moses. See
also Acts 3: 17, Romans ii: 2.
272
Book 6: The Book of Kin
multi-dimensional awareness and wisdom implied by the
earlier terms. In fact, with some of their derivatives in both
languages, e.g., ved’ma = witch, the original positive reference
(in this case, to someone capable of harnessing the extended
abilities of the human mind) has given way in popular percep-
tion to a more negative connotation (of one who uses such
abilities for devious or evil purposes).
Like many Russian roots, ved- comes directly from Sanskrit
(along with Latin, one of the two proto-tongues from which
the whole Indo-European family of languages is derived). 7
And this highlights another aspect of inclusiveness evident
in the Series — namely, certain indications that language
transcends mere human invention, 8 hence its great poten-
tial for unifying instead of dividing the peoples of the Earth.
On a visit to Russia in the 1960s, renowned Sanskritologist
Durga Prasad Shastri discovered remarkable similarities be-
tween present-day Russian and the Sanskrit spoken in India
some twenty-five centuries earlier. In fact, his knowledge of
ancient Sanskrit enabled him to understand spoken Russian
well enough that he could get by without an interpreter. 9
And this is one more illustration of how Vladimir Megre,
through relating Anastasia’s sayings on mankind and its
Another interesting insight from Sanskrit is the origin of the name
Anastasia. In Sanskrit the first letter a- is a negating particle (as in asym-
metrical in English), while the root nast- signifies ‘deterioration’ (compare
English nasty) — hence anasta = ‘without deterioration’. This also underlies
the use of anastasia in Greek to signify ‘resurrection’. (I am grateful to my
editor for pointing out this etymology.)
g
' See, for example, “A book of pristine origins” in Chapter 2: “Conversation
with my son”.
7 See: D. P. Shastri, Links between Russian and Sanskrit. Meerut District
Conference of the Indo-Soviet Cultural Society (Ghaziabad, 1964). Again, I
thank my editor for bringing this reference to my attention.
Translator’s Afterword
273
history, brings together people of not only different religions
and cultures but also of different chronological periods, to
recognise and embrace their common heritage as children
not of different genetic backgrounds, but rather of the one
universal God.
Perhaps the author’s future volumes will not only show us
still new views of our familiar ‘mountain’, but transform our
whole perception of a ‘mountain’ into a dimension we cannot
yet fathom. Think of how a mountain seen from space may
resemble, let’s say, a cedar nut! Then imagine how what we
see as a ‘mountain’ of spirituality might be perceived through
spiritual vision itself! The possibilities are endless.
Ottawa, Canada
John Woodsworth
December 2006
ABOUT THE RINGING CEDARS SERIES
Anastasia , the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series, tells the
story of entrepreneur Vladimir Megre’s trade trip to the Siberian
taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena
connected with sacred ‘ringing cedar’ trees. He spent three days
with a woman named Anastasia who shared with him her unique
outlook on subjects as diverse as gardening, child-rearing, healing,
Nature, sexuality, religion and more. This wilderness experience
transformed Vladimir so deeply that he abandoned his commercial
plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to fulfil Anastasia’s request
and write a book about the spiritual insights she so generously
shared with him. True to her promise this life-changing book, once
written, has become an international bestseller and has touched
hearts of millions of people world-wide.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia , the second book of the Series, in
addition to providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the
story of how Anastasia came to be published, offers a deeper explo-
ration of the universal concepts so dramatically revealed in Book 1.
It takes the reader on an adventure through the vast expanses of
space, time and spirit — from the Paradise-like glade in the Siberian
taiga to the rough urban depths of Russia’s capit al city, from the an-
cient mysteries of our forebears to a vision of humanity’s radiant
future.
The Space of Love, the third book of the Series, describes author’s
second visit to Anastasia. Rich with new revelations on natural
child-rearing and alternative education, on the spiritual significance
of breast-feeding and the meaning of ancient megaliths, it shows
how each person’s thoughts can influence the destiny of the entire
Earth and describes practical ways of putting Anastasia’s vision of
happiness into practice. Megre shares his new outlook on educa-
tion and children’s real creative potential after a visit to a school
where pupils build their own campus and cover the ten-year Russian
school programme in just two years. Complete with an account of
an armed intrusion into Anastasia’s habitat, the book highlights the
limitless power of Love and non-violence.
Co-creation, the fourth book and centrepiece of the Series, paints a
dramatic living image of the creation of the Universe and humani-
ty’s place in this creation, making this primordial mystery relevant
to our everyday living today. Deeply metaphysical yet at the same
time down-to-Earth practical, this poetic heart-felt volume helps us
uncover answers to the most significant questions about the essence
and meaning of the Universe and the nature and purpose of our ex-
istence. It also shows how and why the knowledge of these answers,
innate in every human being, has become obscured and forgotten,
and points the way toward reclaiming this wisdom and — in part-
nership with Nature — manifesting the energy of Love through our
lives.
Who are we? — Book Five of the Series — describes the author’s
search for real-life ‘proofs’ of Anastasia’s vision presented in the
previous volumes. Finding these proofs and taking stock of ongo-
ing global environmental destruction, Vladimir Alegre describes
further practical steps for putting Anastasia’s vision into practice.
Full of beautiful realistic images of a new way of living in co-opera-
tion with the Earth and each other, this book also highlights the role
of children in making us aware of the precariousness of the present
situation and in leading the global transition toward a happy, vio-
lence-free society
The book of kin, the sixth book of the Series, describes another
visit by the author to Anastasia’s glade in the Siberian taiga and his
conversations with his growing son, which cause him to take a new
look at education, science, history, family and Nature. Through
parables and revelatory dialogues and stories Anastasia then leads
Vladimir Alegre and the reader on a shocking re-discovery of the
pages of humanity’s history that have been distorted or kept secret
for thousands of years. This knowledge sheds light on the causes of
war, oppression and violence in the modern world and guides us in
preserving the wisdom of our ancestors and passing it over to future
generations.
The energy of life, Book Seven of the Series, re-asserts the power
of human thought and the influence of our thinking on our lives
and the destiny of the entire planet and the Universe. Is also brings
forth a practical understanding of ways to consciously control and
build up the power of our creative thought. The book sheds still
further light on the forgotten pages of humanity’s history, on reli-
gion, on the roots of inter-racial and inter-religious conflict, on ideal
nutrition, and shows how a new way of thinking and a lifestyle in
true harmony with Nature can lead to happiness and solve the per-
sonal and societal problems of crime, corruption, misery conflict,
war and violence.
The new civilisation, the eighth book of the Series, is not yet com-
plete. The first part of the book, already published as a separate
volume, describes yet another visit by Vladimir Megre to Anastasia
and their son, and offers new insights into practical co-operation
with Nature, showing in ever greater detail how Anastasia’s lifestyle
applies to our lives. Describing how the visions presented in previ-
ous volumes have already taken beautiful form in real life and pro-
duced massive changes in Russia and beyond, the author discerns
the birth of a new civilisation. The book also paints a vivid image of
America’s radiant future, in which the conflict between the power-
ful and the helpless, the rich and the poor, the city and the country,
can be transcended and thereby lead to transformations in both the
individual and society.
Rites of Love — Book 8, Part z (published as a separate volume) —
contrasts today’s mainstream attitudes to sex, family, childbirth and
education with our forebears’ lifestyle, which reflected their deep
spiritual understanding of the significance of conception, preg-
nancy, homebirth and upbringing of the young in an atmosphere of
love. In powerful poetic prose Megre describes their ancient way
of life, grounded in love and non-violence, and shows the practica-
bility of this same approach today Through the life-story of one
family he portrays the radiant world of the ancient Russian Vedic
civilisation, the drama of its destruction and its re-birth millennia
later — in our present time.
To be continued...
READERS’ COMMENTS
Originals of these letters or e-mails are held by the publisher. We have pre-
served the spelling and grammar of the originals.
1 received a copy of Anastasia, two days ago and read it entirely! It
is difficult finding the words to express how much it means to me
and how powerfully I am impacted by it. It’s almost as if my mind
and heart have been prepared to read this book for years! I’ve found
a treasure for which I have been searching desperately for years! I
will be ordering the entire series soon and sharing them with every-
one I know! [and received soon after from the same reader] I’ve
been immersed in the books. Since we last spoke, I have read book
2 AND 3! I am in awe of what I have read. I have been DEEPLY
impacted and touched thus far, and I can’t wait to read book 4
through 8. As soon as book 5 is available, I will order a copy!
— Brian, Los Angeles, USA
It is the first thing written in a book that has made so much sense
to me. All that she says makes sense and you just know that you are
reading TRUTH. The book is awesome. I cannot explain how very
little I have read in my life and certainly I’ve NEVER finished one
book I started. This book was different and I could not put it down...
ever! The truth lies in there for sure and which I believe is why it is
selling incredibly all over the world with no advertising at all.
— Denise, Canada
Basically, these books make all the books that I’ve read to date look
like a complete waste of paper! ... I think that going through life
without this knowledge is a waste of time, and not passing it on
to children is a crime. I can say with confidence that nothing like
these books exists in the world today
— Rafal F., Australia (from an unsolicited letter to the editor of NEXUS
Magazine, February /March 2006 edition)
I first laid my eyes on the Anastasia books in the Nexus Magazine,
and felt the energy at once, bought them, and was completely breath
taken. I had to stop reading — just to cry for while — so touched
with the beauty and simplicity of Anastasia’s spirit. This is a series
of books bound to have tremendous impact. I have read hundreds
of books through the years on spiritual advancement (Personal/
Earth), but there is nothing so direct and clear as this — with the
exception of selected channellings. Thanks to Anastasia, Vladimir,
John, Leonid and all involved!
— Jan, Norway
Awhile back, myself and MR also purchased 6 books, 2 each of the
first 3. I have been passing them on to a few other people, and now
I am being asked about them more and more. This order is a copy
each for my 2 daughters, because they have been asking me to bor-
row them, and so far it hasn’t been possible, because other people
have them at the moment. So, I decided to give these to them as a
birthday gift, seeing as they are both “into” this kind of reading. In
fact, we all are into the spiritual types of books, and prefer them to
any other kind of books. After reading these series though, I have
recommended that they give all their other reading materials away
because this Anastasia series is all they’ll need from now on. I am
in my 6o’s now, and I just wish I knew all of this Anastasia materi-
al about 40+ years ago. I think my life, as well as the lives of my fam-
ily would have been vastly different, if this kind of knowledge was
“the norm” back when I was young, instead of it all being suppressed
by the mainstream. The sooner we can all get ‘Anastasia” centres
established worldwide, the better of mankind, and our planet will
be. ... I just can’t wait until the entire series has been translated, but
in the meantime, I’ll be getting book 4, and waiting eagerly for each
new volume as it becomes available.
— John, Melbourne, Australia
Anastasia is among — no — is the most profound work I have ever
read. I haven’t read that many “great” works, and may still be a bit
naive — but I have read enough to realise that this is something
special. No other book has actually changed me... I am even more
excited now in expectation of acquiring Books 2 through 4 — I’m
quietly confident that this is indeed the “life-changing” experience
I have been waiting for. Cheers!
— Ben, Australia
Have just read with utter delight and joy Book i and would like to
buy the first four books that are translated into English. Do you
have a distributor in the U.K. and what is the cost per book in ster-
ling? Please e-mail me back with this information. Thanking you in
advance and so looking forward to hearing from you.
— Ara ura, UK
I need to buy 6 copies of the first book, Anastasia. I have six close
friends who just HAVE to read them, and won’t unless I shove them
into their laps. Bill me.
— Duncan, Queensland, Australia
What a wonderful read. I thoroughly enjoyed all 3 — I finished
them all by Sunday eve. I’m a fast reader when I find something
that touches my soul. I am hooked. When is #4 due? Can’t wait
to read them all. I’ve just started to go through them again to high-
light the messages.
— Kathleen, Australia
I’ve read through all 3 books and what can I say?... hard to put into
words. Now I have some idea how hard it could be for Anastasia to
put into words what she wants to say for us. Anyway, . I can’t wait
to read the next one so can you please email me as soon as available
in Australia.
— Elizabeth, Roche dale, Australia
I am enjoying the books very much, am half way through book 2,
which has moved me most so far. Now I would like to get another
set of the first three books as a present for a friend.
— Don, Warragul, Australia
These ringing cedar books are so powerful, I feel in communion with
Anastasia reading them. I would love to distribute these books.
— Andrew, Melbourne, Australia
I cannot even begin to describe the depth of the effect Anastasia
has had on me and I have only read Book 1. For the first time in my
life I feel affirmed on a very deep level and feel free to be me. I am
so excited to have discovered these books and am fully committed
to doing what I can to help spread their message.
— Mary, New Zealand
We have devoured the first book as if we were starving and I am
eager to order the others very soon.
— Sherry, USA
There has been a very significant change taking place within me
since reading the Series. It has been a casting off of the selfish ele-
ments within me and walking into a vast chasm of blessings. What
is possible I do not yet know, only that an awareness and a con-
sciousness is possible in this life. My life is hopeful now.
— Allan, Wisconsin, USA
At last! Truth that has not been distorted by dogma or someone’s
ego! I might explode from emotion if I read any more! I had a hard
time getting myself to just stand still.
— Ana, Portugal
The Ringing Cedars books help with explaining ways to have a rich-
er life, raise healthier children, filling one’s heart rather than one’s
pockets.
— Penny, Missouri, USA
There is something highly significant stirring in the spirit world
which has broken out upon the world, starting in Russia since
Vladimir Megre first encountered this remarkable woman. You
read her books; you get filled with the passion of wanting to
share what you find with your families and friends... The appear-
ance of Anastasia is a most important and needful occurrence
which has benefited many people enormously. Her appearance
has rocked hosts of people to their very foundations and reading
Book i it is easy to see why There seems to be the promise that
Anastasia and Vladimir Megre are to become the most famous peo-
ple to appear on the world scene... So far I am deeply affected and
inspired by her... roll on Book 2.
— David, England
THE AUTHOR, Vladimir Megre, born in 1950, was a well-known
entrepreneur from a Siberian city of Novosibirsk, According to his
account, in 1995 — after hearing a fascinating story about the power
of ‘ringing cedars’ from a Siberian elder — he organised a trade ex-
pedition into the Siberian taiga to rediscover the lost technique of
pressing virgin cedar nut oil containing high curative powers, as well
as to find the ringing cedar tree. However, his encounter on this trip
with a Siberian woman named Anastasia transformed him so deep-
ly that he abandoned his business and went to Moscow to write a
book about the spiritual insights she had shared with him. Vladimir
Megre now lives near the city ofVladimir, Russia, 190 km (120 miles)
east of Moscow. If you wish to contact the author, you may send a
message to his personal e-mail megre@online.sinor.ru
THE TRANSLATOR, John Woodsworth, born in Vancouver
(British Columbia), has over forty years of experience in Russian-
English translation, from classical poetry to modem short stories. Since
1982 he has been associated with the University of Ottawa in Canada
as a Russian-language teacher, translator and editor, most recently as a
Research Associate and Administrative Assistant with the University’s
Slavic Research Group. A published Russian-language poet himself, he
and his wife — Susan K. Woodsworth — are directors of the Sasquatch
Literary Arts Performance Series in Ottawa. A Certified Russian-
English Translator John Woodsworth is in the process of translating the
remaining volumes in Vladimir Megre’s Ringing Cedars Series.
THE EDITOR, Leonid Sharashkin, is writing his doctoral dis-
sertation on the spiritual, cultural and economic significance of the
Russian dacha gardening movement, at the University of Missouri at
Columbia. After receiving a Master’s degree in Natural Resources
Management from Indiana University at Bloomington, he worked for
two years as Programme Manager at the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF Russia) in Moscow, where he also served as editor of Russia’s
largest environmental magazine, The Panda Times. Together with his
wife, Irina Sharashkina, he has translated into Russian Small is beauti-
ful and A guide for the perplexed by E.F. Schumacher, The secret life of
plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, The continuum concept
by Jean Liedloff and Birth without violence by Frederick Leboyer.
ORDERING INFORMATION
USA:
0 on-line — www.RingingCedars.com
• tel. /fax (toll-free) - 1-888-DOLMENS (1-888-365-6367)
° tel / fax (from outside US it Canada) — 1-646-429-1986
8 e-mail— sales@RingingCedars.com
0 mail (US) — send US$14.95 per copy plus $3.95 shipping and
handling for the first copy and $0.99 s&rh for each additional copy
in your order to:
Ringing Cedars Press
415 Dairy Rd., Suite E-33 9
Kahului, HI 96732, USA
Make a check or money order payable to “Ringing Cedars Press”.
Please indicate clearly the quantity and title of the book(s) you
are ordering and be sure to include your US postal address with
your payment. Allow 2-4 weeks for delivery. Prices are subject to
change without notice.
UNITED KINGDOM:
0 order on-line — www.MingingCedars.co.ult
8 by phone (toll-free) — 0800-011-2081
8 e-mail — books@RingingCedars.co.uk
AUSTRALIA:
8 order on-line — www.RingingCedars.com.au
8 by phone - 1800-248-768
8 e-mail— books@RingingCedars.com.au
NEW ZEALAND:
0 order on-line — www.RingingCedars.co.nz
8 by phone — 64-9232-9792
8 e-mail — sales@RingingCedars.co.nz
SOUTH AFRICA:
8 order on-line — www.RingingCedars.co.za
• e-mail— books@RingingCedars.co.za
The Boole ol k,in fev V. Mcprc Spirituality f
O Childrearing /
Boot 6 of Tfic Ringing Cedars Series IIisr(,lv
A new visit to Anastasia’s glade in the Siberian taiga and conversations with
his growing son cause Vladimir Alegre to take a new look at education, science,
history, family and Nature. Through parables and revelatory dialogues and
stories Anastasia leads the author and the reader on a shocking re-discovery of
the pages of humanity’s history that have been distorted or kept secret for
thousands of years. This knowledge sheds light on the causes of war, oppression
and violence in the modern world and guides us in preserving the wisdom of
our ancestors and passing it over to future generations.
Wu faiS
f X
■M
The Energy of Life by
Vladimir Megre
Translation and footnotes by
Editing, footnotes, design and layout by
Leonid Sharasfakin
Cover art by
Alexander Razboinikov
Copyright © 2003 Vladimir Megre
Copyright © 2007 Leonid Sharashkin, translation
Copyright © 2007 Leonid Sharashkin, cover art
Copyright © 2007 Leonid Sharashkin, design and layout
Copyright © 2007 Leonid Sharashkin, footnotes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, except for the
inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007934230
ISBN: 978-0-9763333-7-1
Published by
Ringing Cedars Press
www. RingingCedars .com
Book 7: The Energy of Life
22. The marvellous Vedruss holidays 178
23. Significant books 185
24. An exercise for teleportation 193
25. Give children their Motherland 200
26. A security zone of the future 224
27. A law for deputies elected by the people 259
28. To the readers of the Ringing Cedars Series.... 270
The Ringing Cedars Series at a glance 278
Chapter One
creates
Man’s life! On what or on whom does it depend? Why do
some become emperors or regimental commanders, while
others are obliged to fend for scraps at garbage dumps?
One opinion holds that each person’s fate is pre-deter-
mined from birth. That would make Man 1 nothing more than
an insignificant cog in some mechanised system, and not the
highly organised creation of God.
According to a different opinion, Man is a self-sufficient
creation, including, without exception, all the diverse ener-
gies of the vast Universe.
But there is in Man an energy peculiar to him alone. It is
known as the energy of thought. Once Man realises just what
land of energy is in his possession and learns to exploit it to
the full, then he will be a ruler of the whole Universe.
Which of these two mutually exclusive definitions of Man
is true?
Perhaps the following ancient parable — you could call it
an anecdote — will help us arrive at the answer.
A man fed up with his life ran out into the woods at the
edge of town, threw up his hands, clenched his fists and
railed at God:
'Man — Throughout the Ringing Cedars Series, the word Man with a capi-
tal M is used to refer to a human being of either gender. For details on the
word’s usage and the important distinction between Man and human being
please see the Translator’s Preface to Book i.
2
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“I can’t go on with my life. Your earthly household is filled
with nothing but injustice and chaos. Some people go gal-
livanting ’round town in expensive cars and dine in fine res-
taurants, while others fend for scraps at garbage dumps. Me,
for instance — • why, I ain’t got enough money to buy me a new
pair o’ shoes. If You, God, are just — that is, if You exist at
all — then make my lottery ticket hit the jackpot.”
At that moment the clouds parted in the heavens, a warm
sunbeam caressed the complainant’s face and a calm, clear
voice sounded from above:
“Do not worry, My son. I am prepared to fulfil your re-
quest.”
The man was overjoyed. He walked along the street with a
smile on his face, happily peering into shop windows and im-
agining what kind of goods his lottery winnings might buy
A year passed. The man won nothing. He concluded God
had let him down.
Now the man, who by this time was really fed up, went back
to the same place in the woods where he had heard God’s
promise and cried:
“You didn’t keep your promise to me, God. You let me
down. Here I’ve been waiting for a whole year now. I’ve been
dreaming about the things I’ll buy with the money I win. But
a whole year’s gone by, and I ain’t got no winnings yet.”
“Oh, My dear son,” came the sad response from the heav-
ens. “You wanted to win a lot of money in the lottery. So why
over the whole year did you not buy a single lottery ticket?”
Thought which creates
3
This little parable or anecdote has been making the rounds
lately. People tend to laugh at the loser.
“How come he didn’t catch on that for his dream to come
true he first had to buy at least one lottery ticket?” they ask.
“But this chap didn’t even take the most obvious first step!”
It’s not the parable itself that’s important here, or whether
this situation ever actually happened. What is important is
how people relate to the chain of events recounted in this
story.
The fact that people laugh at the unfortunate dimwit tells
us that they intuitively, perhaps subconsciously, realise that
their own future life depends not only on some kind of Higher
Power or Divine Design, but on themselves too.
And now everybody can try and analyse their own life situa-
tions. Have they done everything they possibly can on their
own to make their dream come true?
I dare say, and not without some justification, that any
dream — even one that seems to be unreal and utterly fan-
tasaical — will come true if only the individual wanting it
to come true takes simple and consistent actions toward his
goal.
This statement could be illustrated with a whole range of
examples. Here is one of them.
Chapter Two
One day at a small local market in the city of Vladimir I hap-
pened to witness an incident between a young salesgirl and an
inebriated male customer.
The girl was selling cigarettes. She was evidently new on
the job and hadn’t yet boned up very well on her merchandise.
She was getting the brand-names of the cigarettes mixed up
and took a long time to wait on each customer. A small queue
had formed — about three people. The last person in line, a
drunken male, shouted out to the salesgirl:
“Hey, can’t you move a little faster, birdbrain!”
The girl’s cheeks blushed bright red. Several passers-by
stopped to stare at the hapless girl.
The drunk continued shouting out his unflattering re-
marks. He wanted to buy two packs of Primas, but when his
turn came, the girl refused to serve him. Flushed with em-
barrassment and clearly having a hard time holding back her
tears, she declared to the customer:
“You are being insulting, and I refuse to serve you.”
At first the man was dumbfounded at this unexpected turn
of events. Then he faced the growing crowd of gawkers and
launched into an even more insulting tirade:
“Will you just look at this stupid jackass?! If you got your-
self a husband, he’d complain in no uncertain terms if you
hobbled about the kitchen like a lame hen!”
“I wouldn’t let even my husband insult me like that,” the
girl replied.
“Who d’you think you are, anyway? Nothing but a stubborn
A bride for an English lord
5
jackass!” the inebriated man went on, shouting even louder
and more irritatingly “ She won’t let her husband — Maybe
you’re planning on marrying some English lord?”
“Maybe a lord, that’s my business,” replied the girl tersely
and turned away
The situation was heating up. Neither side was willing to
give in. A sizeable crowd of market regulars had gathered to
watch things unfold. Onlookers began scoffing at the young
salesgirl’s declared intention to marry an English lord.
Another girl came over from the next stall and stood be-
side her friend. She just stood there, without saying a word.
They stood there silently two young girls who looked to
be just out of high school. The crowd that had gathered were
now talking amongst themselves about the girls’ insolent and
haughty behaviour.
Most of the snide remarks were about the girl’s pie-in-the-
sky hopes of marrying a lord, along with her over-estimation
of her attributes and opportunities.
The dilemma was solved by a young man, the owner of
the market stalls. When he first approached, he demanded
in rather severe tones that the girl sell the cigarettes to the
customer. However, after hearing her refusal, he quickly hit
upon a solution satisfactory to all. Reaching into his pocket
he pulled out a fifty-rouble note and addressed the girl:
“Madam, if you would be so kind, and if it is not too much
trouble, please sell me two packages of Primas”
“Of course,” responded the girl, handing him the ciga-
rettes.
The young man in turn passed the cigarettes to the male
customer. The conflict was over and the crowd dispersed.
This story has a sequel — a quite unexpected one at that.
Each time I went by the market thereafter, I couldn’t help
paying attention to these two young salesgirls. They worked
just as deftly as their senior fellow-workers, but at the same
6
Book 7: The Energy of Life
time significantly distinguished themselves from them.
They were slender of figure, modestly but neatly dressed,
makeup not overdone, and their movements were far more
elegant than the others’. The girls continued working at the
market for almost a year and then both disappeared at the
same time.
It was about six months later, in the summertime, at the
same market, that I noticed an elegant young woman walk-
ing beside the fruit stalls. She stood out from the crowd by
her proud bearing and fashionable expensive attire. This
striking young woman was accompanied by a dapper-looking
gentleman carrying a basket filled with a variety of appetis-
ing fruits.
It dawned on me that this young woman who was attract-
ing all sorts of attention from the men around — as well as
(no doubt) jealous glances from the women — was none other
than the friend of the cigarette salesgirl.
I went over and explained to the young couple — especial-
ly to the lady’s concerned companion — the reason for my
curiosity Finally the woman recognised me. We sat down
at a table in an open-air cafe and Natasha (as she was called)
recounted to me the events that had taken place over the past
year and a half. Her story went as follows:
The day when Katya had that incident with the customer in
front of all the regulars we decided to quit our jobs so peo-
ple wouldn’t laugh at us. You remember how Katya said back
then that she was going to marry an English lord. And people
laughed at her. We realised they would go on laughing and
pointing fingers at us.
But we didn’t manage to find work anywhere else. You
see, we’d just finished high school, and didn’t make it when
we applied to college. Well, all right, I got average marks,
but Katya was a real brain. She passed her exams with flying
A bride for an English lord
7
colours, but still didn’t get in. They’d cut back on the number
of free college places, and she didn’t have the money to pay
for her education — her mum makes a pittance, and there’s
no dad. So we ended up taking sales jobs at the market, since
they wouldn’t hire us anywhere else.
We began working and swotting to sit the next year’s col-
lege exams. But a week after the incident at the market Katya
all of a sudden turns to me and says:
“I’ve got to prepare myself to be worthy of being the wife
of an English lord. D’you want to train along with me?”
I thought she was joking, but she was dead serious. Even
back at school Katya had always been pretty obsessive about
whatever she put her mind to.
She went to the library and found the syllabus of a semi-
nary for young ladies , 1 which she adapted to modem times.
And we started training like crazy according to Katya’s syl-
labus.
We did dancing and aerobics, we studied English and
English history, along with the rules of etiquette and good
manners. We watched political discussions on TV so we
could hold conversation with intelligent people. Even while
we were at work in our stall we tried to behave as though we
were at a high-society gathering, so that our manners would
acquire a natural feel.
We earned money, but didn’t spend it on ourselves. We
didn’t even buy makeup, so we could save. We were saving so
we could have fancy outfits custom made, as well as for a trip
to England.
1 seminary for young ladies — from tsarist times in Russia, when there were
elite boarding schools reserved for girls of noble descent. The syllabus
would have included a wide array of subjects (languages, dancing, painting,
etiquette, religion etc.) designed to prepare the girls for their future roles
in high society:
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Katya said, you see, that English lords would never come
round a small market like this in Vladimir, which meant we had
to go to England. Our chances would be far greater there.
So we went to England with a tourist group. The two weeks
there simply flew by. Of course, you understand, there were
no English lords to greet us or take us around. And I really
had no expectations for myself — I was just doing this to keep
Katya company But she actually had hopes. Once she gets
something into her head, that’s it. She never stopped looking
every Englishman in the face, searching for her intended. We
even went to a dance club a couple of times, but nobody asked
us to dance, not even once.
It was the day of our departure, and we were on our way
out to the motor coach from our hotel, and Katya still kept
looking around, ever hopeful. We stopped right on the hotel
steps, when Katya suddenly puts her bag down, looks off to
one side and says:
“Here he comes!”
I look, and lo and behold, walking along the sidewalk to-
ward us is a young man, minding his own business and paying
no attention to us. Just as I expected, he came right up to
where we were standing, but didn’t even glance at Katya and
walked right by
And then all of a sudden Katya — coo, blow me away! —
calls out to him.
The young man turns to look at us. Katya goes up to him
slowly but confidently and says to him in English:
“My name is Katya. I am from Russia. Now I am leaving to
go to airport on a bus with my tour-group. I have approached
you... I have feeling that I can make you a very good wife. I
do not yet love you, but I shall be able to love you, and you
will love me. We shall have good children together. A little
boy and a little girl. We shall be happy together. And now, if
you wish, you can accompany me to say good-bye at airport.”
A bride for an English lord
9
The young man just stood there staring intently at Katya
without saying a word. He was dumbfounded, no doubt from
the shock. Then he said he had an important business meet-
ing, wished her bon voyage and walked off.
The whole way to the airport Katya sat staring out the win-
dow We didn’t say a word to each other. Both Katya and I
felt awkward in front of all the tourists who saw the scene in
front of the hotel. I could literally feel my skin tingling at all
those people making fun of Katya and accusing her.
But when we arrived at the airport and were getting off
the coach, right there was none other than this same young
Englishman, greeting Katya with a huge bouquet of flowers
in his hand.
She put her bag down — no, she simply let it fall to the
pavement. She didn’t take the bouquet, but buried her head
in his chest and began crying.
He dropped the bouquet, and the flowers scattered all over.
I helped the other tourists gather them up, while they just
stood there. And the Englishman was stroking Katya’s head.
And as though there were nobody else around, he kept telling
her what a fool he was for almost letting fate slip through his
fingers, how if he didn’t catch up with her he would suffer for
it his whole life, and kept on thanking Katya for finding him.
Meanwhile, as it turned out, the plane’s departure was de-
layed. I shan’t tell you how, but I was the one who managed
to delay it.
Her Englishman turned out to be from a family of British
diplomats and he himself was about to be posted to some
embassy.
As soon as we got back to Russia, he started ringing
up Katya every day They’d talk for hours. Katya’s now in
England, and pregnant. I think they really do love each other.
And now I believe in love at first sight.
IO
Book 7: The Energy of Life
When Natasha finished telling me her amazing story, she
gave a smile to her companion sitting beside her. I asked
whether they had known each other long. And the young
man answered:
“You see, I was in the same tourist group. When the
Englishman’s flowers got strewn all over, Natasha started pick-
ing them up, and I began helping her. Now I carry her fruit
basket for her. Who are we, compared to English lords?!”
Natasha lovingly placed her hand on her companion’s
shoulder and said with a smile:
‘And just who are they compared to you — our Russian
men?!”
Then the happy girl turned to me and said:
‘Andrei and I got married a month ago. And here we are,
come to see my parents.”
After hearing the story of these girls, a lot of people might
think: well, they were just lucky. Not a typical situation. But
if I dare say it, the situation in this case was absolutely typical
and entirely normal. More than that, I would affirm that oth-
er girls could predict a similar destiny for themselves if they
are prepared to follow the pattern set by Katya and Natasha.
Of course there may be certain differences — names, the
type of suitor, and the time-frame involved — but a similar
situation happening with others is already a predetermined
fact. Predetermined by whom? By the girls themselves, their
way of thinking and the consistent steps they take toward
their goal.
A bride for an English lord
ii
Think about it, Katya had a dream, or a goal: to marry an
Englishman. What prompted this dream, is unimportant. She
was probably turned off by the atmosphere of the market, the
drunken customers and how rude they were, or maybe the
shameful taunts of the customer in question.
In any case, a dream was born. What of it? What young
girl doesn’t dream of a prince driving a white Mercedes, and
yet still ends up marrying a typical loser? In the vast majority
of cases their dreams do not come true.
I concede that, of course, but the reason they don’t come
true is simply that their actions, or more precisely, their fac-
tion in respect to their dream is like the anecdote about the
lottery ticket — when someone dreams about winning big at
the lottery and even asks God for help, but doesn’t take the
first elementary step of buying a single ticket.
The girls began taking action, and a consistent pattern was
realised: dream — thought — action. Try removing just one of
these elements from the chain, and the girls’ fate would have
turned out completely differently
Chapter Three
Man’s destiny! Many are wont to think that Man’s fate is de-
cided by someone up there. But this ‘someone’ simply makes
available to every Man the most powerful energy in the
Universe — an energy capable of not only shaping its hold-
er’s destiny, but of creating whole new galaxies. This energy is
called human thought.
It is not enough just to know that this is so. One must
become consciously aware of this phenomenon — one must
feel it.
How completely we are able to become aware of it, to feel
and understand it, determines the degree to which the secrets
of this vast Universe of ours unfold before us, the degree to
which we perceive how its wonders — or, more precisely, its
natural phenomena — work.
It is only the conscious awareness and acceptance of the
energy of thought that will allow us to make our lives and the
lives of our loved ones truly happy. And yet it is precisely a
happy life that is predestined for Man on the Earth.
And so we are obliged to persuade ourselves of the indis-
putability of the following conclusions:
First: Man is a thinking being.
Second: the power of the energy of thought has no equal in the
Universe: everything we see, including ourselves, is created by the
energy of thought.
We can name off millions of objects from, a primitive ham-
mer to a space ship, yet the appearance of each one of these is
preceded by thought.
Tou create your own fate
13
Our imagination builds a material object in space unseen
to our eyes. Just because we don’t yet glimpse its materialisa-
tion doesn’t mean that the object doesn’t exist. It is already
constructed in mental space, and this is more significant than
its subsequent materialisation.
A space ship is constructed by the thought of one or more
people. We still don’t see it, we can’t touch it, yet at the same
time it exists! It exists in a dimension invisible to us, but later
it materialises, taking on a form we can see with our ordinary
sight.
Which is more important in the construction of a space
ship — the craftsmanship of the worker executing the details
according to the blueprints presented to him, or the thought
of the designer and builder? Of course the physical labour on
any project is absolutely necessary, but nothing can displace
the primacy of thought.
A real space ship can suffer a catastrophic accident, caused
not by some kind of defective part, but always by an inade-
quately developed thought. In ordinary parlance it is known
as thoughtlessness.
Thought is capable of foreseeing any kind of accident. In
thought there are no unforeseen situations. Yet all sorts of ac-
cidents and irregularities do happen. Why? Because of haste
in turning the project into material reality, not allowing it to
be sufficiently thought through.
Anyone who thinks this through on their own can come to
the same indisputable conclusion: all objects that have ever
been manufactured on the Earth are materialised thoughts.
Nowit is vitally necessary to realise that absolutely all life sit-
uations, including life itself, are formed first of all in thought.
The world of living Nature which we see, including Man
himself, was originally formed by God’s thought.
Just like God, Man is capable of forming with his thought
not only new objects but his own life situations as well.
Book 7: The Energy of Life
If your thought is insufficiently developed, or prevented
by some cause from freely making use of its inherent energy
and speed capabilities, your life situations will be influenced
by somebody else’s thoughts — possibly the thoughts of your
family, acquaintances, or society in general.
But note that even in this case your life situations are deter-
mined aforetime by human thought. And you have only your-
selves to blame if you have choked and imprisoned your own
thinking, thereby subjecting yourselves to the will of another
person’s thoughts, meaning that your successes or failures in
life are already dependent on this other person or persons.
You may be persuaded of what I have just said through a
variety of examples in life. Think what a Man does before
becoming a famous performing artist? First of all he dreams
about it, naturally, then thinks up a plan of how to attain his
dream, and then steps into action. He takes part in amateur
productions, studies at an appropriate school, and then takes
a job in the theatre, film studio or symphony orchestra.
Some people mayprotest and say that while everybody dreams
of becoming the most famous performing artist, only a few ac-
tually achieve this, while others are obliged to look for work in
another field that has nothing to do with a career in the arts.
Besides the dream, one needs talent too. Yes, of course, that is
true. But talent is also a product of the power of thought.
What about physical and natural gifts? They are signifi-
cant, of course. But, then again, human thought is not so stu-
pid as to inspire a legless person to enrol in a ballet school.
How can it be, the reader may wonder: if everything, even
one’s profession and well-being, depended on one’s own
thoughts, then surely everybody would be rich and famous, and
there wouldn’t be any people eking out a pitiful existence, rum-
maging through garbage dumps in search of something to eat.
Well, now, let’s head off to a garbage dump, in the literal
sense of the word.
Chapter Four
I did this in the following manner. I let some stubble grow
on my face, rumpled my hair and borrowed some old work
clothes from a painter friend. Then I took a plastic bag and
a stick and walked up to a garbage dumpster. I rummaged
about with a stick in the garbage and came up with several
empty bottles, which I put into the plastic bag, before pro-
ceeding to the dumpster at a neighbouring building. My ef-
forts were rewarded. I had been at the second dumpster no
more than ten minutes — fifteen tops — when I was virtually
set upon by a man wielding a metal rod in his hands.
“Keep your paws off what doesn’t belong to you,” he said in
a tone that brooked no contradiction.
“ You’re saying that this is your territory?” I asked calmly,
taking a few steps back from the dumpster, at the same time
handing him my plastic bag with the bottles.
“Whose else would it be?” the man replied, already sound-
ing less aggressive than before. He took my bag and began
raking through the contents of the garbage dump, paying no
attention to me.
“Maybe you could show me where there’s some freebies
around?” I enquired, adding: “I’ll make it worth your while.”
“White,” responded the unofficial owner of the dumpster.
I went to the store and picked up a bottle of ‘white’ vodka, 1
along with a few snacks. Over drinks we got to know each
'‘white’ vodka — clear, unmixed, ‘classic’ Russian vodka as distinct from ‘col-
oured’ varieties of vodka (e.g., fruit liquors infused with cranberry, rowan-
berry etc.) available on the market.
16 Book 7: The Energy of Life
other, and Pavel shared with me a lot of the tricks of his trade,
and believe me, there were quite a few.
You have to know, for example, what days especially to
guard against ‘transients’ like me invading and pinching one’s
‘property’. Especially after holidays, when a lot of bottles get
tossed out. It is also important to know which refuse mate-
rials contain base metals, and how to collect them — some
dealers pay more for glass containers and base metals. And
to know what to do with discarded clothing that’s still fit to
wear.
I attempted to change the subject.
While Pavel was entirely capable of expressing his opinions
on politics and the government, he did so with considerably
less interest. He had a one-track mind — everything revolved
around the dumpsters.
As a final conclusive test I suggested the following to him:
“You know, Pavel, there’s a chap building a house not too
far away who’s looking for a security guard over the winter,
as well as to help in the construction, for which he’s willing
to pay extra. And supply groceries to boot. Every week his
driver brings potatoes, onions and cereal. You’re a decent
fellow — he’ll hire you. If you like, we can go have a word
with him.”
After a few drinks, as might be expected, we had become
friends. Which made the sudden sharp shift in his mood all
the more unexpected. First he spent about thirty seconds in
intensive thought. Then after staring at me another thirty
seconds in a kind of standoffish silence, he finally came out
with what was on his mind:
“You think I’ve been drinkin’ and not realised what’s going
on? What’s all this business, creep, about me being hired as a
guard, just so’s you can take over my dumpsters?”
He didn’t even ask what kind of wage a security guard might
earn, or what kind of accommodations might be included, or
‘Garbage-dump thinking’
T 7
what kind of work, specifically, he might have to do for the
extra pay His thought was completely concentrated on his
dumpsters, working out the best way to take care of them and
protect them from competitors.
So it turns out that this Man predetermined the course of
his thought — deciding the questions of his existence on the
basis of garbage dumpsters — and then followed the direc-
tion of his thought.
One could cite quite a number of other examples confirm-
ing the indisputability of the fact that the creation of all mate-
rial objects, life situations and social phenomena is preceded
by the energy of thought.
One Man can influence another through his own thoughts.
This is attested in ancient tales and parables. Here is what
Anastasia’s grandfather had to say about the energy of human
thought.
Chapter Five
“Yes, Vladimir, Man’s thought has access to energy unsur-
passed. Many of the creations of this energy are either dis-
missed as magic or counted as miracles and ascribed to a
higher power.
“Take, for example, the ‘miracle icons’. Why would they
suddenly become miraculous? Why would a piece of wooden
board with a hand-painted image on it all of a sudden have the
power to work miracles? It happens when monographers im-
bue their work with a sufficient amount of their own mental
energy Those who look at the icon then add their own en-
ergy People talk about a ‘prayed-over icon’ — in other words,
an icon imbued with a goodly amount of the energy of human
thoughts.
“It used to be that iconographers knew about the prop-
erties of this great energy Before approaching a particular
work, they fasted to cleanse their body of impurities, at the
same time intensifying their thought. Then they entered
into a state of detachment, focusing their energy on a single
task — the painting of the icon. When it was completely fin-
ished, they spent another long period contemplating what
they had done. And miracles were sometimes the result.
“People sometimes see unusual phenomena, or various
kinds of angels. But note that people invariably see only what
they are thinking about. They invariably see only the images
they believe in.
“Christians, for example, can see only their own saints.
Moslems see only theirs. That is because they are beholding
A goddess of a wife 19
the projections of their own or the general collective
thought.
“Back only fifteen hundred years ago there were people
who understood the power and properties of the energy of
human thought. There are parables about this. Would you
like to hear one?”
“Yes, I would.”
“I shall translate it from its ancient tongue into contem-
porary language, and change the setting to modern terms to
make it more understandable. But tell me first, how does a
man who has been married to a woman for a long time be-
have? What does he do when he comes home?”
“Well, a lot of husbands, as long as they don’t habitually
reach for the bottle, will sit down in front of the television set
and either read a paper or watch TV They might take out the
garbage, if their wife asks them to.”
‘And what about the women?”
“There’s no question about that — they get supper ready in
the kitchen, and afterward wash the dishes.”
“Fine. That will help me translate the ancient parable into
modern terms.”
Once upon a time there lived an ordinary husband and wife.
The wife’s name was Elena, her husband was Ivan.
Every day the husband would come home from work, sit
down in his favourite chair by the television set and begin
reading the newspaper. His wife Elena would get supper
ready. As she gave Ivan his supper she would nag him that
20
Book 7: The Energy of Life
he never did anything useful around the place, and was not
earning enough money. Ivan got irritated by his wife’s nag-
ging. But instead of giving her some kind of gruff response,
he simply thought to himself: She herself ‘s a dirty slut, and she’s
telling me what to do. But when we got married, she was so totally
different — she was beautiful, she was tender.
One day when this nagging wife demanded Ivan take out
the garbage, he reluctantly tore himself away from the TV
and headed outdoors with the dustbin. Upon returning, he
stopped in the doorway and turned to God in his thought:
“O, Lord! O, Lord! Just look at how lousy my life’s turned
out! Do I really have to while away all my remaining years
with such a nagging and ugly wife? This isn’t life — it’s sheer
torture!”
And then all of a sudden Ivan heard the quiet voice of
God:
“My son, I could help alleviate your troubles, I could give
you a splendid goddess of a wife, only if your neighbours no-
ticed a sudden change in your life, they might become greatly
astonished. Let us work this way: I shall change your wife just
a little at a time. I shall imbue her with the spirit of a god-
dess and improve her outward appearance. Only you must
remember that if you want to live with a goddess, you have to
make your own life worthy of a goddess.”
“Thank you, O Lord! Any man would be happy to change
his life for the sake of a goddess. But tell me: when will You
start making changes in my wife?”
“I shall begin a few little changes right away. And minute
by minute I shall be changing her for the better.”
Ivan went back into his home, sat down in his chair, picked
up the paper and turned the television back on. Only he did
not feel like reading, or watching any TV films. He could not
wait to peek and see whether his wife had started changing —
even just a little.
A goddess of a wife
21
He got up and opened the kitchen door. Leaning against
the door-post, he began watching his wife intently. She was
standing with her back to him, washing the supper dishes.
All at once Elena felt herself being watched and turned to-
ward the doorway Their eyes met. Ivan looked at his wife
and thought: No, I don’t see any changes going on in my wife.
Seeing the unusual attention her husband was paying her
and not being able to figure it out, Elena all at once straight-
ened her hair, and a rosy blush came over her cheeks as she
asked:
“What is it, Ivan? Why are you looking at me so in-
tently?”
The husband could not think of what to say Embarrassed,
he blurted out:
“Well, maybe... the dishes... maybe I could help you wash
them? I was just thinking about it, for some reason.”
“The dishes? You help me?” the wife echoed in surprise,
taking off her much-soiled apron. “Well, you see, I’ve already
done them.”
Wow! She’s changing right before my eyes! Ivan thought. Look
how much prettier she’s become all of a sudden!
And then he started drying the dishes.
The next day after work Ivan couldn’t wait to get home.
He couldn’t wait to see how his nagging wife was little by little
being transformed into a goddess.
Hasn’t she got a lot of goddess in her already? But I haven’t
changed even a little bit myself as usual. In any case, I should buy
her some flowers, so I won’t fall flat on my face before a goddess!
Upon opening the door to his home, Ivan stood entranced
in amazement. There before him stood Elena in her party
dress, the same one he had bought her last year. She was
sporting a neat hairdo, complete with a bright ribbon. He
was dumbfounded. With some awkwardness he offered the
flowers to Elena, not being able to take his eyes off her.
22
Book 7: The Energy of Life
She accepted the flowers and gave a little gasp. She low-
ered her eyelids and a rosy blush filled her cheeks.
Oh, what marvellous eyelids goddesses have! What meekness
they express! What extraordinary inner beauty, and outward
looks!
And Ivan gasped in turn, upon seeing the table set with
their fancy china and two candles burning on the table, along
with two wine-glasses and the food with its divinely tempting
aromas.
He sat down to the table, and Elena his wife sat down op-
posite him. But then suddenly she jumped up and said:
“I’m so sorry, I forgot to turn the TV on for you. But here,
I’ve got today’s paper for you.”
“Never mind the TV, and I don’t really feel like reading the
paper either — they all keep saying the same thing,” Ivan re-
sponded with sincerity. “I’d rather you tell me what you’d like
to do tomorrow, Saturday”
Completely overwhelmed, Elena asked in amazement:
“What would you like to do?”
“Well, I happened to pick us up a couple of theatre tick-
ets today Anyway tomorrow afternoon, I thought you might
like to do a bit of shopping. Since we’re going to the theatre,
I thought we’d drop into a store first and buy you a dress suit-
able for the occasion.”
Ivan just caught himself in time from blurting out his
cherished secret: a dress suitable for a goddess. Embarrassed,
he looked at her again and gave another gasp. A goddess was
indeed sitting at the table before him. Her face was beaming
with joy, and her eyes were sparkling. Her restrained smile
was just slightly inquisitive.
O Lord, how marvellous goddesses are after all! But if she keeps
on getting better day by day, can I become worthy of this goddess?
Ivan mused. All of a sudden, a thought struck him like light-
ning: I’ve got to do it! I’ve got to do it while this goddess is here
A goddess of a wife
23
with me. I’ve got to ask her, plead with her to bear my child, A child
which will come from me and from this most marvellous goddess!
‘A penny for your thoughts, Ivan! Could that be excitement
I see in your face?” Elena asked her husband.
He sat there excitedly, not sure how to talk about so pre-
cious a thing. This was no piece of cake — asking a goddess
to bear a child! This was not a gift God had promised him.
He did not know how to tell her about his wish. Fumbling
with a comer of the tablecloth, Ivan got up from the table and
pleaded, blushing:
“I don’t know... Do you think... But I... wanted to say...
for a long time now... I want to have a child with you, my
beautiful goddess!”
Whereupon she, Elena, came over to Ivan, her husband.
From her love-filled eyes a tear of joy rolled down her rosy
cheek. She placed her hand on Ivan’s shoulder, and her breath
flared in a warm flush.
What a night that was! What a morning! And oh, what a day it
is! How marvellous it is to live with a goddess! thought Ivan, as he
bundled up his second grandson for an outdoor stroll.
“What did you understand from this parable, Vladimir?”
“I understood all of it. God didn’t actually help Ivan. All
he did was listen to God’s voice. Ivan made his own wife a
goddess through his thought.”
“Of course, you are right: Ivan created his own happiness
with his thought. He made his wife a goddess and changed
himself. But God did help Ivan.”
2 4
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“When?”
“Back when God gave everything to each of us, when He
was contemplating the creation of Man. And explaining eve-
rything to the first Man he created. Do you remember God’s
words from the book Co-creation ? He said:
“My son, you are infinite, you are eternal, within you are
your dreams of creation.”
“These words, Vladimir, are still true today Every Man
has within himself creative dreams. The question is only, in
which direction are they aimed? And how powerful is the
thought, including its energy, in His sons and daughters living
on the Earth today?”
'Quoted from Book 4, Chapter 8: “Birth”.
Chapter Six
I shall not concern the reader with further examples. Each
one can ascertain independently from his own life what seg-
ments of his being have been created by his own thought and
what segments by somebody else’s.
To answer this question once and for all, let’s start by stat-
ing the obvious: thought is precursor to everything.
As I have already indicated, to anyone who succeeds in not
only becoming aware of this but in feeling it as well many se-
crets of the Universe will be revealed. First and foremost, a
distinct picture of creation will appear.
God created the world in which we live through the
help of a dream — the energy of His thought. He created
Man, giving him complete freedom of action and endow-
ing him with powerful energy capable of creating similar
worlds, or possibly worlds even more perfected than the
Earth.
In order to create new worlds or to perfect the world al-
ready created, it is vital that the speed of Man’s thinking
match that of the Divine.
However, one glance at the world created by human soci-
ety shows clearly that it is not only imperfect but poses an
ever-increasing danger to existence. Consequently, a degra-
dation of consciousness is clearly taking place or, more pre-
cisely, Man’s speed of thinking is diminishing.
The very first people possessed a speed of thinking equal
to the Divine. It could not have been otherwise, since, like
2 6
Booic 7: The Energy of Life
any parent-creator, God could not even think of creating His
child less perfect than Himself.
What powers could have proved capable of influencing
human consciousness and aiming it down the path of deg-
radation? If anyone had the power to do so, that means he
would be able to surpass the energy of thought of both God
and Man. But there is no such being, either on the Earth or
anywhere else.
The proof of this statement is simplicity itself. If there
existed an entity possessing a greater speed of thinking than
Man, it would long ago have created its own world and we
’would be able to see it.
To either redirect or subjugate the energy of human
thought is something only human thought itself can do. In
other words, one Man possessing a greater speed of thought
than the rest and wanting to subjugate others could, under
certain circumstances, do so.
In today’s situation human society has been subjugated to
the descendants of the Egyptian priests who preserved the
knowledge of the science of imagery and who maintained,
with the help of special exercises, the capability of thinking
at a much greater speed than the vast majority of people liv-
ing on the Earth . 1
And there are circumstances which confirm this to be the
status quo.
There is one Man who has proved capable of standing up
to the priests one-on-one.
I am talking, of course, about the Siberian recluse,
Anastasia. And note that she achieves palpable results with-
out the help of any kind of army or technical superstructures,
but simply by virtue of the power of her thought.
Tor further details, see Books 4 and 6, especially Book 6, Chapter 6:
“Imagery and trial”.
And where is your thought right now?
27
That mankind is beginning, at the dawn of a new millen-
nium, to enter into a Divine world of splendour is to me, per-
sonally, an indisputable fact. I should like to share some joy-
ful news with my readers.
I have it on reliable authority that several individual groups
of scholars have been working, independently of each other,
on a programme of national development according to an
image created by Anastasia. Not just people with academ-
ic degrees, but students, too, have been involved in these
projects.
To develop a programme like this in detail requires approx-
imately two to three years of persistent work on the part of a
whole army of specialists. But the first glimpses of it you can
already catch even now.
For example, the Internet site www.Anastasia.ru has
published a paper by a fourth-year Ukrainian university stu-
dent outlining a programme of development for Ukraine,
based on Anastasia’s idea of family domains. People all
over Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent
States 2 have been sending in draft constitutions for future
communities.
It is not for me to judge the merits of this young woman’s
paper, but it is already significant simply by virtue of its being
the first one published. It is also important to note that these
scholars became involved not by dint of somebody’s commis-
sion but by the dictates of their own hearts.
It won’t be long before you get a chance to become ac-
quainted with and discuss their highly important works. I
2 Commonwealth of Independent States — an organisation made up of most of
the former Soviet republics, founded in December 1991 — immediately
following the dissolution of the USSR — to facilitate trade ties as well as
mutual co-operation in matters of foreign policy and defence. It does not
include Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania; moreover, Georgia and Turkmenistan
have opted for less than full membership status.
28
Book 7: The Energy of Life
think these projects will be set forth for public discussion un-
der the umbrella name of the national idea . 3
I could have included these passages in my previous book,
following the account of my conversation with Anastasia’s
grandfather. I didn’t. I thought it would be premature. As
it is, many people dismiss Anastasia’s powers as bordering on
fantasy or fairy tales.
My conversation with her grandfather, however, revealed to
me even more extraordinary phenomena than any Anastasia
had shown me earlier, and helped me see Anastasia herself in
a new light. Now that current events in human society have
begun to confirm what I heard back in the Siberian taiga, I
shall cite part of my conversation with her grandfather.
3 Indeed, in 2006 — four years after this book was originally published in
Russian — the Russian government put forth four National Projects : strong
agriculture, affordable housing, high-quality education and healthcare. A
number of prominent politicians, including Vladimir Zhirinovsky — the
leader of Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party and Deputy Head of the Russian
Duma (Parliament) — have openly declared that the concept of kin’s domains
should become the basis for implementation of these ‘National Projects’.
More recently, in March 2007, Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s Deputy Prime
Minister in charge of the ‘National Projects’, publicly stated that the idea
of kin’s domains was fully aligned with the government’s own priorities.
Chapter Seven
conversation
This took place on the day following her great-grandfather’s
passing . 1
Usually, when loved ones pass from our lives, relatives of-
fer expressions of sympathy. The last little while Anastasia’s
grandfather never left his father’s side. Now that he’s all alone,
I decided to seek him out and talk with him, to take his mind
off his sorrow, as is customary I knew pretty much where I
could find him, and so headed over to the neighbouring glade.
Anastasia’s grandfather was standing motionless at the
edge of the glade, watching and listening to the nutcracker
birds’ twitter on the branches. He was wearing a long shirt 3
made out of nettle fibres and some kind of rope-belt. He was
barefoot.
I knew that residents of the taiga took care not to interrupt
each other’s train of thought. And I began to realise on just
how high a level this culture of communication actually was. It
speaks of the great respect they have for each other’s thinking.
After some time Anastasia’s grandfather turned and head-
ed over in my direction. As he approached, I could detect no
’Great-grandfather’s passing is described in Book 6, Chapter y. “An invita-
tion to the future”.
2 nutcracker birds (Latin: Nucifmga caryocatacUs) — in Russian these are known
either as orekhovki (nut birds) or kedrovki (cedar birds).
’long shirt (Russian: rubakhd) — in this case, a knee-length shirt common as
everyday wear among Russian rural dwellers.
30
Book 7: The Energy of Life
trace of sorrow on his face, which manifested its customary
kind-heartedness.
“Good day to you,” he said, offering me his hand as we ex-
changed greetings. In our conversation he always structured
his sentences in terms of modern, often quite mundane us-
age, sometimes making a joke or teasing me — though never
insultingly On the contrary, he had a way of making you feel
at home, as though you were chatting with a member of your
family. And he was somebody you could talk with very easily
on any subject — even on topics men bring up when there are
no women around.
Undoubtedly many of Anastasia’s abilities were inherited
from her parents and ancestors, as well, of course, as from her
grandfather, who had, after all, played a hands-on role in her
upbringing.
What knowledge of life, what abilities lay hidden in this
grey-headed elder who a hundred years on had lost none of
his keenness of mind and youthful agility? With me he spoke
in very simple terms, although one time I overheard him talk-
ing with his father. Well over half the words he used were
ones I had never heard before. It means that in talking with
others, out of respect to them he makes use of their lexicon
and manner of speaking.
“Well, now, how are things going? In your civilised society?
Any people starting to wake up?” asked Grandfather with a
hint of jocularity.
“Things are going along okay,” 1 responded. “There are
some scholars who have taken an interest in Anastasia’s
ideas. Various groups are working on national develop-
ment programmes based on her proposals. This is happen-
ing not only in Russia but in other countries as well. But
it’s not clear just yet when all the marvellous things, as she
put it, will actually come to pass either in our country or
abroad.”
A conversation with Anastasia s grandfather 31
“It’s all happened already, Vladimir. The main thing has
been done.”
“What do you mean by ‘the main thing?”
‘Anastasia has created a thought, an image of a future state,
and she has done this with her usual meticulous approach,
right down to the last detail and how thoughts will be materi-
alised in a future reality.
“Now you and a lot of people will be able to see this splen-
did future materialised. The energy of her thought is extraor-
dinarily strong, and her strength has no equal anywhere in
space. It is perfect and quite specific, but the main thing is
that she keeps on gaining strength thanks to the help of other
people’s thinking. She is no longer alone.
“So you tell me that groups of scholars in various countries
are working on national development programmes, and en-
trepreneurs are starting to build the domains she thought up,
and her thought has been perceived by many people young and
old. Once these people have had contact with her thought,
they are creating thoughts of their own.
“The thoughts of all these people merging together are fill-
ing space with an energy of unprecedented strength, and this
energy is materialising a splendid future. Already one can see
partial manifestations of this materialisation.”
“But what if someone deliberately started to obstruct this
materialisation of the future?” I asked. “The priests, for ex-
ample, who now rule the world, let’s say the high priest him-
self began obstructing it?”
“He will not obstruct it. He will help it along.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I have heard his conversation and seen his thought.”
“What conversation? How did you see it?”
“Vladimir, you’ve probably already guessed that my father
was one of those six priests.”
“I had no idea.”
32
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“Well, you might have guessed. Although outward simplic-
ity and the ability to conceal one’s abilities and possibilities is
one of the important components of their power. There’s no
way they’re going to brag about the weapons in their arsenal
the way the leaders of the world’s great powers do. The priests
are capable of aiming these weapons wherever they like by di-
recting the leaders’ thoughts, by bringing about correspond-
ing situations. And they never had any thought of bragging
about themselves in public. Their major, secret goal over the
millennia has been to achieve a dialogue with God. No mat-
ter how they’ve acted, they have never feared Divine revenge,
knowing that God lias given full freedom to each Man, and
He will not break His promise.
“They have been controlling mankind, torturing it even,
thereby showing God that they are more capable than any-
one else, that the fate of the Earth’s civilisation depends on
them. This kind of situation, they figured, ought to compel
God to enter into a dialogue with them... Only there hasn’t
been any dialogue. And now it’s become clear why it has been
totally out of the question for the priests to have a dialogue
with God.”
Chapter Eight
When little Anastasia was born, and after this tiny infant who
had not yet learnt to walk was left all alone without any par-
ents, the fiery sphere began to put in an occasional appear-
ance beside her , 1
My father, along with the other priests, knew about a great
many natural phenomena that your scientists today consider
mysterious and unexplainable. Yet he could still not account
for the power of this fiery sphere.
Its unfathomable energy could momentarily dissipate in
space in the form of tiny sparks, or just as quickly gather itself
together into a single whole. A delicate tongue of fiery light
bursting from the sphere could instantaneously pulverise a
huge stone or rock.
The same tongue of light was also capable of tenderly
touching an insect’s leg as it crawled along the petal of a flow-
er, without causing any harm.
But the main, the most inexplicable part of the mystery was
how this cluster of tremendous energy reacted to the feelings
and desires of little Anastasia. That meant it had feelings, and
thought besides.
Thought, in the complete sense of the word, is native
only to Man. But the fiery sphere was not Man. Then who
was This? How could It possess feelings which belong only
to Man? Where did It acquire such tremendous power and
might?
‘This and the following two chapters axe narrated by Anastasia’s grandfather.
34
Book 7: The Energy of Life
I told you, and you described this in your book , 2 how it
changed the Earth’s gravitational field in a single spot, when
Anastasia was learning to walk. Thousands of little tongues of
light emanated from it, combing the little girl’s golden hair.
Father had an idea about what kind of forces could have
produced this fiery, mighty and thinking sphere, but he never
spoke of it aloud. Supposition requires proof.
When Anastasia was a little older, we once overheard her
talking with the sphere. Or rather, she was the one who did
all the talking. The sphere never uttered words, it only re-
acted to the child’s words through its actions.
When Father asked Anastasia about the sphere, she gave
only a very brief answer:
“I would call it Good.” Her answer was insufficient for my
father, but he didn’t speak with her again about the sphere,
not back then nor over the years since.
From that original answer it was clear that Anastasia had
no desire to give a definition either to the fiery sphere itself
or to its actions. Most probably she perceived it through her
ieelings. But my father, for some reason, was anxious to de-
fine the phenomenon.
From the time the sphere first appeared, Father stopped
participating in the priests’ affairs and concentrated his at-
tention on solving the mystery
The priests know the mechanisms for confirming a hy-
pothesis or overturning their own hypotheses. To this end
it is necessary to publicise the phenomenon with a highly ac-
curate report and await people’s reaction and opinions. Mind
you, these people should not be asked or instructed to express
their opinions. Definitions must arise freely, on the level of
feelings and not just intellect, in order to be as accurate as
possible.
"See Book 2, Chapter 27: “The anomaly”.
Thank you
35
So, at my father’s request, I told you about Anastasia’s
childhood, including the story of her communication with
the mysterious phenomenon. You wrote about this in your
book without distorting what you heard, and, most signifi-
cantly, you did not express any opini ons of your own.
We looked forward with some excitement to hearing your
readers’ reaction. It came very quickly, expressed not only in
the usual things people say, but in emotional bursts of feeling.
People said or wrote what my father had supposed for many
years but never spoke aloud — thoughts he had hid from the
other priests.
You published poetry from readers who wrote not because
somebody had asked them to, but straight from the heart.
Let me remind you of how one of these poems starts off:
On her Birthday
God appeared
To his beloved little Nastenka..?
Father’s guess had been confirmed. The fiery sphere which
communicated from time to time with Anastasia is none oth-
er than a representative form of God.
God has many representative forms. Each blade of grass is
a manifestation of His thoughts. But of all the many elements
comprising God’s representation, the sphere presented itself,
if not as the main one, certainly as one of the most majestic
and concentrated forms, including even the energy of both
intelligence and feelings.
And then one day... This happened after you had written
your first five books. After the publication of her words — or
rather, dark space was penetrated by what seemed like a fiery
sword — the emotional outburst captured in her words:
■’ Nastenka — a common diminutive variant of Anastasia.
36
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“Prepare yourself, all wickedness and evil-mindedness, to
leave the Earth behind and fall upon me!” 4
From Anastasia’s lips these words go far beyond the mean-
ing of just the words. You, Vladimir, along with many others,
have had the opportunity a number of times to see that for
yourself. And the wickedness began to attack Anastasia with
an invisible energy
The white circles started appearing, bleaching the grass all
around. It even happened sometimes that Anastasia would
lose consciousness momentarily And we didn’t know how to
help her.
Our little granddaughter did not ask us for help. And be-
cause she didn’t ask, that meant unquestionably that this was
something she had to work out all on her own.
More recently, however, we began to notice these attacks
on her getting more and more severe. It was as though evil
were simply agonising to carry out these final attacks.
But our granddaughter’s tenacity was growing at the same
time. Lately the routine blows have simply caused her to give
a shudder and head for the lakeshore. Somehow the lake water
has been able to quickly restore her strength. After splashing and
diving in the water, she’s come out at full, strength, as before.
On one particular day we noticed Anastasia heading for the
lake after one of the usual blows, but she was treading very
carefully. When she stopped to lean against a cedar trunk and
rest, Father said with some alarm:
“Today our granddaughter is having a particularly difficult
challenge to handle. It’s really been hard on her. Look, and
you will see some grey strands in her golden hair.”
Then we saw Anastasia push off from the trunk, take one
step and then another in the direction of the lake. Then she
stumbled and stopped once more.
'Quoted from Book 3, Chapter 24: “Who are you, Anastasia?”.
Thank you
37
It was at this point that the fiery sphere appeared from
space, right in front of her. But this time its lightning flashes
were changing colours, as though volcanic ashes were seeth-
ing inside it. And then all of a sudden it would look as though
fierce fiery arrows were piercing through an invisible protec-
tive shield — floods of them dashing out and disappearing in
space. But the sphere was not decreasing but increasing in
size, while the diverse energies inside it were condensing and
seething with ever greater intensity. The sphere itself was not
suspended in space, but contracted and expanded like a heart.
Then all at once it fell still, as though trying to make a deci-
sion. And thousands of lightning trills of energy dashed out
in Anastasia’s direction.
At just what point this sinking girl managed to raise her
hand, Father and I failed to detect, even though we were
watching the whole event, trying not to blink. We knew
what this gesture meant. She was shielding herself from the
lighting trills directed at her. But why? At that time we still
weren’t in a position to understand.
But one thing was clear: the fiery sphere, through its ener-
gy, was capable of fully restoring her strength. Not only that,
but it could also endow Anastasia with fresh energy, whereby
outward attacks could no longer hold any terror for our grand-
daughter. But why did she decide to act on her own?
The tongues of fire extended in her direction quivered, but
did not touch Anastasia, standing there with her hand raised.
They either disappeared in the sphere, which was still raging
with tremendous energy, or dashed out once more, reaching
out in her direction but, as before, not touching her.
And then all at once, with slow and tender words, she ad-
dressed the fiery sphere and its tongues of light:
“I implore You now to contain the bursts of Your energy
Do not touch me. I can restore my strength in Your lake as
before. I just need to make it to the shore.”
38
Book 7: The Energy of Life
In an instant the sphere gathered up all its quivering
tongues of light from all around, and kept pulsating like a
heart. It swept upward with a flash — it seemingly cracked
asunder and then contracted. Its myriad tongues made a dash
for the ground, touching everything on the path leading to
the lake from Anastasia’s feet.
And another vision arose. The path began to sparkle with
millions of pulsating colours of light, making a multicoloured
rainbow arc over the path leading to the lake from Anastasia’s
feet. It was a wondrous sight indeed! Anastasia’s pathway
now lay through a triumphal arch!
She took a step, but to one side. She did not follow the
route marked out for her by the fiery sphere. She slowly at-
tained the shore and dived in, then resurfaced and simply lay
in the water with outstretched arms. Then she started splash-
ing about — her strength had returned.
Anastasia’s behaviour in relation to the fiery sphere, which
was really in relation to God, was beyond our comprehension.
But what happened next is comparable to a turning point in
the consciousness of all mankind, or to a change of balance in
the energies of the Universe. What happened next was...
Throwing on a little dress over her still wet body, she care-
fully smoothed out its folds, straightened her hair, then pressed
her hands to her breast and began speaking out into space:
“My Father, You are present everywhere! I am your daugh-
ter amidst Your perfect creations? I must put an end to the
dispute among the entities in the Universe as to whether Your
creations are perfect, or whether they might be flawed.
“My Father, You are present everywhere! You have fulfilled
my request and not touched me. None of them will now say
that Paradise will return to the Earth only when God corrects
His imperfect creations!
’See Book 4, Chapter 11: “Three prayers”.
Thank you
39
“But there is nothing requiring Your correction. You cre-
ated all right from the start in perfection. My Father, present
everywhere, I am not alone. In all the corners of the Earth
there are sons and daughters of Your own. And they have
mighty aspirations. They will restore the Earth to the mar-
vellous flowering of its original pristine creation.
“My Father, present everywhere, we are your sons and
daughters. We are created by You. We are perfection.
‘And now we shall show everyone what we can do. And
may You be delighted by our actions.”
When Anastasia uttered these words and then fell silent,
the fiery sphere which had been resting high above made a
dash for the ground. About three metres from Anastasia’s
feet it dispersed into millions of tiny sparks all around, and
then in an instant gathered itself back together into a single
whole.
Only this single whole was no longer a fiery sphere.
There in front of Anastasia stood a child of (in Earth terms)
about seven years. It is difficult to say whether it was a boy
or a girl. The child’s shoulders were covered by a fabric with a
pale bluish-purple sheen that looked as though it were made
out of mist itself. The child’s hair fell around his shoulders.
The expression on the child’s face was one of intelligence,
confidence and grace. Rather, the expression on the child’s
face was impossible to convey in words — it could only be de-
scribed in terms of the feelings which overflowed our souls.
The young child stood barefoot on the grass without tram-
pling even a single blade. Anastasia knelt to the ground in
front of Him, then sat down on the grass, her eyes fixed on
His extraordinary face. It seemed that in the very next sec-
ond He and she would embrace, but this did not happen. The
child smiled at Anastasia. With a careful utterance of each
sound, He said:
“Thank you, sons and daughters, for your aspirations.”
4 o
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Then as He dissipated into space, the fiery sphere once
more appeared high above, glistening with a joyful light of
the like nobody had ever seen before. It made several circles
over the lake, and for five minutes or so drops of warm rain
soothed everything growing around, as well as the smooth
surface of the lake.
The moisture was invigorating. A few drops fell on my arm
without rolling off. Instead, they dissolved, filling my body
with a luxuriant bliss.
My father is always unflappable in situations like this, in
complete control of his emotions, but this time even he was
shaken. He walked through the taiga as though he could no
longer feel his body, and I followed.
He walked for several hours, and then turned to speak to
me. A tiny tear was rolling down his cheek. As one of the
high priests, he was not susceptible to such emotion. But I
saw his tears. Father said quietly and confidently:
“She did it! Anastasia has brought people across the dark
forces’ window of time. The seeds of happy and joyful aspira-
tions will now be scattered over the whole Earth.”
Then Father had a long and animated conversation with
me. He was not surprised by the actions of the sphere, or by
the fact that one of God’s representative forms — perhaps
His main manifestation — had appeared to Anastasia in the
person of a child.
My father was a priest, and not just a simple priest either.
He had the ability to discern what was important in visible
occurrences. And it wasn’t at all the vision itself that inter-
ested him. The most important thing was the appearance of
a thought in space.
The thought produced by Anastasia had not been heard
since the time of creation, nor reflected in a single religious or
scientific treatise. Utterly simple and yet, at the same time,
extraordinarily exalted, it has turned the treatises we know
Thank you
4 1
into naive musings which had nothing in common with the
Divine essence. Anastasia had imbued human consciousness
with the concept of God which Man had been missing all
these years.
“What does it consist of?”
Chapter Nine
You know that the Earth and everything growing on it, as well
as all its functions — rain, snow, wind — were thought up by
Him right from the very start.
Our Creator — the Great Mind — created His great crea-
tion in an impulse of inspiration. And He created Man in His
own image as a culmination of His creation.
But ever since the time of creation it turned out that many
beings have been plagued with doubt as to whether Man
was really created by God as a creation unsurpassed in the
Universe. Is it really true what God said about Man not being
just like any other creature but being equal with God? God
Himself said, “My image and likeness he is... I have given him
everything that is Mine, and will furthermore give him for his
own all that may be thought at a future time .” 1
God wanted to see His own creation, Man, in the likeness
of Himself.
Now take a look at mankind today Many people talk
about God. They talk about the strength of their love for the
Creator. But with that they are lying to themselves. For it is
impossible to love someone without seeing, feeling or under-
standing Him.
Many will say “I believe in God”. But what exactly do they
believe in? Do they believe in God’s existence? But surely
that indicates a very primitive level of consciousness. A Man
'Quoted (with a slight variation) from two different paragraphs in Book 4,
Chapter 3: “The first appearance of you".
Divine faith
43
who says “I believe God exists” is admitting in effect that he
neither feels nor understands God, but simply believes in His
existence.
If by faith in God they mean that God is an almighty, kind
and loving parent, then what do they do for God apart from
uttering words? They destroy His creations and isolate them-
selves behind the stone walls of monasteries from the world
created by their Father. They spend their time thinking up
and churning out all sorts of treatises. And everywhere it’s
the same. The treatises say that God must be worshipped.
But people worship they know not what.
And now, Vladimir, just imagine how God feels when He
looks down and sees all this corruption. You can picture it if
you try. After all, God possesses all Man’s feelings, only with
Him they are stronger, sharper and purer.
But even with the feelings we have today — our human and
parental feelings — we can still picture how our Parent, our
Creator must feel.
Here He is looking down on His children, but all they can
do is cry:
“We love You, only give us more of Your goodness. We are
Your servants, we are powerless and ignorant, we are stupid.
Help us, O Lord!”
Is it really possible for creations in God’s likeness to con-
duct themselves this way? What could be more painful for a
parent than the helpless moaning of his children? This is how
doubts about the perfection of God’s creations arose among
the elemental beings of the Universe.
“But who could make such a fool of Man this way? How? When?”
“The only one who could make a fool of Man is someone
possessing equal power of thought — in other words, Man
himself.”
44
Book 7: The Energy of Life
The priests were the ones who launched mankind down the
path of degradation. They took it upon themselves to prove
to God that they were capable of controlling all mankind, on
the premise that humanity’s moanings and torments would
force God to enter into a dialogue with them.
They counted on this because they know that God never
talks with anyone, never interferes in human destiny, that all
destinies are determined by the paths human beings them-
selves have chosen.
But if mankind were to be brought to the brink of total de-
struction, God might enter into negotiations with those lead-
ing mankind to that brink — with those influencing people’s
minds — in order to head off an utter collapse. The premise
was that God would do this for the sake of all humanity
Millennia went by But God did not enter into a dialogue
with the priests and did not bring about any new miracles to
bring people to their senses. First my father, and later I my-
self, understood why
If Fie had done this, if God had interfered in human affairs,
then He Himself would have confirmed the speculations on
the part of the elemental beings of the Universe that Man was
an imperfect creation.
But, more importantly, Flis interference would have ulti-
mately destroyed Man’s faith in himself. Man would have ul-
timately ceased discovering the Divine elements within him-
self and relied solely on help from outside.
And so He waited, and believed in His children, observing
events and suffering, enduring the mockery and the talcing of
His name in vain. He believed in His creation, Man. It is Flis
own faith that is truly the Divine faith.
The priests had hoped that the solution would come about
just at the point when aglobal catastrophe was imminent. They
had hoped the scenario they had thought up would come to
pass. Not one of them imagined that a single Man — a young
Divine faith
45
woman — in the space of a few short years would thwart their
plans and efforts they had been making over the course of mil-
lennia and turn mankind back to its Divine pristine origins.
But Anastasia did produce this most extraordinary turna-
bout. She demonstrated to the whole Universe the power of
God’s creation, she demonstrated the Divine wisdom. And
quite possibly for the very first time. Just imagine, Vladimir,
the majesty and significance of that event. For the first time
since the moment of the creation of the Earth, our Father
heard talk of the perfection of His creation.
The marvellous future visualised by Anastasia is already
alive in space, and being concretised moment by moment by
a whole lot of people who are beginning to understand their
own essence and purpose in life. Materialisation will inevita-
bly follow.
“But when will it follow? The priests, after all, are also capa-
ble of acting and interfering.”
“But not the high priests. The challenge now is to abort
the programme created by the priests. My father spoke with
one of them before his departure. The priests never meet
amongst themselves. They are located in various parts of the
globe, but can communicate at a distance by feeling each oth-
er’s thoughts.”
My father was standing on a small hillock. The dawn’s rays
were already skimming the tops of the cedar trees, illuminat-
ing my father’s face and his profile. I heard this dialogue take
place silently in space:
“I am Moisey, descendant of a dynasty that has been con-
trolling the destinies of peoples for thousands of years. I am
their descendant and forebear. I appeal to you, self-appoint-
ed High Priest, but not on bended knee. Do not waste your
efforts trying to counteract Anastasia.
4 6
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“My granddaughter’s aspirations do not correspond, in any
way, shape or manner, to the plans we have thought up. This
lack of correspondence is pleasing to me, it strikes a chord in
my soul. I am Moisey, I am a priest. We are equal in power. I
shall shield my granddaughter with my own self.”
And the high priest’s answer:
“Yes, Moisey, you and I are equal in power. And thus I re-
alise that you are not asking me to stop the attacks — it is
advice you are seeking from me.
“1 am the one who is now thinking of how we can help her,
how to put an end to this monstrosity of a system. We cre-
ated a monster, and it is stronger than us. You yourself, after
all, participated in its creation.
“It has been devouring children and mangling people’s
bodies for millennia. Now it will take centuries of our efforts
to stop it. But your granddaughter’s thinking is more accel-
erated than ours. She can create millennia in the space of a
single year. None of us at the moment is in a position either
to help her or to harm her.
“The only thing I am certain of is that we should be creat-
ing our own lifestyle according to the image outlined by your
granddaughter, and pour all our knowledge into our creations,
so that we ourselves become an example tor people to follow.”
The priests did not use all that many words as they talked
amongst themselves, but what they said made a great deal of sense.
“I don’t think everyone will understand the priests’ dialogue.
It’s not clear to me, for instance, what kind of a beast they are
talking about, the one that devours children. And why, if they
really want to help Anastasia, your father and the high priest
still say they are not in a position to offer help.”
“It’s all in the speed of one’s thinking, Vladimir.”
“Speed of thinking? But why is that so important? What’s
the connection?”
Chapter Ten
It is now well known that the feature that distinguishes Man
from all other life growing and thriving on the Earth is his ca-
pacity to think. But thought is found in creatures and plants
too, albeit in embryo. Man distinguishes himself from all
others by the speed of his thinking . 1
Back at the beginning, the speed of Man’s thinking most
closely approximated God’s, and with a certain lifestyle could
increase and even surpass the Divine. At least that was the
way our Parent wanted it. If Man’s speed of thinking had at-
tained the level of the Divine, Man could even now be creat-
ing a living, harmonious world on other planets.
The whole question of the significance of the speed of
one’s thinking is the greatest of the secrets guarded by the
priests. They did their utmost to eliminate even expressions
referring to it from the language.
Perhaps you have heard such expressions as slow-witted or
with you it takes a long time to sink in. What is the meaning
here? It means that it is difficult or boring to talk with some-
one whose thought operates at a slower speed.
All people living on the Earth have varying speeds of think-
ing. The differences may or may not be significant. A signifi-
cant superiority in speed of thinking may enable one Man to
conquer a great many people, even whole nations.
‘On the speed of one’s thinking see also Book 2, Chapter 29: “Why nobody
can see God”.
4 8
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Imagine that a million people are given a specific problem
in arithmetic to work out. The one who can think at a faster
rate than the others will be the first to come up with the solu-
tion. He may solve the problem ten seconds faster than the
rest — or twenty, or thirty seconds, or a minute, or even ten
minutes faster. We learn from this simple example that one
person may know the answer ten minutes earlier than the rest.
Ten minutes before the other 999. He will learn something
new, acquire knowledge faster than the rest.
This arithmetic example may seem harmless enough,
but...
Now let’s imagine that all people on the Earth are given
a problem that takes a thousand years to solve. They start
working on it. But one Man has three times the speed of
thinking of the others. That means he will know all the inter-
mediate decisions of mankind before everyone else.
What takes humanity 900 years to work out, he will solve
in 300 years. That means that for 600 years he will be in a
position to control and direct the actions of everybody else.
He will be able to reveal to someone the correct intermediate
decision which will help him further his goal or, alternatively,
give someone a false hint, thereby throwing him backward.
Or, what would even be easier for him, give the wrong clue to
everybody at the same time, driving them all to a dead end,
and then later ‘make a discovery’ in front of everyone — in
other words, rule over them.
As far back as seven thousand years ago the priests real-
ised the tremendous advantages available to any Man who
possessed a higher speed of thinking than all the rest. They
took it upon themselves to significantly widen the gap. They
tried to increase the distance between their own thinking and
that of others by using special exercises, but they failed to
achieve any significant difference in those times. And so they
thought up a system which would slow down the thinking of
The speed of one’s thinking
49
every child coming into the world. The system they incul-
cated kept improving over the millennia and it is still operat-
ing today.
Take a close look at the lifestyle of the majority of people
of our time. If you analyse it, you will see the multitude of ef-
forts directed at stopping the operation of your thought.
Anastasia began revealing the priests’ secrets to people.
She told about how even a small child should not be distract-
ed from what he is doing — in other words, the operation of
his thought should not be stopped.
Then she showed you a series of exercises aimed at accel-
erating a child’s thought. She told about how education as
we see it begins with the correct presentation of questions to
the child.
When a child is presented with a question, his thought
begins to search for the answer and thereby gains more and
more momentum. This means that the speed of his thinking
is increasing minute by minute, and by the time he is eleven it
will be many, many times faster than that of someone raised
under a system designed to slow thought down.
Let us take a look at what is happening in the world to-
day Right from his mother’s womb a child is surrounded by
artificial objects. Any object is the embodiment of some-
one’s thought. So the child is presented with somebody’s
thought — a primitive thought at that — a rattle, for exam-
ple. A child just a little older is given a doll or a mechanical
toy car. Children love to play, but they are still dependent on
others, so they play with what others present to them.
Think about the difference, Vladimir. Your daughter, when
she was little, kept shaking her rattle, and later got interested
in dolls. Your son, on the other hand — the one Anastasia
bore you — also likes to play, as all children do. But what he
played with was a squirrel, a wolf, a bear, a snake and a lot of
other creatures made by the Creator.
5 °
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Now compare the two, only be sure to picture to yourself
the degree of discrepancy in the speed of thinking between
the one who created the child’s rattle or doll and the One who
created the squirrel.
So it turns out that one child comes into contact with an
object comprising a primitive thought, while the other com-
municates with an object created by God. The vast discrep-
ancy between the objects the children communicate with
means that the speed of their thinking will be vastly differ-
ent. One of them will have a greater speed of thinking — you
yourself can guess which one.
When children in your society begin to talk, you determine
for them what they can do and what they cannot. Children
are persuaded, in effect, that they should not think for them-
selves, that everything is already decided for them. This
means they don’t have to think. All they have to do is follow
somebody else’s thoughts.
When children go to school, a teacher stands before them
and explains the essence of things, along with the rules of
conduct and the order of the Universe. The teacher not only
explains — he demands that the children think the same way
as somebody else has thought. And once again this serves to
slow down the development of the children’s thinking speed.
Or, to put it more precisely, children are prohibited from
thinking independently
In your schools the most important subject — the one
designed to increase the speed of children’s thinking — is
missing from the syllabus. This most important subject is re-
placed by a whole lot of other subjects aimed at slowing down
children’s existing speed of thinking.
Chapter Eleven
Listening to Grandfather’s account, I realised that Anastasia
too, in communicating with our son, was constantly creat-
ing learning experiences for him, training his thought up to
speed. Outwardly this looks like play, but thought is all the
while being trained even when the child, through what looks
like play, is developing purely physical abilities.
I have already mentioned how one morning while playing
tag with a she-wolf, Anastasia executed the following trick:
after beckoning to the wolf, she quickly began running away
from it. The wolf gave chase. But when it had almost caught
up, Anastasia suddenly leapt up against the trunk of a nearby
cedar tree, pushed herself off from it with her legs, did a som-
ersault and ran off in the opposite direction, while the wolf’s
inertia kept it dashing on past. 1
I watched as my son, too, played tag with a wolf cub. The
young wolf always overtook the boy, no matter how fast he
tried to run.
It would run just a little ahead, then turn and deftly man-
age to give a quick lick to the child’s arm or leg on the rim.
Volodya would stop on the spot, rest a while, and then once
again try to outrun the wolf, and once again the wolf would
catch up with him.
When Anastasia showed our son the trick of leaping against
the cedar tree to sharply change his direction, he really liked
the idea, and tried to repeat it himself. He leapt up against
See Book i, Chapter 6: “Anastasia’s morning”.
5 2
Book 7: The Energy of Life
the tree from a run, but was unable to do a somersault and
head off in the opposite direction. When he tried pushing
off from the trunk the first time, Volodya landed on all fours.
Falling again on his second attempt, he looked enquiringly at
his mother. Anastasia told him:
“Before jumping up against the tree, Volodya, you should
work out your next moves in your head.”
“I did do that, Mama. I saw how you did it, you know.”
“You saw how my body did it, but you did not conceive or
feel haw your body should do it, or what it should be governed
by You first need to train it with your thought.”
How one could execute a physical exercise in one’s think-
ing was something quite incomprehensible. However, the boy
walked up to the tree-trunk and stood by it for some time,
either with his eyes closed or making instinctive movements
with his arms and legs. Then he stepped back and made a run
at the cedar trunk.
This time he ran faster than usual. I was even a bit afraid
something might happen to him, that he might hit himself
against the trunk and get hurt. But he came through with
flying colours. He pushed himself off and executed the som-
ersault. After stumbling just a little on landing, he was able to
start running back at once. He repeated the exercise several
times, getting it more technically perfect each time.
Good exercise, I thought. “It develops all the muscles,” I
told Anastasia.
“Yes,” she replied. “It develops the muscles, and, more im-
portantly, accelerates the thinking.”
I wasn’t about to ask how a purely physical exercise could
accelerate one’s thinking, but it wasn’t long before I realised
that this was precisely the goal Anastasia had in mind in show-
ing Volodya that particular trick. It happened like this:
Volodya summoned his playmate, the wolf, and they start-
ed off racing. The wolf had almost caught up to the boy when
Training thought
53
Volodya did his somersault and ran back in the opposite di-
rection. Not anticipating this turn of events, the creature
kept dashing on past the cedar.
While the wolf stopped and tried to figure out what had
happened, Volodya was already running headlong the other
way in triumph. He was laughing, waving his arms, leaping
into the air, malting the most of his victory
The young wolf, however, proved an exceptionally astute
and clever rival. As Volodya was trying this trick for the fifth
time, at the very moment he was approaching the tree, the
wolf suddenly slowed its pace and stopped just a little space
shy of the tree-trunk. When Volodya completed his somer-
sault and was about to run off in the other direction, the wolf
easily got in a lick as he landed, leapt in the air and wagged its
tail. Now it was the creature’s turn to triumph, while Volodya
could only stare at it distractedly in amazement.
Anastasia and I sat nearby and watched the whole scene
unfold. Once again Volodya attempted to outwit the crea-
ture, but once again he failed. On each occasion the clever
wolf stopped just in time, waited for the boy to land, and
managed to get in a lick, sometimes more than one.
Volodya began pondering the situation. His expression
turned serious, even to the point of frowning. But apparently
nothing came to him. Still pondering, he headed over to us
and looked us enquiringly in the eye. Anastasia at once said:
“Now, Volodya, you will have to take into consideration not
only your own thought, but also the thought of the wolf.”
And once more the boy went off to think. I also began
contemplating the situation. And I reached a firm conclu-
sion: once the wolf had figured out the boy’s manoeuvre, there
was nothing more that could be done. The wolf would antici-
pate his actions, and while he was executing them, it would
simply wait for him. Even if Volodya did the trick twice as
fast, the wolf would still succeed in getting in its lick, and no
54
Book 7: The Energy of Life
amount of thought would help. When I discerned from the
boy’s face as he approached us that he had come to the same
conclusion, I said to Anastasia:
“Why are you tormenting the child like that? It’s clear that
he’s never going to outrun the wolf now. And neither will you.
That she-wolf of yours had no idea of what was going on when
you ran away from her, but this young wolf has proved to be
smarter than its mother.”
“Yes, it is smarter than its mother, but Man should always
be smarter. I am not tormenting our son. I simply suggested
he think about it, take the wolf’s thought into account and
come to his own solution.”
“But it’s absolutely clear there’s no solution here. If there
is, then show me. It’s hard for me to see my son with such a
sad expression on his face.”
Anastasia got up and beckoned to the young wolf, which
came to her delightedly at once, wagging its tail. Anastasia
gave it a cuff on the shoulder and ran off, signalling the wolf
to follow.
Volodya and I watched how fast and easily Anastasia ran.
The amazingly sprightly and fluid movements of this already
mature mother were impressive in their beauty and forth-
rightness.
Yet still the young wolf’s pace was just that much faster.
Several times Anastasia was able to dodge it by sharply chang-
ing direction. The wolf momentarily lagged behind a bit, but
was soon well on its way to catching up. There was no doubt
but that it would overtake her in the long run.
Then Anastasia made a headlong dash for the same ce-
dar trunk Volodya had used to push himself off from. A
few metres before reaching the tree the wolf slowed his
pace and, upon seeing Anastasia leap into the air, he sat
down, preparing to lick her arm or leg the moment she
landed. But...
Training thought
55
She did indeed make her leap, but did not push off from
the tree. Her body passed within a centimetre or two of the
trunk. She kept on running, getting further and further away,
while the astonished wolf went on sitting at the ready, trying
to make sense of what had happened.
Volodya jumped up and down, clapping his hands and
shouting with glee:
“I have got it, Papa, I have got it! I have to think quick-
ly, for both myself and the wolf. I have to think quickly for
myself and manage to think for the wolf more quickly than
it thinks for itself, and put it all into action on time. I now
know how to do it.”
When Anastasia came over, he said to her:
“Thank you, Mama. The wolf will never catch me now”
The next time he raced the wolf, Volodya first tried twisting
and turning as Anastasia had done, but then he went through
a whole cavalcade of all sorts of tricks. He would grasp hold
of a small tree-trunk on the run and use it to change direction
faster than the pursuing creature. Or, leaping over a thick
branch that had been broken by the wind, he would run up
to it a second time, only this time jumping just on the spot,
while the wolf made a headlong dash forward.
This isjust one example — and there are a great many more.
But the important thing is not the number of examples, but
understanding the principle of the exercise.
Chapter Twelve
Not only for children, but for grown-ups living today too, the
system pours forth floods of apparently meaningful informa-
tion, but in reality practically all communications are calcu-
lated to draw Man away from information . 1
Take, for example, the TV you watch regularly. Every news
broadcast tells about how one official is meeting with some
other official, or how one leader meets with another leader.
Their meetings are served up as news. But if you stop to
think about it, you’ll realise that there is absolutely nothing
new here at all.
Officials have been meeting together for thousands of
years now, hour by hour. Summit negotiations between vari-
ous countries have also been taking place for thousands of
years. But nothing ever comes from these negotiations, and
nothing of substance ever changes as a result.
It does not change because they never talk about the most
important thing. They never discuss the true cause of war.
They talk only about effects.
Yet the media lead you astray by serving up every summit
meeting as news.
Just think about it: the ultimate taboo subject in the whole
world is the path of mankind’s development.
Can you just imagine the passengers of an aeroplane in
flight who couldn’t give a care in the world as to where the
'This and the following chapter are once again narrated by Anastasia’s
grandfather.
The ultimate taboo
57
plane is heading or whether it is even able to land? You may-
think that passengers like that don’t exist. Everyone board-
ing a plane has an idea of how long the flight will last and the
destination city. But ask one or two or a thousand people liv-
ing on Planet Earth, ask a million even, and nobody will be
able to tell you just where mankind is heading.
The system created by the priests has blocked up human
thought.
Modern Man with his extremely slow rate of thinking is
not in a position to determine whether mankind — or even
a single nation-state — is on the right path of development.
He is not in a position to visualise even his own life.
In reality, all the leaders on the Earth are in control of noth-
ing, absolutely nothing. There is not a single country in the
world where you will find a clearly stated plan of national de-
velopment. Such a plan is impossible without first determin-
ing a clear and explicit path of development for the residents
of Planet Earth as a whole.
As a result of a simple scheme the priests devised in the
process of constructing their system, all rulers are mere su-
perintendents watching over the functioning of the priests’
system. They are all wrapped up in their own country’s sci-
entific and technical progress, their military strength and
the preservation of their own power. For this they are ready
to sacrifice the quality of the air and water in their own
country and collectively in the world. They are weighed
down under the system created by the priests. Like the ma-
jority of people on the Earth, the rulers are active pawns
in this system. Their thought is slowed down as much as
anyone else’s.
The speed of one’s thinking! Oh how I hope that you or some
of your readers can perceive this not just through cold logic
but feel it with every fibre of your being — feel how impor-
tant the speed of your thinking is for the whole Universe!
58
Book 7: The Energy of Life
To find the right words, or to cite the examples needed for
understanding, is not an easy task. Examples! Anastasia com-
pared the modern computer to a prosthesis for the brain 2 — in
other words, to a prosthesis for thinking. It is probably true
that people most familiar with how a computer works will
not only understand but also feel the importance of thinking
speed more readily than others. After all, you too, Vladimir,
are able to work on a computer. Maybe through the computer
you will be able to more quickly appreciate the catastrophic
consequences of the sluggishness of human thinking.
Anyone familiar with a computer knows how important
for the computer is the size of its memory and its operating
speed. Note, I said: operating speed.
Mow imagine what could happen if one were to slow down
the operating speed of a computer controlling an aircraft’s
flight or a nuclear power plant. The computer might allow an
accident to happen, and that would mean a disaster.
The living biological computer native to every Man on the
Earth is incomparably more efficient than the manufactured
variety It is called upon to assist in the controlling of an im-
measurably more perfect and massive device — the planets of
the Universe.
These can be governed when this biological computer
operates at a speed approximating or surpassing that of the
original. However, the speed has been diminishing, and is
continuing to diminish. Anyone can see this for themselves if
they but examine the situation more carefully
When even the most state-of-the-art manufactured com-
puter keeps getting loaded day by day, hour by hour, with
all sorts of data — it doesn’t matter what kind of data, only
that it is being inputted — eventually it will start to work
more slowly, or it may refuse to process any new information
2 See Book i, Chapter 17: “The brain — a supercomputer”.
The ultimate taboo
59
whatsoever. This happens when its memory is overloaded to
the point it can no longer accept new data.
Most people on the Earth today have experienced some-
thing like this. And the system created by the priests has got
out of control. It has started operating all on its own.
When I mentioned earlier the monster devouring the chil-
dren, I was talking about the system which has got out of con-
trol. Take a careful look: when a child is born to an earthly
mother, what is it that immediately takes it into its mighty
clutches? The system.
What determines what food is to be given to the child?
The system.
What determines what kind of air the child is to breathe
and what kind of water he is to drink? The system.
What determines the selection of his path in life? The
system.
The priests are losing control or the social order on the
Earth, yet they are aware of the laws by which it operates and
can still exercise an influence on the life of the planet. They
are able still today to slow down or accelerate development in
specific situations.
When the first book with Anastasia’s sayings appeared, the
priests took an immediate interest in it. Naturally! After all,
these sayings came from the mouth of the great-granddaugh-
ter of a priest — not only someone familiar with the secret
levers of control but also a young woman leading a lifestyle
favourable to accelerating the operation of thought.
They realised that Anastasia had set herself the goal of
transporting people across the dark forces’ window of time.
Theoretically, this is indeed a possibility. Transporting across
time constitutes a change in consciousness. And it is possible
to do something like this with a single individual.
Substantially changing the collective consciousness of
mankind is a process extending over millennia, requiring the
6o
Book 7: The Energy of Life
participation of many generations. But a process extending
over millennia cannot be called transporting people across a
window of time.
Transporting people across a window of time means chang-
ing the consciousness of people already living on the Earth
today — changing it to a consciousness which was or will be
inherent in them under the conditions of a Divine, paradisai-
cal existence.
The priests tried to figure out the plan by which Anastasia
was going to operate. They did work it out and deemed it
to be naive, containing a plethora of questionable decisions.
The means of distributing information through a book alone
they regarded as clearly insufficient. Modern Man, they be-
lieved, requires a good deal of repetition for information to
sink in.
Then they learnt that the book’s author was an entrepre-
neur who not only was lacking even minimal authority among
spiritually thinking people but was a complete unknown in
such circles.
Consequently, the priests decided, a Siberian recluse would
not be able to achieve anything significant in human society
by the method chosen. My father shared this opinion as
well.
The priests got their first shock and call to alertness when
Anastasia’s prophecies in the first book started coming true.
She told you:
“I shall bring you many people who will explain to you what
is incomprehensible.” 3 And people started coming to you
who were not just capable of explaining something. People
started to act. She said:
"I'his and the following references are drawn (though not word-for-word)
from various chapters in Book i. See especially Chapter 26: “Dreams —
creating the future”.
The ultimate taboo
61
‘Artists will draw pictures, and poets will write verse.” And
both pictures and many poems came forth, dedicated to the
new and marvellous reality of mankind’s being. She said:
“The book you write will be read by people in various coun-
tries.” And the book has been published in many languages.
The priests did not know what power or devices facilitated
the realisation of Anastasia’s sayings. Yet they are coming
true for all to see.
They realised that she was beginning to make her cherished
dreams come true, but they could not discern the manner by
which she reached the goals she set for herself.
This could mean only one thing — namely, that the speed
of Anastasia’s thinking significantly surpassed that of the
priests. The insightful combinations produced by her thought
are incomprehensible. This means that the priests might lose
the opportunity to influence human society for good.
This was not something the priests could permit.
While they were trying to figure out patterns of counter-
action, something even more incredible came to light. New
sayings of Anastasia’s were being made public. Many people
now aspired to create the domains she had talked about.
And then Anastasia became the target for all kinds of coun-
ter-measures. One of the most effective of these was a disin-
formation campaign involving the magic word-symbol sect . 4
Your press was filled with publications talking about vari-
ous terrifying sects, including the so-called Anastasia sect’.
These publications used still other word-symbols like totali-
tarian and destructive.
This particular counter-measure has been used by priests
from time immemorial. In ancient Rus’ it helped facilitate a
4 In today’s Russian usage, the word sekta (‘sect’) is used as a synonym for
kul’t (‘cult’). Therefore the accusation of being a ‘sectarian’ actually sug-
gests adherence to some dangerous cult.
62
Book 7: The Energy of Life
change in religion.’ This was a tactic that never failed. And in
the latest case, too, the priests imagined that it had done its
job. You and a whole lot of readers — both those who com-
municated amongst themselves and those who didn’t know
each other — were amazed to discover that people were la-
belling them ‘sectarians’.
False rumours were cleverly and intensively circulated.
This is why government agencies never reached a decision
on the question of land-grants. There was active opposition,
both vocal and hidden, to the initiative to allocate land for the
establishment of family domains. The system had worked.
Lower-order priests figured that they were rid or Anastasia
once and for all. The high priest was the first to discern that
this was not the case. He realised that in visualising the fu-
ture, Anastasia’s thought had not only taken the system’s
counter-measures into consideration, but had also redirected
them to serve the cause of good.
This is what happened. The domains established accord-
ing to the principles outlined by Anastasia were impossible
to construct along traditional lines. They required a detailed
plan of development. They involved the working out of a
long-term project which would take at least a year to devel-
op — significantly longer in some cases. Action without suf-
ficient preparatory thought could lead to the discreditation
of the ideas involved.
By slowing down the process of land allocation, the author-
ities prevented quick action from being taken.
’ change in religion — The reference here is to the official adoption of
Christianity as a state religion by Kievan Rus’ in A.D. 988. For a more de-
tailed description, see Book 6, Chapter 4: “A dormant civilisation”. Rvs
(pronounced ROOSS) was the name given to the East Slavic state domi-
nated by the city' of Kiev between 880 and the mid-iath century, although
Anastasia explains that it dates back much farther than that — see, for ex-
ample, the closing statement in Book 6, Chapter 6: “Imagery and trial”.
The ultimate taboo
63
But slowing down the process of land allocation did not
enable them to destroy the dream of a bright future or to slow
down the speed of thinking on the part of many people who
were in the process of imaging their future domain, not to
mention the future of the country and a marvellous future for
all mankind.
While Anastasia spoke about Russia’s taking the lead in
building this marvellous future, she well understood that it
would be impossible to create a Paradise in just a single com-
munity or even in a single nation-state. Indeed, her dream
was being adopted in the hearts of people in countries the
world over. You can ascertain this, Vladimir, by the popular-
ity of your books published in these countries. They are en-
joying great acclaim today, but that is nothing compared to
what the future holds. When people begin to realise...
Now the priests have recognised this. Anastasia is begin-
ning to solve mysteries they have been beating their heads
over for thousands of years. Here is one of them.
Chapter Thirteen
The high priest once told my father in conversation:
“Your great-granddaughter, Moisey, knows the mysteries
of being which were concealed from us. She knows the se-
crets of nourishing both the body and spirit. You yourself, of
course, ascertained this from her own words: One should eat
just as one breathes l
“Our forebears once read these words on the walls of their
secret temples. We believed them, to be meaningful, but up
until now their secret has not been revealed. In explaining
just a little of it to those who will be creating their own family
domains, she will thereby create the conditions for the speed
of thinking of these new domain dwellers to exceed our own.
Compared to children born in her domains we shall appear
to be simply ignorant youngsters. In setting out her design,
she showed us the only way out — each of us must set up the
same kind of domain which she has described to everyone.
We shall establish them, we shall try to make them better and
more perfect than the rest, and for that we have great pos-
sibilities.
“She is revealing the mysteries of being to everyone, and
by the time we learn about them, we shall already have our
domains, while others will still be going about settingup their
own. And then once again the difference in the speed of our
thinking will allow us to foresee and consequently control life
Quoted from Book i, Chapter 4: “Who are they?”.
Divine nutrition 65
on the planet. This is what I have been thinking. I should
like to hear your opinion on this, Moisey”
And my father replied:
“You want to hear my opinion because you have your
doubts. You want to foresee what situation Anastasia will be
visualising in case the priests — and you who have appointed
yourself to the highest position — are the first to set up the
dom ains which will draw you closer to the Divine being? You
want to know whether her thought has taken such a scenario
into account?”
“I am convinced that she has,” the high priest replied to
Father. ‘And she herself does not conceal the fact. But I
should like to hear your opinion on why she is openly daring
us by giving us the opportunity to reassert our control over
the world?”
‘All because,” my father answered the high priest, “my
great-granddaughter Anastasia is not about to enter into a
confrontation with you. When the priests, as the rulers of
the Earth, begin creating their own domains, their thoughts
will be transformed. Their souls will become radiant with
light.” {...}
“Thank you, Moisey! Our thoughts have come together
as one. And I applaud the prospect of living in another real-
ity — possibly in one where each of us can talk with God.
“I bow before your great-granddaughter’s thought, Moisey
May Anastasia succeed in finding the strength within herself
to overcome the system we created like a wild beast, or a herd
of beasts. Help her if you can, Moisey!”
“Try helping her yourself. I can’t keep up with her more
youthful thought. I used to think her actions were illogical.”
‘And I shall not be able to either, Moisey. She eats just as
she breathes. We have been soiling our flesh. I have not the
strength to nourish my spirit the way she nourishes hers. I
can only guess at what is helping her.”
66
Book 7: The Energy of Life
In the times of our pristine origins people’s way of life was
quite different from today’s. They not only knew Nature,
they controlled it. Through the sounds of Nature and the
power of the light of the heavenly bodies they had access to
the database of the Universe. They received information not
just through their mind, but through their feelings too. The
speed of their thinking was many times greater than that of
people today.
The early priesthood realised that absolute control over
m ankin d was possible only if they could achieve a consider-
ably greater speed of thinking than other people, but how to
achieve this goal? One of the ancient priests once said in a
secret conversation with the high priest:
“We cannot accelerate our thought to achieve sufficient
superiority over everybody else. But we can use special de-
vices to slow down the thinking of all mankind.”
“You said: all mankind. Does that include your own
thought?” the high priest responded.
“Yes, in the final analysis, it does, but to a much lesser ex-
tent. The discrepancy will be tremendous. The advantage
will be on our side.”
“Since you are talking about it, that means you have already
found a way of slowing down the thought of all mankind. Tell
me about it.”
“It is simple. We need to conceal from people the mast-
ing Divine method of nutrition. We need to have them con-
sume food that does not accelerate, but, rather, slows thought
Divine nutrition
67
down. That is the main condition. The rest is a chain reac-
tion. The degradation of thought will bring a number of fac-
tors into play which will influence the speed of their thinking.
Compared to us everybody else will be inferior.”
“How can we conceal what God offers to everyone?”
“We promote the necessity of giving gratitude to God for
what He offers,”
“I have it. You have come up with a monstrous plan, but it
is perfect. People will agree to give gratitude to the Creator
and will not see anything wrong with it. We shall think up
rituals to draw people away from God’s first-hand creations.
People will be thinking that they are giving God thanks. But
the more time they spend on giving thanks, gathering around
the idols we think up, the less communication they will have
with God’s own creations, and the farther removed they will
be from information coming straight from God.
“They will be receiving information from us, but imagining
it is God’s will. Their thought will go off in the wrong direc-
tion. We shall lead it in the wrong direction.”
Centuries passed, and people spent more and more time on
the rituals thought up by the priests, thinking all along that
they were simply paying their respects to God. At the same
time people communicated less and less with the Creator’s
first-hand creations and, consequently, no longer had access
to the information of the Universe in all its fulness — God’s
information. They caused God pain and suffering, all the
while believing they were bringing Him joy
68 Book 7: The Energy of Life
At the same time the priests began telling people what
kind of food they should be giving preference to, at the same
time creating for themselves the secret science of dietetics.
The priests needed this to maintain their brain, their spirit,
their physical health — and, consequently, their thought — in
a more efficient operational state than other people’s.
Thus they suggested that people plant certain lands of grow-
ing things, but they themselves used other kinds for food —
more specifically, in a greater variety than the rest. Thus began
a monstrous degradation of human consciousness.
Man began to know diseases of both body and soul. People
intuitively sensed the meaning of nutrition and over the mil-
lennia tried to come to terms with this question.
Wise men appeared who attempted to give advice on what
food products were the most healthful. Many teachings on
dietetics were introduced. It was a topic touched upon in
books you are familiar with, such as the Bible and the Koran.
Here is what it says about nutrition in the Old Testament, for
example:
You shall not eat any abominable thing. These are the ani-
mals you may eat: ox, sheep, goat, buck, gazelle, roebuck,
wild-goat, white-rumped deer, long-horned antelope, and
rock-goat. You may eat any animal which has a parted foot
or a cloven hoof and also chews the cud ... you may not
eat ... the camel, the hare, and the rock-badger ... you shall
regard them as unclean; and the pig, because it has a clo-
ven hoof but does not chew the cud, you shall regard as
unclean. You shall not eat their flesh or even touch their
dead carcasses.
Of creatures that live in the water you may eat all those
that have fins and scales, but you may not eat any that have
neither fins nor scales; you shall regard them as unclean.
You may eat all clean birds. These are the birds you may
Divine nutrition
69
not eat: the griffon-vulture, the black vulture, the bearded
vulture, the kite, every kind of falcon, every kind of crow,
the desert-owl, the short-eared owl, the long-eared owl,
every kind of hawk, the tawny owl, the screech-owl, the
little owl, the horned owl, the osprey, the fisher-owl, the
stork, every kind of cormorant, the hoopoe, and the bat.
All seeming winged creatures you shall regard as unclean;
they may not be eaten. You may eat every clean insect.
You shall not eat anything that has died a natural death.
You shall give it to the aliens who live in your settlements,
and they may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you
are a people holy to the Lord your God . 2
Over the millennia various books were written advising peo-
ple what and how to eat to be healthy But not a single book,
not a single wise-man — or, indeed, all the scholars put to-
gether — has ever been able to fully shed light on this ques-
tion. The proof may be seen in the ever-increasing numbers
of diseases of the human body and soul.
A whole lot of books were published advising how to treat
disease. And today you have the science of medicine. They
tell you it is constantly being perfected. But at the same time
just look at how the number of sick people is constantly in-
creasing.
So what is medical science actually perfecting? The results
speak for themselves: it is perfecting disease.
2 Deuteronomy 14: 3-21 (cited here from The New English Bible).
70
Book 7: The Energy of Life
I can see that this conclusion sounds strange to you. But
just think: why don’t the whole masses of animals in natural
surroundings get sick, while Man, who considers himself to
be the most highly developed of all creatures, is unable to
cope with his own diseases?
The science you call upon to treat disease has never, over
the whole period of its existence, ever touched upon the ulti-
mate cause of all disease. It has always given its attention to
effect. People who are sick, of course, need doctors. But it is
no less true under the current conditions of your world order
that doctors need sick people to treat.
But even among the priests themselves the speed of think-
ing has been declining. Not to the level of everyone else’s,
but still diminishing. This phenomenon disturbed the priests
more than any other. They paid more and more attention to
the mysteries of Divine nutrition but could not unravel them.
One of the priests assigned to take care of the science of
dietetics apparently figured out something and began writing
it on the wall of the secret underground chamber where no
one except a few of the main priests could enter.
He wrote: One should eat just as one breathes.
After writing the last letter of the last word of the sen-
tence — or, rather, just before finishing the last letter — the
old priest died. He had not managed to explain the meaning
of this sentence to anyone — either to his descendant-succes-
sor or to any of the other priests.
Priests have been trying to unravel the mystery of the
phrase “One should eat just as one breathes” over all the mil-
lennia since. They were afraid that somebody else might get
wind of it and guess its secret before they did.
They erased it, rubbed it off the wall of their temple. But
they transmitted it orally to succeeding generations of their
descendants, in the hope that it would be deciphered in the
future. All to no avail.
Divine nutrition
7i
Astrologers, healers and wise-men appointed by political
rulers worked on the question or nutrition over many thou-
sands of years. Nobody was able to solve the puzzle.
If any of the rulers’ wise-men had managed to figure out
how Man should feed himself, then those rulers that consid-
ered themselves to be the strongest in the world would have
ceased to fall ill, and their longevity would have increased.
If any of the earthly rulers had known what kind of food
he should take in, he could have become the supreme ruler
of the Earth. The speed of his thinking could have surpassed
that of the priests.
But all the rulers of the Earth get sick and die. Their lon-
gevity is no greater than that of ordinary people, even though
they may have the best healers and wise-men right at hand.
And so the degradation of human society continues.
It seemed to be just in passing that Anastasia uttered that
sentence to you: “One should eat just as one breathes.” You
published it in a book. You published it in the context of your
experience with her and didn’t give it any special thought.
But for the priests living today, the publication of that sen-
tence, the one that had been erased from the walls of their
temple more than five thousand years ago, became a cause for
very great concern.
Time and again they gave careful reading to the books with
Anastasia’s sayings and realised that not only did she know
the phrase, but she had full knowledge of Divine nutrition.
The speed of thinking of a Man possessing such knowledge
would naturally be able to surpass that of all the priests taken
together and, consequently, be able to control all humanity,
including the priests. But in order to maintain control, he
would have to conceal information, while here she has gone
and revealed it to everyone. This means she has freed people
from the priests’ influence, thereby leading them to direct
communication with the thoughts of God.
72
Book 7: The Energy or Life
This was something they realised after seeing how
Anastasia slipped in among her sayings information on the
nourishment of Adam. In Co-creation you cited Anastasia’s
words about how people were nourished back at the time of
their pristine origins:
“All around him were a multitude of fruits with a variety
of tastes, berries and edible grasses. But during those first
days Adam felt no sense of hunger. Lie remained satisfied
with fresh air alone...
“One certainly cannot live on the air Man breathes to-
day. Today’s air is dying, and is often harmful to one’s body
and soul. You mentioned the saying that one cannot live
on air, but there is another saying: ‘I have been fed by air
alone’, which corresponds to what was available to Man in
the beginning. Adam was born in a marvellous garden, and
the air surrounding him did not contain a single harmful
particle. Pollen had been dissolved into that air, along with
drops of purest dew.”
“Pollen? What kind of pollen?”
“Pollen from flowers and grasses, from trees and fruit,
which diffused fragrances into the air. Some came from
those close by, while breezes brought others from distant
places. Back then Man was not distracted from his great
works by any problems of finding food. He was fed by eve-
rything around him through the air. This was the way it was
all designed by the Creator right from the very beginning,
so that all life on Earth should strive to please Man, and the
air and the water and the breeze would be life-giving, under
the impulse of love .” 3
’Quoted from Book 4, Chapter 4: “The first day".
Divine nutrition
73
Of course, people’s diet at the time of their Divine pristine
origins was not confined to life-giving air. They consumed a
lot else besides, but their body and soul were nourished by air
and water to a significant degree.
When you published Anastasia’s words about nutrition,
the priests were astonished at how this simplest of truths had
escaped them for so long. Yet all along they knew why this
was so.
Secluding themselves in their temples, they were not able
to breathe the pollen-laded air. In gathering people together
for rituals, where the only thing the crowds raised was dust,
they ended up breathing the dust of their own schemes.
The priests understood the significance of nutrition. Their
diet included teas containing many healing herbs, along with
a variety of fruits and vegetables. Among other things they
attached considerable importance to cedar oil, which their
attendants brought them from far-off places. Moreover, their
diet also included honey and flower pollen gathered by bees.
But Anastasia showed that this was far from being sufficient.
It was a different kind of pollen, for one thing. The pollen
that the bees gathered and packed into honeycomb was quite
healthful, of course, but was a far cry from the variety that
could be found in the air over one’s family Space.
Bees, after all, gather pollen from a relatively small number
of floral species. But the air contains all varieties, and it is
distinguished from bee-produced pollen by its softness and
its easy digestibility
Airborne pollen is alive, capable of fecundation. With each
breath a Man would take it in and it dissolved inside, nourish-
ing his whole body, including his brain.
When the priests saw Anastasia talking about family do-
mains — a hectare of one’s Motherland for each family — they
realised she was talcing people back to a way of life that was
part and parcel of their pristine origins.
74
Book 7: The Energy of Life
They knew right away that family domains are not only ca-
pable of bringing people material benefits — there is some-
thing much more important. In the context of Anastasia’s
sayings people can form a Space capable of nourishing their
body, soul and spirit, and show to everyone openly the truths
of the Divine order of creation.
The time is approaching when mankind will be present si-
multaneously in two worlds. It will be able to make use both
of the achievements of the technocratic, artificial world, as
well as its own Divine pristine origins. By comparing these
two worlds, not through hearsay but first-hand, through ob-
serving their own experience, people will be able to make
their own choice, or create a new world. They wall be able to
create their own marvellous Divine future.
Anastasia showed people not only the meaning and es-
sence of Divine nutrition, but how to attain it as well. Her
family domains...
Picture to yourself, Vladimir, a morning-time. A Man awak-
ens at dawn and goes out of his house into the garden of his
family domain, in which are growing more than three hun-
dred varieties of plants he needs.
He has taken up the habit of walking around his property
every morning.
As he walks along the path his eyes are delighted by the
lively variety of herbs, trees and flowers. These cannot help
but delight and furnish him with positive emotions.
Nothing can give him a greater emotional charge or abun-
dant energy than one’s own family life-giving Space.
Many ages passed. In each of them attempts were made to
attract mankind to all sorts of different values.
Man became enthralled with a huge house, the latest cloth-
ing, a new car or some other gadget. Man became enthralled
with money and his position in society But all such joys are
Divine nutrition
75
conditional and fleeting. They only bring a temporary sense
of happiness and pleasure, and within a short space of time
they become commonplace, bothersome and sometimes
downright annoying.
An old and decaying house will begin to demand constant
repair. A car, too, can start having frequent breakdowns.
Clothes wear out.
Man has always intuitively felt the true beauty and perfec-
tion of the eternal, and that is why even a king surrounded by
luxury and personal palaces has always needed a garden. This
is a truth that has remained unshakeable for millions of years
of Man’s life on the Earth.
True delight and peace is attainable only in one’s own fam-
ily domain.
When a Man takes his morning walk through his family
domain, every blade of grass is delighted and reacts to him.
And, far from decaying, his garden grows with every passing
moment of blessed living.
The Man understands that the programme he has set
out — trees, bushes and fruit-bearers planted by his own
hand — will not decay but live on through the ages. They will
live for ever, provided the Alan does not change his mind.
When the Man takes his morning walk through his fam-
ily domain, he breathes its air, and with each breath takes in
thousands of invisible particles — plant pollen. The air is sat-
urated with them. Quite alive, they enter the Man, dissolving
within him without a trace, nourishing his body with every-
thing he needs. And the air of one’s family domain nourishes
not only the human body, but feeds the spirit with ethers and
accelerates thought.
When the Man takes his morning walk through his family
domain, he may stop all of a sudden and pick three berries off
a currant bush and eat them. Why does he stop in front of a
currant bush in particular? Why does he pick precisely three
7 6
Book 7: The Energy of Life
berries? In what book of wisdom has the Man read that on
this particular day he will need these three berries?
And he really does need them, as it turns out. He needs
them on this very day, this very minute, and in this very
quantity.
Then after talcing another few steps, the Man bends over
to smell a flower. Why does he do this? Who told him of the
need to take in the aromatic ether of this flower in particular?
And several steps farther on he picks something more to
eat...
When the Man takes his morning walk through his family
domain, he smiles, thinking about something personal, while
at the same time enjoying a surfeit of fruits — not thinking
about them, but feeling them. This Man has been eating just as
he breathes.
Who then has been calculating the Man’s dietetic needs
with such incredible accuracy? Where has all this informa-
tion been recorded for every Man born on the Earth? This
information — you realise, Vladimir — all this information is
present in every Man born on the Earth. Note this:
Every Man contains a ‘mechanism’ (I can’t seem to find an
alternative word) capable of arousing the sense of hunger — a
signal that his body and spirit require some kind of substance
in the Universe. We need not specify just what exactly, the
proportion or quantity — nobody can answer this question
intellectually Only your body knows about this and it is what
selects just three currant berries out of the whole variety
available.
But in order to afford the opportunity for the right choice,
your body must have all the information available about them.
And it is only in one’s family domain that such information is
accessible.
Let’s say you go into a store where there are a whole lot of
fruits spread out on the counters. You want an apple. You
Divine nutrition
77
see a whole huge variety of apples. Which kind to choose?
An exact choice is impossible, since your body — which is
capable of making an exact choice — does not have any in-
formation about the apples on the counters. It hasn’t tried
them. It doesn’t know the taste and correlation of substanc-
es. Neither does it know when the apples were picked, which
is very important as well.
As a result, the apples you purchase at the store may turn
out to be beneficial, but their benefit will be not nearly so
great as when your body is apprised of all the information
about the product you are making it digest.
The product you ingest may even turn out to be harmful
to your body — in which case disease makes an appearance.
Such a thing could not happen in your family domain, since
you know for absolute certain which tree produces the sweet-
er or more sour apples, and when they are ready for you. Your
body receives all the information about all the fruits in your
family domain.
It received all the information about them back when you
were still in your mother’s womb. And afterward, when you
drank milk from your mum’s breast. Your mum, after all, de-
lighted in the very same fruits. And they contributed to the
consistency of her milk.
And now as a grown Man...
When a Man is in the Space of his kin’s domain, he tastes the
fruits and berries — everything that went into the consist-
ency of his mother’s milk.
There is another concept in your civilisation — it’s health-
ful for a Man to consume fresh produce. But what, exactly, is
‘fresh produce’?
Not frozen, dried, tinned or sealed in barrels, like you
thought, but produce that comes to you in its natural state.
And you have cultivated a huge assortment of hybrid varieties
7§
Book 7: The Energy of Life
that can be preserved many days with the appearance of fresh
produce. Believe me, the appearance of freshness is decep-
tive and harmful.
Now see if you can make sense of what I’ve just said and
test it out for yourself.
Almost all berries can be considered ‘fresh’ for no more
than a few minutes. Cherries (both sweet and wild) and ap-
ples will last an hour, tops. But still they change with every
minute that goes by, mutating into something else.
Pick a cherry and leave it just overnight, then take it back
to the tree where it came from and eat it. Then pick another
cherry from the same branch and taste it. See — you will sense
the difference — which cherry is fresher and tastier — even
with your eyes closed.
As for raspberries, you’ll notice the difference after only
an hour, while some other kind of fruit might take twenty-
four hours. And you will see that anyone who does not have
a family domain, no matter how rich or important he may be,
cannot take in fresh food. That means he is not as capable of
quick thinking as he might otherwise be.
Even back in ancient treatises wise men attempted to set
forth their perceptions as to what produce was the most
healthful for Alan in any given season. And this is very impor-
tant. But among all of these there is only one treatise which
remains inviolable, and that is the one which God Himself
prepared for each individual Alan.
Look for yourself and see how gradually, starting in the
spring, the early plants bring forth their fruits. Others appear
later in the summer, at its beginning or end, while the autumn
gives rise to a variety of other plants.
What is there to write about here, when it has been so ob-
viously set forth what one should eat and when. And not just
in broad terms of months or seasons. The choice is hinted at
moment by moment. You need only think about it, Vladimir,
Divine nutrition
79
to understand. It is as though the Creator is ready to spoon-
feed any Man with His own hand.
Just think how perfect and exact His programme is.
There is a particular season of the year when any given spe-
cies of fruit ripens. At the same time the planets are in a par-
ticular arrangement. And that is the most favourable season
for Man to take in that fruit. It was at that very moment,
the most appropriate moment as indicated by God, that Man
decided to take in the fruit, as his body suddenly felt a de-
sire for it. There was no question of Man’s working all this
out through calculation. Man did not make a problem out of
what to ingest and when. He simply ate. He ate because he
felt like eating, because it pleased him to do so. And at the
same time his thought was elated with joint co-creation.
His thought danced ahead, no longer concerning itself
with what had been planned in advance by the Father’s hand.
It desired to create even more so that everyone could rejoice
in the contemplation at the sight of a new creation.
And the Father exclaimed in delight: “My son is a creator”,
as He fed His child with His creations.
Chapter Fourteen
In listening to Anastasia’s grandfather’s account of what
Man should eat and how, I couldn’t help comparing what
he said with the dietary regimes of people today, even rich
people living in so-called civilised countries. A rather puz-
zling situation unfolded. Let’s work it out together once
and for all.
To begin with, we all know that it is healthful for Man to
consume fresh and ecologically clean produce.
We all know that in Nature there are plants capable of
treating all types of diseases of the body Hold on — we need
to be more precise: in Nature there are plants capable of prevent-
ing diseases of the body. Then why don’t we have them avail-
able? Why and under whose influence have we chosen a way
of life which destroys not only our bodies but our minds too?
Someone out there must be simply laughing at us, befooling
us into calling this way of life ‘civilised’ besides.
If we use terms like civilised country, civilised society, meaning
by this a society of people which has achieved a certain (and,
of course, correct) level of development, then this develop-
ment should also be reflected in, among other things, ques-
tions pertaining to diet. And not just ‘among other things’,
but first and foremost.
Now let’s pay a visit together to a typical food-store or su-
permarket, the kind you find in any so-called civilised coun-
try It could be either in the West or here in Russia — if we’re
talking about major cities, the difference in variety of produce
isn’t all that great.
A society of schizophrenics?
81
We find that the majority of produce available is nicely
packaged and has a long shelf-life. We find a whole lot of
dried, frozen and concentrated products, which can hardly
be termed ‘fresh produce’.
At the supermarket we can also find so-called ‘fresh’ veg-
etables, beautiful-to-look-at tomatoes, cucumbers and so
forth. But lately it has come to light that these are hybrids —
specially cultivated varieties capable of preserving their good
looks for a long time, but considerably inferior in quality to
the normal, natural variety.
Just about any adult resident of a European country is aware
of this. Europe already has a chain of stores with signage pro-
claiming they sell only ecologically clean merchandise, but
at a price about five times higher than in other stores. This
means that the public has now recognised that other stores
(and there are far more of them ) sell produce that is not eco-
logically clean.
But let us call a spade a spade. The public has recognised
that a majority of their number have been consuming pro-
duce that is harmful to their health.
Hold on! What about the term civilised society ? Is it pos-
sible for people in a ‘civilised society’ to consume food of in-
ferior quality which is harmful to their health?
A more accurate description of such a people might be a
‘muddle-headed society’, or a ‘society with a befuddled popu-
lation’.
In ‘muddle-headed societies’, whose ranks Russia seems to
be trying so hard today to join, one can outline a distinct sys-
tem for befuddling the population.
Look at what is happening. Someone consumes inferior
produce and takes ill. The sick person falls into the arms
of a system called ‘health care’. This system has at its dis-
posal a huge quantity of drugs, hospitals and clinics — and
this has to be paid for somehow. Huge sums of money are
8 z Book 7: The Energy of Life
continually being poured into it. We are told it is constantly
improving.
But note: according to statistics the number of sick people
is rising each year. Then along come new diseases which man-
kind never had to grapple with before — including a whole lot
of mental illnesses, not to mention the fashionable profession
of psychotherapy
And the question resounds loud and clear: what is behind
the degradation of the overall health of these ‘civilised so-
cieties? Isn’t the health-care system itself at least partly to
blame?
By comparing data from various sources, anyone who wish-
es to can determine that the overall degradation of humani-
ty’s health is an actual fact.
Yes, we’re talking about physical well-being, but mental
health is an even more dangerous factor.
We have only but to turn away from the obtrusive, monot-
onous flood of information that does not allow Man to think
about what is really going on, and we begin to doubt (to put
it mildly) the ‘normality’ of the majority of the population of
these so-called ‘civilised societies’. We begin to look upon
these societies’ chosen lifestyle as indicative of a schizophre-
nia disorder. Judge for yourselves.
Let’s say a Man living in his family domain wanted to eat —
an apple, for example. What does he do? He goes out into his
orchard, picks fresh fruit from a tree and eats it.
Then let’s take a look at the actions of another Man who
lives in a city apartment in a developed society, who also
wants to eat an apple. He takes some money goes to the store
and buys an apple, which is no longer fresh. He buys an apple
which another person grew and packed in a crate. Someone
else transported this apple in a truck or a plane. Then a
third party built a store and placed this apple on one of the
counters. All these operations, from the growing of the apple
A society of schizophrenics?
83
right up to the final sale, are accounted for by special people
who compile inventories and collect taxes, duties and other
exorbitant charges.
Thus we have a whole chain of procedures whereby people
are involved in the supposedly useful business of offering a
fellow human being the opportunity to taste the fruit of an
apple tree. And the one who tastes this fruit must first find
work somewhere to earn the paper money and pay for this
whole thought-up chain of intermediaries standing between
the apple-tree’s branch and Man.
Yet our society considers this normal. A befuddled society
has no inkling that someone very much wanted to lead people
away from their true purpose and have their attention occu-
pied in senseless pursuits.
The process of drawing people into such absurdities has
been a long one. That’s not something you could do quickly.
If you tried to do it quickly, even the most feeble-minded in-
dividual would be able to see the stupidity of what was hap-
pening.
Just think what a paradox it all is! One fine day you decide,
as usual, to go out to your apple tree and pick some fruit. You
no sooner step off your front porch and start heading for the
tree than you catch sight of a whole queue of people.
“Who are you?” you ask the fellow standing closest to you.
“I’m an apple dealer,” he answers.
‘And who are these people behind you?” you continue to
wonder, and hear in reply:
“Behind me is the person who trucks the apples to my
store, behind him is the one who picks them from the tree,
and around each one of us you see an entourage of people in
fresh clean suits — they are the ones who record the quantity
of apples that pass through our hands.”
“But really, what are you, chaps? Don’t tell me you’re a
bunch of schizos?” you blurt out in a fluster. “What’s with all
8 4
Book 7: The Energy of Life
the meaningless red tape? Who’s going to thank you for such
nonsense as this?”
And the reply comes:
“You will thank us — you will pay all of us money, and with
that money we too shall buy apples.”
‘And where am I going to get all that money to pay you?”
“Go see your neighbour, the one with the pear trees. There’s
a job open for a record clerk. You can become a pear-tree record
clerk, earn money pay us and eat apples whenever you like.”
How absurd! — you’re thinking, no doubt. Utter schizophre-
nia! Of course it’s absurd. Of course it’s schizophrenia. But
this is just the kind of thing that’s going on right now with
each of us in our society
The conditions for a healthy life — and really, they are all
too obvious — need to be set down in the form of a treatise.
Well, here’s one — • a miniature treatise:
Point Number 1. Every Man living on the Earth should
have his own domain, his own Space to guarantee for him-
self a supply of high-quality food.
Point Number 2. In his own Space Man should grow, pref-
erably by his own hand, fruit-bearing plants — plants that
he considers tasty and healthful. Say, for example, someone
knows ahead of time that he doesn’t like red currants — he
need not plant these in large quantities. Altogether at least
three hundred varieties of perennials should be put in. I
shall not go over again the particular methods of sowing
and communicating with the plants, as they were described
back in the first book, when Anastasia was talking about
the dachniks. 1 Naturally, this is not something that can be
"See Book i, Chapters 10: "Her beloved dachniks” and n: ‘Advice from
Anastasia”.
A society of schizophrenics?
85
accomplished in the space of a year — or even two or three.
But it is entirely possible to ensure that one’s children will
have, in fact, an ideal source of food supply
Point Number 3. Every morning upon awakening, a Man
should take a walk through his family domain and, if he de-
sires, eat some fruit or berries or herbs which have just that
moment ripened to maturity This should be done entirely
according to one’s desire, and not at the recommendation
of some sort of dietician, even one with a post-graduate
degree. Once your body has become familiar with all the
taste qualities of the food growing in your domain, it will
compile the ideal regime for you in terms of quality, quan-
tity and the appropriate time for the food to be eaten. You
don’t need to go out to your garden just in the morning or
according to a strict timetable somebody has thought up,
but only when you have a real desire to eat.
In our modern living conditions, many people cannot stay
all the time in their domain, even if they have one. But it is
good to go out to it at least once a week.
And in case of illness, before taking any medicines, it is
best simply to go out to your family Space and stay there for
several days.
If you have already established your own Space, and if your
body can access information about the plants growing in that
Space, it will be able to determine with absolute certainty
what is necessary for recovering your health.
According to Anastasia’s affirmation, there are no diseases
of the human flesh which cannot be overcome by the Space of
Love you have created.
Of course we’re not talking about the space of a city flat,
but a domain established according to the principles she has
set forth.
86
Book 7: The Energy of Life
After formulating these rules on a pad of paper, I read them
to Anastasia’s grandfather and asked:
“Have I left out anything?”
“If you simply want to jot down a summary, this will do
to start with. Only you really must say something about the
neighbours.”
“What have neighbours got to do with it?” I didn’t under-
stand at first.
“What d’you mean, what have they got to do with it?”
Grandfather was taken aback by my query “Think about it:
if just on the other side of the fence from your domain there’s
a factory spewing forth deadly fumes, and the wind carries
these fumes into the Space of your domain, what kind of air
are you going to be breathing?”
“Nobody would build their domain next to a factory!” I
protested, but said no more.
Then I remembered. In the city of Novosibirsk, there are
dacha plots located barely half a kilometre from a tin-smelt-
er. And in Germany there are farmers’ fields right next to an
autobahn with eight lanes of traffic.
And I thought: Wow! Such a simple concept as growing agri-
cultural produce for food is possible only in places that are ecologi-
cally clean — preferably not anywhere close to big cities. There’s no
way a simple concept like this is going to get through to Man. So I’ve
really got to add one more point:
Point Number 4. Your domain should be located in an
ecologically clean zone. It should be surrounded by the
domains of those who share your vision of creating fam-
ily oases of Paradise. One breeze will carry life-giving pol-
len from your domain to your neighbours’, while another
breeze from their direction will bring you life-giving air.
Chapter Fifteen
Many readers of the Ringing Cedars Series can already attest
to the opposition that has pitted itself against a harmonious
lifestyle — a lifestyle favourable to both physical and mental
health.
I have mentioned on a number of occasions having re-
ceived communications regarding anti-Anastasia statements
purporting to come from Russia’s Orthodox Church. And
that churchmen themselves apparently instigated the ru-
mours now spreading among government departments to the
effect that all the readers of the Series are ‘sectarians’.
At first I found it hard to believe that such communica-
tions were serious. But shortly afterward members of the
Novosibirsk Readers’ Club told me church representatives
had paid a visit to the local Concert Hall where a reader’s
conference was to take place, asking management to forbid
the event.
Then they showed me one of the Orthodox-Church-related
sites on the Internet where a so-called ‘Doctor of Theology’
was malcing all sorts of slurs against Anastasia, and the lan-
guage he used could hardly be termed theological. My read-
ers protested in an effort to show that Anastasia’s ideas were
indeed positive. But apparently the ‘Doctor ofTheology’ was
not able to discuss this point, preferring instead to focus on
the question of whether Megre was my real name or a pen-
name.
After that, people started sending in newspaper articles from
various regions of the country which looked almost like carbon
Book 7: The Energy of Life
copies of each other. Indeed, from the writing style, uniform
phrasings and malicious inventions, it was readily apparent
that they had all been drawn from the same original source.
Finally, there was something quite extraordinary, in con-
nection with the St. Petersburg Vstrecha drama company’s
performance of a play called Anastasia, based on the Ringing
Cedars Series. On 23 July 2002 the troupe arrived in Vladimir 1
and staged a performance in the Taneev 2 Concert Hall.
The play was to have been presented in Tula 3 on 25 July. On
the 24th of July the local newspaper ran a front-page appeal
from the missionary office of the Tula Diocese urging people
to boycott the production, saying that both the books and
the play were promoting a return to paganism.
It was a case of rampant fear-mongering. In spite of that,
the Tula performance went ahead, playing to a full house. But
when the artistic director of the Vstrecha Theatre showed me
the article, I and others who read it immediately came up
with a set of identical questions addressed to the missionary
office of the Tula Diocese.
How cany oil criticise a play you haven’t seen? The only perform-
ance before Tula had been in Vladimir only a couple of days
before. To all intents and purposes Tula was the premiere.
1 Vladimir — the name of the city in Russia where the author resides. See
footnote 1 in Book 5, Chapter 6 : “A garden for eternity”. 23 July (the au-
thor’s birthday) was proposed by Anastasia as the date for Dachmk Day —
see Book 2, Chapter 9: “Dachnik Day and an All-Earth holiday!”.
~ Sergei Ivanovich Taneev (1856-1915) — one of Russia’s most revered com-
posers and pianists, also a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Many
music-associated buildings and institutions are named in his honour. One
of the largest music venues in the region, the Taneev Concert Hall, with its
seating capacity of 600, also houses the Vladimir Philharmonic Society
'Tula — a large city of a half-million inhabitants a few hours’ drive south of
Moscow, known for its production of samovars as well as armaments. It is
not far from Leo Tolstoys family estate of Yasnaya Polyana,
Opposition
89
In St. Petersburg, however. Orthodox priests came to see
it and afterward thanked the actors for a most spiritually in-
spired production. They said we should have more plays like
this!
The conclusion is inescapable. A phenomenon like
Anastasia is constantly under the watchful eye of some kind
of opposing power. This power may be located entirely with-
in the borders of Russia or outside as well. In any case it has
at its disposal a far-flung network, capable of reacting to cur-
rents running through masses of people, capable of accelerat-
ing or retarding these currents at their own discretion.
The stories about the oriests told by Anastasia and her
grandfathers are taking on increasingly real and specific
shape. They have begun to express themselves in concrete
actions of today
Her grandfather said that the high priest, who forms the
ideology of whole peoples, has stopped opposing Anastasia,
but the system created by the priests will carry on the opposi-
tion for centuries to come. And this has also been confirmed
by real-life events.
The zealots who implement the opposition on a local level
have proved themselves incapable of figuring out what is
really going on. They seem to be acting as though they had
been pre-programmed, making sweeping and completely un-
founded accusations against Anastasia.
For example, in response to the question Should we all go
live in the forest? Anastasia replies:
90
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“There is no need to go live in the forest. You need to clean
up the place you have been polluting first .” 4
The press, however, has been putting out statements to the
effect that Anastasia is urging people to abandon their city
dwellings and children and go off to live in the forest.
So, one can draw the conclusion that some kind of agencies are ac-
tively endeavouring to hinder the promotion of Anastasia’s ideas —
namely, that each Russian family should be granted a hectare of land
to establish a kins domain.
Naturally, Anastasia’s opponents try not to mention this
idea, preferring instead to scare people with their fictitious
inventions.
Naturally, I wanted to defend both the idea itself and the
readers of my books from slander and from the other obsta-
cles standing in the way of reaching this high goal. Defend
them. But how? And from whom, specifically? After all, even
the slanderers must have real names, they have their own
masters and interests. But Anastasia’s supporters have their
own research centre. I don’t know all their names personally,
not by a long shot, but their ideas and conclusions are quite
fascinating. For example:
The counter-action is aimed not directly at Anastasia
so much as at the ‘national idea’ currently taking root in
Russia. It arises from an intermediary source, as though lo-
cal followers each received a cue to take action, independ-
ently of each other. These followers are to be found in vari-
ous social strata, including the clergy.
Their methods are primitive: slander and the propagation
of patently false rumours and, when necessary, taking over the
movement’s leadership and discrediting it.
4 Quoted from two different paragraphs in Book 3, Chapter 21: “Should we
all go live in the forest?”.
Opposition
91
The research centre managed to establish who it was that
stole a computer containing the manuscript for one of my
forthcoming books, and found out about a secret plan for
taking over the Anastasia website. But who tried to replace
my Anastasia books with others that looked similar on the
surface but in fact were aimed at leading people away from
her ideas? And how could they possibly do this?
I was also told that the same forces were organising a smear
campaign, using the same methods in each case, against
Anastasia, Academician Shchetinin’s school’ and the singer
Nikolai Baskov 6 And just what, the reader may well ask, has
Baskov got to do with all this? He is a very pleasant young
man with a rich and powerful voice. And that is precisely
what is driving these forces mad. Imagine this young Russian
with his top-notch voice suddenly singing:
The dawn is now breaking o'er the great ringing cedar’s fair branches
And illuming the tribes of the pure Planet Earth with its lustre.
With a love-sigh the heavens pour forth all the help they can muster.
Interplanetary breezes caress the grand Dream with romances.
From every seed springs a mighty idea,
A Messiah from every child’s perepeteia.
In a bright ray will awaken Rossiya...
God bless Rossiya and Anastasia]
’ Academician Shchetinin’s school — This school, founded at Tekos in the
Caucasus by the renowned educational authority Mikhail Petrovich
Shchetinin, is described in Book 3, Chapters 17: “Put your vision of happi-
ness into practice” and 18: ‘Academician Shchetinin”.
b Niko/ai Baskov (1976-) — an internationally recognised Russian opera star,
who has performed on a number of occasions with his mentor, Spanish diva
Maria de Montserrat Caballe. In recent year's he has become known for Iris
rendition of popular songs, especially those based on operatic or classical piec-
es. Some critics consider him one of the most popular singers in Russia today
92
Book 7: The Energy of Life
This song was sung by a children’s choir at the launch of
the book Who are we ? at the Oktiabr Concert Half in St.
Petersburg. It has been performed by modern bards, and was
featured in the video Take back your Motherland, people ! It was
written by a schoolteacher from Belarus and seems to be talc-
ing on a kind of folk-song status . 9 Perhaps Baskov will sing
other patriotic songs which will strike a chord in Russian
hearts. These new national initiatives, harbingers of a Russian
renaissance, are obviously threatening to someone.
I was told there was no need for concern, and asked not to
speak about what was going on. I was assured that this was
simply a first opportunity to study the methods and pinpoint
who was specifically behind the ideological subversion aimed
at any positive tendencies in Russia.
And I would have gone along with that. Let it be dealt with
by the ‘competent authorities’. However — and you must ex-
cuse me for this — there is one subject on which I cannot
remain silent, despite my promise to the contrary. If I did not
speak out on this, I would forever lose my self-respect.
Reminder: the words Rossiya and Anastasia both rhyme with Maria (and
idea) — see footnote 1 in the Translator’s Preface to Book 1, also footnote 2
in Book 5, Chapter ly. “Equestrienne from the future”.
8
Oktiabr Cornett Hall (Russian: Bol’sboi kontsertnyj za/“Okt/abr’sk/y”) % a mod-
em concert-hall with glass exterior! seating 4,000, opened on 25 October
1967 in celebration of the joth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution
(which actually took place 5 November by modern calendars). It is still one
of St. Petersburg’s most prominent cultural centres.
9 The song cited above actually belongs to OlegAtamanov (1956-), a celebrat-
ed Russian bard, sometimes referred to as “the bojan of all the Russias”. In an-
cient Russia, bojans were enlightened travelling bards who had mastered the
power of word to such an extent that their songs and tales had the effect of
putting the listener into an altered state of consciousness and leading to spir-
itual awakening. Atamanov is continuing this tradition today Since 1998 he
has recorded over fort)' albums, and has audiences weeping at his concerts.
Opposition
93
I cannot remain silent about the attacks on Academician
Shchetinin’s school — on its teachers, on educational innova-
tors in general, and especially on the children.
The pupils at Shchetinin’s school, along with their teach-
ers, have decided to build a second school, this time in the
Belgorod Region . 10 Under an agreement with a local organi-
sation they began refitting the interior of an allotted accom-
modation to suit their needs. Accustomed to hard work, and
experienced in design and construction, they quickly brought
their task to completion. They wanted to afford other chil-
dren, too, the opportunity to study in a real school. Only they
were forced to abandon the premises they had just refitted.
Why? Because their provocateurs were on the alert.
From the same source that instigated the rumours about
all the Anastasia readers being ‘sectarians’ came exactly the
same kind of accusations of Shchetinin’s school being a ‘to-
talitarian sect’.
As in the case of Anastasia, seemingly on cue, a number of
Russia’s so-called ‘Orthodox’ priests 11 began to confirm what
had been said. Again, the same uniform phrasings, the sweep-
ing accusations without any factual confirmation.
IC Belgorod Region (Russian: Belgorodskaya oblast’) — a large, primarily agricul-
tural region located on the fertile plains of south-western Russia between
the Don and Dniepr Rivers, north of the Black Sea. While today it is be-
lieved that the name Belgorod (literally ‘ White city’) is derived from the pro-
liferation of limestone deposits in the area, it may actually have a deeper
meaning, originating from the name Belbog (lit. ‘white god’) — the god of
light, goodness and happiness in the ancient Slavic tradition.
11 so-called ‘Orthodox priests — Megre is questioning here the traditional ap-
plication of the term pravoslavnaia (commonly translated Orthodox , literally
signifying ‘right-praising’) to Russia’s official church. The term Prav’i Order,
or rightness) was one of the three concepts central to Russia’s original ‘pa-
ganism’ (see Chapter 20), along with Nav’ (the Inner, or invisible world) and
Tav’ (designating the Outer, or visible world) — cf. footnote 1 in Book 4,
94
Book 7: The Energy of Life
According to a certain ‘Father Alexei’, the pupils at
Shchetinin’s school “have absolutely no experience in han-
dling money”. That’s a lie, chaps. They do have experience.
Only they are not fixated on money the way you are.
At Shchetinin’s school they make use of ‘sentencing cir-
cles’, where the perpetrator appears in person in front of a
whole group of people who are predisposed to react nega-
tively toward him and express their censure.
That’s quite an accusation! But haven’t Cossacks 12 brought
their own violators to ‘sentencing circles? They have in-
deed, and not just to censure, but to punish with whips. And
haven’t our political parties, either communist or democratic,
not used similar methods? Does not the Russian Orthodox
Church summon its violators to a ‘circle’ before defrocking
them? The Church used to do worse than that — it used to
burn them at the stake. And here we are simply talking about
censure.
Perhaps the writer who described this in a negative light
had in mind a circle consisting of his own persona? But that
would no longer be a ‘circle’ but real totalitarianism!
Again, some articles complain that Shchetinin’s school is
protected by Cossacks and free access to its grounds is not
always permitted.
Chapter 6 (“The first appearance of you”). It should also be noted that the
term Slavic (as applied to a number of related East European peoples from
Russians in the East to Poles in the West to Serbs in the South) comes di-
rectly from the root slav meaning ‘praise’ (compare also the Russian word
slovo, meaning ‘word’).
l ~ Cossacks (Russian: kazaki) — descendants of a race of independent pro-
fessional warriors who traditionally hired out their services to the ruling
authorities, especially in the Caucasus. Local Cossacks in the Tekos area
today have a special relationship with Shchetinin’s school.
Opposition
95
But today, ladies and gentlemen, many schools are un-
der security protection. And not only in our own country
Anyway, what business might you have at Shchetinin’s school?
Be God-fearing and take care of your own health. Aren’t you
the ones, after all, who are horrified at the fact that the pupils
of this school don’t drink or smoke, that they are construct-
ing new school buildings themselves and are good students?
'You no doubt get a thrill of ‘sublime pleasure’ when you find
drugs and foul language in schools!
I am not going to list all the nonsensical drivel written
about this marvellous school. The writers have come under
condemnation even from their colleagues.
An article by Alexander Adamsky 1 ’ is of particular interest.
Here are some excerpts:
On Saturday i April, on the ATV creativity channel,
they showed a pre-taped episode of the programme Press
Club, devoted to what people refer to today as ‘contro-
versial. press coverage’ surrounding Mikhail Petrovich
Shchetinin’s school near the village ofTekos in the Province
of Krasnodar. The Press Club producers decided to invite
journalists writing on educational topics, as well as educa-
tors themselves, to discuss the whole question.
Ij 'Alexander Izotovicb Adamsky (1955-) — Rector of the Eureka Institute
for the Study of Educational Policy in Moscow and member of the Public
Chamber of the Russian Federation (a consultative body analysing draft
legislation for the Russian parliament). Adamsky is an ardent supporter of
innovative educational approaches that develop and support independent
thinking on the part of children. Adamsky has been advocating transfer-
ring control of educational budgets to the schools themselves as well as op-
posing attempts by Russia’s Orthodox Church to introduce ‘Fundamentals
of Orthodox Christian culture’ as a compulsory subject in Russia’s public
school curriculum. The article cited here was first published in the news-
paper Pervoe sentiabria (First of September ) in 2000, issue 27, under the
title “Anything you can’t understand has no right to exist”. (Note that
1 September, the first day of school, is termed ‘Knowledge Day’ in Russia.)
96
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Both professionally and from a global perspective,
the unique character of Shchetinin’s system provokes
controversy in modern educational circles. But there
are what Alexander Radov terms ‘educational killers’
whose arguments vastly differ from those of people who
question Shchetinin’s views on particular matters of
substance.
Such ‘killers’ do not argue; their aim is to destroy
As long as education has existed, as long as anyone can
remember, right from the times of Socrates, up-and-com-
ing philosopher-teachers have been censured and beaten
down for ‘confusing young minds’ and not teaching accord-
ing to conventional norms...
So yet another round of ‘pogroms’ directed at Shchetinin
is not coincidental. As Alexander Radov said during the
Press Club discussion, even as in times past such attacks
were organised by bureaucrats, today they are initiated
by innocent-looking journalists. So it turns out that these
‘nice boys and girls’, faced with something that does not
fit into — indeed, that is quite contrary to — their pre-
conceived opinions as to what a school should be, what an
educator should be, or how an educational system should
be structured, find themselves quite incapable of accepting
the existence of something their consciousness can neither
fathom or even make room for. In other words, ‘what I
don’t understand has no right to exist’ — such is the ‘kill-
ers” simple but deadly logic.
What we have here is the old world flushing out the dregs
on the bottom — the last, clotted sediments of totalitari-
anism, which has been so aggressive and unshakeable in its
hatred toward anything unlike itself. The old world, where
there is no room for tolerance, where children must fit into
a uniform mould and all teachers are obliged to teach one
and the same thing.
Opposition
97
The opening remarks on Press Club were telling: one of
Shchetinin’s attackers said there were grounds for censure,
but first he wanted to hear the arguments for. Amazing
how the old Stalinist logic survives — anyone is obliged to
defend himself to start with, and then the prosecutors de-
cide the degree of the defendant’s guilt. That he is guilty in
the first place there is absolutely no doubt. The question
is only how guilty he is and what the degree of punishment
should be...
It is useless to argue with such accusers, and to men-
tion them by name would only play into their desire to be
noticed — their desire for self-promotion and self-glori-
fication which is what they are really after. One must be
extremely patient here, realising that they are the mouth-
piece for the old world of the obsolete, an outlet for gross
ignorance and malice. In terms of the broader picture,
they themselves are not to blame for anything, just as an
infant is not to blame if he plays with matches and burns
down his home. But what will become of the school, what
will become of our educational future?
As we see it, Shchetinin has made a tremendous educa-
tional discovery which, naturally, has gone unnoticed by
his persecutors. He has come up with a totally new edu-
cational content. He has established a lifestyle pattern at
his school, on his ‘educational island’, so to speak, in such
a way that this lifestyle pattern has become its educational
content. Of course there is a syllabus — of course there
are subjects — the kids study both mathematics and biol-
ogy. But this is just the raw material, while the Telcos way
of life has become the content — building construction,
arranging for the provision of food, protecting one’s living
quarters, art, interpersonal communication. Moreover,
everybody says that children are different, that they not
only have different learning rhythms but also different
9 8
Book 7: The Energy of Life
areas for the optimum development of their abilities. But
so far it is only Shchetinin that has managed to make it so
different children can learn entirely at their own individual
pace. So a Shchetinin pupil may end up, for example, talc-
ing Grade 9 physics at the same time as a post-secondary
course in architecture. This is continuing education in the
true sense of the term.
Who else has been able to accomplish this?
It is a challenge even to imagine such a thing, let alone
think it through and put it into practice.
Of course, Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin is a genius. Of
course he is an artist, a thinker and a prominent exponent
of our culture.
But by the very same token neither he nor his creative
genius can be squeezed into pre-set frames and cliches, ei-
ther laudatory or derogatory. Shchetinin is someone whom
one not only can but must engage in argument, someone to
study with and, yes, someone definitely deserving of praise.
An artist, after all, cannot live without some kind of praise
or recognition.
But Shchetinin is not someone to be pushed around.
Nobody should be pushed around. And nobody should
be utterly destroyed — because, sooner or later, shame will
have its own. It’s only in a mob mentality that people as-
sert themselves by destroying others. The way to assert
one’s self in normal human society is by expressing respect
and love — not only toward one’s self, but toward others
as well.
You can condemn such ideological ‘killers’ all you like, but
what is that to them? They see condemnation as their reward.
Their masters will make it all up to them. Meaning that they
will keep trying all the harder. And they’ll always get away with
it. How can they be punished, anyway? People have simply
Opposition
99
expressed their own opinions. They have simply made a mis-
take, and no punishment has been decreed for mistaken opin-
ions. Yet they are not mistaken. In labelling the school a to-
talitarian sect they have merely been pursuing a specific goal,
namely, stopping the public authorities from extending a help-
ing hand to the new marvellous beginnings in Russia. Very few
government officials, after all, will bother going to the school
itself to ascertain the real status of things first-hand. They
will most certainly try to keep as far away as possible from any
contacts. What if there really should be something wrong with the
school '? they might ask themselves. Hence the school is put in a
defenceless position — an easy target for the ‘killers’, who are
just waiting to deal their well-calculated blows.
But what are we doing to help? After all, we see it’s not just
the teachers that are under attack, but the children too.
Look, more than three hundred Russian children are being
trampled in the dirt, vilified and insulted, and this has been
going on for two years now.
I don’t believe it’s Russians who are doing this. It’s no-
where near part of the Russian character. But we are passive
observers of this poisoning. Highly-placed government offi-
cials and ordinary people alike are passively observing it. We
are passive witnesses to an all-too-obvious pushing around
and moral bashing of children. Who’s doing it?
Maybe Russian special-service officers can say But God
forbid well have to tell our grandchildren that we once lived
in a time when Academician Shchetinin’s school still existed
in Tekos, home to three hundred children who dreamt about
a marvellous Russia!
We ought to be able to tell our grandchildren living in
their Russian domains that “we were around when this school
you are so happy to go to now got off the ground. We saw it
through during this difficult time.”
IOO
Book 7: The Energy of Life
All that will come later. But right now...
Mikhail Petrovich, Tekos teachers, educational innovators!
It’s a challenge for you, of course, but you know... You know
very well that “you cannot creep your way to the truth ”. 14 And
children too! Children of the Tekos school. Forgive me, young
Russians, if I don’t manage to do everything I’m supposed to.
But I shall be able to. So will many other people. What’s
the weather like there at the moment — nice and warm, eh?
That’s good if it’s nice and warm. May the Sun shine over you
more often, and warm up the dream within each of you!
Hoping to get some advice on how best to proceed, I de-
scribed the situation to Anastasia’s grandfather. The elderly
fellow stood there leaning on his walking-stick (or staff) as he
listened intently to what I had to say
After hearing me out, including my request for advice,
the old fellow stood silent for a while. His facial expression
betrayed intense thought. Finally, he lifted up his head and,
squinting his eyes as though scanning space, began speaking.
“Neither my father nor I myself, not even the high priest,
was able to guess how our granddaughter Anastasia would
have any success in deciphering the secret of all secrets and
answering the question as to why the Earth has begun mor-
phing itself into such a stinky mess. The tribulations of the
14 This is a quotation from Anastasia, reproduced on the back cover of the
Russian edition of Book 2, The Ringing Cedars of Russia.
Opposition
IOI
flesh and the agitations of human souls are something Man
has brought upon himself.
“If Earth’s earlier civilisations are supposed to be the
smartest, why did they not preserve a happy lifestyle for their
children?
“Everything today can at last be returned to the original
world of God’s creation. Nobody had any idea how to pre-
serve it and avoid repeating mistakes of the past. And then,
if you please, she created the unthinkable combination all by
herself, with her own thought, and immediately translated it
into reality All questions will now be answered.
“Events that took millennia to unfold Anastasia has com-
pressed into a single age. She is repeating them. Now eve-
ryone can experience the history of the Earth, the history of
your country for himself. They can evaluate, draw a conclu-
sion and write that conclusion down in their own Book of
Kin. Man will be able to learn for himself, with his feelings
and his soul, the events of a whole series of millennia.
“You see, just as Anastasia is now being denigrated, your
ancestors were denigrated in Ancient Rus’ as their culture was
devastated.
“They accused the paganism and Vedism of Ancient Rus’ of
being frightfully barbaric and a cultural wasteland. How can
you make people feel and fully appreciate what things were
really like back then?
“All on her own our granddaughter revealed the aspirations
of our Russian ancestors and took upon herself the harsh
blows of her attackers — themselves the descendants of those
who slandered our ancestors in front of their contemporaries,
in front of their children and grandchildren.
“It is as though she were inviting everybody living on the
Earth today to choose themselves a role in a historical play,
then act out this role and observe the situation from the side-
lines. And even those who start observing the whole scenario
102
Book 7: The Energy of Life
as spectators will be playing the role of spectators and thereby
experiencing and appreciating the events taking place, and
they themselves will be drawn into the action.
“I’ve got a bit ahead of myself. You wanted to know who
is responsible for the insults and hindrances. I’ll give you an
answer. After all, that’s not hard for a priest.
“It is people that have been responsible for obstructing
anyone who has understood and been inspired by the ideas
expressed by our granddaughter Anastasia. But not just any
people. These people are bio-robots controlled by a tiny sect
which arose a long time ago, and far away from Russia.”
“But,” I observed, “one of the clippings I have of signed
newspaper articles states that the missionary office of the
Tula Diocese has come out against Anastasia. I’ve read re-
ports from people in various parts of the country on the un-
kindly attitude on the part of individual Christian congrega-
tions. Do they too include, as you say, bio-robots, controlled
by some kind of sect?”
“The human bio-robots themselves are unaware of this
control. They were simply pre-programmed a long time ago.
The programmers had not foreseen anything on the order of
Anastasia and so the programme experienced a major mal-
function — pointing it down the road of self-annihilation.”
“I can’t put together details like that in my head. Where
can I find confirmation?”
“If you can’t put them together in your head, then put them
all together according to your own sense of logic. Anyone ca-
pable of thinking will find it in their own sense of logic.”
“Put it together logically?”
“Yes. Simple facts everybody knows. Take a look and see
how one can reason, using only facts as a basis.”
“How?”
“First of all, get a clear determination for yourself of just
what Anastasia recommended everyone should do.”
Opposition
103
“Well,” I said, “she recommended everyone obtain at least
one hectare of land and set up a domain on it for their family
and descendants. As she says, if every family creates this lit-
tle corner of Paradise for themselves, the whole Earth will be
transformed into a Paradise. She also explained how to grow
edible plants to counteract human diseases. Furthermore,
she talked about a healthy lifestyle, child-raising and an ap-
preciation for Nature, stating that Nature is comprised of
God’s thoughts in solution. In sum, she set up a model where-
by Russia can become a flourishing land and a home to happy
families.”
“In talking about kin’s domains,” Grandfather continued,
‘Anastasia in fact revealed the greatest secret of the Divine
being. She showed Man the way back to Paradise. This be-
comes clear if you gather all her sayings scattered over the
various books together.
“She revealed a secret which the dark forces had kept con-
cealed for thousands ofyears. These dark forces had destroyed
everything that could have helped people learn about it.
“In the second century of your so-called ‘Common Era’
the last book still written in Runic characters was destroyed.
This book told about Man’s Divine way of life. It talked, too,
about the possibility of mastering the Universe through the
harmonious mastery first of a plot of one’s family land and
then the planet called Earth as a whole.
“Man who had mastered the Earth to perfection was pre-
sented with the opportunity to master other planets in the
Universe — not technocratically but psychotelepathically”
“But didn’t any of the great wise-men talk about the Earth
the way she did, at least once?”
“There is not a single treatise extant today, Vladimir, where
you will find the discoveries Anastasia has made. Moreover,
in the past six thousand years people have been deliberately
led astray, led away from understanding the Earth. They have
104 Book 7: The Energy of Life
had all sorts of teachings thrown at them and told that that’s
where they’ll find the truth.
“No sooner does Man study one doctrine than he recog-
nises that there is no truth in it. He’s presented with another
to study, then a third, and so forth. So life goes on, and even
upon reaching his deathbed Man still hasn’t understood the
essence of life.
“Yet Man is still intuitively attracted to the Earth, to the
great adventure of understanding it. Realising that this at-
traction of human souls could not simply be cut off at the
roots, the powers of darkness decided to cast a shadow over
Man’s attraction to the Earth.
“In short, there have been agreat many deceptions through-
out the ages. But over the past six thousand years nobody has
interacted with the Earth with conscious awareness.”
“‘With conscious awareness’ — is that what Anastasia rec-
ommends?”
“Yes, that is what she recommends, and what people take
from her sayings. Anastasia has turned human society as a
whole onto a marvellous path. And nobody will now be able
to stop her. After all, a whole lot of people are already carry-
ing her dream in their hearts.”
“But still, the hindering and slandering of both Anastasia
and her readers has not stopped. If they only realised they
can’t stop her, they’d give up their slandering.”
‘At the moment, Vladimir, through the efforts of the slan-
derers, the higher echelons of power are attempting to thwart
the dawn of a new era here in Russia. In the near future they
will try to present the idea in a distorted form in some other
country. And they will try to discredit the idea.
‘Anastasia was able to foresee all this ahead of time. Her
course of action, carefully thought through in advance, im-
pressed even the high priest. She realised that once she had
revealed the essence of Man and the Earth, a lot of people
Opposition
105
would not be able to hold themselves back from direct inter-
action with the Earth. Too hasty an action could be danger-
ous — after all, people would first need to create their Space
in their thoughts.
“In Russia the slanderers are now trying to set up obstacles,
but people are still not betraying their dream and are men-
tally creating their Space without letting up.
“Of course the system is strong, but you can’t just go ac-
cusing everyone indiscriminately Church people are divided
over Anastasia.”
“I know,” I said. “I have met with a number of clerics who
understand and support Anastasia.”
“You and your readers must be aware of just who in the
world might be disadvantaged by information surfacing in
Russia today”
“I would say there are many self-proclaimed ‘developed’
nations that would not want to see another, even more devel-
oped country on the horizon.”
“Yes, that’s logical. But each country has a lot of people.
What do you think — are all of them up on what’s happen-
ing here, do they follow and analyse events taking place in
Russia?”
“Not all of them, of course. But there are certain inter-
ested parties.”
“Who, for example?”
“Who? Well, for instance, companies that deal in medi-
cines and supply them to Russia in large quantities, they
would be disadvantaged if Russians stopped getting sick.”
‘And beyond that?”
“Beyond that... There are a great many foodstuffs that we
import from abroad today If Anastasia’s plans were to be
implemented, it would be the other way round: Russia would
export foodstuffs to many countries. And in that she would
have no competition.”
io 6 Book 7: The Energy of Life
“Which means Anastasia’s plan would turn out to be un-
profitable — not to the populations of these various coun-
tries but to certain classes of people, and these might be lo-
cated in just about any country, including Russia itself. Do
you agree?”
“Yes. In general, I do.”
“Now tell me, this class of people who possess enormous
capital, might they not have their own intelligence services
following global development trends?”
“Of course. All major companies have such services. If
they didn’t, they would go bankrupt. There are even schools
set up to train such people.”
‘All right. So, major companies have services providing
them with intelligence from various countries. And in turn
they can influence the creation of favourable conditions for
themselves?”
“Yes.”
“You agree. Good. If you pursue this line of reasoning, you
will come to the conclusion that national governments have
similar services at their disposal. There are many examples
of this in history. The most significant of all is a tiny Jewish
group which is involved in the governing of America, Europe
and Russia. Though they have merely been an instrument in
the hands of the high priest.”
“What’s the connection between this group and the
Christian dioceses that have come out against Anastasia?”
“I indicated that those who serve as bio-robots are this
type of people. They arose under the influence of the priests’
programme and the tiny Jewish group that is spread out in
various places.”
“Where’s the proof of such statements?”
“In historical facts. They need to be examined meticulous-
ly and impartially”
Chapter Sixteen
To Jew§ 9 Christians and others
In appealing to Jews and Christians, I am counting on the un-
derstanding of at least some adherents of these two mutually
exclusive ideologies. I realise not everyone is aware of the
reason I felt compelled to touch upon this topic.
The mere mention of the subject in my previous book 1
touched off a chain of hurt feelings — even though the essence
of Anastasia’s sayings has only one aim, namely, to shed light on
the causes of conflicts between peoples — the same conflicts
that have been going on incessantly over the past five millennia.
As I was working on the present volume, common sense
dictated that it would be better to avoid the theme of Jews
and Christianity altogether. Why stir up a good part of my
readership and cause them to become disposed against me?
Nevertheless, in view of the information in my possession, I
do not feel I have a right to withhold it, no matter how dis-
tasteful it may seem to some people.
In presenting descriptions of the Jewish pogroms which
have been going on for millennia, I simply cited historical
facts, trying my best not to offer personal commentary on the
events described or to treat them too subjectively.
My only goal here is to try to prevent yet another large-scale po-
grom against Jews which could take place simultaneously in several
countries.
Such a pogrom could conceivably be significantly greater
in scope than that unleashed during the era of Nazi Germany
See Book 6, Chapter 6: “Imagery and trial”.
to8
Book 7: The Energy of Life
In fact, it is almost inevitable. Only one thing can prevent it:
a sufficient understanding of the causes of previous pogroms,
along with corresponding actions to remove these causes.
I shall try not to resort to the statements made by the
recluses of the Siberian taiga — Anastasia and her grandfa-
ther — even though they carry more and more weight with
me personally with each passing year, since others might in-
terpret them as sheer invention. I shall endeavour to draw
proofs simply from well-known facts, or facts which can. be
easily attested by anyone who wishes to.
And so, as is known from historical sources, anti-Jewish po-
groms date back to the time of the Egyptian pharaohs. And
over the last millennium they have occurred approximately
once every hundred years, in various countries which had be-
come christianised by that time. And their scope has been
expanding with each passing century.
The last large-scale attempt to annihilate the Jews oc-
curred in Nazi Germany from 1939 to 1945. Jews were burned
in concentration-camp ovens, shot execution-style and poi-
soned with gas. Various sources estimate the number of Jews
exterminated during this time to be in the neighbourhood of
six million.
The regularity of recurring events connected with the ex-
termination of the Jewish populations of various countries
over more than one millennium clearly and convincingly at-
tests to the existence of certain causes behind these events.
At the same time somebody has been attempting to carefully
conceal the true causes.
The mass media — the press, radio and TV — have been
painstakingly trying to avoid this most contentious issue. It
only takes a single mention in the media to provoke accusa-
tions of inciting racial hatred.
In actual fact racism can be incited more readily by remaining si-
lent about the sensitive and controversial issues facing society today.
To Jews, Christians and others
109
A great many facts attest to society’s sensitivity to the
Jewish question. Many people will remember a speech by a
Russian general, a member of the State Duma, in which he
declared, in effect: “Get all the Jews out of Russia!”
A number of Duma members condemned the general.
Naturally, he was given no coverage in the press. Nobody
started an argument with him. Why? Was it because this gen-
eral was just one lone voice supporting such a view, making it
hardly worth wasting precious airtime on the whole Russian
public’s arguing with just one person?
I dare say, though, he is not alone. He has a lot of company,
not just among his fellow-generals, but among Russian civil
servants, among Russian youth.
The numbers of people willing to blame all their troubles
on the Jews are steadily increasing. The silence on the part of
the press is allowing them to build up to a critical mass. I can
cite figures which more than eloquently attest to this.
Since 1992 more than fifty anti-Semitic books have been re-
leased in Russia by various publishing houses. This rather size-
able number does not include materials published by the under-
ground press, nor a multitude of newspapers and magazines.
You won’t find these publications gathering dust on store
shelves or in publishers’ warehouses. They are circulating
from hand to hand. Many of them have been read so many
times the covers are starting to fall off. These are publications
in demand. And their readers tend to dismiss the absence of
any discussion of the issue in the press by simply saying “the
whole press is in the hands of Jews”. Their arguments are so
well developed that anyone without a thorough grounding in
the subject will find it a challenge to counteract them.
IIO
Book 7: The Energy of Life
I was sitting in my train compartment, on my way back to
Moscow from St. Petersburg, when in walked two men and
a girl. The men wore dark-coloured shirts and wide army-of-
ficer belts. They looked very much as though they had been
exhausted by some rather strenuous activity and immediately
lay down on the upper bunks.
I struck up a conversation with the girl, who, like the men,
was dressed rather severely It turned out they were on their
way home from a convention of (as she put it) ‘the patriotic
forces of Russia’.
‘And what issues were discussed at your convention?” I
asked her.
“The struggle with world Jewry,” she proudly replied.
“How can you, being here in Russia, struggle with someone
who is, let’s say, in Europe or America?”
“We’ve got our supporters in Europe, and in America too.
We haven’t contacted them all, but we know of many move-
ments that share our views. Patriots in various countries are
soon going to unite against world Jewry.”
The girl was talkative, chatting on audaciously. Either by in-
struction or at her own initiative she was taking on the role of
agitator for her (as she was convinced) ‘patriotic’ movement.
I asked the girl:
“Tell me, have the Jews harmed you personally in anyway?”
“Sure they have. Because of them I’m forced to live in a
poor and filthy country which keeps kowtowing to the West
and licking up its crumbs.”
“But what makes you think the Jews are the cause of the
failures in our country?”
“’Cause they’ve got this special plan of action. They deceive
and plunder one country, then another, then a third. And no
sooner does the first get back on its feet than they start clean-
ing it out again. They don’t even consider us human beings.
To Jews, Christians and others
hi
Just look at what’s written here. This is a copy of several pas-
sages from their Talmud.”
Handing me a slim pamphlet, she opened it to a particular
place and I began reading.
I shan’t reproduce these citations here, as back then, dur-
ing our conversation, it was hard for me to tell how much they
actually corresponded to the Talmud. I was already aware
that, according to the Old Testament, the Jews consider
themselves to be a chosen people. But that’s not the point. I
was so struck by this young ‘patriot’s’ rampant aggressiveness
that I felt it was high time to get to the truth of the matter.
The root cause of the incessant conflicts within many countries lies
in the existence, within one and the same society at one and the same
time, of two mutually exclusive religious ideologies.
Let us examine the question of just what is religion ? First
and foremost, it is an ideology which shapes a particular class of
Man, plugging him into a particular programme of action.
Religion — in this case, the religion of the Jews — defines
the Jewish people as exclusively chosen by God, and even con-
cretises and regulates its actions in respect to other peoples.
Christianity, on the other hand, says that a Christian Man is
a servant, and some will get to relax in Paradise only after this
earthly life. It’s hard for rich people to get to Paradise. You must
love your neighbours and share your possessions with them.
The Talmud says: “It’s all yours”, while the Bible says: “Give
it all up”. A good combination! These two mutually exclu-
sive ideologies arose from one location — i.e., Israel. But that
doesn’t mean that they were worked out by Jews themselves.
That’s not the point. What is significant here is the inevita-
bility of conflict.
The inevitability of conflict between adherents of the two
ideologies can be attested by examining even the behaviour
of very young children. Let’s say we tell one child that all the
toys he sees belong only to him, while we encourage another
XI2
Book 7: The Energy of Life
child to give up the toys he owns when another needs them —
what then is the result?
The second child may agree to hand over his toys once or
twice, but he won’t exactly feel love for the one who takes
them. Sooner or later he will want at least something back,
but nothing will be offered to him. As a result he will either
start crying or try to use force.
And so it turns out that two differing ideologies may serve
to facilitate conflict even between children as yet unborn.
In a case like this nationality doesn’t even come into the
question. You could turn all the ethnic Jews into Christians
and all the Slavic peoples into practising Jews and still get the
very same conflicts.
It is not nationalities that are constantly warring with each other,
but differing ideologies exploiting nationality for their own purposes.
We have heard even very cultured and enlightened people
warn us from time to time about the necessity of a tolerant at-
titude toward different faiths. The State Duma has adopted
a law punishing those inciting ethnic or religious hatred. On
TV we see leaders of different denominational groups getting
together to participate in secular governmental receptions.
It all gives the appearance of something good, proper and
normal. But it does absolutely nothing to reduce extremism.
We still keep seeing placards with inflammatory slogans say-
ing Kill them! and we still hear reports on people setting off
explosions at non-profit organisations.
So, what’s going on? It’s all quite simple. The situation
cannot be changed simply by eloquent words and appeals. To
the contrary, such words only serve to conceal the real state
of affairs and make it worse. It remains concealed, waiting for
the ‘zero hour’ to explode and destroy the state.
To Jews, Christians and others
113
“Let’s show a tolerant attitude toward all faiths!” Let’s indeed.
I myself — like many others, I think — have nothing against
a tolerant attitude.
But what then happens with the faiths themselves? This
is what happens. Each of them tries with all their might to
become as strong as possible and attract to their ranks the
greatest possible number of followers. Finally once they
think they have achieved a sufficiently solid power base, two
ideologies inevitably find themselves on a collision course, as
is clearly confirmed by the history of incessant conflicts in
the world. But over the course of many centuries ma n kind,
as though pre-programmed, continues to make the same mis-
takes over and over again.
Did the priests know about this — the ones who created
the two ideologies? Yes, they knew: How could they not
know, these people who are capable of exercising a psycho-
logical influence on millions of people in various countries all
over the world, capable of pre-programming human beings?
Was their aim really to make the Jewish people happy by
telling them they were ‘chosen’? History shows quite a dif-
ferent motivation. Over the centuries the Jewish people have
been used as a ‘throwaway card’, or scapegoat, serving as a
shield to divert people’s attention from those who are ‘play-
ing their own little game’, using both Jews and Christians as
pawns in a simple chess match. This kind of pre-program-
ming causes only suffering to both parties.
You can see for yourselves where all this is leading today. The
world is witnessing an ever greater accumulation of aggres-
sive energy. Conflict continues between Israel and Palestine.
With their military technology and American support, Israel
can occupy Palestinian land and subject the inhabitants to
its own demands. But this is by no means favourable to the
development of mutual respect between two neighbouring
ii4 Book 7: The Energy of Life
peoples. Quite the opposite: the amount of aggressive energy
directed at the Jews is sharply rising throughout the Muslim
world. This energy will inevitably find its outlet, including
incessant acts of terrorism on both Israeli and American ter-
ritory But it is not just the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that
is at play here. More and more inhabitants of our planet are
realising that the current path of development of our global
civilisation is heading for a dead end.
People are being devoured by AIDS, drugs, crime and tech-
nological disasters. The overwhelming majority of Earth’s in-
habitants are deprived of the opportunity to consume food
that will not harm their health, to drink clean, uncontami-
nated water and to breathe pure, unpolluted air.
But what if these masses of people were to acquire infor-
mation about the true cause of social and technological dis-
asters? What if leaders appeared who could show them the
true instigators of this depressing global situation, and expose
their game, their aims, their tricks?
This, and this alone, is what the world ideologists are afraid
of. It is for this reason, in an attempt to shield themselves
from universal human outrage, that they keep tossing out
again and again that time-tested card, namely the Jews. Ton-
bet — they’re to blame for everything — down with them! Angry
masses launch attacks on Jews indiscriminately That’s what’s
been going on, over and over again, throughout the ages.
They attack them, thinking they’re getting rid of something
evil, whereas all they’re doing, in fact, is ‘letting off steam’.
Chapter Seventeen
The account told me by Anastasia’s grandfather struck me as
being quite extraordinary, and yet quite simple in its proof of
the extraordinary
Subsequently I began comparing his arguments with those
from other sources and was amazed at how closely the details
coincided. These were facts which nudged logical thinking
to certain conclusions. And now I shall try reconciling the
conclusions drawn by Anastasia’s grandfather with those of
other sources.
Back during the years 30-1 o o of our Common Era small groups
of believing Jews and dissidents living in Israel, Palestine or
other parts of the Roman Empire, began to merge into an in-
dependent movement within Judaism. This resulted in the
formation of a small Christian community comprising peo-
ple who earnestly believed in the precepts of Christ Jesus and
His imminent resurrection — an account attested in a great
number of historical monographs, including the Bible.
In a word, there is no question that the mighty Christian
doctrine began with the gatherings of a small Jewish commu-
nity.
But now let us try to determine how the teachings of this
small community suddenly found its way into not only the
Roman Empire but also the territories of present-day Europe
and Russia. How did people in so many countries come to
hear of it — given that so few people knew about it even in
Israel itself?
ii 6 Book 7: The Energy of Life
According to Anastasia’s grandfather, the priests who con-
trolled the Jews of that period realised that by tinkering with
(or, rather, re-working) the Christian teachings in a certain
way, these teachings could shape a type of slave mentality
which would be very easy to control. This mentality either
partially or almost completely rules out independent logical
thinking, and Man begins to believe what he is told by the
clergy or by someone else. More precisely: one ends up with
bio-robotic people, subject to whatever programming has
been instilled in them.
(A bio-robotic Man is a Man who consents — not entirely
of his own free will, of course, but under the influence of spe-
cial occult programming — to believe in an unreal world. And
given that this unreal world has been constructed by some-
one for a specific purpose, this someone claims that he knows
the laws of the unreal world and demands that Man subject
himself to them. Whereas in fact he is subjecting the Man
personally to himself.)
Next, the priests of Judaism, who at the time had not just
the knowledge but also the practical experience of inculcat-
ing self-serving teachings into masses of people, trained hun-
dreds of preachers from Christian ranks, gave them money
and sent them off to various countries to instil the priests’
own self-serving teachings into the local populations.
An incidental proof of this may be seen in the following.
At the end of the second century of our Common Era a
number of Jewish Christian communities suddenly launched
a comprehensive missionary campaign in various countries.
This campaign was preceded by a period of intensified evan-
gelisation (the publication and copying of the Christian
Hebrew Bible).
Everybody knows perfectly well that even today publish-
ing books requires money. In ancient times the production of
each book required not just money, but big money A goodly
Going deep into history
117
sum would have been needed, too, for travel to other coun-
tries. It was largely merchants, or wealthy and prominent
people, who could afford such travel. So how could such an
extravagant, large-scale operation be carried out by a com-
munity consisting mainly of rural residents?
Of course there must have been expert theoretical training
and a considerable amount of financing involved. The atten-
tion the priests paid to these rural residents, together with
their moral and financial support, served to turn ordinary
peasant believers into fully-fledged fanatics.
Just picture to yourself a Hebrew villager who is suddenly
told:
“We see in you the makings of a great missionary and
preacher. All you have to do is study up a bit, well give you
money and you’ll teach people, only... Only not here in our
country. You’ll be going to other countries.”
And so they studied up, got their money and off they
went — travelling to other lands. So, what was the result?
Any success? Not a bit. The Jewish preachers were rejected
by the people in every country they went to. It was more than
just a simple rejection — at first they were listened to, then
asked to leave. The more obtrusive among them were beaten
or had dogs set upon them.
This is confirmed by many historical facts known from the
Roman Empire of the period, where the major contingent of
preachers was sent.
The only significant result of this massive campaign was
the organising of a network of Christian communities in
various parts of the Roman Empire. But there was no way
they could shake the foundations of the traditional sects of
the time. Ancient Rome was left just as pagan as in earlier
times. These sects exerted no influence either on the politi-
cal life of the Empire or on the formation of the new type of
Man — the bio-robotic slaves the priests had dreamt about.
n8 Book 7: The Energy of Life
And the Roman emperors had absolutely no regard for this
first wave of preachers.
The Emperor Nero, who was generally tolerant of the vari-
ous pagan beliefs on the whole, took a particular dislike to the
Christians. Christians were expelled from Roman territory
by various emperors: Dionysius (249-251), Diocletes (284-
285) and especially Galerius (305-311), one of the leading per-
secutors of the sect.
It was not until the second wave came that the preachers
had any success. Unlike their predecessors, preachers of the
second wave were no fanatics. The priests prepared them in
such a way that they could speak eloquently about their faith
on the one hand, while on the other they had a knowledge of
psychology and were capable of influencing a person by using
his aspirations to achieve their own ends.
The mission of the second wave of preachers was focused
solely on the rulers — persuading them that their authority
could be enhanced and perpetuated by the Christian faith,
that it would make their state completely governable, con-
trollable and flourishing.
It was to this end that certain dogmas were introduced as
well, such as All power is of God and The ruler is God’s vicegerent
on the Earth.
Confessions opened the door to controlling the thoughts,
hopes and actions of every citizen of a country. In a word, the
preachers began persuading the rulers that the christianisa-
tion of a state would create the most favourable conditions
for governing.
And on the surface it did, but only on the surface. In fall-
ing into these traps, the rulers had no idea they were actually
falling under the control of other powers.
Christianity began noticeably consolidating its position
in. the Roman Empire beginning in 312 C.E., when Emperor
Constantine was persuaded how advantageous the presence
Going deep into history
119
of Christian churches within the state would be for him. He
agreed to offer them patronage, even while still maintaining
the temples to the Roman gods.
This led to a significant improvement in the position of
Christianity within the Roman Empire, an increase in its
wealth, and successive generations of Christian archbishops
attaining a level of power rivalling that of the Roman senators.
This phenomenon, along with many others to follow, at-
tests to the fact that Christian teachings were unable to de-
velop and exert any serious influence on society without the
support of secular rulers. Christian leaders themselves were
always among the pretenders to power.
While the Roman Church continues to enjoy great power
even today, the Roman Empire disappeared. A coincidence?
An exception to the rule, or a predictable pattern? This ques-
tion can be answered by examining the history of nation-
states in the ensuing centuries, right up to the present day
There is not a single state on our planet anybody could name
which began flourishing with the arrival of Christianity On
the other hand, one can name off a whole list of states which
succumbed to the same sad fate as the Roman Empire.
And one more interesting historical fact: in every single
country where Christianity was officially adopted, it wasn’t
long before non-Christian Jews began to appear and start en-
gaging in rather strange activities. They became wealthy with
extraordinary ease.
In every Christian country they pursued their activities on
such a large scale that they couldn’t help but be noticed by
both the citizenry and the governments of these countries.
And when they reached a certain level in a particular land, the
people started reacting violently toward them and the gov-
ernment began expelling them abroad.
We have access to a whole lot of reports of anti-Jewish
pogroms in various Christian countries, dating back to the
120 Book 7: The Energy of Life
beginning of the eleventh century In 1096 dozens of Jewish
communities were plundered on the Rhein and their resi-
dents exiled. In 1290 Jews were expelled from England. At
the end of the fourteenth century more than 100,000 Jews
were exterminated in Spain. (Granted, some time later Jews
quietly began coming back to these countries.)
This list of historical facts could all too easily be added to.
But no need. It is already absolutely clear that these situations,
so similar to each other and constantly repeating themselves
over many centuries, are the result of pre-programming.
And since losses have been suffered by both the members
of the Christian world and the Jews themselves, there must
be a third party involved which remains free from loss. For
this third party both types of Man — the Christian and the
Jew — are reduced to the status of mere bio-robots, easily
manipulable.
Who is this third party? Historical researchers attempting
to dig out the roots and discover the essence of the lawless-
ness that has been taking place constantly in the world over
the millennia have always pointed only to the Jews. They are
to blame for everything, or so the claim goes. But if there
exists a third power, both the Jews and the Christians turn
out to be nothing but puppet bio-robots in the hands of this
third power.
But is it possible to determine and prove its existence to-
day? Of course it is. By what means? By means of historical
facts and logical thinking. You can judge for yourselves.
Going deep into history
121
Within the Jewish society there is one tribe in particular — or
layer, ethnic division, caste: you can call it what you like — the
name doesn’t really matter. For brevity’s sake let’s call them
Levites.
Some historical sources say the Levites were descendants
of the Egyptian priests. Other more familiar sources, in par-
ticular the Old Testament, give us to understand that the
Levites occupied a special position among the Jews.
For example, according to Hebrew law they were exempt
from participation in military action. They were not compelled
to pay taxes or tributes to anyone. The Levites were not in-
cluded in the Hebrew census described in the Old Testament. 1
When the Flebrews were on the march and the time came
to make camp, the tribes of Israel — numbering anywhere
from 50,000 to 150,000 — pitched their tents in a circle,
each one in a pre-designated spot. There were indications
of the north, south, east and west co-ordinates as well as the
locations where guards were to be posted. The Levites invari-
ably occupied the centre. Hence protection of the Levites
fell within the duties of all the other Hebrew tribes.
And just what did the members of this class of Levites do?
It was their duty to appoint from among their ranks of-
ficials to conduct services, and enforce Jewish laws — laws
which, among other things, regulated what to eat, what to do
with apostates and where to go. The laws were strict and spe-
cific. They covered all one’s waking hours from mor nin g ’til
night. They showed what lands people could occupy Also
whom they should fight.
Thus the Levites were the de facto rulers of the Jewish peo-
ple. And, all things considered, most definitely qualified for
the job.
'Special provisions for the Levites are described in the first chapter of the
Book of Numbers in the Bible (verses 47-54).
122
Book 7: The Energy of Life
It is hard to tell whether the Levites were actually Jews
themselves. Few of the laws every Jew was supposed to abide
by extended to them. For example, while universal Jewish law
required circumcision of a child on the eighth day after birth,
the Levites were exempt.
Thus, with their knowledge of the secret science of the
Egyptian priests and their capacity to do experiments, en-
gage in observation and contemplation free from military du-
ties and the work routine everybody else was so accustomed
to, they have been in a position to constantly perfect their
knowledge from generation to generation right up to the
present day.
Now, how could that be — ‘up to the present day? People
may wonder why we haven’t heard about the ethnic group or
social class known as the Levites. The English, Russians and
French, for example — everybody knows about them. But
why do so few people know about the most intelligent people
of all, the Levites, especially since they are the ones governing
everybody?
The reason is that just like the Egyptian priests, they too
must remain in the shadows. In case anything happens, full
responsibility will fall on the Jews, the ones who carry out
their will.
Jews have been persecuted for centuries in various coun-
tries of the world. Persecuted for what? For using any means
they can to make as much money as possible. And many or
them are successful.
Anyway, what have the Levites got to do with this? What
benefit or interest would it be to them if Jews in England,
Spain or Russia went about their politicking and transferred
a major part of public or private funds to their own bank ac-
counts — in other words, pocket the money for themselves?
Wouldn’t both the rulers and the people of some country or
other catch sight of this ugly phenomenon, and start a violent
Going deep into history
123
reaction against Jews and mistreat them? Something like that
could go all the way up to the Levites. Hence the impres-
sion of illogicality in the actions of the ‘wise Levites’. And
what point would there be in the Levites’ helping the Jews
with sound advice or in coming up with clever intrigues for
them — manipulating whole nation-states at a time?
Well, as it turns out, there is a point. A matter of simple,
direct and specific interest. Money! Wealthy Jews, no matter
what country they find themselves in, are obliged to pay a part
of their profits to the Levites. Proof? Take a look! According
to the Old Testament, the Hebrews are obliged to give a tenth
part of their income to the Levites. Here is the exact wording
from the Bible:
All the contributions from holy-gifts, which the Israelites
set aside for the Lord, I give to you and to your sons and
daughters with you as a due in perpetuity'; This is a per-
petual covenant of salt before the Lord with you and your
descendants also.
The Lord said to Aaron: You shall have no patrimony in
the land of Israel, no holding among them; I am your hold-
ing in Israel, I am your patrimony.
To the Levites I give every'- tithe in Israel to be their pat-
rimony' in return for the service they render in maintain-
ing the Tent of the Presence. In order that the Israelites
may not henceforth approach the Tent and thus incur the
penalty of death, the Levites alone shall perform the serv-
ice of the Tent, and they shall accept the full responsibil-
ity for it. This rule is binding on your descendants for all
time. They' shall have no patrimony among the Israelites,
because I give them as their patrimony the tithe which
the Israelites set aside as a contribution to the Lord.
Therefore I say' unto them: You shall have no patrimony
among the Israelites.
124
Book 7: The Energy of Life
The Lord spoke to Moses and said, Speak to the Levites
in these words: When you receive from the Israelites the
tithe which I give you from them as your patrimony, you
shall set aside from it the contribution to the Lord, a tithe
of the tithe. Your contribution shall count for you as if it
were corn from the threshing-floor and juice from the vat.
In this way you too shall set aside the contribution due
to the Lord out of all tithes which you receive from the
Israelites and shall give the Lord’s contribution to Aaron
the priest. Out of all the gifts you receive you shall set
aside the contribution due to the Lord; and the gift which
you hallow must be taken from the choicest of them.
You shall say to the Levites: When you have set aside the
choicest part of your portion, the remainder shall count
for you as the produce of the threshing-floor and the wine-
press, and you may eat it anywhere, you and {your sons and]
your households. It is your payment for service in the Tent
of the Presence ... 2
Someone might wonder how the OldTestament, more than
two thousand years old, relates to our modern times. There
is an answer. Aren’t there still rabbis and other clerics among
Jewish believers today? Of course there are! And, of course,
the majority of Jews still observe their religious canons. If
that is so, then just try to picture the colossal amount of capi-
tal held by the Levites, scattered through the banks of various
countries!
Besides that, they don’t have to worry about maintaining or
multiplying their capital. Most bankers in a lot of countries
are Jews, and that is their job. Of course, at the right moment
"Numbers 18:19-31 (cited here from The New English Bible). Note that “the
Tent of the Presence” corresponds to “the tabernacle of the congregation”
in the older Authorised Version of the Bible.
Going deep into history
I2 5
the Levites can drop a hint as to where their capital should be
invested. They can suggest which regimes, alliances or groups
opposing existing governments should be either supported
or, alternatively, exterminated by financial intrigue.
There might have been reason to doubt Anastasia’s infor-
mation on human society all over the globe being controlled
by just a handful of priests. But now, after going through
this chain of logic, there can no longer be any doubt for any-
one still capable of logical thinking. I’m not talking about
fanatics.
The logic may be outlined as follows:
Approximately one million Jews came out of Egypt under
the control of the priests. The priests’ close assistants were
the Levites, to whom they entrusted the task of shaping the
Jews into a pre-determined type of individual Man. To this
end they created an ideological religion, which set up a series
of rituals along with a unique way of life.
The Levites managed to carry out their appointed task.
The ideology created several thousand years ago still weighs
on the Jews even today. It is what distinguishes them from
the host of other nationalities living on the Earth.
One of the basic tenets of this ideology is the declaration
that, of all the national groups populating the Earth, God se-
lected the Jews alone as His chosen people.
So, this ideology still exists today, the Jews still exist to-
day, and the conflicts continue and many people know about
them. But where are the Levites? Do we ever hear much about
them? Hardly at all. And therein lies their subtlety — or their
wisdom — you can call it what you like, but they exist.
Now picture to yourself a rather small group of people
living on this Earth who possess a greater degree of esoteric
knowledge than anyone else — a group that has, over the mil-
lennia, been constantly adding to their experience of practi-
cal influence over masses of humanity.
126
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Is there any body that can be compared with them — say,
some sort of state-sponsored institute set up to study issues
of national development or the formation of ideologies?
This is not possible for a variety' of reasons, including the
following:
The Levites have been passing their esoteric knowledge
down to their heirs over the generations, and are continuing
to do so today
Modern science rejects esoteric knowledge and therefore
does not consider it a serious object for research, to say the
least.
This absurd situation did not come about haphazardly. But
why is it absurd? Judge for yourselves.
On the one hand, the state accords official recognition to
a number of religions, and they too are quite esoteric. The
state even sets up favourable conditions for their financial
support. Yet the state does not make any provision for scien-
tific study of esoteric tendencies. This means, in effect, that
within the territory of the state there are legalised structures
capable of influencing the mentality of its citizenry. But the
secular government has only the foggiest idea of what this in-
fluence consists of in actual practice. So, in the end, who is
controlling whom?
Secondly, not only the government but all its thinking citi-
zens should try to learn the lessons of history History makes
a very good school of life. But, for this, one has to know one’s
history Those who rule the world know it perfectly well.
Most people, however — and that includes those in the gov-
ernment — know next to nothing of the history of the state
in which they live. More than that, the little history they do
know is distorted. Russia is a perfect example.
Going deep into history
127
It wasn’t that long ago that we heard in our schools and colleg-
es, in art and especially literature — just about everywhere, in
fact — ■ how terrible life was for our grandmothers and grand-
fathers in Tsarist Russia. For most of us this belief was a sa-
cred cow. For most of us it went far beyond a belief — people
made such a fuss over those that delivered us from the terror
of tsarism. For many people the commissars in their leather
jackets were heroes, while the symbol of reactionary extrem-
ism became the priesthood.
And then all at once, before our very eyes — note, not over
two or three generations or centuries, but right before our
eyes — history changed.
The commissars in their leather jackets, it turned out,
were scoundrels, subjecting the people to genocide. And
after tsarism we lived in the most terrible and totalitarian
state in the world. And again, the majority of the people
believed it. And once more the majority made a fuss over
those who had delivered them from the yoke of a totalitar-
ian state.
I am not about to say which of these regimes is the better
or the worse. But it seems that we should all ponder this phe-
nomenon of change — something amounting to a whole sea-
change in our consciousness over an extremely brief period
of time. We should ponder the question of why it changed
so radically. Did the changes take place all by themselves or
under somebody’s manipulation?
Here, too, it is not difficult to guess: for a long time now
it has been all too easy to manipulate our consciousness, and
this is what is still going on today. We are like guinea-pigs in
somebody’s hands.
It is only the masters of manipulation that are competing
amongst themselves. It is they who render us incapable of
perceiving historical reality.
128
Book 7: The Energy of Life
But let us try to discern just what this reality, in fact, is all
about. Let us try to determine historical reality not on the ba-
sis of somebody’s words, but of our own power of reasoning.
Note how every day on the TV, programme after pro-
gramme keeps showing us first-hand how husbands subtly be-
tray their wives and vice-versa. We are constantly being called
upon to pay attention to scores of non-existent problems, but
God forbid any serious issue will be raised by our politicians,
journalists or writers! Such an issue makes a brief appearance
only to be immediately lost in the daily soup of gossip, violent
TV series, psychotropic advertising and mud-slinging.
What we need is a thoughtful analysis of what’s been going
on, a critical analysis of the status of life on our planet today,
and the working out of a plan for the future. We need a new
ideology An ideology that won’t cause the world’s peoples to
come to blows with each other, but will actually unite them.
But repeating a thou sand times how necessary it is to do this,
even shouting it a thousand times, won’t make it happen. Even
if we were to gather all the leading scholars of the world and
sit them down together to work out this new ideology, again,
nothing would come of it. Only an unending argument.
If science were capable of working out such an ideology, it
would have come up with it and put it into practice long ago,
at least in some country or other.
Anastasia. It doesn’t matter any more who she is. That’s
not the point.
In the face of this ongoing lawlessness, Anastasia has given to the
world the idea of family domains. Now it is becoming abundantly
clear that in very simple terms she has outlined a philosophy, a new
ideology, which has remained and still remains unshaken in hitman
hearts ever since the creation of the world.
Kings and paupers, Christians and Jews, Muslims and Shintoists,
Russians, Chinese and Americans, have always found the greatest
grace and solace for their souls in the bosom of Divine Nature.
Going deep into history
129
Anastasia’s philosophy is the philosophy of uniting mankind not
with words, but through concrete action, by merging the interests
of different peoples of the world. Experience has shown that it is
accepted by people of different nationalities, including Jews. And I
have documented proof of this.
And I invite Jewish analysts, Christians and ideologues of
patriotic movements to examine her ideas and philosophical
aspirations. My invitation extends to leaders and followers of
any religious denomination, either large or small. The very
act of examination is a creative process in itself, which can
lead to a union of opposites — to a “ conjoint creation and joy for
all from its contemplation' ’ 3 as God Himself wanted.
■’Quoted from Book 4, Chapter 2: “The beginning of creation”.
Chapter Eighteen
I’ll say this right off: one must be careful not to confuse the
teachings ofjesus Christ, the selfless deeds of Russian church
elders, with the occult set of rituals we are confronted with
today It is quite possible for the most beautiful teachings to
be neutralised by occult devices.
As you must realise yourself, Christ Jesus has nothing to do
with them. Moreover, He himself continues to hang on the
cross to this day, thanks to the efforts of the occultists and
our own ignorance.
I have deliberately devoted a number of chapters to the
power of the energy of human thought, through which people
are able to create images. If this is understandable, then tell
me: which is the clearest image of Christ Jesus prevailing in
your thought — in the thoughts of the majority of believers?
A straw poll points to a crucifix — the image ofjesus Christ
crucified on the cross.
You will find crucifixes in every Catholic and Orthodox
church. Who thought up an occult device like this, and for
what purpose? Did Christ Jesus himself want this particular
image to be front and centre, predominating over all the oth-
ers? Of course not!
But we — yes, we — continue to project the image of the
crucifixion — ■ note, not the resurrection, but the crucifix-
ion — through the power of our own thoughts. And the im-
age we kiss is not of the resurrection, but of the crucifixion . 1
And that is how we still keep Him on the cross.
Take down Jesus Christ from the cross 131
This simple occult device uses the energy of collective hu-
man thought in shaping an image.
And Jesus Christ will remain hanging on the cross until we
realise this and take him down from it with our thoughts —
until we stop giving in to occult machinations.
Right from the start, in shaping the various religions the
priests tried to imbue them with their occult rituals and
teachings.
Any religion — - even the very brightest, one which sum-
mons people to kindness and noble deeds — if interwoven
with the priests’ nuances, can be a powerful device in their
hands. This device has enabled them to subjugate whole en-
tire nations and set them at odds with each other, to the point
of utter self-annihilation. That’s the way it has been and still
is today Many contemporary religions still today involve oc-
cult rituals and teachings whose meaning and degree of influ-
ence on mankind is known only to the priests.
The projection of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion by a great many
people’s thoughts is due to a particular occult ritual. But the
people themselves involved in this projection — or, rather,
their souls — will be crucified over and over again as long as
they project this image.
The collective thought of the crucifixion is so strong that it
can penetrate right through to the flesh of people today Jesus’
bleeding wounds periodically appear on the bodies of cer-
tain believers — this is known as the stigmata mystery : Many
"in some Christian churches, including the Russian Orthodox, kissing a
crucifix is part of accepted ritual.
" stigmata — marks or pain sensations in places on the body corresponding
to Jesus' wounds from the crucifixion. The word stigmata comes from the
Latin word for marks in the Vulgate edition of Galatians 6: 17: “I bear in
my body the marks of the Lord Jesus “ (quoted here from the Authorised
Version). The majority of stigmatics are said to be female members of
Roman Catholic orders.
132
Book 7: The Energy of Life
scholars believe that the stigmata, or bleeding wounds — are a
symptom of mental illness. I would add that this is not a dis-
ease affecting a single individual, but rather a whole segment
of society, and that its root cause is an occult ritual observ-
ance induced by the priests.
However, instead of making a thorough investigation of
this phenomenon, some enterprising people have exploited it
for commercial purposes. Take, for example, the city of San-
Nicolas in Argentina, home to the stigmatic Gladys Motta : 3
all around her house are signs of a brisk trade in everything
directly or indirectly connected to her.
Anastasia’s grandfather put it this way:
“People murdering each other, along with what you call
terrorism, is rooted in the teachings of the priests which they
have infused into many religious denominations, both large
and small.
“They are the ones who came up with the doctrine that
Man’s true Divine life is not on the Earth but somewhere in
another dimension. They are the ones who invented the im-
age of a Paradise apart from the Earth God Himself created.
It is because of this doctrine that so many religious fanatics
manifest an attitude of neglect toward life on the Earth. It
takes but a small amount of pressure exerted on their mind to
induce them to kill either themselves or others.
3 Gladys Quiroga de Motta (1937-jj one of the more celebrated stigmatics in
the world today. An ordinary housewife living in San Nicolas de los Arroyos
(a small town 230 km north of Buenos Aires), Ms Motta had her first vi-
sion of the Virgin Alary on 25 September 1983, a vision repeated many times
since. Ms Motta’s stigmata first appeared in November of the following
year and then twice a year since, during Advent and Lent, Every year on 25
September thousands of pilgrims (now more than a million annually) de-
scend upon the town, hoping to benefit from her presence. In recent years
the increased tourist trade in San Nicolas, including the sale of ‘Blessed
Virgin Mary’ souvenirs, saved the town’s economy following the privatisa-
tion of the local steel mill.
Take down Jesus Christ from the cross
133
‘Anastasia has tried to bring this information to our at-
tention through many different words and phrases. But not
everybody will grasp what she says. Not everyone will un-
derstand my words. You, Vladimir, along with your readers,
should give careful thought to what we have said, and cite
your own examples and proofs. A number of different voices
blending into a single whole will be able to bring liberation.
“Look carefully at the root cause of war and terrorism to-
day and you will clearly see the influence of this monstrous
teaching.”
The Siberian elder went on at some length on this subject.
He appeared to be just a little excited, sometimes pausing
to stroke the cedar pendant hanging around his neck before
returning to the topic of how we ourselves need to be more
aware of the manifestation of occult rituals and teachings.
“No spiritual teachers will be able to save people from
these doctrines if the people don’t start thinking for them-
selves and learning to recognise them,” Grandfather said.
Believing that I had grasped the significance of his state-
ment, I set about investigating the phenomenon of terrorism
in our lives. In the future this is something we shall have to do
all together. I shall merely start the ball rolling.
Chapter Nineteen
And so, in recent years, a wave of acts of terrorism has swept
across many lands. Memories of large-scale events, such as
those of ii September 2001 in America, still haunt people’s
minds. A fearful terrorist act took place even more recently
in our country: from the 23rd to the 26th of October 2002
terrorists held more than 800 people hostage at the Moscow
Theatre Centre on Dubrovka Street during a performance of
the musical Nord-Ost . 1
In between these two major acts of terrorism quite a few
others have occurred, not quite so spectacular, in various
parts of the globe, claiming human lives.
On each occasion different governments have angrily de-
nounced the terrorists involved. Their ‘special services’ keep
mouthing assurances that the guilty parties will be punished,
at the same time increasing the level of precautionary secu-
rity measures.
‘ Nord-Ost (lit. ‘North-East’ in German) — a Russian musical play based on a
novel by Veniamin Kaverin and telling a romantic story set in the Severnaya
Zemlya Archipelago (in Russia’s Far North) in 1913. During the perform-
ance the premises were seized by a group of well-trained and well-armed
commandos (including a group of women with explosives strapped to their
bodies) who demanded from the Russian government the immediate with-
drawal of Russian troops from the cvar-crippled Chechnya republic. The
theatre was eventually stormed by Russian elite ‘special troops’ but the
deadly gas they used ended up killing 130 hostages on the spot and caus-
ing many more to die afterward. The theatre was closed temporarily after
the hostage crisis, but re-opened with the same production the following
February. Subsequent attendance was poor, however, possibly because of
fears of renewed attacks, and the play was cancelled in May 2003.
Terrorism
i35
An international coalition to combat terrorism is already
at work. Even today, however, the problem shows no signs of
letting up. Quite to the contrary, it is taking on ever greater
proportions and becoming increasingly refined in its meth-
ods. It is hard to escape the impression that someone has
been making masterful ploys to keep leading both govern-
ments and their special services down the wrong path.
The true source and chief organiser of many of the world’s
terrorist acts came in for a brief mention not too long ago
in Russia. During the October 2002 hostage crisis the major
TV networks featured a whole host of interviews and com-
mentaries. This included statements from the Emergency
Response Headquarters, presented by the Deputy Minister
of Internal Affairs, among others. This trim, grey-haired man
spoke tersely, almost in military fashion. His speech included
no hesitation-sounds like iih-uh... uhrn... His sentences were
marked by thoughtful content and sensitivity, indicating that
his thinking was relatively quick and precise.
He was one of the first to declare that “we’re dealing here
with religious fanatics”. Quite possibly not very many peo-
ple paid attention to this particular phrase, but for many who
did understand, it resounded like a bolt from the blue. For
the very first time — from the lips of a Deputy Minister of
Internal Affairs yet — one of the fundamental tenets of ter-
rorism was called by its real name.
This was followed by the floating of another concept: Mamie
fundamentalism. Rumours began circulating that Islamic funda-
mentalists had declared war on Christians and Jews — Israel,
Russia and the United States of America in particular'.
The question arises as to how to fight against religious fa-
naticism. I suggest we all calm down and take a more thought-
ful look at the situation.
Let us first decide whether religious fanaticism is found
only in Islam or whether it exists in other religions as well.
136
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Of course the latter is true. Let’s not forget history. Think
of the numerous Christian crusades. Think of the painting
of the Boyarynya Morozova.' Think of the names of all the
martyrs ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of some reli-
gious dogma — martyrs who were elevated to sainthood after
death.
The fact becomes patently obvious that it is not religion as
a whole, but rather specific dogmas infused into various reli-
gions which make people indifferent to their own life. The
religious suicide-fanatic is quite confident that, far from be-
ing indifferent to life, he is crossing over into real life.
How does this happen? Among any community of believ-
ers, Muslim or Christian, there can always be found a group
of radical adherents to a particular dogma, whose faith can be
honed by occult rituals to the point of fanaticism. The result
is a kind of bio-robot who believes in something he himself
can’t see or understand logically.
Subsequently, those who are familiar with the functioning
of the mind know perfectly well what buttons to press on this
bio-robot, and they press them. Not with their fingers, of
course. They simply indicate the target the bio-robot is to
destroy for the sake of a bright future. Then the bio-robots
' 'painting of the Boyarynya Morozova — a famous canvas painted in 1887
by the Russian artist Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (1848-1916), showing the
chained Boyarynya (Duchess) Feodosia Morozova on a horse-drawn sleigh
surrounded by her ‘Old Believer’ supporters, all crossing themselves with
two lingers, in defiant protest against the politically motivated reforms of
the Russian Orthodox Church. The Church’s new decree at the time that
three fingers were to be used in malting the sign of the cross was one of
the main points of contention in the raskol, or schism, that split the whole
institution apart in the 17th century Tsar Alexey Romanov (father to Peter
the Great), who instigated the reforms, had the Boyarynya (pron. ba-YAIi-
rin-ya ) arrested in 1671 and planned to execute her, but fear of public unrest
caused him to commute her sentence to imprisonment in Borovsk, where
she was kept in a pit and died in 1675.
Terrorism
137
begin to work out the termination operation on their own
and proceed to carry it out. Their own earthly life no longer
has any meaning for them. They are, after all, confident in
their own transition to a better, heavenly existence.
And so long as there exists the doctrine of goodness being attaina-
ble not on the Earth , but somewhere else, no army or 'special services’
will succeed in eliminating suicide-bombers.
Let us picture the following situation. Let’s say the ‘special
services’ belonging to the major powers have got together and
through their joint efforts have managed to get rid of every
last terrorist on the globe. But what will that change? New
terrorists will simply be born— as long as the doctrine which
produces them continues to exist.
So what is the solution? Of course one cannot do without
traditional precautionary measures. But along with these it
is essential to understand how dangerous the doctrine is and
to eliminate it before it produces more and more suicide-
bombers.
Understanding! That is the most important thing today!
Otherwise the struggle against terrorism will simply turn out
to be a joke.
Picture the following situation. A religious fanatic, a sui-
cide-bomber, seizes an aeroplane and aims it at some signifi-
cant target in a major populated area. The authorities start
negotiating with the terrorist — they tell him they are ready
to meet any demands he has. But what these negotiators do
not realise is that the religious fanatic’s real goal is not the
satisfaction of his demands. His aim is to die and assure him-
self entry into the non-earthly Paradise he has imagined for
himself.
This dogma of a non-earthly Paradise, projected by the
collective thought of people of various denominations, influ-
ences unbelievers too. For millennia now it has been exerting
a most destructive influence on all mankind.
138
Book 7: The Energy of Life
What I’m about to tell you now may seem unrealistic, even
fantasaical. Still, the only way to solve this problem without
violence may be the following.
It is absolutely essential that Orthodox Church patriarchs,
Islamic muftis , 3 religions elders and ( above all) Christians, Catholics
and Muslims come together for a conference, to carefully examine the
situation in the world today and change the life-destroying doctrines
in their religious teachings. It is essential that religious fanatics be
helped to regain their human perspective on life. It is essential to
declare: “Our Father is here, on the Earth, and not somewhere else!”
And what if the religious leaders don’t get together? What
if they don’t make any declaration like that?
Not to worry
It has already been made!
People aren’t turned on any more by the leaders of our reli-
gious denominations exhorting everyone to live in ‘peace and
friendship’ with each other. Just the mere statement that “we
will have nothing to do with terrorism” is no longer believ-
able. A more radical step is required.
I indicated that a meeting and declaration such as this may
be dismissed as unrealistic. Let’s examine why Why are we
reluctant to believe that highly-placed, highly religious leaders
would not be able to simply come to an agreement amongst
themselves? After all, if they can’t come to an agreement, then
what can you expect from rank-and-file believers?
3 mufti — an Islamic leader who has studied and is authorised to interpret
Islamic law.
Terrorism
139
If they can’t come to an agreement on their own, then com-
mon-sense elements in society and governments need to give
them some help.
It is absolutely essential that they talk amongst themselves
and agree. Otherwise bombs will start talking for them, in a
big way. Much better for the mind of Man to do the talking.
The mind of the children of God.
At first glance it may seem as though it might take a rather
long time for Anastasia’s ideas to effect any positive transfor-
mation in Russia, let alone other countries, seeing how gradu-
ally human consciousness ordinarily changes. However, ex-
perience has shown that in the case of many readers it can
change instantaneously.
Let’s look at what might happen in Chechnya 4 if the
Russian government, the State Duma, had adopted a law
granting every willing family a hectare of land on which to
establish a domain of their own along the lines recommended
by Anastasia. The twenty thousand refugees who have been
living with their families in tents for three years now would
be granted their own domains. Over those three years each
of those same tents which are now forming dirty tent cities
would already be standing in its own splendid garden. Some
of the residents would have already managed to build them-
selves a house.
4 Chechnya — a small, mainly Muslim republic within the Russian Federation
(see footnote 4 in Book 5, Chapter 17: “Questions and answers”).
140
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Who is stopping this from coming about today? Somebody
who favours not peace, but its opposite. Somebody who is
trying to prevent any positive changes from taking place in
Russia.
Your efforts are wasted, chaps! I doubt any of you has even
the foggiest idea of just who Anastasia is, or what powers she
embodies within herself.
I’ll say one thing: it’s not simply that she will create what
she has thought up, she has already created it. It’s already
coming to pass, and your opposition confirms it. Any build-
ing site has its share of garbage, but sooner or later they clean
it up and plant flowers.
Chapter Twenty
ns
The main criticism levelled against Anastasia comes down to
the allegation that she is a ‘pagan’ — without even the slight-
est proof or examination of the ideas put forward by this taiga
recluse. Though Anastasia herself clearly and distinctly called
herself a Vedruss . 1
Well, then, if she is a ‘pagan’, what does that imply? Japan,
even today, is practically a pagan country The Roman Empire,
in its heyday, was pagan, too. Our forefathers and mothers
were also pagan. But much more than that. At the time when
the Egyptian state and the Roman Empire were flourishing,
Vedic culture was still reigning in Russia . 2
So, should we be proud of our pagan history and heritage,
or be ashamed of it?
We are told that our heritage is something to be
ashamed of.
The words paganism and pagan 3 have been turned into word-
symbols — symbols designating something bad or terrible.
1 Vedruss (pron. vid-ROOSS) —see Book 6, Chapter 4: ‘A dormant civilisation”.
"Vedic culture — see the section on ‘Vedism’ in Book 6, Chapter 5: “The his-
tory of mankind, as told by Anastasia”.
paganism, pagan — In Russian, the word paganyi (now spelt poganyi) means
‘foul’, ‘unclean’, ‘vile’ and has been frequently used by Christian ideolo-
gists — in conjunction with yazychnik (‘pagan’) — to refer to adherents to
Russia’s pre-Christian religion, as well as ‘non-believers' in general. Thus
under the influence of the Christian church over centuries the teem yazych-
nik has acquired a strong negative connotation. Yazychestvo (‘paganism’) and
yazychnik (‘pagan’) — both stressed on the second syllable — are derived
142
Book 7: The Energy of Life
The word Christian has also become a word-symbol. But it
symbolises, by contrast, spirituality, decency, enlightened
thought, closeness to God.
Today we have the opportunity to observe the Christian as
a type, and judge his worth by his fruits.
We can judge by our own modern way of life... What am
I saying? — we are not in a position to judge anything! We
simply can’t compare this type with the way of life led by our
pagan forefathers and mothers, which people today are all too
prone to curse, hidden as it is from our sight.
In sum, what we are told about the history of our country
(as served up to us) is the following:
Our ancestors were some kind of horrible dark people, but
then ‘enlighteners’ arrived, bringing with them a new ideol-
ogy worked out in Israel — namely, Christianity.
The Russian Prince Vladimir adopted it and baptised the
whole nation of Rus ’. 4
Not long ago we celebrated the millennium of this event.
But what is a thousand years? A mere split-second against
the backdrop of billions of years. Well, let’s think in terms of
from the word yazyk (literally, ‘tongue’ — meaning a territory where the
population shares the same language) — and were used by early Christians
in Russia to refer to the totality of Russia’s (non- Christian) people, who
spoke a language different from that of the Christian newcomers. The
English term pagan is derived from Latin paganus, meaning ‘rural’ or ‘of the
village’ — rural areas were much slower than urban populations to accept
Christianity Note that for the same reason the word villain (derived from
■village) in English has also acquired a negative meaning.
4 Rus’ (pron. ROOSS ) — the name given to the large East Slavic state in the
tenth century north of the Black Sea, with its capital at Kiev In 988 Prince
Vladimir of Kiev accepted baptism from the Byzantine (Eastern Orthodox)
church and shortly thereafter presided over a mass baptism of Kiev resi-
dents in the Dniepr River. In return he obtained the hand of the Byzantine
Emperor’s sister in marriage as well as a military alliance with Byzantium.
Pagans
143
not a split-second, but a single day That’s very important —
being able to compress time. Now you will see what comes
from this line of reasoning.
Let’s say you awake one fine sunny morning and see visitors
at your door. They proceed to tell you that your parents are
bad and horrible pagans, that you must become Christian and
instead of communing with Nature, you must ask forgiveness
for your sins, since your parents were such sinners that their
sins have attached themselves to you.
And right off you agree with the foreigners’ statements.
You follow them to their temple and kiss their hands. You
ask for their blessing and try not even to think about your
parents. You try to erase them from your memory, leaving
behind nothing but the notion horrible pagans.
This is the picture that emerges from our figurative com-
pression of time.
Over the past thousand years the ‘foreigners’ have focused
our attention on a multitude of different events: they tell
about who went to war with whom, what splendid buildings
they constructed, who married whom among the princes or
kings, who gained power and how But by comparison with
one’s attitude toward one’s parents and their culture, this has
no essential significance. All these other events, disasters and
woes will simply be a consequence of the fundamental act of
betraying one’s parents.
“But we never betrayed our parents,” someone will argue.
“Such events took place more than a thousand years ago, and
those were quite different people who lived back then.”
Well, I could paraphrase it, and expand the time frame, but
it wouldn’t make a scrap of difference.
Your distant (very distant) foremother was a pagan. She
loved and understood Nature. She was acquainted with the
Universe and knew the meaning of the rising Sun. She gave
birth to you... She gave birth to you, in the far-distant past, in
144
Book 7: The Energy of Life
a marvellous garden. And your beautiful foremother rejoiced
over you, and your father was happy at your appearance.
And your forefather and foremother wanted you, so far-far
distant from your present-day self, to make this marvellous
Space even more marvellous — to make it so that it would
come down to you in the present day, enhanced by each suc-
ceeding generation, so that you, today, would be able to live
on an Earth transformed into a planet of Divine Paradise.
They did this especially for you.
They were pagans, and were able to understand God’s
thoughts through Nature. Your distant (very distant) mama
and papa knew how to make you happy. They knew because
they were pagans.
Your father died in an unequal battle with foreign merce-
naries, fighting for your future.
Your mama was burnt at the stake because she refused to
exchange your marvellous future for what you see around you
today.
But today still came...
And today the descendants of the pagans are still on bend-
ed knee, still kissing the hands of the descendants of those
who burnt their mothers and slew their fathers.
They kiss their hands and make up songs about Russia’s
inconquerability. They sing songs about the Russian spirit,
slavishly crawling on their knees for more than a millennium
now.
What kind of freedom is that? Hey, you who have been
oppressed by a thousand-year yoke, intoxicated by the drug
of foreign ideology, it’s time to wake up!
Whoever is able, wake up and start thinking! How could it
have happened that Anastasia, a Siberian recluse, a Russian,
after saying only a few words about Russian history, was im-
mediately met with such opposition — and not just anywhere,
but right here in Russia itself?!
Pagans
145
If this country, as we believe, was not seized by ideologues
from abroad, then who is behind all this opposition? It turns
out that it is the Russians themselves who are opposing even
the slightest mention of their past, of their parents. As though
they — Russians — had quite lost their marbles.
No, not quite, and this is evident from the multitude of
letters, songs and verses, the constantly increasing print-runs
(already totalling millions of copies) of books containing the
sayings of Anastasia.
The hearts of Russians are starting to beat in time with the
hearts of their forebears — both distant and not-so-distant —
who dreamt about their children’s happiness. The opposi-
tion is being provoked by mercenaries and their accomplices.
What kind of mercenaries? What kind of mercenaries’ ac-
complices?
Can you seriously think that the transformation of the
whole Russian people’s way of life was brought about simply by
the word of some Russian prince named Vladimir? Especially
in view of his rather shaky hold on his princely throne. What,
did he just happen to be sitting around one day and say: “Well,
lads, I’ve decided you’re all going to have to forget your par-
ents’ culture and be converted to Christianity”?
And the people enthusiastically replied: “Sure, we’re tired
of our ancestors’ culture — come on, Prince, baptise us”?
Absurd? Of course it’s absurd. In actual fact, Prince
Vladimir first tried to strengthen his hold on power through
changing the religious views of the ancient Slavs, setting up a
pantheon of pagan deities. Pagan belief, however, would not
permit the hallowing of the social relations that would result.
It rejected the attempted justification of social and propri-
etary inequality, Man’s exploitation of his fellow-Man and
the divine right of kings. Hence Prince Vladimir, in order to
satisfy his political ambitions, was obliged to select a foreign
religion for the Russian people.
146
Book 7: The Energy of Life
It is no secret that the choice fell upon the Byzantine vari-
ant of Christianity, precisely because it allowed for the virtual
subordination of the clergy to the prince’s authority, never
mind the legal question of subordination to the patriarchate
at Constantinople. But we are assured that Vladimir took this
step for the benefit of Rus’s enlightenment and prosperity
We are all aware that a change of ideology is almost invari-
ably accompanied by social disasters and bloodshed. But in
this case it wasn’t merely a question of a change of ideology
It was a sharp sea-change in religion, culture, way of life and
social order.
Compared to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 this was a
revolution ‘seventy times seven’. And if it too had been fol-
lowed by a bloody civil war, it would have been a civil war ‘sev-
enty times seven’.
But in those early times there was no civil war. There was no
civil war simply because pagan Russia was inhabited exclusively
by pagans. We are told there was opposition, including armed
opposition between pagans and Christians in Rus’. But if Rus’
was wholly pagan, then where did the Christians come from?
They came from other countries, along with the mercenaries.
Prince Vladimir at the time was a long way from being the
most powerful prince in the region. Of course he had his own
armed garrison. But we learn from history that this garrison
was far from being equal to any serious military confronta-
tion. Additional support from the populace was always re-
quired. The basic armed forces in Ancient Rus’ were always
made up of the People’s Militia.
But what kind of popular military resistance can we talk
about if the people as a whole were opposed to baptism?
Foreign mercenaries, perhaps? Of course! But was the
Prince’s treasury wealthy enough to hire and maintain an en-
tire army? Of course not! But the Prince still obtained the
required funds. From whom?
Pagans
147
From the patriarchates of Rome and other christianised
countries — these patriarchates had become fairly wealthy by
that time.
And so it happened a thousand years ago that the half-
Russian Prince Vladimir, in return for the boost to his power,
allowed foreign emissaries to conduct their propaganda cam-
paigns, along with their schemes and provocations — ■ and in
the long run to commit acts of violence against the Russian
people.
Rus’ turned out to be a tougher nut to crack than the
Roman Empire, and not easily given to being influenced by
propaganda. This resulted in the Prince using mercenaries
to reinforce his garrison and — again, with the mercenaries’
help — to get rid of a part of the rebellious population.
My opponents may argue that this is only one version of
events. No, my ideological friends, we are talking about ob-
jective historical reality It can be proved even without the
phenomenal abilities of Anastasia or her knowledge of his-
tory I as a simple human being can prove it to you here and
now, and that means a whole lot of other simple human be-
ings will also be able to figure it out.
Perhaps those devotees of occult ideologies can tell me how
many millions of Russian fathers and mothers they burnt alive
at the stake? Name your figure — even a conservative estimate
will do. Or are you going to tell me that this never happened?
But it did! Your own sources mention it. Think back.
At a congress that took place in Russia back in the fifteenth
century a group of Volga elders raised the question of abolish-
ing the death penalty for heretics. Note that this was already
five centuries after the christianisation of Russia, and here are
the sons of Rus’, still resisting. Not only was the death pen-
alty not abolished, but the Volga elders faced an unenviable
fate.
148
Book 7: The Energy of Life
But if you still wish to look upon what I have said as simply
my version of events, go ahead. Only let us then regard your
statements as a version too, and then let’s compare both ver-
sions.
A comparison will easily show that your version is com-
pletely illogical, that it is founded merely on statements
which you demand to be accepted as truth. Besides, you are
unable to present a single document confirming, for example,
that pagans in Rus’ offered human sacrifices.
Show people what archaeological evidence you have, go dig
up the victims. You won’t find any, because there weren’t any
Show us the pagan books outlining their world-views.
Give people a chance to compare the cultures of both civi-
lisations.
You refuse to show them? Why? Because you know very
well that once people become acquainted with such texts,
they will see the utter absurdity of their modern lifestyle.
And so it turns out that your Utopian version is not backed
up by any proof, and so you demand that everyone simply be-
lieve and that’s it. “Believe in us, or else you’ll be labelled a
godless non-believer.”
There is evidence to show that Rus’ was enslaved by decep-
tion and force. I shall not go through the whole list — a single
example will suffice.
From those times right up to the present day Rus’ may be
considered an enslaved country. And foreign ideology is still
prevalent in the Rus’ of the present. Even today Rus’ is still
paying tribute money, only in a different form — the flight
of capital, the sale of mineral resources, the stranglehold of
poor-quality foreign food products on our market. And today
the ideological component is very closely monitored.
The mere mention of the culture of Ancient Rus’ is enough
to call counter-measures into action — including the never-
ending scheming and attacks on Anastasia.
Pagans
149
You speak of freedom of speech, but why are you so afraid
of her words? Why do you try to discredit your own country’s
culture and not allow people to get to know it? I know why.
The culture of our ancestors is marvellous, joyful and highly
spiritual!
In my previous volume, called The Book of Kin, I cited
Anastasia’s account of a wedding rite involving two lovers.’
This rite still existed a scant two thousand years ago in Rus’.
The publication of this book gave rise to a number of conclu-
sions on the part of scholars and researchers. I have already
mentioned that over the past while Anastasia’s sayings have
been subjected to investigation by scholars in various disci-
plines. Some of them carry on their work openly and even
try to have their findings published, while others simply send
them in to the Anastasia Foundation 6 for reference. So as
not to leave them open to attack, I shall not name names, but
simply convey the gist of their various reports."
’See the section entitled: “A union of two — a wedding” in Book 6, Chapter 5:
“The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia”. All further quotations from
Anastasia in this chapter are taken from this same section.
The Anastasia Foundation for Culture and Assistance to Creativity — a non-
profit organisation based in the city of Vladimir. See Book j, Chapter 15:
“Making it come true”.
'Five different reports are cited (the first at some length), set off by aster-
isks in the English translation.
150
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Anastasia’s presentation of the wedding rite prevalent in
the culture of Ancient Rus’ is a unique and priceless docu-
ment attesting to the high level of knowledge among the
inhabitants of the time. The whole rite is based not on be-
lief in the supernatural but on the knowledge of that which
we today term ‘supernatural’.
The individual components of this rite maybe seen even
today among various peoples. But in the modern interpre-
tation these components are purely ritualistic, senseless
and deficient in nature and, consequently, not up to the
task of cementing the union of two people in love to the
same degree of effectiveness as back when they were ap-
plied with full conscious awareness.
In today’s version of the rite, some of these components
seem meaningless, grounded in a kind of superstition. At
best, they fall into the category of so-called ‘esoteric’ activi-
ties. Anastasia’s description takes us from a misperception
of the rite as a senseless act to an awareness of its pre-emi-
nent rationality and indicates not only knowledge but the
ultimate height of spirituality among those generations of
Slavs which came before us. [...}
A comparative analysis of today’s wedding rites and the
one described by Anastasia fosters the impression that
today’s rites are more characteristic of an undeveloped
primitive society, while those of Ancient Rus’ belong to a
civilisation which is highly developed in every sense of the
word. For example:
Among a number of peoples today, including Russians,
there is a ritual activity of showering the newlywed couple
Pagans
151
with cereal grains. One of the mothers or grandmothers or
relatives of the newlyweds scatters cereal grains in front of
the couple on their way into their home or throws it over
the couple themselves as a token of happiness for the fu-
ture family
This kind of activity today is associated with supersti-
tion or esoterica. There is no other rational explanation
for it. What sense is there in seeds of grain simply fal l in g
on the floor, asphalt or pathway leading to the house where
they will immediately get trampled on and crushed?
The ritual described by Anastasia also includes a special
act involving cereal grains. But here, right off, one can as-
sociate it with several distinct and clearly thought-through
rational purposes. All the wedding guests — relatives,
friends and acquaintances — bring with them seeds from
their best plants, and each one plants by his own hand the
little seed he has brought with him in the spot designated
by the newlywed couple.
In terms of material wealth, it is not simply betokened
but actually achieved in practice by the special act de-
scribed. In just a brief space of time — an hour or two —
the newlyweds have the makings of their future orchard,
drawing upon the best fruit and berry plantings in the
neighbourhood, as well as a vegetable garden and a green
hedge wherewith to frame their Space. {...}
No less important is a second, or psychological, aspect
of this special act. Many of us know about the improve-
ment in one’s mental state upon entering into natural
surroundings. Such pleasant sensations are enhanced by
contact not with someone else’s garden plantings but with
your very own. The strength of spirit and level of emotions
you should feel upon entering a garden where every little
tree, bush and blade of grass was created as a gift for you
directly by your parents, relatives and friends is something
152
Book 7: The Energy of Life
we can only guess at, as it is doubtful that anyone living on
the Earth today is able to have such a Space as this.
And by all appearances it was not just material prosper-
ity but, more importantly, one’s inner positive emotions re-
sulting from such a special act, that played a fundamental
role therein. [...]
In current esoteric literature a lot is said about the en-
ergy of kundalini and chakras!' The information presented
basically focuses attention on the possibility of the exist-
ence of chakras. There is little doubt as to the existence
of the energy of love or the energy of sexual attraction be-
tween men and women.
The vast majority of people have experienced the effect
of this energy on themselves. However, neither the the-
oreticians of the past nor our modern sciences have ever
touched upon the possibility that Man can actually control
this energy.
The rite described by Anastasia has shown for the first
time how Man can control, transform and maintain this
energy. {...}
In actual fact, the young lovers materialise the love
which has been bestowed upon them — or which has en-
tered into them. With the help of this energy they shape a
visible and tangible Space around them. They see to it that
this great energy remains with them in perpetuity.
Why was this possible for them, but not in our present
reality? Let us compare the actions of two loving cou-
ples — in the past and present.
The average loving couple today spends their time ei-
ther at entertainment venues or alone together on walks
8 kundalini — the power (energy) coiled up in a form of a serpent and located
at the base of the spine, at the body’s lower chakra (energy plexus). Many
oriental yoga practices aim at spiritual enlightenment by awakening the
kundalini energy and moving it up the spine to the higher chakras.
Pagans 153
or at home. They often enter into sexual relations even be-
fore marriage. {...}
The basic goal of most lovers today is the official rec-
ognition of their relations by a secular marriage bureau or
a church. Research has shown that young couples do not
adequately plan for their future life together. If a couple
should try to determine their course of life together after
marriage, it is a vague conjecture at best. Psychologists ob-
serve that it is the hope of each would-be newlywed that,
after joining together, their life will be improved by their
partner.
They all hope that the elevated, life-fulfilling state of
love will carry on after marriage. But the love is fleet-
ing. The surrounding space becomes routine — far from
reminding them of their earlier feelings of being in love,
it starts to become irritating through its routineness and
primitiveness.
The irritation can also arise in the couple’s relationship
to one another. Few suspect that something other than
this irritation is at the root of the couple’s actions after
marriage. Dissatisfaction actually results from an inability
to make proper use of the state of love. {...}
As practice has shown, neither secular laws nor religious
admonitions are capable of ensuring continuing mutual af-
fection or even an attitude of mutual respect.
Now let us take a look at the actions of the young couple
in the account presented by Anastasia and try to come up
with a logical, scientific interpretation.
First, the declaration of love in itself is quite striking:
“With you, my beautiful goddess, I could create a Space of
Love to last forever,” the young man told his intended. And
if the girl’s heart responded in kind, she might answer: “My
god, I am ready to help you in your grand co-creation.”
154
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Now compare this with the declaration of love formu-
lated by the famous poet, which comes the closest to de-
scribing the gist of modern attitudes toward the energy of
love:
I love you so, what can 1 say more,
What else could I tell you besides...?
As we can see, the first declaration above proposes right
off a distinctly formulated grand act, namely the creation
of a Space of Love. In effect, it is a scientific materialisa-
tion of love. The second declaration, on the contrary, does
nothing more than state “I love you” with no further action
specified. It is simply that neither he nor she have any idea
how and for what purpose to use their energy of love. {...}
The lovers in Anastasia’s account, by mutual agreement,
set about forming a Space of Love for themselves and their
future generations. They go off by themselves, and may
even spend the night in the shelter they have built on their
chosen plot of land, but refrain from entering into sexual
relations. Is this some kind of ritualistic abstention? {...}
Such instances of abstention are part of many peoples’
religious beliefs. They are also found in secular ethics.
Young people in love should not enter into sexual relations
before their marriage is registered or, alternatively, before
they are wedded in a religious ceremony However, the vast
majority of young people today pay no heed to religious ad-
monitions or public condemnation, but freely launch into
pre-marital sex. Why? The most probable answer lies in
the complete illogicality of both the social and religious
9 From Tatiana’s declaration of love in her letter to Onegin in Alexander
Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (better known in the West as Tchaikovsky’s opera
of the same title), Act I, Scene 2 (JW translation).
Pagans
155
requirements — the lack of a plausible explanation as to
what the energy of love is all about — or, more accurately,
simple ignorance thereof.
The energy of love activates a whole complex of feelings
in Man. It accelerates the mental processes. And this en-
ergy can be compared to an apex of inspiration which pre-
supposes a series of grand acts to follow.
Thanks to their knowledge, as well as a highly developed
culture of mutual human relations, the young couples of
Ancient Rus’ quite naturally directed the energy of love
and sexual attraction toward the act of creating a Space for
their future life together.
What two young lovers create together can hardly be sur-
passed, one would imagine, with the help of scientific in-
vestigation. The following statement of Anastasia’s attests
to this:
The world of academe is in no position to create even the si-
militude of a splendid domain because, again, there is a law
of the Universe which says: A single Creator inspired by love
is stronger than all the sciences combined, which are deprived
of love.
i 5 -6
Book 7: The Energy of Life
All the actions of the participants in the events reflected
in Anastasia’s account of the wedding rite are infused by
logic, rationality and the highest degree of culture and spir-
ituality. By comparison, what a sorry spectacle is offered
by our modern wedding ceremonies, with the main focus
on the reception, where the guests gorge themselves on food
and alcohol.
In terms of their emotional richness, along with their
meaningful and informative content, Anastasia’s presenta-
tions of the parables and rites of Ancient pagan (or, to use
her term, Vedic) Rus’ by far surpass all the ancient tales we
know of, describing our past history Even the famous Song
of Igor’s campaign 10 pales before them.
10 Song of Igor's campaign (Russian: Slovo o polku Igoreve) — a celebrated po-
etic chronicle of Ancient Rus’, dating back to the twelfth century.
157
Through her narratives on Vedic Rus’ Anastasia is, in ef-
fect, revealing to us the highly spiritual culture of a civilisa-
tion of which we were hitherto unaware. She is radically
transforming academic concepts as to the history not only
of our country but of humanity as a whole.
Such an unexpected sea-change, not to mention the sim-
plicity with which it was brought about, has thrown many
leading lights of contemporary academia into confusion.
And in an effort to somehow maintain the framework of
the academic positions they have attained, they tty to pre-
tend that nothing has changed, that they know nothing
about the information presented.
They are like ostriches hiding their heads in the sand.
The information is real, it is truly priceless and sensational,
and it will come to be demanded more and more by society
at large.
I have presented to you, dear readers, the pronouncements of
a number of academic researchers. As you can see, they con-
firm the informational significance of Anastasia’s sayings and
even talk about the subsequent confusion among contempo-
rary scholars.
But confusion is one tiring. The opposition — the concen-
trated efforts being made to stop the spread of this informa-
tion which sheds light on the history of our country and our
people — is quite another.
Somebody has felt very threatened by the possibility of
our digging into the knowledge and culture of our forebears.
158
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Who might that be? Under whose influence are they op-
erating today — these people that are calling our ancestors
‘barbaric pagans’, perverting that great word pagan to suggest
something backward, or evil? What programme are they fol-
lowing?
And how come our historians have accepted such a defini-
tion? It couldn’t have been our historians that did that.
Maybe they’re not historians at all? If they haven’t been
able to tell us up to now anything concrete about the history
of our country of just one thousand years ago, but keep on
insulting or tacitly allowing others to insult this period of our
history, then these are not historians of Russia, but traitors or
mercenaries, acting on behalf of somebody else.
And we shouldn’t be relying upon them any longer. It is
vital that we ourselves, through our joint efforts, bit by bit,
use analogies to restore our own past and rehabilitate both
our forebears and ourselves. If we don’t...
Many readers the Ringing Cedars Series have already begun
to write a Book of Kin for their children." Some of them will
certainly want, too, to express their thoughts on the history
of Ancient Rus’, to tell their children about where we came
from. But what can we write about our past? Are we really
going to carry on with that nonsense we have been told for
so long?
"See especially Book 6, Chapter 10: “The Book of Kin”.
Pagans
*59
Maybe it’s better not to write anything about our past, just
pretend it never existed. But that won’t work. If we act that
way, then our children after us will keep getting served up the
same story over and over again in a way that will suit some-
body’s particular interests.
Someone may wonder how we, as ordinary folk — not
scholarly historians — can restore a history of two or three
thousand years ago. We can! Since we’ll be doing it not be-
cause we’re carrying out someone’s instructions, but accord-
ing to the dictates of our hearts and minds. I shall attempt
to start the ball rolling, but let us all together begin gathering
whatever stories, facts and analogies we can, and putting to-
gether our own family histories.
Let us all begin thinking and reasoning about this together.
As I said, a lot can be restored even just using analogy. Here’s
an example. Take a look.
More than two thousand years ago the mighty Roman Empire
was in its heyday, including Roman law, the Roman Senate and
the Roman Emperors. The cities of the Empire were adorned
with epochal edifices, and Rome already had a water supply
system. There were libraries, and a flourishing of art. The
Roman Empire waged quite a number of wars.
In contrast to the developed states of the pre-Christian era,
there is virtually no information about the Russian state — its
political structure, its territories or culture. Maybe it simply
didn’t exist? Of course it existed. We know from historical
sources that by the time Rus’ was baptised it already had cit-
ies and princedoms. And Prince Vladimir, who oversaw the
baptism of Rus’, was by no means its first prince. The same
sources tell us about his father, Prince Sviatoslav 12
In other words, Rus’ existed contemporaneously with the
Roman Empire. It had its cities and a multitude of wealthy
settlements. Yes, wealthy, because the cities of Ancient Rus’
160 Book 7: The Energy of Life
took shape not just as capitals of princedoms, but as trade and
handicraft centres serving the many settlements in the outly-
ing area.
Poor settlements do not give rise to cities. There would
simply be no one to finance their construction and no con-
sumer demand for what they produced.
And now let us try to determine whether pre-Christian Rus’
was a strong or a weak state? Let us suppose, for the sake
of argument, that it was extremely weak. Not only that, but
historians claim that Rus’ was divided into petty independent
princedoms which were constantly warring with each other.
But once again the question arises: if pre-Christian Rus’
was so weak, a state torn apart by internecine conflicts, why
did it not fall prey to attacks by more powerful states?
As a weak state by comparison with its neighbours, not
to mention the Roman Empire, the Russian state could have
been easily conquered and transformed into a tribute-paying
colony But here is where the enigma and the mysteries begin.
In all the annals of the Roman Empire and other states of
the period there is no mention of any attack on Rus’.
We ourselves know that up to the time of the official bap-
tism, Rus’ was a free and independent state, unconquered by
any other.
So, why did no one try to conquer pagan Rus’?
12 Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev (942-972) — a warrior prince of Kievan Rus’,
said to be the first Slavic prince with a completely Slavic name. The name is
comprised of two ancient Russian roots: sviat (holy) and slav (praise/glory),
which had the same meanings as the Old Norse names of his mother (Olga)
and father (Rurik), respectively He is known largely from what is described
in a document known as Povest’ vremennykh let (Chronicle of ancient years,
sometimes referred to as the Primary chronicle or the Tale of bygone years),
which refers in large part to Scandinavian and Byzantine influences on
Russian culture and religion. But not all Russian scholars accept this docu-
ment as historical fact.
Pagans
161
Perhaps it was because it had an extensive, well-organised
and well-equipped army? But no, that it did not have. Even
during the time of the princes there were only small armed
garrisons whose numbers were far from equalling those of the
Roman legions.
We shall never understand the historical truth if we start with
a false reasoning about pagan Rus’ — especially Vedic Rus’.
On the other hand, everything falls into place if we accept
and understand the opposite hypothesis.
Vedic Rus’, before the time of the princes, was a highly spiritual,
highly organised civilisation. It was that same ‘lost civilisation’ on
the Earth about which legends would be subsequently told.
I deliberately referred to Ancient Rus’ not as a state but as
a civilisation, since the benchmark of statehood for that pe-
riod is considered to be Egypt or Rome. These were under
the control of supreme rulers, priests and an elite that had
enriched itself at the expense of slaves.
The social structure of Rus’ was significantly perfected and
more civilised in comparison to Egypt or Rome.
In Rus’ at that time there was absolutely no slavery Neither
were there any petty princedoms warring amongst them-
selves. Rus’ was comprised of marvellous kin’s domains.
Decisions were taken at popular assemblies known as veche.
Information was circulated by ‘wise-men’.'®
h wise-men (Russian: volkbvy), also known as Magi or -wizards — a reference
to ancient ‘scientists’ with particular knowledge of the workings of Nature,
often possessing exceptional powers. In Ancient Rus’ one of the volkbvy s
major tasks was the development of agricultural symbology and fertility
rites to guarantee abundant harvests. Many volkbvy also fulfilled the role of
travelling community teachers. Further details will be presented in Rites of
Love (Book 8, Part 2 of the Ringing Cedars Series). This is the same refer-
ence that is found regarding the ‘wise men’ who visited the infant Jesus in
Bethlehem, according to the New Testament (see, for example, Matth. 2:1).
\ 6 i Book 7: The Energy of Life
But note how the concepts have been distorted, including
the meaning of the word civilisation. Egypt, where all the peo-
ple were subject to the rule of the priests and pharaohs, was
known as a highly developed, ‘civilised’ state, while Rus’ at the
same period was called backward, uncivilised and weak, with-
out any kind of real statehood. That’s pretty steep! If there
was no slavery, and no petty-tyrant despots, does that mean
there was no state — that Rus’ was uncivilised?
Again, the same question: why then did nobody conquer
Rus’?
There were, of course, attempts at conquering the Vedruss
people. But those who tried it always endeavoured to erase
the results of such attempts, even from their own memory
Here is what Anastasia told me about one of these attempts
that took place more than two thousand years ago.
Chapter Twenty-One
In those days the Vedic way of life was still the prevalent cul-
ture in Rus’. The Vedruss people still had no cities. Rus’ was
made up of a large number of settlements, rich in extraordi-
nary foods, the joy of life and bright people who lived in their
family domains . 1
There were other countries at that time, which boasted of
great cities where the power of money was becoming more
and more dominant over human aspirations. And there were
great armies, and with their help rulers attempted to bring
the whole world under their own control. And many coun-
tries bowed under the control of the dark forces.
Once an elite Roman legion was sent to Rus’. Five thou-
sand warriors approached the boundary of the first settle-
ment they came to. And they threateningly made camp right
on the outskirts of the little village.
The military officers called for the village elders to come
to them. And the elders came, knowing no fear in the face
of this ominous force. The officers explained that they came
from the most powerful country of all and that, consequently,
all the settlements must pay tribute to them. Anyone unable
to pay would be taken into slavery
The elders replied that they were not disposed to share
their food with any evil-doers, thereby feeding hordes of dark
forces.
'The text of Anastasia’s narrative is reproduced in this chapter without
quotation-marks for each paragraph.
164
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Whereupon the commander-in-chief said to the elder
most advanced in age:
“I have heard about your barbarity and your unusual way
of life. Your mind is incapable of even appreciating the cor-
relation of forces here. With a mind like that you will never
be free in a civilised Empire. You will either exist as slaves or
not exist at all.”
And the Yedruss village elder replied:
“It is the one who is not capable of using Divine provisions
for his food that is not allowed to exist. Look.”
And with these words the elderly Vedruss took two identi-
cal fresh and beautiful apples out of his pocket. He surveyed
the officers, all glistening in their armour, but his gaze rested
on a young private soldier. He went over to the soldier and
held out one of the apples, saying:
“Take this, my son, may this fruit be a delight to your soul.”
The young private took the fruit and tasted it right there
in the sight of all those standing around. Llis face lit up with
a delight that provoked envy among the others.
Then the elder, still holding the second beautiful apple in
his hand, turned again to the commander-in-chief, went over
to him and said:
“My soul has no desire to offer this marvellous fruit to you.
What that means, try to understand yourself.” And he placed
the second apple at the feet of the commander-in-chief.
“How dare you, old man, answer back that way to a com-
mander distinguished in battle?” a Roman orderly exclaimed,
as he picked up the apple and gasped in amazement.
And all the commissioned officers and their subordinates
were in shock from what they saw For the beautiful apple
had begun rotting right before their eyes in the orderly’s
hands. And right before their very eyes a swarm of midges
suddenly appeared and devoured the rotting fruit. And the
Vedruss elder continued:
Combat
165
“Nobody can buy the fruit of Divine grace for gold or take
it by force. You may call yourself a lord and master and imag-
ine yourself defeating countries, but the only thing you will
eat that way is rot.”
“This is not mysticism, Vladimir, you must understand. Fruits
grown with love can give their grace only to those who them-
selves have instilled love in them, or to those to whom the
growers give them of their own free will. This is the order of
the Universe, and for proof of this you need only take a care-
ful look at the present day. People are doomed to eat fruit
which is far from fresh.”
“But what about the wealthy?” I queried. ‘And those that
rule the world?”
“They face even greater problems with food. They are
afraid of poisoned fruit and dainty dishes. And before they
eat anyt hin g themselves, they have those around them taste
it first. They post guards and special servicemen around their
foodstuffs, but to no avail... Many a ruler has died in agony
from eating bad food.
“You will note that many people are trying today to produce
health-restoring cedar-nut oil. Only the healing properties of
this oil vary, depending upon the thought of the producer.
‘And that Vedruss elder was no mystic. He was merely out-
lining what every child growing up in Vedic Rus’ knew about
all the time.”
1 66
Book 7: The Energy of Life
But the aged Yedruss’s remarks provoked anger and he was
taken captive. He was put into a cage so that he could witness
the torching of the houses and gardens in his village. And so
that he could watch its men, women and children parade be-
fore him in chains.
The commander said to him spitefully:
“Look there, old man. There are' your fellow-villagers, now
they are slaves. You made fun of me in front of my retinue in
a bad way, and the fruit you gave me showed immediate signs
of decay. Now all your fellow-villagers are slaves, and they will
now produce undecaying fruit for us under pain of death.”
“Under pain of death,” observed the elder, “one can only
grow that which brings death, even though it may have a
pleasant appearance. You are primitive. You will not be able
to conquer my country I have released a pigeon with infor-
mation about you. Once they see it, my magi will tell every-
one the news.”
The commander issued an order. Runners fanned out to all
the Vedruss settlements with a view to delivering the order.
It demanded that each settlement send representatives to see
how strong, well-trained and well-equipped were the Roman
troops. And how they were capable of wiping any bravely re-
sisting settlements off the face of the Earth and taking the
children and young women as slaves. And for everybody to
bring tribute to his warriors so fearsome. And from now on-
to collect tribute for the Empire, and deliver the tribute to
the Empire in person.
On the appointed day, at dawn, ninety Vedruss lads ap-
peared before the huge camp.
Cotnbat
167
Out in front stood Radomir — whom you have heard
about before — wearing a long shirt Liubomila had sewn for
him with love. And all the young men with him had on light-
coloured shirts.
No helmets of iron covered their light-brown hair. Their
heads were framed instead by bands woven from grasses.
They carried no shields to protect themselves from fatal
blows. Only two swords hung from a belt around each one’s
waist. They stood silently holding their steeds by the bridle;
many of their horses did not even have a saddle.
The officers in command of the five-thousand-strong well-
trained troops, who had gathered together in council, stared
at the ninety young lads. The commander-in-chief came over
to the cage in which the head of the razed Vedruss settlement
was being held, and asked:
“What can the presence of these lads possibly mean? I or-
dered the elders of all the settlements to come and hear the
decrees of my country’s Emperor.”
The Vedruss replied from his cage:
‘All the village elders know what you want to tell them.
They do not like what you have to say. And they decided not
to go meet someone they do not like. In front of your troops’
camp you see but ninety lads from the next village. They are
wearing swords. Possibly they want to do battle.”
Oh you brainless barbarians ! mused the commander-in-chief.
I could send a single detachment to fight them and it would be a light
task, of course, to kill them off completely. But- what good would,
come from a bunch of dead bodies? Would it not be better to explain
the situation to them and bring them back hale and hearty to the
Emperor for slaves?
“Listen to me, old man,” the commander addressed the
Vedruss elder. “The young people will pay heed to what you
say You explain to them the absurdity of such an unequal
combat. Tell them they ought to submit to us. I’ll spare their
i68
Book 7: The Energy of Life
lives. Of course they’ll be taken captive and I’ll make slaves
out of them. But they will not be living in a barbaric land,
they’ll be provided with food and clothing if they become
obedient slaves. You tell them, old man, how utterly absurd it
would be to shed their blood in such unequal combat.”
The Vedruss elder replied:
“I shall try I shall tell them. I can see for myself the blood
boiling in these young Vedruss lads.”
“Then go ahead, old man.”
The Vedruss elder began speaking from his cage in a loud
voice so that the warriors standing before the camp could hear.
“My sons, I can see the two swords hanging from each of
your belts. I can see the spirited steed that each of you has by
his side. You are holding them by the bridle, you are not over-
exerting them with your own weight, but you are saving their
strength for battle. You have decided to go into battle, under
the wise Radomir. Answer me.”
The commanders and troops watched as Radomir stepped
forward. After making a deep bow before the elder in the
cage, he responded by confirming the elder’s words.
“I thought as much,” said the Vedruss elder, and went on:
“You are their leader, Radomir. I believe you are aware that
the forces you see before you are not equal to your own.”
And once more Radomir bowed in acknowledgement of
the elder’s affirmation.
The officers were satisfied with this dialogue. But what
they heard next astounded them like nothing they had ever
heard before. The elder went on:
“Radomir, you are young and your thought moves swiftly So
spare the visitors’ lives. Do not kill all of them. Make them depart
and put down their weapons and not play with them any more.”
At first the officers were in a state of shock upon hearing
the elder’s extraordinary words. Then the commander-in-
chief exclaimed with irritation:
Combat
169
“You’re mad! You’re out of your mind, old man! Who is
in a position to spare whose life here — you have absolutely
no idea! You have just condemned all your fellow-villagers to
death. I’ll give the orders now...”
“You are too late. Look, a few moments ago Radomir was
standing there contemplating, but you saw how he acknowl-
edged what I said. That means he understood my words and
will not kill you.”
A second later the officers saw the ninety young men
standing in front of the camp suddenly leap onto their
steeds and head at full speed toward the camp. The com-
mander-in-chief managed to order a detachment of archers
to prepare themselves to meet the Vedruss warriors with a
hail of arrows.
But when the warriors on horseback came within shooting
range, they suddenly jumped down off their horses and began
running alongside them.
As soon as they got close to the Roman troops, the Vedruss
lads formed an oval encircling half their number along with
the horses, while the other half cut through the Roman ranks,
which had not yet completely come together, and started
fighting. In each hand they held a sword, which they wielded
equally deftly with either hand. But they simply knocked
the weapons out of their opponents’ hands without fatally
wounding them.
The reserve legionnaires had a hard time picking their way
through the disarmed and wounded Roman soldiers lying on
the ground to replace them in combat. In the meantime, the
small Vedruss contingent determinedly pushed through to
the tent of the commander-in-chief.
Radomir used his sword to hack open the lock on the cage
where the Vedruss elder was being held captive. After bowing
to him, he easily picked him up by the waist and set him on a
horse.
170 Book 7: The Energy of Life
Two of the young warriors of Radomir’s contingent seized
the Roman commander-in-chief, threw him over the rump of
another horse and brought him into the centre of their oval.
The valiant warriors quickly pushed ahead, not back the way
they came, but forward, and before long they left the crush of
the Roman troops behind, jumped on their horses and dashed
off. But after only a few minutes’ ride they stopped at a small
hillock and dismounted. Almost all of them then lay down on
the grass, stretched out their arms and stayed motionless.
The captured Roman commander was amazed to see the
Vedruss lads lying on the ground fast asleep. Pleasant smiles
brightened their faces. In the meantime their steeds peace-
fully nibbled at the grass beside them. Only two watchmen
kept an eye on the actions of the Roman troops.
Left without their regimental superior, the Roman officers
argued for some time, blaming each other for what had hap-
pened, and then argued over who should take charge and how
to proceed.
At long last they decided to despatch a thousand horsemen
(almost all the cavalry) in pursuit of the Vedruss warriors. The
remainder would follow the pursuers at a distance, in case of
unforeseen events such as the appearance of reinforcements
on the Vedruss side. The basic motivating factor behind this
decision, however, was fear.
The thousand-strong detachment of well-equipped caval-
rymen launched into the chase. No sooner had the ranks of
the Roman cavalry begun leaving the camp than one of the
warriors of Radomir’s contingent, seated on his steed, gave a
blast on his horn.
The warriors lying on the grass sprang up at once, seized
their horses’ bridles and began running. Having rested them-
selves after the battle, the Vedruss lads ran very fast, but
gradually, very gradually, the pursuing Roman cavalry started
catching up to them.
Combat
>7 J
Anticipating victory, the cavalry commander ordered his
bugler to signal an escalation of the pursuit, and the bugle
sounded. But the thousand eager legionnaires were already
spurring on their frothing horses in a mad rush to shorten the
interval between them and the Vedruss lads running on foot
ahead of them. There now remained a very small space be-
tween the two.
Again the agitated commander ordered an acceleration of
the chase. And once again the bugle sounded forth. But by
now the mad gallop proved too much for some of the broken-
winded Roman horses and they fell in their tracks. Paying no
attention to them, the horsemen were already drawing their
swords to attack the fleeing Vedruss warriors, when suddenly...
At the sound of the horn all the Vedruss runners leapt onto
their horses and... they soon began to put an ever-increasing
distance between themselves and their pursuers.
The captured Roman commander-in-chief realised that
the Vedruss warriors had been saving their horses’ strength
up ’til this point and now there was no way his men would be
able to catch up. They changed both the Vedruss elder’s and
the Roman commander’s horses. The commander also ob-
served that the lads were not sitting upright, but lying prone
along their horse’s rump, clinging on to the mane, once more
sound asleep. He wondered about their need to conserve
their strength at this stage of the game. It was only later that
he would find out why.
The Romans, stimulated by the chase, kept feverishly
whipping their horses. Many of their steeds fell beneath
them, while the sturdier specimens among them, given the
weight of the heavily armoured soldiers on their backs, could
not keep up with the Vedruss horses, which remained untired
by the pursuit.
Once the cavalry commander was able to discern the folly
of trying to overtake his opponents, he ordered all his men
I 7 2
Book; 7: The Energy of Life
to stop and dismount. But by now it was too late. A good
number of the Roman horses were broken-winded and fell to
their knees.
“All rest!” came the command to the Roman cavalry. And
then the soldiers, who had just dismounted from their ex-
hausted steeds, saw the Vedruss contingent sweeping down
upon them like a whirlwind.
The young warriors held a sword at the ready in each hand.
Bounding all along the edge of the circle of dismounted
Romans, they inflicted light wounds on soldier after soldier,
knocking their weapons out of their hands.
And the Roman legion was seized with horror. And they
all began running for help toward the infantry that was fol-
lowing behind. The Vedruss contingent came after them on
horseback, but for some reason kept their distance. Nor did
they touch the Roman soldiers which had fallen from exhaus-
tion.
The fleeing Romans — by this time no longer running,
but swaying from fatigue as they walked — - stopped dead in
their tracks at the sight of Radomir with his two swords at
the ready, along with his horsemen right behind him, all calm
and full of energy
The Roman soldiers dropped to their knees, and those
that still held weapons placed them on the ground in front of
them. Now utterly powerless, they began awaiting the antici-
pated vengeance at the hands of the Vedruss warriors.
Radomir and his companions walked among the Roman
soldiers seated on the ground, their swords sheathed. And
Radomir and his companions began talking with the soldiers
about life. Taking off their grass headbands, they gave them
to the legionnaires so they could apply the healing herbs to
their wounds. The herbs stopped the blood flowing from the
wounds and took away the pain. And they returned the com-
mander-in-chief to his legion.
Combat
173
Some time later, upon returning from their campaign against
Vedic Rus’, the fine-looking columns of soldiers marched into
Rome.
The Emperor had been informed by courier-runners about
the strange events that had befallen the Roman legions’ elite
soldiers. After he had the opportunity to see his soldiers and
officers for himself, he was overcome by a sense of embarrass-
ment that lasted for several weeks.
Whereupon he issued a secret order to eliminate all the
detachments from his army that had participated in the Vedic
Rus’ campaign, both soldiers and officers, and have them
transferred — to various corners of the Empire. And he gave
strict instructions that nothing should be heard about the
campaign even by their friends and close relations, not even
a word.
The Emperor himself sent troops to Rus’ no more. And in
a secret book written for his successors he implored:
“If you want to keep the Empire intact, as to a war with the
Vedruss people, do not even think of such an act.”
The Emperor was no fool. He was alarmed to see his troops
returning from their campaign all healthy and unharmed, but
carrying no spoil with them. Indeed, their faces betrayed no
anger or even a desire to serve in war again. If he let men such
as these remain in the Imperial army, who knows whether
they might infect the whole corps with the same desire not to
go to battle any more.
174
Book 7: The Energy of Life
All the same, the Emperor’s successor made another attempt
to conquer the Vedruss people. Having learnt a lot about
their tactics from those that had had contact with them, he
sent ten thousand soldiers on a second campaign to Rus’. Once
more the soldiers arrived at a small Vedruss settlement, where
they speedily made camp and set up fortifications. Runners
were sent to summon the elders.
But at the appointed hour the Roman officers looked and
saw coming toward them from the Vedruss village only a little
girl about ten years old, accompanied by a little boy who could
not have been more than five. The soldiers parted ranks to
make way for them as they arrived, arguing with each other,
lugging at his sister’s skirt, the boy said:
“Sis Palashechka , 2 if you don’t let me conduct the talks my-
self, I shan’t think proper of you.”
“What improper thing would you think of me, you little
scamp?” the sister asked her brother.
“I shall think of you, Sis Palashechka, that you were born a
jolly naughty girl!”
“It’s not proper to think that.”
“It’s not proper indeed. So let me conduct the talks with
the enemies.”
‘And if I agree, how will you think of me then?”
“I shall think that you, Sis Palashechka, are the prettiest,
cleverest and kindest girl of all.”
2 Palashechka (stress on second syllable) — an affectionate name in Medieval
Russia.
Combat
*7 5
‘All right, brother, you start the talks. I don’t find it proper
to talk with addle-brained people.”
The children presented themselves boldly before the
Roman officers, and the girl’s little brother addressed them,
without the slightest hint of trembling:
“My daddykins told me to tell you all that in our village
everybody is gathered round for a celebration at our feasting-
ground. It is held there every year. And every year the people
enjoy themselves at the feasting-ground. It’s not proper, my
daddykins says, it would be wrong for him to leave the cel-
ebrations and come and talk nonsense with you. So he sent
me — and my sister tagged along.”
The commander-in-chief even let out an audible squeal
upon hearing the boy’s audacious remarks. His face turned
pale, and he grasped at his sword.
“You insolent young whelp, how dare you speak to me like
that? I’ll make you a slave in my stables well into your old age!
Your sister, now...”
“Hey, there, gramps!” the sister interrupted. “Hey, there,
gramps! Give up those silly playthings of yours — your swords
and shields and spears — and run back home lickety-split.
Y)u better run while you still can. See that cloud coming?
It won’t talk with any visitors. It’ll attack you without any
words first.”
With that the girl unwrapped the bundle she was carry-
ing and, taking out a thimbleful of some kind of pollen-dust,
sprinkled it over her brother. Then she took the remainder
and sprinkled it on herself.
In the meantime the cloud-horde kept approaching
steadily over the land, all the while buzzing and increasing
in size, until it finally descended upon the camp. And be-
fore long the Romans’ armour lay on the ground — their
shields and spears and swords. The officers’ and the sol-
diers’ tents were left empty The brother and sister stood
176
Book 7: The Energy of Life
among the troops’ discarded things, and the little brother
said to his elder sister:
“You still didn’t let me speak with the enemies, Sis Pala-
shechka! I didn’t finish telling them everything I wanted to.”
‘Anyway, you started. You mustn’t be upset if I inter-
fered a bit — you’re a Vedruss warrior, a defender of your
Motherland!”
“Well, okay I shall still think that I have a well-behaved,
land and beautiful sister.”
Picking their way through the discarded armour, the broth-
er and his beautiful sister headed back to their village.
The receding cloud already looked quite small from where
they stood. Even so, within it were ten thousand elite Roman
warriors fleeing home in terror. They kept falling and getting
up again. And kept on fleeing in panic.
Do not think there is any mysticism here, Vladimir. The
Vedruss people simply made a decision. In each domain —
and there were more than two hundred domains in the settle-
ment — they opened up ten beehives , 3 each hive containing
approximately fifteen thousand bees. You can figure out the
size of the cloud for yourself. A huge number of bee-stings
will first cause serious itching and pain. A person could then
fall into a fatal sleep.
And so the happy Vedruss people continued to live in peace
of mind, knowing neither war nor trouble of any kind. No
external foe posed a threat to them for a long, long time. And
yet... Rus’ was still conquered, after all. It happened when it
fell prey to cunning snares, thereby producing a power which
acted against its own self and brought about its fall.
3 beehives — The Russian term here ( koloda ) designates a special kind of bee-
hive, made out of a hollow log. For a description, see the section entitled
“Who gets stung by bees?” in Book, i, Chapter n: “Advice from Anastasia”.
Combat
177
Thus Anastasia recounted several stories about life in Vedic
Rus’. Possibly others might have information — in the form
of ancient tales — about how people lived in those times.
There’s no point in looking for written records since, as we
know from history, they were all carefully destroyed. They
were burnt in Italy, England and France, and especially zeal-
ously in Russia.
But those who feverishly destroyed the culture of our fore-
bears could not eradicate its imprint in the depths of human
hearts and souls.
We must perfect the knowledge of our history. We must know it and
respect it. But we must also reflect on the understanding that Vedism,
Paganism and Christianity are all stages of our history. Not one of
these stages should we neglect. By attacking one of them, we shall
only go on attacking ourselves.
We should treat Christianity with understanding and respect.
And other faiths as well. Only then will all the stages of our history
form a solid foundation for a marvellous future. But this is what can
follow from knowledge and understanding. From giving a proper
evaluation to each stage of our history, from seeing each stage of our
history as lessons for building the future. Otherwise we shall go on
living in the world of the absurd.
Governments and, legislators in various countries are currently
struggling with terrorism. They pass laws forbidding the incitement
of racial or religious hatred.. And yet at the same time these countries
officially permit and support denominational teachings in which
acts of mass terrorism are carried out for political purposes, suppos-
edly in the name of God.
Chapter Twenty-Two
We can get some idea of the Vedic culture by looking at certain
holidays which have survived into our modern times. Even to-
day they still remain among people’s favourites, even though
only a few elements of the original pristine rites have been
preserved. What holidays are these? I’m talking about New
Year’s, Shrovetide 1 and Trinity Sunday . 2 Of all the many holi-
days I could mention I shall simply cite here this most promi-
nent example, where the greatest changes have taken place.
This holiday occurs at the beginning of June. As you know,
in current practice Trinity Sunday is a day when people go to
the cemetery to visit their relatives’ graves. Upon arriving at
the cemetery they sanctify the graves and tidy up the enclo-
sures . 3 A lot of them bring a bottle of liquor with them; after
1 Shrovetide (Russian: Maslenitsa) — the week prior to the beginning of Lent
(in February or March), marked by a carnival or public festivities. Maslenitsa
(from maslo = “butter”) is actually the ancient Russian holiday marking the
coming of Spring. Even in its present-day form it includes a large number
of old ‘pagan’ elements, such as the ritual making and eating of pancakes
(symbolising the Sun) and the burning of a straw-stuffed figure represent-
ing Winter. After the Russian Orthodox Church’s attempts to eradicate
this and other pagan celebrations failed, the Church included these pagan
festivities in its own calendar of ‘Christian’ holidays and continued to ven-
erate Russia’s ancient pagan gods under the guise of Christian saints.
2 Trinity Sunday (Russian: Troitsa) — In contrast to western churches,
which celebrate the Trinity the first week after the late-spring holiday of
Whitsuntide (Pentecost), the Eastern Orthodox Church includes the
Trinity in its Pentecost celebrations.
’In Russian Orthodox cemeteries family graves are usually located within
a fenced enclosure.
The marvellous Vedruss holidays
179
having a drink at the gravesite, they leave a small glass and a
piece of bread for the deceased. They talk amongst them-
selves, reminiscing about the deceased’s life. Many people
feel obliged to weep at gravesites.
The degree to which this original pagan ceremony has un-
dergone profound change is confirmed by the following.
During Vedic times, and even later in the pagan period
there were no cheerless, mournful rites as there are now Each
holiday gave people a charge of positive energy, and transmit-
ted to young people the knowledge of their forebears.
And remembrance days in Vedic times were quite differ-
ent from those of today. There were no processions to the
cemetery or lamentations over the graves of the deceased. In
fact, during Vedic times there were no cemeteries at all. The
deceased were laid to rest in their own family domains with-
out burial vaults or even headstones to mark the occasion. A
small raised mound of earth was created, but even this over
time became flattened to ground level.
The Vedruss people believed that the best memorial to
their forebears was to be found in what they had created dur-
ing their lifetime. Their knowledge of Nature and of Man’s
capacities led them to conclude that if all the relatives were
to visualise death, their collective thought would prevent the
deceased’s soul from being reincarnated.
On the day of remembrance of one’s forebears all the mem-
bers of a family would gather in the morning in the oldest do-
main. In front of everyone the eldest — usually a grandfather
or great-grandfather — would approach the youngest genera-
tion of children, and begin to talk with them, more or less as
follows:
“When your Papa was the same height as you are now,” the
grandfather would tell his grandson of about six, “he planted
this little sapling. Time went by and now that little sapling
has grown into a large fruit-bearing apple tree.”
xSo Book 7: The Energy of Life
Whereupon the grandfather led his grandson over to the
apple tree and touched it himself as his grandson stroked the
tree.
Next, the grandfather went around to other trees and
bushes, telling who planted them. All the other members of
the family were able to help the grandfather with their own
reminiscences, telling amusing anecdotes or the impressions
they had had at the time the trees were planted.
Finally, the family members all gathered around the do-
main’s centrepiece — the family tree, which was usually a ce-
dar or an oak.
“You see this tree,” the eldest family member continued.
“It was planted by my great-grandfather’s great-grandfather.”
A general discussion then ensued as to why this variety of
tree was chosen over some other. Why had the distant fore-
bear planted the tree in this particular spot, rather than fur-
ther to the right or left. Some people asked questions, while
others answered them. Occasionally an argument would break
out. And it often happened that, in the heat of the argument,
all of a sudden one of the children, without being aware of it
himself, came out with a strange-sounding declaration:
“How come you do not understand? I myself planted this
tree in this particular spot, because...”
The adult family members realised at once that their little
one harboured the soul and feelings and knowledge of one of
their own distant forebears. And how proud they were that
his soul was not aimlessly drifting through the waste spaces of
the Universe, that it had not broken up into small particles,
but continued to live in perfection, in life eternal.
Paganism, and especially Vedism, could scarcely be termed
a ‘religion’. It would be more accurate to refer to it as the cul-
ture of a way of life. It was the greatest culture alive on the
Earth, belonging to a highly spiritual civilisation. This civili-
sation did not need to believe in God — its people knew God.
The marvellous, Vedruss holidays 181
This civilisation’s people communicated with God, they
understood the thoughts of the Creator.
They knew the designated purpose of every blade of grass,
of every midge, of every planet.
This civilisation’s people continue to rest in our souls even
to this day They will most certainly awake. The happy, life-
delighted creators of a marvellous planet, the children of
God — the Vedruss people.
These are not simply empty words. There is as much evidence
to back them up as can be desired. One proof is found in Japan.
As is known, in the sixteenth century Christians began a
considerable proselytising campaign in Japan. However, upon
observing the results of the Christian missionaries’ activity,
Tokugawa leyasu, 4 the Japanese ruler at the time, outlawed
Christianity in his country
Japan, with its native religion of Shintoism, is the closest
country today to paganism. The word Shinto translates to
‘pathway of the gods’. According to Shinto, Man’s ultimate
goal is harmonious co-existence with Nature.
What then? Is the Japanese people’s way of life something
terrible and uncivilised? That’s how people see Alan’s life dur-
ing the pagan period. But it’s not true. Quite the opposite.
Many Japanese write poetry and have a reverent attitude
toward Nature. The whole world is entranced with Japanese
ikebana? And yet the attraction to this refined art is not re-
stricted to Japan’s professional florists. Ikebana is something
you can see in practically every Japanese household.
The Japanese show special treatment to their children.
Adults go the greatest possible lengths to ensure complete
freedom for their children.
4 Tokugawa leyasu (1543-1616; surname cited first) — the founder of the
Tokugawa shogunate of Japan which ruled the country from 1600 to 1868.
’ ikebana — the Japanese art of flower arranging.
182
Book 7: The Energy of Life
A nation of poets and artists, it would seem. Yet the level
of Japanese technology surpasses that of even the most de-
veloped countries of the world. It is a challenge to compete
with them in the field of electronics or motorcar manufactur-
ing. In referring to a modern pagan country like Japan, we are
talking only of elements of paganism. Just think what type of
Man one could have in a fully pagan culture!
One thing is clear: in terms of the level of knowledge and
spirituality he would significantly surpass the type of Man
prevalent today. But it was in somebody’s interests to befool
us by insisting upon our belief in the exact opposite.
Japan is not an exception — it is by no means the only ex-
ample. From deep in our millennial past come names of such
geniuses among poets, thinkers and scholars as Archimedes,
Socrates, Democritus, Hercalitus, Plato and Aristotle. They
lived between two and six hundred years B.C. And where did
they live? In Greece — which at that time was also a pagan
country.
Japan, Greece, Rome, Egypt, with their ancient temple
structures, classical art, holidays and traditions, all bear wit-
ness even today to the cultural level of these peoples. But
what can our own historians tell us about Rus’ of that time?
Absolutely nothing.
How does one find tangible evidence that' Vedic Rus’ was home
to artists and poets, not to mention glorious warriors who nev-
er attacked anyone but were skilful masters of weaponry?
I said to Anastasia:
“Unless we can find tangible proof of the culture of Vedic
Rus’, nobody will believe in it. Your accounts of it will be
treated as mere legends. Beautiful legends of course, but still
legends. I’m convinced there’s no point in searching histori-
cal works. So you are all that’s left. Can you point to any
tangible proof, Anastasia?”
The marvellous Vedruss holidays
183
“ Yes, I can. For there is actually a great deal of proof.”
“Then tell me: in what spot should we go with excava-
tion?”
“Why start with excavation? There are a great many hu-
man dwellings that offer proof of rile Vedruss culture.”
“What kind of dwellings? What do you have in mind?”
“Look carefully, Vladimir, at the houses people are con-
structing today, and compare them with the houses that
have been built in the village where you now live. Almost all
the old houses in this village are decorated with traditional
Russian wood-carvings. You also saw even older houses when
you visited the museum-town of Suzdal .” 6
“Yes, and they are all decorated with even finer carvings.
And not just the houses — the portals and garden gates too,
they’re all works of art.”
“In other words, the deeper you go into your people’s past,
the more beautifully appointed human dwellings you see.
“In museums, too, you can see beautiful wood-carvings
adorning distaffs, mugs and other household items which
were in common use three to five hundred years ago. You
will notice, Vladimir, that the artistry of the masters keeps
increasing, the farther one travels back through the ages.
“Creativity like that on a massive scale has not been found
over many centuries in any country in the world. Note,
Vladimir, that these were not individual artists working on
commission for a few rich bigwigs, but absolutely the entire
population participated. Judge for yourself: if you see an or-
dinary distaff in a museum, it did not belong to the Tsar, or
the Tsar’s wife, or some kind of bigwig. You are looking at
an object which was found in every home. People used these
6 Suzdal (pron. SOOZ-dal) — like the neighbouring town of Vladimir (about
30 km distant), one of the oldest cities in Russia. For further information
see footnote 1 in Book j, Chapter 6 : A garden for eternity”.
184
Book 7: The Energy of Life
lacy wood-carvings to decorate all their buildings, includ-
ing the fences; they decorated all their household items, and
embroidered their clothes. If this had been done by master
craftsmen, it would have taken an unimaginable number to
produce all the examples we know about. Each Vedruss fam-
ily did this on their own.
“The whole population were engaged in artistic pursuits.
And this tells us that the whole population lived in plenty. A
good deal of time is required if one is to spend a lot of time
on artistic creations. Your historians are all wrong when they
say that people in ancient times spent their whole day bent
over, tending their agricultural lands. If that were true, they
would have had no time for artistic pursuits. And yet they
did. And as for their skill with weaponry, judge for yourself:
if they were able to build such beautiful log mansions with an
axe, they must have wielded it like a brush in the hands of an
artist.
“Do you know what kind of competitive entertainment
they thought up for Shrovetide? They drove into the ground
two large upright logs about three metres apart. Two male
competitors went up to these logs, carrying an axe in each
hand. After being blindfolded, the men worked with both
hands simultaneously, competing to see who could cut down
their log first. But that was not all — they had to cut it down
so that it would fall exactly on their competitor’s log and
knock it over.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
One day I asked Anastasia’s grandfather if he had ever had
the opportunity to read any spiritual or scholarly books. His
answer struck me as rather strange:
“If you mean taking a book into my hands, leafing through
the pages and reading the words printed in the books, that’s
something I’ve done only on one occasion. But everything
written in significant books is known to me.”
“How so? And what are ‘significant books’? If there are
significant books, that means there must also be insignificant
ones, eh?”
“Indeed. But why are you stuffing your head full of all
this?”
“What d’you mean, why? A cultured and civilised Man
ought to be well-read. When I speak at readers’ conferences,
I’m often asked whether I’ve read this book or the other. But
I’ve only read just a few books in my lifetime. So I’d like to
know which books I should read first. A lifetime isn’t enough
to read all of them, even if one read all day from morning ’til
night. That’s why I need to know about these ‘significant
books’, so as not to come across as an utter ignoramus.”
“You know, Vladimir, when you’re asked at your readers’
conferences what books you’ve read, you can say you’re famil-
iar with all of them.”
“I can’t do that unless I have actually read them all. They
might ask me, for instance, what a particular author said in
his book. If I’ve never even held his book in my hands, there’s
no way I could come up with any kind of answer.”
i8 6
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“Simply tell them: ‘This author has nothing substantial to
say’ Tell the one who asked you the question to prove other-
wise. You know, Vladimir, it only appears from the numbers
that there’s a lot of books out there. In fact you can count the
number of significant books on your fingers.”
“But how do I know whether a book is significant or not?”
“With the help of a criterion.”
“Can you let me have this criterion? At least to borrow?”
“Of course I can let you have it, and all your readers too.
The point is that the criterion for determining the signifi-
cance of a book is people’s way of life.”
“What d’you mean — their way of life? What’s that got to
do with it?”
“People live in various parts of the globe. Human societies
are conditioned by national differences. National cultures
vary from country to country. As does their way of life, and
their longevity. The culture of various peoples is shaped un-
der the influence of, among other things, a significant book.
Generally: a book that determines a people’s philosophy, gives
rise to a particular religion and, consequently, a way of life.
“In China, for example, Confucius’ teachings 1 are consid-
ered significant. A special view of the world has been devel-
oping there since ancient times. To put it briefly, it views the
world as a living organism.
“Part of this cosmic organism, or system, is the concept
of yin and yang . 1 If you are interested in the Chinese peo-
ple’s way of life, if you think it might serve as an example for
the rest of mankind, then read Confucius’ book. If you are
1 Confucius (K’ung-fu-tzu) (551-479 B.C.) — ancient Chinese thinker and phi-
losopher whose teachings on morality, justice and social relationships (col-
lectively known as Confucianism ) are still respected and practised today in a
number of Asian countries, including China Japan and Korea. They are set
forth in a publication known as The analects of Confucius.
Significant books
187
interested in the Japanese world-view and their life-achieve-
ments, then read a book about that country’s traditional re-
ligion — Shintoism. In many respects it helped shape the
Japanese people’s way of life.
“If you think that the happiest people live in the Christian
world, then read the Bible. Significant books are those books
which shape a particular way of life of a part of human soci-
ety”
“But in Christian spiritual literature, after all, there is a lot
more besides just the Bible.”
“Yes, indeed. But there is absolutely nothing new in them.
As a rule, in every significant book there are one or two ba-
sic thoughts or philosophical conclusions. All other books
on a similar theme simply repeat this thought and contribute
nothing new to one’s world-view.
“Take, for example, one of the basic thoughts of the
Bible — namely, that God must be bowed down to and his
instructions carried out. This has given rise to a whole lot
of books outlining the best way to do this. Some books say
you should cross yourself with two f ingers, others with three.
They tell how to build temples with the best-looking outward
appearance. They cite hundreds of examples of acts of wor-
ship by various people, devotees of genuflection. They talk of
wars and arguments over particular methods of worship.
“People get immersed in these arguments and lose their
ability to discern the basic thought. They no longer use the
basic thought as a standard with which to compare others.
'yin. yang — the two opposite (though complementary) principles of
Chinese philosophy, underlying both Taoism and traditional Chinese medi-
cine. The yin (originally denoting a shady slope of a mountain or river-bank)
represents a darker, passive feminine entity, symbolised by the elements of
water or earth, while the yang (from the designation of a sunny slope) en-
compasses a brighter, active, masculine force, symbolised by fire and wind.
i88
Book 7: The Energy of Life
What happens is that in reading a whole lot of books about
one and the same tiling, they do not obtain any new informa-
tion, but merely atrophy their analytical abilities. And they
don’t even bother trying to determine whether God really
wants Man to bow down to Him, or whether He wants some-
thing quite different.
‘As you can see, the hundreds of thousands of ‘spiritual’
books that have appeared over the past two thousand years
all say pretty much one and the same thing.
“The appearance of a newwell-grounded thought about the
interrelationship of God and Man signals the appearance of a
new significant book for the first time in two thousand years.
With its appearance, its predecessor in the ranks of signifi-
cant books passed into the ranks of historical documents.”
“You’re talking about the appearance of a new significant
book? What’s it called?”
“ Co-creation . It contains new thoughts. And it is well-
grounded. The main thought of this book states in a clear
and well-grounded manner precisely what Gods wants of
Man, and what Man’s purpose is. You wrote this book from
Anastasia’s words, and you will remember, Vladimir, God’s re-
sponse to the question from the elements of the Universe:
‘What do you so fervently desire?’ everyone enquired.
And He, confident in His dream, replied:
‘Conjoint creation and joy for all from its contemplation. ” 3
“But where is the proof that this declaration actually rep-
resents God’s will?”
“The proof is everywhere. In the declaration itself. In the hu-
man heart and soul. In the logic of thinking. Judge for yourself:
^Quoted from Book 4, Chapter 2: “The beginning of creation”.
Significant books
189
if you accept as a premise God’s creation of the Earth and Man,
then the feelings ensuing from that on the part of God will cor-
respond with those of Man — the parent of his children. All
loving parents wish conjoint creation with their children.
“The second part of the declaration specifies what kind of
creation God desires: ‘and joy for all from its contemplation’.
So tell me, what kind of creations can bring joy to absolutely
everybody?”
“That’s a hard question to answer. Some people get joy out
of a good car, while others couldn’t care less about cars. Some
like eating meat, while others don’t eat meat at all. There’s
even a popular saying: There's no accounting for taste. It’d be
hard to find something that everybody could embrace.”
‘And yet, it is possible. Think about air, water, flowers, for
example...”
“But those have already been created, while we’re talking
about conjoint creation.”
“Yes, air, water and vegetation have already been created.
But they’re not always the same. Man is capable of making
his air filled with dust, smoke and lethal gases, yet the same
Man can fill it with ethers, aromas and flower pollen.
“Water can vary too. You can use chlorine-smelling water,
for example, or you can drink genuine, refreshing water. And
in among the great variety of plants you can either manufac-
ture bloody chaos or create living scenes of extraordinary
beauty and grandeur, attractive and delightful to the eye.
There’s a statement about that in Co-creation .”
“If the book Co-creation , as you say, is significant, then isn’t
it also supposed to transform the life of society or somehow
influence it?”
“Yes, that’s a law. A new thought inevitably embodies itself
in a new way of life for society.”
“But when will this come about? Two years have gone by
already since that book was published.”
190
Book 7: I he Energy of Life
“To put it more accurately, not two years already, but just
two years. In this relatively brief space of time, however, it
has already co-created a great deal. You yourself were saying,
weren’t you, that many people are already attempting to build
a new way of life for themselves. They’re even creating na-
tional development programmes.”
“Yes, I did say that. There are indeed manifestations of
this already”
“You see? It took three hundred years to make Christianity
noticeably felt, and here look at what’s been accomplished
in just two years! Anastasia’s thoughts are materialising in a
real way of life among many peoples, they are uniting their
aspirations into a single creative impulse of universal co-
creation.
“She launched a new way of thinking into Space, and this is
an event of colossal proportions. This means that the book in
which these thoughts were set forth for the first time will be
accorded a similar evaluation.”
“I guess that means that I too will be one of the world’s
significant writers?”
“You will not be one of... You will be the most significant,
Vladimir. My granddaughter would not even think of sec-
ondary roles for her beloved.”
“It’s not working out quite that way The popular news-
paper Argumenty i fakty (Arguments and facts ) 4 published a
book rating putting The Book of Kin in second place overall in
Russia.”
4 Argumenty i fakty — a leading weekly newspaper on current affairs.
Founded in 1978 by the Znanie (Knowledge) organisation, it was designed
primarily as a Soviet propaganda tool, but during thegAsv/fttfXopenness) era
of the late 1980s the paper was gradually transformed into a forum for real
discussion. In the early 1990s it claimed to have a print-run of 33.5 million
and was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the largest circula-
tion in the world.
Significant books
191
‘After a time a great many people will become aware of
the significance of the books you have written. And then a
simple first place in the ratings won’t seem like all that much.
A mere six years has passed since you wrote your first book.
You were a nobody back then, but today — you are more than
just famous. I’ve heard that you’ve been awarded recognition
as a People’s Academician and presented with a certificate.”
“You’re right, only this recognition wasn’t from a tradition-
al academy, but a public one.”
“Well, there you ago — a public academy.’ Treasure this
award, it’s higher than the traditional variety The people
have spoken. The people who have realised the significance
of your books, they’re the ones who’ve decided that you are
significant. It means they’ve actually understood Anastasia’s
thoughts and appreciated them. It’s not just ordinary people
who have been able to do this, it’s people who will be able to go
further and embody, understand and materialise her thoughts.
That’s how it will be. Only don’t give yourself airs — hold out
until the time comes, without giving in to pride.”
“I’ll try my best. I’ll read over Anastasia’s sayings again. It
goes without saying that I won’t read crime novels or any kind
of fiction. There’s really nothing in the way of new thoughts
in them. Just fight entertainment fluff.
“But I do have one question I’m unable to find an answer
to. You can’t really tell whether a book is significant or not
until after you’ve read it. But there’s a huge number of books
out there — you walk into a library and the shelves are fined
Y public academy — In Russia today, apart from the state-sponsored and
state-controlled Russian Academy of Sciences (known by its Russian acro-
nym of RAN) and its branches, there are a large number of independent
academies created by individuals or groups of citizens, or by other non-
governmental organisations. These are sometimes referred to as ‘public’
(Russian: narodnyi) — in the sense that they have been created by members
of the public rather than State.
192
Book 7: The Energy of Life
with tens of thousands of books. Many of them have pre-
tentious titles, even ones like Conversation with God, or Truth
unveiled or All the secrets of life. In actual fact, however, you
can read and read and still not come across any new thoughts.
For every ten thousand there’s maybe only one significant
book, but then my chances of stumbling across it are one in
ten thousand too. What to do?”
“Well, I’m telling you: before starting to read anything, take
a survey of how people live in various corners of the globe,
take note of situations that appeal to you in their lifestyle,
and then read their book, and ponder it.”
“But what if I don’t find anything appealing? All peoples
have similar troubles. There are differences, sure, but in the
main... Take the environment, for example — there’s nowhere
in the world where it’s not going downhill.”
“Well, then, if you don’t find anything appealing, then give
some thought on your own as to how to build a harmonious
way of life, and when you come up with something, you’ll
write a book about it yourself.”
‘All by myself? Without reading anything else?”
“You’re contradicting yourself, Vladimir! You were the one
that said you can’t find any books worth reading, and behind
those outrageous titles there’s only a proliferation of words
without any sense, without any new thoughts. And at the
same time you are doubting — you think you can’t be intel-
ligent without reading a whole lot of rubbish. In any case I
can tell you that every Man, right from birth, aspires to read
the most important book — one whose language is distinct
from printed letters — you remember: ‘The Divine language
has fragrance and colour...’” 6
“I understand.”
“So read and ponder what you’ve read.”
6 Quoted from Book 4, Chapter n: “Three prayers”.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“You’re right, Vladimir,” Anastasia’s grandfather continued.
“In terms of the present state of consciousness of most peo-
ple today what Anastasia creates can seem incredible.
“Still, once the conscious awareness and state of mind be-
longing to our forebears at the time or our pristine origins are
fully comprehended, these same people will look back and
laugh at the astonishment they are now expressing.
“I’ll tell you now about just one exercise that will enhance
your ability to easily teletransport your second self — that
is, to transport yourself to a neighbouring town, or a differ-
ent country or time period. Anybody can do this as long as
they’re not lazy about it.
“Remember one time you saw Anastasia, in response to
your request, move her body in a split second from one side
of the lake to the other, and then move it back again ? 1 And
she didn’t hide the fact that any Man is capable of doing the
same. One must mentally visualise all the cells of the body,
down to the tiniest ones which aren’t even visible under a mi-
croscope, and disperse them into space with one’s thought,
and then gather them together by the power of thought in the
new place. Just watching this can astonish the imagination.
‘Anyone can do this whose speed of thinking allows them
to visualise in a single moment all the details of their body
Even a microscopic error, though, is enough to prevent the
cells from gathering together after dispersal.
‘See Book 4, Chapter 21: “Where do we go in sleep?”.
194
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“I’ve done this on just three occasions over my lifetime,
and each time I prepared for it a year or more in advance. I
can’t do anything like that any more. Either I’m just a bit past
my prime, or I’ve got too lazy. But even my granddaughter,
who was able to demonstrate her teleportation abilities so
easily, said that this shouldn’t ever be done unless there is an
acute need for it. And she explained why.
“Still, she transported you on several occasions to different
times and cities. You saw images and you felt as though you
were present at the events you witnessed. Am I right?”
“Yes, you are,” I confirmed. “It was when I described how
she transported herself and me to another planet, without our
bodies. 2 Our bodies remained on the Earth. A lot of people
didn’t believe such a thing was possible.”
“They’ll believe it when they’re able to do something along
those lines themselves. I’ll teach you how. Just listen care-
fully and try to make sense of what I say.
“Man is made up of a multitude of energies which com-
prise his being. Feelings, thought, imagination — that’s all
Alan too. But these energies cannot be seen by the eye. We
shan’t say whether these parts of the body are material or not.
In this case the degree of their materiality isn’t important.
What is important is that they exist, and that these are also
you — a Man.
“The material human body is one of many elements com-
prising a Alan. Alan can live without a material body, only
then he would have to be called something else. The material
body affords a visible opportunity to define the degree of har-
monious balance among all the other energies.
“Now' imagine that you or some other Man took all your
energies, by your own free will, separated them from your
body and transported them to a different space.”
'See Book 4, Chapter 22: “Other worlds”.
An exercise for teleportation
195
“Is that something anybody can do?”
“They can. It happens to a certain degree with everyone
when they sleep. But don’t get carried away, keep on listen-
ing. I said that Man is capable of transporting, by his own
free will, his whole complex of feelings to some other place.
“That requires just a bit of training. Here’s a training ex-
ercise.
“First, you need to find a spot where you won’t be dis-
turbed. It can be just an ordinary room with a bed. As long as
no distracting sounds can enter.
“So, you lie down on the bed and relax your body. See to
it that your arms, legs and head are all lying freely in a com-
fortable position. Then, without moving, try to direct more
of your blood toward one hand (as opposed to other parts of
your body), purely by your will. If you don’t succeed right off,
try again, until you feel a slight tingling in your fingertips on
the hand you’ve been directing the blood — and your ener-
gy — toward.
“You should spend no more than thirty minutes a day on
such attempts, but keep them up until you are able to free-
ly direct the flow of energy and blood at will — first to one
hand, then the other, then to your feet. Once you achieve
the desired result, you should be able to direct energy to the
brain as well.
“If you succeed at this, you will notice a significant ben-
efit to your health. You’ll be able, for example, to remove a
pimple or sore from your arm or leg or any other part of your
body You’ll be able to reverse hair loss. But, most impor-
tantly, you’ll be able to supply your brain with supplemental
energy.
“I should also point out that in order to achieve such re-
sults, you should refrain from eating meat for several days be-
fore beginning the exercise. You should have a varied diet of
fresh and easily digestible foods — foods containing ethers.
196
Book 7: The Energy of Life
In your present living conditions these are hard to come by
But here are some foodstuffs which can give you a lot of things
you’re missing: take approximately ten grams of cedar oil each
morning, then about twenty grams of honey and five of flower
pollen. You should repeat this three hours before bedtime.
“Once you have completed this first part of the exercise,
you can then go on to the second. For this part, tell me, what
are some of the most common actions people perform every
day around their home?”
“Probably food preparation is the most frequent. The ma-
jority of us, of course, prepare food every day. Peeling pota-
toes, for example.”
“So, choose an action which you repeat most often. Which
specific action it is doesn’t really matter — the main thing is
that it is one you are very familiar with. You mentioned peel-
ing potatoes. This may well be the most familiar for some
people; others can choose something else.
“Now take a watch and note the time as you begin this
particular action. While you are carrying it out try not think
about anything else. Remember all the details as well as what
you feel while doing it. If you’re peeling potatoes, for exam-
ple, take note of how you hold the knife, where the scraps
fall, how you washed them, and the sensation of the water.
Remember how you put the potatoes into the pot for boiling
and set it on the stove. Remember how you cleaned up the
scraps when you were finished.
“When you decide that your actions are completed, look
at the time and either remember or write down how many
minutes you spent on them. Let’s say it took twenty minutes
altogether. Now set your alarm-clock to go off in exactly
twenty minutes. Go into the other room, the one where you
mastered the first part of the exercise while lying on the bed.
Lie down on the bed again, relax, close your eyes and picture
yourself in the room where you peeled the potatoes.
An exercise for teleportation
197
“It is essential to visualise everything down to the minutest
detail. If you visualise everything correctly and consistently
and in all the details, the alarm should go off at exactly the
moment that you have finished your visualisation.
“If you’re lazy and leave out a lot of the details, you’ll finish
your visualisation before the alarm goes off. If, on the other
hand, you’re slow and lethargic in your thinking and visualisa-
tion, the alarm will go off before you’ve finished.
“Some people will need a whole year’s training to do this,
others two years, while there are those who might learn it
all in a month. Once you learn to make your visualisations
coincide with real time, you’re close to being ready for tel-
eportation. You can then go on to the third part of the
exercise.
“In Part Three you have to mentally enter another room of
your home and carry out a series of actions which you do only
rarely First measure the time it takes you to carry out the ac-
tions in visualisation. Let’s say you go into a room, fill a water-
ing-can with water and proceed to water some flowers. After
doing this and getting up from the bed, check your watch to
see how r many minutes the visualisation took you, and either
memorise the figure or write it down,
“Then go into the room you recently entered in your mind
and repeat the action of watering the flowers. The time
should coincide right to the minute. If it doesn’t, well, that
means you need more training. Once you’ve got the times
to coincide, then you’ll be able to do a great deal with your
second self — you’ll be able to visit not just other rooms in
your home, but your neighbour’s home too and even other
countries. For this you will only need a few reliable details.
After analysing them, you’ll be able to re-create the whole en-
vironment in detail and actually go there.
“Not everyone will manage to do something like this, but
I can tell you with certainty that once you have been in an
it;8
Book 7: The Energy of Life
overseas city you’ll be able to go there again and again by
transporting that second self of yours.
“Once you master this, though, you need to be mindful
about one particular danger — you shouldn’t detach your sec-
ond self from your body for very long.”
At this point I’ll digress from Anastasia’s grandfather’s ac-
count and tell you in more detail about the danger involved.
After doing this exercise (for curiosity’s sake) and achiev-
ing the results he spoke of, I tried teleporting my second self
to the island of Cyprus, to the city of Paphos, which I had
visited earlier . 3
Lying on the sofa in my office, I relaxed and pictured my-
self getting ready for the trip, going to the airport, boarding
the plane, landing at Larnaca and checking into the hotel I
had stayed at in Paphos. Then I took a shower and walked
down to the sea-side.
Coffee in the evening, the local music, a morning stroll on
the beach, bathing in the sea — it was all there.
I returned — or woke up, I’m not sure which is the more
accurate description here — three days later. And I could
barely lift myself out of bed. My body, to put it mildly, had
been wanting to go to the bathroom for a long time, and no-
body had bothered to take it there. It was also very hungry,
but nobody had fed it. I finally managed to get up and take
a look at myself in the mirror. I wasn’t happy with what I
saw. A three days’ stubble had sprouted on my face, and my
facial expression was peeved and joyless. And I felt very sorry
for my poor body, which had been abandoned the past three
days.
The whole experience taught me a lesson: that Man’s body
is nothing but an utterly helpless piece of flesh without the
■’See Book 5, Chapter 19: “Who controls coincidences?”.
An exercise for teleportation
199
energy of the second — or is it the first? — human self. Yet
helpless as it might be, it still belongs to me and I have no
right to leave it unattended, even for the sake of a trip to some
overseas resort. I also observed that when you travel without
your body, though the sensation may appear complete, and
you feel the sea water and the warmth of the Sun’s rays, the
body still doesn’t get a tan.
At first I regretted the time wasted on the training. But
later I managed to make profitable use of it in the ability to
foresee, with the help of my second self, some events that
hadn’t happened yet. This is how I managed to write on sev-
eral topics which I’m about to present to you now.
Chapter Twenty-Five
In Ukraine there is a city called Kharkov : 1 In this city there
is an orphanage. A fine orphanage, with cozy rooms, a hand-
some aquarium and a large swimming pool. It has received
significant support from local authorities and the business
community. In showing me the facilities, the head of munici-
pal education department remarked that children from this
orphanage go to the regular public school. As I looked out the
window I could see groups of children on their way back from
school. Only one little girl was walking apart from the rest.
“That’s Sonia . 2 She’s in Grade One,” the director ex-
plained. “She always walks alone. She thinks that she will
soon be adopted by a Jewish family.”
“Why ajewish family?” I asked. “She doesn’t at all look like
a Jewish child, with her fair hair. She looks Ukrainian more
than anything.”
“Someone at school told her that Sonia is ajewish name, so
she must be Jewish. Sonia agreed, and decided at once that
she would definitely be adopted by ajewish family. And she
1 Kharkov (known in Ukrainian as Kharkiv) — a major Ukrainian industrial
and cultural centre, situated near the junction of the Lopan and Udy Rivers
(tributaries of the Severski Donets), in the north-east of the country. With
a population of a million and a half, it is the second largest city in Ukraine
after Kiev.
' Sonia — an ancient Russian name (literally meaning ‘sleepy’), now often
used as an affectionate form of the name Sofia, also appearing in variants
such as Sonechka (pron. SON-yetch-ka).
Give children their Motherland
201
always walks alone, thinking that if she walks with the group,
her future parents might not notice her.”
Kharkov has a fine orphanage. There are orphanages, too,
in other cities in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. They are home
to children. Yet no matter how cozy the rooms in these or-
phanages, all children dream of having parents and a family.
In her nondescript shoes, small and slender first-grader
Sonia trod in a no-nonsense fashion across the asphalt court-
yard, separately from her group of classmates. And Sonia,
who lived in the orphanage, had a dream...
A day went by, then another, then months. Sonia wasn’t aware
that children’s shelters had been around a long time in various
countries, and that not all children ended up being adopted.
Most of them, in fact, are doomed to spend their whole lives
parentless. Sonia wasn’t adopted either.
However, her life did not turn out in the usual way At that
time a group of Kharkov residents decided to build a commu-
nity not far from the city They managed to acquire a hundred
and fifty hectares of land, and a hundred and twenty families
decided to set up their own kin’s domains, a hectare each in
size.
One lot on the edge of the community remained unspoken
for, so they decided to give it to somebody from the orphan-
age. It turned out that little Sonia was selected as the recipi-
ent. They brought the girl out to see her plot, accompanied
by one of the housemothers. The housemother began to ex-
plain to Sonia:
“D’you see, Sonia, the stakes driven into the ground and
the rope stretched between them? This rope marks off your
land, a whole hectare. It is a gift to you from people who have
also taken a hectare of land nearby to plant gardens and build
houses on. When you grow up, you too will be able to build a
house and plant a garden. Your land will be waiting for you.”
202
Book 7: The Energy of Life
The little girl walked up to the rope, touched it, and asked
the housemother:
“Does that mean that on the other side of this rope is my
land and I can do whatever I want with it?”
“Yes, Sonechka, this is your land, and you alone are in
charge of everything that will grow on it.”
‘And what will grow on it?”
“Well, for the time being, as you can see, a lot of different
kinds of grasses. But look over there, on your neighbours’
plots — they’ve already started planting apple trees and pear
trees, and a whole bunch of other fruit trees, and they’ll soon
have flourishing orchards. And when you grow up, -you will
decide what to plant on your land and where to put it, so that
it will look beautiful, just like the others.”
Sonia bent over and crawled under the rope onto her hec-
tare of land. She took several steps along the rope, carefully
examining the ground and all the little creatures twittering
and darting about on the grass. She walked as far as a little
birch-tree growing on the plot and touched its slender trunk.
She turned to the housemother, and in a somewhat excited
voice asked:
“What about this little tree? The little birch tree? Is that
mine too?”
“Yes, Sonechka, as of now the birch tree belongs only to
you, since it’s growing on your land. When you get older,
you’ll be able to plant other trees here... But now it’s time
to go. It’ll soon be lunch- time and I have to get back to the
group.”
The little girl turned to look at her plot and stood silently
contemplating it.
Give children their Motherland
203
People who have children know that when they play, children
often build little rooms for themselves out of various things
or, in the country, they set up little lean-tos for themselves to
play in. For some reason, every child has a need to fence off
a little world of their own from the big world outside, to cre-
ate their own space. Children who live in orphanages have a
common space, but this common space, even if it is very well
appointed, can only have a negative effect on them.
Like other orphanage children, Sonia never had a corner to
call her own, even a tiny one. And here she was standing on
the other side of the rope, where everything belonged exclu-
sively to her — including the grass, and the lively grasshoppers
hopping across the ground, and the little birch tree. The slim
little girl turned to her housemother and started to speak.
Her voice combined tones of both pleading and decisiveness.
“I beg of you, very, very much, to please let me stay here.
You go on ahead, and I’ll come back on my own.”
“How will you get back? It’s thirty kilometres!”
“I’ll make it,” replied Sonia firmly. “I’ll walk and I’ll make
it. Maybe I’ll take the bus. Please let me have some time on
my land all by myself.”
The driver of the Zhiguli? who happened to be the proprie-
tor of the plot next door to Sonia’s, overheard the conversa-
tion and proposed:
“Let the girl stay here until this evening. I’ll take you back
now, and bring her home tonight.”
After a moment’s thought the housemother agreed. How
could she refuse, after seeing the face of this little girl stand-
ing behind the rope, awaiting her decision.
3 Zh/guli — a car produced at Toliatti on the Volga River (see footnote 1 in
Book 4, Chapter 22: “Other worlds”), here referring to the car which had
brought Sonia and the housemother out to see the plot.
204
Book 7: The Energy of Life
‘All right, Sonia, you may stay here until this evening. I’ll
send along lunch with the driver.”
“What d’you need to do that for?” responded the Zhiguli
driver. “Well be happy to share our lunch with our neigh-
bour,” he added, with a respectful emphasis on the word
neighbour.
“D’you hear that, Klava?” 4 he called out to his wife, who
was busy preparing lunch on the porch of their house. Their
house was still under construction. “Make dinner for four —
our neighbour will be joining us today.”
“Fine,” answered his wife. “There’s enough for everyone.”
And she added: “Just give us a shout, Sonia, if there’s anything
you need.”
“Thank you,” answered Sonia, now extremely happy
After the Zhiguli had departed, Sonia walked along the rope
strung between the stakes. She walked slowly, sometimes
pausing to sit down on the grass and touch something with
her hands before continuing on. In this fashion she walked
around the whole perimeter of her lot.
Then she stood in the middle of her hectare and surveyed
all sides of the perimeter. And then all at once, she threw her
hands in the air and began running, jumping and spin nin g
around.
After lunch Klava noticed how tired the girl looked after
trotting around her plot, and invited her to have a nap on a
folding cot. But Sonia, tired as she was, replied:
“If possible, can you give me some old clothing I can spread
out to lie down on. I’ll take a nap on my own piece of land, by
the birch tree.”
Nikolai 5 set up the cot with a mattress and blanket be-
side the birch tree on Sonia’s plot. The girl lay down and
4 Klava — an affectionate form of the feminine name Klavdia (correspond-
ing to Claudia in English).
Give children their Motherland
205
immediately fell into a deep sleep. This was her first time
sleeping in her own kin’s domain.
But now the orphanage was faced with what initially seemed
an insoluble problem. Not a day passed but Sonia would ask
the housemothers to allow her to go to her own hectare of
land. Their explanations — that she was still too young to
take the bus all by herself, and the housemothers couldn’t
take her since they couldn’t leave the other children — fell
on deaf ears.
Sonia began talking with the orphanage’s director. She
explained to him that she absolutely had to go see her land.
She had to, because on the neighbouring plots people were
already planting trees, and would soon have flourishing or-
chards, while her land would be left abandoned. Nothing
would be flourishing on it.
Finally the orphanage’s director came up with a solution
that was acceptable to Sonia. He told her:
“Right now, Sonia, it’s not possible to take you out to your
plot, since apart from everything else, you still have a fort-
night’s study ahead of you. Two weeks from now the sum-
mer holidays will begin. I’ll have a word with the neighbours
next door to your plot, and if they agree to watch out for you,
then during the holidays we’ll send you off to your plot for a
time — for a week, at least, or maybe longer.
“By the way, you could spend this coming fortnight getting
yourself ready for your land. Here, take these two brochures
and read up. One of them tells how to make planting beds,
and the other is a guide to medicinal herbs. If you can be on
-Nikolai (pron. iikka-LTE, rhyming with ‘by’) — a masculine name of
Greek origin, now commonly used in Russia (corresponding to Nicholas in
English). The ancient Russian name Kolya is now used as an endearing form
of Nikolai. In this case it is the name of the driver, Klava’s husband.
20 6
Book 7: The Energy of Life
your best behaviour these next two weeks, I’ll also get ready
for you a selection of seeds for the holidays.”
Sonia was on her best behaviour. She did all her lessons
conscientiously, and devoted all (absolutely all!) her spare
time to reading the two brochures the director had given her.
When she lay down to sleep, she dreamt about the beautiful
plants that would grow' on her plot. On one occasion, while
all the other children were fast asleep, the night-nurse noticed
Sonia drawing sketches of trees and flowers by the moonlight
streaming through her window;
The neighbours did agree to watch out for the little girl,
and when the summer holidays began, the director himself
helped load a number of items into the baggage compart-
ment of the Zhiguli, including box lunches for two weeks, a
small shovel and rake, as well as a packet of seeds.
Nikolai didn’t want to take the box lunches from the or-
phanage, but the director assured him that Sonia was an ex-
tremely independent girl and would never want to be a bur-
den to anyone, so it would be better for her to see she had her
own supply of food.
And they also gave her a new sleeping bag — in spite of the
fact that Nikolai’s family had already fixed up a little room for
Sonia on the finished ground floor of their house, complete
with sheets and pillows.
As Sonia was getting into the car, a whole lot of people
came out to see her off — not just the orphanage staff on duty
that day, but a crowd who had come especially to look upon
the little girl’s face, which was beaming with happiness.
For the first three nights Sonia slept in the room her neigh-
bours had fixed up for her, spending all day long on her own
hectare of land which was so dear to her heart.
The third day was Nikolai’s birthday and a lot of guests
came. One young couple arrived with their tent. On the
Give children their Motherland
207
following day, when the guests departed, the tent was left be-
hind.
“That’s a present for you,” the young couple said to Nikolai.
Then Sonia asked Nikolai if she could sleep in the tent.
Nikolai gave her his permission.
“Of course, go ahead, if you like. What is it — do you find
your room stuffy?”
“The room’s fine,” replied the girl. “But everybody here
spends the night on their own land, while my land is all alone
at night. There are lights burning on many of the other plots
at night-time, but mine’s all dark.”
“So, does that mean you’d like me to set up the tent on your
plot?”
“I’d like that very, very much, Uncle Kolya — if you could
set it up beside the birch tree. Only if you have time, and if
it’s not too inconvenient...”
Every night after that Sonia slept in the tent Nikolai set up on
her plot beside the birch tree.
Upon awakening early in the morning, she would go at
once to the bucket of water standing by the tent, and draw
some water in a mug. After filling her mouth, she would let
a thin stream of water splash onto the palms of her hands to
wash her face.
Then she would take out a sketch-book in which she had made
hand-drawings of the plan for her plot, and study them. After
that, she would proceed to dig her flower and vegetable beds.
The small sapper’s spade the director had given her had a
sharp edge, but Sonia was unable to get the full blade into the
ground; she could only get it in only half-way But she still
managed to make her vegetable beds.
Her neighbour Nikolai offered to plough up any desig-
nated areas with a rototiller, but Sonia categorically refused.
She was fiercely jealous of any encroachment on her territory.
208
Book 7: The Energy of Life
People sensed this and endeavoured not to cross over the
line (marked out by stakes and rope) without her knowledge.
Even Nikolai, upon awaking in the morning, when he went to
call Sonia to breakfast, would go only as far as the property
line and call out to Sonia from there.
Perhaps it was some kind of extraordinary streak of aspi-
ration toward independence on this young girl’s part, or else
the fear of becoming a burden to someone, that prevented
her from asking anybody any favours. Even when one of the
community residents tried to offer her clothing, or candy, or
some sort of equipment, she would politely thank them, but
categorically decline the offer.
In the two weeks she spent on her land, Sonia managed to
dig out and plant three vegetable beds, with a huge flower-
bed in the middle.
On the morning of her last day of her fortnight’s stay,
Nikolai went to the perimeter of her plot as usual, to call
her to breakfast. The girl was standing by her flower-bed (in
which nothing had come up yet). As she stared at it, she re-
plied to Nikolai without turning around:
“Uncle Kolya, you don’t have to call me to eat this morning,
I don’t feel hungry”
Nikolai would say later that he could hear her voice cracking,
he could tell she was barely holding back her tears. He wasn’t
about to try to find out what the matter was. He went back to
his place and began observing Sonia through his field-glasses.
The girl was pacing back and forth across her plot, first
touching a plant with her hands, or straightening out something
in one of the beds. Then she went over to her birch tree and put
her arms around it. Nikolai could see her shoulders trembling.
By lunch-time the orphanage’s ageing mini-van arrived.
The driver stopped at the entrance to Nikolai’s territory and
sounded his horn. Nikolai would recount the subsequent
events as follows:
Give children their Motherland
209
When I saw her through my field-glasses gather up her
simple little things, like the shovel and rake, and head over
our direction with such a sad expression on her face, when
I looked at that face close-up, I couldn’t hold out any long-
er. I grabbed my mobile phone and rang the orphanage.
Fortunately I was able to get through to the director right
away. I told him I was willing to sign any papers required,
accepting responsibility for the child, saying I would take
the summer off work to spend the whole time here on the
plot, just so the little girl could stay on her piece of land
until the end of the holidays.
At first the director started to explain that all the chil-
dren from their orphanage were to go to summer camp
at the sea-side for rest and therapy — that he and his col-
leagues had spent a long time securing this opportunity,
and that now they would be going to the camp, thanks to
the generosity of a group of sponsors.
I then spoke with the director frankly, man-to-man, but
he wasn’t offended, and gave me an equally frank response.
Whereupon he asked to have a word with the driver, prom-
ising to come out himself tomorrow.
I ran out to the road and handed the telephone to the
driver, adding from myself:
“Okay, there, friend. Get out of here pronto!”
The driver left. Then Sonia came up to me and said:
“Uncle Kolya, didn’t the van-driver come for me? But
why did he leave?”
For some reason my negotiations with the orphanage di-
rector had left me rather tense. I lit a cigarette, my hands
were trembling, and I responded to her:
“What makes you think he was coming for you? He sim-
ply came to see if you needed any food supplies, or any-
thing else, and I told him everything was okay.”
210
Book 7: The Energy of Life
She looked me straight in the eye. It seemed as though
she understood what was going on. Then she said softly:
“Thank you, Uncle Kolya!” Then she began walking,
and eventually running, back to her land.
The orphanage director came the following morning. I
was already waiting for him. Only he didn’t head my way,
but walked straight over in the direction of Sonia’s tent. I
didn’t get a chance to warn him not to cross the line with-
out an invitation. But, smart fellow that he is, he guessed
as much himself. Again, in an apparent effort not to trau-
matise the child, this clever chap had the sense to say, as
the little girl came to meet him:
“Good day, Sonia. I just stopped by to let you know
we’re all going off to the sea-side. Would you like to stay
here, or join us on our trip?”
“Stay here!” Sonia didn’t just say it, but screamed it.
“I thought as much,” responded the director. “So I
brought you something byway of box lunches...”
“No need to trouble yourself, no need to waste your
time. 1 don’t need anything.”
“No need? Then what would you have me do? The state
provides us with funds for each child in our care. But you
are here taking care of yourself, and feeding yourself. Tell
me, how can I account for the state funds in a situation like
this? No, please be so gracious as to accept these... Okay,
Alexeich, 0 you can go ahead and unload them.
“Will you allow us to come in, Sonia? Maybe you’ll show
us your place here?”
6 Alexeich (pron. a-kk-SAY-yitch) — here a patronymic (see footnote 9 in
Book 1, Chapter i: “The ringing cedar”). Patronymics in Russian are occa-
sionally used alone in certain situations, one of them being an employer ad-
dressing an employee he knows very well. The full form of Alexeich would
be Alexeevich.
Give children their Motherland
211
Sonia stared at the director for several moments, sizing
up the whole situation. Then she noticed the driver of the
mini-van unloading some heavy-looking bags, and once she
finally realised that she would be staying put here on her land
for the whole summer holidays, she joyfully exclaimed:
“Oh, what have I... Come in, come in. The gate’s over
there where there’s no rope. Please be my guests. I’ll be
happy to show you my place. You too, Uncle Kolya, come
on in.”
She led us over to her tent and at once invited us to take
a drink of water from the bucket standing alongside.
“Here, have some water. I get it from a spring. It’s good-
tasting, better than tap water. Do please take a drink.”
“I shan’t say no to that,” replied the director, drawing a
half a mugful of water from the bucket and downing it with
gusto. “It’s jolly good!”
The driver and I both took a drink and complimented
Sonia on her water, to her great delight. It was probably
the first time in her life that Sonia had possessed anything
of her own. Even if it was just water, it was still something
that was hers, something of her own that she could offer
to adults. Sonia began to feel like a real participant in the
world.
After that, we sat there listening for maybe an hour and
a half or two hours while Sonia regaled us with her report
of what she had already planted and what she was going
to plant. And she showed us her drawings of her future
kin’s domain. Only there was no house in the plans she had
drawn.
“It’s time for us to go,” the director told Sonia. “You can
unpack your things on your own. I threw in a battery-op-
erated flashlight. It’s an electric torch that can shine far
into the distance, but if you switch it over to the daylight-
lamp setting, you can use it to read by. And now you’ll
212
Book 7: The Energy of Life
have something to read. I brought you some magazines on
landscape design, and gardening books, and books on folk
medicine.”
“Oh, I forgot something again,” spluttered Sonia. “Just
a moment.” She pulled back one of the tent flaps, and
we saw bunches of various herbs hanging on a tent wire
stretched taut. She took out several bunches and offered
them to the director.
“This is celandine.' A special kind of herb... This is for
Katya in our group, she needs to make a brew with it and
drink it. She’s so often ill. I read up on celandine in the
brochure you gave me. I’ve dried it already
“Thank you...”
In sum, this director’s a pretty fine fellow, and he loves chil-
dren. I had a talk with him later. He asked me how Sonia
was behaving herself, and gave me some concrete advice.
Sonia spent the whole summer in her tent on her own
piece of land. The bed at the centre of her garden blos-
somed with magnificent flowers, while the produce from
the vegetable beds included onions and radishes.
In the evenings, when the days began to grow shorter,
you could often see the light of the electric torch flickering
in the tent. Every evening Sonia read books on folk medi-
cine and made drawings or her future plans for her land in
her sketch-book.
When the orphanage’s mini-van came to collect her at
the end of the summer, I helped Sonia load up her things.
And there was quite a bit to load! Just the bunches of herbs
she had dried numbered around two hundred. Her yield
also included a sack of potatoes and three pumpkins. The
van had a full load. I asked Sonia:
celandine — see footnote 4 in Book 3, Chapter 20: “Mediums”.
Give children their Motherland
213
“What about next year? Shall I hold on to your tent for
you?”
“I’ll definitely come again next summer. First day of
the holidays, I’ll be here. You’re a good neighbour, Uncle
Kolya. Thank you for being such a good neighbour!”
And she shook my hand just like an adult. And this time
it was a much stronger handshake. Sonia had not only got
herself a good tan, but she had got stronger and more self-
confident as well.
When she came the next year she brought fruit-tree sap-
lings along with her, as well as some kind of seedlings, and
got down to business right off.
At a community meeting people from our settlement
decided to build Sonia a little house.
But Zina, s whose husband was an entrepreneur and had
built the biggest mansion in the community, began to insist
that Sonia’s house should be more than little’.
“I’m ashamed to look visitors in the eye. The founda-
tions of all the houses in the settlement are being set up as
though they were palaces, and here’s one only child living
in a tent. What can visitors think?”
Knowing the girl’s feelings, especially her resentment at
any kind of offers of assistance, they entrusted me to nego-
tiate with her.
I went to see her and said:
“Sonia, at a community meeting the residents decided
to build you a little house to live in. All you have to do is
show us where you would like it placed.”
In response, she asked me rather guardedly:
“Uncle Kolya, how much would a little house cost?”
Not suspecting anything, I replied:
8
Zina — an endearing form of the name Zinaida (pron, Zee-na-EE-da ).
214
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“Oh, somewhere in the neighbourhood of two hundred
thousand roubles. In other words, about two thousand per
family.”
“Two thousand each? But that’s a lot of money. That
means people would have to buy less of something for their
own children — just to spend on me. Uncle Kolya, I beg
of you: tell the people I don’t need a house right now I
haven’t even thought of a place to put it yet. I beg of you,
Uncle Kolya, please explain to the people...”
She was greatly concerned, and I could understand why.
Upon receiving her piece of land, Sonia felt independent
for the first time in her life. Her plot of land substituted
for her parents — it needed her and she needed it. By some
kind of internal instinct the girl felt or imagined that her
land didn’t want any outsiders laying their hands on it.
And God forbid anyone might criticise her after the
house was completed, even tacitly Her own sense of in-
dependence was far dearer to her than having her own
house.
I tried to persuade the residents not to force any gifts on
the girl. But then something completely unexpected hap-
pened. Agroup of kids on their way back from the lake ran
past Sonia’s plot. Out in front, on a fine-looking bicycle
was the entrepreneur’s son, Edik . 9 He was always teasing
Sonia, calling her Malyavka , 10 even though he himself was
only three years her senior.
9 Edik — an endearing variant of Edward. A few foreign names have become
popular among Russians at certain periods of history But then Russian suf-
fixes may well be added to satisfy the Russian penchant for diminutive (en-
dearing) forms. By way of comparison, note the popularity among English
speakers of certain endearing Russian names like Tanya and Sasha.
10 Malyavka (pron. mal-TAF-ka ) — a condescending nickname indicating
someone younger or shorter than one’s self, something on the order of
‘Little One’ or ‘Shorty’.
Give children their Motherland
21 5
“Hey, there, Malyavka!” Edik called out to Sonia. “You
spend your whole time landscaping — aren’t you bored
with that already? Why don’t you come with us to see the
fireworks?”
“What ‘fireworks’?” asked Sonia.
“My Papa’s going to burn down the construction trailer
his workers have been using. Come and you’ll see. We’ve
already got a fire-engine there on stand-by”
“Why burn it down?”
“’Cause it’s spoiling the view.”
“But after it burns down, nothing will grow on that spot
for a long time.”
“Why not?”
“’Cause all the helpful worms, all the bugs, they’ll get
burnt up too. I tried lighting a fire by my tent one time
and see, nothing’s ever grown on that spot since.”
“Wow, Malyavka! You’re really observant! So, come and
save our worms. Take the old trailer away, otherwise Papa
won’t know how else to get rid of it.”
“How am I going to take it away? Isn’t it heavy?”
“What d’you mean, how? With a crane, of course! The
crane’s coming the day after tomorrow to set up our wind-
mill. So, either you take it or we’re going to have a big bon-
fire.”
“Okay, Edik. I’ll agree to take your trailer.”
“Then let’s go.”
A crowd of adult neighbours, along with a whole lot of
children, had gathered at Edik’s parents’ estate. Afire crew
was standing by at the ready. Edik approached his father,
who was already on his way over to the construction trailer,
carrying a can of gasoline. To the disappointment of the
younger crowd and the glad astonishment of the adults, he
told his father:
“Papa, you don’t need to bum the trailer.”
21 6
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“What d’you mean, I don’t need to? How come?”
“’Cause I’ve given it away”
“To whom?”
“To the Malyavka.”
“What Malyavka?”
“To Sonia, from the plot on the far side of the settle-
ment.”
“Well! Did she agree? Did she agree to accept it from
you?”
“Hey, Papa, if you don’t believe me, ask her yourself.”
Sonia was standing in the crowd of youngsters. Edik
took her by the hand and brought her over to his father.
“Tell him, Sonia, that you agree to take this shack off his
hands. Tell him.”
“I agree,” Sonia answered quietly.
Oh, how the entrepreneur just bubbled over with pride
at his son’s accomplishment! Quite a coup! Here was this
girl who never took anything from anyone, and now the ca-
pricious Sonia had decided to accept a gift from his Edik.
As soon as the children had left, the entrepreneur sum-
moned the whole construction brigade that had been
putting the finishing touches on his mansion, and said to
the foreman:
“So, now, lads. Take any materials you need and start
working around the clock — I’ll pay you double time, if
you can only refit the trailer’s interior to modern European
living standards in forty-eight hours. You can leave the ex-
terior shabby, the way it is. But the interior...”
Forty-eight hours later, next to the birch tree where the
tent had been standing on Sonia’s plot, the construction
trailer with its shabby exterior was set up on a brand new
brick foundation. The exterior was indeed shabby, but the
builders had primed it for painting, and left tins of Finnish"
paint and brushes inside.
Give children their Motherland
217
Sonia later painted the exterior herself. She now had, for
the first time in her life, her very own little house, standing
on her own dear piece of land. By the following year this
house had been transformed into a little fairy-tale chateau,
covered with ivy and wild grapevines and surrounded by
flower-beds.
Ten years went by Sonia finished school and had already
spent a whole year living in her domain. Mansions could be
seen throughout the community, which was already dripping
in lush green vegetation and flourishing orchards. But the
best and prettiest estate belonged to Sonia.
While her classmates were leaving the orphanage and go-
ing off to parts unknown, trying to get accepted into any kind
of academic institution just to get a roof over their heads,
or to find any kind of work so they could at least feed them-
selves, Sonia was already a wealthy woman. The residents of
the community would give their surplus fruits and vegetables
to a manager. Products grown on domains fetched a higher-
than-average price. They were exported to countries in the
European Union, where they were sold in stores specialising
in eco-friendly produce. Sonia gave what she grew on her plot
to the manager as well. Though most of what she produced
was bought by visitors from the city who had heard about this
extraordinary girl and her fabulous domain.
11 European , Finnish — to Russians or Ukrainians, this meant significantly
higher quality than was standard in their own countries.
2l8
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Sonia had also been gathering medicinal herbs and had
helped save a great many people from disease.
One day Edik came back for a visit to his parents, who were
now living full-time in their domain. For the past three years
he had been studying at a prestigious university in America.
He was about to undergo a serious medical operation. He was
suffering from liver and kidney disorders, probably caused by
the poor quality of food and water abroad. Before the opera-
tion, Edik decided to spend a week visiting his parents. His
mother, Zinaida, made a suggestion:
“Maybe, son, we should pay a visit to our local healer? Just
in case she can help.”
“Now there, Mama, what century are we living in, eh?
Medicine in the West has been highly developed for quite a
while now They just cut out and replace whatever they need
to. Don’t worry. I’m not going to see any witch-doctors.
That’s ancient!”
“I’m not suggesting you go to any witch-doctors. Let’s
go see... you remember that little girl from the orphan-
age on the far side of our settlement who surprised every-
one by fixing up the piece of land they gave her, all on her
own?”
“Oh, you mean that Malyavka? I vaguely remember her.”
“Well, now she’s no longer a Malyavka, son, but a very re-
spected woman. Managers are willing to pay double the price
for anything grown by her hand. And people come from fara-
way places for her blend of medicinal herbs. Even though she
doesn’t advertise it at all.”
“How did our Malyavka get to be such an expert?”
“Well, she’s been spending every summer since Grade One
on her plot, and every day during the winter she’s been read-
ing books on gardening and folk medicine. The child’s mind
is sharp, and she picks up everything so quickly. She got a
lot of it from books. Only people say her real understanding
Give children their Motherland
219
came more from herself. They say, too, that the plants under-
stand her. She talks with them.”
“Well, that’s our Malyavka for you! How much does she
charge for treatment?”
“Sometimes she charges, but she’s also been known to offer
help for free. One day last autumn I happened to meet her by
the pond. She looked me in the eye and told me:
‘“Auntie Zina, the whites of your eyes don’t look too good.
Here, take this herb, make a tea with it and drink it, and it’ll
get better,’ And it did. And there was really something wrong
with my eyes, since I had a liver complaint. Now that’s gone
too.
“Let’s go, son. We’ll go and see her. Maybe she can help
your liver too.”
“It’s not just my liver, Mama. They’ve already made their
diagnosis and they’re going to remove one of my kidneys.
And no tea’s going to help that. Anyway, let’s go pay her a
visit — it’ll be interesting to see Malyavka’s domain. They say
it’s like a Paradise there.”
“Yes, indeed! She’s done a fantastic job!” exclaimed Edik, as
he and his mother approached Sonia’s domain. “Most peo-
ple in the community seem to have put all their efforts into
building mansions with stone fences, whereas she’s created a
real Paradise. Just look, Mama, the fence she’s created from
greenery!”
“You would have held some of that exclamation in reserve
if you knew what her garden looked like,” observed Zinaida.
“Only very few people get to see it.”
She opened the gate a little and called out loudly:
“Sonia! If you’re home, come on out. Sonia, are you
home?”
The door of the little house — the former construction-
trailer — opened wide, and out onto the porch stepped a young
220
Book 7: The Energy of Life
woman. With a deft movement of her hand she tossed her
tightly woven braid of chestnut-coloured hair over her shoul-
der. When she caught sight of Zinaida accompanied by her
son, her cheeks flushed with a rosy glow She fastened the top
button on her cardigan which fit snugly over her supple breasts,
and with a soft and light but still gracious step this young and
beautiful girl made her way down the porch steps and along the
path to the gate, where Zinaida and Edik were standing.
“Hello, Auntie Zina! Welcome back, Edward! If you’d like,
come into my house or into my garden.”
“Thank you for the invitation. We accept with pleasure,”
replied Zinaida.
But Edik didn’t say a word and didn’t even return Sonia’s
greeting.
“You know, Sonia,” Zinaida went on as they headed for the
garden, “my son has a problem. He’s about to have an opera-
tion. Even though it’ll take place in America, it’s still pretty
upsetting to me as a mother.”
Sonia stopped, turned around and asked Edik:
“What’s the trouble with you, Edward?”
“My heart,” Edik replied, gasping in his throat.
“What d’you mean, your heart?” exclaimed Zinaida. “You
told me it was your liver and your kidneys. Does that mean
you were lying so I wouldn’t get overly concerned?”
“I wasn’t lying. But now, Mama, my heart is beating so
fast — can’t you feel it right here?!” He took his mother’s
hand and placed it against his chest. “Listen — it’s going to
rupture and explode if you don’t convince this beautiful maid-
en to marry me at once!”
“You’re such a jokester,” laughed Zinaida. “You practically
scared me to death!”
“I’m not joking, Mama.”
“Well, if you aren’t joking,” Zinaida gaily continued, “you
ought to know that half the community have already sent
Give children their Motherland
221
matchmakers over on behalf of their sons. But to no avail —
Sonia doesn’t want to get married. You can ask her yourself
why she doesn’t want to, but don’t set your poor mother up
for a fall.”
Edik went up to Sonia and quietly enquired:
“Sonia, why have you never married anyone?”
“Because,” Sonia softly responded, “I’ve been waiting for
you, Edik.”
“Oh you teasers! What are you making fun of a mother like
that for?”
“Bless us, Mama, right now. I’m not teasing,” Edik declared
firmly, and took Sonia by the hand.
‘And I’m not teasing either, Auntie Zina,” Sonia said in a
serious tone.
“You aren’t teasing? That means you too, Sonia?... You’re
not joking? Well, if you’re not joking, then what are you still
calling me Auntie’ for, instead of ‘Mama’?”
“Fine. I’ll call you Mama,” replied Sonia, her voice trem-
bling. She took a step in Zinaida’s direction, but then paused
in hesitation.
Zinaida couldn’t immediately catch on to what was hap-
pening — was this some kind of stalemate, a joke? She anx-
iously glanced back and forth between Sonia’s face and her
son’s. Then there came the moment when she realised how
serious the young couple’s intentions really were, and at this
point she rushed over to Sonia, embraced her and broke into
tears:
“Sonia! Sonechka! Daughter! I know you’re serious about
each other.”
Sonia’s shoulders were trembling too. She hugged Zinaida
and repeated:
“Yes, Mama, we’re serious. Very serious indeed.”
Whereupon the young couple, holding hands, slowly and
without eyes for anyone but each other, walked down the
222
Book 7: The Energy of Life
community street to the domain belonging to Edik’s family.
Zinaida walked out in front. She was laughing and crying at
the same time, and chattered on incessantly, accosting each
person they met:
“We’ve just come... And they — bang! — they’ve fallen in
love with each other... And I — bang! — I blessed them. At
first I thought they were joking. But they — bang. — they
fell in love right off. And I told them... And they said they
wanted ‘to get married, Mama, today!’ Good people, how is
that possible? There’s preparations to be made — it all has to
be done officially. That’s just not possible!”
Presently they saw Edik’s father, the entrepreneur, com-
ing out of the house to greet them.. Upon hearing this same
(more or less) disconnected account from his wife’s lips, he
looked at the young couple and said:
“Well, now, you’re chattering on as usual, Zinaida. And
what d’you mean, a wedding today is impossible? Just look at
these young’uns. We have to hold the wedding not just today,
but right now!”
Edik went up to his father and embraced him.
“Thank you, Papa.”
“What are you thanking me for? Let’s not waste time hug-
ging each other! Everybody say Gor’ko !” 12
“ Gor’ko ! Gor’ko!” all the people cried out that had gathered
round.
Edik and Sonia kissed each other for the first time in front
of the residents of the community Everyone who happened
to be home at the time assembled for the wedding. An impro-
vised table was set up in the fresh air and they all helped set it
together. The ceremony didn’t just ‘buzz’ the way things did
at traditional Russian parties — it ‘sang’ well into the night.
l ~ Gor’ko! (lit. ‘Bitter!’) — a call for the bride and groom to kiss at a wedding
reception (in the sense that the wine is bitter and needs a kiss to make it
sweet).
Give children their Motherland
223
Despite the parents’ pleadings, the young couple decided
to settle down not in Edik’s parents’ mansion, which was ac-
tually more like a palace, but in Sonia’s little house.
“You see, Father,” Edik explained, “this palace we’ve built
here with all its different wings takes up practically half a hec-
tare. But we don’t have the beauty that Sonia’s domain has, or
even the air. We’ve got to take half the additions down.”
The entrepreneur started drinking, and kept at it for a
whole week. But after that, to everyone’s surprise, he started
taking down the wings he had added to his mansion. He ex-
plained:
“We were pretty silly putting up all the additions. Our
grandchildren won’t want to move into catacombs like
these!”
And Sonia and Edik went on living happily...
Stop! Now I’ve already started talking about the future. And
most certainly, it will be marvellous! But what about the
present? At the present time, there is indeed a fine orphan-
age in the city of Kharkov And there is a little girl named
Sonia there. Sonia’s in Grade Three now, but she doesn’t have
a hectare of land of her own, neither do Tanya, Seryozha or
Katya, or any of the thousands of children living in orphan-
ages. The Ukrainian Rada 13 has not even put the question on
its agenda yet — the question of granting a hectare of land
to every resident of the country, including orphans, for life-
time use, on which to set up a family domain. Neither has the
Belarus Duma or the Russian Duma considered it.
Will the children forgive them? Will today’s parliamentary
deputies be able to forgive themselves?
I} Rc/da — the Ukrainian Parliament, corresponding to the Duma in Russia
and Belarus.
Chapter Twenty-Six
For the past five evenings Nikolai Ivanovich 1 — the warden of
a maximum-security correctional facility (in plain language,
a prison) — had not been able to leave his office at the usual
time. When his workday officially ended he turned his tel-
ephone ringer off and began pacing his office, deep in con-
templation. Occasionally he would sit down at his desk, pick
up the green folder lying on it and peruse its contents for the
umpteenth time.
A convict serving time for an infraction of Article 93,
Clause 1, of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation had
put forward a petition to him on behalf of a group of inmates
in Cell 26, with what at first glance looked like an unthinkable
proposal.
The convict, whose name was Khodakov, proposed ac-
quiring for the facility a hundred hectares of abandoned or
unused arable land, to be surrounded by a barbed-wire fence
with a watch-tower at each corner — in other words, talcing
all due precaution to prevent escapes. On this fenced-in hun-
dred hectares ninety prisoners would be engaged in agricul-
tural labour. The applications of those interested were kept
in a file in this green folder.
In their applications these prisoners committed themselves
to supply the whole facility with vegetables, to the tune of half
'Nikolai Ivanovich (pron. Nee-ka-LTE i-KlHN-ych) — first name plus patro-
nymic (cf. footnote 9 in Book 1, Chapter 1: “The ringing cedar”). The name
Nikolai also has an endearing form: Kolya.
A security zone of the future
225
of all the produce they grew on the land. The other half they
asked to be sent to their families. So far, nothing impossible
in their request. In various correctional facilities prisoners are
engaged in manufacturing activity In some cases this involves
crafting simple objects in woodworking shops, in others — or-
ganised textile production, where prisoners sew simple items
of clothing, such as quilted jackets or underpants, and receive
a nominal wage for their work. The low wage is also due to
the rather low level of productivity involved.
According to the proposal in the file, the prisoners wanted
to take up agriculture. Well, no problem there either. A pay-
ment of half of their produce was entirely feasible. No need
to bother with selling stuff, or shipping off products on con-
signment and then waiting months for the proceeds to come
in. But that wasn’t all...
Khodakov, on behalf of the other prisoners, asked that
the hundred hectares be divided into one-hectare plots, each
plot to be assigned to a specific prisoner. In addition, they
asked that each prisoner be granted the right to build a one-
room cell-hut on their plot. There was also a request that any
prisoner who wished to, be allowed to stay on their land after
serving their sentence, and then for the prison not to collect
as a levy but to purchase surplus produce from them, as well
as to allow them to enlarge their dwellings.
The file containing the proposal, or request, had been giv-
en to Nikolai Ivanovich as far back as six months ago. Along
with the ninety applications and the text of the proposal, the
file also included plans for the future plots, handsomely ex-
ecuted in coloured pencil. The drawings showed the watch-
towers, the barbed wire and the controlled-entry point.
After his initial reading Nikolai Ivanovich tucked the green
folder away in the bottom drawer of his desk. From time to
time he would mentally go over its contents, but he had not
given any answer to the prisoners.
226
Book 7: The Energy of Life
A certain circumstance had come about, however, which
caused the warden to spend every evening over the past five
days in intensive contemplation of the prisoners’ proposal.
An order had come from the national administration to take
steps, beginning the following year, to enlarge the facility and
construct additional cells, with a view to being ready to accept
a hundred and fifty new convicts by the year’s end. The order
was accompanied by plans for additional wards to be attached
to the existing buildings, along with a financing schedule. It
was proposed to use prisoner labour in the construction.
Nikolai Ivanovich mused as follows: The financing will be
delayed as usual, and there will be problems procuring low-cosi ma-
terials. They put one set of prices for construction materials into the
budget, but when it comes to the actual building it’s something else
already. Prisoner labour is never very efficient. The order is pat-
ently impossible to carry out.
But there was no question that it had to be carried out.
Nikolai Ivanovich’s retirement was only five years away He
had already attained the rank of colonel. He had been the
warden of this facility for twenty years now, without a single
black mark on his record. And now this order.
But these concerns were not uppermost in the colonel’s
deliberations. The green folder! In his memo Prisoner
Khodakov stated that his proposal would fulfil the principal
objective of incarcerating prisoners in such institutions —
namely, rehabilitation.
The fact that modem correctional institutions seldom suc-
ceed in their rehabilitation efforts — indeed, quite the con-
trary, they end up producing more experienced criminals —
was not lost on Nikolai Ivanovich. If this were not so, you
wouldn’t get them coming back to prison for the second or
third time. Nikolai Ivanovich had given a great deal of time
and energy to his calling, and was extremely disturbed by this
situation.
A security zone of the future
227
His life was getting on now, his term of service was coming
to an end, and what was there to show for it? A nursery for
criminals, as it turned out.
The green folder! How infectious it was! If only he could
confidently conclude that there was something unacceptable
in the proposal the file contained! But no. Something inside
him would not let him reject it out of hand. But neither could
he bring himself to fully support it. It was an offbeat, uncon-
ventional proposal.
The next morning, the colonel’s first order of the day was to
have Prisoner Khodakov from Cell 26 brought to his office.
“You can take a seat, Mr Khodakov,” said Nikolai Ivanovich
to the man who had just come in, accompanied by an escort
guard. The warden gestured to a chair.
“I’ve just been looking over the contents of your file. I
have a specific question for you.”
“Sir!” the prisoner hastened to reply, getting up from his chair.
“Sit!” the guard commanded.
“Yes, do sit down,” the prison warden replied softly. “No
need to jump to your feet the way they do in court.” Turning
to the escort guard, he added: “You can wait for us outside.”
“So, Sergei Yurevich Khodakov, I must say you’ve submit-
ted a rather strange proposal.”
“It only seems strange on the surface. In fact, the proposal
is extremely reasonable.”
“Then tell me directly, flat out, what kind of cunning plan
have you thought up here? Are you aiming to set up the con-
ditions for a mass escape? The ninety candidates applying are
all serving sentences of between five and nine years. Does
this mean you want your freedom sooner?”
“If there’s any cunning plan in this proposal, it has nothing
to do with escape, sir.” Again the prisoner rose and showed
signs of concern. “You’ve got the wrong impression...”
228
Book 7: I he Energy of Life
“Just sit down and relax. And let’s dispense with the ‘sir’.
I’m Nikolai Ivanovich. I know from your file that you are
Sergei Yurevich. You used to be a psychologist. You defended
your thesis, and then went into business. Your sentence was
for major embezzlement — right?”
“Yes, I was sentenced — it was back at the beginning of
perestroika, after all, Nikolai Ivanovich. You just get used to
one set of laws, and suddenly new ones come out...”
“Okay, okay. That’s not the issue here. Explain to me what
you have in mind with this agricultural zone with a barbed-
wire fence, or is there another name for it?”
“I’ll try to explain, Nikolai Ivanovich. Only it’s hard for me
to do that, because of a particular circumstance.”
“What circumstance?”
“You see, we’ve been reading this book — it’s called
Anastasia, Then along came another book, a sequel. Well,
anyway the book talks about Man’s purpose in life. About
how if everyone living on the Earth took a hectare of land
and created a corner of Paradise on it, the whole Earth would
be transformed into a Paradise. The book explains this very
simply and convincingly.”
“Sounds pretty simple to me! If everyone took... and cre-
ated..., well, then, of course, the whole Earth would be trans-
formed... But what’s this got to do with your proposal?”
“I’m trying to tell you: it’s all outlined very persuasively in
these books. Now some people might just glance over them su-
perficially, and not get everything. But we have the time — we’ve
been reading and discussing them, and we understand them.”
“So, what have you got out of it?”
‘After reading these books, a whole lot of people have the
desire to acquire their own land and create a Paradise oasis
in their own kin’s domain. They’re free, they can do this. So
we’ve decided: even if it’s behind barbed wire, we can still each
take a hectare of land, work on it, and make it into something
A security zone of the future
229
beautiful... Byway of a penalty, we suggest handing over half or
even more of our produce either to the facility or to the public
at large. But we do have a special request — that our plot is
not taken away from us when we’ve served our sentence — in
other words, those who want to stay on there can remain.”
“So, what does that mean — that you’re going to live out
the rest of your lives under the guards’ rifle muzzles?”
“After we’ve all served our sentences, you can take away the
barbed-wire fences and cart them off for use somewhere else,
along with the towers. You can use them in another location
for a new group of prisoners who want to fix up their own
domains — while we stay put on ours.”
‘Aha! And then when their time is up, we switch the tow-
ers and barbed wire to a third location, while they go on living
on their land. Is that it?”
“You’ve got it.”
“Some sort of phantasmagoria! What is it — you want me,
the warden of this facility, to create Paradise oases for my
prisoners? And are you certain that this can really work?”
“Pm absolutely convinced it will be a success. As a psy-
chologist I’m convinced. And it’s something I feel in my
heart. Judge for yourself, Nikolai Ivanovich: someone serves
nine years behind bars, and then walks free. He hasn’t any
friends. His friends are back in the prison’s security zone, or
in their cells. His family doesn’t want anything to do with
him. Neither does society at large. Let’s face it, who’ll give an
ex-con a decent job? Most job categories are up to their ears
in unemployed professionals, and look how many highly qual-
ified people are standing in queue at employment centres.
Our society provides no positions for ex-convicts. There’s
only one road ahead for them — back to the old routine. And
so they follow it, and they end up back here with you again.”
“Yes, I know the scenario. What’s the point in merely
stating the obvious? But tell me, as a psychologist, why
230
Book 7: The Energy of Life
did the cons who read these books suddenly change and go
for the idea of getting a piece of land behind a barbed-wire
fence?”
“Well, you see, they all got a glimpse of eternity on the ho-
rizon. Like, people believe you’re still alive, even in a prison
cell. Whereas in fact you’re not. You’re dead. Because there’s
nothing left for you on life’s horizon.”
“What were you saying about ‘a glimpse of eternity’?”
“I told you, it’s hard for me to explain it right off. It’s all in
the books...”
“Okay, I’ll read these books, and try to figure out what’s
made you wax so lyrical over this. Then well talk again.
Guard, take him away”
Prisoner Khodakov got up, put his hands behind his back,
and asked:
“May I ask one more question?”
“Go ahead,” the colonel agreed.
“When we were working out the plan for this security zone,
we took all existing regulations for prisoner holding into ac-
count. The proposal does not allow for any violation of these
regulations.”
“I say you’ve thought of everything! The regulations... No
violation... I’ll check it out.” Then Nikolai Ivanovich ordered
the guard:
“Take him away”
Subsequently the warden called in the prison’s legal coun-
sel. Lie handed him the file and said:
“Here, take this. Study it thoroughly and determine where
there are any violations of prisoner-holding regulations.
Report back to me in forty-eight hours.”
Forty-eight hours later the legal counsel was sitting in the war-
den’s office. He began his report with a few evasive phrases,
atypical for his profession.
A security zone of the future
231
“The thing is, Nikolai Ivanovich, that from the point of
view of the law and the regulations governing the holding of
prisoners in so-called places of confinement, the proposal in
question cannot be treated as an open-and-shut case.”
“What kind of spin are you trying to give me here, Vasily , 2
like a lawyer in court? 'fou and I have known each other for
fifteen years...”
Nikolai Ivanovich got up from his desk. For some reason
he appeared flustered. After pacing around the room for a
while, he sat down again and continued:
“Tell me specifically, what have we here by way of regula-
tion violations?”
“Specifically... Well, if you want it specifically, I’ll have to
take it one step at a time.”
“Okay, then. One step at a time.”
“We’re talking about forming a new security zone here. The
proposal allows for the isolation of this area from the outside
world. This hundred-hectare zone will be fenced off with two
rows of barbed wire. Watch-towers are also provided for. The
zone is secured in full accordance with regulations.
“The document goes on to propose the dividing of the secu-
rity zone into individual plots of one hectare each and assign-
ing each plot to a particular prisoner. Well, what is there to
say? The regulations state we should accustom the unconsci-
entious citizens in our charge to hard work, create workshop
units for basic production, as well as set up a subsidiary farm
and work toward partial self-financing. After all, the law al-
lows for the setting up of institutions such as ours with special
2 Vasily (pron. va-SEE-lee ) — a masculine name of Greek origin, now com-
monly used in Russia. Note that Nikolai and Vasily, because of their long
friendship, often omit the patronymic in conversation with each other.
In Russian they also call each other by the informal pronoun ty (similar to
tu — instead of vous — pin French).
232
Book 7: The Energy of Life
provisions for economic activity and multi-purpose use of for-
est reserves. In our case this proposal envisages the setting
up of a subsidiary farm which will provide those in our charge
with a supply of fresh vegetables, with maybe some left over
for sale. So far, we’re entirely within the limits of the law”
“Don’t draw things out. What’s next? Where do we go be-
yond the limits?”
“Well, next it’s proposed to construct a separate cell on
each plot to provide living accommodations for the prison-
er — the one the plot is assigned to as a work-space.”
“That’s right — each one will have his own individual cell
on his piece of land. The thing is, we don’t have enough funds
to buy regular beds. And here they’re asking for a separate
cell with all the amenities and furnishings. A utopia!”
“I guess you didn’t take a thorough look at all the details of
the proposal, Nikolai.”
“What d’you mean, not a ‘thorough’ look? I practically
memorised the thing.”
“I don’t know about that. Don’t know about that... But
there’s an attachment here giving plans and a description of the
interior of this individual cell. Everything is strictly according
to regulations — one bed, one toilet, one table, one chair, one
bookshelf, one night-stand; a metal door with a peep-hole and
an exterior lock, bars on the windows. As for financing, it’s
spelled out here specifically: each prisoner is responsible for
funding the construction of his own individual cell.”
“That wasn’t in the document I saw.”
“I don’t know about that. Don’t know about that... Take a
look for yourself — it’s there. And the sketch, and the work-
ing drawings for the builders, and the description.”
Editor’s footnote from the Russian edition: Law of the Russian Federation of 21
July 1993, amended 9 March 2001: “On institutions and agencies adminis-
tering criminal punishment in the form of confinement”.
A security zone of the future
233
“What d’you mean, ‘it’s there? It wasn’t there when I
handed you the file to go over. I distinctly remember that it
wasn’t. I’ve been over that file a dozen times from cover to
cover. And here you... In two days?”
“Yes, I did it, Kolya. Iwastheone. Only not in two days. They
gave me a similar file three whole months ago. I recently put in
my own additions and corrections, to which they agreed.”
“Why didn’t you say anything to me about this earlier?”
“You yourself only asked for my opinion two days ago.”
“Okay. Let’s hear what you have to say about all this.”
“Here’s what I think, Nikolai. If this proposal comes to
fruition, there’ll be a significant decrease in the number of
prisons and labour camps in the country, and the crime-rate
will be cut in half. And you, Nikolai Ivanovich, will go down
in history as a genius of a reformer.”
“Never mind history. Let’s look at the nitty-gritty Will it
fly from a legal standpoint?” Nikolai Ivanovich once again
got up from his desk and began pacing the room.
The legal counsel turned to the warden, who was still pac-
ing the room in serious contemplation, and enquired:
“What are you so concerned about, Nikolai?”
“Me, concerned? Now what have I got to be concerned
about? Anyway... No, you’re right, Vasily I am concerned.
I’m concerned because I can’t decide what I should say about
this proposal in my brief to the general.”
“Aha, so that’s it! So you’ve decided to support it after all?
You’ve been thinking about taking it to the general?”
“I’ve been contemplating it. I was thinking you might
shoot the proposal down and persuade me not to go see the
general. That’d be a weight off my shoulders. So I guess you’re
in favour of it?”
“Yes, I am.”
“That means I’ve got to go,” Nikolai Ivanovich conclud-
ed, in a rather cheerful tone, as though he had actually been
234
Book 7: The Energy of Life
afraid his friend might shoot the proposal down. The warden
stepped over to a cupboard and took down a bottle of cognac,
along with some lemon and two shot-glasses.
“Let’s drink, Vasily, to our success! Tell me, when was it that
you found yourself so favourably disposed toward this file?”
“It wasn’t right away.”
“Same here.”
“My daughter’s doing a law degree at an institute. She’s in
the middle of writing her graduating essay on “The influence
of incarceration on the eradication of criminal acts”. She gave
me a draft to read. I read it, and just listen to what she says:
Ninety percent of those who serve their time in incarcera-
tion reoffend. The underlying cause behind these depress-
ing crime statistics is the following:
• a person’s upbringing, which has led him to the com-
mitting of a criminal act;
0 the challenge of adapting to society following the pe-
riod of incarceration;
G the formation of a criminal world-view during the pe-
riod of incarceration in a criminal environment!
“Do you realise what her conclusions mean, Nikolai? It
turns out that you and I, just by honestly trying to do our
duty, are actually helping shape a criminal world-view?”
“We don’t ‘shape’ anything. We act in accord with regula-
tions, the law and the orders we’re given. Although, you know,
I too have a lurking sense of dissatisfaction here. I used to
put it out of my thought. I’ve been trying to convince myself
it’s none of my business.
“But then this file appeared... I’ve been contemplating it for
six months now And I’ve finally decided to go see the general.
Only even though I’ve sat down several times to rewrite a re-
port, to make it sound more intelligible, it’s still not coming.”
A security zone of the future
235
“Let’s try it together. I think the main thing is not to scare
the general off by making it sound too original and outland-
ish. We’ve got to simplify it.”
“I agree. It should be simpler. But how? Especially since
they’re asking to have the land turned over to each prisoner
for lifetime use after they’ve finished serving their sentence.”
“Yes, that aspect doesn’t seem realistic for the time being.
We don’t have any federal law at the moment on the alloca-
tion of land for lifetime use. I’ve thought about this point.
We’ll have to be honest with them. When they’ve finished
serving their time, the question will be taken up in the con-
text of the land legislation in existence at that time. I think
they’ll understand. Everybody knows you can’t go above the
law. We don’t make the laws. But we should also point out the
direction we see things heading. Right now it all seems to be
leading to a law permitting private ownership of land.”
“God willing,” affirmed Nikolai Ivanovich as he poured
out a second round of cognac. “Let’s just have another wee
dram... To success!”
They clinked glasses. Then all at once Nikolai Ivanovich
put his glass down on the table and once more began pacing
the room.
“Don’t tell me you’re concerned again?” asked the legal
counsel.
“You see, Vasily,” Nikolai Ivanovich rattled on anxiously
without pausing, “you and I here have been dreaming big
dreams, like youngsters. We’ve got carried away with our
dreams, forgetting that we’re dealing here with criminals.
There are some among them, of course, that simply took a
wrong turn, and may be sincerely willing to get their lives
back together within the limits of the law. But the majority of
them are hard-core criminals, rounders through and through.
They’ve got an entirely different agenda, and what kind of
gimmick are they trying to pull here?”
236
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“I’ve thought about that too, Nikolai. But let’s do a test
first, and afterward you can decide whether to report to the
general or not.”
“How are we going to test them?”
“Here’s how. Tell me, when did they give you this file?”
‘About six months ago.”
“That means they’ve been discussing this project for more
than six months now, working out the drawings and plans.
Then they put it all beautifully into a folder and attached
ninety application forms. So, let’s you and I gather all the
applicants together, suddenly and without warning, in the
auditorium. We’ll invite specialists — let’s say, agronomists,
specialists in vegetable growing, and have them, examine the
lot. The examiners can ask questions about things like what
to plant in the soil and when, and we shall see how many
would-be responders there are. You know, if they’re really
serious about this, and they’ve got hold of this idea with-
out any ulterior motives, if it’s a real dream with them, they
wouldn’t just sit on their fannies, would they now, and wait
’til their proposal’s answered. They’d have to be studying
agro te chnology. ”
“Now that’s really something, Vasily! Can you ima gin e
rounders spending half a year boning up on how to plant flow-
ers and cucumbers? That’s really steep! Maybe a chap raised
in the country might know the answer. But for these...”
“That’s why I’m telling you, let’s test them before deciding
whether to go see the general or not.”
Upon entering the auditorium they found not ninety, but two
hundred prisoners sitting there. By the time the warden had
invited the specialists in agrotechnology — two instructors
from the agricultural institute and one from the college, the
number of would-be domain dwellers had reached two hun-
dred prisoners.
A security zone of the future
2 37
The prisoners had taken their seats in the auditorium, not
suspecting that they were to be given a test. They saw the
three people sitting behind the table on stage, but had no idea
who they were. Then the warden came out and announced:
“In connection with the proposal to organise a subsidiary
farm, we needed to consult people acquainted with agricul-
ture. Anyway, I am happy to present to you three instructors
from specialised educational institutions. They will be asking
you questions, and after that we shall decide who among you
maybe entrusted with a plot of land.”
Nikolai Ivanovich introduced each of three instructors in
turn and invited them to put questions to the gathering. The
first to ask a question was an elderly instructor from the agri-
cultural college, seated at the right of the stage:
“Who among you, sirs, can tell me what time of year toma-
to seeds should be planted for the propagation of seedlings?
When should the seedlings be transplanted in the ground?
And if you’re familiar with the term singling out, tell me then,
please, what signs indicate the need to use it?”
He’s got bn on the run now! thought Nikolai Ivanovich. A
bunch of questions all together in one. I bet even my wife, who’s a
veteran dachnik, couldn’t even handle those from memory. She al-
ways checks in the books before planting anything. And look how
quiet everybody is — not a stir.
The silence in the hall disturbed Nikolai Ivanovich. He se-
cretly hoped that the project would actually come to fruition.
The only reason he was being so picky about it was not that he
wanted to reject it but because he wanted to eliminate any flaws
or defects in advance. The silence in the hall indicated that the
project was being treated as less than serious by the participants
most involved, which augured poorly for its chances of success.
Come on, now! he agonised. Not a single answer? Isn’t there
at least one country lad out there? Though, in the country, it’s more
often the women than the men who do the vegetable planting.
238
Book 7: The Energy of Life
To somehow compensate for the awkward pause, Nikolai
Ivanovich stood up from the table and said in a severe tone:
“What’s up, lads? Didn’t you get the question?”
“We got it,” replied a young prisoner seated in the front
row.
“Well, if you got it, then answer the question.”
“Who do you want to answer? You haven’t called anyone to
come to the chalkboard.”
“What d’you mean who? What chalkboard? If anyone
knows the answer, put up your hand.”
Instantly all two hundred prisoners present raised their
hands.
The examining instructors, who had been conversing
amongst themselves, at once fell silent. Nikolai Ivanovich
was overcome with mixed feelings. On the one hand he felt
a sense of pride in his charges, as well as a renewed hope that
the project might indeed come to fruition. On the other
hand — a sense of alarm over whether any of the two hundred
who had raised their hand could give a satisfactory response
to the question.
“How about you answering?” He gestured to the talkative
young prisoner sitting in the front row.
The young man got to his feet. Stroking his bald head with
a tattooed hand, he began to talk quickly and volubly:
“The time for starting tomato seedlings will not be the same
each year. It all depends on the onset of reliable frost-free
weather, which, of course, varies from year to year. If we take
into account the need to plant the seedlings in the ground be-
fore they bloom, along with the period of maturation, we can
calculate the time the seeds should be planted for propaga-
tion under greenhouse conditions or on a window-sill.”
“That will do, young man,” said the college instructor, in-
terrupting the young prisoner’s discourse. “Put up your hand,
whoever can continue.”
A security zone of the future
239
Again two hundred hands were thrust in the air. The in-
structor gestured to an elderly prisoner, by all appearances an
old-time criminal with a gold filling in his mouth. The old
fellow quickly rose to his feet, and began speaking in sedate
tones:
“They need good regular soil, not some kind of useless crap.
You need to put in some worm-processed humus, or peat-
moss. But you shouldn’t plant seeds directly into pure peat
moss like that. They quickly get used to the peat, then when
they’re put into the garden they’ll be knocked for a loop —
it’ll be too different for them. So you need to take the peat
and mix it with just a bit of sand, using soil from the garden to
dilute it at least by half. And you have to warm up their little
earth-nest for them — say, up to about 25 degrees 3 — before
sticking the seeds in the earth.”
“That will do,” the instructor interrupted. “Basically you
explained everything correctly Next one continue,” and he
pointed to a decent-looking, bespectacled prisoner in the
third row. “So, your colleague left off saying: before planting
tomato-seeds in the prepared soil, you have to... What do
you have to do?”
The prisoner rose to his feet, straightened his spectacles
and continued:
“Before planting the seeds in the soil you have prepared for
them, you must put them in your mouth and hold them in the
saliva under your tongue for at least nine minutes.” 4
The examiners seated at the table, as well as the warden,
were shocked by this amazing declaration, and stared at the
’The Celsius (Centigrade) scale common throughout Russia, Europe and
Canada, is used throughout the Ringing Cedars Series. 25° C = 77° F.
4 See the section entitled “The seed as physician” in Book 1, Chapter 11:
‘Advice from Anastasia”.
240
Book 7: The Energy of Life
bespectacled prisoner. After a brief pause one of the institute
instructors asked again:
“Do you mean to say that before planting in the soil it
should be moistened in water?”
“Never in water, certainly not in chlorinated or boiled wa-
ter, where all the vital bacteria are destroyed. It must be mois-
tened in one’s own saliva, to infuse it with information about
one’s self. After it has been in a Man’s mouth, after being in
his saliva at a temperature of 36 degrees 5 (i.e., normal body
temperature) for nine minutes, the seed will awaken from its
dormancy and know right off what it is to do, and for whom
it is to bear fruit. If a Man is suffering from any ailments or
abnormalities, the seed will try to bear fruit to remove such
abnormalities.”
The three instructors held an impromptu discussion
amongst themselves, then turned to Nikolai Ivanovich. The
college instructor queried:
“Who taught your charges — what institution did you in-
vite specialists from to teach them?”
Even days later the warden still couldn’t figure out how
he could have tripped up on answering this question. He re-
sponded this way:
“I don’t really remember where they were from. I wasn’t in-
volved with that aspect, but I know they came from Moscow.
A high-profile professor came.”
The prisoners in the auditorium caught on to the warden’s
fib at once. They realised he was trying to protect them, not
letting the latest responder be made fun of by the examiners,
and, silently and gratefully, they in turn extended their sup-
port. The young prisoner in the front row (who had been the
first to respond to the question) added:
’36° C = 96.8° F.
A security zone of the future
241
“We thought he wasn’t just a professor, but an academi-
cian. 0 And he knows a lot about the Siberian taiga, about life
in general.”
“That’s right,” added the prisoner sitting beside him, “he’s
a real clever chap, a super scholar.”
From various corners of the hall could be heard rumblings
of approbation of the professor from Moscow, whom none of
them had ever seen in the first place.
The second institute instructor, who had not spoken up to
now, all at once began talking, trying to sound imposing:
“Yes, colleagues, I seem to remember seeing this theory
somewhere myself, although I can’t remember where it was.
Science today is moving in this direction. I find something
intriguing in this — 36 degrees, actual human saliva perme-
ated with all different kinds of vital bacteria... There’s defi-
nitely something to this.”
“Yes, yes. I seem to recall it too,” the college instructor ech-
oed thoughtfully and in an equally grandiose manner, giving
the impression that he too had heard something. “This is one
of the new tendencies in vegetable-growing. Theoretically, of
course, it is scientifically grounded, but we shall have to see
how it works in practice.”
The prisoners seated in the hall gave fluent responses to a
whole series of questions on agrotechnology. Their answers
were not always of the standard variety But the invited ex-
aminers were no longer in a hurry to offer counter-arguments.
Quite the contrary, they listened with great interest.
While the assistant warden went to see off the instruc-
tors, Nikolai Ivanovich sat silently at the table in front of the
hushed auditorium. A deathly silence hung over the hall as
he leafed through the contents of the green folder. Then the
6 academician — a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (a very high
rank indeed).
242 Book 7: The Energy of Life
warden raised his head, surveyed the whole auditorium and
began to say:
“I can tell you this, lads. I still don’t have a complete un-
derstanding of what you’re proposing. No, not completely
So I’ve decided... In any case, I don’t know what will come
of it. I’m going to try to push it through with the central ad-
ministration.”
The hushed auditorium, as though on command, suddenly
rose to its feet and erupted in spontaneous applause. Taken
completely by surprise at the reaction, Nikolai Ivanovich rose
to his feet as well. Overcome by an inexplicable embarrass-
ment, he felt a pleasant and joyful sensation in his heart. But
he managed to put on his best poker face befitting his status
as a no-nonsense warden, and said:
“What’s all this noise about? Take your seats!” But even
as he spoke he could feel the inappropriateness of excessive
severity in the given context, and added: “We’ll still have to
invite the professor from Moscow, all the same!”
Upon receiving Nikolai Ivanovich, the head of the Correc-
tional Facilities Central Administration, General Pososhkov,
got down to business right off:
“It’s not just you. Others, too, have been advised to up-
grade their facilities, some just by five or ten places, some by
as much as a hundred and fifty. You should be ready to accept
an additional contingent of prisoners within a year. They all
say it’s a challenge, unrealistic, and so our prisons are over-
crowded. What would you have me do? Here I’ve got an or-
der from the Justice Minister to make room for an additional
six thousand prisoners. But you’ve given me cheer, Nikolai
Ivanovich. I heard you say you’ll be ready to receive your
share and right on time.”
“Yes, I’ll be ready. Only there have to be some modifica-
tions to the project, as I outlined in my report.”
A security zone of the future
243
“I know, I know. I read it. Only not everything’s clear to
me in your report. You want to get involved in agriculture.
That’s great! Assigning a separate plot to each prisoner —
who’s stopping you? What makes you think you need my ap-
proval on this? But the notion of building a separate cell on
each plot, now that does sound rather strange — it’s unreason-
able. Go build one or two barracks. They can march to work
each morning under guard. Less expensive. You’ll get no ad-
ditional financing for individual cells.”
“But I’m not asking for any additional financing.”
“What are you asking for, then?”
“I just need you to approve the overall plan for individual
cells on each plot.”
‘And where’s the money going to come from to build these
units?”
“From sponsors’ subsidies.”
“You must have some pretty eccentric sponsors... Look,
okay then, I don’t have time to go into it. I’m going to write
on your proposal: ‘Review and complete’ — but I’ll ring them
up myself and tell them they should review and complete it
with due process — no delay Is that it?”
“There’s just one minor problem...”
“What problem?”
“I don’t have any land I can use for a subsidiary farm.”
“So, go see the governor. Ask him.”
“I spoke with his deputy. They’re considering, but that’s all
they’re doing at the moment.”
“Okay, I’ll do what I can. I’ll ring him up... That’s it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So, you can proceed. All the best.”
244
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Nikolai Ivanovich’s facility obtained the land — 200 hec-
tares — by the autumn. The land was in an isolated area,
far from the nearest population point. They managed to
truck in the barbed wire and five-metre-tall posts required
to construct the enclosure before the seasonal rains washed
out the road. Nikolai Ivanovich realised that if the enclo-
sure wasn’t ready by the autumn, there was no way they
could start cultivating the land on the plots the following
spring. But how to get the posts into place, if even the back
country road stopped two kilometres short of the allotted
area? They wouldn’t be able to get either the manpower or
the equipment they needed for drilling the post-holes to the
designated site.
When the prisoners learnt about the problem, they put for-
ward a proposal to the warden: they would dig the post-holes
by hand, and cross the two-kilometre stretch from the end of
the road to the construction site on foot, under guard.
Every day, even under the cold autumn rain, a convoy of
fifty prisoners marched out to the site, wearing homemade
oilskins they had glued together from plastic sheeting. There
had actually been even more volunteers, but because of a
shortage of guards only fifty could be accommodated at a
time. The future landholders gave their all to their work. By
the first frost all the fence-posts had been set up and con-
nected by barbed wire, and the watch-towers erected. Back
at the cellblock they constructed a log cabin for the guard at
the controlled-entry point and put it in place, too.
The order was also submitted that autumn for the construc-
tion of the huts — individual cells for the prisoners to live in,
at a cost of 30,000 roubles each. But there was no money left
to pay for these. The prisoners set about raising the money
where they could. Some had savings stored up from before
their incarceration, others were helped by relatives, but there
A security zone of the future 245
were a few who found it impossible to raise such a sum from
any source.
They sent a memo to the warden letting him know of their
willingness to live in tents. But this was against regulations,
and they were turned down.
One hundred and eighty huts were transported to the new
security zone over the winter road and set up on the piles
driven in the autumn. And early in the spring one hundred
and eighty prisoners were installed in these primitive huts
with bars on the windows.
One fine spring day the warden stood in one of the watch-
towers and surveyed the extraordinary scene before him. On
the two hundred hectares of barbed-wire enclosure a hun-
dred and eighty plots had been delineated, divided from each
other by stakes and brushwood, with the occasional border
marked by a length of stretched wire.
Those are the wealthy ones, decided the warden. Their rela-
tives must have sent them money not just to build their cell, but for
their border markings too.
Lanes and foot-paths ran between the plots, with a com-
mon space for meetings at the centre. In some of the low-
lying areas the snow hadn’t completely melted. But on the
little hills the first green blades of grass were already showing.
On almost ever}'- plot the warden could make out the dark
outlines of isolated human figures — figures which appeared
faceless and identical in their warm prison jackets, cloth caps
with ear-flaps, and rough, artificial-leather boots.
What could these isolated, faceless figures possibly create
on this empty ground? Why weren’t they staying in their cells?
The warden peered through his field-glasses and focused in on
one of them. It turned out to be Prisoner Khodakov, thrust-
ing his spade into ground, which was still partly frozen as he
dug another hole. Shifting his field-glasses around, Nikolai
246
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Ivanovich counted nineteen holes already dug in the half-
frozen ground around the perimeter of Khodakov’s plot.
All over the zone, figures in dark jackets were doing exactly
the same thing — digging holes around the perimeter of their
plots.
“Why so many holes?” Nikolai Ivanovich wondered aloud.
“They’re for the saplings and bushes which will grow into a
green hedge surrounding each plot,” the guard explained.
“I see. Couldn’t they wait a week or two until the ground is
thawed and the digging will be easier?”
“I told them as much, but they don’t want to wait. They’re
afraid they won’t get it all in on time. Each one has four hun-
dred metres of hedge to plant — that’s no light undertaking.
And once the ground thaws out, they’ll have to start work on
their vegetable beds.”
The warden spent quite a while longer observing the zeal
and dexterity each of his charges displayed as they worked,
and he mused:
There must be some kind of cosmic link between the soul of a Man
and the soul of the Earth. If that link is there, Man is in harmony
with the planet. If it isn’t, then there’s no harmony. Corruption sets
in, and crime goes up.
Of course, that book, Anastasia, must be quite exceptional. All
the cons have read it, and something inexplicable has erupted in their
hearts. It’s happened with me too — I read it and now I’ve started
looking at life differently. Of course this book is playing its part —
prisoners all over the country are reading it. But the book’s strength
is really in how it brings out Man’s relationship with the Earth. In
other words, that relationship is primary, and one should never at-
tempt to sever it. And all this talk about high morals and spiritual-
ity is nothing but idle chatter without this mysterious relationship
which is not yet fully comprehended!
A security zone of the future
247
By autumn all the plots in the 'new zone’, as the prisoners
themselves called it, were framed by still only partly-grown
saplings of apple trees, pear-trees, rowans, birches and all
sorts of plantings, which with their leaves decked out in
their multi-coloured autumnal hues, created a most pleasing
picture to the eye. Approximately fifteen hundred to two
thousand square metres or each hectare had been planted
with forest saplings. Even by that very first autumn the view
from the watch-towers over the two hundred hectares below
gave a distinctly different and positive impression compared
to the desert-like black earth that could be seen everywhere
the preceding spring. It was abundantly clear that the whole
enclosure was being transformed into an exceptional oasis of
green.
All summer long the new zone provided the prison cafete-
ria with fresh greens, then cucumbers, tomatoes and beets.
In the fall each prisoner offered up — - from the plot of land
entrusted to him — five sacks of potatoes, along with several
dozen jars of salted and canned cucumbers and tomatoes.
The prison commissary was provided with a whole winter’s
supply of beets, carrots, horseradish and other vegetables.
An unusual scene took place in the autumn at the new
zone’s controlled-entry point. In contrast to all other pris-
on facilities in the world, where foodstuffs and other treats
would be passed to the prisoners from outside, in this new
zone they were moving in the opposite direction.
The soldiers handed out jars of preserved vegetables to the
prisoners’ relatives. Many had come by car and left with a
wealth of produce in their baggage compartments.
Book 7: The Energy of Life
248
Prisoners who did not have any relatives living close by
sold their part of the harvest, through the soldiers, to food
wholesalers at a handsome profit.
Nobody came to see Prisoner Khodakov, however. He did
not have any relatives. He had grown up in an orphanage, and
asked to have his portion of the harvest sent to the nearest
children’s home.
Nikolai Ivanovich earned the administration’s gratitude
for a successful carrying out of their order. He was the only
warden able to accept a new contingent of one hundred and
eighty prisoners without a worsening of holding conditions
for the remainder.
The past year had been the busiest one for Nikolai Ivanovich
in all his twenty years of service. Apart from his usual duties,
he was also responsible for ‘prying’ seeds or saplings for the
new zone out of whatever source he could. But he felt a shiver
of delight every time he saw the old prison Z // 7 pull up, loaded
to the gills with young saplings.
Z /7 (pron. ZEAL ) — a standard lorry or truck produced by the major
Russian (Soviet) automobile factory known as Zavod imeni Likhacheva (ac-
ronym: ZIL) in the city of Nizhny Novgorod on the Volga river, which has
been operating under one name or another since 1916. From 1927 until
his death in 1956, it was run by Ivan Alexeevich Likhachev, when it was re-
named in his honour. The factory also produces passenger cars (marketed
under the Volga brand) and luxury limousines (‘Chaika) which during the
Soviet period were the motorcars of choice for higher-placed government
officials.
A security zone of the future
249
Five more years went by Then on one fine July day a helicop-
ter appeared and began to circle over the new zone. Nikolai
Ivanovich stood at the controlled-entry point and watched
the helicopter fly over. He knew that on board were General
Pososhkov and members of a committee despatched by the
Ministry ofjustice. Perhaps someone had sent in a complaint
about the warden, or it might have been simply rumours, but
in any case word had spread about a ‘peculiar’ prisoner-hold-
ing regime.
After the helicopter landed, the committee members, all
highly-placed officials, stepped out onto the open space in
front of the entry point. But Nikolai Ivanovich kept standing
and thinking only about the zone’s security perimeter:
Tes, it is clear that I shall be charged with a violation of regulations
here. Why did I ever give permission for these climbing perennials to
be planted around the security perimeter? They’ve already climbed
up three metres, the full height of the barbed wire and formed a hedge,
so that the wire can’t even be seen behind all the different flowers.
The barbed wire, you see, they didn’t find aesthetically pleasing.
They even put in climbing plants and flowers around the watch-
towers, which have wound their way right up to the guards’ look-
out, Now the whole thing doesn’t even look like a security zone any
more, more like some sort of a Paradise oasis amidst fields overgrown
with tall grasses.
“Here, if you please, is the first violation, already quite
evident,” said the general representing the Ministry. “What
kind of security perimeter have you got here? Anyone who
wants to, can climb over a barrier like that, all wound around
with vines,” the general went on, turning to Pososhkov, the
administration chief. ‘Any soldier will tell you that. Am I
right?” The Ministry representative addressed the lieutenant
on duty at the entry point.
“Permission to answer, General, sir!” the duty officer re-
sponded, standing to attention at his post.
250
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“Answer when you’re asked a question! Is there any viola-
tion of regulations here?”
“Negative, sir, General, sir! In this instance you are simply
looking at a tactical improvement of the security perimeter
of the prisoner-holding zone.”
“Wha... what’s that?” one of the Ministry committee mem-
bers was taken aback. “What kind of tactical improvement
are you talking about? What kind of drivel is that?”
All the committee members stopped beside the lieutenant
standing at attention.
Oh, thatjokester, mused Nikolai Ivanovich, feeling ultimately
let down — that Lieutenant Prokhorov again with his endless jokes.
If only he could control himself in front of the committed, Now for
certain they’ll never pardon this ridicule. And he just stands there at
attention without so much as a blush.
The lieutenant began talking, spitting out his words:
“Permission to answer the question on improvement, sir!”
“Answer, if you can,” ordered the general from the Ministry.
“By ‘tactical improvement’, do you mean your flowers?”
“Exactly, sir. If any criminal tries to escape by climbing
over the barbed wire intertwined with flowers, he won’t get
very far.”
“Why is that?” asked the general in astonishment.
“In the process of climbing over the perimeter fence inter-
twined with fragrant flowers, his whole body will be infused
with their scent, which means that even an inexperienced dog
will be able to easily track him down and bring him back.”
“So, he’ll be infused!” The general broke into a loud guf-
faw and all the committee members joined in. ‘And the dog
will follow the scent of the flowers! Pretty nifty, Lieutenant.
Imaginative. And how many escapees have your dogs brought
back that way?” asked the general through his laughter.
“Not a single one,” replied the lieutenant, and continued
in all seriousness: “Since the criminals realise the futility of
A security zone of the future
251.
any attempt at climbing the fence, there hasn’t been a single
escape attempt in the past five years.”
The committee members felt even more exhilarated by the
lieutenant’s serious look and his declaration.
“D’you mean to say that there has not been a single at-
tempted escape from this security zone in the past five years?”
the committee head asked the administration chief.
“That’s right, not a single one,” replied Pososhkov
The committee members, clearly pleased by the lieuten-
ant’s sharp-witted responses, put the following question to
him:
“Tell us, Lieutenant, if no criminals even attempt to escape
from this security zone, then why the armed soldiers in the
watch-towers?”
“To protect the zone from the outside world,” replied the
lieutenant.
“What does that mean — ‘to protect from the outside
world’? Does anyone try to break in to the zone?”
■Affirmative, sir!” the lieutenant responded. “Many of the
prisoners’ wives have declared their wish to live with their
husbands in their cells. Some of them have requested per-
mission to spend the summer in the cells along with their
children. But our strict warden’s strict enforcement of regu-
lations won’t permit any such lawlessness. So a few unconsci-
entious wives took it upon themselves to try either getting
through the hedge or tunnelling underneath. But all such
brazen attempts have been thwarted by the zone’s excellent
security force.”
Uncertain as to whether the lieutenant was joking or
speaking seriously, the committee chair enquired of Nikolai
Ivanovich:
“Have there really been instances like this?”
‘Affirmative,” replied Nikolai Ivanovich. “Two such at-
tempts have been thwarted. I received ninety-six applications
252
Book 7: The Energy of Life
from prisoners’ wives wishing to spend the summer with their
children on their husbands’ plots. But apart from the conju-
gal meetings provided for in the regulations, nothing like this
can be permitted.”
“I wonder what it is that attracts them to the security zone,
especially with the children?” mused the committee chair
aloud, adding: “In any case, colleagues, let us go in and take a
look for ourselves.”
“Open the gates!” Nikolai Ivanovich ordered the lieuten-
ant.
The wooden gates, decorated with traditional Russian
carvings, quickly opened up, and the committee members
entered the security zone. They had hardly gone a few paces
when they all at once spontaneously stopped.
Seen through the helicopter’s viewports, the zone had had
the appearance of a beautiful green oasis. But here on the
ground it was not only the delightful foot-paths of mowed
grass, not only the multicoloured living fences around the pe-
rimeter, that struck the committee members. Accustomed
to the odours of their offices and city streets, they were now
gracefully enveloped by the delicate fragrances of summer
plants and flowers. The silence was broken only by the sing-
ing of birds and the humming of insects — sounds which by
no means irritated, but soothed people’s ears.
“We should visit one of the plots,” said the committee
chair, for some reason in a hushed tone, as though afraid of
disturbing the general atmosphere.
The prominent officials walked up the pathway of the first
plot they came to, heading for the cell-hut. The little hut was
actually surrounded by a metal cage, though this was scarcely
visible unless one examined it at close range. From a distance
it looked like a little green hillock. Wound around with vari-
ous vines and surrounded by flower-beds, it blended in most
harmoniously with the surrounding space.
A security zone of the future
253
At the entrance to the hut stood a man in a white T-shirt,
his back to the approaching visitors. The prisoner was oil-
ing a metal lock bolt, energetically trying to slide it back and
forth. This was something of a challenge, and the prisoner
was so absorbed in the task that it was a while before he be-
came aware of his visitors.
“Hello, Kharlamych!” 8 Nikolai Ivanovich greeted him.
“Make our guests feel at home, introduce yourself.”
Kharlamych quickly turned about. After momentarily los-
ing his bearings upon seeing visitors, he quicldy regained his
composure and introduced himself:
“Prisoner Kharlamych, sentenced according to Article 102
of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation to twelve
years. Served six years in the cellblock, five years now in the
new zone.”
‘And what have you been doing here with your door?” asked
the committee chair.
“I’ve been oiling the exterior bolt, Chairman, sir! It’s start-
ed sticking quite a bit, the metal they produce today’s not
very good quality, it rusts quicldy”
The committee chair went over to the door leading into
the cell, closed it and tried shoving the bolt into position. It
didn’t budge on the first attempt, but he finally got it to work.
Then he turned, and, with a meaningful glance to the admin-
istration chief Pososhkov, declared:
“So, you claim you’re following all the regulations for pris-
oner-holding to the letter. Does that mean that after comple-
tion of their workday they’re all locked up in their cells?”
g
' Kharlamych (pron. har-LA-mitch) — a patronymic derived from the prison-
er’s father’s name Khartum. The use of the patronymic alone here indicates
the highly informal relationship that has developed between the warden
and his charges.
254
Book 7: The Energy of Life
The administration chief was silent. Everyone realised
that the metal bolt had rusted and was hard to budge for the
simple reason that it had not been used for a long time.
Prisoner Kharlamych realised that he had let his superiors
down. And thoughts began running through his head:
I should have fixed this damn bolt a long time ago. How can I ex-
plain to these people that this lock is completely unnecessary? Nobody
here would even think of leaving the zone, of running away from his
land. To what purpose? Where would they go?
As for Kharlamych, here was his native space, here was his
Motherland. It was here that he was greeted every morning
by the singing of the birds and the waving of the branches
of trees he himself had planted. He had even been raising a
little goat, which he had named Nikita, along with a dozen
laying hens, and had a couple of beehives. Others had their
own homesteads, setting them up just a little differently, but
for each one it was his own homestead, on his own piece of
land. And here he had gone and let down his warden with this
damn bolt!
Kharlamych was really upset. He began talking quickly
and excitedly
“I’m the world’s worst son-of-a-bitch when it comes to this
bolt, Chairman, sir! And I have no excuse if it should reflect
badly on my buddies. Only I want you understand — let me
have one last word here. Let me... Let me tell you: my whole
life has changed. Not even ‘changed’ — in fact, my life has
just begun in this place. I’m free here. Out there, outside
the gates — there’s no freedom there — indeed, that’s where
all hell breaks loose. The soldiers up there in the watch-tow-
ers — they’re like angels to us. We pray that they don’t let any
scum in here...”
The prisoner’s voice with its heart-wrenching emotion and
the content of what he had to say worked its own unique effect
on the people standing by All at once one of the committee
A security zone of the future 255
members, a woman deputy from the State Duma, suddenly
burst out:
“What’s all the fuss over this measly bolt? Don’t you see it
rained last night? The bolt’s started shrivelling.”
The committee chair glanced at the metal bolt, then at the
woman, and burst out laughing.
“Shrivelling, you say? Why didn’t I think of that before? It
did rain, after all, and the bolt began to shrivel, and it rusted...
And up in the towers — those are angels, you say?”
‘Angels,” Kharlamych echoed.
“Tell me, when is your time up?”
“Jn eleven months and seven days.”
“How do you propose to live after that?”
“I’ve applied to have my sentence extended...”
“What? How could it be extended? Why?”
“’Cause out there there’s no freedom. There’s no order in
that kind of freedom. There’s no freedom without land.”
‘And who’s stopping you from going free, getting a piece of
land and creating the same kind of homestead that you have
here, only as a free man? You could get yourself a family!”
“You know, Chairman, sir, that’s something I’ll never un-
derstand. Who’s stopping us here in Russia from giving each
Russian a hectare of land? I’ll never understand. Does Russian
land belong to Russians or not?”
“Right now, according to the law adopted by the State
Duma, everyone has the right to buy land,” observed the
woman deputy.
“And what if I don’t have the money even to buy a single
hectare of land? Does that mean I have no Motherland?
That’s the way it looks — I don’t have it and never will have.
But if Russia is my Motherland, just who am I supposed to buy
it from? It turns out somebody’s seized my Motherland for
themselves — the whole country, down to a single hectare —
and Is now demanding a ransom from every last Russian!
256
Book 7: The Energy of Life
There’s some monkey business going on here. Beyond the
law and beyond our understanding.
“You, Chairman, sir,” Kharlamych addressed the commit-
tee chair, “I see by your stripes that you’re a general. So, liber-
ate our Motherland from whoever seized it and is demanding
a ransom. Or are you too going to be paying a ransom for your
own little piece of the Motherland?”
“Prisoner Kharlamych, cease and desist!” Nikolai Ivanovich
intervened. He could see the scar on the war-wounded general’s
cheek turning purple, and his fists clenching. The general stepped
up to the prisoner. They stood staring each other in the eye, with-
out a word between them. Then the general quietly said:
“Show me around your homestead, Russian citizen,” and
added even more quietly, almost to himself: “your piece of the
Motherland behind barbed wire.”
Kharlamych showed the committee members around his
young garden, with its budding fruit on the branches. He
treated them to currants and raspberries. He showed them
the tomato beds, along with the more than 200 square metres
he had planted with cucumbers. He showed them the pond
he had dug himself with a spade. Standing beside the pond
was a neatly arranged row of barrels.
“Kharlamych has a particular know-how here,” Nikolai
Ivanovich explained to the committee members, pointing
to the barrels. “He salts away a hundred fifty-litre barrels of
cucumbers every year. He’s developed a superior, first-rate
pickling method. And he’s invented an original preservation
system. First he fills each barrel with cucumbers and brine,
then he caulks them and stores them in the pond, underwa-
ter. They’ll keep that way until the spring. As soon as the res-
taurant wholesalers arrive from Moscow, Kharlamych chops a
hole in the ice and drags a barrel over to the entry point. We
sell them at five hundred roubles a barrel. Kharlamych gets
250, and the rest goes to the prison coffers.”
A security zone of the future
257
‘And how much does each enterprise make annually for
your facility?” enquired one of the committee members.
“On average, around a hundred thousand roubles a year,”
responded Nikolai Ivanovich. “Though, according to con-
tract, half of it goes to the workers on the plots.”
“A hundred thousand?” the committee member was aston-
ished. “And you’ve got here a hundred and eighty hectares all
told. That means you have a net profit of ninety million a year
from them?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And the prisoners each make fifty thousand a year?”
“Yes, that’s how it works out.”
“In the whole country we’ve got over a million citizens be-
ing held in incarceration. What if we switched them all over
to such a system? What a tremendous source of income for
the country! Plus the number of criminals, judging from what
we can see, would significantly decrease.”
“Switch over... all of them?” another committee member
broke into the conversation. “But we’re facing quite a differ-
ent question here: this zone may even be closed down. Why
were we brought here anyway? To find out what’s really hap-
pening. There’s something funny going on here — prisoners
living in better conditions than people at liberty. And these
prisoners, no matter how you put it, are criminals. Anyway,
what are you going to do, Nikolai Ivanovich, when these peo-
ple’s terms are up?”
The warden answered without hesitation:
“If I had my way, I would let every last one of them look
after their own plot. I’d take down the barbed wire and move
it somewhere else — start setting up a new zone.”
In their report to the Ministry of Justice the committee mem-
bers reported that they found no violations of regulations on
prisoner-holding.
258 Book 7: The Energy of Life
“What about these rumours that the prisoners are liv-
ing in better conditions than many free citizens?” asked the
Minister.
“Then it is the lives of our free citizens that have to be im-
proved,” the committee chair observed. “We need to give
people land. Not lip-service, but in actual fact.”
“But that’s not within our jurisdiction,” said the Minister,
dismissing the proposal. “Let’s get right to the essentials.”
“In terms of essentials, it comes down to this: we need to
replicate this experience in all the facilities under our juris-
diction,” the committee chair stated firmly
“I second that,” affirmed the woman deputy, adding: “and
I fully intend to introduce a bill in the Duma to grant every
Russian family a hectare of land for lifetime use, whereon to
establish their own kin’s domain.”
The Duma passed the law. At one swoop millions of Russian
families began planting gardens and little forests on their own
family lands. And Russia flourished...
In what year did this happen?... What — it hasn’t hap-
pened yet? Why not? Who’s stopping us? Who is preventing
Russia from flourishing?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I realised that Anastasia’s grandfather possessed not only-
extraordinary psychoanalytic abilities but also information
about the societal structure of various nations. But I won-
dered how specific his knowledge was about state institu-
tions. After all, here he was living out in the taiga, without
access to radio, telephone or television. So how would he get
information, let’s say, about our national government agen-
cies? There was no way Which meant he did not have any
specific information. Still, I decided to ask him:
“You know that in our Russian state there is a body known
as the State Duma?”
“I know,” came the reply.
‘And d’you know who works there, and how it functions?”
“I know that too.”
“And do you have information on each deputy?”
“Yes, on every single one.”
“And the laws they pass — is that something you know
about too?”
“Not only about the laws they pass, but about the laws they
will pass in the future. I know about them in advance. But,
again, why are you so surprised, Vladimir? For a priest that is
the simplest of tasks — it’s not all that interesting.”
“Yes, I am surprised, because I don’t understand how you
can possibly know about every single deputy, let alone what
laws the Duma is going to pass in the near future. It’s some
sort of inexplicable mysticism.”
260 Book 7: The Energy of Life
“There’s no mysticism here, only the most primitive of
tasks.”
“Well, could you explain this phenomenon to me? The
depth of information you have, I mean.”
“I can, of course. It’s really all very simple. You see, back
five thousand years ago the pharaohs had their Council. In
the Roman Empire there was the Senate. The tsars had their
Boyars’ Duma . 1 Now what can I say more? The names may
be different, but the essence is always the same. After all,
the law doesn’t depend on how a legislative body is named,
but on what influences parliamentary delegates are subject-
ed to — on the living conditions surrounding them and the
perspectives for the future to which they are bound. But all
the conditions were pre-programmed for them a long time
ago. If one knows the programme, one knows what’s ahead
as well — including what decisions the legislators are capable
of reaching.”
“What do the law and the deputies’ living conditions have
to do with it? How are they connected with a broader pro-
gramme? Anyway, what can you yourself possibly know about
how a modern Duma deputy lives?”
“It’s very simple. Of course, I’m not talking about how
any particular deputy sleeps, what they eat or how they dress.
That’s not something I care to know, nor do I find it of inter-
est. I’m talking about what’s significant.
“I’m sure it’s the same now as in earlier times: people
are elected as deputies only after going through a whole lot
of wheeling and dealing. That’s fact number one. In their
'Boyars’ Duma — an advisory council comprised of the boyars (in Russian,
stress on second syllable), a hereditary caste of nobility which prevailed in
Russia from the ninth to the seventeenth centuries. The Boyars’ Duma,
instituted in the ijth century, was involved in various aspects of affairs of
state, including legislation, financing and military support.
A law for deputies elected by the people
261
striving for power, many of them fall into the hands of those
who are in control of the material world. But after going
through all their trials and tribulations, they find themselves
in a tight spot. The programme is always attempting to cut
them off from significant information, and generally suc-
ceeds in doing this.
“What perks does the deputy receive? I think — I’m
sure — that today, just as before, he gets an individual of-
fice, a new place to live, along with (nowadays, at least) a car.
Not to mention two or three assistants, some get more than
that.”
“Yes, that’s more or less it,” I confirmed. ‘Are you trying
to say that all this fits in with a programme worked out mil-
lennia ago?”
“Of course it does. But wait, let me finish. Tell me if I’m
mistaken about what happens today Apart from that, I be-
lieve that just like a whole lot of people, deputies have to go
to work each day They have to be present at Duma sittings,
and make laws.”
“Yes, you’re right.”
“And each one serves for a set term — four or five years...”
“It’s four at the moment.”
“Okay, four. When their term is up, they have to be re-
elected. But even before the next election they’re all thinking
about it.”
“Quite right.”
“Hold on, there — how do you know that? Think how sur-
prised you were when I told you I know what laws are go-
ing to be passed. And now you claim you know how deputies
think about their future. What, have you suddenly become a
clairvoyant? Or a celebrated prophet?”
“Nothing of the sort. Any fool would know this. If elec-
tion time is coming up, than anyone wanting to be re-elected
will be thinking about it and talcing appropriate action.”
262
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“Slow down, there. Note what you just said: ‘thinking
about re-election’.”
“Yes, that’s what I said.”
“But surely deputies should be thinking about new laws.”
“Of course. They’re thinking about them at the same
time.”
“When? At what time of the day? In short, believe me,
the programme doesn’t leave them any time for thinking. For
ages now, as you too well know, the people have been choos-
ing parliamentary delegates on the expectation that they will
then pass wise laws. What the people don’t understand is that
their basic programme does not allow them to think.
“Think about this yourself some time.”
I did subsequently think about this situation — over and over
again, in fact. And truly, our traditional laws on the election
and duties of Duma deputies began to seem more and more
absurd.
Let’s take a more detailed look at the practice as it has
evolved up until now Let’s say a relatively smart fellow —
above-average, that is — has decided to stand for office. He
wants to participate in passing wise legislation that will help
people lead a good life.
In running the gauntlet of an election campaign, he is very
likely to find himself dependent on funding (some become
more dependent than others). This in no way means that some-
one from the world of the wealthy offers financial assistance
to every single candidate in return for future considerations.
A law for deputies elected by the people 263
It is enough to point out the various levers that can be moved
with the help of money; We are shown this in the press and on
TV through stories about so-called ‘dirty technology’. But we
watch it all through the eyes of an outside observer.
On the other hand, the actual participants in election cam-
paigns are far from being outside observers. They know what
it’s like to be the target of smear tactics. Even if you haven’t
experienced it yourself, you can, of course, well imagine what
kind of weapons can be used against you when big money’s
involved. A defensive reaction is only natural — you have to
cover your behind at all costs. And behind you, in this case, is
some pretty big money. So you have to tie yourself, for safe-
ty’s sake, to some kind of solid financial shore. Or, as people
say today, to the oligarchs.
An alternative is to throw your fortunes in with some po-
litical party It doesn’t really matter which one — you’re still
going to have to pay off your debt to them later.
And what about wise laws? Ah, yes. It is simply a question
of no appropriate conditions having ever been created to fa-
cilitate them.
Of course, deputies do enjoy a host of perks — including
parliamentary immunity with law-enforcement agencies. But
the question still remains: if you put the deputies’ perks on
one side of the scale and the intensity, scheming and stress
associated with their work on the other, it’s anybody’s guess
as to which will win out.
There is another paradoxical circumstance. The history of
mankind has never known a single individual, a single super-
wiseman, capable of making only and exclusively wise deci-
sions hour after hour, day in and day out. It is no secret that
even prominent rulers and regimental, commanders occasion-
ally make mistakes.
The deputies’ work schedules are arranged in such a way
that they have sittings every single day Not only that, but
264
Book 7: The Energy of Life
daily sittings for several hours a day At each sitting they are
supposed to pass a number of legislative bills relating to dif-
ferent spheres of human life.
History has shown that the adoption of wise legislation
is impossible under such an overloaded work schedule — on
either a theoretical or a practical plane. It is impossible be-
cause of the lack of time for contemplation. Nevertheless,
this absurd order of things is what prevails in most countries
on the various continents of the globe.
Who instituted it? Well, it must have instituted itself,
many might think. But there’s no way that could have hap-
pened. It’s too carefully thought through and goal-specific.
Besides, for some reason, it is not being discussed in any
meaningful way
You can argue as cogently as you like for its destructive na-
ture. You can prove its destructive nature scientifically, with
the help of psychoanalysts. That, of course, is important, but
it’s not the main thing. The main thing is: what’s the alter-
native? But there is nothing in the way of an alternative on
the horizon. Indeed, who would even have one come to mind
when such a phenomenon has practically become the norm in
almost all countries?
But since xlnastasia’s grandfather was the first to raise this
question, and since he was familiar with the work of bodies
similar to our current legislative assembly over the course of
thousands of years, it was possible he might be able to suggest
an alternative. And so I enquired:
“Well, could you suggest your own ideal version of how
elections should be run and how legislators should subse-
quently proceed in organising their work?”
And this is what I heard in reply:
“There’s no point in talking about the elections them-
selves until the deputies’ working and living conditions are
changed.”
A law for deputies elected by the people 265
‘And what kind of working and living conditions, in your
opinion, should there be?”
“First of all, the deputies need to be taken away, at least for
part of the time, from their artificial information field. 2 They
need to be supplied with nourishment capable of sustaining
the complete functioning of the brain. An image needs to be
created which attracts the respect of society and which any
deputy cannot fail to follow.”
“What does it mean to ‘create an image’?”
“Judging by what you told me about today’s deputies, their
outward trappings suggest that the public has formed a nega-
tive image of government officials in general and elected dep-
uties in particular.”
“Yes, generally speaking, the public does have a pretty neg-
ative image of them.”
“That’s very bad. People build up negative thought-forms
regarding their deputies, and so what happens is that they
themselves make them negative. An image is the most pow-
erful, concentrated energy of a large number of people.” 3
‘And how are people to think of them positively if their
own life doesn’t improve?”
“You see, we’ve got what amounts to a closed circle here.
Each time, you elect those who seem to be the best people
for the job, but then, no sooner are they elected than you start
calling them the worst people.”
“But just how do we get out of this vicious circle?”
“For the past five thousand years there has been no better
way than the one proposed by Anastasia, and there won’t be
in the foreseeable future.”
“What d’you have in mind here?”
artificial information field — see Book 6, Chapter 9: “A need to think”.
3 On the science of ‘imagery’, see Book 4, Chapter 19: “A secret science”.
266
Book 7: The Energy of Life
“Land.”
“She said we need to give each willing family at least a hec-
tare of land — for lifetime use, whereon to establish one’s
own kin’s domain. But she didn’t say anything about parlia-
mentary deputies.”
“In actual fact, she specified ‘every willing family’. Don’t
deputies have families?”
“Indeed they do.”
“So, why not start with them?”
“The public would say that’s going too far — they’ve got
enough perks as it is.”
“Lou need to explain to the public on whose behalf this step
is being taken. They need to know what the most favourable
conditions are for passing the legislation the public expects.”
“But on what basis should the deputies be granted land —
on special terms or the same as for everyone else?”
“The same as for everyone else, though not exactly Every
deputy should be allotted at least a hundred and fifty hec-
tares of land on which a new type of community will be estab-
lished, according to the principles Anastasia talks about. Of
the hundred and fifty hectares granted for lifetime use, the
deputy may keep one for himself, as long as his family is small
and no additions are in the offing. In cases where the deputy
has children who are already forming their own families and
they want to set up domains of their own, a hectare should be
set aside for each of his children’s families. Thus the deputy
himself will end up with one, or three, or five hectares of land,
depending on the size of his family.”
‘And what about the remaining hectares? You mentioned a
hundred and fifty, all told.”
“Thirty percent of the remainder he can give away to
whomever he likes. But after that the plots should be offered
to people from different social strata — soldiers, academics,
artists, entrepreneurs and so forth. In each community one
A law for deputies elected by the people 267
or two hectares should be definitely set aside for refugees and
children from orphanages. But two deputies should not be
given land in the same community.”
“So, what then? If each deputy has his own family domain,
does that mean that the laws will get better right away?”
“Of course they will. Our country will have the wisest laws
in the world!”
“How so?”
“At the moment, deputies spend long periods of time in
their offices and at parliamentary meetings, cut off from the
public. At the moment, they do not receive any gratitude for
good laws or censure for bad ones. At the moment, following
their natural inclinations, they try to provide for the material
well-being of their families. After their term, of office is up,
they may change their place of residence and even move to
another city or another country, where nobody will reproach
them or hound them for any violation of expected norms. A
change of residence or country will not affect their financial
status. As long as they have money, they can go wherever they
like and find shelter, food and clothing. But money won’t be
able to buy them a kin’s domain of their own, a piece of their
Motherland.
“Today the concept of Motherland is terribly distorted.
‘Motherland’ is nothing but a territory someone has de-
fined by borders. But, when you stop to think of it, one’s
Motherland always begins with one’s family land and extends
to encompass all the people who are of a kindred spirit to you.
Those who begin to establish their own domains will obtain
their Motherland in perpetuity. The loss of one’s family do-
main is the loss of one’s Motherland in perpetuity This is
the greatest tragedy for one’s family
“It is not their laws or their morality that w r ill prevent dep-
uties from making wrong decisions, but their kin’s domains.
And for people who have their Motherland, money will lose
268
Book 7: The Energy of Life
its primary importance. Only in his kin’s domain can Man
obtain the complete range of nutrition he needs, including
nourishment for the proper functioning of the brain. But this
is extremely important for people who have a lot of thinldng
to do.
“The sittings of the State Duma should run no more than
three days a week. The rest of the time the deputies should
spend in their kin’s domains — a place they can really think
things through, and lay the real groundwork for the making
of laws.
“The deputies’ wives should not be employed in any posi-
tion that is not connected with their husband’s work. The
family domains will shield deputies, at least for a time, from
the influence of artificial information coming from the artifi-
cial world. It will facilitate the thinking process. In the case
of the great philosophers, great thoughts were always born in
conditions of solitude, and not during public speeches.”
‘And what if some of the deputies are unwilling to accept
land and refuse to set up their own family domains?”
“This is where we come to the election of public repre-
sentatives. If any deputy refuses to set up a family domain,
the public should not re-elect him for a subsequent term.
Even though he holds citizenship in the country where he
was elected, in reality he is a foreigner. He doesn’t need this
Motherland. And no matter what good things are said about
him, his actions, in fact, will bring no good to the people.”
“But once they know that voters will give preference to
candidates who have a family domain, some deputies may just
take the land and erect their own palace-like mansions on it,
along with tennis courts and brick walls, and won’t plant any
trees or garden or living fence as Anastasia recommended.
What then?”
“Then they’ll show what they’re really made of. But here
too people will be able to make the right choice. Why do you
A law for deputies elected by the people
269
think every Man in Rus’ was endowed with a patronymic? 4
Back in the early days of Rus’ a Man would introduce him-
self by saying: 1 am Ivan from Nikita’s domain, citing the name
of his father or grandfather who had established his kin’s do-
main. In other words, the domain was something to be proud
of. In referring to it, a Man would describe himself, as well
as his character and abilities, in the fullest possible manner.
Anyone who could not point with pride to his domain was
considered an outcast.”
The more Anastasia’s grandfather went on about the kin’s do-
mains, the more distinctly the joyful picture of our country’s
future became etched in my consciousness. Can you just im-
agine?! Imagine! Three hundred and sixty deputies of our
State Duma each talcing a hundred and fifty hectares of land
and organising three hundred and sixty marvellous new-style
communities! Each deputy will then be showing not just in
his words, but in his actions, what he is capable of achieving.
And Russia will bear witness to the first three hundred and
sixty oases in which Russian Federation citizens will begin
to live in actual human conditions. Then these deputies will
pass legislation. And, naturally, there will be not a single law
harmful to the environment.
They will pass laws guaranteeing the right of each citizen
to obtain his own small piece of the Motherland. They will
stand up for this right, because each of them will have their
Motherland.
4 'patronymic (Russian: otcbestvo, derived from the Russian word for ‘father’ —
otets — and related to the word for ‘Fatherland’ — otechestvo) — the middle
name of every Russian citizen, derived from one’s father’s first name. Cf.
footnote 9 in Book 1, Chapter 1: “The ringing cedar”.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
My dear readers!
I thank you heartily for your understanding and moral sup-
port. I thank all who have openly expressed their thoughts
in Internet communications and the almanac' who have tried
to organise discussions of the ideas outlined in the Ringing
Cedars Series through letters to the press.
My thanks to you, scholar's of Russia — first and foremost, to
Boris Minin , 1 2 who openly appeared on the stage of the Podmo-
skov’e Concert Hall with his evaluation of Anastasia’s ideas.
A special note of gratitude is due the fine actor,
Distinguished Artist of Russia Alexander Mikhailov , 3 who
took part in the conference.
1 the almanac — a quarterly periodical that was published by Anastasia
Foundation (in conjunction with the Russian publisher of the Series) be-
tween 2001 and 2004. The almanac contained readers’ art-work, poetry and
letters, articles on ecological building-design, permaculture and other top-
ics relevant to the creation of kin’s domains, as well as news on the newly
formed eco-villages, readers’ clubs and forthcoming events. The functions
of the almanac are now largely fulfilled by a range of on-line resources and
periodicals.
'"Boris Alexeevich Minin (1936-) — professor of economics; president of the
International Academy of Social Development; director of Russia’s Federal
Certification Centre for eco-friendly products; member of Russia’s parlia-
mentary committee on questions of social tolerance.
3 Alexander Yakovlevich Mikhailov (1944-) — a popular Russian film and the-
atre actor, who has appeared in several dozen films and received a number
of awards, including Actor of the Year (1982 and 1983), as well as the title of
Distinguished Actor of Russia (1992).
To the readers of the Ringing Cedars Series
271
My thanks also to the economist Dr Viktor Medikov , 4 who
has written a number of papers on his research of the ideas
expressed in the books.
And to Anatoly Eriomenko , Active Member of the Academy
of Pedagogical Sciences, for his marvellous poetry:
TO A DEITY
Age and health and sloth all notwithstanding,
Here I am before you on knee bending,
Simply ’cause I’ve seen in you from far
Life’s renown. A Deity you are.
Instantly you scattered all illusions
Rising from dark forces’ sly intrusions.
Your depiction of a future bright
Helped me banish sorrow’s fearsome night.
In you I see Man’s true being ascending,
Possibly, another age’s ending,
Where my granddaughters, just like a Muse
Will embody you and your bright views.
Though at heart I quietly resist
Every time you need say “I exist!”,
*Tis no sin to talk of your appearing
In a place where others might be hearing.
^Viktor Yakovlevich Medikov (1950-) — professor of economics; member
of the Russian State Duma (Parliament) for two consecutive terms (1993—
1999). Author of several books on Russia’s new national idea of kin’s do-
mains, he has founded a Kin’s Domain Academy to collect and disseminate
information on the establishment of family domains. He was one of the
first political figures in Russia to lead by example and set up his own kin’s
domain in an eco settlement some 240 km (150 miles) east of Moscow.
272
Book 7: The Energy of Life
Therefore send I from my heart agleam
Rays of warmth to you, my living dream.
And, in night-time vision or tomorrow,
In the taiga I shall see your shadow.
TO THE ELDERS OF RUSSIA
Oh, you wise-hearted elders of Russia,
Have you nothing to lone hearts to say?
For the blue eyes that grow ever lusher
Will still shine o’er the world with their ray.
They will waken dull tribes and refresh them
With humanity’s flourishing wave.
If there’s no other means of expression,
A tall cedar to chips she will shave.
And in secret will give them like manna
To all people eternity-bound,
And will call us with this unknown manna
To the place v/here our future is found.
With our knees now already unbended,
And our backs straightened tall and so proud,
All our worries and idle contentment
We forsake not tomorrow, but now.
Let us still hear the voice of the ages,
That has whispered to us as a friend:
“You are singular children of Nature,
Death and treason do not spell your end.
To the readers of the Ringing Cedars Series 273
“Nor do mud-slingings, fury unleashing,
Nor do stone walls or home-destroying hail,
But for those who accept the true Teaching
Their connection with Nature won’t fail.
“We are given a power immortal
From the Earth-gods and God high above,
By a heavenly hand incorporeal,
That our hearts may awaken to love.
“Let us all, then, as singular brothers,
With our heart-strings stretched taut in a bow,
Now extend our embrace to all others,
Send our ray out wherever we go.
“Then in spring over all the Earth’s nations
All the cherry-tree gardens will bloom.
For humanity’s new generations
There will be no more danger or doom.”
Oh, you wise elders, sons of Rossiya,
Do not slacken, but say the word true.
May the joy of dear Anastasia’
Now shine forth in its heavenly blue.
I thank Viktor Pavlovich Garkavets, the Superintendent of
Education for the City of Kharkov, as well as the instructors, work-
ers and administration of the tractor factory in this Ukrainian
city, for organising a fantastic meeting with my readers.
5 Rossiya, Anastasia — a reminder: both these words rhyme with Maria (pron.
ras-SEE-ya, a-na-sta-SEE-ya). The phrase On a star see ya (= See ya on a star)
might be a helpful hint in remembering the pronunciation of Anastasia’s
name.
274 Book 7: The Energy of Life
My thanks, too, to all the organisers of readers’ conferenc-
es in other cities.
Thank you, Russian emigrants in Germany and Canada.
Thanks to the bards who have written more than five hun-
dred songs now, and the artists who sent in their pictures.
They are already posted on the site wwwAnastasia.ru, and the
best of them have been published in the almanac Zveniashchie
kedry Rossii (Ringing Cedars of Russia). One of their works
may be seen on the cover of [the Russian original or] the
present volume.
My thanks go out to the tens of thousands of people who
have expressed their appreciation for my books in their sin-
cere and inspired letters.
I thank you all for your open support. Without it, it would
be a lot harder for me to write!
However, I would like to share with you — especially with those
public figures who are only just contemplating comi ng out with
their support of Anastasia’s ideas — the following points.
You should understand that there is considerable opposi-
tion to these ideas — a planned and organised opposition. It
is still not completely clear specifically who is spreading the
false rumours and what levers of power they are using.
You should be aware of this so that you can determine for
yourself whether it is worth it to you to openly support the
ideas outlined in these books.
I know first-hand how unpleasant all the slander and prov-
ocations have been, but it is many times harder for me when
they are directed against you, my readers. All the more so
when they are personalised and intensive — as, for example,
the attacks against the children and teachers of Academician
Shchetinin’s school . 6
I wouldn’t want any others to be subjected to similar at-
tacks.
To the readers of the Ringing Cedars Series
275
I am not merely convinced — I now know for absolute certain
that the ideas outlined by Anastasia are irreproachable. Their
materialisation can, of course, be temporarily held back, but
they will still be revived in human beings with ever-increasing
force.
From where I stand, the most vital and important steps re-
quired today are the following:
First. Organisation of schools, courses and seminars at the
local level. It is vital to adapt general designs of family do-
mains and communities to specific locales.
You need to study the healing properties of herbs and
plants growing in your area in particular. You need to know
exactly which vegetables and fruits will grow under natural
conditions in your climate.
You need to prepare working designs — specified down to
the minutest detail — for your family domains and communi-
ties.
Second. You need to bring in specialists who have a good
understanding of what is happening and plug them in to work
on creating a programme of development for the Russian
Federation. This should be a universal programme, capable
of solving all the problems of orphans, refugees and low-in-
come families through the idea of establishing kin’s domains.
The security and well-being of each family will ensure the se-
curity and well-being of the nation as a whole.
It is vital to flesh out the details of your dream, then it will
most certainly come true.
Let every person do as much as they can along this line,
starting from their own resources.
6 Academician Shchetinins school — See description in Book 3, Chapter 17:
“Put your vision of happiness into practice” and Chapter 18: ‘Academician
Shchetinin”.
27 6
Book 7: The Energy of Life
We should see the birth of dozens, hundreds of de-
signs for kin’s domains and communities — designs for the
economic, ecological and spiritual development of individual
regions and the whole nation.
You know, when I first saw Anastasia, she was standing on the
shore of the Siberian River Ob." She was wearing an old long
skirt and a quilted jacket, with a kerchief on her head and rub-
ber galoshes over her bare feet. This taiga recluse looked like
an unassuming and lonely woman.
But today I have the impression that it was our Rossiya that
was standing there in the Siberian wilds with rubber galoshes
over her bare feet. It was our dream of the future that was
standing there so lonely on the deserted Siberian riverbank.
But now, it is within us\
And the time will most certainly come when our dream
will stride openly and free in a beautiful ball-gown across all
of Russia — and not just across Russia.
The greatest energy in this dream is the energy oflifel
To be continued...
See Book i, Chapter 2: “Encounter".
THE RINGING CEDARS SERIES AT A GLANCE
Anastasia, the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series, tells the
story of entrepreneur Vladimir Megre’s trade trip to the Siberian
taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena
connected with sacred ‘ringing cedar’ trees. He spent three days
with a woman named Anastasia who shared with him her unique
outlook on subjects as diverse as gardening, child-rearing, healing,
Nature, sexuality, religion and more. This wilderness experience
transformed Vladimir so deeply that he abandoned his commercial
plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to fulfil Anastasia’s request
and write a book about the spiritual insights she so generously
shared with him. True to her promise this life-changing book, once
written, has become an international bestseller and has touched
hearts of mi llions of people world-wide.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia, the second book of the Series, in
addition to providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the
story of how Anastasia came to be published, offers a deeper explo-
ration of the universal concepts so dramatically revealed in Book 1.
It takes the reader on an adventure through the vast expanses of
space, time and spirit — from the Paradise-lilce glade in the Siberian
taiga to the rough urban depths of Russia’s capital city, from the an-
cient mysteries of our forebears to a vision of humanity’s radiant
future.
The Space of Love, the third book of the Series, describes author’s
second visit to Anastasia. Rich with new revelations on natural
child-rearing and alternative education, on the spiritual significance
of breast-feeding and the meaning of ancient megaliths, it shows
how each person’s thoughts can influence the destiny of the entire
Earth and describes practical ways of putting Anastasia’s vision of
happiness into practice. Megre shares his new outlook on educa-
tion and children’s real creative potential after a visit to a school
where pupils build their own campus and cover the ten-year Russian
school programme in just two years. Complete with an account of
an armed intrusion into Anastasia’s habitat, the book highlights the
limitless power of Love and non-violence.
Co-creation, the fourth book and centrepiece of the Series, paints a
dramatic living image of the creation of the Universe and humani-
ty’s place in this creation, making this primordial mystery relevant
to our everyday living today. Deeply metaphysical yet at the same
time down-to-Earth practical, this poetic heart-felt volume helps us
uncover answers to the most significant questions about the essence
and meaning of the Universe and the nature and purpose of our ex-
istence. It also shows how and why the knowledge of these answers,
innate in every human being, has become obscured and forgotten,
and points the way toward reclaiming this wisdom and — in part-
nership with Nature — manifesting the energy of Love through our
lives.
Who are we? — Book Five of the Series — describes the author’s
search for real-life ‘proofs’ of Anastasia’s vision presented in the
previous volumes. Finding these proofs and taking stock of ongo-
ing global environmental destruction, Vladimir Megre describes
further practical steps for putting Anastasia’s vision into practice.
Full of beautiful realistic images of a new way of living in co-opera-
tion with the Earth and each other, this book also highlights the role
of children in malting us aware of the precariousness of the present
situation and in leading the global transition toward a happy, vio-
lence-free society.
The book of kin, the sixth book of the Series, describes another
visit by the author to Anastasia’s glade in the Siberian taiga and his
conversations with his growing son, which cause him to take a new
look at education, science, history, family and Nature. Through
parables and revelatory dialogues and stories Anastasia then leads
Vladimir Megre and the reader on a shocking re-discovery of the
pages of humanity ’s history that have been distorted or kept secret
for thousands of years. This knowledge sheds light on the causes of
war, oppression and violence in the modern world and guides us in
preserving the wisdom of our ancestors and passing it over to future
generations.
The energy of life, Book Seven of the Series, re-asserts the power
of human thought and the influence of our thinking on our lives
and the destiny of the entire planet and the Universe. Is also brings
forth a practical understanding of ways to consciously control and
build up the power of our creative thought. The book sheds still
further light on the forgotten pages of humanity’s history, on reli-
gion, on the roots of inter-racial and inter-religious conflict, on ideal
nutrition, and shows how a new way of thinking and a lifestyle in
true harmony with Nature can lead to happiness and solve the per-
sonal and societal problems of crime, corruption, misery, conflict,
war and violence.
The new civilisation , the eighth book of the Series, is not yet com-
plete. The first part of the book, already published as a separate
volume, describes yet another visit by Vladimir Megre to Anastasia
and their son, and offers new insights into practical co-operation
with Nature, showing in ever greater detail how Anastasia’s lifestyle
applies to our lives. Describing how the visions presented in previ-
ous volumes have already taken beautiful form in real life and pro-
duced massive changes in Russia and beyond, the author discerns
the birth of a new civilisation. The book also pain ts a vivid image of
America’s radiant future, in which the conflict between the power-
ful and the helpless, the rich and the poor, the city and the country,
can be transcended and thereby lead to transformations in both the
individual and society.
Rites of Love — Book 8, Part 2 (published as a separate volume) —
contrasts today’s mainstream attitudes to sex, family, childbirth and
education with our forebears’ lifestyle, which reflected their deep
spiritual understanding of the significance of conception, preg-
nancy, homebirth and upbringing of the young in an atmosphere of
love. In powerful poetic prose Megre describes their ancient way
of life, grounded in love and non-violence, and shows the practica-
bility of this same approach today. Through the life-story of one
family, he portrays the radiant world of the ancient Russian Vedic
civilisation, the drama of its destruction and its re-birth millennia
later — in our present time.
To be continued...
ISBN 978-0-9763333-7-1
9 780976 333371
1 V/l 1I1V JLV.lt 1^1 11^ VV UOl^ vJV I IV 3
Re asserting the power of human thought and its influence on our lives and the
destiny of the entire planet, this book brings forth a practical understanding
of ways to consciously control and build up the power of our creative thought.
It sheds further light on the forgotten pages of humanity’s history, on religion,
on the roots of inter-racial and inter-religious conflict, on ideal nutrition, and
shows how a new way of thinking and a lifestyle in true harmony with Nature
can lead to happiness and resolve personal and societal problems.
www.RingingCedars.com
1-888-DOLMENS
US$14.95 CANS19.95 AU$24.95
The Ringing Cedars Series
Book 8, part i
Translated from the Russian by
John Woodsworth
Edited by
Leonid Sharashkin
Ringing Cedars Press
Paia, Hawaii, USA
The New Civilisation by
Vladimir Megre
Translation and footnotes by
John Woodsworth
Editing, footnotes, design and layout by
Leonid Sharashkin
Cover art by
Alexander Razboinikov
Copyright ©
2005 Vladimir Megre
2007 Leonid Sharashkin, translation
2007 Leonid Sharashkin, cover art
2007 Leonid Sharashkin, design and layout
2007 Leonid Sharashkin, footnotes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, except for the
inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007934389
ISBN: 978-0-9763333-8-8
Published by
Ringing Cedars Press
www.RingingCedars.com
1. Pre-dawn feelings i
2. Dominion over radiation 6
3. “Goosey, goosey, ga-gaga” or
The superknowledge we are losing 19
A big problem 26
There is a solution 37
4. Rejuvenation 39
First ordeal 49
Second ordeal 40
Third ordeal 41
A mysterious procedure 44
A vision .50
5. Divine nutrition 55
6. Demon G rati us 69
7. The billionaire 78
8. 1 am giving birth to you, my angel! 116
9. A fine state of affairs! 137
Talking with presidents 138
To the President and Government of Russia 144
The science of imagery, and who governs the
country’s ideology 146
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Russia’s Orthodox Church — but is it Russia’s? 157
Occupiers in action 157
10. The BookofKin and A Family Chronicle 161
The Jewish question tty
Let’s create iyo
Letter to the Russian President from Germany ipi
11. One hectare — a piece of Planet Earth 198
12. People power 206
A law of Russia on Family Communities created by
Russian People’s Deputies on all levels (draft) 208
13. A new civilisation 219
Immortality 223
Love creating worlds 225
Chapter One
©0
Anastasia was still asleep. And over the endless Siberian taiga
the first glow of light was breaking across the pre-dawn sky
This time I was the first to waken, but stayed quietly lying be-
side her on my sleeping bag, admiring her serene and beautiful
face and the flowing contours of her figure, as the soft, heav-
enly light of the advancing morning made them ever more
distinct. It was good that this time she had arranged for us to
spend the night under the open sky She had no doubt been
able to sense the warmth and gentle stillness of the approach-
ing night, and so had made our bed not in her cozy dug-out
cave but outdoors, at its entrance. She had spread out my
sleeping bag, which I had brought during a previous visit to
the taiga, while she fixed up beside me a beautiful place to
sleep for herself, comprised of flowers and dried grasses.
She looked picture-perfect lying there on that taiga bed,
wearing a thin flaxen knee-length dress, which I had brought
her as a gift from my readers. Perhaps she put it on only when
I was around; she was quite capable of sleeping in the nude.
The colder it was in the forest, the more dried grasses were
applied; after all, a haystack can keep out the cold in the win-
ter too. Even a simple soul without Anastasia’s level of hardi-
ness could sleep comfortably in hay without extra clothing. I
tried it myself. But this time I was lying there on my sleep-
ing bag, looking at Anastasia resting beside me, and I kept
imagining how this whole scene might look in a wide-screen
feature film.
2
Book 8: The New Civilisation
A sylvan glade in the depths of the endless Siberian taiga. The
pre-dawn stillness is only rarely broken by a scarcely audible rus-
tling of branches in the crowns of the majestic cedars. And here is
this beautiful woman so serenely asleep on her bed of grasses and
flowers. Her breathing is perfectly even and barely audible. The
only thing noticeable is the slight swaying to and fro of a blade
of grass clinging to her upper lip as she inhales and exhales the
health-giving air of the Siberian taiga.
Never before had I managed to see Anastasia asleep here —
she was always the first to awake. But this time...
I took great delight in watching her. Carefully raising my
upper body and resting on my elbow, I studied her face, im-
mersed myself in thought and began talking to myself.
Tou are still altogether beautiful, Anastasia. It will soon be ten
years that we have known each other. Of course I’ve got older during
this time, while you’ve hardly changed at all. No wrinkles on your
face. Only your golden hair is now showing one strand of silver grey.
Apparently something extraordinary’s happened to you. Judging by
the massive campaign that’s been unleashed against you and your ide-
as, judging by what is being said in the press and bureaucrats’ offices,
something is going on in the dark forces’ camp. They keep trying to
get on my nerves, and I know how they’d love to get their hands on
you. But their arms are evidently not long enough. . .
And still, you’ve got that grey strand of hair showing. But it
can’t spoil your extraordinary beauty. Tou know, tinting individual
strands a variety of colours is an ‘in’ thing right now. Among our
young people today highlighting strands is a hip fashion statement.
And you don’t even need to go to a hairdresser’s — it’s just happened
all on its own. And the scar where that bullet grazed you, 1 it’s practi-
cally gone.
See Book 3, Chapter 7: “Assault!”.
Pre-dawn feelings
3
The pre-dawn sky continued to brighten, and the scar was
barely noticeable, even up close. Soon it would disappear
completely.
Look at yon sleeping so peacefully here in the fresh air, in your
own taiga world, while out there, in our world, extremely significant
events are takingplace. Researchers are talking about an ‘information
revolution’. Perhaps it is thanks to you, or perhaps they are simply fol-
lowing the dictates of their own hearts, but people in our technocratic
world are beginning to create their own family domains, enriching the
land. They have adopted your image wholeheartedly, Anastasia —
the marvellous image of the future for their family, the country and
possibly the whole order of the Universe. They have understood all
you have said and are building this marvellous future for themselves.
And I am. trying to comprehend, too. Ttn trying my best. I still
don’t completely understand what you mean to me. You taught me
to write books, you bore me a son, you made me famous, you brought
back my daughter’s respect for me — you’ve done a loti But that’s not
the main point. It’s in something else, the main point. Perhaps it’s
lying hidden somewhere within.
You know, Anastasia, I have never spoken of my feelings for you,
neither to you nor even to myself. In fact, I’ve never told any woman
in my whole life that I love her.
I’ve never said that, not because I’m completely without feelings,
but because these words have always seemed strange to me, even
nonsensical. After all, if a person loves another, this love shoidd be
reflected in one’s actions toward one’s beloved. If words need to be
spoken, that means there are no genuine, tangible actions. It’s the ac-
tions, after all — not words — that are most important.
Anastasia stirred ever so slightly, took a deep breath, but
did not waken. And I continued to talk with her, still speak-
ing within myself.
Not once have I ever spoken to you about love, Anastasia. But if
you asked me to fetch you a star from the sky, I woidd climb up to the
top of the tallest tree, and pushing off from the uppermost branch, I’d
4
Book 8: The New Civilisation
take a leap in the direction of that star. If I happened to fall, I would
catch myself on its branches, and climb up once more to the top, and
again leap toward the star.
You’ve never asked me to fetch you a starfrotn the sky. You only
asked me to write books, and I am writing them. But my writing
doesn’t always come out too well. Sometimes I fall. But I’m not done
with them yet, after all. I still haven ’t written my final book. I’ll try
to write it so you’ll like it.
Anastasia’s eyelashes fluttered, a gentle glow flushed across
her cheeks, and she opened her eyes. I caught the tender gaze
of her greyish-blue eyes... Oh, Lord, what a warmth those
eyes always give off, especially when they’re so close to me.
Anastasia watched me without a word, but her eyes sparkled
as though full of moisture.
“Good morning, Anastasia!” I said. “’You probably haven’t
had a good long sleep like that before — you’ve always woken
up before me.”
‘And a good morning to you, and a marvellous day,
Vladimir,” Anastasia responded quietly, almost in a whisper.
“I should like to have just a wee bit more sleep.”
“So you haven’t had enough sleep yet?”
“I have, and a very good sleep at that. But my dream... I
was having such a pleasant pre-dawn dream.”
“What kind of dream? What was it about?”
“I dreamt you were talking with me. About a tall tree and
a star, about falling down and climbing up again. The words
were about the tree and the star, but it struck me as though
they were really about love.”
“Things can often seem pretty fuzzy in dreams. What con-
nection could a tree possibly have with love?”
“Everything can have a connection, and great meaning too.
It is the feelings that matter here, not the words. This day’s
dawn has brought me an extraordinary feeling. I shall go out
to greet and embrace—”
Pre-dawn feelings
5
“Who?”
“This marvellous day, which has offered me such an ex-
traordinary gift.”
Anastasia slowly rose to her feet, stepped a few paces away
from the cave entrance and then... She did something she
always did in the mornings — her unique exercise routine.
There she was, flinging her arms out to the sides and a little
bit upward. She gave a momentary glance up at the sky and
then all at once spun round. Then she ran off and did an in-
credible somersault before spinning round again.
Lying on my sleeping bag by the cave entrance, I admired
Anastasia’s darts and lunges and thought: Wow! A mature
woman already, and look how quickly, beautifully and energetically
she moves, just like a young gymnast! Fascinating how she felt what
I had in mind as I was talking to myself while she was sleeping.
Maybe I really should own up to her?
And I cried out:
‘Anastasia, it wasn’t simply a dream you were having.”
She stopped her exercise routine at once and stood there
in the middle of the glade. Then she deftly turned a couple of
cartwheels in my direction and landed right beside me. She
quickly sat down on the ground and joyfully enquired:
“Not simply a dream? And just how is it not ‘simple? Out
with it! Tell me all the details!”
“Well, you see, I was thinking about that same tree. I was
talking to myself about a star.”
‘And where, tell me, where did you get these words from?
What produced them — these words?”
“Maybe feelings?”
Our conversation was interrupted by a cry from Anastasia’s
grandfather.
‘Anastasia! Anastasia, listen to me right away! Do you read
me?”
Anastasia jumped up, and I got up quickly, too.
Chapter Two
“Has Volodya been up to something unusual again?” Anastasia
enquired of her grandfather, who had rushed over to us. And
Grandfather, with a passing glance at me and a brief “Hello,
Vladimir!”, explained:
“He is down by the lakeshore. He dived down and brought
up a stone from the bottom. Now he is standing there, clutch-
ing it in his hand. It is safe to assume that the stone is burning
his hand, but he will not let it go. And I do not know what
advice to give him.”
Then Grandfather turned to me and barked:
“Your son’s down there. You’re his father. What are you
standing here for?”
Not fully aware of what was going on, I ran down to the
lake. Grandfather ran alongside me and explained:
“This stone is radioactive. It isn’t big, but contains a good
deal of energy — an energy similar to radiation.”
“How did it happen to turn up at the bottom of the lake?”
“It’s been lying there a long time. My father, even, knew
about that stone. But nobody’s been able to dive down to it.”
“How did Volodya manage it? How did he know about
it?”
“I trained him to do deep-water dives.”
“What for?”
“He kept pestering me to show him, asking me again and
again. You two don’t seem to have the time to look after your
own child’s upbringing — you’ve been shoving the whole bur-
den onto the shoulders of your elders.”
Dominion over radiation
1
“And who told him about the stone?”
“Now who would have told him, eh, apart from me? I told
him.”
“What for?”
“He wanted to know what stopped the lake from freezing
over in winter.”
As we approached the lake, I saw my son standing on the
shore. His hair and shirt were all wet, but the water had al-
ready dripped off them, which told me he had been standing
like that for some time.
Volodya stood with his arm stretched out in front of him,
his fingers clenched into a fist, which he kept his eyes fixed
on like a hawk. It was clear his hand was clutching that same
sinister stone from the bottom of the lake. I took two steps
in his direction. He quickly turned his head toward me and
said:
“Don’t come any closer, Papa.”
And when I stopped, he added:
“Good health to your thoughts, Papa! But keep back just a
little further. Maybe it would be better if you and Grandfather
lay down on the ground. I shall be able to better concentrate
that way”
Grandfather at once lay down on the ground, and without
really knowing why, I followed suit. For some time we didn’t
say a word, just watching Volodya standing on the shore. Then
a rather simple thought struck me, and I said:
“Volodya, couldn’t you just toss it a little ways away?”
“Where away?” my son asked, not turning his head.
“Into the grass.”
“I must not throw it into the grass. It could cause a lot of
destruction. I feel I must not throw it away yet.”
“So, does that mean you’re going to keep standing there all
day, or two days? What next? You’re going to stand there a
whole week? Or a month, even?”
8
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“I am thinking about what to do, Papa. Let us keep quiet
and give thought a chance to find the solution without being
distracted.”
Grandfather and I lay silently on the grass and looked at
Volodya. And all at once I became aware of Anastasia ap-
proaching slowly — too slowly, under the circumstances —
from the other end of the shore. When she got about five
metres from Volodya’s position, she sat down at the water’s
edge, as if nothing unusual were going on. She let her feet
dangle in the water and stayed there that way for some time.
Eventually she turned to our son and very calmly enquired:
“Is it burning your hand, son?”
“ Yes, Mama,” Volodya replied.
“What were you thinking about when you fetched the
stone? And what are you thinking about right now?”
“The stone is giving off energy, similar to radiation.
Grandfather was telling me about it. But Man 1 also gives off
energy. I know that. And human energy is always stronger
than any other — it cannot be dominated by any other. I
brought up the stone and I am holding it. I am trying with
all my might to repress its energy — to send it back inside the
stone. I want to demonstrate that Man has dominion over
any radiation.”
‘And are you succeeding in demonstrating the superiority
of the energy coming from yourself?”
“Yes, Mama, I am succeeding. Only it is becoming increas-
ingly hotter. It is burning my fingers and palm just a little.”
“Why do you not throw it away?”
“I feel that I must not do that.”
“Why?”
1 Man — Throughout the Ringing Cedars Series, the word Man with a capi-
ta' M is used to refer to a human being of either gender. For details on the
word’s usage and the important distinction between Man and human being
please see the Translator’s Preface to Rook i.
Dominion over radiation
9
“I feel it.”
“Why?”
“It... It will explode, Mama. It will explode just as soon as
I open my hand. There will be a big explosion.”
“You are correct, it will explode. The stone is giving off
the energy accumulated inside it. You used your own energy
to repress its flow and direct it back inside. You used your
thought to shape the nucleus within the stone, and your en-
ergy is now building up inside it, along with its own. It cannot
go on accumulating indefinitely It is already raging within
the nucleus you formed with your own thoughts — it is get-
ting hotter and the stone is burning your hand.”
“I realise that, and that is why I am not letting go of my hold.”
Outwardly Anastasia was the picture of calm. Her move-
ments were slow and smooth, her speech was measured and
with pauses. I could still feel, however, the extremely intense
concentration of her thought — it must have been working
faster than ever. She rose to her feet, gave what appeared to
be a lethargic stretch, and said quietly.
“That means you realise, Volodya, that if you open your
hand suddenly, there could be an explosion?”
“Yes, Mama.”
“That means you have to release it gradually.”
“How?”
“Just a tiny bit at first. First, ease up on your thumb and
index finger to expose just a fraction of the stone. Picture
in your mind right off how the energy you directed into the
stone is emanating straight upward like a ray And its own
energy will begin to follow suit. Be careful: the ray must be
directed only straight up.”
Concentrating all his attention on his tightly clenched fist,
Volodya gradually eased the pressure on his thumb and index
finger. It was a sunny morning, but even in broad daylight one
could see the ray emanating from the stone. A bird flying way
IO
Book 8: The New Civilisation
up high fell into the ray and was immediately transformed into
a puff of smoke. It looked as though a small cloud exploded
in vapour when the ray passed through it. A few minutes later
and the ray was scarcely noticeable.
“Oh, I have been sitting here with you too long!” said
Anastasia. “I think I may go and make us some breakfast
while you amuse yourselves here.”
She took her time leaving. After going only a few steps,
she staggered a bit, and then headed down to the water and
washed her face. No doubt her outward calm had concealed
an incredible inner tension. She had hid it so as not to fright-
en her son and interfere with his actions.
“How did you know exactly what I should do?” Volodya
called out after the receding figure of Anastasia.
“How, indeed?” Grandfather echoed, mockingly He had al-
ready got up from the ground and was feeling in much better
spirits. “What do you mean, howl At school your Mama was a
top-notch pupil in physics!” And he burst out in a loud guffaw.
Anastasia turned toward us and broke into laughter her-
self, explaining:
“I had not known about that before, son. But whatever
happens, you always need to look for and find a solution. And
not to let your thought be fettered by fear.”
When the ray could no longer be seen at all, Volodya
opened his hand completely A small oblong stone was lying
quietly on his palm. He stared at it for some time, muttering
under his breath as he addressed the stone: “What is inside
you is no match for Man!”
Then he once again closed his hand into a fist and dived
straight into the water without taking off his shirt. It was
a good three minutes before he resurfaced and headed back
toward the shore.
“I was the one who taught him how to hold his breath that
long,” Grandfather commented.
Dominion over radiation
ii
After Volodya came out of the water, he jumped up and
down to dry himself off, then headed over our way. I couldn’t
wait, but burst out:
“D’you have any idea what radiation is, son? I guess you
don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t have gone and fetched that
wretched stone. Can’t you find yourself some other business
to poke your nose into?”
“I know all about radiation, Papa. Grandfather told me
about the disasters that have happened at your nuclear pow-
er plants, about your atomic weapons and the dangers now
posed by the storage of nuclear waste.”
“So, what’s all the interest in this stone lying at the bottom
of the lake? What about it?”
“Yes, indeed, what about it?” Grandfather joined the con-
versation. “ You preach at him, Vladimir. I’m going to go have
a little rest. It seems that lately your son’s been making quite
a few demands on me.”
Grandfather started heading off, leaving me alone with my
son.
And here he was, standing in front of me in his shirt, all
dripping wet. Pie was evidently quite upset about the worry
he had caused us all. I didn’t feel like nagging him any further.
I simply stood there without saying a word, not knowing how
to begin. Volodya was the first to speak.
“You see, Papa, Grandfather told me that these nuclear
waste facilities are extremely dangerous. According to prob-
ability theory, they can do irreparable harm to many countries
and the people living in them. And to our whole planet, be-
sides.”
“They can, of course, but what’s this got to do with you?”
“What this means is, if people think the problem is solved,
but the danger still remains, it means they have not come up
with the correct solution.”
“So, what if it is incorrect — what does it matter?”
12
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“Grandfather said that it is up to me to find the correct
solution.”
“So... have you found it?”
“I have now, Papa.”
There he was, standing before me, my nine-year-old son,
soaking wet and with an injured hand, but entirely confident
in himself. And speaking in a calm and confident tone of voice
about how to solve the problem of storing nuclear waste. An
altogether peculiar situation! After all, he is no scientist, no
nuclear physicist and doesn’t even study in a regular school.
Most peculiar! Here is this boy standing in his wet clothing
on the shore of a taiga lake and discussing the safe storage of
nuclear waste. Not counting on any kind of effective solu-
tion on his part, I asked, simply in the interests of keeping the
conversation going:
“Well, what specific conclusions have you come to regard-
ing this insoluble problem?”
“Out of all the possible variants, I think the most effective
is deconcentration.”
“I’m not sure what you mean — deconcentration of what?
“Of nuclear waste, Papa.”
“How so?”
“I came to the realisation, Papa, that radiation in small
doses is not at all dangerous. It is present in small quantities
everywhere — in us, in plants, in the water and the clouds.
But the real danger comes when too much is concentrated in
one place. In the nuclear facilities Grandfather was telling
me about, a whole lot of radioactive objects are concentrated
together in one place.”
“Well, everybody knows that. Radioactive waste is hauled
to specially constructed storage facilities, which are carefully
protected from terrorists. They’ve got specially trained per-
sonnel who ensure there are no violations of proper storage
technology”
Dominion over radiation
13
“Quite right, Papa. But the danger still exists. And a ca-
tastrophe is inevitable, caused by someone’s specific thought
imposing a wrong decision on people.”
“You know, this problem, son, is being investigated in sci-
entific institutes by highly qualified specialists. You’re not a
scholar, you haven’t studied science, and so you’re not capable
of solving such an important question. It’s modern science
that ought to come up with an answer.”
“But what has been the result, Papa? After all, it is precise-
ly the inventions of modern science that have caused people
to be subjected to great danger. Of course I do not study in
school, and I do not know the science you are talking about,
but...”
He fell silent and lowered his head.
“What does that ‘but’ of yours mean? Why did you stop,
Volodya?”
“I have no desire, Papa, to be a pupil in that school or to
study the science you have in mind.”
“Why not?”
“Because, Papa, that kind of science is what leads to disas-
ters.”
“But there’s no other kind of science.”
“There is. ‘Reality should be determined only through
one’s own self,’ says Mama Anastasia. I understand what that
means, and I am studying, or ‘determining’. At the moment I
do not know how to put it more specifically”
Wow! How sure he is of his convictions! I thought. Then I asked:
“And what is the probability of disaster, as you see it?”
“A hundred percent.”
“You’re certain of that?”
‘According to probability theory and the absence of any
counteraction to destructive thought, a disaster is inevitable.
The construction of large nuclear storage facilities can be
compared to the construction of huge bombs.”
H
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“And am I to guess that your thought has begun counter-
acting this destructive element?”
“Yes, I have launched my thought into space. And it will
triumph.”
“Specifically, what solution has your thought come up with
regarding the problem of the safe storage of nuclear waste?”
‘All nuclear waste concentrated in large facilities needs to
be deconcentrated — that is my thought.”
“Deconcentration — does that mean dividing it into frag-
ments a hundred thousandth or a multi-millionth in size?”
“That is right, Papa.”
‘A simple solution. But the big question remains: where to
store these tiny fragments?”
“On kin’s domains, Papa.”
For a moment the shock of this incredible statement com-
pletely overwhelmed me — I didn’t know what to say Then I
practically shouted:
“Nonsense! That’s utter nonsense you’ve thought up,
Volodya.”
After I’d thought about it a little more, I said in a calmer
voice:
“Of course, if nuclear fragments are deconcentrated and
spread among various places, a global catastrophe can be
averted. But this will also put millions of families who have
decided to live on these domains in danger. After all, every-
body wants to live in a place that’s environmentally clean.”
“Yes, Papa, everybody wants to live in an environmentally
clean place. But there are hardly any such places remaining
on the Earth today.”
“And here in the taiga, isn’t this environmentally clean ei-
ther?”
“The environment here is relatively clean. But it is not ideal,
not pristine. There are no ideal spots left, anywhere. Clouds
can bring their acid rain here too, from a variety of places. The
Dominion over radiation
15
grass and trees and bushes are coping with it for the time be-
ing, but the filthy places are becoming only filthier with each
passing day And the number of such places keeps growing
with each passing day That is why it is essential right now not
to walk away from this filthiness, but attack it. ‘We need to
create clean places ourselves’ — that is what Mama says.
“From all the possible variants my thought selected just
one. It could not come up with any other. My thought tells
me it is safer to deconcentrate and tame the waste one frag-
ment at a time, and derive a benefit for life on our planet by
storing a tiny fragment on one’s domain.”
“But where on the domain? In a larder? In a safe? Store
this radioactive capsule in an underground cellar? Has your
thought given you any hint of this yet?”
“The capsule should be buried underground no less than
nine metres deep.”
I spent some time thinking about my son’s proposal, which
had indeed seemed incredible at first, but the more I thought
about it, the more inclined I became to accept that there was
some grain of reason in what he said. At the very least, his
proposal for nuclear waste storage would be entirely suffi-
cient to avert a large-scale catastrophe. As to pollution on
the given domain, that was something that could indeed be
avoided, and there might even be a plus side. Perhaps scien-
tists could come up with something like a mini-reactor — or
something similar.
And then, all at once a thought dawned on me. Wow! Here
was another reason for the need to deconcentrate the storage
of radioactive waste. Money!
Huge sums are being doled out by foreign governments
for the storage of such waste. It is these funds that pay for
constructing the facilities, maintaining service personnel and
whole security control systems. And a part of this money
inevitably disappears into the unknown. Why not pay it,
i 6 Book 8: The New Civilisation
instead, to every domain where radioactive waste capsules are
stored? Fantastic! Not only would ‘safe contamination’ be
guaranteed, but people would earn money besides.
At the present time nobody can guarantee security from
contamination even for those living far away from the storage
facilities. Think what happened at Chernobyl 2 — the con-
tamination affected not just parts of Ukrainian territory, but
of Russia and Belarus as well. Clouds can carry the pollution
for hundreds and even thousands of kilometres.
So, even though it is still at the conceptual stage and the
details need fleshing out, my son’s proposal deserves serious
consideration — not just on the part of the academic world,
but from governments, and especially the public.
I was walking along the lakeshore, immersed in my thoughts,
and had quite forgot about my son. He was still standing at the
same spot, silently watching me. His upbringing forbade him
from being the first to reinitiate our conversation. To inter-
rupt the thought of a Man in contemplation was unthinkable.
I decided to change the subject.
“So, you spend your time thinking about different prob-
lems, Volodya. Don’t you have any duties to carry out? Have
you been assigned any work to perform?”
“Work?... Assigned?... I always do what I feel like doing.
Work? What do you mean by the word work, Papa?”
“Well, work is when you carry out some kind of task,
and people pay you money for it. Or when you do some-
thing that’s going to benefit your whole family Take me, for
2 Chernobyl — a town in northern Ukraine with a nuclear-power generating
station. In April 1986 an accident at Reactor N° 4 caused one of Europe’s
worst environmental disasters, spreading dangerous radiation over a huge
land area. As a result of the accident, the population of Chernobyl (13,000
people) and nearby Pripiat’ (49,000) was evacuated, and these towns, as
well as the larger surrounding area, are now uninhabited.
Dominion over radiation
17
example — when I was your age, my parents assigned me to
look after our bunny-rabbits. And that’s what I did. I would
collect grass for them, feed them, clean their cages... And the
rabbits brought our family a bit of income.”
After hearing me out, Volodya suddenly said with some ex-
citement:
“Papa, I shall tell you about one particular duty which I as-
signed to myself — a very enjoyable duty Only you’ll have to
judge whether it can be called work or not.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Then let’s go. I have a specific place I want to show you.”
Chapter Three
We started heading off from the lake, Volodya leading the
way. He had changed somehow. His analytical and concen-
trated mood had given way to one of joyfulness and excite-
ment. Sometimes he would do a pirouette as he walked along,
or a little leap into the air, as he explained to me:
“I never looked after bunny-rabbits, Papa. I did something
else. I am not sure what to call it — gave birth ? That will not
do. Created? Not really... Ah, now I remember. I think in your
civilisation it is called sitting on eggs. So, I sat on some eggs.”
“What d’you mean, you sat on some eggs? That’s a mother
hen’s job, or some other kind of bird’s.”
“Yes, I know. But in my case I had to sit on them myself.”
“What for? Tell me everything, in the proper order.”
‘All right, in the proper order. Well, it happened in this
order:
“I asked Grandfather to find me some eggs laid by wild
ducks and wild geese. At first Grandfather grumbled a bit,
but three days later he brought me four large goose eggs,
along with five duck eggs, which were smaller.
“Next in order, I dug a little hole in the ground, and put some
deer manure in the bottom along with grass stalks, and then I
1 Goosey, goosey, ga-ga-ga — the first line of a popular Russian folk song. The
song accompanies a children’s game in which a group of children (repre-
senting a flock of geese) are fleeing home from their feeding grounds while
another child (as a wolf) tries to catch them.
‘Goosey, goosey, ga-ga-ga
19
covered them over with dried grass, and then on top of this I
placed the two sets of eggs Grandfather had brought me.”
“What was the manure for?”
“For warmth. Eggs need warmth to hatch. And they
need warmth from above, too. Sometimes I lay down on the
ground myself, covering the hole with my stomach. When it
was cold or rainy, I assigned this task to the bear.”
“How did the bear keep from crushing the eggs?”
“You see, even though the bear is big, the hole containing
the eggs is pretty small. He lay on top of the hole, and the eggs
were at the bottom. Sometimes I would have the she-wolf
guard the eggs, at other times I would sleep on the ground
nearby myself, until they started to hatch. It was so wonder-
ful to watch them hatching. Not all of them made it, though.
From the nine eggs I started with, were born two goslings and
three ducklings. I fed them grass seed and crushed nuts and
gave them water to drink. Whenever I fed them, I would in-
vite various creatures living on our territory to watch.”
“What for?”
“To show them how I cared for the little chicks, to help them
understand that they should not touch them, but that they
should protect them instead. I would also sleep beside the hole
where the goslings and ducklings were born, except on cold or
rainy nights when I had the bear take over for me. The chicks
nestled in his warm coat, which made it very nice for them.
“Next, if I am to proceed in the proper order: I put up
stakes around the hole with which I made a wicker fence from
branches, and put branches above the nest as well. As the
goslings and ducklings grew and learnt to climb out of their
hole, I would walk around their nest and make short whistling
sounds: tsu-tsu-tsu. Upon hearing this, they would immediate-
ly climb out and run after me. They tried running after the
bear, but I trained them out of it. The bear can travel quite a
distance, and the birds might not make it in one piece.
20
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“But nothing happened to them. They grew up, feathers
appeared, and they learnt to fly I would toss them up in the
air to help them along. Then they began flying off on their
own, but always returned to their nest.
“When autumn came and a whole lot of birds started
gathering in flocks to fly south, my grown-up ducks attached
themselves to a whole flock of ducks, and my geese joined a
flock of geese, and they all flew off to warmer climes.
“But I guessed — I was almost certain — that they would
return in the spring. And they did. Oh, how fantastic that
was, Papa! They came back, and I heard their delightful cry:
ga-ga-ga. I ran over to their nest and began calling: tsu-tsu-
tsu. I fed them grass seed and some nut kernels which I had
ground up beforehand. They took the feed right out of my
hands. I was so happy, and all the creatures around heard the
cry and came running oh so happily...
“Look, Papa, here we are! Look!”
There in a secluded spot between two currant bushes I saw
the nest my son had fashioned. But there was no wildlife to
be seen anywhere around.
“You say they’ve come back, but there aren’t any birds
here.”
“Not at the moment. They have flown off somewhere to
have a stroll or look for food. That is why they are not here
right now, but look, Papa!”
As Volodya pushed the branches aside to widen the open-
ing, I caught a glimpse of three nest holes. In one of them lay
five small-sized eggs, probably, duck eggs. In the other, just
one, slightly larger — a goose egg.
“Wow! That means they have come back. And they’re lay-
ing eggs. Only just a few.”
“ Yes!” Volodya exclaimed in excitement. “They have come
back and are laying eggs. They could lay more if I took some
of the eggs out of the nest and fed the mothers more often.”
‘Goosey, goosey, ga-ga-ga
21
I looked at my son’s happy face, but could not fully com-
prehend the reason for his joyful excitement. I asked him:
“What are you so fantastically happy about, Volodya? I
know none of you — either you or your Mama or your grand-
father — eat eggs. Which means that your actions cannot
be called ‘work’ or a ‘job’, since there’s no practical benefit
from it.”
“You think so? But remember, other people eat bird’s eggs.
Mama says it is all right to use anything the animals them-
selves give to Man. Especially for people who are not accus-
tomed to a vegetarian diet.”
“What have other people got to do with your activities
here?”
“I have decided that something needs to be done so that
people living on their domains can be free from the burden
of so many household tasks. Or almost free. So that they
can have time to think and reflect. This is possible — if you
understand God’s intent in creating our world. I find delight
in the science of getting to know His thoughts. It is certainly
the grandest science of all, and it is something that must be
known.
“We need to learn, for example, why He made the birds fly
south in the autumn, but they do not stay in those warmer
climes, but come back in the spring. I have thought a lot about
this, and have guessed that He did this so that Man would not
be burdened during the wintertime. In winter birds cannot
find food for themselves, and they fly away But they do not
stay in the south, but come back — they want to be useful to
Man. This is God’s intent. There is much for Man to learn
from what our Creator has conceived.”
“What you’re suggesting, then, Volodya, is that ducks and
geese can live in every domain, lay their eggs, feed themselves,
and then fly off in the autumn and come back in the spring?”
“Yes, quite right. After all, it worked with me.”
22
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“Yes, I see — it really did work with you. But there’s just
one concern I have... It will probably upset you to hear this,
but still, I have to tell you the truth. Just so you don’t go look-
ing ridiculous with your proposal.”
“Tell me the truth, Papa.”
“You see , there ’s this science we c all economics . Economists
are trying to figure out what is the best way of handling the
production ofvarious goods — in this case, eggs. In our world
a lot of chicken farms have been set up, where a whole bunch
of chickens are kept in one place. They lay their eggs, and
afterward these eggs are shipped off to grocery stores. People
can go to these stores and easily purchase as many eggs as
they need. It’s all worked out to ensure the least expenditure
of labour and time on a per-unit basis.”
“What does ‘expenditure of labour’ mean, Papa?”
“It refers to the quantity of time and resources spent on
the production of a single egg. Yru have to carefully work out
what’s going to be the most efficient method of production,
and that will be the best method.”
“Fine, I shall try to work it out, Papa.”
“When you work out the whole thing, you’ll understand.
But to figure it out you’ll need expense statistics. I’ll try to
get them from some economist.”
“But I can calculate everything right now, Papa.”
Volodya gave a bit of a frown, evidently concentrating, and
after a minute announced:
“ Minus two to infinity .”
“What kind of a formula is that? What does it refer to?”
“The efficiency of the Divine economy is expressed in an
infinite series of numbers. Even starting from zero, modern
scientific economics is already two points down.”
“You’ve got a pretty strange method of calculation there.
I can’t fathom it. Can you explain how you arrived at that
figure?”
‘Goosey, goosey, ga-ga-ga
23
“I set the benchmark for our current case at zero. All the
expenses involved in a chicken factory — its construction,
maintenance and delivery of eggs to stores are summed up in
the figure of minus one.”
“What d’you mean, ‘minus one’? These expenses should be
expressed in roubles and kopeks .” 2
“Monetary units are relative and will always vary, and so
they are not significant in this methodology. They all need to
be lumped together under the arbitrary value of ‘minus one’.
Whatever expenses there are, in terms of a zero benchmark,
they can be expressed as ‘minus one’.”
‘And where did you get the second minus figure?”
“That is quality. It cannot be very good. The unnatural
maintenance conditions and the lack of variety in feed cannot
help but lower the quality of the eggs, and this gives rise to an-
other value of minus one. So we get ‘minus two’ altogether.”
“Okay, let’s say you’re right. But in your case, too, there are
huge expenditures of time. Here, tell me, Volodya, how much
time did you spend, as you put it, ‘sitting on’ the eggs, and
then feeding the ducklings and goslings, and watching out for
them?”
“Ninety days and nights.”
“So, ninety times twenty-four hours. And all that in aid of
producing no more than a few dozen eggs — and that only at
the end of a year! For people living in their domains, it would
be much more efficient to buy some little chicks at a market
or hatch them over the winter with the help of an electric in-
cubator, and in four or five months they’ll start laying. In the
z kopek (Russian: kopeika) — a coin worth 1/100 of a rouble. It is derived
from the Russian word for ‘spear’ ( kop’e , pronounced kap-YO), in reference
to a warrior piercing a dragon with his spear — a scene depicted on early
Russian coins. The word ‘rouble’ itself is derived from the verb mbit’ (‘cut
with an axe’) — early coins represented a silver band cut in rectangular
pieces.
24
Book 8: The New Civilisation
second year, before winter sets in, they’re generally slaugh-
tered, since their laying capacity goes down by the third year.
So they kill them and start raising a new batch. That’s tech-
nology for you.”
“That is the technology of never-ending burdens, Papa.
You have to feed the chickens every day, store up food for the
winter, and every other year raise a new batch of chickens.”
“Sure, you feed them and raise new ones, but thanks to
modern technology it isn’t nearly as time-consuming as your
alternative.”
“But those ninety days will launch a programme that will
last forever. Once they come back, the migratory birds will
raise their young all by themselves, they will teach them how
to get along with human beings and come back to their home-
land. And they will go on doing this for thousands of years.
In launching a programme like this, Man is passing it on to
future generations of his family. He is giving back to them a
little particle of the Divine economy. A hundred years from
now an expenditure of ninety days in calculating the cost of
producing a single egg, will count as minutes, and continue to
diminish with each passing year.”
“But still, there are expenses, and you haven’t taken these
into account.”
“These expenses are offset by a powerful counterweight,
which is no less significant than what is produced by the
birds.”
“What counterweight?”
“When birds once again fly from faraway lands back to
their native woods and fields, people are delighted to see
them. Thanks to their joyful and beneficial energy, many peo-
ple’s diseases are eliminated. But this energy is ninety times
stronger when they do not merely fly back from the south,
but come directly to you and start greeting the Man living on
that domain with their happy cries and refrains of exultation.
‘Goosey, goosey, ga-ga-ga”
25
Their singing brings joy and strength not only to Man but to
the whole Space around him.”
Volodya spoke with confidence and inspiration. It would
have seemed foolish to continue arguing with him. I pretend-
ed to be absorbed in contemplation or to be figuring out some-
thing in my mind. I felt a little put out that there was nothing
I could teach my son or even offer him a few hints on.
And what kind of upbringing or education do we have here
anyway? Here is my son standing right in front of me, and yet
he seems like a child from another planet or another civilisa-
tion.
He has a different concept of life, a different philosophy
and speed of thought. He can do instantaneous calculations.
And it is clear, as I have been made aware, that even if I spent
a year on computer calculations, whatever he comes up with
would still be more accurate. It’s as though everything in-
side him were turned upside-down. Or perhaps it might be
more accurate to ask: To what degree have we perverted our own
lives — our concepts and meaning of life? All our disasters have
arisen from these perversions.
No doubt this is all true, but still... I’m so anxious to find
some way of being useful to my son. But how? With no ex-
pectations left, I asked him quietly and offhandedly:
“I’ll give some thought to those economics ofyours. Maybe
you’re right... But tell me, son: you’ve been playing with dif-
ferent tasks here, working them out. Have you ever had a
really serious problem to meet?”
Volodya sighed deeply and, it seemed, rather woefully
After a brief pause he replied:
“Yes, Papa, I do have a big problem. And only you can help
me solve it.”
Volodya was sad, while I, on the other hand, was delighted
to find something at last where he required my help.
‘And what does it involve, this big problem of yours?”
2 6
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“Remember, Papa, when I told you last time you were here
that I was preparing to go off into your world when I grew
up?” 3
“Yes, I remember. You said you would come into our world
and find yourself a Universe Girl to make her happy. You’d
build a kin’s domain with her, and raise children together. I
remember your telling me. So, you haven’t abandoned your
project?”
“Not at all. And I often think of the future, about that girl
and the domain. I can picture in detail how she and I will live
there together. And how you and Mama will come visit and
see how the dream which that girl and I co-created together
is being turned into reality”
“Well, then, what’s your problem? Are you afraid you might
not find your girl?”
“That is not the problem. I shall look for this girl and find
her. Come, I shall show you another little glade. And you will
see it all for yourself— you will sense what the problem is.”
Volodya and I arrived at a small glade located right next
door to Anastasia’s. When we reached the middle of the
glade, we stopped, and Volodya invited me to sit down on the
ground. Then, cupping his hands around his mouth, he gave
out a loud and extended cry: A-a-a-a! First he cried out in one
direction, then another and yet another. In just two or three
3 See Book 6, Chapter 2 : “Conversation with my son”, especially the section
“I shall make a Universe Girl happy”.
‘Goosey, goosey, ga-gaga
27
minutes there began a rustling in the treetops all around the
glade, and a whole lot of squirrels could be seen leaping from
branch to branch, gathering together on a single cedar tree.
Some of them simply sat down on one of the branches and
stared in our direction, while others — apparently the more
restless ones — continued hopping from one branch to an-
other.
A few minutes later and out of the bushes came running
three wolves. They sat down at the edge of the glade and also
began looking our way
A sable came along and took up a position about three me-
tres from the wolves. Then two goats appeared. They didn’t
sit down, but stood at the edge of the glade, their eyes fixed
on us. Soon afterward came a deer. The last to arrive was a
huge bear, noisily making his way through the bushes. He too
sat down at the edge of the glade, panting all the while, saliva
dripping from his tongue. He had probably been a long ways
off and had had to run for some distance.
All this time Volodya stood behind my back, with his hands
on my shoulders. Then he took a few paces back from me and
picked some herbs. Coming back to me, he said:
“Open your mouth, Papa, and I shall give you some herbs
to eat. This is so they can see that I am feeding you from my
hand, and will not be upset at the sight of a stranger.”
I took the proffered herbs in my mouth and began to chew.
Volodya sat down beside me, put his head up against my chest
and said:
“Stroke my hair, Papa, so that they will fully calm down.”
I began stroking his light-brown hair with delight. Then
he sat down beside me and began to explain.
“I realised, Papa, that God created the whole world as a
cradle for His son, Man. The plants, the air, the water and
clouds — everything has been created for Man. And the crea-
tures stand ready to serve Man with great delight. But we
28
Book 8: The New Civilisation
have forgotten, and now it is important to understand what
services the creatures can perform, what their purpose and
destiny is. Even today a lot of people are aware that a dog can
guard the house, find lost objects, and aid in keeping one’s
home safe from intruders. A cat, of course, can catch the mice
that raid the larder. A horse is transportation. But all the
other creatures have a specific feature and designation, too,
which should be understood. I have tried the best I could to
determine the function of all that you see here.
“Now they are sitting there and awaiting my command.
This is the third year now I have been working with them
to understand their purpose. Take, for example, the bear.
Because of his big and powerful paws, he can dig an under-
ground cellar, put supplies in it to save for the winter and dig
them up again in the spring. He knows how to bring honey
from a tree hollow”
“Yes, I know, Volodya. Anastasia told me that at one time
people used bears as household help.”
“Mama told me that, too. But look what I have taught the
bear to do.”
Volodya rose to his feet and stretched out his right arm
in the bear’s direction. The bear drew himself up on his
haunches, and even seemed to stop breathing. When Volodya
clapped his hand against his thigh, the huge bear took several
giant strides and lay down at the boy’s feet. Volodya squat-
ted down beside the beast’s enormous head, gave it a slap and
began scratching behind the creature’s ear. The bear purred
with pleasure. When Volodya got up, the bear did the same,
watching the boy’s every move.
Volodya went over to the edge of the glade, where he found
a dry branch, and stuck it into the ground about ten metres
from where I was sitting. Then he returned to the edge and
approached a small cedar tree about a metre high. He touched
it and clapped his hands twice. Right off, the bear ran over to
“Goosey, goosey, ga-ga-ga” 29
the cedar and sniffed it. And then an incredible thing started
to happen.
My son sat down beside me on the grass and the two of us
began watching as the scene unfolded before our eyes.
The bear spent some time sniffing the little cedar. First
he would walk away from it, as though measuring something,
then he would run over to the spot where Volodya’s dry branch
was sticking up. And all around the branch he suddenly be-
gan scraping away the earth with his front paws.
Working furiously with his paws and their powerful claws,
in the space of a few minutes he had dug a hole approximately
80 cm in diameter and about half a metre deep. He stopped
to admire his handiwork, and even stuck his head into the pit,
probably to sniff it.
After that the bear ran over to the cedar Volodya had indi-
cated, and began to dig out the earth around it. When he had
dugwhat amounted to a circular trench, the bear sat down on
his hind paws next to the cedar, dug his front paws into the
trench and pulled the little tree out of the ground, along with
a sizeable clump of earth. Rising on his hind legs, he held the
clump between his front paws and headed over to the hole
he had dug earlier. He carefully sat down and lowered the
clump with the cedar into the hole. It turned out the hole
was about 15 cm larger than required. The bear backed off to
take a look at his handiwork. Once more he pulled out the
cedar and set it to one side, while he filled in the hole just a
little more, before replanting the cedar. Now everything was
just right.
The bear backed away to once more inspect his accom-
plishment. This time he was apparently satisfied, as he went
back to the cedar he had planted and began filling in the crev-
ice around the clump from which the tree was growing. Fie
used his paw to scoop up the earth, stuff it into the crevice
and then pack it down around the newly replanted tree.
30
Book 8: The New Civilisation
It was quite a fascinating scene, but I had earlier witnessed
how the squirrels brought dried mushrooms and nuts for
Anastasia , 4 * or how the wolves played with Anastasia and pro-
tected her from wild dogs.’
Not only that, but a lot of people can observe all sorts of
tricks with various animals just by attending a circus perform-
ance. My own dog Kedra 6 also takes delight in carrying out a
range of commands.
What I witnessed in the taiga glade also bore outward
similarities to a circus performance, except that it didn’t take
place in an arena surrounded by a high net, but in natural sur-
roundings. And the performers were not circus animals liv-
ing in confined cages, but free — or ‘wild’, as we call them —
dwellers in the taiga. They might well have seemed wild to us,
but to my son they were simply friends and helpers. Just like
our household pets and farm animals.
However, I must point out one mysterious and incred-
ible distinction in particular: the loyalty of household pets
and farm animals can be explained by the fact that Man gives
them food and drink and provides shelter. People who go see
animal acts at circuses may also notice that after each success-
ful trick the tamer rewards the lion or tiger, giving them some
kind of treat or trifle he keeps on his belt or in his pocket just
for that purpose.
Circus animals which spend years confined in cages have
no opportunity to hunt for their own food. They are fully
dependent on Man. By contrast, the creatures here in the
taiga are absolutely free and fully capable of finding food and
shelter on their own. Yet still they come — not just come, but
4 See, for example, Book i, Chapter 6: ‘Anastasia’s morning”.
’See, for example, Book 3, Chapter 12: “Man-made mutants”.
0 Kedra — a name derived from kedr (the Russian word for ‘cedar’ or ‘Siberian
pine’).
‘Goosey, goosey, ga-ga-ga
3i
make an enthusiastic dash to respond to Man’s call and carry
out his commands. They carry them out with considerable
desire and even servility. Why? What do they get in return?
Volodya gave no food to the bear. But still, the bear’s joy was
many times more clearly evident than that shown by the cir-
cus animals upon receiving their treat.
The bear that transplanted the little tree on Volodya’s com-
mand stood there shifting from paw to paw, his eyes fixed on the
boy as though he wanted to repeat the action or perform some
other task. It is strange how this huge taiga bear really wants to
keep on doing something for Man, and for a child at that.
Volodya was not about to set the bear any new task. He
gestured the bear to come over, grasped the fur on the bear’s
muzzle with both hands, ruffled it a bit, then petted the muz-
zle and said:
“You’re a super helper — not like the goats.”
The bear purred with delight. This threatening creature
sounded as though it was at the very pinnacle of bliss.
Anastasia has said:
“Such beneficial energy can flow from Man as has never be-
fore been seen. Every living creature on the Earth needs this
energy just as it needs air, sunshine and water. And even sun-
light is but a reflection of the great energy emanating from
Man.”
Our sciences have discovered a multitude of diverse ener-
gies and even brought about the artificial generation of elec-
trical energy They have split the atom and manufactured
bombs. But how far (and in what direction) have our sciences
advanced in studying the more significant and important ques-
tion as to the energy emanating from Man himself? Is there
any tendency toward studying this energy at all, including its
mysterious capabilities? Or studying Man’s abilities in gen-
eral, and his function in both our world and the Universe?
32
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Perhaps someone is trying by whatever means available to
hinder Man from knowing himself. And I mean actual hin-
dering.
It cannot be, it cannot possibly be Man’s destiny to spend
years sitting in a casino or at a bar for a shot of vodka, or
drudging away at a cash register in some store or at a manag-
er’s desk in some office. And even a supermodel, or a presi-
dent, or a pop-star — none of them come even close to Man’s
most important purpose.
And yet it is these very professions of our modern age,
along with making money, that some enigmatic ‘entity 1 is pro-
moting today as the most important thing in Man’s life. It’s
what we see in a good many of our films and TV shows, which
concentrate on everything except the meaning of life. All
they do is turn Man into a banana-head.
Isn’t that the reason wars are happening all over the place?
And the Earth is becoming more and more polluted? And
people lose their sense of direction, they see no purpose in
living, and so they take to vodka and drugs.
Who is supposed to stop all this rot that is taking place with
our Earth? Science ? But science isn’t saying anything. Religion?
Which religion? Where are the results? Maybe everyone needs
to ponder this for themselves? Ponder it! For themselves!
To ponder, one must first think. But where? When? Our
lives have become one giant bustle from morning ’til night.
Every single attempt that has ever been made to ponder the
meaning of life has been suddenly aborted. Selling magazines
featuring half-naked sensuous bodies — oh, sure! Savouring
sexual perversion — oh, sure! Showing and telling about the
beastly antics of pervert-maniacs — oh, sure! Writing and
talking about prostitutes in the media — oh, sure!
But there is less and less talk about the meaning of Man’s
life and Man’s purpose — it’s becoming more and more a ta-
boo topic.
‘Goosey, goosey, ga-ga-ga
33
I glanced up from my contemplations to look at my son. He
was sitting on the grass beside me, watching me intently. I
thought he might have something more he wanted to show
me. I asked him:
“And what was it you were saying to the bear about goats,
Volodya?”
“I cannot, for the life of me, Papa, determine what their
purpose is.”
“What’s there to determine? Everyone knows what goats
are for — to give milk to Man.”
“Yes, milk, of course. But perhaps there is something more
they can be taught.”
“What more could they possibly...? Why bother looking
for something else?”
“I have been watching them. Goats are capable of stripping
bark off trees and stumps. And they can bite off branches
from bushes. If you let them into a domain, they could cause
harm to the plants. To stop that from happening, I am trying
to teach them to trim the hedges around the domains.”
“Trim?”
“Yes, Papa, trim. After all, people trim hedges to make
them more beautiful — either in a straight line or in different
shapes. Grandfather told me you call it landscape design, or
topiary art. But the goats do not seem to have any concept of
what I want them to do.”
‘And how are you teaching them?”
“I shall show you.”
Volodya reached for a rope made of nettle fibres woven to-
gether, about three metres long. He fastened one end to a
small tree and stretched the rope through a clump of bushes.
Then, gesturing the two little goats to approach, he gave each
of them a pat. He touched the bushes with his hand and even
snapped off a small branch himself with his teeth. He said
34
Book 8: The New Civilisation
something to the goats, and they set about vigorously gnaw-
ing off the bushy branches. Each time they neared the rope
border, Volodya would give several tugs on the rope and make
some disapproving sounds. The goats would stop for a time,
holding their snouts up and looking enquiringly at the boy,
but then go back to biting off the branches, paying no atten-
tion to the rope.
“You see, Papa, it is not working. They do not realise they
are supposed to trim the bushes in an even line.”
“Yes, I see. Is that the problem you were talking about?”
“That is not the main problem, Papa. It is something
else.”
“Then what?”
“You noticed, Papa, how happily the different creatures
came running to my call?”
“Yes, I did.”
“I have been working with them for several years now, and
they have become accustomed to communicating with me,
but only with me. They look forward to this interchange,
they want to be petted. But once I go off into your world,
they will miss me. They will miss not having a Man ever come
to see them again, or call them and give them something to
do. I feel that the communication with Man and serving Man
has become the most significant focus in their life.”
“Couldn’t they communicate with Anastasia?”
“Mama has her own circle, her own creatures she is friends
with. Besides, she is very busy and does not have time for all
of them.
“But, you see, these...” — and here once again Volodya
pointed to the creatures still sitting around the edge of the
glade — these I chose myself, and I am the only one who has
been working with them these past few years.
“Three months ago I asked Grandfather to be present with
me at all our training sessions. Grandfather muttered, but he
‘Goosey, goosey, ga-ga-ga
35
was always there beside me. But recently he told me he would
be unable to replace me.”
“Why?”
“He said he did not have the same interest as I had in
animal-training. And once again he began to mutter that I
should not have spent so much time with the animals indi-
vidually And that I should not have given them so much pet-
ting. And he reminded me that these creatures look upon me
not only as their leader, but as their child, too, since the older
among them saw me when I was a baby and even nursed me.
You see, I made some kind of mistake, and now I must defi-
nitely correct it. Only now I am no longer able to correct it
all on my own.”
I looked at the creatures still sitting at the edge of the
glade. They gave every indication that they were waiting for
Volodya to give them some sort of instructions or to do some-
thing with them. I imagined how they would miss him if he
were to go away The same way my dog Kedra misses me when
I have to leave my home in the country for days or weeks at
a time. She has a warm little doghouse and I don’t keep her
chained up — she’s free to roam the fields or the forest or the
village. And 1 have a neighbour who feeds her every day He
makes kasha' for her, and gives her bones to chew on. But my
neighbour tells me:
“She misses you, Vladimir Nikolaevich. She’ll often sit by
the gate and gaze down the road you come home on. And
sometimes she’ll whimper.”
And whenever I arrive, Kedra rushes headlong to greet
me, rubs against my legs, and sometimes she’s so enthusiastic
she’ll jump right up and try to lick my face, soiling my clothes
' kasha — a traditional Russian and Eastern European porridge made with
wheat, buckwheat and other grains.
36
Book 8: The New Civilisation
with her dirty paws. And there’s no way I can train her to be
not quite so ebullient in expressing her emotions.
But these creatures in the glade... All the time we talked
they sat there quietly watching us, looking the picture of
composure. What do they want? After all, nobody is making
them sit that way or wait on some kind of command from
Man.
My God... A thought all at once bubbled up with absolute
clarity and struck my heart. It was much more than just about
these creatures sitting in a taiga glade — it was the realisation
that all the creatures on the Earth have a specific purpose and
await contact with the highest being on the planet, namely,
Man. They have been created to help Man fulfil his supreme
mission. Like all life on the planet, they were created by God
to help Man realise his grand destiny... But Man...
I looked at the creatures in the glade and began to realise
that my son really did have a serious problem on his hands:
he could not simply abandon these creatures. Nor could he
bring himself to give up his dream about the girl he would be
setting up a domain with.
“Yes, Volodya, that really is a problem,” I told my son.
“Doesn’t look as though there’s any solution. Not one we can
find.”
“There is a solution, Papa, but it does not depend on me.”
“On whom, then?”
“7ou are the only one who can solve this problem, Papa.”
“Me? And just how am I supposed to do that? There’s
nothing /can do here, son.”
‘Goosey, goosey, ga-ga-ga
37
There is a solution
“I think, Papa, that you will be able to help me if you really
want to,” said Volodya quietly.
“You think so? But, you see, I have no idea what to do. 'You
may think so, but I have no idea.”
I was still sitting on the grass, while Volodya stood in front
of me, looking me in the eye with some kind of an implor-
ing gaze, his lips whispering something inaudible. I could tell
by his lips that he was saying one particular word over and
over again. Then, without taking his eyes away, he said it dis-
tinctly:
“Sis-ter. I earnestly beg of you, Papa, to bear me a sister,
together with Mama. I shall nurse her and raise her myself.
They will help me. We shall not distract you and Mama from
your activities. I shall teach her, when she grows a little. I
shall tell her about everything. She will remain here with my
creatures and my Space.
“Bear me a sister, together with Mama. Unless, of course,
you are ill... or are too tired. That is, of course, if you can.
Grandfather told me that men in your world often get ill and
grow older faster because of the way of life there, the air not
fit to breathe and the foul water. You are a little past fifty
years old, Papa. But if you are tired, Papa... If your strength
is pretty much exhausted... Then spend three days with me.
Just three days. I have everything all prepared, and a great
deal of strength will be restored to you.”
My son was excited, and I interrupted him.
“Wait, Volodya, calm down. Of course I’m a little tired.
But I think I’ll have enough strength. That’s not the point.
In principle I have nothing against giving you a sister, but
when it comes to bearing children, a desire on the part of both
parents is required.”
3 8
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“I am sure of it, Papa. I know for certain that Mama will
not refuse. If you agree, let us not waste any time, but begin
right now to prepare for the birth of my sister. I have been
studying up on it. Grandfather has helped me a great deal. I
have made calculations and have everything prepared. Stay
with me three days and three nights, and do not go off any-
where, and do not get distracted by anything, Papa. Your en-
ergy and strength will increase.”
“What makes you think I don’t have enough energy or
strength, Volodya?”
“I think you have enough, but you shall have more.”
“Okay, I shall spend all three days with you alone, but we
must go and let Mama know”
“I shall explain everything to her myself, Papa. I shall tell
her we have a common project. She will not go into specifics
and will not object.”
“Well, all right, then, let’s get started.”
I even began to wonder what my son had prepared that
would restore a great deal of strength and energy to Man af-
ter only three days. And I shall say right off that the proce-
dures he prepared may seem rather strange, but the sensation
resulting from them on the third day defies explanation in
words or writing.
It wouldn’t be appropriate, either, to say that a Man be-
comes ten or twenty years younger, though he may indeed
look as much as five years younger. But on the inside...
Somehow everything inside me seemed to be working differ-
ently Not only did I have new strength, but the world around
me seemed just a bit different.
Chapter Four
@
First ordeal
No sooner had I agreed to follow through with the proce-
dures thought up by my son than he signalled the assembled
creatures to go away. He grasped hold of my hand, and we ran
down to the lake. Volodya stopped several times along the way
to pick herbs in various places, which he softened and rolled
into a ball. When the ball was ready, he instructed me to eat it,
which I did. And in just a few minutes I noticed a heavy drip
of snot exuding from my nose and I began to vomit. It seemed
that all my stomach juices had been pumped out. I was unable
to speak for all the vomiting, while Volodya explained:
“That is good, Papa. Do not be afraid. It is good for all
that useless stuff to come out of you. Only a pure state will
remain. This is what they do in cases of poisoning.”
I was physically unable to offer any kind of answer, but
thought to myself: That’s true: poisoning victims drink tab-
lets which produce nausea and vomiting. There are laxatives, of
course — castor oil, for example. But what do I need this ordeal for?
I haven’t been poisoned.
As though he had tuned in to my question, Volodya ex-
plained:
“You, of course, have not been poisoned, Papa, but the food
you have been consuming is right on the verge of having a poi-
soning effect. Just let go of everything filthy inside you.”
After the vomiting and the discharge of the phlegm from
my nose, along with a copious flow of tears from my eyes,
4 o
Book 8: The New Civilisation
I began having a series of soft bowel movements, and five
times I ended up running into the bushes for a lengthy pe-
riod. The whole procedure lasted two to three hours. Then
came relief.
“Now do you feel better, Papa? Better than before? Eh?”
“Yes,” I affirmed.
0©
Second ordeal
Volodya once again took hold of my hand and off we ran.
When we reached the shore of the lake, he instructed me to
wash myself and swim around a bit. Upon coming out of the
water, I noticed him extracting a clay jar from a hole in the
ground, about a litre and a half in size.
“Now, Papa, you need to drink this water. It is called dead
water — because it contains very few microbes. This water
should not be drunk if the air is polluted. But we have pure
air here, so it is all right to drink dead water. It will rinse your
insides and cleanse them, and wash out a lot of microbes and
bacteria from your body Drink as much as you can, Papa.
When you have drunk up this whole jar, I shall give you anoth-
er, and when you have finished that I shall give you a third jar,
containing living water. And all the microbes and bacteria you
need will be restored in a balance that is just right for you.”
I should point out right off that Volodya and his family
consider dead water to be that found at great depths below
the Earth’s surface and containing a minimum of bacteria. I
believe our mineral water in bottles is precisely what they call
Rejuvenation
4i
dead water. In any case, I think all of our drinking water is
dead water, and that is why our children suffer from disbacte-
riosis, especially newborns.
Living water, on the other hand, they consider to be surface
water from pure streams or bodies of water, a few of which
have indeed been preserved in the depths of the Siberian
taiga.
There’s something I wish to emphasise here. Grandfather
later explained to me that spring water is not considered liv-
ing water when you drink it right out of the spring. To be
considered ‘living water’, it must first be kept for three hours
or so in a wooden or clay vessel with a wide neck.
“Living water needs to absorb sunlight,” he said. “With the
aid of sunlight, organisms are generated which are indispen-
sable to human life. You call them microbes and bacteria.”
Then the water should stand in the shade for at least an-
other three hours. After that it can be drunk as ‘living water’.
Third ordeal
“So take a drink whenever you feel like it, Papa. In the mean-
time we shall proceed to the next phase. Usually, for people
polluted by the outside world, this whole process takes about
nineteen days, Grandfather said, though it is even better to
stretch it out over thirty-three days. Since you do not have
that kind of time, I have shortened it for you down to three
days, but we shall manage. Come with me to another spot —
I have set up a particular device there.”
42
Book 8: The New Civilisation
We walked about a hundred metres away from the lake,
and there amidst a group of trees I saw a place prepared for
me to lie down, made of dried grasses. Next to this lay four
ropes made of woven nettle fibres or flax.
At one end of each rope there was a noose, while the other
was tied to a tree. After I lay down, Volodya put each of my
hands and feet through a noose, tugged on them a little and
began tightening them with the aid of sticks placed half-way
along each rope. After a little tugging, as though trying to lit-
erally quarter my body, he jerked each of my hands and feet in
turn. I could feel a crunch in my joints. Then he tightened
the rope even more, saying:
“Papa, you need to lie like this for an hour on your stomach
and an hour on your back. And so that it will not be boring
for you and even more beneficial, I shall give you an invigor-
ating massage. And you can just relax, or even go to sleep, if
you like.”
My son and I went through this procedure two hours each
day on all three days.
As I later found out from Grandfather, this procedure
served to lubricate all my joints. It is especially important
for elderly people. It can even add to one’s height, since it
straightens out the spinal column. But the main benefit is
increased lubrication of the joints. Think about it: when we
walk or run or work out in the gymn to pump up our muscles,
almost all exercise involves increased pressure on our joints.
In Volodya’s procedure, though, it is exactly the opposite: the
pressure is taken off.
Each time during the stretching procedure, Volodya gave
me a massage. On the second day he rubbed down my body
with some sort of sweetish juice or tea, and a whole lot of in-
sects crawled over me. I had been told earlier by Anastasia
that they served to cleanse the pores of my skin. 1 In our own
living conditions, the pores of the skin can be cleansed by
Rejuvenation
43
going to a Russian banya and applying, for example, a birch
besom . 2 When a Man steams and sweats, the pores of his skin
are cleansed, too.
Interspersed with the stretching procedures we did some
fairly common exercises: running, swimming, chinning our-
selves on the bough of a tree (using it as one would an exer-
cise bar). About three times a day Volodya suggested I do a
handstand, head down, and hold the position for as long as
I possibly could. I stood like that, my legs leaning against a
tree trunk. This, too, is a rather interesting procedure: a lot
of blood rushes to one’s face, making it tense up and causing a
smoothing of the wrinkles.
For the whole three days we lived on cedar milk, flower pol-
len, cedar nut oil, berries and a small quantity of dried mush-
rooms (all this is available in our society). Going through all
the procedures thought up by my son and reflecting on how
they could be adapted to our conditions, I came to the gener-
al conclusion that all this can be done effectively back home.
One can even use body-cleansing agents available in pharma-
cies, as well as making use of diuretic remedies and fasting. It
is not difficult to obtain dead water either — all water sold in
bottles today is dead water. You can get living water, too, if
you have access to a pure wellspring.
You begin to feel the healing effects of these procedures
right off.
‘See Book i, Chapter 25: “Bugs”.
" banya , birch besom — see footnote 20 in Book 2, Chapter 1: ‘Alien or man?”.
Besoms may be made from other types of wood as well — oak or juniper,
for example.
44
Book 8: The New Civilisation
A mysterious procedure
But included in this set of procedures was a rather mysteri-
ous one, which would be quite a challenge to replicate under
our conditions, although maybe someone will have an idea
and let me know. I shall describe it in detail. Three times a
day — morning, just before lunch and just after three o’clock
in the afternoon (more or less) — my son gave me some tea to
drink which he had prepared.
Each time when the hour came for me to take the tea,
Volodya would run off to his hiding-place and bring back a
small jar of this tea, which he invited me to drink, but no more
than one swallow at a time. The first time he did this, he said:
“Take a drink of this tea, Papa, and remember how big a
swallow you took. As soon as you have drunk it, lie down on
the grass, and I shall listen to what is happening with your
heart.”
I drank the tea and lay down on the grass. Volodya put his
little hand on my chest and kept very still. Within a few mo-
ments I felt either a warming or a tingling sensation in different
parts of my body My heart began to beat furiously It wasn’t
as though it had started beating any faster — I had the sensa-
tion of my heart muscles expanding normally, but contracting
much more sharply than usual, forcing out the blood.
As I was later informed by specialists, in cases of a vigor-
ous and sharp blood flow through places where the capillary
vessels are partially blocked, warming and tingling sensations
can be expected.
Volodya listened to my heart-beat for several minutes, and
then said:
“Everything is fine, Papa. Your heart can actually with-
stand an even larger swallow. But it is best not to take any
chances. The next time take a slightly smaller swallow.”
Rejuvenation
45
When I asked my son why he was giving me this tea and
what its composition was, he replied as follows:
“This tea, Papa, will give you a great deal of strength, and
help you recover from any diseases you may have. But, most
importantly, it will enable you to discover the strength and
energy you will need for the birth of my sister.”
“What, d’you think I don’t have enough already?”
“Perhaps. But now you will have strength and energy in
abundance, and in the exact balance you need.”
‘Are they permanent, or will I use them up with the birth
of the child?”
“For bearing subsequent children you will need to drink
this tea once more. After all, they do it this way each time.”
‘And just who might ‘they’ be?”
“Sables and other animals. I only studied the sable’s ac-
tions. It was Grandfather who advised me as to when, at what
time and for how many days I needed to watch them in par-
ticular.”
‘And how does Grandfather know about all that?”
“Grandfather, you see, Papa, has all the knowledge of the
great wise priests of yore. Even knowledge that has been for-
gotten by the priests of today. And even knowledge that was
secret many thousands of years ago. This tea was taken by the
priests before the birth of their children, also before death, so
that they could remain immortal.”
“What d’you mean, ‘before death, so that they could re-
main immortal’?”
“Well, I mean, so that everyone would think they were
dead — whereas, in fact, they only changed bodies and were
reincarnated on the spot, and all their information stayed
with them. There are other methods of quick reincarna-
tion, but very few that will allow the retention of the infor-
mation possessed at the time of death. That is why people
can be reborn but still have to study life all over again, learn
4 6
Book 8: The New Civilisation
everything right from scratch, and they are unable to com-
pare the present world with the past. And they get confused
in their life because they include no knowledge of life and no
feelings capable of sensing God.”
“But with Grandfather, all the information about the past,
you’re saying, has been retained?”
“Yes, Papa. Our Grandfather is a great priest and wise-
man. There is only one person living on the Earth today who
significantly surpasses him in power.”
“Where is he living right now, this strongest and wisest one —
do you know? You must be talking about the high priest?”
“I am talking about our Mama Anastasia, Papa.”
‘Anastasia? But how could she have more information and
greater knowledge than your great-grandfather?”
“Grandfather says he is hindered by too much information.
And he can forget things. But Mama experiences no such hin-
drance, because there is no information contained in her.”
“What d’you mean? Which is it — does she really know
more, or has she no knowledge at all?”
“I did not express myself quite accurately, Papa. With
Mama Anastasia all the information... how shall I put it?...
she has a great deal more, only it is compressed in the form
of feelings. And whenever she needs to, she is able to feel in
a single moment something that Grandfather might require a
day or two, or even more, to think about.”
“I can’t say I understand everything you’ve said, but it is
interesting. Tell me more. What about you? Does this mean
that you don’t possess information about the past, seeing how
you’ve had to consult with Grandfather?”
“That is correct.”
“Why? You mean to say you’re mentally inferior to them —
Grandfather and Great-grandfather? And what do they tell
you about this? Grandfather probably tells you that Pm to
blame?”
Rejuvenation
47
“Grandfather never told me anything like that.”
“But what about Mama? What did she say?”
“I asked Mama why I do not know as much as my fore-
bears. And not as much as she, or even you, Papa. And this
was her answer:
“’All the truths of the Universe, son, and all the informa-
tion accumulated right from its pristine origins, has always
been available to every Man, nothing hidden. Not everybody
is capable of understanding it and making it their own, be-
cause their life-goals and the aspirations of their souls do not
correspond to those of the Universe. Man has free will in eve-
rything, and is free to choose a path other than that of the
Universe. But God is free too, as to when, how and to whom
He gives a hint. You must not worry about information that is
lacking in you. Seek out your dream and know that the whole
will be offered to you in full, if the dream that is born within
you is worthy of co-creation.’”
“Hmmm... So tell me, Volodya, what do you make of all
that?”
“Once my dream and life-goal are created in all their detail,
all the knowledge I need to turn the dream into reality will be
bom in me all on its own, without fail.”
“But in the meantime, then, you will go on consulting with
Grandfather?”
“Yes, with Grandfather, and Mama, and you, and I shall try
to ponder life all on my own.”
“Does that mean I have to consult with Grandfather about
the recipe for the extraordinary tea you’ve been giving me
these past three days?”
“When it comes to the recipe, I can tell you about that my-
self.”
“Then tell me.”
“This recipe was prepared using taiga herbs. So that I
would be able to know which herbs to choose, and in what
4 8
Book 8: The New Civilisation
correlation, for three days and nights I observed a sable — one
that likewise had an aspiration to be a father. Grandfather
told me that the female sable will not allow her mate to ap-
proach her if he fails to prepare himself properly. And I ob-
served what herbs he ate during those days, and at what time
he chose to pick them. That, too, turned out to be important.
All the herbs he ate I gathered as well, only I had to gather a
larger store of them, since you, Papa, I can tell, weigh quite a
bit more than a sable.
“Once I had gathered samples of a particular kind of herb,
I would put them into a vessel and grind them down with a
pestle until a juice emerged. All this time I thought only good
and pleasant thoughts — about you, Papa, about Mama, and
about my future sister. Then I would take the paste which re-
sulted and empty it into a day jar. I poured water over the jar’s
contents and added cedar oil so that it formed a film on top.
When you drank that swallow of tea, Father, and your heart
started beating a bit faster, I could tell the tea had turned out
well.”
As I listened to my son, I thought: Not many people have the
opportunity to observe a sable in its natural surroundings. But per-
haps they could keep watch on what he?~bs a cat or a dog eats, for
example. For that it would be necessary to carry or transport these
pets into a forest and follow their behaviour, and, if possible, identify
which herbs they ate.
I was most interested in the tea recipe which my son fol-
lowed, since just three days’ using it produced a palpable ef-
fect, while Volodya had indicated a complete therapy course
ought to last either nineteen or thirty-three days. That means
that after a full- term course, in combination with the other
exercises, Man can really free himself from many ills, halt his
body’s ageing process and rejuvenate himself in some sense of
the word. I want to stress that even this three-day applica-
tion in practice confirms that such an effect is possible. Then
Rejuvenation
49
there is folk wisdom, too, to take into account, as well as the
scientific basis of these procedures.
Of course people have gone to chemists’ or drug stores and
seen the herbal mixtures our pharmaceutical industry has to
offer for the treatment of a variety of ailments . 3 Many know
that in Nature there are a whole lot of medicinal plants. But
not everyone knows that these can only be really effective,
either prophylactically or therapeutically, if they are picked
on the right day and at the right time of day.
As to preparing herbal mixtures, along with everything else
must be considered the way medicinal herbs correlate with
each other. As we can see, there are too many factors that
need to be known in order to prepare a mixture like Volodya’s.
And it is highly doubtful whether any of our herbal healers
today knows about all the factors involved.
I very much wanted to take this opportunity of presenting,
as a gift to my readers, a recipe for body restoration never be-
fore published anywhere in the world, and in a simpler form
than Volodya’s, so that it will be easily accessible to the major-
ity of people.
Directly my son’s three-day therapy course came to an end,
he informed me he would like to go to bed earlier than was
his custom (it turned out that he barely managed to get two
or three hours’ sleep a night the past three nights), and he
dozed off immediately, while I started heading back toward
Anastasia’s glade.
I was fascinated by two questions. First, why did our son
not possess a knowledge of the past, as did Grandfather? And
secondly, was there any way of simplifying the recipe for the
tea which he had prepared for me?
3 In Russia today almost all pharmacies carry a large selection of dried me-
dicinal plants, with their healing properties clearly marked on each pack-
age.
5 °
Book 8: The New Civilisation
6©
A vision
Thoughts of food, however, were gradually relegated to the
back burner as I began to concentrate more and more on
thoughts of my future daughter. On the one hand, it wouldn’t
be a bad thing at all if Anastasia gave birth to a daughter as
well as a son. But on the other hand, when this daughter gets
older, she will either have her own Space or inherit the Space
created by my son and face the same problems Volodya is hav-
ing to deal with right now. Besides, who could she possibly
marry, here in the taiga?
She could go off into our world, but that wouldn’t be easy
either. It would mean leaving her own Space and her loyal
animal friends. And I can’t imagine any young man agreeing
to come and live with her in the taiga. It’s not all that com-
fortable here in the wilds for someone from the outside. And,
to be honest about it, that includes me. It is interesting to
talk with Anastasia — I would even say her company is allur-
ing. When I’m with her, I feel a sense of peace and joy in my
heart. But when I’m left all alone and she’s not around, I feel
uncomfortable, to say the least — even a bit fearful.
The creatures treat Anastasia and our son quite differently
from me. Of course they don’t attack me, but whenever we
meet, they still regard me with an air of suspicion. I once at-
tempted — in Anastasia’s presence — to command the squir-
rels to bring me some cedar cones. I made the same gestures
as Anastasia, but there was no reaction from the squirrels.
Another time I tried calling the she-wolf. Just like Anastasia,
I held out my hand to her, then clapped it against my thigh.
Rejuvenation
5i
But instead of running toward me, she stood rooted to the
spot, and her hackles stood on end in a show of aggression.
And I lost any desire to further communicate with these crea-
tures. I realised that they could be loyal only to one specific
Man in perpetuity.
So it could turn out that some young man comes to see our
daughter in the taiga and he will not feel comfortable in her
Space. Volodya has not given sufficient thought to his sister’s
future. Turns out he feels sorry for the creatures, but appar-
ently not for his sister. And I didn’t think about it either — I
absent-mindedly gave him encouragement.
Immersed in these thoughts, I was surprised to discover
that I had already arrived at Anastasia’s glade. No sooner
had I taken a few steps in the direction of the familiar dug-
out than I noticed Anastasia herself standing there, her body
half-turned to me, combing her long hair with her hands. I
stopped dead in my tracks: she did not look at all like the
same woman I had known for the past ten years. And when
she turned to face me, my legs became jelly, my heart began
throbbing and I realised I could not move from the spot.
Just ten to fifteen paces from me stood a woman who looked
the picture of a fairy-tale vision. She was wearing a long,
sheer, light-coloured dress down to her ankles, almost like a
ball gown, gathered with a belt around her slender waist. Her
head was crowned with a wreath woven of grasses and flow-
ers, like a diadem. Her golden hair hung in wavelets around
her shoulders. But that wasn’t all! Her stately figure and face
were so beautiful as to defy any possible description.
I stood there, afraid to move, my gaze unblinkingly fixed on
Anastasia. It seemed as though if I took my eyes away I would
lose consciousness. My head began spinning, but I continued
to gaze at her without blinking. I found myself digging my
nails forcefully into my hand, seeking escape in pain from this
extraordinary state of mind. But I hardly felt any pain at all.
52
Book 8: The New Civilisation
And as this uniquely beautiful woman gradually and graciously
approached me, I lost all sensation, not just of pain but of any
part of my physique. She slowly came right up to me, and I re-
call feeling the enchanting fragrance of her body I could sense
her light breathing and... I lost consciousness.
When I woke up I was lying on the ground. Anastasia was
sitting beside me, massaging my temples and the bridge of my
nose. Her diadem-wreath was gone, and her hair was brushed
back and tied with a blade of grass. I felt an almost complete
calm as I gazed into those tender greyish-blue eyes which had
become so dear to me. And I finally came to myself upon
hearing her voice:
“What happened to you, Vladimir? Did you get overtired,
or did our son somehow upset you?”
“Our son... No, quite to the contrary, he has been giving
me treatments these past three days. We went through a se-
ries of exercises.”
‘And you overexerted yourselves?”
“Volodya did. He fell asleep. By contrast, I’ve begun to
feel very good indeed.”
“Then why did you lose consciousness? Your heart was
throbbing and has still not completely calmed down.”
“Because... Oh, Anastasia, why did you dress up that way?
Your hair’s somehow different. And the way you walked as
you approached me — that was unusual, too.”
“I wanted to do something nice for you, Vladimir. After all,
you are more accustomed to look at women in fancy clothes.
I thought you and I could take a walk together through the
taiga or along the lakeshore. And here you are lying down. If
you want to have a rest, let us go to the dug-out, and there you
can have a nap.”
“First let’s go and take a walk, as you proposed,” I said as I rose
to my feet. “Only you, Anastasia, walk behind me, please.”
“Why?”
Rejuvenation
53
“Because... Yes, I am more accustomed to looking at wom-
en in fancy clothes, as you say. But it is better for me if you
don’t dress up that way, or wear your hair like that, or adorn
yourself like that.”
“You did not like the way I looked, Vladimir?” enquired
Anastasia, as she trotted along behind me.
“That’s not it. I liked it very much. Only, in future, do it
just one step at a time. Your hair first, for example. And then
spend some time wearing it that way Then you can put on
your diadem-wreath, and a day or two later the dress. Only
without the belt to start with, and afterward you can put on
the belt. You see, if you do everything at once, it’s really hard
for me to get accustomed to. It looks strange.”
“Strange? Does that mean you did not recognise me,
Vladimir?”
“I recognised you. But... It’s just that I was simply over-
whelmed with your beauty, Anastasia.”
‘Aha, you admit it! You admit it! That means you really
think I am beautiful? Eh?”
I felt her hands resting on my shoulders, and I stopped.
Then I closed my eyes, turned around and replied:
“You, Anastasia, are not just beautiful. You are...”
She pressed herself against me, putting her head on my
shoulder.
“Our son, Anastasia,” I went on, in a whisper, “would like
to have a little sister.”
‘And I would like you and me, Vladimir, to have a daugh-
ter,” Anastasia quietly responded.
“May she have your looks, Anastasia!”
‘And may our daughter be like you...”
00
54
Book 8: The New Civilisation
I shall not describe that night. Or the following morning.
They are beyond description. But I shall say one thing to
my men-readers: if any of you manage to see a goddess in
the woman you know, your days and nights — many, many
days and nights, in fact — will be divine. All the miseries of
the past will vanish before them. And there will be no more
storms to darken your day I’m not talking about sentimen-
tality here, nor about beautiful words and professions of love.
The whole point is...
In any case, let each figure it out for themselves, if they can
and wish to do so.
Chapter Five
It was only several days later that I remembered I wanted to
find out from Anastasia the recipe for the therapeutic tea, as
well as the overall method of correct nutrition or dietetics for
my readers. It’s a good thing I remembered. It seems that
Anastasia knew about an unusual — I might say, unique —
method of nutrition which can be applied even to city living
conditions.
To my surprise, instead of giving me the tea recipe right
off, Anastasia began talking about Man’s capabilities, about
patients and healers. We had spoken of this on several other
occasions, but what she had to tell me this time was indeed
interesting.
“Reality, Vladimir, must be defined only through one’s
self. Every Man living on the Earth today is capable of see-
ing into the lives of people thousands of years ago, of looking
into the future, and of creating his own future. All have this
tremendous ability within themselves. It just needs to be un-
derstood. Once it is understood, then nobody can lead them
away from the truth. People will come into harmony with
each other, and endless warfare will cease.
‘A lot of efforts have been made to distort past reality. The
possibility of distortion arises when Man abandons his own
reasoning powers and forms constructs of the past based on
somebody else’s words and conclusions.”
“It is not entirely clear to me, Anastasia, how every Man on
the Earth can arrive at a knowledge of people living in centu-
ries past, let alone past millennia. There is a whole science,
56
Book 8: The New Civilisation
too, exclusively devoted to studying the history of mankind.
But even today scholars argue over Man’s origin and purpose.
Historical events are interpreted in different ways.”
“’In different ways’ — does that mean there are correct and
incorrect interpretations? Or perhaps there is some distor-
tion in the way they all describe the past? As a rule, the dis-
tortions are introduced for someone’s particular benefit. But
when you, all by yourself, recreate scenes of the past within
yourself, you will see the truth — you will determine your pur-
pose and place in the Universe.”
“But how, for example, would I be able to see historical
scenes of thousands of years ago all on my own?”
“You can picture them through logical thinking. And even
the life of the Vedruss civilisation will appear to you.”
‘And what should I think logically about?”
‘About images of people you have seen over the half-cen-
tury of your life, and the changes that have taken place in
them.”
“It’s still not too clear to me just how I should be think-
ing.”
“It will become clear if you are not too lazy to think. Come,
Vladimir, let us begin together, and you can continue on your
own, and every Man may recreate scenes of the past, in order
to integrate the very best parts into his future.”
‘All right then, but you be the first to start.”
“I shall begin. Look hard and, if you can, add details —
they are important. Today you see a whole lot of hospitals
and pharmacies with medicines for thousands of ailments.”
“Yes, that’s something everyone can see. What of it?”
“Do you recall that just thirty years ago there were fewer
of them?”
“Yes, of course.”
‘And how many were there a hundred or two hundred
years ago?”
Divine nutrition
57
“A lot fewer. Everybody knows that modern medical sci-
ence is only a little over two hundred years old.”
“Ytu see, your own logic has led you to a conclusion: not
too long ago there were no hospitals at all. Now think, and
recall: who treated people in cases of illness?”
“Who?”
“You yourself lived in a village and saw how your grand-
mother gave your father and mother herb teas to drink.”
“In that village it wasn’t just my grandmother who could
bring about cures — there were others too.”
‘And in every human settlement there were most certainly
people who gathered and preserved therapeutic herbs. And
every Man could obtain help right away, whether he came down
with a minor ailment or even a serious disease. And payment for
help was a pittance, often just a simple ‘thank you’ sufficed.”
“Well, sure, they were neighbours, after all. And there were
plenty of herbs to be found all around.”
“Yes, there were very many useful herbs. And many people
were aware of the properties of these herbs.”
“Of course they were. I myself knew about some of them,
but now I’ve forgotten.”
“You see, you have forgotten. Many people have forgotten.
What does a Man do today if he gets a scratch or a cut?”
“He goes to a pharmacy, buys a bandage or a band-aid and
sticks it on the wound.”
“Fie spends time getting to the pharmacy and spends mon-
ey when he is there. By contrast, in the past, every child knew
that if you apply a plantain leaf directly to a wound, the wound
will quickly heal and there will be no infection.”
“I know that too, but today in many places the herbs are
contaminated. All around, you find noxious fumes from cars,
dust, acid rain...”
“Yes, you are right. But that is not the point. When we
talk about images of the past, you could draw the conclusion
58
Book 8: The New Civilisation
that Man’s knowledge of curing people in the past was supe-
rior to that of people today.”
“It would seem that way.”
“I hear a note of doubt or uncertainty in your voice,
Vladimir. In that case the image will not appear before you.
You must be absolutely certain in the force of your confi-
dence. Or in your rejection. Continue to pursue the course
of logic.”
“You see, Anastasia, all logic, too, tells me that Man’s knowl-
edge in the area of folk medicine in the past was significantly
greater than that possessed by people today. One might even
say, immeasurably greater. It follows that the services effect-
ed on the basis of this knowledge were significantly more per-
fected than today. But somehow it is challenging to suddenly
find that all our modern hospitals, pharmacies and medical
institutions are completely superfluous. It simply boggles the
mind!
“When someone in the Vedruss civilisation — our ances-
tor — came down with an ailment, he would eat a herb or
drink a tea, and the ailment was gone. When someone in our
civilisation takes ill, he goes to the hospital, pays a fee to be
seen by a doctor, the doctor prescribes some kind of pills or
shots, and the patient has to pay again for the drugs, often
quite dearly so. And then in lots of cases the drugs turn out
to be counterfeit. Officials from the Ministry of Health say
that up to 30% of the drugs sold at our pharmacies are coun-
terfeit.
‘And then a whole bunch of terrible new diseases keep pop-
ping up. It’s as though someone deliberately erased the per-
fect knowledge we once had and replaced it with something
less efficient or even illusory. Moreover, official medicine still
today treats folk healers with a fair degree of scepticism, prob-
ably because it sees them as competition. But why do not the
state and society realise that for hundreds and thousands of
Divine nutrition
59
years mankind has efficiently healed itself through folk medi-
cine, accumulating a huge amount of experience over this
time, and hence this deserves to be developed and studied?
And, in the final analysis, to be taught in the schools?
“But that would mean all the businesses involved in mod-
ern medicine would collapse... incredible! Simply incredible,
Anastasia! I think I’m beginning to understand: modern
medicine is not as much about curing people as about run-
ning a business! And if it’s business we’re talking about, that
means that all the companies making pills find it much more
profitable when people are ill. The more sick people there
are, the more income will kick in for the drug companies. By
the laws of business, in such a situation the number of sick
people will quickly begin to steadily increase. It’s a vicious
circle. I’m becoming more and more convinced that health
care in the distant past was much more rational and effec-
tive than today. Only there are a few historical facts that are
standing in the way of a final conclusion.”
“What kind of facts, Vladimir?”
“Well, for instance, history has recorded epidemic out-
breaks of plagues, smallpox and leprosy Some history text-
books say that whole settlements died out. Did that really
happen?”
“Yes, it did.”
“But now, through he help of modern medicine, the plagues
have been beaten, along with cholera and smallpox. For ex-
ample, they inoculate everyone against smallpox and that’s
the end of it. That means that the folk healers of the past
were defeated by these diseases, while modern medicine has
succeeded.”
“That is not true, Vladimir. Take a closer look at the time-
frames and put simple facts together. These epidemic out-
breaks you speak of began happening at a time when folk
healers were subjected to persecution. Many of them were
6o
Book 8: The New Civilisation
even put to death. During the occult ages 1 they were seen as a
threat to the authorities. Both then and now it was believed
that pagans worshipped Nature and were unspiritual people.
This is not true: pagans respected Nature as the creation of
God. And they had knowledge of many of the Divine crea-
tions which people are ignorant of today.”
“That’s enough, Anastasia. I no longer have any doubts. It
is plain that modern medical science is a long ways from the
science of folk medicine. I’m convinced of that. But why did
you go to such pains to persuade me?”
“It was not just for you. I wanted your readers, too, to be
able to understand by comparing facts.”
“But what for?”
“When one fact is proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, oth-
er indisputable conclusions will come about. They may seem
incredible, but please do not be so easily amazed, Vladimir.”
“What incredible conclusions, for example?”
“First, answer this question. Tell me how people — the
majority of people — explain how mankind in ancient times
possessed such colossal information about Nature.”
“What d’you mean, how? If you’re talking about the pre-
scriptions of folk medicine, it’s quite clear they were passed
down from generation to generation.”
‘All right, that may be. But I think you will agree that for
each of the thousands of prescriptions, there had to be an
original author.”
‘According to logic, of course, there had to be, but now it is
no longer possible to trace the authorship of these prescrip-
tions.”
“It is possible! All the knowledge of the grand creation
was imparted by the Creator to each and every one without
'For more information on the occult ages, see Book 6, Chapter 8:
“Occultism”.
Divine nutrition
6 1
exception. This I shall prove to you, Vladimir, and to every-
body. Do not be too hasty to dismiss what I say as incred-
ible.”
“I shall try not to. Go on.”
“People think that originally Man was many times more
feeble-minded than today But that is not true, Vladimir.
People of pristine origins had Divine knowledge right from
the beginning.”
“But what d’you mean, ‘from the beginning’, Anastasia?
What, did God Himself write out prescriptions for a whole
bunch of herbal treatments? Historians’ descriptions allude
to mankind gradually accumulating its knowledge over the
centuries.”
“But to pursue the course of logic to its end, that particular
allusion would lead to a different conclusion.”
“What kind of conclusion?”
“It would follow from that that Man is not the perfect crea-
tion of God but the most underdeveloped of all creatures that
ever lived on the Earth!”
“How does that follow?”
“Think about it. Your dog knows what herbs she needs to
eat when she comes down with an ailment. And a cat will
know to run to the forest to find a herb she requires. But
nobody wrote them a prescription. A bee knows all about ex-
tracting nectar from a flower, building a honeycomb and stor-
ing honey in it, and gathering pollen. And what raising the
next generation is all about. If one link in the chain of knowl-
edge the bee family is endowed with should be removed, the
whole family would die out.
“But bees continue to exist today And that can only mean
one thing: the Creator has given them all the knowledge they
need right from the start, right at the moment of their crea-
tion. And that is why the bees have not died out, but have
lived for millions of years, and are still building their unique
62
Book 8: The New Civilisation
honeycombs even today, just as in the first moment of their
creation. And the ants, too, continue to build their homes.
And flowers continue to unfold their petals with the advance
of each new dawn, just as on the first day of their creation.
And the apple, pear and cherry trees know exactly what kind
of juices they need from the ground to grow their fruit. All
information is given to them right at their inception, right at
the moment of their creation. And Man is no exception.”
“Yes... Incredible. All logic really does lead to that con-
clusion. And that means... Hold on — just where is all this
knowledge right now?”
“It is preserved in every single Man. And the therapeutic
recipe for the healing herbal tea is one that every Man is free
to compile for himself.”
“But how?”
“You see, Vladimir, God gave it to Man right from the be-
ginning. It is capable of curing a great many diseases of the
flesh and prolonging life. It is extremely simple, and at the
same time not so simple. Man should be able to figure it out
with his mind. Let me start with some pre-history”
6©
In the Vedruss civilisation everybody lived to be more than
a hundred years old. And they knew no diseases of the
flesh. They nourished themselves according to God’s pre-
scription. Not arbitrarily and not haphazardly but with the
greatest thoughtfulness the Creator specially arranged it so
that the herbs, vegetables, berries and fruits did not ripen
all at once, but one after the other in a strict sequence.
Divine nutrition
63
One ripened in the early spring, others over the sum-
mer, or later in the autumn. Their ripening time was deter-
mined by the moment when the specific fruit, vegetable or
herb could offer the greatest benefit to Man. A Man liv-
ing on his own domain, feeding himself as God prescribed,
could not take ill. The type of food and the time of taking
it had been determined for Man by God. Man himself de-
cided the quantity of food, but not through reason — he
ate as much as he liked. And his body could accurately de-
termine, down to the gram, the required quantity of food.
In the autumn each family put up stores for the win-
ter: berries, root vegetables, herbs, nuts and mushrooms.
Over the winter, in every household a plate stood on the
table, with little piles of produce from the summer harvest.
All the members of the family were involved in their own
activities, but whenever they felt hungry or thirsty, they
would go over to the table and take what they needed with-
out thinking about it. Note, Vladimir: they took what they
needed without thinking. Their bodies knew exactly what
kind of food was needed and in what quantity — everyone
had been endowed with this ability by God. This ability
can be revived now. All that is needed is information.
I have adapted the Vedruss method of nutrition for peo-
ple of today Try it yourself, and encourage others to try it.
It goes as follows.
A Man living in a modern apartment needs to acquire a
small quantity — a hundred or two hundred grams each —
of all the vegetables, fruits and edible herbs growing in the
region where he lives.
Before using any of this produce he should go a whole
day without eating, drinking only spring water, and hav-
ing a glass of red beet juice for lunch. After drinking the
beet juice it is better not to leave his home. The stomach
6 4
Book 8: The New Civilisation
and bowels will start undergoing an intensive cleansing
process.
Upon awakening the following morning and feeling hun-
gry, he should be able to take any vegetable, herb or piece of
fruit and put it on a small plate. After sitting down at the
table, he should carefully observe what is lying on the plate,
sniff it, lick it and then eat it with an unhurried chewing.
It is best to be alone in the room during this time, isolated
from the sounds of the artificial world.
The feeling of hunger may not disappear after eating a
single piece of food, or it may reappear after a short period
of time. In that case he should select a second piece and
eat it in the same manner as the first.
Man should take all the produce he has obtained and
sample them in any sequence at short intervals.
The time for sampling any particular food is determined
by the sensation of hunger.
The taking of food should definitely begin in the morn-
ing.
By the end of this day a Man should have sampled all
locally grown produce. If there is a large variety available
and one day is insufficient, the sampling can extend to the
following day
This procedure is extremely important. It will give many
people’s bodies, perhaps for the first time in their lives, a
chance to become acquainted with the taste qualities and
properties of the local produce, and to determine how need-
ful it is to Man at a given moment and in what quantity
Once the body has become familiar with all the pro-
duce, one should cut each vegetable into small pieces and
lay them out on a large plate. Small clumps of greens and
berries should also be put out, either alongside or on an-
other plate. Any produce that will quickly spoil on the
plate should be immersed in spring water.
Divine nutrition
65
Also on the table one should put honey, flower pollen,
cedar oil and spring water. Man may go about his own daily
affairs, but when he feels hungry he can go over to the table
and pick up an item he likes (either with his hands or with
a wooden spoon) and eat it.
It is possible some of the food may be eaten up com-
pletely, while the rest may be left untouched. This means
that your personal wise physician and nutritionist — your
body which was given to you by the Creator — selected for
you what you needed at that moment, while what you did
not need was left untouched.
The uneaten produce need not be put again on the table
the following day But after three days a complete variety
should once again be displayed. It is possible that one’s
body will need something different by then.
In time Man will be able to determine which items can
be temporarily excluded from his diet, so as not to waste
his efforts in obtaining them. But it is possible that after
a period of time his body will indeed have need of them
again, and so from time to time one should lay out on the
table as wide a variety as possible.
I know that people living in your world often need to
be away from their dwellings, but even here one can adapt.
For example, one can make or acquire a small birch-bark
container, in which to put a portion of the food from the
table. One’s body will choose what is most required.
In case of an extended trip, one’s body needs to become
familiar with the produce available in the new territory,
since, in spite of identical names, there may be significant
taste differences.
In this method of nutrition, Vladimir, it is important
to grasp one essential point: it is not only the animals that
are able to determine which kinds of food will be most
beneficial to their bodies at a given moment and in what
66
Book 8: The New Civilisation
quantity; This knowledge is present, too, within every
single Man.
Our son thought up everything correctly: to prepare the
healing tea for you from taiga herbs, he decided to observe
a sable. But if you yourself knew the taste of every herb,
your body would be able to determine and select the herbs
you need far more accurately than the sable.
When you get back to your apartment, allow your body
to get to know the taste of all easily available produce. Do
not mix the food together or add salt, otherwise your body
will not be able to determine the value and significance of
the produce.
00
This method by which any Man can compile his own dietary
regime or recipe for healthful nutrition seemed to me to be
most original and logical. The body’s needs — in terms of
quantity and variety of produce — will naturally differ from
one individual to the next. Consequently, there cannot be a
single recipe or dietary regime which is the same for all. But
through the aid of the method proposed by Anastasia, every
Man can make up his own individual regime, which will be as
accurate and useful as possible for him.
It appears as though man-made recipes and prescriptions
are not always beneficial to one’s health. Instead, they tend
to be technology-based and more convenient for the manu-
facturers and organisers of our modern nutrition industry.
Take McDonald’s, for example — one of the most powerful
and influential corporations, known around the globe —
Divine nutrition
67
inculcating in the whole world a taste for uniform hamburg-
ers and cheeseburgers along with packages of fried potatoes,
roping in everybody under a single unitary norm. Such a sys-
tem undoubtedly works very well to the manufacturer’s ad-
vantage — uniform products, uniform equipment and prepa-
ration technology. How far removed such uniformity is from
the natural method of nutrition, and how harmful!
More and more people all over the planet are becoming
aware of this. Wednesday, 16 October 2002 (the UN’s World
Food Day), 2 became the annual official day of protest against
McDonald’s — a protest against the promotion of junk prod-
ucts under the guise of food, the use of aggressive child-ori-
ented advertising campaigns, the cruel exploitation of work-
ers, unethical treatment of animals, destruction of the envi-
ronment and the world dominance of large corporations over
our lives.
More and more, McDonald’s is being held up by a world-
wide circle of protesters as a symbol of contemporary capi-
talism. One after another, all across the globe lawsuits are
being brought against American corporations dealing in ‘junk
food’ — McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King
and Wendy’s — on behalf of millions of consumers led astray
by the systematic and unethical promotion of harmful food
products. These people have consequently suffered from
obesity, heart ailments and a variety of other serious health
" World Food Day (also known as World Nutrition Day ) — established in 1979
by the member countries of the United Nations Food and Agricultural
Organisation (FAO) to raise awareness of world poverty and hunger and
to commemorate the founding of the FAO on 16 October 1945 in the city
of Quebec (Canada). A specific theme is selected for each year’s celebra-
tion. The Worldwide Anti-McDonald’s protest is an independent move-
ment which chose their annual protest day to coincide with World Food
Day According to their literature, the Worldwide Anti-McDonald’s Day
has been marked since 1985.
68
Book 8: The New Civilisation
problems. Concern over this health threat is growing every-
where in Europe and the USA, exacerbated by mad cow dis-
ease and the use of genetically modified feed, as well as direct
consumption of genetically modified produce (e.g., potatoes
and corn) and their traces in other products (chocolate, pas-
try etc.).
But is it only our nutritional system that is constructed with
somebody’s particular profit motive in mind? What about
our contemporary governmental institutions?
Take, for example, our modern democratic society — how
ideally suited is it to human life? I was most interested to
hear what Anastasia would have to say about this.
“Tell me, Anastasia, if someone could construct a nutri-
tional system for their own advantage at the expense of mil-
lions of people, I wonder whether our social order might have
been deliberately set up with a similar motive.”
“Indeed it has. Think about it, Vladimir: ages pass, and
the names of your societal structures change, but their raison
d’etre remains the same — the exploitation of people.”
“Well, it hasn’t always been the same. For example, we
used to have slavery, and now we have democracy I think,
under democracy there is far less exploitation than when we
had slavery.”
“Vladimir, would you like me to show you a scene from the
past and tell you a parable?”
“I would.”
“Then look and see.”
Chapter Six
©0
The slaves walked slowly in single file, every one of them car-
rying a polished stone. Four lines of them, each line stretch-
ing a kilometre and a half long, from the stone quarries to the
site where construction on the walled city had begun, under
the watchful eyes of armed guards — one military guard for
every ten slaves. 1
Off to one side, on the pinnacle of a thirteen-metre-high
‘mountain’ crafted out of polished stones, sat Cratius, one of
the high priests. For the past four months he had been si-
lently observing the construction activity. Nobody distracted
him, not a single person dared interrupt his contemplation,
even with a sideways glance.
Both slaves and guards accepted this artificial mountain
with its throne on top as a fixed feature of the landscape. And
nobody paid attention to the figure either sitting motionless
on the throne or walking to and fro around the lookout plat-
form atop the ‘mountain’. Cratius had set himself the task of
restructuring the state, consolidating the power of the priests
for a millennium, subjugating to them all the people of the
Earth, turning all without exception (including national rul-
ers) into slaves of the priests.
'Anastasia’s narrative is told in the first part of this chapter without quota-
tion-marks.
70
Book 8: The New Civilisation
One day Cratius came down from his throne, leaving a double
in his place. The priest changed his clothes and took off his
wig. He gave orders to the captain of the guard to have him
bound in chains like a simple slave and placed in the line be-
hind a strong young slave named Nard.
Looking into the faces of the various slaves, Cratius had
noticed that this young man in particular had a penetrating
and purposeful look, not a wandering or detached gaze as did
many of the others. Nard’s countenance alternated between
excitement and intense contemplation. That means he’s hatch-
ing some kind of plan, the priest realised, but he wanted confir-
mation of the accuracy of this observation.
For two days running Cratius followed Nard’s every move,
silently hauling the stones, sitting beside him at mealtimes
and sleeping next to him in the barracks. On the third night,
directly the Sleep! command had been given, Cratius turned to
the young slave and in a tone of bitterness and despair whis-
pered to no one in particular:
“Will this situation keep up the rest of our lives?”
The priest watched as the young slave gave a shudder, and
suddenly turned to face him. His eyes were sparkling, which
was noticeable even in the dim torchlight of the cavernous
barracks.
“It won’t last much longer,” the young slave whispered
back. “I’ve been working out a plan. And you, old fellow, can
be part of it!”
“What sort of plan?” the priest asked with a sigh of indif-
ference.
Nard began to explain with an air of confidence and enthu-
siasm:
“You see, old man, soon you and I and all of us will be free
men instead of slaves. Figure it out for yourself: there’s just
one guard for every ten of us. And one guard, too, for every
Demon Cratius
71
fifteen women slaves who do the cooking and sewing. When
the time comes, if we all fall upon the guards at once, we can
overpower them. It makes no difference that the guards are
armed and we’re in chains. We outnumber them ten to one,
and our chains can also be used as weapons, to shield us from
the blows of their swords. We’ll disarm all the guards, tie
them up and seize their weapons.”
“Hold on there, young man,” Cratius sighed again, and
added with feigned indifference: “Your plan isn’t completely
thought through. Sure you can disarm the guards watching
over us, but it won’t be long before the ruler sends in replace-
ments — a whole army, maybe — and he’ll have the insurgents
killed.”
“I’ve thought of that, too, old man. We’ll have to choose a
time when the army’s not around. And that time is coming.
We’ve all noticed how the army’s preparing for a campaign.
They’re getting provisions ready for a three-month trek.
That means that in three months the army will arrive at its
destination and engage the enemy in combat. It will be weak-
ened in battle, but it will be victorious, and bring back many
new slaves. They’re already building new barracks to house
them. We have to start disarming the guards just as soon as
our ruler’s army goes into battle. The couriers will need at
least a month to go call it home, and it will take at least three
months after that for the weakened army to return. By the
time the four months are up well be ready to meet them.
We’ll have at least as many fighters as there are in the army
The slaves they seize will want to join us when they see what’s
happened. I’ve thought it all out in advance, old man.”
“I see, young fellow, with your plan you can disarm the
guards and overpower the army,” the priest answered, already
sounding more cheerful, and then added: “But what will be-
come of the slaves after that, and what will happen with the
rulers, the guards and the soldiers?”
72
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“I haven’t given too much thought to that. Only one thing
comes to mind, though: whoever was a slave in the past will
become a free man. Whoever ’s not a slave today will be a slave
tomorrow,” replied Nard with some hesitation, as though
thinking aloud.
“But what about the priests? Tell me, young man, after
your victory, will they be slaves or not?”
“The priests? Haven’t thought about that either. But now
I’m thinking: the priests can stay where they are. The slaves
and rulers listen to them. Sometimes they’re hard to under-
stand, but I get the feeling they’re harmless. Let them keep
on telling their stories about the gods, but we know best how
to live our lives and have a good time.”
“Have a good time — that’s great,” responded the priest,
and pretended he couldn’t wait to get to sleep.
But there was no sleep for Cratius that night. Only contem-
plation. Sure, he thought, the simplest course of action would be to
report this to the rider, and have them seize this young slave — he’s
clearly the chief instigator. But that won’t solve the problem. The
slaves will always have the desire to be freed from bondage. New
leaders will emerge, new plans will be hatched, and as long as that
goes on, the main threat to the state will always be from within.
Cratius was faced with the challenge of working out a plan
to enslave the whole world. He realised there was no way he
could attain his goal through physical compulsion alone . What
he needed to do was exert a psychological influence on every
single individual, on whole nations of people. He had to bring
about the thought of every single human being to the notion
that slavery is the highest bliss. He had to launch a self-develop-
ing programme to disorient whole nations in space, time and
ideas — especially in their literal perception of reality.
Cratius’ thought was working faster and faster, he was
no longer conscious of his body, or the heavy chains on his
arms and legs. And all of a sudden, like a bolt of lightning, a
Demon Cratius
73
programme came to his thought. Even though all the details
were still to be worked out, and he could not yet explain it to
anyone else, he could already feel it within, exploding off the
scale. Cratius was now feeling himself to be the omnipotent
ruler of the world.
Lying on his bunk in chains, he was full of self-exultation:
Tomorrow morning, when they’re escoi~ting us all to work, I’ll give
the secret signal and have the guards captain take me out of the line
and remove the chains. I’ll finalise my programme, say a few words
and the world will start to change. Incredible ! fust a few words,
and the whole world will be subject to me, to my thoughts. God re-
ally has given to Man a power unequalled in the Universe — the
power of human thought. It brings forth words which can change
the course of history.
The situation’s turned out very well indeed. The slaves have pre-
pared their plan of insurrection. It’s logical, this plan, and is clearly
capable of leading to an interim result very favourable to them. But
with just a few words I shall ensure that not only they, but their
future descendants, and the rulers of the Earth too, will be slaves for
millennia to come.
In the morning, on Cratius’ signal, the captain of the guard
freed him from his chains. And the very next day the five
other priests, along with the pharaoh, were invited to his ob-
servation platform. Cratius began his speech before the gath-
ering as follows:
“What you are about to hear must not be noted down or
passed along by any of you. There are no walls around us, and
my words will be heard by no one but you. I have thought up
a way of turning all people living on the Earth into slaves of
our pharaoh. That is not something one can do even with the
aid of vast numbers of troops and exhausting wars. But I shall
accomplish it with a few simple sentences. All I need do is
utter them and just two days later you will see how the world
has begun to change.
74
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“Take a look down there and you will see long lines of slaves
in chains, each slave carrying a stone. They are guarded by a
host of soldiers. The more slaves there are, the better for the
state — or so we always thought. But the more slaves there
are, the more we have to be afraid of their rebelling. So we
increase the size of our guard.
“We are obliged to feed our slaves well, otherwise they will
not be able to perform their heavy manual labour. But still
they are lazy and inclined to rebellion. See how slowly they
move, and the guards have become lazy and do not bother
using their whips to beat even the strongest and healthiest
slaves. But they will soon be moving much more quickly
They won’t need any guards. The guards themselves will be
turned into slaves. This can be effected in the following way:
“Before sunset today heralds will be sent out everywhere
to proclaim the pharaoh’s decree: With the dawn of the new day
all slaves will be granted complete freedom. For each stone brought
to the city, the free men will receive one coin. The coins may be ex-
changed for food, clothing housing a palace in town, or even a whole
town. From here on in, you are free people. ”
After the priests had let Cratius’ words sink in, one of
them, the eldest, said:
“You are a demon, Cratius! The demonry resulting from
your plan will cover most of the nations of the world.”
“So, I may indeed be a demon, and what I have thought up,
people in the future may call democracy”
Demon Cratius
75
At sunset the decree was proclaimed to the slaves. They were
astounded. Many of them could not sleep at night, thinking
about the new and happy life that lay ahead of them.
The next morning the priests and the pharaoh once again
climbed up to the lookout platform atop the artificial moun-
tain. They could not believe the scene unfolding before their
eyes. Thousands of former slaves chasing one after the oth-
er, hauling the same stones as before. Dripping with sweat,
many of them were carrying two stones apiece. Others with
only one stone in their hands, were literally running, kicking
up the dust as they ran. Some of the guards were also haul-
ing stones. These people, who now considered themselves
free — after all, they were no longer in chains — strove to ob-
tain as many of the sought-after coins as they could, so that
they could build a happy life for themselves.
Cratius remained at his post on the platform for several
months after that, continuing to observe with satisfaction
what was going on below. The transformation was colossal.
Some of the slaves had organised themselves into groups and
built themselves carts. Then they piled stones on top of the
carts, and pushed them along, their skin covered in sweat.
They will invent many more devices, Cratius thought to him-
self with satisfaction. Internal services have already started —
food and water delivery. Some slaves have been eating right on the
go, not wanting to waste time going back to the barracks for a meal,
and paying for the food delivery with the coins they’ve earned. Wow!
They’ve also got doctors going around, offering help to people with
physical needs right on the spot — also for coins. And they’ve ap-
pointed themselves traffic regulators. Soon they’ll be choosing then-
own rulers and judges. Let them choose : after all, they consider
themselves free now, whereas nothing has really changed — they’re
still hatding the same stones as before. . .
76
Book 8: The New Civilisation
And so they have been running, down through the millen-
nia right up to the present day, through the dust, sweating to
carry the heavy stones. And today the descendants of those
slaves still keep up their senseless running.
“You’re probably thinking of ordinary working people,
Anastasia?” I observed. “Sure, anybody could agree with that.
But you can’t apply the term slaves to heads of corporations,
or government officials, or entrepreneurs.”
“Do you see a difference, Vladimir? If so, tell me what it
is.”
“On the one hand you’ve got people labouring and hauling
stones like slaves. The others are in charge of the hauling — or,
in today’s terms, managing the operation.”
“But managing, after all, is still work, and often more com-
plex work than slaves hauling stones.”
“Well, in a sense you’re right: entrepreneurs have a bit
more thinking to do. Their thought is occupied with their
work from morning ’til night. So, does that mean that the
pharaohs, the presidents and chancellors are slaves, too?”
“'Xes, that is correct. Even the priests have become slaves,
the ones who dreamt up this whole fateful scheme.”
“But if there are slaves, there must also be slave-owners.
Who are they, if you aren’t including even the priests in this
category?”
“The slave-owner is the artificial world people have been
creating themselves. And the guards sit within most people’s
minds or bodies, whipping them and making them earn coins.”
Demon Cratius
77
“It’s a sad scene indeed,” I observed, “and it looks as though
there’s no way out. Over the past thousands of years empires
have come and gone, religions and laws have changed, but in
fact nothing has really changed: just as Man was a slave be-
fore, he remains one now. Tell me, is there any way this situa-
tion can be corrected?”
“There is.”
“How? And who can do it?”
“The image.”
“What d’you mean, image ? What kind of image?”
“The image that offers people a different situation. Judge
for yourself, Vladimir: people who control the world today
through money believe that only power and money can bring
happiness to Man. And all the people out there striving to
earn a few coins have convinced them that they are right. But
often — very often, in fact — the winners in this senseless
rat-race are the ones who suffer the most. They reach illu-
sory heights and feel, more acutely than others, the whole
senselessness of their life. I shall show you a scene from the
future — go ahead and describe it. Let it be played out in real
life.”
Chapter Seven
The billionaire John Heitzman was dying on the forty-second
storey of his office tower. The whole floor had been convert-
ed into his personal apartment. Two bedrooms, a work-out
gymn, a swimming pool, a dining room and two studies had
comprised his refuge for the past three years. During this
time he had not left his apartment even once. Not once had
he taken the express lift down to where the core of his finan-
cial and industrial empire was in full operation. Not once had
he gone up to the roof, where his personal helicopter was on
standby, replete with a full crew awaiting his command.
Three times a week John Heitzman retreated to one of his
studies to receive four of his closest associates. At these brief
sessions, which lasted no more than forty minutes, he listened
to their reports with some indifference, and occasionally is-
sued brief instructions. The billionaire’s orders were never a
subject for discussion — they were simply carried out swiftly
and to the letter. The book value of the empire under his
exclusive control kept increasing by an average 16.5% annu-
ally. Even over the past six months, when Heitzman ceased
convening even his tri-weekly sessions altogether, the ledgers
showed no decline in profits. The system he had created con-
tinued to run smoothly with no glitches.
Nobody knew the billionaire’s true financial worth. His
name was hardly ever mentioned in the press. Heitzman held
strictly to the rule: Money hates trouble.
As a young man he had been admonished by his father
along these lines:
The billionaire
79
“Let those upstart politicians strut their stuff on the TV
screens and in the pages of the press. Let the presidents and
governors spout their addresses to the people, assuring them
all’s well. Let the billionaires in the public eye go gallivanting
about the country with their fancy cars and bodyguards. That
is not a course, my dear John, you yourself should follow. You
should always remain in the shadows and use your power, the
power of money, to control governments and presidents, the
wealthy and the poor, in a variety of different countries. But
they must never guess who is controlling them.
“The plan is simple in the extreme. I was the one who cre-
ated the Monetary Fund, which lists the names of many dif-
ferent investors. In actual fact seventy percent of the fund’s
capital has been invested by me under different names. On
the surface, as far as the dimwit masses are concerned, the
fund was created for the support of developing countries.
In actual fact I created it as a device for collecting ‘tribute-
money’ from all the countries involved.
“Here’s an example. Let’s say an armed conflict breaks out
between two sides. One of them (more often, both) needs
money. Let them have it — it will be repaid with interest.
Or some country is experiencing a social upheaval and, again,
money is required. Let them have it — it will be repaid with
interest. Or two political forces come into conflict; one of
them will get money through our agents, and once again it
will be repaid with interest. Russia alone pays us an annual
sum of three billion dollars.”
At age twenty, John Heitzman had especially enjoyed these
discussions with his father. Despite his earlier severity and
reticence to talk, one day the father summoned John to his
office and invited him to make himself comfortable in a soft
armchair by the fireplace, while he himself poured a cup of
his son’s favourite coffee with cream and asked with a spark
of genuine interest:
8o
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“How are your college studies going, John?”
“They’re not always that interesting, Dad. I get the feeling
the professors aren’t too good at giving a clear and compre-
hensible explanation of the laws of economics.”
“Good. An apt assessment. But more precisely: professors
today can’t explain the laws of economics because they haven’t
the faintest idea of them themselves. They think economics
is the domain of economists. But it isn’t. World economics
is under the control of psychologists, philosophers and high-
stakes players.
“When I was twenty, my father — your granddad, John —
let me into the secrets of the management process. Now that
you’re twenty, I think you’re worthy of inheriting this knowl-
edge.”
“Thanks, Dad,” replied John. Thus began, in these fireside
chats, lessons in the laws of economics one never hears about
at university The father taught his son using his own unique
method. The whole educational process was conducted in
these heart-to-heart conversations, on a good-natured tone,
with examples and elements of play. The information the sen-
ior Heitzman revealed to his son was astounding. There was
no way one could obtain it anywhere else, even in the most
prestigious universities in the world.
“Tell me, John,” asked the father, “do you know how many
wealthy people there are in our country? Or in the world?”
“Their names are listed in business journals in order of
their estate-value,” replied John calmly.
“And where do we rank in these lists?”
This was the first time Father had used we instead of I.
That meant he already considered him, John, a full partner.
While he did not want to offend his father, John replied:
“Your name, Father, isn’t included in these lists.”
“Yes, you’re right. I’m not there. Even though just our an-
nual profit alone amounts to more than the whole estates of
The billionaire
81
many included in the lists. And my name isn’t there because
one’s wallet should not be transparent. Many of these people
work either directly or indirectly for our empire — for yours
and mine, son.”
“Dad, you must be a genius at economics. I can’t even
imagine how you can make such a huge empire pay us ‘trib-
ute-money’ every year without military intervention. You’ve
managed to set up such a tremendous economic operation!”
The senior Heitzman took a pair of fire tongs and gave
a poke to the logs in the hearth. Then, without a word, he
poured two glasses of light wine for his son and himself. It
was only after his first wee sip that he finished explaining:
Y)u know, I didn’t set up any operation at all. The capital
under my control simply allows me to give orders, and others
carry them out. Many analysts and government experts in
various countries, even their presidents, would be astonished
to learn that the current situation in their countries is not de-
termined by their own actions, but rather by my will.
“Political technology centres, economics institutes, ana-
lytical think tanks and government agencies in many coun-
tries — none of them are aware that they’re working along
strict guidelines laid down by my departments. And I don’t
have all that many employees. For example, all of Russia’s so-
cio-economic policy and its military doctrine are determined
and controlled by one department comprising four psychol-
ogists. Each psychologist has four secretaries. Not one of
them knows about the activities of the others.
“I’ll tell you how the control system works — it’s really
quite simple. But first, John, you should understand the true
laws of economics — which you’ll never get from any college
professor. Professors don’t even know they exist. Here’s a
law: in the conditions of a democratic society, presidents,
governments, banks, as well as major and minor entrepre-
neurs in all countries work for a single entrepreneur, who
82
Book 8: The New Civilisation
stands at the top of the economic pyramid. They worked for
my father, now they’re working for me, and soon they’ll be
working exclusively for you.”
John Heitzman looked at his father and could scarcely take
it all in. Certainly, he knew that his father was rich. But here
they were talking about much more than riches — they were
talking about supreme power, which was now going to be
passed by inheritance to him, John. All this incredible infor-
mation still had not sunk in completely How could it be that,
in a free and democratic society everyone from presidents on
down to the hundreds of thousands of firms, both major and
minor — supposedly all separate legal entities — were in fact
working for just one man, namely, his father?
“When I first heard from your granddad what I have just
now shared with you, I had a hard time figuring it all out.
Right now, John, you’re probably in the same boat...
“But let me make one thing perfectly clear,” the elder
Heitzman went on. “There are wealthy people in this world.
But for every wealthy person there is someone even wealthi-
er. And there is one who is the wealthiest of all. All the other
wealthy people — and, consequently all the people under
their control — work for him, the one who is the wealthiest
of all. This is the law of the system under which we live.
‘All this talk of unselfish aid to developing countries is
nothing but a bluff. Sure, wealthy countries grant credit to
developing countries through international funds, but in fact
they do this simply to get back a healthy amount of interest
in return for using their credit — in other words, to collect
‘tribute-money’.
“Russia, for example, pays three billion dollars a year to
the IMF, and this amount only represents the interest on the
credit allotted to Russia. Many economists are aware that the
basic financing for the IMF is provided by American capital.
They realise that the extortionate interest rates on credit use
The billionaire
83
is siphoned off to the USA. But who they go to specifically,
nobody knows. America as a country is simply a convenient
shield in the capital game. And it is dependent on capital
more than any other nation. Tell me, John, did you know that
America has a national debt?”
“Yes, Dad, I know It’s an astronomical figure. Just last
year it amounted to... And servicing the debt cost...”
“So, that means you realise that a country which loans to
other countries at the same time takes out huge loans itself?”
“Through its own Federal Reserve?”
‘And who does it belong to — this Federal Reserve?”
“It... It...”
John had never thought about whom America was in debt
to, but as he tried to answer his father’s question it suddenly
dawned on him: in the United States of America every tax-
payer pays into the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve of
the USA is a private bank. And, consequently, all America is
paying hundreds of billions of dollars to private individuals...
or, to a single individual.
John Heitzman had never been flustered in his life. He led,
as they say, a ‘healthy lifestyle’. He did not drink or smoke,
he maintained a healthful diet, and worked out every day in
his private gymnasium. Only in the past six months he had
stopped going to the gymn. Fie had spent these six months ly-
ing in bed in one of his spacious bedrooms, crammed full with
state-of-the-art medical equipment. Doctors maintained on-
call shifts around the clock in the next room.
8 4
Book 8: The New Civilisation
But John Heitzman did not trust modern medical science.
He felt no need of even talking with his doctors. There was
one professor of psychology, however, that he occasionally
deigned to favour with brief answers. Heitzman did not even
care to know his doctors’ names, including the name of this
professor, though he did make a note to himself that he was
the most sincere and honest of the lot. The professor talked
a good deal, but what he said often included not just medical
assertions but also reasonings and a desire to determine the
causes of a disease.
One day he came in all excited and announced right at the
doorway:
“I spent all last night and all this morning thinking about
your condition. I think I’ve discovered the cause of your
illness! That means that once we’ve removed the cause,
we can talk about a pretty quick recovery... Oh, sorry, Mr
Heitzman — I forgot to say hello. Good afternoon, Mr
Heitzman. I got a bit carried away with my ideas.”
The billionaire did not answer the professor’s greeting, or
even turn in his direction, but that was how he treated all his
doctors. And sometimes he would make a gesture to a doctor
who had just entered the room — just a slight movement with
his hand, which they all knew meant: Go away.
Not perceiving any such gesture this time, the professor
kept on explaining excitedly as follows:
“I do not agree with my colleagues on the need to trans-
plant your liver, kidneys and heart. Granted, these organs
of yours aren’t functioning up to par at the moment. No sir!
Not up to par! That’s a fact. But neither will transplanted
organs. The reason they’re not up to par lies in your extreme
depression. Yes sir, in your depression. I’ve gone over your
medical history quite a few times now And I think I’ve made
a major discovery Your attending physician — he’s a really
great guy — he wrote down everything in detail. Every single
The billionaire
85
time he noted your mental condition. Your internal organs
would always start to fail the moment you got into a depres-
sive state. Yes sir! Quite a state...
“Now here comes the $64,000 question: is the failure of
your internal organs causing the depression? Or the other
way around: is the depression causing organ failure through-
out your body? I’m absolutely convinced that the depression
is the original cause, lies sir! It’s your extreme depression.
It’s a condition where someone ceases to strive for any goal,
he loses interest in what’s going on around him, he doesn’t see
any sense in living. And then the brain begins to transmit
only half-hearted commands to the whole body! And I mean
the whole of it! The stronger the depression, the weaker the
commands. At a certain level the brain may cease giving these
commands altogether, and then comes death.
“So, the ultimate cause is depression, and as for eliminat-
ing it entirely, well, that’s something modern medicine has no
answer for. So I turned to folk medicine. And now I’m con-
vinced that your extreme depression is the result of a curse.
Yes sir! More specifically, someone’s put a spell on you, and
I’m prepared to back that up with quite a number of facts.”
The billionaire was about to make his Go away! gesture. He
disliked all such esoteric healers — people who promised to
exorcise demons and take away spells or set a defence against
them — people he considered petty operators or swindlers.
No doubt the professor was on the rebound from the ineffectiveness of
modern medicine, he thought, and so had fallen to the level of these
so-called‘healers’. But the billionaire did not manage to execute
the gesture. The professor headed him off, with words evok-
ing just a smidgen of interest, but interesting all the same.
“I have the feeling you’re getting ready to send me away
Maybe for good. I ask you... No, I beg you, give me just five
or six more minutes. It’s very possible that once you’ve un-
derstood what I have to say, you’ll make a full recovery, and
86
Book 8: The New Civilisation
I’ll make an important discovery. Rather, I’ve already made
it — I just need to have it confirmed once and for all.”
The billionaire did not make his Go away! gesture.
For three whole seconds the professor stared at Heitzman’s
motionless hand and realised he could continue, which he did
at a rapid-fire pace:
“People look at each other differently. Sometimes with in-
difference, other times with love, or hate, or envy, or fear, or
respect. But it’s not the outward expression of the eyes that
is the main factor here. The outward appearance can be just
an ordinary mask, like the faux smile of awaiter or a salesman.
What’s important are the true attitudes, the true feelings one
person harbours towards another. The more positive emo-
tions people express towards a particular individual, the more
positive energy is concentrated in him. On the other hand, if
negative emotions predominate in the atmosphere surround-
ing a person, he will experience an accumulation of negative
and destructive energy.
‘Among the common folk this is called a spell, and folk-heal-
ers base their actions on this phenomenon. By no means all
folk-healers are charlatans. The whole point is that a person
who has been the target of too much negative energy from
those around him is himself capable of neutralising it or,
in other words, compensating for it. By telling the patient
that he has removed the spell by certain types of actions, the
healer helps him believe that he is cleansed. If the patient
believes the healer, he is really evening out the balance within
himself between the positive and the negative. If he doesn’t
believe, it won’t happen. You don’t believe in folk-healers and,
consequently they won’t be of any help to you.
“But that isn’t to say that you don’t have an excess of nega-
tive energy which is destructive to your mind and body Why
negative? Precisely because a man in your position can only
be looked upon by people around you with resentment, and
The billionaire
87
I don’t mean just a bit of harmless envy. They might look at
you — or, more specifically, treat you — with hatred. People
you’ve fired or haven’t given a raise to. A lot of people feel
your power and react with fear. You see, all that amounts to
negative energy To counteract it you need positive energy
This can be supplied by family members or relatives, but your
wives have run out on you, you don’t have any children or
friends, and you don’t communicate with your relatives. You
have no sources of positive energy around you.
“Now an individual human being is capable of producing
positive energy — and in sufficient quantity — within him-
self, all on his own. But for this he needs to set his heart on
some kind of dream or goal, and the step-by-step realisation
of this goal will bring about positive emotions. You’ve already
achieved so much in life that now, it seems, you don’t have any
more goals or dreams left.
“But it’s extremely important to have such a goal and to strive
to attain it. I have analysed the physical and mental health of
different types of business people. Someone who likes mixing
dough and bakes pies and sells them is happy that he can now
afford to buy something he needs, and dreams of developing
his business. After all, it’s only with development that he re-
ceives many of the goods and services civilisation has to offer.
“A bank manager or the owner of a profit-making concern
likewise strives to develop his business, strives for increased
profits, but often with less enthusiasm than someone who
makes or sells pies. It’s paradoxical, but true — the enthu-
siasm just isn’t as great. It isn’t as great because he’s got sig-
nificantly fewer tempting benefits ahead of him than the pie
salesman. For him the achievements of civilisation have no
special value, they’re just routine.
“If someone with a relatively modest income suddenly has
the chance to buy a car, the purchase of the car will evoke
in him a tremendous feeling of satisfaction or even ecstasy,
Book 8: The New Civilisation
while someone who is relatively well-off won’t get any thrill
from a brand new car. To him it’s a mere trifle. Paradoxical,
but true: rich people have fewer occasions for delight than
those less well-off.
“There’s one other factor that can bring satisfaction —
beating one’s competition. But you, Mr Heitzman, it seems,
have no competition at all.
“So it turns out you have only negative energy acting upon
you, and there’s a great deal of it out there. Oh, and I forgot to
mention: there’s just one force that can conquer the masses of
negative energy — just one, but it’s powerful, incredibly pow-
erful — it’s called the energy of love. It’s when you find yourself
in a state of love and someone loves you. Unfortunately, in
your case, however, you don’t have any women in your life. In
fact, it looks like you don’t really have any interest in them at
all, and at your age and in your condition you’re not likely to
have any more interest in women.
“There’s a lot of evidence to back up my conclusion. I’ve
compared the longevity stats of rich people, prominent politi-
cians and presidents over the past hundred years. The results
are quite persuasive. Longevity for the world’s power brokers
doesn’t look all that great by comparison with the common
folk — in fact, most often it’s less.
“Paradoxical, but true: facts are facts. Presidents and mil-
lionaires, in spite of being under constant medical care, in
spite of having access to the state-of-the-art technical help
and medicines and to only the highest-quality foodstuffs, are
getting sick and dying just like anyone else. All this is elo-
quent testimony to the fact that surrounding negative energy
exerts a colossal influence, and no medical science, even the
very latest, is able to counteract it.
“So, what’s the bottom line? A dead-end situation? There
is a way out — it may be small, it may be only one of its kind,
but it’s there! Yes sir! It’s there. Memories!
The billionaire
89
“My dear Mr Heitzman, please, try to remember the dif-
ferent stages of your life. Any memory that will bring back
pleasant feelings.
“Most importantly, if there’s anyone you’ve given a serious
promise to and not carried it out, see if there’s any way you
can carry it out now. I ask you, for your own sake, for the
sake of science, to take at least two or three days and try to
remember the good moments in your life. We’ve got equip-
ment to monitor the functioning of many of your body or-
gans. The monitoring goes on minute by minute. If you do
what I’m recommending, and if these instruments start indi-
cating positive results, there’s indeed a chance we’ll be able to
see you through to a full recovery. Yes sir! You’ll make it! I’ll
certainly find a way Or maybe you’ll find it on your own. Or
maybe it’ll just come about all by itself... Your life will come
across it on its own.”
The professor fell silent and once again fixed his gaze on
the hand of his patient, lying motionless before him. A few
seconds later and the customary gesture sent the professor
out of the room.
< 3 ©
Like many people, John Heitzman began to recall his past. He
had at least something of an understanding of what the pro-
fessor had said to him. He could try to find happy moments
from his past life, and they might have a positive effect. The
problem was, though, that everything he had experienced in
his life seemed not just devoid of anything pleasant, it was
uninteresting and even senseless.
90
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Heitzman remembered how he took his father’s advice and
married the daughter of a billionaire, thereby adding to his
empire’s wealth. The marriage did not bring him any satisfac-
tion, his wife turned out to be barren, and after ten years of
conjugal life she died of an overdose of narcotics.
Then he married a famous fashion model, who was the very
picture of a wife passionately in love. But just six months af-
ter the wedding his security service showed him snapshots of
his wife cavorting with her former lover. He was not about to
discuss it with her. He simply gave orders to his bodyguards
to see to it that he would never have the occasion to see or be
reminded about her again.
By now in his recollections Heitzman had reached the start-
ing-point of his participation in his father’s empire. He had
not been able to pinpoint even one pleasant instance that he
felt like holding on to and use as a source of positive emo-
tions.
There was just one moment of pleasantness that he could
remember. It was when he proved to his father that there was
no need of becoming the sole owner of the Monetary Fund.
Other investors in the fund, looking for a good return, would
devote their mental energy to increasing the fund’s capital,
and thus would be working for them, for the Heitzmans.
His father took some time to think about this. Then, sev-
eral days later, at dinner time, he broke with his customary
reticence to offer praise and said:
“I agree with your proposal, John, regarding the Fund.
You’re on the right track. Congratulations! Go ahead and
give some thought to other areas too. It’s time for you take
over the reins.”
For the next several days John Heitzman was in an upbeat
mood. He ended up making several more decisions and in-
creasing the profits of their financial-industrial empire even
The billionaire
9i
more. However, he no longer derived any special feeling of
joy from this.
The reports of increased profits were cold and dispassionate.
No further praise would be coming his way His father died,
and praise from underlings brought no particular pleasure.
John Heitzman continued going back in his recollections
and reached the time of his childhood. The rare moments of
contact with his father were dimly illumined in his thought.
His ever-strict father, as a rule, would issue admonishments
in the presence of nannies and teachers which he had hired
for young John.
Then all at once a wave of warmth rolled through the body
of the billionaire lying motionless in his bed. His body gave a
pleasant shiver. In Heitzman’s recollections the curtain rose on
a bright and very clear scene. He saw a far corner of the garden
of his family’s estate and there, surrounded by small acacia bush-
es, a little house about two metres high, with a single window
For some quite inexplicable reason all children yearn to
create their own little house, their own space. That yearn-
ing is there, no matter whether the child has his own room
in his parents’ house or lives in the same room with his par-
ents. With almost all children there comes a time when they
start building their own little cubby-hole. In every Man,
apparently, there is a gene that preserves some kind of an-
cient memory, telling him he ought to set up his own space.
Whereupon any adult or child heeding this call, which arises
from the depths of eternity, goes about setting it up at once.
Never mind how amateurish it turns out by comparison with
modern apartments, a Man who has built this for himself de-
rives much more satisfaction from it than he would from the
most chic and stylish apartment.
And so the nine-year-old John Heitzman, who had two spa-
cious rooms all to himself in the family manor, still decided to
build his own little house with his own hands.
92
Book 8: The New Civilisation
He constructed it out of plastic boxes that had been used
for transplanting seedlings. These boxes turned out to be
handy building materials. They came in a variety of colours.
John made the walls using blue boxes, with a yellow border
around the whole perimeter. He piled the boxes on top of
each other, fastening them together in tongue-and-groove
fashion. On one wall John made the box-bottoms face out-
ward, which meant that the whole inside wall was comprised
of a multitude of shelves. Boards with stapled-on plastic film
served for the roof.
He spent a whole week building his little house, taking ad-
vantage of the three hours a day he was allotted for leisure
walks in the fresh air. On the seventh day, just as soon as lei-
sure time came, he headed straight for his creation in the far
corner of the garden. Pulling back the acacia branches, he
saw the house he had built and froze in astonishment. There
by the entrance stood a little girl looking in the doorway of his
creation. The girl was wearing a light-blue calf-length skirt
and a white cardigan with frills on the sleeves. Her chestnut-
coloured hair fell in ringlets around her shoulders.
At first, youngjohn reacted with some jealousy to the pres-
ence of a stranger beside his creation, and he enquired with a
hint of annoyance:
“What are you doing here?”
The girl turned her pretty little face toward him and re-
plied:
“I’m admiring.”
“What are you admiring?”
“This marvellous and clever little house.”
“ Wh-what kind of house?” young John queried in amaze-
ment.
“Marvellous and most clever,” repeated the girl.
“Houses may be marvellous, but I’ve never heard them called
clever f observed John thoughtfully “Only people can be clever.”
The billionaire
93
“Yes of course, people can be clever. But when a clever per-
son builds a house,” the girl countered, “the house turns out
to be something clever, too.”
“And what do you find clever about this house?”
“The inside wall is very clever. It has ever so many shelves.
You can put a lot of useful things on those shelves — toys, too.”
John was pleased at howthis little girl reasoned things through.
It flattered him, and possibly the girl herself pleased him.
She’s pretty, and reasons things through cleverly, he thought to
himself. And aloud he said:
“This house I built.”
And he immediately added:
“What’s your name?”
“I’m Sally, and I’m seven years old. I live here in the serv-
ants’ quarters, since my dad works as a gardener here. He
knows a lot about plants and is teaching me. I already know
how to raise flowers and how to graft branches onto trees.
And what’s your name, and where do you live?”
“I live in the manor-house. My name’s John.”
“Does that mean you’re the master’s son?”
“Yeah.”
“So, Johnnikins, let’s playhouse!”
“How do we play that?”
“We play like we live in this house, the way grown-ups live.
You can be the master, since you’re the master’s son, and I’ll
be your servant, since my dad’s a servant.”
“That won’t work,” observed John. “A servant’s supposed
to live in the servants’ quarters. Only the husband, his wife
and their children can live in the manor-house.”
“Then I shall be your wife!” exclaimed Sally, and asked:
“Can I be your wife, Johnnikins?”
John did not answer. He went into the house, took a glance
around, and then turned to look at Sally who was still stand-
ing just outside the doorway He said rather brusquely:
94
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“Okay, come on in and pretend you’re my wife. We have to
think about how we’re going to decorate the inside.”
Sally stepped into the house. She looked into John’s eyes
with tenderness and excitement and said, almost in a whis-
per:
“Thank you, Johnnikins. I shall try to be a good wife to
you.”
John did not come to his house every day. During the time
allotted for leisure walks he was not always allowed to play
in the garden. Escorted by bodyguards and tutors, he would
be taken instead for a visit to a city park or Disneyland, or go
horseback-riding.
But when he managed to get away to his little house, he
almost always found Sally waiting for him. With each suc-
ceeding visit John took interest in the changes that had been
occurring in the house. First of all a carpet appeared on the
floor, contributed by Sally Then little curtains on the win-
dow and over the entrance.
Next came a little round table with an empty photo-frame
on it. Sally said:
“Johnnikins, you’re coming here less and less often. I keep
waiting for you, but you don’t show up. Give me a photo-
graph of yourself, and I’ll put it in this frame. I can look at
your picture and it will make it easier waiting for you.”
John left her his photograph when he came to say good-bye
to the house, and to Sally. He was going to be moving with his
parents to another villa.
The billionaire
95
Multibillionaire John Heitzman lay on his bed in his fancy
apartment and smiled as he recalled, with ever greater detail,
his childhood contact with the little girl Sally It was only now
that he realised that this little girl loved him. She loved him
with her first childhood love — reckless, unanswered and sin-
cere. Perhaps, just perhaps, he loved her, too, or perhaps she
was just a passing fancy. But she loved him as probably no one
else would love him the rest of his life, and so the memories
attached to the little house he built in the garden and his con-
tact with Sally still evoked in him a lot of warm and pleasant
feelings. These feelings warmed his body and made him feel
good.
After leaving the manor-house, he met with Sally one more
time, eleven years later. But this time... New feelings excited
his whole body. John Heitzman even sat up a bit in his bed.
His heart had started chasing the blood through his veins
with ever-increasing strength. That meeting... He had for-
gotten about it. He had never thought about it all this time.
But now it occupied all his thoughts and made him excited.
He came back to the estate where he had spent his child-
hood, returning after eleven years just for a day’s visit. That
was all the time he could afford. After lunch he went out into
the garden, and somehow he found himself heading down
to the far corner of the garden, where in among the acacia
bushes he had built his little house. As he pushed back the
branches and stepped into the little glade, he literally froze
in astonishment. The house he had built out of plastic boxes
eleven years ago stood on the same spot as before. But all
around... All around were little beds of flowers, and a sand-
covered path led to the entrance, where a little bench was
now standing. And the house itself was wreathed in flowers.
The bench had not been there before, but it was there now,
the grown-up John noted to himself. He pushed aside the
9 <5
Book 8: The New Civilisation
curtain covering the entrance, bent down and stepped into
the little house.
At once he could sense someone’s recent presence. His
childhood photo stood on the little table as before. The
shelves were neatly lined with Sally’s childhood toys. On one
of the shelves, next to the table, stood a little bowl of fresh
fruit. An air mattress lay on the floor, fitted with a coverlet.
John stood there in the little house for about twenty min-
utes, remembering pleasant feelings from his childhood. Why
is this happening? he thought. His family owned a whole lot of
fancy villas. There was even a castle, but neither the castle nor
the villas had ever evoked such pleasant feelings as arose here,
in this little house constructed of plastic seedling boxes.
When he came out of the little house, he spied Sally. She
was standing there silently at the doorway, as though reluc-
tant to interfere with the surge of recollections that had bro-
ken upon his thought. John looked at her, and noticed her
cheeks flush with a rosy glow. She lowered her eyes in em-
barrassment, and said in a soft, velvety, extraordinarily tender
and emotional voice:
“Hello, Johnnikins!”
He did not answer her right away He stood there admir-
ing Sally’s extremely beautiful, mature body Her figure-hug-
ging dress fluttered in the breeze. Through the light material
could be seen the outlines of her sculptured form — no longer
that of a child but of a maiden, feminine and supple.
“Hi, Sally,” John said, breaking a long pause. “You’re still
keeping house here?”
“Yes. After all, I promised. There’s some fruit inside — it’s
just been washed. Have some. It’s for you.”
“I see... Forme... Well, then, let’s go in together and have
a bite.”
John pulled the curtain aside, letting Sally go ahead of him.
She went in and squatted down. She took the bowl of fruit
The billionaire
97
down from the shelf and placed it on the table beside the
photograph in the frame.
There were no chairs in the little house, and John sat down
on the rug. He reached out for a bunch of grapes and inad-
vertently touched Sally’s shoulder. She turned her head and
their eyes met. She inhaled sharply, which caused a button
to come undone on the cardigan stretched taut across her
breasts. John grasped hold of Sally’s shoulders and drew her
close to himself. She did not resist. Quite to the contrary, she
leant against him with her feverishly glowing body Sally did
not resist when John slowly and carefully laid her down on
the rug, or when he caressed her and kissed her lips, and her
breast, or when...
Sally was a virgin. . . Neither before nor afterward didjohn en-
ter into intimate relations with any virgin. And now, after forty
years had passed since that last meeting, he, John Heitzman,
suddenly realised that this had been the only really beautiful,
reason-defying intimate moment he had ever had with a wom-
an. Or, rather, with a girl, whom he had made a woman.
After that they fell asleep for a little while. When they
awoke, they began talking with each other. What had they
talked about? John Heitzman racked his memory as best he
could. He very much wanted to remember at least part of
their conversation. And he remembered.
Sally had mentioned how beautiful life was. She said her
father was saving up some money to buy her a plot of land,
on which, if he could afford it, he would build her a modest
house. And Sally herself would do the landscape design and
put in a wide variety of plants, and she would lead a happy life
and raise her children there.
Back then John decided within himself that he would help
Sally Wow, he thought, here’s a girl that can be happy just with
some plot of land and a little house. Mere trifles! I mustn’t forget to
help her acquire the land, and the house.
98
Book 8: The New Civilisation
But John did forget about his intentions. He forgot com-
pletely about Sally He was distracted by his life with its
manifold charms. A new yacht and his own private aeroplane
brought joy for a few days at their first appearance. He found
a longer-lasting distraction in playing the money markets, in
adding billions to his father’s financial holdings (which he
subsequently inherited) — a distraction which excited his
nerves and feelings for more than twenty years. It dominated
over everything else. He went through first one marriage,
then a second, as a matter of course. His wives left no trace
of themselves behind. After he turned forty playing the fi-
nancial markets ceased to give him any pleasure, and he began
to suffer increasingly frequent periods of depression, which
finally led to a nervous breakdown.
But now John Heitzman was no longer in a state of depres-
sion. His recollections of Sally had quite stirred him up. Yet
at the same time they made him angry at himself. How could
this have happened? he thought. I promised my self that I would
help Sally, this girl who loved me, to obtain a plot of land, and a
house, and I forgot.
Now John Heitzman was a man accustomed to keeping his
promises, especially those he made to himself. He realised he
would never stop being angry with himself until...
He pressed a button to summon his secretary. When the
secretary entered, John Heitzman was sitting on his bed.
Even though he found it difficult to get out the words, for the
first time in the past six months he began talking:
“Over fifty years ago I was living in a certain manor-
house — I don’t remember the address, you can find it in
the archives. There was a gardener working there — don’t
remember his name, but it’s in our archived bookkeeping
accounts. The gardener had a daughter, her name was Sally.
Find out where Sally’s living now. I need this information
by tomorrow morning at the latest. If you have it earlier,
The billionaire
99
let me know at once, regardless of the hour, day or night.
Do it!”
The secretary rang at dawn the next morning. As he walked
into the office, John Heitzman was sitting in his wheel-chair
by the window, wearing a dark-blue three-piece suit. He was
shaved, and his hair neatly combed.
“Sir, the gardener was let go forty years ago and died soon
afterwards. Before his death he managed to buy five acres 1 of
land on an abandoned ranch in Texas. On this land he started
building a house, but broke his back during the construction
and died. His daughter Sally finished building the house and
now lives in it. Here’s the address. That’s all the details we
have at the moment. But on your order well go ahead and
gather all the information you need.”
John Heitzman took the piece of paper from his secretary’s
hand and examined it carefully After folding it neatly, he put
it into his inside jacket pocket and said:
“Have the helicopter ready for take-off in thirty minutes.
It should land about four or five miles from her villa in Texas.
Have a car meet me at the landing site. Just an ordinary-look-
ing car — no limousine, no bodyguards, just the driver. Do
it!”
09
At three o’clock in the afternoon John Heitzman, limping
slightly and leaning on his cane, made his way up the gravelled
path to a modest cottage surrounded by luscious greenery
J acres = 2 hectares approximately
IOO
Book 8: The New Civilisation
When he first spied her, her back was turned to him. The
elderly woman was standing on a small stepladder, washing
the outside of a window. John Heitzman stopped and stared
at this woman with her beautiful ash-coloured hair. She could
feel his gaze and turned to face him.
For a while she simply stood there with her eyes fixed on
the old man standing on the path. Then all of a sudden she
jumped down from her ladder and ran to greet him. Her step
was light, and nothing about this woman looked old. She
stopped about a metre from where Heitzman was standing,
and in a quiet but emotional voice said:
“Hello , Johnnikins ! ”
Immediately she lowered her eyes and put up her hands to
cover the blush on both her cheeks.
“Hello, Sally!” said John Heitzman, without another word.
Or, rather, he was speaking, but only to himself, not aloud.
How beautiful you are, Sally, and how beautiful are your sparkling
eyes, and the little wrinkles around your eyes! You are still just as
beautiful and good as before! Aloud he said:
“I was just passing through, Sally I heard you were living
here, so I decided to stop by And maybe to stay the night... if
I’m not imposing, that is.”
“I’m so happy to see you, Johnnikins. Of course you can
stay the night. I’m here alone, but tomorrow my two grand-
children will be arriving for a week. I’ve got two of them: a
granddaughter, she’s nine, and a little grandson — well, he’s
twelve already. Come on in, Johnnikins, and I’ll give you a
bowl of herb tea. I know the kind of tea you need. Come
on.”
“So, you were married, Sally? You had children.”
“I’m still married, Johnnikins,” Sally answered cheerfully.
‘And we had one son. And now two grandchildren... Why
don’t you sit down at the table out there on the porch, and I’ll
bring the tea out to you.”
The billionaire
IOI
John Heitzman sat down in one of the plastic armchairs
on the veranda. When Sally brought out a large bowl of some
kind of tea, he asked her.
“How come you said you knew what kind of tea I needed,
Sally?”
“You see, my father used to gather herbs for your father.
He’d dry them and then make a tea, and this tea was of great
help to your father. And I learned how to gather herbs, too.
My dad told me that you, too, Johnnikins, have inherited this
same disease.”
“But how did you know I was coming?”
“I didn’t know, Johnnikins. You see, I gather them in case
of any need. But tell me, Johnnikins, how are you doing?
How’s your life turned out?”
“In a lot of different ways, I guess. I’ve been busy with a
variety of things, but I don’t want to think about that right
now. You’ve got a fine place here, Sally — it’s beautiful, so
many flowers... and a garden!”
“Yeah, it’s really nice. I really like it here. But you see over
there to the right, they’ve got a building project in the works.
They’re planning to build a waste treatment facility. And over
to the left there’ll be another factory of some sort. They’re
talking about moving us out...
“But you’re tired from your trip, looks like you’ve been
travelling quite a distance, Johnnikins. I can see how ex-
hausted you are. I’ll make up a bed for you by the open win-
dow. Just have a lie down and relax. Only drink up your tea
first.”
John Heitzman got undressed, with some difficulty He
really was tired. His muscles, atrophied by six months of ly-
ing motionless in bed, could only barely keep him on his feet.
He finally managed to pull the blanket over him, and he fell
asleep at once. Lately he had been unable to get to sleep at all
without a sleeping pill. But here, all at once...
102
Book 8: The New Civilisation
He slept in until noon and did not see the morning. He got
up and took a shower and then went out to the veranda. Sally
was getting lunch ready in the summer kitchen, and a little
boy and a little girl were helping her.
“Good afternoon, Johnnikins! Looks like you got a good
sleep. You look so rejuvenated! Here, meet the grandchil-
dren. This is Emmy, and this young fella’s name is George.”
“And I’m John Heitzman. Good morning!” said the elderly
man, extending his hand to the boy
“So there, you’re officially introduced,” declared Sally.
“You two go take a walk and work up an appetite while Emmy
and I get lunch ready.”
“I’d like to show you our garden,” George said to
Heitzman.
The old man and the young boy walked through the mar-
vellous garden together. The boy kept pointing out various
plants and could not stop talking about them. Heitzman,
in the meantime, was concentrating on thoughts of his
own. When they reached the end of the garden, the boy an-
nounced:
“Now, behindthisacaciabushismy ‘apartment’ — Grandma
made it for me.”
Heitzman pulled aside a branch and looked... There in a
small glade behind the acacia stood his little house — made
from the same plastic seedling boxes. Only the roof looked
a bit different. And the curtain covering the entrance was
different. Heitzman pulled back the curtain and stooped
slightly as he stepped into the little house. All the furnish-
ings were just as he remembered them. Only the photograph
on the table was laminated in plastic sheathing. The photo
was of Sally’s grandson. Everything’s just the way it should be, he
thought. The little house now has a new occupant and hence a new
photograph. Heitzman picked up the photo and held it in both
hands. To make conversation, he remarked:
The billionaire
103
“Well, now, little George, your photo came out pretty well
here!”
“But that’s not my photograph, Uncle John. That’s a pic-
ture of a boy Grandma was friends with in childhood. It just
happens he looks like me.”
00
John Heitzman made his way back up the garden path as fast
as his legs could carry him, limping with his cane, and stum-
bling.
Panting and feeling a little confused, he approached Sally
and asked:
“Where is he now? Where’s your husband, Sally?
Where?”
“Please calm down, John,” said Sally softly. “You shouldn’t
allow yourself to get so excited. Please, sit down...
“It turns out, John, that back in my childhood I promised a
very fine young boy that I would become his wife...”
“But that was a game!” John Heitzman was practically
shouting as he leapt up out of the chair. “A children’s game!”
“Maybe so,” Sally responded. “Anyway, let’s say I’m still
continuing to play at it. And I’m pretending that you’re my
husband... my husband and my beloved.”
“George does look a lot like me, the way I looked as a boy
Does that mean you gave birth to a child after that night,
Sally? Did you have a baby?”
“Yes, John, I had our son. And he looks like me. But he
very much has your genes, and our grandson is the spitting
image of you.”
104
Book 8: The New Civilisation
John Heitzman’s gaze alternated between Sally and the boy
and girl setting the table out on the veranda. He was no long-
er able to speak. His thoughts and feelings were confused.
Then, for reasons which he himself did not fully understand,
he said in a business-like tone:
“I have to leave right away Good-bye, Sally”
He took a couple of steps down the path, then turned and
headed over to Sally who was standing there quietly Barely
supporting himself on his cane, he got down on one knee in
front of her, took her hand and gave it a long, slow kiss.
“Sally, I have some very important, urgent matters to at-
tend to. I have to leave immediately.”
She put her hand on his head, softly rumpling his hair.
“Yes, of course. You have to leave, if you’ve got important
matters and problems to take care of. If you run into any diffi-
culties, John, you can always come here to our home. Our son
now manages his own little firm — it’s known by the lovely
name of Lotos — and he does landscape design. He’s had no
special training, but I taught him myself, and he’s doing some
very smart designs, and there’s hardly any shortage of orders.
He helps me financially, and visits me every month.
“But it seems you’ve got some money problems? And some-
thing of a health problem, too? Come back John. I know how
to give you treatment and we’ve got enough money to live on.”
“Thank you, Sally... Thank you... I’ve got to hurry! I’ve
got to...”
He walked down the path to the gate, his thoughts all
caught up in a plan he had in mind. In the meantime Sally
watched John’s receding figure and whispered to herself: Come
back, my love! She was still repeating this phrase like a mantra
even an hour later, forgetting about her grandchildren. She
did not even notice the helicopter circling for more than half
an hour overhead, over her plot of land with its little house
and marvellous garden.
The billionaire
105
By the time John Heitzman’s helicopter landed on the office
tower roof, his close associates and their secretaries were al-
ready hard at work in the board room, feverishly checking
figures, getting ready to report to the boss. They had grown
unaccustomed to meeting in his presence, and now it was
with considerable fear and trepidation that they awaited his
arrival.
When John Heitzman entered the room, everybody rose
to their feet. He began speaking even before reaching his
chair at the head of the board-room table.
“Sit down. No reports today. Listen carefully to what I
have to say, I’m not going to repeat myself. No time. So. In
Texas there’s this villa — here’s the address. Your instruc-
tions are to buy up all the lands around this house within a
radius of a hundred miles. Buy up all the industries located on
these lands, even if it means paying three times their worth.
Whichever one of you is responsible for buying and selling
real estate can leave the room now and get to work immedi-
ately Put all our agents on the job if required. This operation
should take no more than one week.”
One of the associates jumped up and hurried toward the
exit.
John Heitzman continued:
‘All buildings, factories and facilities located on these lands
are to be demolished within a month, max, even if this means
hiring hundreds of construction companies. A month from
now grass should be planted on these sites.”
Heitzman instructed the last associate remaining in the
room:
106 Book 8: The New Civilisation
“There’s a firm in Texas with the pretty name of Lotos.
Sign a five-year contract with it. Engage this firm to design
communities for all the lands we buy up around that villa in
Texas. Whatever the firm asks, double it. Do it!”
Two weeks later John Heitzman appeared before an audience
of fifteen hundred people. The audience, recruited with the
help of personnel firms, comprised landscape design spe-
cialists, botanists and agronomists. Everyone wanted to get
work — especially since the advert mentioned the contract
amount, twice the standard average.
John Heitzman walked up to the podium and began speak-
ing in his usual authoritative tone, which was rather sharp:
‘According to the contracts being offered you, each of you
will receive free of charge a plot of land for lifetime use, meas-
uring five acres. You’ll be offered several designs for pre-fab
homes to choose from, and these homes will be built on each
plot at whatever spot you designate, all at my company’s ex-
pense. For the next five years the company will make pay-
ments to each adult member of your family as specified in the
contract. Your job is to make the territory you receive a place
of beauty. You will plant gardens and flower-beds, and make
ponds and pathways. You will make everything beautiful and
good. The company will pay the cost of seedlings and what-
ever seed materials you request.
“That’s it. If there are no questions, those who wish to ac-
cept my offer can sign their contract.”
But the fifteen-hundred seat auditorium was enshrouded
in utter silence. Nobody got up from their seats to head over
to the tables, where secretaries were waiting with contracts
ready to sign. After a minute of complete silence, an elderly
man rose from his seat and asked:
“Tell me, sir, these lands where you propose we settle, are
they contaminated with deadly pollutants?”
The billionaire
107
“No,” replied one of Heitzman’s associates. “On the con-
trary, this whole area has a comparatively clean environment,
and the soil is quite fertile.”
“Then tell us honestly,” asked a young woman jumping up
from her seat, “what kind of an experiment are you proposing
to conduct on people? Many of us have children, and I for
one do not want to subject my child to goodness-knows-what
kind of an experiment.”
The hall erupted with a general buzz, and cries of
Opportunists ! Inhuman! Monsters! could be heard. People
started getting up and filing toward the exit. Heitzman’s as-
sociates tried to explain and respond to the questions, but to
no avail.
Pleitzman himself sat there helplessly and watched the
people leave the room. He realised that their departure was
the final blow to his hopes. Or something even worse... Heso
wanted to do something nice for Sally, for his son and grand-
children. He wanted not only for there to be no more belch-
ing smokestacks in the vicinity of Sally’s cozy cottage, but for
there to be gardens around, and good neighbours too. He had
bought up the lands, and the belching smokestacks had been
demolished on his orders. And grass had been sown in their
place. But the land could only become good if good people
lived on it. And here they were leaving. They did not un-
derstand. How could they understand, anyway? What could
make them believe?
Stop! All at once it dawned on him. They knew nothing
about the situation, and that was why they did not believe.
But now if he told them the truth... John Heitzman rose to
his feet and quietly, still hesitantly began to speak.
“People!” he began. “I understand. I need to explain to
you the reasons for this action by my company But they’re
impossible to explain. There’s no way they can be explained.
Because it’s just that I... You see, it’s like this... Or, rather,
108 Book 8: The New Civilisation
there’s something personal to me in all these contracts. Or
how shall I put it?...”
Heitzman was confused, and did not know how to contin-
ue. But the people had stopped in their tracks. They were
standing in the aisles, in the exit doorways. And they were all
looking intently at Heitzman. They were silent, and here he
was, not knowing how to proceed. Yet somehow he managed
to pull himself together and go on:
“Back in my childhood... In my youth... you see... I loved
this girl. But I didn’t realise back then I was in love with her.
I was later married to other women. I got involved in busi-
ness. For the past fifty years I never saw this girl. Never even
thought about her. And then just recently I remembered her.
I discovered she was the only person who ever sincerely loved
me. And she still does. But I didn’t know about it. Like I
said, I’d forgotten all about her. And I realised that she was
the only one I could ever love...
‘And then... I met her. Now, of course, she’s along in years.
But for me she’s still the same as back when I knew her years
before. She loves her garden. She does everything so beauti-
fully And I wanted there to be beauty around her. And good
neighbours. It’s better for her to have good and happy neigh-
bours living nearby
“But how to make that happen? As a businessman I’ve
managed to put a bit of money aside. And so I bought up the
land, divided it into plots, and drew up these contracts. I did
it for the one I love. Or, just maybe, I did it for myself?”
This last sentence John Heitzman uttered almost as though
putting the question to himself. After that he began speaking
as though talking aloud to himself, as though he did not see
the people standing in front of him.
“We live for something — what do we live for? We strive
for something — what is it we’re striving for? I’m going to die
soon — what am I leaving behind, except dust?
The billionaire
109
“But now, I’m not going to die, not until I finish my project.
And I’ll leave behind something eternal — I’ll leave behind a
garden for the one I love. I’ll leave behind many gardens.
“ You know, first, I wanted to simply hire a whole lot of
workers and sign a contract with a big company doing land-
scape design. Sign a contract so that employees could look af-
ter the plants. But then it dawned on me. Any kind of beauty
will turn out lifeless, if you don’t create it for yourself. And
that’s why I decided to make it so that someone created it for
themselves. That’s why I’m offering you the plots of land and
the houses, and all I ask in return is for beauty around the one
I love.
“You didn’t believe that the terms offered in these contracts
were genuine. You didn’t know what goals the party offering
you these contracts was really pursuing. Now you know”
At this point John Heitzman fell silent. The people stand-
ing in the hall were silent, too. The first to break the silence
was the woman who had expressed the most scepticism ear-
lier. First she hurried over to the row of tables standing by the
stage with the contracts laid out, and asked one of the secre-
taries to enter her name on a copy, which she signed without
even reading it. Then she turned to the people standing in
the auditorium and exclaimed:
“There, I’ve signed it. I was the first one to sign. That
means I’ll go down in history, because I was the first. When
you think about it, not a single man, no matter how rich, has
ever given a greater gift to the one he loves than this person
standing there on the stage. And it would be impossible for
him to do more.”
“Nobody could even think of doing more,” cried another
woman, “in the whole recorded history of mankind!”
“I love you!” called out a third.
“I want a plot right next to your beloved,” declared a fourth.
“What’s her name?”
IIO
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“Her name...” began Heitzman, but went on: “maybe it’s
better she doesn’t know: Let her think that this was all the
will of fate.”
With a single surge, the people in the hall headed over to
the tables standing by the stage. A queue formed. People gai-
ly joked with each other, calling each other simply Neighbour,
but the majority especially the women, kept staring at the
man on the stage with sparkles of love in their eyes.
For the first time in his life John Heitzman felt the energy
of good directed at him — the energy of love and unfeigned
delight emanating from many human hearts. An all- trium-
phant energy capable of healing any ill. He walked off the
stage, now without a trace of a limp.
For several months he personally took active part in the
demolition of the remaining facilities on the bought-up
lands, discussed the details of design of the whole community
around Sally’s cottage and alternative landscape designs for
different plots, along with the whole infrastructure.
A year later, when John Heitzman once again approached
the gate leading to Sally’s cottage, as far as the eye could see,
people were already planting little saplings for their large gar-
dens. Several saplings stood near Sally’s gate, with a carefully
wrapped root system. It seemed as though Sally had intui-
tively felt him coming, for she ran out to greet him.
“John! It’s so good to see you again! Really good! Hello
there, John!”
She ran up to him with a spring in her step, bubbling over
like a young girl. She grasped John’s arm, pulled him over to
have a cup of tea, all the while happily chattering away non-
stop.
“You know what’s been happening, John?! You know what
a miracle’s been taking place here all around! I’m so superbly
happy! There’ll be no more belching smokestacks next to our
The billionaire
hi
house. There’ll be good neighbours! See how life’s sprucing
up all around?! Really sprucing up! If you’ve had any business
failures, John, don’t worry your little head about it. You can
just laugh at it and come and move in with us. We’re wealthy
now. Our son’s just got himself a real big contract, and I
mean big! He’s now in charge of a whole design and planning
project. And we’ve got ourselves a little more land. Our son’s
going to be building himself a new house. And the two of us,
if you want to, can live here.”
“I do want to,” replied John Heitzman, adding: “Thank
you, Sally, for the invitation.”
“But why go on living in an old house?” boomed out a voice
from behind John Heitzman’s back. He turned around and
caught sight of his son. He knew right off that it was his son.
And the young man continued:
“If I understand correctly, you are actually my father?...
When little George told me that you thought the photo of
Mom’s childhood friend was of him, I knew who ’d come. And
Mom never did learn to hide her true feelings.
“I, of course, don’t yet have the same feelings towards you
that Mom does, but for the sake of my happy parents, I am
ready to pay for the building of a new house for the two of
you.”
“Thank you, son,” said John Heitzman, almost overcome
with emotion. He wanted to give his son a hug, but for some
reason hesitated. The young man stepped toward him on his
own, extended his hand and introduced himself:
“I’m John.”
“Great!” said Sally ‘And it’s great now that you two have got
acquainted. When you get to know each other better, you’ll
really like each other. But right now let’s have some tea.”
And as they sat at the table Sally kept on talking animat-
edly non-stop, about the extraordinary events that had been
taking place in the last few months.
112
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“Can you just imagine, John? Just imagine! Here they’ve
been telling a story like the most beautiful tale in the world.
A tale which is coming true to life. Just imagine, John — peo-
ple say that all these lands were bought by one and the same
person. Then this person invited the best designers, agrono-
mists and gardeners and gave each of them several acres of
land free of charge for their lifetime use. He told them to
make their plots beautiful. And he offered them all the sap-
lings and seeds free of charge, and will even keep on paying
them for five years to beautify their own plots. Just imagine,
it is he who will be paying them. He poured all his savings into
this project, right down to the last cent.”
“Well, maybe not all,” Ileitzman protested.
“People say he put in all. And you know why he did all
this?”
“Why?” asked John Heitzman calmly.
“That’s the whole beauty of it. He did it so that the one he
loved could have a place to live amidst all this beauty They
say she’s a landscape designer as well. And somewhere around
here she’s got a cottage too. Only nobody knows who she is
or where she lives. Can you just imagine, Johnnikins, what
will happen when people find out who she is?”
“What?”
“What else? Everybody will want to go have a look at her
and even touch her like a goddess. I myself, for instance,
would want to touch her. She’s probably an extraordinary
woman. Maybe she’s extraordinary outwardly, maybe inward-
ly. Everybody around is saying that there’s no other woman
in the world who could inspire a man to take such an unusual
and beautiful step. That’s why all the people will want to see
her and even touch this man and his extraordinary wife.”
“Probably they will,” John Heitzman agreed, adding: “But
what can we do about it, Sally?”
“What d’you mean, we?” Sally wondered aloud.
The billionaire
113
“I say we, because that extraordinary woman, the one on
whose account all these things around are happening, is you,
Sally!”
Sally stared at John without blinking, trying to make sense
of what she had just heard. When the first glimpses of un-
derstanding dawned on her, she let the cup she was holding
slip out of her hands, but nobody paid attention to the sound
of it breaking to pieces. John Heitzman turned his head in
the direction of another sound — the sound of a chair fall-
ing, when his son impulsively jumped up from his seat. The
younger John rushed over to his father and said excitedly, in a
soft baritone voice:
“Father! Father! Can I give you a hug?”
John Heitzman was the first to embrace his son. Fie could
hear how his son’s heart was racing. His son gave him a hug in
turn, whispering excitedly:
“The world has never witnessed such a powerful declara-
tion of love, without even using the words of love, ever! I’m
proud of you, Father! I’m so happy for you, Father!”
When father and son turned to Sally, she was still trying
to come to terms with what had happened. All at once her
cheeks flushed with a rosy glow, as though smoothing out
the wrinkles around her eyes. Tears began rolling down her
cheeks. Sally was embarrassed. She rushed over to the elder
John, grabbed him by the arm and led him down the front
porch steps. Their son watched as his parents, hand in hand,
started making their way slowly down the path, heading for
the acacia bushes which concealed the little house of their
childhood, and then began skipping toward the acacia like
youngsters.
Ten years later a much younger-looking John Fleitzman was
sitting at a local cafe-bar with some other men from the com-
munity. He laughingly explained:
ii4 Book 8: The New Civilisation
“No, I won’t run for any presidential office — don’t even
try to tempt me. And it’s not just a matter of age. You don’t
have to be president to run the country That’s something
you can do from right in your own garden. See, you’ve shown
by your own example how to really make a good life, and all
America is now turning into a flourishing garden. If it goes on
like this, heck, we’ll even overtake Russia!”
“We’ll do it! We’ll do it” echoed Sally, who had just come in.
“Only now, let’s head for home, Johnnikins. The baby won’t
go to sleep without you.” Then she added, whispering in his
ear: “And neither will I.”
And so they began walking home, down a shady, sweet-
smelling allee, these two not-yet-old people: John Heitzman
and Sally. In the springtime it always seemed that their life
was just beginning. Just as real life was beginning all over
America.
6©
“That’s a beautiful ending to your story,” I told Anastasia,
when she had finished telling her account of the future. ‘And
all your stories are so encouraging. But will something like
that really happen? In real life?”
“It will definitely happen, Vladimir. That is no made-up
story, but a projection of the future. The names and locales
are not important. What is important is the essence, the idea,
the dream! And if my story has evoked positive feelings, then
people will certainly project its essence into the future, and
many people will add their own details and infuse the projec-
tion with their own great meaning and conscious awareness.”
The billionaire
ii5
“How does all that come about?”
“See how simple it is. Did you like the story?”
“Did I like it? Til say!”
“Do you want it to come true in the future?”
“Of course I do.”
“What if you tell it to others? Will there be those who will
want to see something like that come true, too?”
“I dare say there will.”
“You see, that means that anybody will want to, who takes
on the role not just of an observer of history, but an actual
participant in it. And they will make the story come true.”
“Yes, I think that’s clear enough. But I’m just a bit sad that
you went and painted such a beautiful scene in respect to for-
eign entrepreneurs, rather than Russians.”
“Vladimir, for Russians, life is already drawing beautiful
and real scenes all on its own. Or, to put it more accurately,
many Russians are working out the Divine eternity And that
is something you could tell about all by yourself.”
“By myself? Well, I guess so. I really do know quite a few
Russian entrepreneurs who have taken not just one but sev-
eral hectares of land and are building their domains on them.
Like the ones you described. Only their stories aren’t as ro-
mantic.”
“Grand chapters need to be written about anyone who has
made conscious contact with the Earth. Such a story will be
inexhaustible. Look, here is just one story — see if you can
recognise some familiar names.”
Chapter Eight
Viktor Chadov, an entrepreneur, awoke at dawn. His girl-
friend lay beside him in the big bed, still asleep. The thin
blanket hugged the contours of her delicate figure.
Every time they attended formal receptions together or
went to some fancy resort hotel, her body attracted men’s en-
vious or lustful glances.
Not only that, but Inga (as this sleeping beauty was called)
possessed a most charming smile and gave the impression
on those around her of being a smart and educated wom-
an. Viktor took such great pleasure in her company that he
bought a second four-bedroom flat, furnished it with ultra-
modern pieces and gave Inga the keys. Occasionally, if his
intensive business schedule allowed, he would spend a night
or two with her. He was grateful to this twenty-five-year-old
woman for these marvellous nights they spent together, and
the opportunity to chat with her, but he had no plans to marry
her. He had no special feelings of love for her. And, besides,
he knew which side his bread was buttered on: after all, he
was 38 and she 25. Naturally it would not be long before this
young woman would start hankering for a younger man. And,
with her body and brains, that would not be too difficult to
find. And she would find a younger and even richer man, all
thanks to him. After all, if he married her, he would be also
introducing her to a circle of influential businessmen.
Inga turned her face toward him, smiling in her sleep. The
blanket had slipped down just enough to expose one of her
alluring, so perfectly shaped feminine breasts. But this time
I am giving birth to you, my angel! 117
Viktor Chadov experienced none of his usual stimulation at
the sight of her half-naked body; He carefully replaced the
blanket on his sleeping partner. Silently, trying not to wake
her, he got up from the bed and headed out to the kitchen.
He made some coffee and poured himself a cup. Lighting a
cigarette, he began pacing the spacious breakfast-room floor,
practically oblivious to his surroundings.
What a dream! His feelings were still aroused by last night’s
extraordinary dream. Yes, his feelings, rather than his mind.
Viktor had dreamt that he was walking along a shady allee,
concentrating on the feasibility of a routine commercial deal.
Behind and in front of him walked his bodyguards. He was
irritated at their presence and had a hard time concentrat-
ing. His attention was also distracted by the constant noise
of traffic along the edge of the park.
Then all of a sudden his bodyguards disappeared and the
traffic noise died down. And he could hear the birds singing,
he could see the marvellous spring foliage on the trees lining
the allee, and the flowers on the bushes. He stopped and de-
lighted in the soft and pleasant feelings welling up inside him.
And he felt better than he ever had before in his life.
And all at once he noticed, far down the allee, a little boy
running toward him. The sunlight was shining from behind,
giving him a kind of halo, and it almost seemed as though here
running toward him was a little angel.
A moment later and it dawned on him that this was none
other than his own little son. The lad’s hands and feet were
in constant energetic motion. With a joyful premonition,
Viktor squatted down and threw open his arms to embrace
him, while his little son, in turn, threw open his arms on the
run. But then all at once the boy stopped in his tracks, about
three metres shy of Viktor. The smile faded from the young-
ster’s face, and the look in his eyes made Viktor’s heart start
to pound.
ii8 Book 8: The New Civilisation
“Come on, come to me! Come and let me hug you, son.”
The boy answered with a wry smile:
“There’s no way you can do that, Papa.”
“Why not?” Viktor asked in surprise.
“Because...” answered the boy with a tone of sadness. “You
can’t hug me, Papa, because you can’t hug a son which hasn’t
been born. After all, you didn’t give birth to me, Papa.”
“Then you come and hug me, son. Come on.”
“I can’t hug a father who didn’t give birth to me.”
The boy tried to smile through his tears. A tear was already
trickling down his red cheek. Then the boy turned, hung his
head, and slowly wandered off down the allee.
But Viktor was still standing there on his knees, rooted to
the spot. The boy kept getting further and further away As
did the soft and pleasant feeling Viktor had had a moment
ago. Once again, from the distance, it seemed, he could hear
the roar of traffic. Unable to move, Viktor summoned up his
remaining strength and called out:
“Don’t leave me! Where are you going, son?”
The youngster turned, and he could see another tear trick-
ling down his face.
“I’m going into the nowhere, Papa. Into the infinite no-
where.” Again the lad hung his head without saying a word.
Then he added: “I’m sad, Papa, I’m sad that I wasn’t born and
so I cannot restore your life with myself.”
With head lowered, the little angel receded into the dis-
tance and presently disappeared, literally dissolving in the
Sun’s rays.
The dream ended, but the impressions of the marvellous
soft and pleasant sensations lingered on. It was as though
they were summoning Viktor to take action.
After finishing his third cigarette, Viktor extinguished it
firmly and decisively. He rushed into the bedroom, calling
out loudly on the way:
I am, giving birth to you, my angel 1 1 19
“Wake up, Inga, wake up!”
“I’m not asleep,” answered the beautiful girl from the bed.
“Just lying here, lolling about. I’ve been wondering where you
disappeared to.”
“Inga, I want you to have a child. Could you have a son
with me?”
She threw off the blanket and leapt out of bed. She ran
over to him, flung her arms around his neck and pressed
against him with every inch of her supple and beautiful body.
And then in a hot whisper she confided:
“The most delightful and beautiful declaration of love is
when a man asks a woman to bear his child. Thank you... that
is, if you’re not just joking.”
“I’m not joking,” he replied firmly
Putting on a bathrobe, Inga responded:
“Well, if you’re not joking — if you’re serious, that is...
This is a decision we need to think through. First, I want my
future child to have a father. But you, my dearly beloved, are
still married.”
“I’ll get a divorce,” Viktor promised. In fact, he had already
divorced his wife three months before, but for a variety of
reasons had not yet told Inga the news.
“Once you get your divorce, then we can start talking about
a child. But I’ll tell you right off, Viktor. Even if you get di-
vorced, it’s still too early to think about children.
“In the first place,” Inga reasoned — half in jest, half seri-
ous, “I still need ayear to finish graduate school. Secondly, I’m
so tired of studying that once I finish, I’d like to take another
year just to fool around, make the rounds of a few resorts and
have a good time. So, if you’re talking about a child... Well,
children could put an end to that little plan once and for all!”
“Okay, I was joking,” Viktor interrupted her rambling train
of thought. “I’ve gotta go. Got an important meeting coming
up. I’ve already called for my car. So long!”
120
Book 8: The New Civilisation
He left, but it was not for any meeting, and he had not
called for any car. Viktor walked slowly down the sidewalk,
giving the once-over to every woman he met. He was viewing
them through new eyes — a view he himself was not accus-
tomed to. He was trying to pick out a woman who might be
worthy of bearing him a son — a woman he felt he could have
a child with.
Immediately all the stylish girls with heavy makeup who had
earlier attracted his attention fell away He had completely
lost interest in all the girls who dressed in tight-fitting clothes
or semi-nude in mini-bikini tops to show off their figure.
It’s clear why they do that — it’s what’s on their minds, he
thought to himself. And then they try putting an intelligent ex-
pression on their face. They use their various body parts to attract
men, and maybe someone will bite. And they do bite, of course, only
not to have kids. It’s a bite for a shag no procreation there. Go on,
dummies, wiggle your behinds! I’m not going to let any wigglers like
that have my child.
Two girls he happened to notice coming toward him were
smoking as they walked, and one of them was holding in her
hand an open bottle of beer.
Now they’re the kind that are absolutely no good for having chil-
dren. Only an idiot would want to have a child with that sort.
Another thing Viktor noticed was that very few of the
women and girls he saw were really healthy-looking. Some
were slouching, others had an expression on their face that
made them look as though they were suffering from stomach
cramps. Still others showed definite signs of either obesity
or anorexia.
No, it wouldn’t do to have children with them, Viktor thought
to himself. Wow! It looks like every one of those women is dreaming
of a prince sidling up to them in a white Mercedes, and yet they them-
selves coiddn’t do the most basic thing of all for that prince. In their
own unhealthy state, they couldn’t possibly give him a healthy child.
I am giving birth to you, my angel!
121
Viktor did not bother to call his driver. Instead, he went on
to his office on the trolleybus, still looking up and down every
woman his eyes fell upon, trying to find among their number
one who was worthy to bear his child, but to no avail.
All day long, including during his lunch break and when he
was alone in his office, he could not stop thinking about the
woman who was to give him a son.
At times he had the impression of looking for a woman he
himself could be born from. At long last he came to a conclu-
sion: if an ideal partner could not be found, she would have
to be created. For this he would need to find a more or less
healthy young woman with an attractive (or, at least, not a re-
pulsive) appearance, one with a good character, and arrange
for her to have all sorts of training and health-improvement
exercises in the best sanatoriums. But the main thing would
be to send her off to be tutored in a top educational institu-
tion, one where she could learn all about preparing for preg-
nancy, carrying the child to term and the birthing process it-
self, as well as basic pre-school education.
At the end of his working day, he called in his firm’s lawyer,
Valentina Petrovna, a woman who had been made wiser by
the school of hard knocks.
He invited her to have a seat and began in a roundabout
way:
“I have a bit of an unusual question for you, Valentina
Petrovna. It’s rather personal, but it’s very important to me. A
cousin of mine asked me to make an enquiry for her. Anyway,
122 Book 8 : The New Civilisation
she’s planning on getting married soon, and she asked me to
find out where she can locate an educational institution in
our country for women to study up on the best way to carry
their pregnancy, as well as what the birth process and subse-
quent child-raising involves. And what the role of the father
should be in this.”
Valentina Petrovna listened intently When he finished,
she thought for a while before saying:
‘As you know, Viktor Nikolaevich , 1 I have two children,
and I’ve always been interested in literature on birthing and
the raising of children, but I’ve never even heard of that kind
of school, either in our country or abroad.”
“Strange! They teach everything nowadays, and yet this
most important issue isn’t touched in either our high schools
or our post-secondary institutions. I wonder why?”
“Yes, it is strange,” Valentina Petrovna agreed. “I’ve never
really thought about it before, but now this state of affairs
does seem strange to me. The State Duma, it looks like,
doesn’t shy away from discussing the topic of sex education in
the schools, but the question of teaching how to give birth to
and bring up children isn’t even raised.”
“That means that every couple is obliged to experiment on
their own child?”
“That’s what it boils down to,” replied Valentina Petrovna.
“An experiment. There are, of course, a wide variety of cours-
es teaching parents what to do at birthing time, how to handle
newborns, but there’s no scientific basis underlying the proc-
ess, and it’s pretty nigh impossible to decide which courses
are really going to help and which are harmful.”
“Did you take any courses yourself, Valentina Petrovna?”
1 Petrovna ; Nikolaevich — These are patronymics. See footnote 9 in Book 1,
Chapter 1: “The ringing cedar”.
I am giving birth to you, my angel!
123
“Well, for our younger daughter I decided on a home birth,
in the bathtub, with the help of a midwife. A lot of women
are doing that today People believe that it’s more comfort-
able for a child to make its appearance in the world in a home
environment, in the presence of family They say newborns
can tell when people treat them with love as opposed to just
simply indifference, which is what you get in many maternity
wards. It’s like a conveyor belt there, after all.”
Viktor did not find his conversation with Valentina
Petrovna all that encouraging. In fact, it depressed him. For
two whole weeks he spent all his free time thinking about the
problem of childbirth. For two whole weeks, as he walked
about the city on foot, visiting high-class restaurants, bars
and theatres, he would give probing looks into women’s faces.
He even went out into the countryside, but could not find
anyone suitable for him there either.
One day he parked his jeep near a teacher’s college and
peered through the jeep’s tinted glass windows at the girls
passing by After three hours he noticed a young woman com-
ing down the steps with her hair tied back in a short, light-
brown braid. She had a stately figure and, as it seemed to
him, an intelligent-looking face. As she walked past his jeep
on the way to the bus stop, Viktor rolled down his window
and hailed her:
“Excuse me, please, miss. You see, I’ve been waiting for my
friend here, and I can’t wait any longer. If you could show me
the best route to the centre of town, I’d be happy to give you
a lift home after that, if you like.”
The girl looked at the jeep, assessing the situation, and
then quietly answered:
“Sure, why not? I’llshowyou.”
After she got into the front seat and they had introduced
themselves, the girl pointed to the pack of cigarettes on the
dashboard and said:
124
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“You got some nice cigarettes there. Mind if I have a
smoke?”
“Help yourself,” replied Viktor. He was just as glad when his
mobile phone rang at that moment. No important message,
but when he hung up, Viktor put on a worried face and told
the girl, who by now was aggressively puffing on a cigarette:
“Something’s come up. I’ve gotta get to an urgent business
meeting. You’ll have to excuse me.”
With that he let the girl out on the sidewalk, cigarette in
hand, after deciding there was no way he was going to let his
son be poisoned by tobacco smoke.
All during these two weeks Viktor did not meet with his girl-
friend at all. He did not even ring her up. He had decided
that if she did not want to have a child with him, if all she
wanted to do was have a good time and hang around fancy
resorts, he had no use for her.
Certainly, it had been fun spending time with this beauti-
ful and intelligent woman, but now his life-plans had taken
a completely different turn. Til leave her the flat, Viktor de-
cided. After all, this woman did spice up my life for a while. He
headed over to the university Inga attended, to give her his
keys to the apartment. On the way there he rang her up on
his mobile:
“Hi, Inga!”
“Hi!” came the familiar voice over the telephone. “Where
are you now?”
“I’m almost at your university. Will you be finished classes
soon?”
“I haven’t gone to the university for ten days now. To tell
you the truth, I can’t see myself going back there any time
soon.”
“Something happened?”
“Yeah.”
I am giving birth to you, my angel!
125
“Where are you now?”
‘At home.”
When Viktor opened the front door and entered the flat, Inga
was lying on the bed in her bathrobe and reading some kind
of book. Glancing at Viktor, she said, without getting up:
“There’s coffee and sandwiches in the kitchen.”
And once more she buried her nose in her book.
Viktor went into the kitchen and took a couple of gulps of
coffee. After lighting a cigarette, he plunked his keys down
on the kitchen table, then went back to the door of the bed-
room, where Inga was still reading, as before.
“I’m leaving,” he told her. “Maybe for quite a while, or
maybe for good. I’m leaving you the flat. Good-bye. Take
care of yourself, hang loose.”
And with that he headed toward the door. Inga caught up
with him right in the doorway
“Hey, wait a minute, there, scamp!” she said with an upbeat
tone, tugging at Viktor’s sleeve. “You’re leaving me, eh? You
turn my whole life upside-down, and nowit’s ‘Good-bye’?”
“Now how have I turned your life upside-down?” Viktor
asked in surprise. “ You gave me a good time, and I bet it wasn’t
too bad for you either. You now have the flat all to yourself,
and a closet full of clothes. Take care of yourself, have fun the
way you wanted to. Or is it more money you want?”
“You know, you really are a scamp! C’mon! First you spit
on my soul, and then you carry on about the flat, clothes, hav-
ing fun?”
“Hey, take it easy. Don’t make a scene. I’ve got important
business to attend to. Good-bye!”
Viktor reached for the door handle. But Inga once again
held him back, grabbing hold of his arm.”
“Not so fast, darling. Hold on a moment. There’s something I
want you to tell me. Did you ask me to bear a child, or didn’t you?”
126
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“I asked, and you said no.”
“Yeah, I said no, at first. Then I thought about it for a cou-
ple of days and changed my mind. I quit graduate school, quit
smoking, I work out eveiy morning, and now I’ve got hold of
these books about life, and children. I can’t put them down.
Here I am reading up on the best way to have a child, and he
says ‘Good-bye’! I can’t imagine anyone but you as the father
of our...”
When Inga’s words finally sunk in, Viktor gave her a bois-
terous hug, whispering her name over and over again. Then
he hoisted her in his arms and carried her into the bedroom.
Tenderly, as though handling a most precious treasure, he laid
her down on the bed and began tearing off his clothes. With
greater passion than ever before he embraced her as she lay
on the bed. He began kissing her shoulders and breast, at the
same time trying to remove her bathrobe. But all at once his
efforts met with a silent protest, and she started to push him
away
“Hey, calm down there... please!” Inga said to him. “That’s
not the way. To put it in a nutshell, I’m not going to have sex
with you today. Or tomorrow, or a month from now.”
“What d’you mean, no sex? Didn’t you just tell me you
agreed to have a child?”
“That’s what I said.”
“But how can you have a child without sex?”
“Sex should be something quite different. Fundamentally
different.”
“How so?”
“Well, it’s like this. Tell me, my dear, future, loving Papa,
why do you want your child to be born?”
“What are you talking about?” Viktor sat down on the bed in
shock. “Everybody knows why There’s no two ways about it.”
“You’re making yourself very clear. But still, let’s be spe-
cific as to what you want and which way you want to go about
I am giving birth to yon, my angel!
127
it. D’you want your child to be born as a consequence — a
side-effect — of your fleshly desires? Or of our joint fleshly
desires, for that matter? Or would you rather see him as the
desired offspring of our mutual love?”
“I don’t think a child would fancy being just a side-effect.”
“So, then, the offspring of love. But, you see, you’re not in
love with me. Sure, you find me attractive, but that’s not the
same as love.”
“You’re right, Inga, I find you very attractive.”
“There, you see? And you’re very attractive to me, but that’s
still a ways from love. We have to earn each other’s love.”
“You must have been hitting some pretty strange reading
material, eh, Inga? Love is a feeling, it comes all by itself from
goodness-knows-where. And it disappears goodness-knows-
where. You can earn somebody’s respect, sure, but love?...”
“But it is precisely each other’s love that we’ve got to earn,
and our son will help us do it.”
“Our son?! You really feel we’re going to have a son?”
“Why ‘going to’? It’s already a fact.”
“Hey what does that mean?” Viktor jumped up. ‘Are you
telling me you’re already pregnant? You’ve been hiding it
from me, eh? Whose child is it? How far along is it?”
“It’s yours. And it hasn’t started yet.”
“So, it’s not there yet at all?”
“It is.”
“Listen here, Inga. I really have no idea what you’re on
about. You’re talking some sort of nonsense. Can’t you put
it, somehow, more clearly?”
“I’ll try You see, Viktor, you got this desire to have a child
and you’ve begun thinking about it. Then I got the same de-
sire, and I too began thinking about it. We know today that
human thought is material. And that means, if we both have
a mental concept of our child, it already exists.”
‘And where is it now?”
128
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“I don’t know. Maybe in some other dimension we don’t
know about. Maybe, out there in some one of the galaxies
of the Universe he’s running barefoot through the stars and
looking down on this blue Earth where he’s going to get a ma-
terial embodiment. Maybe he’s now choosing the place and
conditions he’d like to be born in, and wants to let us know.
Can’t you hear, or feel, what he’s asking us?”
Viktor looked at Inga wide-eyed, as though seeing her for
the very first time. She had never come out with reasoning
like this before. He could not make up his mind whether she
was serious or simply joking. But that phrase maybe he’s now
choosing where he’d like to be born stuck in his mind.
People are born in all sorts of different places — some are
born in an aeroplane, on board ship or in a motor car. Many
are born in hospitals in maternity wards, some at home in the
bathtub. They are born wherever it works out for them to be
born, but where would children like to be born? For exam-
ple, he, Viktor, if he had had the opportunity and the choice,
where would he like to have been born? In Russia, or in one of
the best hospitals in England or America? But none of these
alternatives struck him as being particularly appealing.
Inga interrupted Viktor’s train of thought:
“I’ve already worked out a detailed plan for our joint prepa-
ration for meeting our son.”
“What sort of plan?”
“Listen to me carefully, my dear.” Inga spoke decisively
like never before, either sitting in an easy chair or pacing the
floor. “First, we’ve got to get ourselves in top-notch physical
shape. From now on we shan’t smoke or drink. We have to
do a thorough cleaning out of our insides, starting with the
kidneys and liver, with the help of various teas and fasting.
I’ve already selected a method.
“From now on we shall drink only spring water — that’s
very important. I’m already having five litres of spring water
I am giving birth to you, my angel!
129
delivered every day. Sure, it costs twice as much as in the
stores, but never mind, well get by
“Every day we need to do physical exercises to strengthen
our muscles and intensify our blood circulation. We still need
fresh air and positive emotions, which are not all that easy to
come by”
Viktor liked Inga’s decisiveness, as well as her plan of ac-
tion. Without giving her a chance to finish, he declared:
“We’ll buy the best work-out equipment for our physical
exercises, and hire the best masseurs. I can send one of my
drivers to pick up spring water for us every day The driver
can also go and collect air from the forest — he can use a com-
pressor to store it in cylinders under pressure, and then we
can release the air in our flat a little at a time. Only I have no
idea where we can get or buy positive emotions. Maybe we
could go visit some fine resorts, like on our honeymoon trip?
I mean it — a honeymoon."
Viktor’s mood was getting more and more upbeat by the
minute — thanks both to Inga’s decisive and carefully thought-
through approach to childbirth and to her desire to have a
child by him. And he was glad to know that the son he had
foreseen in his dream would be borne not by just some flighty
female interested mainly in money but by Inga, who was tak-
ing such a serious and responsible approach to the matter.
He really wanted to do something nice for Inga, whom he
already considered to be the mother of his future son! He
got up, quickly put on a suit, walked up to Inga and solemnly
declared:
“Inga, will you marry me?!”
“Of course I will,” Inga replied in accord, as she buttoned
up her bathrobe. “Our son should have official parents. Only
there’s no point in going to some fancy resort for our honey-
moon — that doesn’t fit in with my plan of preparation for
childbirth.”
130
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“What does fit in, then? Where else can we get positive
emotions?”
“We should go around the outlying villages and find a spot
we both really like. It has to appeal to both of us, and that
means it will appeal to our son too, when he sees it. Well buy
a hectare of land there, and you will build a small house where
our child’s conception is to take place. I shall stay there all
nine month s of my pregnancy maybe with an occasional brief
outing. Well plant a new garden right there on our very own
plot of land. I shan’t give birth in a hospital, but in the little
house on our family domain.”
Viktor could not believe his ears. He could not believe that
Inga — a smart, glamorous woman who used to be so keen on
hanging out at fashionable clubs and popular resorts — could
have changed her whole way of life so radically On the one
hand, he was flattered by Inga’s vision — after all, she had his
child in mind. On the other hand, did not this vision harbour
just a hint of abnormality?
He had heard from one of his friends of the existence of a
series of books describing an unusual approach to childbirth.
His friend had mentioned the importance of each family hav-
ing their own hectare of land, and had given him this little
book with a green cover called The Book of Kin. He had not
got round to reading it, but he had heard that these books
had been stirring up quite a controversy among the public.
People who read them were beginning to change their whole
way of life.
All at once, Viktor’s eyes fell on a pile of books with green
covers lying on one of the bedside tables. He walked over and
read the series title: Ringing Cedars of Russia . 1 Among them
was The Book of Kin. Viktor now realised that all these unusual
2 Ringing Cedars of Russia (Russian: Zveniashchie Kedry Rossii) — This was the
original Russian title of the Ringing Cedars (or Anastasia) series.
I am giving birth to you, my angel! 13 1
ideas Inga had about preparation for childbirth she had taken
from these books, and she was getting ready to carry them
out to the letter. He was still not quite sure whether this was
a good or a bad thing.
There was something disturbing about Inga’s unusual
and unquestioning conviction. It was as though an invisible
someone had changed her views and whole outlook on life.
But had these books changed Inga for the better, or had they
made her just a little quirky? Viktor kept rehashing the ques-
tion over and over in his mind, and began to argue with her:
“Inga, I know you got your ideas from these books. I’ve
heard about them. Some people find them exciting, others
say there’s a lot in them that’s simply fairy-tale-ish and can’t
be proved. Maybe you shouldn’t just automatically believe
everything that’s in them? Think about it — what’s the point
in our taking a plot of land and building a little house and
wearing ourselves out planting trees?
“I’ve got enough to buy us a fine mansion with landscaped
grounds, a swimming pool, nice lawns, pathways and a gar-
den, if that’s what you want.”
“There’s a lot of things we could buy, of course,” Inga blurt-
ed out, very emotionally, for some reason, “even a facsimile
of love. But I want us to plant our garden ourselves. All by
ourselves! ’Cause I want to be able to say to my son when he
grows up: Ton see this apple tree, son, and that pear tree and the
cherry tree ? I planted and watered them myself when you were just
a little tyke. I did that for you. 7 ou were oh so little, and these trees
were oh so little. Now you’ve grown, and they’ve grown too, and
they’ve begun to bear fruit for you. And I’ve tried to make the whole
Space around your little Motherland nice and beautiful for you.”
Inga’s outpouring of emotion was convincing, and Viktor
liked what he heard. He even started having regrets that no-
body in his lifetime had been able to take him to a garden like
that and say: “This tree here was planted and grown for you
132
Book 8: The New Civilisation
by your parents,” Yes, of course, Inga’s right, thought Viktor, only
•why is she talking only about herself, as if l don’t exist? Feeling a
bit slighted, he asked:
“Inga, why would you tell our growing son only about your
part in this?”
“’Cause you don’t want to plant a garden,” Inga calmly re-
plied.
“What a’you mean, I don’t want to? You bet I do, if it’s
important for our future.”
“Well, then, if we’re going to do everything together, I’ll
tell our son we planted this garden for him.”
“That’s more like it,” Viktor observed, comforted.
For two months Viktor and Inga spent all their weekends
driving around the outskirts of the city, looking for a place
to build their future kin’s domain. It was a most pleasant
undertaking, and right at that time it seemed to Viktor that
there was no more important task in life than searching for
the one place on the Earth that would satisfy his soul and,
consequently, that of his future son.
And so it happened one day that they came to the edge of a
deserted village about thirty kilometres outside the city.
“There it is,” Inga said quietly, jumping out of the car first.
“I feel something here, too,” responded Viktor.
Later they made a second trip to the place, and spent a
whole day looking over the site and talking with the local resi-
dents. They were told that the soil was not all that fertile, as
there was ground water fairly near the surface. But that did
I am giving birth to you, my angel!
133
not faze Viktor. He became more and more persuaded that
this particular land, along with the little birches growing on
it, as well as the sky and clouds above it — that all of this be-
longed to him. To him and his future son, and to his and Inga’s
grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And if the ground
was not all that fertile, no matter — he would make it fertile.
It did not take long to draw up the documents to purchase
two hectares of land, and after four short months the plot
sported its own pretty, almost fairy-tale cabin, built of kiln-
dried logs.
The cabin featured a sauna and a biotoilet, along with hot
and cold running water straight from a well dug on the spot.
And on the second floor — a cozy bedroom with a window
overlooking a forest and a lake.
Inga designed the layout of the cabin with all its fur-
nishings. She also came up with a plan for the landscaping.
Together they planted cedars, firs and pines around the pe-
rimeter of the lot, as well as little fruit-tree saplings. Every
evening Viktor would hurry home to his little cabin on his fu-
ture domain, where the mother-to-be of his child was taking
care of the home front.
All the women Viktor had known before not only receded
into the background — they simply ceased to exist for him
at all. Inga’s radical approach to childbirth engendered new
feelings in him. They were still not entirely clear to him, and
they were probably quite different from traditional love, but
he was quite convinced that he could never part from her, and
only she could bear...
It was only with her that he could build a future. The two
of them went in to Moscow together to attend courses on
home childbirths. There was one peculiarity of Inga’s that
Viktor found disconcerting — her outright refusal to have in-
timate relations with him. She kept insisting that their child
should not be born as a result of fleshly lusts, but from Man’s
134
Book 8: The New Civilisation
infinitely greater and more meaningful desire, which was
something else again.
Now this time the author of these little green books has gone too
far! thought Viktor. Come on, could it really be possible to do away
with the factor of fleshly desire completely?
But one day, as he lay beside Inga on the bed, not having
any kind of sex in mind but thinking only of his future son,
he touched her breasts. Inga at once pressed against him and
put her arms around him...
In the morning, while Inga was still asleep, Viktor headed
over to the lake. The world around him seemed entirely dif-
ferent — it seemed unusual and joyful.
What had happened the previous night he had never ex-
perienced before, either with Inga or with any of the other
women he had known. This was no ordinary sex. It was an
inspired impulse of creativity Of course people are born and
people die. But if they never experience anything like this
over their whole lifetime, they are missing something — - may-
be the most important thing. But thanks to Inga, it did not
escape Viktor. And he began to experience new warm — yea,
fervent — feelings toward the one woman in his life: Inga.
©0
All nine months of her pregnancy Inga spent on the domain,
going into town only occasionally She had it all worked out
where the baby pram would be kept and where the crib would
stand. She even had Viktor plant a modest-sized lawn where
she could walk with their little son.
I am giving birth to you, my angel!
i35
Her contractions began a week ahead of the expected time.
Their future son was apparently anxious to make his appear-
ance in his marvellous Space on the Earth.
From the information they had received during their
childbirth courses, Viktor knew what a father should do
to assist during the labour, but the only rational thing he
turned out to be capable of accomplishing was to ring up
the midwife they knew and call for an ambulance to stand
by in case of emergency Inga had to draw the water in the
bathtub herself, prepare the towel and measure the water
temperature, while he paced the room trying to think what
he should be doing, but could not for the life of him recall
what it was.
With no husbandly help to count on, Inga climbed into the
bathtub on her own. The contractions continued, but each
time one occurred, she simply drew upon her beautiful voice
to sound forth on notes of joy and triumph.
Finally, out of all he had learnt during the courses, Viktor
managed to remember one thing : positive emotions. He glanced
over at the windowsill and saw the flower Inga had planted in
a pot there — now in full bloom. He grabbed the flower-pot
and ran with it into the bathroom, exclaiming excitedly over
and over again :
“Look, Inga, your flower’s blooming! Your flower’s bloom-
ing! It’s come out, just look!”
He was standing there holding the flower-pot when his
son’s little body appeared in the bathtub.
The midwife arrived only after Inga had already placed the
tiny body on her tummy. Seeing Viktor standing there hold-
ing the flower-pot, she snapped:
‘And just what are you doing?”
“I’m giving birth to a son,” replied Viktor.
‘Ah,” the midwife nodded in agreement. “Then put your
pot back on the windowsill and bring me...”
136
Book 8: The New Civilisation
I need to tell all men. . . thought Viktor, as he ran about the house
for the umpteenth time, true and lasting love comes only when
together with your beloved you give birth to a long-desired child.
Chapter Nine
A fine state of affairs! We live out our lives, and we don’t even
try to figure out what our society’s all about! And yet it is one
of the most important questions in life. It’s one that’s trou-
bled me for a long time now. I really wanted Anastasia to have
a look at the documents on the building of the domains which
I had brought with me, along with my appeal to the President
of Russia and the draft legislation drawn up by my readers.
After thinking it over, however, I decided not to show
these documents to Anastasia. I didn’t want to risk upsetting
her. Especially now, if it turns out she’s pregnant, she needs
positive, and not negative, emotions.
I finally decided to give the whole packet of documents to
Anastasia’s grandfather and asked him for his opinion.
“Oho!” exclaimed Grandfather, as he took the voluminous
packet from my outstretched hands and remarked: “What
d’you want me to do, Vladimir — read all this?”
“Yeah, I want to hear your opinion about them — about
how things have turned out.”
“And what good would that do you?”
“It would help me decide what course of action to follow.”
“You ought to be deciding your own course of action, with-
out any kind of advice.”
“Does that mean you’re not willing to read these?”
‘All right, I’ll read them, just so you won’t take offence.”
“I shan’t take offence. What sense is there in reading if
you’re obviously reluctant to do so?”
“Sense? The sense is in not wasting time on useless stuff.”
i 3 8
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Grandfather sat down on the ground beneath the cedar,
opened the folder and began leafing through the pages, tak-
ing his time. Occasionally his gaze would pause and focus on
a particular page. Sometimes he just kept turning the pages
with a passing glance. After a while he said:
“Vladimir, I need to look at everything carefully Why
don’t you go take a walk in the meantime?”
I walked about twenty metres off and began pacing back and
forth, waiting for him to finish reading the documents I had
brought with me (including the articles prepared for the alma-
nac ). 1 I would like to share these with you too, dear readers.
Talking with presidents
Please tell me, esteemed sirs — all you presidents, prime min-
isters and chancellors — who in fact is in control of nation-
states?
The question may seem strange at first glance. Any school-
child will offer the reply:
“Countries are under the control of the president, the gov-
ernment, the Duma .” 2
But an answer like that simply points to the extent of the
mass illusion at work here, and not just in our country All
l the almanac — see footnote i in Book 7, Chapter 28: “To the readers of the
Ringing Cedars Series”.
" Duma — the lower house of the Russian parliament (see next chapter).
A fine state of affairs!
i39
sorts of ordinary people are under the spell of this illusion,
just like the rulers themselves. It can and must be dispelled
with the aid of logical thinking. Those who are unable to dis-
cern the illusoriness engendered upon the Earth will die with-
out having really lived, because the whole of their so-called
life is but an illusion.
And so — how to dispel this illusion?! First of all we should
define what it means to ‘control a nation’. In the main, and
perhaps exclusively this refers to the control of social proc-
esses and phenomena. The chief person in this control sys-
tem is called a president.
So, let’s ask him:
“Tell us, please, Mr President, are you in charge of drug ad-
diction in our country?”
“No,” the president will reply. “I’m not in charge of that.”
“What about the rapid development of prostitution?”
“No, I’m not in charge of that either.”
“And what about widespread corruption and bribery?”
“No.”
“And the extinction of our population?”
“What are you talking about? I’m not in charge of any-
body’s extinction.”
There are a whole lot of questions which he would have to
answer with the phrase “No, I’m not in charge of it.” Fie has,
in fact, no alternative, since giving any other answer would
brand the ruler a criminal.
So it turns out that there are unmistakable large-scale
processes taking place in society, influencing the lives of every
single individual, but the supreme ruler and the whole host of
officials under his command have nothing to do with these
processes. What, then , are they, in fact, in charge of?
Upon closer inspection, all they do, it turns out, is involun-
tarily and unwittingly supervise the concealment of the true
rulers, who, you see, really do have a reason to hide.
140
Book 8: The New Civilisation
In any case, no president, chancellor or prime minister can
possibly be the real ruler of a nation, either in theory or in
practice. Their only task is to carry out someone else’s will
under the guise of their own, and this can be attested by
scholars — psychologists, for example.
You and I can come to a similar conclusion if we make a
careful analysis of our own lives.
Haven’t our own lives been influenced by ‘someone’ — say,
in kindergarten, school or college? If they want to, they can
bring us up to be communists, or fascists, or democrats, as in
our present situation.
And through this process of upbringing and indoctrina-
tion, they engender the corresponding social processes.
“Reality should be determined only through one’s own self,”
Anastasia has said. Her words are good, and true. But to un-
derstand reality, we need to reflect, contemplate. However,
our prevalent way of life leaves precious little time for reflec-
tion, and so by default we use someone else’s definition of re-
ality that has been imposed on us.
In the case of a head of state, he has even less time for
reflection than ordinary people. His daily schedule is cal-
culated down to the hour and minute, and often not by
himself.
History also teaches us the impossibility of a universally
visible ruler actually controlling a nation-state.
It is known, for example, that in Ancient Egypt the phar-
aoh was raised by priests. Naturally, they knew in advance
what many of the pharaoh’s future decisions would be. But
even during the tenure of his reign they would still keep giv-
ing him advice. So in actual fact, the pharaoh was merely car-
rying out somebody else’s will.
Rulers in the Orient also had wise-men at their courts and
consulted with them. But neither the Egyptian priests nor
the Oriental court wise-men, nor the sages of our Vedruss
A fine state of affairs!
141
period, ever burdened themselves with affairs of state. Their
principal task was that of analysis and reflection.
Not affording such an opportunity to our present rulers
and parliamentarians renders them incapable of exerting an
effective influence on the processes taking place in society. It
deprives them of power.
This was confirmed to me by a well-known three-term dep-
uty of the legislative assembly, who is also a professor with a
Ph.D. in economics. But he confirmed this only after serving
his parliamentary terms, when he finally had the opportunity
to engage in reflection and analysis.
It was confirmed in the scandalous incident reported in
the press when a deputy of the present Duma complained to
the Constitutional Court that the President’s Deputy Chief
of Staff advised a group of State Duma representatives in no
uncertain terms not to reason things through but simply to
vote as they were told.
Incredible as it may seem, the Deputy Chief of Staff, per-
haps intuitively, turned out to be the closest of all to the
truth. It was far quicker and more efficient for him to make
decisions on his own than to have a crowd of people beat-
ing their brains out over these decisions — a cro wd of people
who didn’t have the opportunity to think. This conclusion
is confirmed by the fact that none of the parties in the State
Duma have put forward even a slightly articulate platform
that the public can understand.
The situation with the ideas and programme already put
forward by Anastasia offer the clearest evidence of the inabil-
ity of the existing system to engage in independent decision-
making.
Anastasia’s programme has been supported by a great
many people, and, as studies have shown, the overwhelming
majority of these people lead a sober lifestyle and are inclined
to reflection. Vast numbers of people in different parts of the
142
Book 8: The New Civilisation
country have overcome great challenges in their efforts to im-
plement this programme. On the government level, however,
there are people who seem incapable of even seeing what is
going on in the public arena.
Not only that, but counteraction has begun which has
served to highlight precisely the influence foreign powers
have been exerting on Russia, and the fact that the country is
far from being under the control of its own government.
This counteraction, of course, does not come from the
ranks of the priests, who plan out programmes for centuries
and millennia to come. It is simpler and more specific, and
arises from the current system of world order, in which Russia
has been assigned to the role of a supplier of raw materials for
the West and a market for its substandard merchandise.
By ‘the West’ I do not mean the ordinary people of Europe
or America. I’m talking about a group of transnational com-
panies and financiers who are interested in their own profits.
As we can all attest for ourselves, over the past decades
their plans have been implemented at an alarming rate, while
our rulers, to say the least, have done nothing to prevent this
implementation. This is another fact clearly testifying to
their lack of any kind of true power or authority.
The only counteraction to the destruction of the state and
the annihilation of a significant part of its population is the
programme put forward by Anastasia.
“But,” the majority of my readers might reasonably argue,
“why do you continue to appeal to those who have no power
and are incapable of changing anything?” I shall respond.
1. I am appealing, after all, not only to the authorities,
but in the first instance to you, dear readers, in the hope that
our combined efforts will enable us to understand the situ-
ation we find ourselves in — in the hope that this situation
will come out in your interpretation in family chronicles.
This is an absolutely vital step. Otherwise not only we, but
A fine state of affairs! 143
our children, too, will have an unenviable future to look for-
ward to.
2. I remember Anastasia’s question: “But who is to blame for
the lack of acceptance of truth — the one who does not accept
the truth or the one from whom he receives it?” 3 I think that I
am partly to blame for the lack of sufficient governmental sup-
port offered to those who have begun to set up their domains.
I was not able to express the idea in a language government
officials could understand. Sure, we all speak the same Russian
language, but different segments of the population use it dif-
ferently, and attach different interpretations to words.
In short, I am unable to express myself in a language gov-
ernment officials understand.
The President’s administration, the Government and the
Duma are all comprised of people, just like you and me. They
too have children, wives and grandchildren, for whom, as
would any other parent, they wish a bright future. And if they
should prove capable of understanding the situation, they will
gain true power and will be in a position to significantly influ-
ence the positive processes taking place in our society. But
where and how can we find the words capable of putting an
end to this “vanity of vanities”? 4 We must look! Otherwise
new politicians will appear and will come up against the same
system blocking their thought. Hence I am appealing to you,
my readers, with a request to find together the words which
will be understood by the various segments of our society
And so for the umpteenth time, I stand my ground and ap-
peal to our President and Government.
©0
■’Quoted from Book 2, Chapter 7: “Who’s to blame?”.
4 Vanity of vanities — a quote from Ecclesiastes 1: 2.
144
Book 8: The New Civilisation
TO THE PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT OF
THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
As supreme ruler of the Russian State, you are undoubtedly
more interested than anyone else in the prosperity of our
country. Like any head of state, you would like to be recog-
nised by the public for having left the brightest of all possible
legacies during your tenure in office — namely, laying a foun-
dation for the prosperity of our nation and its people.
Similarly, every Russian family desires to shape its life and
daily routine in a manner worthy of human existence. And
every mother who bears a child dreams about a happy future
for her offspring, realising that such a future is possible only
when the nation as a whole is heading in a clear and predict-
ably good direction.
It is on this premise that you are endeavouring to build our
national institutions — our government, our ministries and
our regional authorities. Nevertheless, no matter how sin-
cere your desires and the endeavours of our state apparatus
may be, our country continues to be plagued by corruption,
drug addiction, prostitution, juvenile crime and many other
social ills.
Our environmental and demographic situation is becom-
ing hopelessly entangled. Families are falling apart. The
country’s overall population is in daily decline. We as a peo-
ple are simply dying out.
Everything you are doing is extremely important: the con-
solidation of the vertical power structure, the reorganisation
of the state apparatus, the reform of the military, the dou-
bling of the GDP in the economic sector. All our national in-
dicators are on the plus side, the dynamics are positive, but...
the public doesn’t feel it. The people of our country — our
neighbours, colleagues and co-workers, relatives, parents and
A fine state of affairs!
145
children — are all finding it more and more difficult to under-
stand each other, to find kind and sympathetic words to say
to each other, to build their mutual relationships on the basis
of honesty, decency and trust. Fear for tomorrow, for the fu-
ture of their children, shows no signs of letting up. Are not
these the most important indicators to consider?
We see signs of an increasingly active struggle against so-
cial ills, but these ills are not abating. Why not? Why do the
people’s desires and the President’s endeavours not corre-
spond with what is happening on the ground?
Isn’t it time we all faced the truth squarely in the eye and
came to the conclusion that we are struggling merely with
effects, and not with their underlying causes? Isn’t it time
for you to openly admit that our country is playing host to
an ideology foreign to our society, and realise that there are
certain definite forces underlying many of our ongoing social
ills? As a professional KGB man, you couldn’t help but be
aware of this.
These forces have made such fools of our peoples that we
are beginning to suffer from tunnel vision. Take a simple ex-
ample: advertising. Both learned psychoanalysts and ordinary
people will tell you that mass advertising is nothing but a de-
vice which exerts a powerful influence on the human psyche.
With the aid of this device people in many countries can be
persuaded to consume food products which are harmful to
their health, or wear uncomfortable clothing, or vote for cer-
tain politicians. And this device, which can exert a colossal
influence on masses of people, seems to be in your hands, in
the hands of our national government. Isn’t that so?
Most definitely not\ It is actually subject to other masters.
Attempts to bring resolution to this question immediately
give rise to accusations of violating freedom of speech. These
accusations come from those who actually have no interest
whatsoever in promoting people’s freedom of speech. The
146 Book 8: The New Civilisation
mass media are, in fact, in the hands of the world’s financial
magnates.
And they keep spreading this monstrous lie among whole
populations, hiding behind the cynical excuse that it is adver-
tisers who support all TV and all the interesting programmes
we “so love to watch”. But, in fact, TV is not paid for by any
advertisers. All they do is pass on a portion of the money they
collect from the public, which they build into the cost of their
products in order to pay for their advertising on TV, radio,
public transport and the street. Thus it turns out that the
public collectively are the real supporters of TV operations —
every time they purchase substandard consumer goods and
food products containing chemical additives. They support
mediocre and downright shoddy TV programmes and soap
operas, which keep promoting the image of Man as a mania-
cally preoccupied Neanderthal.
The science of imagery, and
who governs the country’s ideology
Throughout history national ideologies have been created
through devices which exert an influence on human society
through images, through the clandestine ancient knowledge
of the science of imagery. 5 Some of our learned chaps might
object that there is no such science. But there is. And its
’For further references to the science of imagery, see Books 4, 6 and 7, espe-
cially Book 6, Chapter 6: “Imagery and trial”.
A fine state of affairs!
HI
existence is determined not by the will of academics, but by
the very nature of Man. Man is created to think, and thoughts
in turn form images.
In recent times we are wont to associate the science of im-
agery with Ancient Egypt. We learn from history how priests
created images to liberate nation-states or seize power over
whole peoples.
It was the same kind of knowledge that the SS troops
attempted to master in Hitler’s Germany, or the KGB’s
Division 13 in Soviet times. 6
Certain elements of this science are intuitively employed
by modern political technologists in the West, and more re-
cently in our own country Hence the terminology image-mak-
ing, way of life, way of thinking 1 a candidate’s image.
To the political technologists it is quite unimportant what
a candidate’s inner aspirations are, what kind of Man he is,
whether or not he is good at his job. Money and the mass me-
dia help them create an image which will appeal to the public.
And what people end up voting for in elections is not so much
the Man himself as the image created for him by the political
technologists. It won’t be long before we’ll all be voting for
cardboard cut-out politicians and a papier-mache president!
As for the shaping of images of whole nation-states and
their peoples, these are the masterpieces of an incomparably
higher-rank species of political technologists.
Centuries of human history have borne witness to a host
of examples of controlling a nation-state through images.
The most salient and obvious example for people today of
the work of these top-ranked political technologists — or
11 Division 13 — designating the unit of the KGB responsible for covert op-
erations, including sabotage, assassination and even terrorism.
'way of life, way of thinking — both these terms in Russian contain the word
for ‘image’ ( obraz ).
148
Book 8: The New Civilisation
‘modern priests’ — may be the history of our country and its
peoples over the past century
We all know about the downfall of the Soviet Union, one
of the mightiest empires in the world. But what preceded the
formation of the USSR and what gave rise to its subsequent
collapse?
Precedent to the formation of the USSR was the creation
of an attractive image of a socialist future and then of a com-
munist state. Landowners and manufacturers were cast in
the image of bloodsuckers of the proletariat. The tsar still
reigned in Russia, and the monarchy seemed unshakeable.
Yet at the same time an image was at work which was busy
attracting followers, and these in turn found all sorts of ways
to bring down the monarchy and create a new state — in the
new image.
The fall of the USSR was also preceded by the creation of
an image — an image of the country as a totalitarian state,
along with a discussion on the need to replace it with a new
one — a happy, free democratic state along Western lines.
The government and leaders of the communist state were
cast in the role of bloodthirsty thugs trampling on freedoms
and on the people themselves. The socialist order was paint-
ed as intolerable and leading nowhere. The image of com-
munists created by theatre and cinema directors, actors and
artists, on which whole generations of the populace had been
raised, was now summarily shunted aside. But what was there
to take its place?
The resulting vacuum began to be filled with images
of flourishing businessmen, gangsters, prostitutes and
Hollywood starlets. Our young people strove to imitate their
habits and morals. There is no disputing the fact that mate-
rial wealth is fast becoming the criterion by which prosperity
is measured. Who attains it and how — that doesn’t enter
into the picture. The need to build a developed democratic
A fine state of affairs!
149
state has been proclaimed to all, but not a word has been (or
is being) said about the insurmountable problems in other
‘democratic’ countries — drug addiction, colossal corrup-
tion, environmental degradation, mental depression, decline
in birth-rate and a whole lot else besides.
Women naturally refuse to have children when they see no
future for their offspring.
Never mind that people in democratic countries have no
clear picture of their own future — our modern ‘priests’ find
it necessary to present democracy in its present form as the
only acceptable order for the structuring of human society.
Why? Because the conditions of democracy as we know it
make it the easiest system to control. It is all too easy to hide
behind freedom of speech, freedom of business, freedom of
choice and meanwhile throw the public a black lie. And this
is done not by happenstance, but deliberately and with con-
siderable forethought. Whatever image you latch on to, you
yourself will become.
These political technologists know what will happen next
with the whole population. It’s not a difficult task to deter-
mine who’s behind the disasters happening in Russia. All one
has to do is track where the country’s precious human and
financial resources are being siphoned off to each time.
The huge flood of emigration which fled Russia following
the 1917 revolution took with it not only a significant amount
of capital along with historical treasures and traditions, but,
most importantly, human resources.
After the collapse of the Soviet empire, a combination of
reforms and a tempting image of prosperous, civilised coun-
tries siphoned off (and continues to siphon off) our financial
and intellectual resources.
The saddest part is that the latest image of our state is being
summoned in the interests of annihilating the whole country
and the peoples living therein. No military intervention is
150 Book 8: The New Civilisation
required at all. A more significant force than military weap-
onry is at work here. An image is at work. A combination
of factors already perceptible to analysts has been put into
operation. Quite a simple combination at that. Let’s try to
reason it through.
What are we building today? Where are we heading to?
The political technologists tell us they are building a demo-
cratic state on the Western model. And so, once it is built, we
shall all be rich and happy.
“But,” millions of our fellow-citizens quite reasonably argue,
“if there already exist on the Earth developed states that are
both democratic and happy, then wouldn’t it be easier simply
to go and live there now?” And millions have left — and contin-
ue to leave — for Germany, Israel and America, putting their
intellectual and financial capital at the disposal of these coun-
tries. And they become slaves there. The image is working!
But what about those left behind in Russia? What are they
to do?
“Build a developed democratic state and become rich,”
says the image. But what can a traffic cop, say, do to build
such a state? Or a sales clerk in a store? Or a civil servant
in an administrative office? That’s not clear to many people.
Neither is it clear how one is supposed to become rich on a
salary of three to five thousand roubles a month. s But quite a
number, after all, have somehow managed to wangle their way
through. They drive around in expensive cars, build them-
selves luxury mansions and holiday at fancy resorts. Somehow
they’ve wangled their way through...
And now the whole country is beginning to follow their
example. Sales clerks and customers, traffic cops and office
g
In 200J (when this book was written) this represented approximately
USSioo-i75, respectively, at the then current exchange rate — or US$200-
350 in buying power.
A fine state of affairs!
151
administrators, army officers and private soldiers, teachers
and students. But those who know the science of imagery
merely scoff at such efforts.
“Come on,” they say, “catch a few scapegoats among the
officers’ ranks. Then you can create a security service within
the security service.”
Here we are fighting not against causes, but against effects.
The image has already done its work. It is capable of entering
unhindered into the minds of politicians and generals, high-
ranking government officials and ordinary people. Because
it is image, it knows neither border guards nor closed office
doors. It lures young girls from isolated Russian villages to far-
away lands with its promises of a happy life, and then forces
them to work as prostitutes in Cyprus, Israel or New York.
For the sake of this promise of a happy life, officials are
ready to take bribes and policemen to go into cahoots with
criminals. This image has tremendous energy In the mean-
time, all our politicians can do is keep mouthing over and
over hackneyed phrases like developed democratic countries, the
civilised West, thereby serving to reinforce the image that is so
destructive to our country.
People are aware there’s something wrong with the country,
and so they understand when you, Vladimir Vladimirovich , 9
attempt to impose order, but how to accomplish this? Just
consolidating your hold on power is not enough. In doing
this you are strengthening not just your own power, but the
power of the images too.
Thousands of government officials now have more power,
but being under the influence of the image, they will unwit-
tingly act in the interests of the image, i.e., in the interests
of the image’s creators. But the creators have already de-
cided that Russia’s fate is sealed. Their actions have become
^Vladimir Vladimirovich — President Putin’s first name and patronymic.
152
Book 8: The New Civilisation
unbridled and brazenly bold. Specially trained personnel
have been sent to Russia for the purpose of strengthening
the creators’ power by supporting an image which can only
destroy the country I can officially state that right at this
moment specially trained people are operating on Russian
territory — people whose job it is to keep track of, and cor-
rect where necessary, the ideological component of the state.
I have a feeling you, Mr President, are aware of this, too.
Let us give some thought as to why there have been so few
positive images over the past few years in our nation’s litera-
ture, film and TV programmes — images capable of inspiring
people, setting a pattern to follow and helping build a marvel-
lous future for their children. We still remember and live by
those images, but our children?
We are assured that this is the demand of the majority, that
everybody wants to watch only Hollywood starlets, gangster
showdowns and sensational reports on bloody happenings.
Nonsense! That’s not what people want! We are told: if you
don’t want it, then don’t watch — if you don’t like it, don’t
listen. That is called freedom of choice. But that’s not quite
the way it is. Or, rather, that’s not the way it is at all. There is
no choice here! Not for children, not for adults and certainly
not for senior citizens. And unless you happen to be cold-
hearted, cynical and soulless, you’ll discover the road to the
promised prosperity is blocked. And there is no other road.
Isn’t that the case all around you? Or all around us?
All this depravity is being deliberately foisted upon us.
Special covert selection mechanisms were put in place long
ago. Any poets, innovative educators, writers and directors
who have dared create positive images for Russia are cruelly
persecuted. Everything is simply closed to them.
This is partly the work, too, of Western spy agencies
that claim to be fighting sectarianism. You can hear such
declarations coming from the mouths not just of Russian
A fine state of affairs!
153
special-service agents, but from social and political activists as
well, including the highest officials of the Russian President’s
administration your administration. For example, Mr
Surkov , 10 your Deputy Chief of Staff, said during a newspaper
interview:
A secret war is being waged against Russia by circles in
America, Europe and the Orient, who still regard our
country as a potential enemy They consider themselves to
have rendered a service in fostering the virtually bloodless
collapse of the Soviet Union, and now they are attempting
to capitalise on their success. Their goal is none other than
the destruction of Russia and the filling of its vast spaces
with a multitude of petty quasi-states.
Such a statement is entirely plausible, even if just because
the forces that overthrew the USSR still exist and, quite natu-
rally, not satisfied with having achieved victory at one stage,
they will definitely continue with a stepped-up offensive.
And it is especially important here not just to state facts
but to understand the mechanism by which the destructive
influence operates.
We already know that the collapse of the USSR was brought
about not through armed invasion but as the result of an ideo-
logical manipulation of our people. Ideology — that is the
principal means of either annihilating or reinforcing any na-
tion-state. But any ideology can be used to influence masses
of people if it has a well-built and efficient operating struc-
ture. It exists and it is not ours. It is not our images that are
10 Vladislav Turevich Surkov (1964-) — the Russian President’s Deputy
Chief of Staff since 1999. During the previous decade and a half Surkov
held executive positions with various Russian financial institutions and me-
dia organisations.
i 5 4
Book 8: The New Civilisation
acting through it. But where has our own structure disap-
peared to? We destroyed it!
In the USSR, apart from its ideological institutions
and broadcast centres, the ideological departments of the
Communist Party’s Central Committee, the Ministry of
Culture and the press, there was a huge network including
so-called ‘Palaces of Culture’ and ‘Houses of Culture ’, 11 along
with urban and rural district activity clubs.
Such institutions afforded the opportunity for millions of
young Soviet citizens to engage in amateur artistic and per-
formance circles, including the holding of lectures and meet-
ings, as well as the opportunity for the accepted state ideol-
ogy to get through and be explained to the masses.
At the beginning of perestroika, when the ideology changed, this
network of institutions was liquidated — their financing was cut off
It is difficult to imagine that a driver motoring along the
highway who suddenly realises he is heading in the wrong di-
rection, instead of turning around and heading the right way,
begins to dismantle his car on the spot. But something like
that is what has happened in our country. When the decision
was taken in society (not without the aid of certain forces, of
course) that we were heading in the wrong direction, instead
of turning around and using existing institutions, they were
simply dismantled. And what was there to take their place?
It was proposed to hand over the basic task of spiritually
educating the population, especially the youth, to Russia’s
Orthodox Church. However, more and more testimonies are
indicating that, first and foremost, it is necessary to educate
the majority of the clergy itself.
" Palaces of Culture, Houses of Culture (Russian: Dvortsy kul’tury, Domd
kul’tury) — These functioned along the lines of community centres, includ-
ing concert halls and recreation centres, to provide ideologically approved
entertainment and recreational facilities for the public in Soviet times.
A fine state of affairs!
1 55
As an institution of spirituality, Russia’s Orthodox Church
was catastrophic in its failure to justify the hopes placed in it.
Why? Simply because, through the help of the State, it only
took a few years to open twenty thousand churches, while it
requires centuries and a host of strict conditions to educate
twenty thousand highly spiritual clerics who are truly capable
of comforting and educating other people.
And not the kind of conditions as when the state pours
forth grants and favours, which only corrupt and attract op-
portunists and vagabonds. In that scenario the winners are
not those pastors who are rich in spirit but those who are
more devious and position themselves closer to the trough.
It is not the congregation led by a spiritually minded prior
that comes out on top, but the one that manages to obtain
financing.
After all, the process of attracting parishioners and raising
their level of spirituality is a lengthy one — it can drag on for
years. So the village priest is obliged to mend his own frock,
unable to afford a new one, while his urban counterpart drives
around in an expensive foreign car.
This acquisitiveness and covetousness already plaguing the
clerics of Russia’s Orthodox Church was brought up during a
speech at the annual meeting of the Moscow Diocese in the
Cathedral Church of Christ the Saviour 1 " on 15 December
2004 by Alexei II, 13 the Holy Patriarch of Moscow and all the
Russias, when he said:
Cathedral Church of Christ the Saviour (Russian: Kafedral’ttg] sobornyj khram
Khrista Spasitelia ) — the seat of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian
Orthodox Church. The original church, built in the early part of the nine-
teenth century to commemorate deliverance from Napoleon’s armies dur-
ing the War of 1812, was blown up on Stalin’s orders in 1931. After World
War II the site was used to construct the world’s largest swimming pool.
The cathedral was reconstructed on the site in the mid-1990s, following
the collapse of the communist regime.
156
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Today we are obliged to confront a series of negative phe-
nomena — including the general static state of the church’s
activity, the absence of dynamics in congregational life, the
low attendance by worshippers at temple services and the
lack oi interest in religion on the part of the rising genera-
tion.
The growing commercialisation of many aspects of con-
gregational life is an alarming indicator of the dying out of
the Orthodox consciousness, spiritual blindness and the dis-
paragement of ecclesiasticism. Material self-interest all too
often comes to the fore, overshadowing and stamping out
everything living and spiritual. All too often temples deal in
‘church sendees’ as though they were commercial firms.
Nothing pushes people away from the faith as much as
the selfishness of priests and others who serve in the tem-
ples. It is with good reason that covetousness is termed a
hateful, murderous passion and the only treason in respect
to God — in other words, a hellish sin.
The Patriarch outlawed taking payment for performing
church sacraments — the rituals of communion, marriage,
last rites and burial services — as well as commercialising the
‘services’ of the Church. But will clerics heed the ban imposed
by the supreme church hierarchy, if they already transgress a
higher law — the commandments of God?
60
13 Alexei II (also spelt in English: Alexius II) — the spiritual head of the
Russian Orthodox Church. Born Alexei Mikhailovich Ridiger in 1929 in
Estonia, in 1990 Alexei II was chosen Patriarch of Moscow and of All the
Russias ( Patriarkh Moskovsky t vseya Rust).
A fine state of affairs!
*57
Russia’s Orthodox Church — but is it Russia’s?
Apart from everything else, Western spy agencies have exert-
ed what may be the strongest and most destructive influence
on Russia’s Orthodox Church (ROC). I+ And this could have
been foreseen, of course, if someone had only been assigned to
foresee it. We know that major shifts in our country are always
preceded by an ideological makeover. Could the departments
of Western spy agencies responsible for the transformations
in Russia required by their masters leave untouched such an
important institution as ROC? Of course not! Otherwise
their work would not be professional. Besides, the conditions
in Russia at the time offered more than fertile ground for ide-
ological diversion. Occupied with their own reorganisation,
our spy agencies, to put it mildly, were busy with their internal
‘settling of accounts’, which I believe is still going on.
It is impossible to know about every single operation per-
petrated by a Western spy agency through ROC structures.
But one in particular has struck a chord in society as a whole.
Millions of Russia’s citizens, including the Church’s own
clerics, have felt and continue to feel its destructive conse-
quences. I’m talking here about the agency formed under the
aegis of ROC which labels as ‘sects’ a wide range of secular and
religious organisations, thus provoking negative reactions to
ROC on their part.
'^Russia’s Orthodox Church (Russian: Ross/iskaya Pravoslavnaya Tserkov ) —
traditionally known as the Russian ( Rtisskaya ) Orthodox Church. Note that
the author deliberately uses the word Ross/iskaya in this phrase, emphasising
its association with Russia ( Rossiya ) or the Russian Federation ( Ross/iskaya
Federatsiya) as a political entity, rather than Russkaya, which is used more
in reference to the Russian people, language and culture. See also Book 7,
especially footnote n in Chapter 17: “Opposition”, as well as footnote 3 in
Chapter 20: “Pagans”.
i 5 8
Book 8: The New Civilisation
These ‘anti-sectarians’ have been acting in the name of the
Church and even, as they claim, with the blessing of Patriarch
Alexei II. In response to their actions people who formerly
maintained a tolerant attitude toward the Church or even at-
tended services as baptised members, have now simply torn
off the crosses they used to wear around their necks.
One more ploy of the ‘anti-sectarians’: in working to expose
their straw-man ‘sects’, they virtually criticised and brought
shame upon Russia’s Orthodox Church itself, dealing it a se-
rious blow. After that, they decided to take control of the
higher organs of state power in the Russian Federation.
Having accepted the idea of a marvellous future for Russia
(as shown in these books) with their heart and soul, people
in various parts of Russia have turned (and continue to turn)
to local administrations, asking them to grant them plots of
land for the setting up of family domains. And, what is truly
amazing, people for the first time are not asking for favours,
or salary or pension supplements, but simply a small piece of
their country’s natural landscape where they can create their
own living (and not just survival) conditions.
It would seem that this impulse which has arisen among
the public is something that ought to be welcomed with open
arms. And this impulse is no fly-by-night whim, but a last-
ing, well-thought-through desire, as the past four years will
attest. This idea has encompassed various segments of the
population: school pupils, scholars and entrepreneurs, teach-
ers, doctors and pensioners, soldiers and politicians, artists,
poets and writers — including academicians , 15 governors and
the wives of presidents of former Soviet republics.
These people can help not only in solving many of the
socio-economic problems our country is facing, but also in
15 academicians — members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (a very high
rank indeed).
A fine state of affairs!
159
making drastic improvements in our country’s demographic
situation, unemployment rate and national health, as well as
in securing safe food supplies. But the main thing is to har-
ness the mighty force of the people themselves, who, in cre-
ating their own Space, will strengthen their beloved country
and nation-state which has afforded them the opportunity to
do so.
Evidently, however, there is someone who is greatly dis-
pleased by these positive aspirations which have emerged in
the Russian people.
e©
Occupiers in action
Certain government agencies at the regional (and sometimes
even local) level have been advised to treat the readers of my
books as sectarians and terrorists, and, consequently, to coun-
teract any initiative they may undertake, especially those
wishing to set up their own family domains in rural areas. The
mass media were ordered, under threat of sacking journalists,
not to report on these initiatives. Or if there were any ref-
erence, it had to describe them as part of the ‘loony fringe’,
calling everybody to go to the forest, back into the past etc.
People working in the cultural sector were called upon to take
countermeasures against anything connected with the books
or the ideas set forth therein.
Communications from readers clearly point to the activi-
ties of some sort of organisation operating on our national
territory through agents in state and ecclesiastical structures
160 Book 8: The New Civilisation
and carrying out destructive policies. And don’t just take my
word for it. This is confirmed by professional researchers
who have familiarised themselves with a significant body of
collected materials.
A special term has even surfaced: ‘the Anastasia cult’. And
to whom or to what does this term specifically refer? To me
as a writer? To my Anastasia book? To the book’s heroine,
whose name is Anastasia? To the millions of readers of these
books? Or to their efforts to implement Anastasia’s idea
about a marvellous and prosperous Russia? As it turns out,
all of the above.
It is a sad sight indeed to see both foreign and home-grown
clerics — who are definitely not of any Christian faith — oc-
cupying the Orthodox Church and exerting their influence
on state officials. Christianity for them is only a convenient
cover. Their actions show clearly that they are far removed
from any Christian morality. Their methods are ‘old hat’ —
the same methods of falsehood and violence that were used
to destroy the culture of Ancient Rus’ in favour of a new ide-
ology foreign to the people. I have written about this in my
books . 16
Right off they began accusing me of paganism. But what
kind of an ‘accusation’ is that? It’s tantamount to accusing
me of the desire to know the history of my country and the
culture of my forebears.
There is, however, some very happy encouraging news.
Life has begun more and more often to come out with situ-
ations where their unseemly actions are exposed as if by an
invisible ray of light. It puts them, one might say, in a rather
funny predicament. Judge for yourselves.
1 6
See, for example, Book 7, Chapter 20: “Pagans”, especially footnotes 3 & 4.
Chapter Ten
In 2002 Dilya Publishers 1 issued the next book in the Ringing
Cedars Series entitled Rodovaya kniga (The Book of Kin), in
which it advised its readers:
Our publishing house has taken the idea of a ‘Book of Kin’
to heart. As we were getting this book ready for press, we
decided to set at once about publishing a blank ‘Book of
Kin’ for you to fill in and thereby keep a record of your own
family chronicle.
Not long after Dilya published this Family Chronicle, in
2003 the Russky Dom 2 publishing house put out a book un-
der the title Semeinaya letopis (A family chronicle). One of its
compilers was Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov. 3
At the front of the book were featured guest forewords by
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Alexei II, 4 Patriarch of
Moscow and of All the Russias.
1 Dilya Publishers — the current publishers of the Russian edition of the
Ringing Cedars Series, located in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The quota-
tion cited did not appear in the English edition of The Book of Kin.
2 Russky Dom (lit. ‘Russian House’) — the name of (a) a publishing-house in
Moscow related to the Russian Orthodox Church and (b) a monthly magazine
it publishes. Archimandrite Tikhon sits on the magazine’s editorial board.
3 Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov — Archimandrite (Father Superior) of the
Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, sometimes described as a spiritual advi-
sor to President Putin.
i6i
Book 8: The New Civilisation
A family chronicle is not just a simple story about a few human
destinies, or even about a whole family. It tells the story of a
whole nation. The destiny of Russia is the history of families over
successive generations.
Such knowledge is indispensable for each citizen of Russia to
become aware of his roots and his role in the history of our great
Motherland.
— Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, President of Russia
The atmosphere of the family and home, relations with one’s
relations, memories of one’s forebears and the raising of one’s de-
scendants — all this has tremendous implications for the moral
strengthening of the individual and, consequently, of the nation.
It is no coincidence that it is said among many different peoples
that love for one’s Motherland begins at home.
— Alexei II, Patriarch of Moscow and of All the Russias
The first one to put forward this idea was Anastasia: 5
Just a few days will go by, and millions of fathers and mothers
in many a land will be writing their Book of Kin, f illing in its
pages with their own hand. There will be a vast multitude of
them — these Books of Kin. And all of them will contain the
truths which begin in the heart, for their children. There will be
no room in these books for artifice or guise. Before them all the lies
of history will fall.
— Anastasia
We shan’t go into details as to how Russky Dom followed
the example of Dilya or who was responsible. The important
A Alexei II — see footnote 13 in Chapter 9: “A fine state of affairs!” above.
’Quoted from Book 6, Chapter 10: “The Book of Kin”.
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle
163
thing is the implementation of the idea itself. Now we can see
that this idea has the support of the President, the Patriarch
and the Chairman of the State Duma , 6 who presented copies
of A Family Chronicle to schoolchildren on Knowledge Day . 7
Now what are the poor slanderers to do? Include the
President, the Patriarch and the Chairman of the State Duma
in their list of sectarians? Along with the former President of
Ukraine, who signed a decree regarding family farms, grant-
ing Ukrainians not one, but two hectares of land each?
And we must not forget Governor Ayatskov, s who during
an interview on NTV 9 said of Anastasia’s followers: “The fu-
ture of the country lies with them.” He has also encouraged
his civil service staff to acquire land and set up their own fam-
ily domains.
Nor Governor Tuleev , ° of the Kemerovo Region, who has
granted land for a settlement. Nor the Supreme Mufti of
Russia, Talgat Tajuddin, 1 ' who responded to a question by a
h State Duma (pron. DOO-ma) — the lower chamber of the Russian na-
tional parliament, corresponding to the House of Commons in the United
Kingdom and Canada or the House of Representatives in America,
Australia, and New Zealand.
' Knowledge Day (Russian: Deri znaniy) — 1 September, the traditional start
of the Russian school year.
g
Dmitry Fedorovich Ayatskov (1950-) — Governor of the Saratov Region on
the middle reaches of the Volga River.
9 NTV — abbreviation for Nezavisimoe televidenie (lit. ‘Independent
Television’), a national private TV network created in 1993, which on its
Internet site boasts more than 120 million viewers.
10 Aman-Gd’dy Moldagazyevich Tideev (1944--) — Governor of the Kemerovo
Region in Siberia, on the Tom’ River (a tributary of the Ob) just to the east
of Novosibirsk.
u Talgat Safich Tajuddin (1948-) — Supreme Mufti (spiritual leader) of
Russia’s Muslims, formally known as the Chairman of the Central Spiritual
Directorate of Muslims of Russia and the European Nations of the
Commonwealth of Independent States.
164
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Sotvorenie Studios correspondent — as to what he thought
of the Ringing Cedars Series — as follows:
I love these books. I read them and get a great deal out
of them. I feel that reading these books helps strength-
en Man’s faith in God. After all, we need to nourish our
faith in God day by day. But for that it is not only our eyes
that must be open — more importantly, our heart must be
open. Besides, our heart has been given to us for to love,
and Vladimir Nikolaevich Megre’s books help us love God.
He conveys this truth to people through the words of
Anastasia.
Perhaps theologians may have some reservations.
Perhaps someone will call it just a hypothesis, but faith in
God — and especially love for God — is something that
starts growing bit by bit, and afterward becomes immeas-
urable. And long before we get to the next world, right
here in this world Man can become happy And the Ringing
Cedars Series helps us do this.
On the eve of these events, evidently under pressure of the
machinations and fear-mongering of these same ‘anti-sectar-
ians’, one Orthodox archbishop (I shall not give his name, so
as not to immortalise him) signed a letter threatening to ex-
communicate from the Church anyone who reads or distrib-
utes the Ringing Cedars books.
This would mean that the archbishop would ‘excommu-
nicate’ the Patriarch himself, who has supported the idea in
creating A Family Chronicle, containing his and the President’s
signed forewords. Even if the Patriarch has never even held
any of my books in his hands, that’s not the point — it’s not
the paper with the printed text of the books, after all, that’s
important, but the ideas set forth in them. Now that one of
the ideas has been approved, I am convinced that it won’t be
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle 165
long before others will be granted official State support. But
in the meantime...
So perhaps it is time we drew the attention of our law-en-
forcement agencies to just who these so-called ‘anti-sectar-
ians’ really are. By what methods or machinations do they
operate, hiding so conveniently beneath the vaulted ceilings
of Russia’s Orthodox Church? Evidently, they’re not there
for prayers! The fomenting of interreligious discord, the dis-
crediting of government agencies — that’s what they’re really
up to.
And it would be foolish to even suppose that some group of
‘anti-sectarians’ is that strongly concerned about my personal
spiritual development. Their actions, rather, are testimony to
their carrying out orders to stop any positive transformations
from taking place in Russia. An illustration of their ideologi-
cally based diversionary tactics may be seen in the following
example as well.
The Jewish question
Recently, for the umpteenth time already over the past mil-
lennium, passions have been inflamed over the ‘Jewish ques-
tion’.
There has been more and more talk about the spread in
both Europe and Russia of extremist views, including anti-
Semitism. The European Jewish Congress has linked this sit-
uation with the growth of Muslim populations in European
countries, which are, they say, aggressively anti-Jewish. But
1 66
Book 8: The New Civilisation
there are many concrete historical examples testifying to the
fact that aggression can be deliberately provoked. And this is
now actively being pursued by certain circles. The provokers
may even come from the ranks of the Jews themselves.
One has the impression that some kind of order has been
received regarding the organisation of pogroms. Jewish po-
groms are very profitable to someone, and I’m talking about
financial profit. Extremist organisations do not derive any
financial benefit from pogroms — rather, they suffer losses.
But these pogroms offer a palpable benefit to countries where
Jewish members of the financial oligarchy flee to legalise their
multibillion-dollar incomes and obtain international immu-
nity from prosecution.
And for the sake of such financial benefit they are ready to
subject to abuse ordinary and utterly harmless Jews living on
Russian territory This has happened over and over again in
the annals of the long-sufferingjewish people.
What’s the point of a pogrom? The logic is simple. Public
opinion is turning against the oligarchs, the financial mag-
nates, as never before. According to government statistics,
approximately 70% of Russia’s population believe that they
should be immediately censured and dispossessed. Acting
on the basis of law, the President, the Government and the
Russian Prosecutor’s Office are attempting to investigate the
activity of a number of oligarchs. They have declared war on
corruption and it appears as though over the next four years
the oligarchs may indeed be obliged to forfeit their financial
holdings. Given the situation, they are naturally trying to get
out of the country.
But then there is the problem of how to legalise their trans-
fer of capital to the West. The surest way is to provoke a kind
of pogrom that will shock the world community It’s easy to
see what happens next. The financial magnates simply turn
up in one of the Western countries while these pogroms are
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle
161
going on and declare themselves political refugees. Naturally
this provides them with not only political asylum but also a
legalisation of their financial holdings, even while they may
still maintain at least partial control over resources and facto-
ries back home through dummy CEOs or trusted associates.
And herein lies an important message for all Russian citi-
zens, especially those organisations which call themselves pa-
triotic. Don’t ever give in to provocation or stoop to the level
of organising pogroms against synagogues. You will only be
acting out somebody else’s script.
It would be wrong to accuse all Jews of machinations and
unseemly acts. Just like Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians,
Jews come in all stripes and colours. I offer the following as
proof. I was once the featured speaker at a readers’ confer-
ence in Kazan , 12 where the audience was comprised of dif-
ferent nationalities, including many Muslims. During my
remarks I read a chapter from a book by the Jewish writer
and poet Efim Kushner 13 entitled Beskrovnaya revoliutsiya (A
bloodless revolution). Before reading from it, I said that this
was a Jewish writer living in Israel but writing about Russia,
about her future. When I had finished reading the chapter,
the hall broke into thunderous applause.
Muslims, too, applauded this Jewish writer and poet. Why?
EIow did it happen that supposedly aggressive Muslims of-
fered their sincere applause to a Jewish writer?
Kazan — capital of the Republic of Tatarstan (within the Russian
Federation), about 1,000 km east of Moscow. The Republic has a predomi-
nantly Muslim population.
13 Efim Kushner (1940-) — Jewish poet and writer, who emigrated to Israel
in 1990. The book mentioned was published in 2003 (it appeared in a
Bulgarian translation in 2006) and includes favourable comments on the
ideas set forth in the Ringing Cedars Series. Another reference to Kushner
may be found in footnote 14 in Book 4, Translator’s and Editor’s Afterword:
“Hope for the world”.
i68
Book 8: The New Civilisation
It happened because in his book he speaks about the mar-
vellous future of Russia, linking it to the ideas outlined in the
Ringing Cedars Series. He calls upon the Russian govern-
ment to adopt a programme based on these ideas.
I can tell you right off that he is not the only Jew who ac-
cepts and supports Anastasia’s concept set forth in the books.
In Israel there is a whole club of readers who have been drawn
to the books about this Siberian recluse. Israelis are compos-
ing songs in both Russian and Hebrew about the characters
in the series. I have the distinct impression that in the final
analysis, it will be the Jews who take the lead in putting the
ideas into practice, and will draw peoples of many lands along
in their wake.
I can at least tell you that I have been informed that right
there in Israel significant funds have been set aside for the
construction of environmentally clean settlements.
“Oh, those connivers!” people will say later on. “See, they’re
stealing the Russian idea out from under us!”
Pardon me, but they are not stealing anything from us. In
fact, they are saving this idea! Will you kindly tell me who
is preventing the Russian authorities from implementing the
ideas in the books? After all, for the past five years, practi-
cally, it is these same authorities that have been targeted with
a large number of individual and collective letters by Russians
living in the Commonwealth of Independent States and else-
where in the world.
It is truly a comical situation that has developed. A host
of researchers keep talking about the birth of a ‘national idea’
among the Russian people. But the way things are turning
out here, it looks as though it will have its first implementa-
tion in Israel! Who’s to blame?
Overall, every discussion on the Jewish question so far, at
least those in the publications I have access to, seems pretty
primitive. Almost all of them boil down to a routine statement
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle 169
of the facts: “Jews have taken over the press in various coun-
tries.” “Pretty much all the TV networks are in Jewish hands.”
“Most cash flow is controlled byjews.”
All this is no doubt true, including here in Russia today
But this is simply a statement of fact and nothing more. It
is far more important to explain why situations like this have
developed in various countries, with an enviable consistency,
over a period of centuries.
I can tell you the following right off. It is simply that the
Jews are obliged to do this, and we are obliged to fall into line
with them, including on the legislative level.
Judge for yourselves: the State Duma of the Russian
Federation adopted a law recognising four ‘basic’ religions,
two of which are Christianity and Judaism.
According to Christianity, the Christian is the ‘slave’ 14 of
God. Wealth is not welcomed. In St. Petersburg, where I am
writing these lines, I can see from my hotel window the huge
Orthodox Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin of Vladimir, on the
facade of which is written in large, gold lettering: Hear, Our
Lady, the prayer of thy slave . 15
According to Judaism, the Jew is the chosen one of God; to
him belong wealth and lands, and usury 16 is welcomed.
I+ Note that Russia’s Orthodox Church traditionally refers to every human
individual as ‘slave of God’ (mb Bozhii). It is reflected even in the contem-
porary Russian word for ‘worker’ ( rabochii ), which literally means ‘Father’s
slave’. The term is generally translated ‘servant’ in the Authorised Version
of the English Bible.
’’Compare the wording of Daniel 9: 17: “O our God, hear the prayer of thy
servant...” Note, too, that in this citation the Russian term corresponding
to Oar Lady is vladychitsa, which has the connotation of ‘empress’ or ‘high
ruler’. The Russian term corresponding to the Blessed Virgin of Vladimir is
Vladimirskoi Bozhei Materi, lit. ‘the Vladimir Mother of God’.
l6 See, for example, Deut. 23: 20: “Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon
usury” ( Authorised King James Version), rendered in the New English Bible as:
“You may charge interest on a loan to a foreigner”.
170 Book 8: The New Civilisation
Everybody knows what a huge influence religions exercise
on Man’s mentality, character development and way of life.
So let us be consistent in the logic of our actions. The
highest legislative organ of our land has accepted these two
concepts, at the same time designating who is to be slave and
who is to be ruler.
And, being the law-abiding citizens that we are, let us not
keep deceiving each other, but let us accept as a given, accord-
ing to the law adopted by our government, that the Jews have
authority over us.
Now there are some that will not be satisfied with such a
position. Some will even consider such a statement absurd.
But let us not close our eyes to the actualities of life. Let us
see clearly the causes of what is going on, or we shall keep on
tasting the consequences with an unyielding regularity.
If someone is unhappy over the current situation, then by
all means let us work together to find an alternative.
The solution might be an idea acceptable with equal en-
thusiasm to Muslims, Christians, Jews and members of other
faiths.
Such an idea exists. Not only will it fix the situation, but it
holds the future in its hands. There are specific facts and life
situations that attest to this.
Let’s create
In an address to the Federal Assembly, 1 ' the President of the
Russian Federation set a goal of doubling the country’s Gross
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle 171
Domestic Product (GDP) within ten years. Well, a goal is a
goal. And measures must be taken to reach it. The first step
is to inspire the people with a vision. It is the people, after
all, who must work to double GDP indicators. And what has
been happening since this goal was set by the highest official
in the current government?
Incredible events began to take place.
Instead of at least making an attempt at realising the goal,
some highly placed officials began talking about how unfeasi-
ble its implementation was, while others insisted it still must
be attained. And that’s it! Nothing more. These discussions
have wasted precious time: the year 2004 ended miserably,
with a GDP growth of a mere 6.4%.
Right from the start this fascinating subtext as to whether
the goal was feasible or not ran throughout the whole treat-
ment of the subject by the press. But, again, with not even a
single attempt at implementation.
This situation points to the fact that the Russian authori-
ties are heading for a state of utter helplessness. And it makes
no difference here whether the officials in question are elect-
ed or unelected, they will find any excuse they can not to cany
out the directive.
Imagine how it would be if a commander-in-chief gave the
order to prepare to attack, and his generals and colonels, instead
of working out the plan of attack, began to discuss whether
an attack was feasible or not. In that case defeat would be an
inevitability Which is exactly what has happened.
But could it be possible that the goal set by the President
was really preposterous? We cant judge until we try to figure
1 ' Federal Assembly (Russian: Federal’noe sobranie) — the name given to the bi-
cameral Russian Parliament as a whole, which comprises the State Duma
(or lower chamber) and the Federation Council (upper chamber), as estab-
lished by the 1993 Constitution of the Russian Federation.
172
Book 8: The New Civilisation
it out for ourselves. However, I’ll jump ahead of myself and
say: it is feasible!
I can just see my readers’ dumbfounded reaction: what’s
all this about Russia’s Orthodox Church, ‘anti-sectarians’,
Western intelligence services and the goal set by the President
for doubling Russia’s GDP? Be patient. There is a very close
mutual connection here.
Think who would benefit by a doubling of Russia’s GDP.
Russia herself, of course. Who would lose by it? Naturally,
the West, which looks upon Russia merely as an overflow
market for its substandard merchandise.
And Western intelligence services, it seems, have once
again had the upper hand (as usual), putting down the Russian
President and his officials, ridiculing them even as the afore-
mentioned goal was being set. But let’s go step by step.
In order to double the overall GDP, it is necessary to
first identify those economic sectors where an increase in
output is essential, as well as those where such an increase
would be undesirable — the production of tobacco, wine
and spirits, for example (Russia’s already drowning in her
own booze and choking on her own tobacco smoke). You
wouldn’t want to double the output of armaments, or build
new casinos, or double the outflow of raw materials from
the country.
Which means that the remaining sectors of the economy
are faced with the task of not just doubling but tripling or
even quadrupling their output. These sectors have not yet
been identified and, consequently, no specific goal has ever
been suggested to them.
Well, some may object, if we ’re not sure we can double our
GDP or not, how can we even think in terms of quadrupling?
An impossible task!
But I say it is possible! It is possible, and not only that, but it
requires no additional capital investment.
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle
I 73
Take agriculture, for example, where production has been
cutting back year after year, to the point where it has already
begun to threaten national security It is the talk of politi-
cians, Duma deputies and a number of government officials.
But they’re not talking in the wind. In the case of some
food categories, imports already account for up to 40% of the
market. This is already a threat to our national security. And
what awaits us after that? I’ll tell you.
By 2005 our country’s rural population is expected to
shrink by 25%, which will exacerbate the problem even fur-
ther. More specifically, it will make the country completely
dependent on external sources — and then the government
will be forced to pay for food not just with natural resources,
but through sales of missiles, just to avoid being utterly torn
to pieces by the population at large.
This means a sea-change is required in the whole agricul-
ture industry: it must double or even triple its production.
However, this will never happen using traditional methods,
where all proposals simply come down to nothing more than
a requirement for additional subsidies. And it is not clear
just who these subsidies are to be directed to, given that the
able-bodied rural population keeps significantly decreasing
in numbers. And if that be the case, not even the most state-
of-the-art equipment or super-technology is going to help.
There will simply be nobody left to work with it.
Which means that our goal is first and foremost to have able-
bodied people showing up in the countryside. Millions of them.
Tens of millions. Not only that, but they must be people with a
desire to reach out and touch the ground with love. If they don’t
show up, there’s no point in talking about anything else.
To hear some officials tell it, however, getting people to
show up like that would be nothing short of a miracle. It is
not something they believe in. They haven’t believed in it
even when it’s happened.
174
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the miracle has happened!
All thanks to one individual — the Siberian recluse named
Anastasia.
Maybe her words seem incredible and fantasaical to some,
but they are right on. They have given birth to an enduring
impulsion in people’s hearts and souls.
Tens of thousands of people in various parts of the coun-
try have been wanting to chart their life-course in a rural set-
ting — to set up their domains there and move in. The num-
bers of applicants are rising with each passing year.
They are setting up their own regional action groups and
demanding: GIVE US LAND! We are ready to take care of it.
These people have united in a non-governmental organisation,
which was founded at a conference in the city of Vladimir on
5 June 2004 — an event which showed, for the first time in
post-Soviet Russia, the rise of a popular force unparalleled in
modern times. The hall was filled to capacity, as many came
who were not registered delegates but simply wanted to listen
and tune in to what was happening.
By a vote taken at the conference, a people’s movement
was set up under the name Ringing Cedars of Russia, with the
basic aim of supporting the idea of kin’s domains. It was truly
a people’s movement, opposed to neither the government
nor any political party. Rather, it aimed to reach out to all
with the simple message: Let’s create.
Thus a people’s movement was born with a clear and dis-
tinct programme, easily comprehensible to and solidly sup-
ported by the public.
What benefit would accrue to the State of Russia by car-
rying out just one platform of this programme? Outwardly, it
is a very simple platform, focusing on a single hectare of land,
but envisaging the following wide-ranging results:
• a significant improvement in the environmental situation;
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle
175
8 restoration of soil fertility;
8 a solution to the question of providing high-quality pro-
duce for the country’s population;
8 a significant (twofold or threefold) increase in wages across
all sectors of the economy without risk of inflation;
8 an immediate improvement in the demographic situa-
tion and in the general health of the population, includ-
ing its rejuvenation;
8 a solution to the question of the nation’s defence pre-
paredness;
8 the termination of capital outflow along with, by con-
trast, a capital inflow into Russia; the return of her intel-
lectual resources;
8 a significant reduction in (over the next few years) and
eventual extirpation of: bribery, corruption, gangster-
ism and terrorism;
8 a coming together of neighbouring countries ' 8 along
with those of the former Warsaw Pact (Poland, the
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and the
three Baltic states) into a single powerful union;
8 cessation of the arms race and close co-operation among
Russia, the USA and Eastern Moslem states.
These points have been worked out not just by me, but also
by a number of students in their graduating essays — e.g., the
essay by the budding jurist Tatiana Borodina .’ 9 They are also
talked about in scholarly publications (e.g., by Professor Viktor
l8
neighbouring countries — primarily those of the Commonwealth of
Independent States, made up of most of the republics of the former Soviet
Union (Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan etc.).
’ 9 Ms Borodina’s graduating essay is entitled: “The legal status of Kin’s
Domains in Ukraine: developmental perspectives”, and has been made
available on a number of Russian websites.
176
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Yakovlevich Medikov, 20 a three-term deputy of the legislative
assembly who holds a doctorate in economics). There are a
number of privately published brochures on the topic, written
by professional researchers as well as ordinary people.
I shall attempt to jot down a few words of explanation in
justification of some of these points.
So, let us suppose that our country has decided to implement
the programme proposed by Anastasia:
Every willingfamily is offered free of charge one hectare of land for
lifetime use •with the right of inheritance for the purposes of establish-
ing on it their own kin’s domain. The produce grown on the domain,
as well as the domain itself is not subject to any form of taxation.
The adoption of this programme will lead to the following
results:
8 A significant improvement in the environmental situation.
Practice has shown that people who have received land for a
kin’s domain first of all set about planting wild-growing trees,
at an average of up to 200 trees per family, along with an aver-
age of 2,000 shrubs, hedges and berry bushes and 50 fruit-
bearing trees.
Even using the most conservative estimates, researchers
predict that the adoption of such a programme on a national
level, if correctly implemented, will lead, right in its earliest
zo Viktor Yakovlevich Medikov — a metallurgist and professor of econom-
ics, former Vice-Rector of the Siberian Metallurgical Institute, who served
as a deputy both in the Communist ‘Supreme Soviet’ and in the first two
terms of the post-Communist Duma. He gave the opening address at the
June 2004 conference. For other references to Dr Medikov, please see the
Editor’s Afterword to Book 1 and Book 7, Chapter 28: “To the readers of the
Ringing Cedars Series”.
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle
177
stages, to about ten million Russian families setting up their
own kin’s domains.
This means that even in the first year or two following the
adoption of the programme, and without any additional sub-
sidies, two billion wild-growing trees will have been planted,
20 billion shrubs and approximately 500 million fruit-bearing
trees. And that is just the beginning.
0 Restoration of soil fertility. As can be seen from practice,
the first thing people do when they are granted land, not on
a short-term lease but for their lifetime use, is to put their ef-
forts into soil restoration. Not only that, but they are doing
this not just by the application of organic fertilisers, but also
by a more natural method, namely, the sowing of soil-building
crops during the early years.
8 A solution to the question of providing high-quality produce for
the country’s population. You may remember the ‘struggle for
the harvest’ 21 back in Soviet times — how schoolchildren, stu-
dents and industrial employees were transported out to col-
lective and state-owned farms 22 to help bring in the harvest.
21 struggle for the harvest (Russ, bor’baza urozhai) — a term used in Soviet prop-
aganda in reference to harvest time. Since collective farms were inherently
inefficient, authorities were compelled to mount a campaign each year, urg-
ing vast numbers of people — from schoolchildren and students to indus-
trial workers and soldiers — to help with the harvesting and ‘save the crops’
before they rotted in the field. People were generally expected to carry out
this work either with payment in kind or without any remuneration at all.
22 collective and state-owned farms — two systems of agricultural management
during the Soviet era. On a collective farm ( kolkhoz , pron. ka/l-HOSS), it was
claimed that workers as a collective owned their farm, sold their produce
to the State and shared in the profits from the sale, while on a state-owned
farm {sovkhoz, pron. sahf-HOSS ), farm workers were paid a salary; just as in
a factory. In reality, however, in both cases the quantities and prices were
dictated by the state.
i 7 8
Book 8: The New Civilisation
I myself took part in these large-scale operations, weeding
fields and gathering onions at a suburban state-owned farm.
However, there was still no abundance of high-quality pro-
duce in the country. Today’s older generations, of course, re-
member how the potatoes sold in stores would be half-rotted,
not to mention the most undesirable-looking vegetables.
Then came the dacha movement. 23 They began to allot
people 600 square metres of land. And a miracle happened.
Everyone is aware of the statistics. Ordinary people — all by
themselves, without any support from government ministries
or agencies — have provided 80% of the vegetables produced
in Russia. (Unfortunately all sorts of complications are be-
ing introduced these days, including higher travel fares, taxes
on land plots, increased electricity rates.) And all this on just
600 square metres, where it is impossible to create any kind
of economically viable enterprise or to plant tall trees which
enrich the soil, or to put in water ponds and so forth. And
all this carried out by people without sufficient knowledge or
experience, working just on weekends and holidays.
A hectare of land will allow the setting up of a more eco-
nomically viable enterprise. With the right kind of organisa-
tion, there will be a thirtyfold decrease in the workload per
square metre. Not all at once, mind you, but I do emphasise:
■°The term dacha (originally from the verb davat ’= to give/grant), dates back
to at least the eleventh century It has had a variety of meanings, includ-
ing country residences of the Russian cultural and political elite. From
the 1940s on, with the emergence and rapid growth of food gardening by
the urban population, the term has been used more and more to denote
a country garden plot belonging to a city-dweller, usually together with a
small cottage. The dacha movement referred to here arose during the Second
World War, when the Soviet government began to allot small plots of land
for food production to combat war-time food shortages, and has since
grown to include approximately 20 million families. For further informa-
tion, please see Book 1 (especially the Translator’s Preface) and Book 2 (no-
tably Chapter 9: “Dachnik Day and an All-Earth holiday!”).
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle
179
it has to be set up properly. That given, both existing practice
and theoretical calculations confirm that implementing the
proposed programme will fully guarantee the country a suf-
ficient food supply for all its citizens bar none.
Now a word about quality. It goes without saying that some-
one growing agricultural produce to be used by his own family
will not add any poisonous chemicals or chemical fertilisers to
the soil. He will not grow any mutant produce. All this crap is
being imported into our country and bought up by the public
for no other reason than insufficient production here at home.
Once a sufficient quantity level is reached, quality becomes the
number one concern. I hope I’ve made myself clear?
• A significant ( twofold or threefold) increase in wages across all
sectors of the economy without risk of inflation and a reduction of
prices within the country on all forms of merchandise, leading to a
reduction in social tension. Someone may wonder what possible
link there could be between the implementation of the ‘Kin’s
domains’ programme and a wage increase — let’s say, for a
salesman, a trolleybus driver, a nurse or a teacher. But there
is! And a direct causal link at that.
Think about it. Most enterprises today are in private hands.
People we call oligarchs enjoy fabulous profits — • but at whose
expense? Basically, at the expense of minimum wage-earners.
And what’s the point of increasing their wages, let’s say, from
five thousand to twenty thousand roubles a month , 24 when
there are still people queuing up just to get a job? There’s sim-
ply nowhere for them to go.
~ 4 At the time this book was written (2005), the average wage in Russia was
8,500 roubles per month — approximately equivalent to US$300 at the of-
ficial exchange rate (or to US$600 in buying power). Wages vary greatly
from one region to another, and full income amounts are often unreported
(meaning the actual average is higher than that calculated by government
agencies).
i8o
Book 8: The New Civilisation
It’s an entirely different situation with a family whose work
on their own domain earns them an average of ten thousand
roubles a month (which has been proved entirely feasible in
practice) with a minimal cost of living. No utility bills or daily
commuting expenses, or the cost of buying meals at city cafes.
To attract domain dwellers to work in a factory or other pri-
vate enterprise, one would have to offer them a salary at least
one-and-a-half or two times the income they would earn from
working on the domain, and cover travel and meal expenses
besides.
Today an oligarch who has privatised a factory or oil-drill-
ing company can afford to live in a castle in London (that real-
ly happens) and earn up to a million dollars a month, while the
workers slaving away to provide that income for him receive
less than a tenth of one percent of what he makes.
This scenario can be played out ad infinitum. Inevitably it
leads to revolution, stripping the property-owner of his en-
terprises and the overthrow of the government permitting
such inequities. The only way to prevent such a result from
occurring is to reach an equitable sharing arrangement with
the workers. Oligarchs will not come to this point voluntarily
but, under pressure of circumstances, will give in.
We mentioned the relationship between a domain dweller
and the owner of an industrial enterprise. But those left liv-
ing in city flats will also see their wages rise, to keep them at
their jobs. They too, after all, are given a choice: stay working
and living in urban conditions, or start building themselves a
whole new way of life in the country
And one more question on this point: Why will this not lead
to inflation or price rises?
Inflation is always the outcome of certain concrete proce-
dures, specially engineered. Price rises are simply a by-prod-
uct. The cause is always Man’s estrangement from a natural
way of life. It is an easy matter to increase prices on fuel and
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle 181
foodstuffs when people don’t have any of either to call their
own, meaning that they are completely dependent on exter-
nal suppliers. But try raising apple prices for someone who
has his own orchard. Absurd! And what about fuel? But even
here there’s a limit. Today’s fuel prices are so high that it is
actually more profitable to till a couple of hectares of land
using horses — - which, by the way, supply a first-class fertiliser
for the soil.
° An immediate improvement in the demographic situation and
in the general health of the population, including its rejuvenation.
It is no secret that the current demographics in our country
are catastrophic. And even this word isn’t strong enough to
describe it fully If a country’s peacetime population decreas-
es by almost a million souls annually, that’s monstrous! The
leaders of such a country, I should think, would want to hide
their identity from the public, as well as from their descend-
ants. Discussions on the need to change the current situation
amount to nothing more than pathetic babble. They don’t
change anything. Not even increasing financial support for
birthing mothers, as necessary as that may be, will lead to any
substantial improvement.
The history of many millennia shows that women cease
giving birth when they see no prospective future for their
children. It is necessary first to determine clearly and pre-
cisely the future development of society as a whole, as well as
of each family making up that society
The Anastasia Foundation in Vladimir 2 ’ conducted a sur-
vey of families planning on setting up their own kin’s domains.
Of the more than two thousand polled, 1,995 responded that
"’The Anastasia Foundation for Culture and Assistance to Creativity — a non-
profit organisation based in the city of Vladimir. See Book y, Chapter 15:
“Malting it come true”.
182
Book 8: The New Civilisation
they would be having children. Some wanted three or even
more. Those who for health reasons were unable to have chil-
dren of their own were planning to adopt them from orphan-
ages. How to explain this phenomenon? It is simply that a
Man who has built a marvellous living oasis is aware that he
is building something lasting, and wants his children to enjoy
life, too.
As to rejuvenation and revitalisation of health, let us turn
once more to practice. Look at how much livelier and young-
er your grandfathers and grandmothers behave once they get
out to their dachas in the springtime. And it goes without
saying that a pregnant woman who eats only environmentally
clean produce, drinks clean water and breathes clean air can-
not help but bear healthy children — significantly healthier
than today’s examples.
• A solution to the question of the nation’s defence preparedness.
A significant reduction in weapons and, over the next few years, the
eventual complete extirpation of bribery, corruption, gangsterism
and terrorism. The military preparedness and morale of our
armed forces today including the nation’s law-enforcement
officers, has slipped below the zero-mark and is heading deep
into the minus side. It is no secret how challenging it is for
local conscription offices to call up young recruits to military
service. Refusal of military obligations is no longer consid-
ered shameful among today’s youth — on the contrary, it has
become a mark of bravery. Those whose families are slightly
better off attempt to buy their way out of serving; those not
so well off try to ‘cut out’ any way they can, even to the point
of self-mutilation . 26
~ 6 By law, military service is compulsory for all male Russian citizens upon
reaching the age of 18.
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle 183
So it turns out that, by hook or by crook, the army drags
in conscripts from the poorest segments of the population.
Such an army is in no position to defend anyone or anything
against a major enemy. Not only that, but it is potentially
dangerous to the very country it is supposed to serve.
Let’s take a close look at just whom the soldiers of the Russian
army are called upon to protect. The Motherland, comes the
standard response. But today the concept of Motherland has
been seriously eroded, and it is a challenge to grasp hold of
just what is one’s Motherland. It wasn’t that long ago that
Russian officers and soldiers swore an oath of allegiance to
the USSR, which was also considered their Motherland.
Then all at once the borders changed and whole parts of the
territory they were defending turned out to be ‘foreign soil’.
The troops deployed in these parts were suddenly treated as
invaders. They were left to defend the people on the part of
the territory that was still known as Russia. But what kind of
people were they really protecting? Oligarchs and bribe-tak-
ing government officials? Their own families? But if a soldier
or an officer came from a poor family, who was he supposed
to protect them from?
For the past ten years now, government propaganda has
proclaimed that we are building “a civilised, democratic
state on the Western model”. But just think: how could to-
day’s Russian soldiers do battle against the forces of NATO
or the USA if they have already been brainwashed into
thinking that their enemy is civilised and developed, which
must mean that ‘we’, by contrast, are ‘z/tzcivilised’ and ‘ unde-
veloped ’? Quite absurd. Is this some sort of psychobabble,
or a deliberately invented tactic? An all-professional army
has been touted as a panacea for getting out of this manu-
factured dead-end situation, but that is even more absurd.
A professional army, as is known, is made up of mercenaries
who take up arms for money and shoot at whoever they are
184
Book 8: The New Civilisation
told is the target. They carry out the orders of whoever pays
the most.
History is full of examples of governments afraid to bring
their armies of mercenaries home. That’s how it was in
Ancient Rome, and a similar danger exists in the USA. It is
already happening in parts of Russia as well.
A professional army must be kept busy in continual fight-
ing, preferably not on the territory of the nation it is supposed
to be serving. When an army returns to its home country,
it will inevitably be in demand by forces opposed to the ex-
isting authority, or it will disintegrate into a large number of
splinter groups, some of which may even be transformed into
criminal gangs. For the most part, there is no such thing as
//^employed armed mercenaries. If they are not given work,
they will find it on their own, and in their chosen profession.
Besides, an army consisting of people serving only for money
can be very easily bought off by a higher bidder.
Just imagine a foreign military base located, say, in Georgia,
Turkmenistan or Ukraine, whose soldiers are paid three
thousand dollars a month, while ours get only five hundred
a month. In fact, you don’t need to imagine this. There are
already concrete examples right here in Russia. Just look at
how many highly qualified and professionally trained officers
of the former KGB are now working as security guards for
commercial organisations, including foreign banks.
So, what’s the solution? There is just one — one and only
one. We must make sure that our Russian soldiers, officers
and generals have something left to protect.
3 Every Russian army or law-enforcement officer, upon receiving
the rank of lieutenant, is to be awarded not only a little star on his ep-
aulette, but at the same time the right to receive a hectare of land on
which to set up his kin’s domain. The land grants shouldn’t be for
‘back lot’ waste lands, but for elite lands specially allocated by
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle 185
the government for settlement purposes. An officer should
be able to choose his own particular hectare within these ter-
ritories. And, when home on leave, he should be free to plant,
either alone or together with his parents, a new garden, or dig
a pond, or designate a spot on which to build a house.
And if he is frequently re-posted to various parts of the
country or even abroad, during the time he is billeted in of-
ficers’ quarters, barracks or a field tent, every officer of the
Russian Army should be able to rest secure in the knowledge
that back there, in a spot of his own choosing, the garden of
his little Motherland — his own garden — is flourishing in the
springtime. And the girl who has fallen in love with him will
know from the little star on his epaulettes that her beloved
has a future, has a Motherland, and a family nest for their fu-
ture children.
And even if, for the time being, she has to share with her be-
loved in the challenging conditions of an officer’s life, all the
same, at least once ayear they will visit their little Motherland
and share their dreams and plans for the future domain. They
will decide where the pond is to be dug and where the house
is to be built.
And even if they are obliged to spend their month’s leave
on their own land in a tent, still they will be able to experi-
ence an incomparable sense of joy at beholding the marvel-
lous future that lies ahead for the generations of their family
to come.
And even if the little trees of their future garden are still
young and the green hedge they have planted around their
domain is scarcely noticeable, these are still there, and they
will grow and flourish, waiting for them, their creators.
• If an officer’s wife becomes pregnant, within three months’ time,
the State should build on the designated spot a modest home accord-
ing to the plans selected by the parents-to-be, with all the amenities
i86
Book 8: The New Civilisation
afforded by modern technology. And the wife of a Russian officer
will be able to spend the remaining months of her pregnancy
in her own little house. Perhaps her home will be shared by
her parents, or perhaps she will be alone there, keeping in
touch with friendly neighbours. But, most importantly, she
will be surrounded and filled by the positive emotions she so
badly needs. After all, she will be completely surrounded by
the space of her little Motherland, belonging jointly to her
and her beloved.
And she won’t go off to have her baby overseas or even
in one of those incubators we are accustomed to calling, for
some reason, maternity homes. The officer’s wife will have her
baby in her own domain, as many women are already doing.
Possibly it will be under a doctor’s supervision, but it will be
at home, in familiar, favourable and sympathetic surround-
ings — not in some maternity chair which has heard the
moans and cries of hundreds of birthing mothers.
® The child of a Russian officer should be born only in his own
family domain. Even if at the moment of birth the young lieu-
tenant is somewhere far away, he will hear — he will most cer-
tainly hear — his child’s first joyful cry. And he will let no foe
encroach upon his grand Motherland. He, this young lieuten-
ant, a Russian officer, will not let a foe get past him, since at the
heart of his vast Motherland is his own little Motherland —
one he feels is very dear and close to him, one where his be-
loved walks in a flourishing garden, holding his wee son by the
hand as he takes his own first baby steps in life.
Society! Our society! The society comprising our nation
is already today capable of seeing to it that a young mother —
the wife of a Russian officer — need not worry about how to
get food for her baby She should be provided for. Maybe not
in the style the oligarchs’ wives are accustomed to, nor has she
any use for the shallow fad of owning a supposedly expensive
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle 187
car. She will have far more than that — love and a future. Her
main achievement is the restoration of her Motherland. This
is her principal work, her principal task in life.
And society should pay her a salary equal to that of her
husband. That’s not much, of course, in return for her grand
co-creation, but such a step will at least be an initial good-will
gesture on the part of society and the State.
Such a possibility already exists right now. Only one
shouldn’t confuse things by bringing in higher-level economic
considerations.
Currently the oil pipeline is showering Russia with a rain
of American dollars. And why is not a single drop of this rain
falling on any Russian officer, his wife or child, or his little
Motherland?
Who thought up such arrangements, concealing them-
selves behind that supposed panacea for all ills — democra-
cy?
Is it ‘democratic’ when poorly-paid soldiers or officers of
the Russian Army are obliged to defend wealthy oligarchs,
their fancy detached houses along the Rublevskoe Highway 2,
and their numerous counterparts in other regions of the
country? That’s not democracy, that’s drivelocracy\
And if such drivel doesn’t change, we shan’t have any de-
fence or protection at all. There will be no protection for the
average citizen, nor even for the president, let alone the petty
and major oligarchs.
The extermination of this drivel will spell an end to cor-
ruption, drug trafficking, and the notorious bribe-taking
from drivers on the part of traffic cops.
" Rublevskoe (pron. roob-LYOF-ska-ya ) Highway (named for the former vil-
lage of Rublevo) — an area in the western part of Moscow where many of
Russia’s nouveaux-riches have built or bought expensive apartments or (what
used to be a rarity in Moscow) detached single-family homes.
i88
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Now tell me: why should a copper have to stand in the
street and breathe into his lungs all the roadway dust and
the exhaust fumes of all the expensive and not-so-expensive
cars passing by? As though they were the cat’s pyjamas and
he were nothing but a nincompoop. He stands there watch-
ing out for their safety, for which he is paid a mere pittance.
Indeed, if he didn’t take bribes from these cars’ owners, he
would be ridiculed by his relatives who would think it utterly
abnormal; his wife would tear into him and his children would
turn away from a father who couldn’t even afford to buy them
a pair of last season’s jeans.
And he is not at all terrified of the police’s anti-corruption
squads. So what if he’s sacked from his job? That’s no great loss.
It’s not a job that will guarantee a living for his family in return
for honest labour. It simply means he has to look for another.
But what kind of job? What kind of job can he find where he
can maintain his integrity and still provide for his family?
And so he stands there in the dust and exhaust fumes and
takes his bribes. And for this, society hardly condemns him,
but pays him. So what? — were all becoming like this, society
thinks. Now that’s terrifying! The fact that we’re getting used
to it! We cease dreaming about other possible scenarios. We
get accustomed to seeing the crowds of prostitutes, homeless
children and street thugs. We get accustomed to the stage
shows we call elections. Or is someone, in fact, accustoming
us to these?
After all, up until recently the most terrifying thing for an
inhabitant of a Russian village was social disdain on the part
of his fellow-villagers, observing: She’s a slut! He hasn’t kept his
property up!
And so, it’s time to bring back those days. The time will
most certainly come when the most pleasant thing for a
Russian citizen to hear will be society’s approval in the form
of: He’s a good man! He has sensitive and properly behaved children!
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle
189
He has a splendid domain! Then there won’t be any more crime,
corruption or drug trafficking. It will surely come, that time.
On a bench in a shady garden sits a greying, elderly man,
tenderly stroking the chestnut-coloured hair of his three-
year-old granddaughter, her head nuzzled against his chest,
while his eleven-year-old grandson takes the general’s great-
coat hanging on the back of the bench and tries it on. Two
large general’s stars adorn the epaulettes of the greatcoat,
which once featured two small lieutenant’s stars.
But that’s not the most important thing the grey-headed general
thinks, looking at his grandchildren. The most important thing
is that he created and saved for his grandchildren this garden,
this pond and the whole marvellous Space in his kin’s domain,
his little Motherland in the heart of Russia. He has saved
Russia! And She is flourishing! His Motherland! A fresh cool
breeze wafts the fragrance of Her gardens around the whole
world. And interplanetary winds announce the flourishing of
the Earth to other worlds. And the stars in the heavens burn
with just a touch of envy and dream of meeting visitors from
the Earth, the wise and bright sons and daughters of God.
It will come to pass! But in the meantime... Do you hear,
lieutenants, how the heart of the Russian Land is beating,
sounding the alarm?! How it is begging for you to take her,
little by little, to yourself and plant gardens? She promises to
return to each of you your Spaces of Paradise and give you the
gift of eternity!
Do you hear? You must hear!
190
Book 8: The New Civilisation
e The termination of capital outflow and a new inflow of
capital into Russia; the return of her intellectual resources. I can
theoretically prove that this will happen with the adoption
of Anastasia’s programme in full. This has also been shown
theoretically by famous scholarly researchers, as well as by
students working on their graduating essays.
There are arguments on both sides here. Only practice can
offer incontrovertible proof. And that it has done.
People of the Russian diaspora have been flocking from
near and far to communities still under construction — com-
munities which as yet do not have a solid legal footing. I
know, for example, just in one community near the city of
Vladimir, of a teacher from Turkmenistan and a young couple
from America. A similar trend can be observed in many other
communities now being built on the territory of Russia and
Ukraine. People who can’t wait for a law on land grants are
buying up land, endeavouring to work within existing legisla-
tion. They are buying back their Motherland. It is the duty
of society and the State to refund their money. Otherwise
there will be a curse hanging over the head of anyone who has
seen fit to take money from someone for starting to settle on
the land where he was born.
In any event, people are coming back, even if it is just one
or two at a time for now You can judge for yourselves what
will happen under a favourable coincidence of circumstanc-
es — i.e., the adoption of a law granting every willing family a
plot of land on which to set up a kin’s domain.
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle
191
Letter to the Russian President from Germany
ANASTASIA, reg. society
Schiitzlerbergerstr. 43
D- 67468 Frankeneck
Tel. +49 (6325) 955 - 99-39
Fax +49 (6325) 18-38-59
www.anastasia-de.com
E-mail: info@anastasia-de.com
ANASTASIA, reg. society
Administrative Office,
President of the Russian Federation
Staraya ploshchad’, 4, Moscow 102132
Dear President of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich
Putin!
This is a letter from former citizens of a country which
no longer exists — the USSR. For various reasons many
of us find ourselves living abroad. Germany has become
a refuge for more than three million former Soviet citi-
zens. While flocking over the border and discovering the
Western ‘civilised Paradise’, many of us have recognised
that at the same time we have lost our Motherland, with-
out which no one can ever be happy in the fullest sense.
Today in Russia a brand new idea has made its appear-
ance, guaranteeing Man’s physical and mental health, an
idea already appealing to many people of various nation-
alities, including those living in Western Europe. Thanks
to this idea, we realise that right now it is Russia that pos-
sesses the spiritual potential needed for the re-birth of har-
monious Man and the restoration of a harmonious State.
192
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Detailed information about this idea is available in the
Ringing Cedars Series by Vladimir Megre, which to date has
sold almost six million copies overall. It is Megre’s books
that have given Russians living in the Commonwealth of
Independent States and other countries a new and marvel-
lous hope of re-birth, which is a vital need for every Man,
family and State.
The substance of the idea can be summed up as follows:
Every family or citizen should have the right to re-
ceive, free of charge, one hectare of land on which to set
up their little Motherland, their family domain, which can
be passed down by inheritance from generation to genera-
tion. Man was born on the land and should have his own
specific piece of his Motherland, created and cultivated
with his own hands — and the hands of several generations
of his family
In one of your speeches you stated that Russia was born
and long lived in the countryside, on the land, and that that
is its destined path. We agree! Having tasted the pleas-
ures of Western civilisation, we are acutely aware that drug
trafficking, prostitution, the plight of homeless children,
thievery and murder, are all the fruits of this same celebrat-
ed civilisation. We are not even mentioning the most pain-
ful European problems — namely, the environment and
demographics. Russia, too, has been experiencing these
same problems in trying to reinvent itself on the Western
model. Today it is becoming clear to many in the West that
the path being followed by their democratic states is lead-
ing to a dead end, if not utter self-destruction.
Russia has gone through difficult trials over the many
centuries of its history, all of which have served to nur-
ture a special spirit among its people. It is thanks to this
spirit that, at times of the most despairing spiritual and
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle
193
environmental crises, its citizens will be able to stand on
the edge of the abyss and, in spite of everything, not only
give birth to a new national idea — grow new life — but
also to head off the catastrophe of self-destruction which
threatens all mankind.
We, as former citizens of the USSR, are fully aware
of what is meant by the simple concept of Motherland.
Whether we have taken out foreign citizenship or not,
many of us have realised that our hearts and souls remain
in the places we lived for most of our lives.
We would like to return to Russia and start creating
our family domains, establishing new-style communities.
The activity of setting up a family domain will lead to an
improvement in the quality of life for the whole common-
wealth of people. We realise that a lot depends on us, on
our labours, our capabilities, our experience. Many of us
have taken on new professions in Europe, we have studied
foreign languages, some of us have started our own busi-
nesses. There are quite a few of us who have begun study-
ing the experience of Western eco-villages and non-tradi-
tional methods of farming.
In our communities we shall build our own schools,
clubs and hospitals. There may not be a need for special
government subsidies, as our numbers include all sorts of
experts, and we are prepared and able to seek out our own
financing and opportunities.
This kind of activity will lead to a fundamental improve-
ment in the lives of the great commonwealth of people.
Lands that have been unused, abandoned or have lain waste
up ’til now, will become fruitful orchards, and on them will
be born new generations of Russians with a new conscious-
ness, with a new feeling for and outlook on the world.
Moreover, we all desire to assist our relatives and fam-
ily members now living in Russia or the Commonwealth
194
Book 8: The New Civilisation
of Independent States. This will also help solve the prob-
lems faced by youth, the jobless and the homeless. We are
prepared, right this moment, to muster the forces of sev-
eral generations of our families, and also put all our capa-
bilities, experience, knowledge and financial resources to-
ward the goal of co-creating a proud, majestic and mighty
Motherland of Russia.
To implement this idea we ask your consideration of the follow-
ing questions:
1. Every willing family or individual citizen should be
granted the right to receive, at no charge, one hectare of
land for lifetime use with the right of inheritance (but with
no right to sell), whereon to create a family domain.
2. Simplification of the procedures to obtain Russian
citizenship on the part of those who wish to create their
own little Motherland and a vast Russia, who were born on
the territory of the RSFSR 28 or of other erstwhile Soviet
republics and who formerly held citizenship in the USSR.
Faithfully and respectfully,
Future Citizens of Russia.
Germany, 160 signatures.
©0
"‘ RSFSR — abbreviation for Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, i.e.,
the part of the USSR that after its formal disintegration became known as
the Russian Federation.
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle
195
This letter, unfortunately, met no reply at all from Russia.
Not even a simple pro-forma memo from some kind of offi-
cial was received in response. The Russian-speaking commu-
nity in Germany has in their possession a postal confirmation
to the effect that the Administrative Office of the Russian
President indeed received their letter.
You know, this lack of response is already becoming a pat-
tern. It’s not just you, but we who are living here in Russia
too, we aren’t getting any reply either. On the Internet site
[of the Anastasia Foundation] there is a whole section full of
letters, some of them written in English, including letters ad-
dressed to the President of Russia. For five years now peo-
ple have been writing on one and the same topic — kin’s do-
mains — but to date there has not been a single reply, either
to individually or collectively written letters . 29
As you will soon realise, it couldn’t be any other way, since
here in Russia there are forces which have pegged themselves
higher than the President or the Government. They believe
themselves to be higher than the people, too, only I think this
is an ill-founded belief. Of course one can rise higher than a
drunken people. But there is not and cannot be any power
“ 9 Even more tellingly, during President Putin’s major Internet conference
on 6 July 2006, over 10,000 conference participants asked or voted for
questions specifically dealing with the allocation of land for kin’s domains.
The seven most popular questions on the topic of agriculture (which the
government declares to be a high priority) were all about the allocation of
land for kin’s domains. President Putin chose to answer a wide variety of
questions (including, for example, ‘At what age did you first have sexual
intercourse?”) but not a single question on kin’s domains. Four days later,
Russia’s leading business journal Expert commented that this particular
Internet conference served as a good indication of the most burning is-
sues in Russian society today, and observed that allocation of land for kin’s
domains was among them.
196 Book 8: The New Civilisation
higher than a people in whose hearts lives not only a dream
of the future but a burning desire to put such a dream into
practice.
It behooves me to respond to you, dear former fellow-citi-
zens, on behalf of our government officials, on behalf of the
President.
First of all I must thank you people, you who now live in
Germany, America, Israel, Poland, the Czech Republic and
Slovakia, Italy and France, Georgia, Belarus and Kazakhstan,
even in Mongolia. It is thanks to your efforts that the books
about Anastasia have been translated and published in the
countries where you are currently residing. I didn’t know
you personally, and so was unable to ask you to do this. But
there is something I do know. I know how your hearts have
been touched and how you went about approaching publish-
ers and translators, and when you did not find a reciprocal
understanding, you set about translating and publishing my
books yourselves. This happened, for example, in the Czech
Republic and Slovakia, Canada and America.
And finally you found some understanding! I felt this for
the first time in Germany when I addressed readers’ confer-
ences in Berlin and Stuttgart.
Sitting together in the overflowing auditorium were
Russian-speakers who had emigrated to Germany from
Russia and native German-speakers who had no knowledge
of Russian, in roughly equal numbers. I knew the two groups
didn’t get along all that well. But here they were sitting side
by side and good-naturedly trying to explain to one another
the translation from Russian, which was, I’m sure, not always
understandable.
I used to consider Germans pedantic and not a strongly
emotional people. But life has shown me otherwise. It was
none other than a German farmer who, after reading about
Anastasia, got into his car and drove all the way to Siberia.
The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle
197
He went knowing neither the language nor the Russian road
system, neither the Russian traffic police nor the weather. He
got there. He returned home with Russian souvenirs for his
friends.
My great gratitude naturally goes out to all those who at
their own initiative, and sometimes at their own expense,
have translated and published the books abroad. But the
books, after all, are not the most important thing. Something
else is. Thank you all for your understanding and support of
the ideas and dream that have come out of Siberian Russia.
Now this dream is no longer just a Russian dream. Now it
is yours as well, and in equal measure. May you succeed in
preserving it, putting it into practice and passing it on to be
perfected by your children.
It is hard to tell who has performed the most significant
service — Anastasia, with her impassioned sayings, the books
themselves, or all those who have seized upon the idea and
carried the torch forward?
Anastasia has said:
“I give the whole of my soul to people. In people I shall
prevail through my soul. Prepare yourself, all wickedness and
evil-mindedness, to leave the Earth ....” 30
I thought these were just simple words. However, life has
shown me that they are not simple at all.
Anastasia’s dream has been lit with tiny sparks in the hearts
of millions of people scattered across the globe — people of
many different nationalities and faiths. This dream is no
longer just her dream. It belongs to many people and will not
fade. It is now the dream of the ages and of eternity!
’°Quoted from Book 3, Chapter 24 : “Who are you, Anastasia?”.
Chapter Eleven
I’m often told: “Why do you make such a fuss over one hec-
tare? — there are more important things.” But in my view
there is nothing more important in our life right now than to
return the Earth to its original flourishing state.
And that is why I keep talking about a hectare of family
land — behind it, after all, there is something immeasurably
more significant. I don’t always have the reasoning and intel-
lectual capacity — nor, perhaps, the temperament — to ex-
plain this, but when there’s even just a little breakthrough and
people understand, well, I consider that a victory
One occasion in particular stands out. The year was 2003.
Switzerland. Zurich. An international forum. I was invited
by the organisers and allotted a time to speak. I began talk-
ing about an idea that saw its birth in Russia, but the audience
didn’t appear all that receptive.
Then there was a question from the floor:
“How do you tie in this hectare of land with Man’s spiritual
development? Perhaps the problem of land tillage is impor-
tant enough for Russia, but these questions have long been
resolved in Europe. We’re here to talk about spirituality.”
A little nervous, I began my reply this way:
I’m talking about a hectare of land and setting up one’s fam-
ily domain on it, and some people might think that’s a rather
primitive notion. We have to talk about the great teach-
ings on spirituality, they say, because that is the topic of this
One hectare — a piece of Planet Earth
199
prestigious European forum. I know — I was told by the or-
ganisers — that sitting before me in this auditorium are well-
known innovative educators, philosophers and writers on
spirituality from all over Europe, along with other thinkers
on this topic who are no less important. But it is precisely be-
cause I am mindful of the composition of this audience here
before me that I am specifically talking about a hectare of
land.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am convinced that concepts such
as love and spirituality must necessarily have a material em-
bodiment.
The hectare of land I have in mind, the hectare Anastasia
speaks about, is much more than a mere hectare of land. It is
a Space through which you may be connected to the Cosmos.
All the planets of the Universe will react to this Space and,
consequently, to you. They will be your friends, assistants and
co-creators.
In terms of the laws of Nature, look what happens to an or-
dinary flower — a daisy, for example. The daisy is inseparably
connected with the Cosmos, the planets and the Sun. The
flower opens its petals when the Sun comes up, and closes
them when the Sun goes down. They are at one with each
other, in harmony with each other. Not even trillions of kilo-
metres or light-years could break the connection. They are
bonded together — the great Sun and the little earthly flower.
They know that only together can they be creators of a great
universal harmony.
But every single blade of grass on the Earth reacts not only
to the Sun. It also reacts to other planets. It reacts to Man,
to the energy of his feelings.
Scientists conducted an experiment in which sensors were
attached to an ordinary flowering house-plant, and polygraph
indicators registered even the minutest energy impulses com-
ing from the flower. Several people were sent into the room
200
Book 8: The New Civilisation
in turn. One of them simply walked past the flower, a second
went over and gave it some water, while a third went in and
cut off one of the leaves. According to the data registered by
the polygraph, whenever the person who tore off a leaf en-
tered the room, the plant would get agitated and cause the
indicator to jump. 1
A related phenomenon can also be often noticed: flow-
ers fade when their owner goes away. The upshot is, that all
plants react to Man. They may like a particular Man or they
may not. Consequently, they may transmit to their planets a
message of either love or absence of love.
And now imagine that you have some kind of Space — say
a hectare of land. This isn’t just any run-of-the-mill hectare of
land where potatoes are grown for sale, but a hectare of land
on which you have begun to create, based on a particular level
of consciousness or spirituality.
Abu have your own territory on which there are a whole
lot of plants cultivated not by hired workers, but directly by
you yourself. Every plant, every blade of grass will react to
you with love, and these plants, as living beings, are capable of
collecting for you all the best energies of the Universe. They
collect them and offer them to you. Plants feed on more than
just the energy of the soil. After all, you are aware that there
are some plants that can grow even without soil.
Five thousand years ago in Ancient Egypt there lived priests
who created a variety of religions. And these priests were in
control of whole nations. These priests were the richest peo-
ple in the world of that time. The basements of their palaces
'This is apparently a reference to the research conducted by the American
polygraph scientist Cleve Backster (1924-). For further information see
Cleve Backster’s Primary perception: Biocommunication with plants, livingfoods,
and human cells (Anza, California: White Rose Millennium Press, 2003) or
Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird’s The secret life of plants (New York:
Harper & Row, 1973), esp. Chapter 1: “Plants and ESP”.
One hectare — a piece of Planet Earth 201
were filled with trunks of gold and precious gems. They were
acquainted with a whole range of secret sciences. The phar-
aoh turned to them for advice and money
But each of these highly placed priests had his own hectare
of land, on which he permitted no slaves to work. These were
the richest people of their day, with a knowledge of a great
many sciences. They knew the secrets of a hectare of land.
On the walls of the ancient temples of Egypt, the priests’
temples, was inscribed the warning: Do not accept food from a
slave. This is Example One.
Example Two. In Ancient Rome the senators issued a de-
cree that if a slave was capable of working on the land and
had been given land, then that slave could be sold to another
master only if the land were sold with him, so as not to let any
outsiders into contact with what was growing on that land.
And why did the Roman senators give land to some of their
slaves? And why did they give them money on top of that to
build themselves a house? For one reason only: to obtain ten
percent of a harvest which had been cultivated and nurtured
with love and care by the Man growing it. It was only produce
like this that could be at all beneficial.
The Egyptian priests and the senators of Ancient Rome
knew what kind of food was beneficial to Man. The produce
we eat today is in no way fit for human consumption — it’s
‘dead produce’. There is a vast difference between berries
one picks from a bush to eat on the spot and berries sold in a
supermarket. It’s not just that they’ve already started to de-
cay, but there’s no energy left in them. They are incapable of
feeding Man’s soul. And I’m not even mentioning the mutant
plants created by our technological world.
So, if you don’t have your own hectare of land, there’s no-
where that you’re going to find food worthy of human con-
sumption. You can take a little money and buy some sort of
vegetables. But you must realise that those vegetables were
202
Book 8: The New Civilisation
not grown for you. They weren’t grown for any Man at all.
They were grown for money.
There is not a disease which cannot be cured by the Space
of Love — a Space you have created with your own hands and
your own soul.
People are the children of God. The world of animals and
plants, the air and the Space around us — these are also God’s
creations. And everything taken together is nothing less than
the materially embodied spirit of God. If someone calls him-
self a highly spiritual person, let him show the material em-
bodiment of his spirituality
Imagine God looking down on you from above right now.
And He sees someone driving a tram, another one of His chil-
dren constructing buildings, another standing in a store and
selling things from behind a counter. These aren’t the profes-
sions God created. They’re professions for slaves. God didn’t
want his children to be slaves. And He created a marvellous
world and gave it in stewardship to His children. Take care of
it and use it! But to do that, you must understand this world.
Understand what the Moon is, what the herb known as the
yarrow is...
And what is a hectare of land? Is it a place where Alan must
work by the sweat of his brow? No! It is a place where Man
shouldn’t work at all. It is a place through which Man ought
to control the world. Tell me, who gives greater pleasure to
God — a Man driving a tram or a Man who might have only
a small piece of land but has transformed it into a Paradise?
The latter, of course.
Can people today open up a road to the Cosmos? Or can
they be taught how to settle the Moon or Mars? Of course
not! Because they’ll put weapons and pollution there, and
end up having the same wars there as on the Earth. Yet Man,
after all, has been created to populate other worlds. And this
will come about only when Alan understands and beautifies
One hectare — a piece of Planet Earth
203
his own Earth. The way to settle the planets of the Universe
isn’t technical at all, it is psychotelepathic.
Man needs to become consciously aware of what consti-
tutes the true beauty of the Universe.
Your city of Zurich is considered beautiful. We can say a
thousand times how beautiful it is. But what, specifically, is
beautiful about it? Yes, it is very clean here. Yes, it looks as
though there are many well-to-do people living here. But is
land covered with asphalt truly beautiful? Is it really good to
have little green islands popping up just in certain places? Is
it good that there’s a dying tree — a majestic cedar — right in
the centre of your city? It’s suffocating from the smog. It’s
suffocating from exhaust fumes. And it’s not the only thing
that’s dying and suffocating. The people walking along the
city streets are suffocating from these fumes too.
We should give some thought to all that we have managed
to contrive on this Earth. And it’s best to talk about it in very
simple terms. Let each one of us take a small plot of his land,
pull his whole mind and whole spirituality together and cre-
ate a very small but concrete Paradise. Lie will transform his
little piece of land on our large planet into a flourishing gar-
den, giving a material embodiment to his spirituality, follow-
ing God’s example. If millions of people do this in a whole lot
of countries, then the whole Earth will become a flourishing
garden, and there won’t be any wars, because millions of peo-
ple will be completely engaged in a grand co-creation. And if
Russians should then descend upon Switzerland or Germany,
it will only be to delight in the contemplation of beautiful liv-
ing oases, to learn from their experience in embodying true
spirituality
Russia, unfortunately, is currently trying with all its might
to be like the West. Russia’s politicians are peppering their
speeches with references to Western countries as developed or
civilised. They are urging their people to catch up to them
204 Book 8: The New Civilisation
in ‘development’ and ‘being civilised’. Our politicians still
don’t know that we have the opportunity not only to catch up
quickly, but to significantly overtake them. But this can come
to pass only if Russia does a complete about-face and starts
heading in the opposite direction.
This is in no way to suggest I am trying to denigrate or in-
sult your Western civilisation. But we’re talking here, after
all, about spirituality, and we need to be honest and sincere in
what we say to one another. Spirituality cannot be measured
simply by material wealth and technological achievements.
Such a one-sided, technocratic approach to mankind’s devel-
opment will invariably lead to an abyss. No doubt those of
you gathered here today will admit this, but then you must
also admit that you are running out in front, with us right be-
hind you. Try to stop and figure out what’s happened to our
world. If you do manage to figure it out, call out to those
running behind you: Hey, you’d better stop, chaps! Stop running !
There’s an abyss ahead, and we’re already on the edge of it. Find
another way.
If we really listen to our hearts, together, we ought to go
from simply talking about spirituality to its material embodi-
ment. One hectare is but a tiny dot on the face of our planet
Earth. But millions of these dots will transform the whole
planet into a flourishing garden. Trillions of flower petals,
along with the happy smiles of children and oldsters will tell
the Universe that the people of the Earth are ready for a grand
co-creation.
And the planets of the Universe will respond:
“We’re waiting for you, Man. We’re waiting for you, wor-
thy son of God!”
Our millennium has ushered in a great transformation on
the Earth. Tens of thousands of Russian families have already
aspired to obtain their own hectare of land. A father and
mother who are actually creating a Space of Love for their
One hectare — apiece of Planet Earth 205
children are more spiritual than the most celebrated wise-
men who only talk about spirituality.
Let the spirit of each Man spring up from the ground as a
beautiful flower, a tree with fragrant fruit, and let this take
place on every single hectare of our planet.
After these words, for some time absolute silence reigned in
the hall. This was followed by thunderous applause.
I spoke in Zurich on the following day, too. Once again,
to a full house. A number of our former compatriots were
present here, too.
I don’t think I came across too coherently, especially since
I was speaking through an interpreter. But people stayed,
they listened, because it wasn’t just me that was talking with
this audience — a higher power was speaking. Avery simple,
specific, yet at the same time extraordinary, power, one that
has been preserved for millennia in the depths of the human
soul — a nostalgia for the true way of life for Man as Creator.
And then I thought: Do I really need to explain to anyone that
all Russia’s sons and daughters that have been blown away by an ill
wind will most definitely return? Of course they’ll come back! You
will remember Anastasia’s words:’
Mother Russia will greet crowds of guests on that day! They are
all of the Earth asAtlanteans born! As prodigal sons they shall
return. Let all the bards everywhere play on their guitars. And
the old shall write letters to their children. And children to their
parents. Both you and I shall become very young and people will
feel young for the very first time.
"Quoted (approximately) from Book 2, Chapter 9: “Dachnik Day and an
All-Earth holiday!”.
Chapter Twelve
At the moment you are engaged in the process of creating
a people’s strategy for the future development of the Russian
State. Part of this strategy has been published in issues of the
almanac,' part appears on the Anastasia site on the Internet.
As I see it, the overwhelming majority of the materials is ex-
tremely interesting. However there is one question — about
power and authority — that has not yet been sufficiently il-
luminated. Vet it is a most important question. I invite you
to join me in contemplating it. For starters, I’d like to share
my own reasonings with you.
Power often changes. Just over the past hundred years,
people have lived under the Tsar, the Communists and a series
of democratic rulers. Power gets changed, but life does not
get rearranged for the better. Why? Do bad people always
come to power? Hardly It is more likely that the current
system makes any politicians who get elected to power inef-
fective pen-pushers when it comes to solving the problems
involved in any real betterment of people’s lives.
Take our legislative assemblies over the most recent parlia-
mentary terms. It seems that we vote for normal, family- type
people, and then once they’re in power they come up with, to
put it mildly, some rather strange legislation. Why? Perhaps,
1 the almanac — see footnote i in Book 7, Chapter 28: “To the readers of the
Ringing Cedars Series”.
People power
207
in the process of coming to power, they fall into another
world — a world isolated from the people? An apartment in
the parliamentary living quarters, a car equipped with its own
flashing light on top, a private office where the public is de-
nied entry, along with all sorts of special perks and “vanity of
vanities”.
Anastasia’s Grandfather suggested an interesting piece of
draft legislation concerning deputies of the State Duma. They
should each be granted a piece of land and definitely live in a
community built on that land, right out among the people. A
law faculty graduate in Ukraine named Tatiana Borodina , 2 has
drafted a bill to this effect, and I think it is worth reproduc-
ing its major clauses here in this book, so that my readers can
pass on the proposal to their own elected representatives in
legislative assemblies at all levels.
Moreover, I call upon my readers to be sure to take part in
regional and federal elections, but to vote in only those candi-
dates who live in their own kin’s domains.
But is it merely a passport stamp that defines someone as a
Russian citizen? In many cases, a candidate on the ballot has
Russian citizenship and a Moscow residence permit, but has
a fashionable domain located in another country. Is he going
to be mindful of the needs of ordinary Russian people? Most
probably his thoughts will be oriented in a completely differ-
ent direction.
If a candidate has his own little Motherland — his family
domain in Russia — and lives there among Russian citizens,
his work can be expected to bring benefit to those citizens
and to the Motherland as a whole.
This much is becoming clear to many people. Students are
even beginning to draft laws to assist the legislators.
2 Tatiana Borodina — see reference in Chapter 10 (“ The Book of Kin and A
Family Chronicle’) above, especially footnote 19.
208
Book 8: The New Civilisation
A law of Russia on Family Communities created by
Russian People’s Deputies on all levels (draft)
The law defines the legal, social and economic provisions for
the creation and maintenance of Family Communities and
Family Domains on the part of Russian People’s Deputies, 3
thereby guaranteeing the right of Russian citizens — as pro-
claimed in Russia’s Constitution — to hold land as the foun-
dation for the wealth of the nation.
The law is aimed at the creation of favourable working
conditions for Russian People’s Deputies, conducive to the
development, drafting and adoption of federal legislation, as
well as guaranteeing their maximum contact with voters.
Article i. Basic terms and concepts used in the Law
Certain specific terms used in the Law are defined as follows:
e Family Domain — a plot of land from i to 1.3 hectares in
size, granted to age-of-majority Russian citizens for their life-
time use, with the right of inheritance, with no tax obliga-
tions in respect to the land or its produce;
• Family Community — a centre of population organised on
the principles of local self-government, consisting of Family
Domains as well as socio-cultural and community facilities;
0 lifetime use — unconditional ownership and use of a plot
of land, free of charge and in perpetuity;
3 Russian People’s Deputies (Russian: Narodnye deputaty Rossii) — formal title
of elected political representatives (members of parliament or a governing
council) at the federal, regional and local levels.
People power
209
0 living fence — a hedge consisting of trees and shrubs planted
around the perimeter of a Family Domain or a Family Community
Article 2. Legislation on Family Domains
and Family Communities
The procedures involved in granti ng a Russian People’s Deputy
an allotment of land for the creation of a Family Community,
as well as the definition of the legal status of Family Domains
and Family Communities and their functions, are all gov-
erned by the Russian Constitution, the Russian Land Code,
this Law, the Russian Law on Family Domains and Family
Communities, as well as other applicable laws.
Article 3. Basic principles of legislation governing
Family Communities
The creation of Family Communities by Russian People’s
Deputies is subject to the following basic principles:
(a) compliance with the law;
(b) the setting of conditions for the implementation by all
Russian citizens of their right to hold land as the foundation
for the wealth of the nation;
(c) the principle that ownership and use of the plot of land
granted for the creation of a Family Domain shall be free of
charge, unconditional and in perpetuity;
(d) exemption of the owner of a Family Domain from pay-
ment of taxes on the sale of produce grown or goods produced
on said Family Domain;
(e) the creation of one Family Community by one Russian
People’s Deputy of the current parliamentary term;
(f) other applicable principles.
Article 4. Purview of the Law
The purview of this Law covers Russian People’s Deputies at
all levels of government who are elected in accordance with
210
Book 8: The New Civilisation
electoral laws, as well as age-of-majority Russian citizens who
have expressed a desire to live in a Family Community organ-
ised on the principles set forth in this Law.
Article 5. Granting an allotment of land to a Russian
People’s Deputy for the creation of a Family Community
1. Each Russian People’s Deputy serving a current or fu-
ture term, within a year from the date of his election, shall be
granted an allotment of land at least 150 ha in size whereon to
establish a Family Community (hereinafter: land, allotment).
2. Upon election as a Russian People’s Deputy under the
proportional system from a political party’s or a party-alli-
ance’s candidates’ list in a nation-wide election, the success-
ful candidate shall be granted a land allotment in a region of
Russia of his choosing.
Upon election as a Russian People’s Deputy by a majority
of voters in a single-representative electoral district, the suc-
cessful candidate shall be granted a land allotment on the ter-
ritory of the district where he is elected.
3. A single Family Community shall not be created by two
or more Russian People’s Deputies, neither shall two or more
Russian People’s Deputies be permitted to live in the same
Family Community during the same term of office.
4. The land allotment is granted as a single parcel of land
(including any water resources thereon) from properties be-
longing to the State or already held communally. Land may
also be expropriated from people making full-time use of it
and transferred to a Russian People’s Deputy for the creation
of a Family Community
5. If required, land may be purchased from property own-
ers for community needs, in which case the property owner
must be given a minimum of a year’s notice in writing by the
respective decision-making body, and must also give his own
consent to the sale. The purchase price is to be determined
People power
211
by an expert’s assessment of the land’s monetary value, which
is to be carried out in accordance with the methodology es-
tablished by the federal Cabinet.
6. A plot of land recommended for inclusion in the land al-
lotment for the creation of a Family Community by a Russian
People’s Deputy but which is in the possession of a physical or
legal person, may, with the agreement of the property owner,
be exchanged for another plot of land of equal value — either
in the same region or in another region of Russia, depending
on the property owner’s preference.
7. Russian citizens who own plots of land or shares in ‘real’
(individually registered) plots of land adjacent to the territory
of a proposed Family Community, have the right to reassign
their properties, without monetary payment, for the purposes
of creating a Family Community by a Russian People’s Deputy,
and receive in return a plot of land within said Community,
whereon to create a Family Domain for their lifetime use.
8. A Russian citizen who owns ‘virtual’ shares in commu-
nal (not individually registered) plots of land, has the right to
transfer his shares, either wholly or in part (no less than 1 ha
in size) for the purposes of creating a Family Community by
a Russian People’s Deputy, and receive in return a plot of land
within said Community, whereon to create a Family Domain
for his lifetime use.
Article 6. Land composition in Family Communities
1. The land in a Family Community is comprised of the
following types of plots:
0 land plots for the creation of a Family Domain;
8 land plots for the creation of Family Domains on the part
of children of a Russian People’s Deputy (no more than two
plots per Community).
2. Land plots reserved for socio-cultural and community
purposes are designated in accordance with the overall plan
212
Book 8: The New Civilisation
of the Family Community The aggregate of such plots is not
to exceed 7% of the total area of the Community The said
plots are under the jurisdiction of the Local Council of the
said Family Community
3. The remaining portion of the land allotment is to be di-
vided into plots of land for the creation of Family Domains
of no less than 1 ha each. The size may be extended to 1.3 ha
depending on the peculiarities of the terrain and other perti-
nent factors.
4. Between all land plots walkways must be created, no less
than 3 or 4 metres wide. Each plot owner has the right to plant
a living fence around the perimeter of his Family Domain.
5. On plots of land designated for the creation of a Family
Domain, Russian citizens have the right to plant trees and
shrubs (including those of the forest variety), to create arti-
ficial reservoirs, construct houses and outbuildings and erect
ancillary structures and other facilities, provided principles
of good-neighbourliness are observed.
Article 7. Order of distribution of laud plots designated for
the creation of Family Domains among Russian citizens
1. In the proposed Family Communities the Russian
People’s Deputies have the right to be the first to select for
themselves one land plot for the creation of a Family Domain
for their lifetime use with right of inheritance.
2. Each child of a Russian People’s Deputy with a family of
his own has the right to receive a land plot for the creation of
a Family Domain for his lifetime use.
3. It is mandatory that one or two land plots in the Family
Community be granted to refugees or to children from oiphanages.
4. Russian People’s Deputies, at their discretion, have the
right to grant to Russian citizens of their choosing up to 30%
of the remaining land plots, whereon said citizens are to cre-
ate their own Family Domains.
People power
213
5. The remaining land plots should be given to Russian citi-
zens belonging to a variety of social classes (entrepreneurs,
social workers, pensioners, representatives of the creative
intelligentsia, military personnel etc.)- Land plots are to be
distributed among Russian citizens on the basis of a lottery
conducted openly at a general meeting of future residents of
each Family Community
Article 8. Local Councils of Family Communities
1. The Local Council of each Family Community comprises
those living in said Community, united by the fact of their perma-
nent residence within the boundaries of said Community which
constitutes a self-contained administrative-territorial entity
2. The Local Council of the Family Community has the
right to create a representative organ of local self-govern-
ment, namely, the Family Community Council, whose mem-
bers are drawn exclusively from among the residents of the
said Community
3. Russian People’s Deputies are prohibited from stand-
ing for election or being elected to the Family Community
Council. In cases where a Russian People’s Deputy is elected
to a Family Community Council, their election shall be de-
clared null and void.
4. The procedures for setting up local self-government are
regulated by the By-laws of the Local Council of the Family
Community (hereinafter: By-laws), which said Council has
the right to adopt at one of its meetings or by a local referen-
dum. The By-laws must be registered with the district office
of the Ministry of Justice.
Article 9. Status of land plots in respect to creating
a Family Domain
1. Plots ofland designated for the creation of Family Domains
are granted — for lifetime use with the right of inheritance —
214
Book 8: The New Civilisation
only to citizens of Russia. It is forbidden to grant land plots
for Family Domains to citizens of foreign countries or to state-
less persons, except those who have been granted legal refugee
status (but no more than two such families are permitted per
Family Community created by a Russian People’s Deputy).
0)0
I don’t know how much time I had spent walking around
while Anastasia’s grandfather familiarised himself with the
contents of the documents I had brought with me 4 when all
of a sudden I heard a loud and raucous outburst of laughter,
which sounded not at all like that of an old man. He was still
laughing when I dashed over to him.
“That’s rich!... Oho, that really makes me laugh!... Thank
you... Thank you, Vladimir! And to think I didn’t want to get
into these at first!”
“But now that you are into them, what’s so funny? After
all, this is a most serious situation! And an extremely compli-
cated one!”
“Extremely complicated for whom?” Grandfather asked.
“For me and for my readers wishing to build the domains
Anastasia talked about.”
A detailed draft and commentary will be published in a forthcoming regu-
lar issue of the Ringing Cedars of Russia almanac, which you will be able to
purchase. It would be a good idea for readers to bring this to the attention
of Russian People’s Deputies at all levels of government. — Footnote from the
original Russian edition.
4 See the beginning of Chapter 9 above.
People power
215
Quite possibly in uttering these words I might have sound-
ed irritated and hurt. Grandfather stopped laughing, looked
at me intently and replied quietly and seriously:
“To this day I cannot understand why my granddaughter
would have anything to do with you, let alone bear children
with you. Only don’t be mad at this old man, Vladimir. Maybe
I don’t get it, which means others too may not get it, but it’s
possible that in this ‘not getting it’ lies a great truth. And so I
don’t have any bad feelings toward you. And I don’t condemn
my granddaughter. On the contrary, I’m very excited about
what’s been achieved.”
“But is there anything specific you have to say about the
contents of these documents?”
“I’ve already said it — I’m excited about what’s been
achieved.”
“By whom?”
“By my granddaughter.”
“But I was asking you about what I’d written.”
Grandfather looked first at the packet of documents and
then, silently and intently, at me, before replying.
“I really can’t say, Vladimir, just how necessary your appeal
to the public really is. Maybe it is indeed important for them.
As I see it, what I read simply confirms that even back ten
years ago my granddaughter foresaw all these ups and downs,
and long ago everything that seems to be working against you
she’s turned into something beneficial.”
“How can you call offending my readers and me benefi-
cial ?”
“Did you realise who’s been offending you and your read-
ers?”
“Some kind of entity that’s set itself up under the cover of
Russia’s Orthodox Church.”
‘And it provoked a feeling in you of being offended?”
“Yeah.”
21 6
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“Well, that’s good! Now it’s not just with your mind, but
with the feelings that you and many of your readers have ex-
perienced, that you can understand how your forebears were
defamed in the eyes of their descendants — how they were
called pagans and for centuries were blamed for all sorts of
misdeeds they never committed, ’'fou’re not the only one
who’s tried to write about this. There have been quite a few
historians over the centuries who have tried to refute this
slander — but in vain.
“What’s happening now is that the same tactics are being
used all over again to discredit people who really want to reach
out and touch God’s creations. There are quite a few of these
people now, and they can feel by their own experience how
their forebears were smeared like that. The souls of their dis-
tant ancestors are finding renewed strength through those be-
ing slandered in our time. Their forebears of yesterday will act
like guardian angels, protecting their descendants of today
“Believe me, there can be no kinder and brighter force —
no way — than that which is emerging in the world right now.
If this is coming about for people today — if some invisible
thread is capable of joining today’s son together with his par-
ent who lived two thousand years ago — and if the thread that
joins them together can be extended, then today’s Man will
be joined together with God, his original Parent.”
Grandfather was clearly trying to restrain his excitement
as he told me this. But I felt I needed further clarification.
“Maybe what you say is very important,” I observed. “But,
you see, there’s been quite a bit of delay with the creation of
family domains.”
“But, just maybe, such a delay is necessary to give people
the opportunity to figure things out and co-create a design
for the future?”
“Maybe. It’s all turning out rather unexpectedly As though
the first book began with just simple actions, then with the
People power
217
second came readers’ clubs, and now, with The Book of Kin out,
the Family Chronicle has come along.”
These words made Grandfather laugh again, but he imme-
diately cut himself short, and said with a kindly smile:
“My granddaughter was clearly having a fun time with
that Family Chronicle ! Maybe it was to comfort you and your
readers somehow But hey, look how she arranged it so that
Russia’s supreme rulers and the Patriarch of the Church sup-
ported her idea! Even if it’s just one of her ideas. No mention
of her philosophy, or maybe they simply didn’t understand it.
Their names will not go down in the annals of old — they’re
too wishy-washy, not very bold.
“People will be eternally remembered in the annals of old
who are right now, at least in their thoughts, creating their
own God-pleasing domains. Whether they themselves chose
the idea or whether it chose them, that doesn’t matter any
more. Eternity awaits those who are co-creating a future for
their children — and not just for their children but for them-
selves too. For the first time on the Earth, Man who is born
for eternity will come back to eternity
“Vladimir, I’m just beginning to understand my grand-
daughter’s achievements. It is possible that many secrets of
life have been revealed to her. But there is one which even the
high priests were not fully aware of. All they ever knew before
was that human life could be eternal. Part of this knowledge
allowed them, for example, to be reincarnated over and over.
But this reincarnation was never complete. And this is why
their achievements did not bring joy either to themselves or
to mankind.
“Now I am confident — and believe me — that Anastasia has
full knowledge of the creations needed to attain eternity You
might ask her about this and try to understand. And if she can
come up with words that a great many people will understand,
worlds worthy of a god-Man will be unfurled to their thought.
2l8
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“Take a walk over to my granddaughter, Vladimir, and have
a talk with her. At the moment she is sitting under the cedar,
down by the lakeshore. There may be significant revealings
in the world all around when the words of eternity are found
which are comprehensible to both mind and feelings. The
aspirations of the great awakened civilisation will whirl up-
ward. The whole galaxy will feel these great aspirations and
will await with shivers of anticipation the touch of those ca-
pable of giving to the planets a new and marvellous life. Go,
and be not slow.”
I had already taken several steps when I was stopped by
Anastasia’s grandfather crying out:
“Vladimir, it’s high time that you and Anastasia’s followers
started your own Motherland party.”
£ A party? What kind of party?”
“I’m telling you! That’s what you should call it — the
Motherland Party l” 5
5 Motherland Party (Russian: Rodnaya Partiya) — Following the publication
of this appeal, several groups of inspired readers and sponsors did set about
establishing the proposed ‘Motherland Party’. However, since Vladimir
Megre subsequently changed his mind and decided to align himself with the
Edinaya Rossiya (One Russia) Party, loyal to the existing regime of Vladimir
Putin (and invited his followers to follow suit), the proposed party never
got off the ground, and Megre’s move caused some dissension among his
followers.
Chapter Thirteen
Anastasia was sitting beneath the cedar tree, wearing a light
grey flaxen dress. With her arms around her knees and her
head slightly lowered, she was gazing out at the smooth sur-
face of the lake. I didn’t go up to her right away For a while
I stood at a distance, observing this recluse quietly sitting
there by the lakeshore. No — that description really doesn’t
fit Anastasia. The word recluse is better suited to the people
who live in modern apartments.
People live in these apartments and don’t even know their
neighbours sharing the same floor . 1 They walk along the
street and couldn’t care less about the people they meet. And
their attitude is entirely reciprocal.
So, while there’s nothing frightening in someone living
alone, it’s a lot more frightening when they’re alone amongst
people like themselves.
And so, even though Anastasia was sitting here alone on
the shore of this taiga lake, her heart was beating in unison
with millions of human hearts all over the world. Some call
her their friend, some their sister, feeling like they’re related
to her.
'in contrast with North American practice, Russian apartment blocks,
even the ones that appear massive from the outside, are usually divided
into vertical sections, each with its own exterior entrance, stairs and lift
(elevator). A given section might have four to six flats per floor around the
stairwell and lift shaft. Hence there would not be very many “neighbours
sharing the same floor”.
220
Book 8: The New Civilisation
In the meantime, her soft-spoken words wing their way
through the endless flow of information thundering and dun-
dering from TV screens and a host of other media. Her words
waft by and people pick them up. And people who catch them
may respond with guitar strings and songs, and often with ac-
tions. They retune their life anew.
And Grandfather... I saw for the first time how fervent-
ly he expressed himself as he asked me to have a word with
Anastasia about eternity.
I sat down beside her and she turned her head toward me.
I felt a calming sense from the tender gaze of her greyish-blue
eyes. For a time we simply sat and looked at each other.
I couldn’t help myself, but took her hand, gave it a quick
kiss and then replaced it on her knees. Her cheeks were aflush
with a soft glow, her eyelashes all aflutter. And without rhyme
or reason a sense of unease came over me. How strange to
feel uneasy over a woman one has known for ten years! And
how delightful!
And in an attempt to overcome my sense of awkwardness
and unease, I broke the silence first.
“I was talking with your grandfather just now, Anastasia.
For some reason he quite unexpectedly and rather excitedly
started saying something about humanity’s need for words on
eternity He said these words should be the kind people can
grasp not just with their mind or intellect, but with their feel-
ings. Are these words really that important?”
“Yes, they are important, Vladimir. But it is not the words
that are important, but, rather, people’s conscious awareness.
Words, of course, are necessary to bring it forth. A conscious
awareness of eternal life will help perfect Man’s way of life .” 2
“As noted earlier (footnote 7 in Chapter 9: ‘A fine state of affairs!”), the
Russian phrase for ‘way of life’ is literally: ‘image of life’ ( obraz zhizni).
A new civilisation
221
“But what connection is there between our way of life and
becoming consciously aware of eternity?”
“A direct connection. People today believe that they have
only a few decades to live, after which they must leave life be-
hind and disappear into oblivion. Yet all along, Man’s life can
be eternal. This must be brought out, so that everyone, or, at
least, most people, may understand.”
“But you talked about that already And I’ve included your
words on this subject in several of my books.”
“Yes, I did, but, evidently, what I said has not been under-
stood, or the frailty of human existence has been drummed
into people’s consciousness too strongly over the millennia.
New words and arguments must be found.”
“So, can you try to find them?”
“I shall try We need to look for them, apparently, along
with those who will understand.”
“But tell me in your own words first.”
“Fine. Perhaps we should put it this way...
“Most people living on the Earth believe that they plan
out their own life. They choose a profession, start a family,
have children or, alternatively, decline to have children. But
in many respects their decisions are not their own. A great
influence is exercised upon them by somebody else’s will, act-
ing through public opinion.
“For example, you have an object called a clothes hanger. At
one point somebody decided to perfect this object by using
Man himself as a clothes hanger. This gave rise to the profes-
sion you call modelling from the word model. It is not an envi-
able profession, it is not part of Man’s destiny
“But somebody decided to make it one of the most attrac-
tive professions of all, and did so. They began to show off live
models in a variety of colour magazine photos and TV shows,
and to describe their supposedly happy lives — to tell about
all the money they make and how rich people want to marry
222
Book 8: The New Civilisation
them. Millions of young girls began to dream of becoming
the world’s next top model and thereby attaining happiness.
“Millions of young girls all over the world began resorting
to all sorts of measures in an effort to achieve this illusory
glory One in a million made it as a famous model, essentially
becoming a walking clothes hanger. The others experienced
deep disappointment in their lives, as their dream was not
fulfilled.
“And this was due to their failure to determine their own
destiny — they had begun structuring their lives under the
influence of somebody else’s will.
“There are many other examples that could be cited of
men and women, and even children, chasing illusory values,
neglecting their own purpose and destiny.
“Tell me what you think, Vladimir — if human society is
made up of people like that, where can it be heading?”
“It’s heading nowhere, that kind of human society Out
there, in our country — Russia — not a single political par-
ty nor the state as a whole has put forth any kind of pro-
gramme for building the future. From what you have told
me, Anastasia, I’m particularly interested in the definition of
M a n’s purpose and destiny What does it consist of? How can
people discover it?”
“Let your thought, Vladimir, as well as other people’s
thoughts, try to grasp hold of God’s creations, His pro-
gramme, His dream.”
“But is that really possible — grasping hold of God’s dream,
I mean?”
“It is possible. After all, He has hid nothing, and still hides
nothing from people — from children who are His very own.
He has written no scholarly tomes — everything by example
He has shown. And the first thing everyone needs to under-
stand and feel is which of Man’s deeds to eternity lead. Think
for yourself, Vladimir, why did not God, who created the
A new civilisation
223
living and multifaceted world, not create things like the car,
the TV and the space ship in their present form?”
“Perhaps He simply wasn’t up to the job, whereas Man is?”
“God created everything Man needs — Man has within
himself a means of transportation as well as imagination
through which he can see far better pictures than are shown
on TV. Man is also capable of effecting the mastery of other
planets of the Universe without the aid of primitive artificial
projectiles.
“It was God who determined Man’s purpose and destiny,
as well as the programme of development for all life in the
Universe. To attain the required understanding, Man needs
to refrain from destroying His programme and to study for
all he’s worth and ascertain the purpose of everything on the
Earth.”
010
Immortality
“God created Man immortal. To witness this, only three con-
ditions are required to be observed:
“First: create a living Space which will attract Man to itself
and to which Man has aspired.
“Second: there should be, somewhere on the Earth, at least
one person who thinks of you with kindness and love.
“Third: never even admit the thought that you can be over-
taken by death — and this is extremely important. Even if
you suggest to someone who is simply falling asleep that he is
dying and he believes it, then he will die, in obedience to his
224
Book 8: The New Civilisation
thought. But even if an elderly man (in Earth terms) wears
out his body and is lying at death’s door, but does not think
about death, but pictures his life in the living Space he has
been creating, he will be born anew — such is the law of the
Universe. The Universe will not stand by and allow a life-cre-
ating thought to die.
“You have a concept in your world known as natural selec-
tion . Even now God’s programme is selecting the best of eve-
rything for a re-embodiment. Before, however, there was not
much to choose from. Now it is showing a multifold increase.
Whoever builds a domain with love will be reincarnated again
and again.
“Whatever interferes with them will disappear from the
Earth for ever, giving way to the birth of a new civilisation.”
“But why a new civilisation,” I asked, “if the people are go-
ing to be the same, with the same vegetation and the same
planet?”
“The new civilisation, Vladimir, will be characterised by a
new conscious awareness as well as by new perceptions of the
surrounding world. This great principle, that has been given
birth in people today, will remain invisible to ordinary sight
until the appearance of the planet known as the Earth has
changed. It will affect life in the Universe as a whole.”
“But how can the Universe change as a result of the Earth’s
appearance?”
“It can, Vladimir. Even though our planet is but a small par-
ticle, it is in close interaction with other parts of the Universe.
Even if one small particle should change, its changes can in-
fluence the whole spectrum of the Universe.”
“Most interesting. But couldn’t you show me, Anastasia, a
scene from the future as to how the Universe might change?”
“I can indeed. Take a look.”
A new civilisation
225
00
Love creating worlds
Spring was in full bloom on the planet Arreta . 3 Herbs very
similar to those on the Earth, along with flowers on trees and
bushes, were giving off their sweet scent. Ayoung man named
Vladislav 4 was walking along a pathway amidst the springtime
splendour, on his way to a symposium. He was to give a talk
on the origins of life on the planet Arreta. His debating op-
ponent would be his childhood friend Radomir . 5
At nineteen years old, Vladislav had an adequate store of
data to defend his theory before scholars at any level. But
the knowledge possessed by his friend Radomir was no less
in scope. Radomir and his team would pounce on any weak
points or unsupported reasoning in Vladislav’s arguments re-
garding events in the past.
Liudmila 6 would be there, too. Liudmila... As it happened,
both lads had been in love with this girl right from childhood.
They loved her, but never admitted it either to each other or
to the girl. Instead, they were waiting for Liudmila herself to
give some kind of indication as to whom she preferred.
3 'Arreta — The Russian name here is actually Talmeza, derived from the
vfoxAZemlya (Earth), spelt backwards.
4 Vladislav — a common Russian masculine name, originally meaning ‘{born]
in love and glory’ (although often associated with the meaning ‘ruler of
praise’). The subsequent variant Vadichek is an endearing form of this name.
5 Radomir — a Russian masculine name, derived from the words rad (‘joyful’)
and mir (‘peace’).
6 Liudmila — a common Russian feminine name, derived from the roots liud
(‘people’) and mil (‘dear’).
226
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Vladislav had deliberately chosen a roundabout route to
where the symposium was being held, in order to give more
thought to his presentation. But something was interfering
with his concentration. He had the impression that some-
body was watching him. Upon hearing a rustle behind him,
he did a sharp about-face. Someone darted from the path
into the bushes and was lying still in the tall grasses. Vladislav
took a few steps back the way he had come and caught sight
of a figure hiding in the grasses under a bush. It was his four-
year-old sister Katya.'
“So, Katerinka, you’ve latched onto me again, eh?” Vladislav
tenderly addressed his sister. “I’ve got an important presen-
tation coming up. Maybe you don’t realise it, but you’re get-
ting in the way. Or maybe you do realise it — otherwise you
wouldn’t be hiding there in the grasses.”
“I’m not hiding, I’m just lying here,” replied Katya. “I’m
looking at this flower, and all the different little bugs.” And
she made it look as though she really were interested in a par-
ticular little flower.
“Well, now! Then you can just go on lying there looking at
them. I’m off.”
Katya jumped up at once and ran over to Vladislav.
“Go ahead, Vadichek,” she started rattling off. “I’ll follow
you ever so quietly, so’s not to interfere with your thinking.
When we get to the place where all the people are, you take
me by the hand so that everyone can see what a handsome
and clever big brother I have!”
“Okay Don’t try to sweet-talk me. Here, give me your hand.
Only remember, when I or somebody else is presenting, don’t
even think of criticising what the grown-ups say like last time.”
1 Katya — an endearing form of the feminine name Yekaterina, derived from
the Greek word katharos (‘pure’ ); related to ‘Catherine’ in English. The
subsequent variant Katerinka conveys a hint of brotherly condescension.
A new civilisation
227
Katerinka, now satisfied, grasped hold of Vladislav’s hand
and promised:
“I shall try with all my might not to criticise.”
e©
Representatives of the different regions of the planet Arreta,
both young and old, filled the natural amphitheatre. Nobody
carried pens, notepads or any kind of writing materials. Their
natural memory allowed them to memorise what they heard
down to the minutest detail. Vladislav carried no exhibits
with him as he walked out on stage. With just the power of
his thought he would be able to create holograms in space
to show any scenes from the past he wished, or reproduce
household objects or even feelings.
With just a hint of uneasiness, Vladislav began his presen-
tation:
The planet on which we live is called Arreta. It is more
than ninety sextillion years old. But life began here no
more than three hundred years ago. For originating life
here we are indebted to our forebears, two inhabitants of
the planet Earth. To put it more specifically, the originat-
ing of life on the planet Arreta was due to the influence of
the energy of love and the dream of two inhabitants of the
planet Earth. For this reason I offer you some historical
information about life on the planet Earth.
The earliest period of people’s life on Earth was quite
possibly similar to our own. Theyhadagoodknowledge and
feeling of their planet and the purpose of the Universe.
228
Book 8: The New Civilisation
Earth-dwellers determined the purpose of all the living
organisms of their planet, and made efficient use of them.
But one day a disaster occurred. The consciousness of
one of the Earth’s inhabitants was invaded by a virus which
soon spread intensively among the other inhabitants of the
planet. Our scientists have termed this virus death.
The outward signs of this virus, as indicated by historical
records, are characterised as follows. The people infected
by it start to destroy their own perfect variety of life on
the planet, creating in its place a primitive, artificial world.
This period of life Earth-dwellers themselves referred to as
the technocratic age.
The people infected by the death virus began mutating
from rational beings into anti-rational beings. They gath-
ered together in large numbers on small plots of land and
built themselves dwellings that looked like stone tombs,
piled one on top of another.
Picture to yourselves a stone mountain with a whole
lot of burrows hollowed out in it. It was something quite
similar to these stone mountains that people built with
their hands and called apartment blocks. The tomb-burrows
in this artificial mountain were called apartments. A mas-
sive concentration of these artificial stone mountains with
their burrows, piled up one beside the other, was called a
city.
These so-called cities were filled with air unfit to breathe
and water unfit to drink, along with stale food. Even dur-
ing Earth-dwellers’ lifetime, various organs of the human
anatomy would begin to decay and decompose. Of course
it is difficult to imagine human bodies walking around con-
taining decaying and decomposing organs. But that’s ex-
actly how it was.
Historical sources indicate that people of the techno-
cratic age even had a science they called medicine. They
A new civilisation
229
considered one of the big achievements of this science to
be the ability to replace their internal organs. People did
not understand that the very existence of such a science
proved the inadequacy of their consciousness.
It was not only people’s flesh that was subject to decom-
position. There was an intensive degradation of their mind
and consciousness too. Their thought slowed down, they
even lost the ability to compute sums and invented a calcu-
lator. They lost their ability to create holograms in space
and invented a device they called a television — a primitive
mechanism displaying something like a hologram.
They lost the ability to move themselves through space
and began building artificial devices known as cars, aero-
planes and spaceships.
From time to time certain groups of people would attack
other groups and they would kill each other. But, most in-
credible of all, the death virus gave people the notion that
they were not eternal, but existed only temporarily in the
space they could mentally grasp hold of.
More and more, the actions of people of the techno-
cratic age transformed the planet Earth into a foul-smell-
ing, smoke-stenched corner of the Universe. But the Mind
of the Universe kept waiting for something, and refrained
from destroying this deleterious place in the galaxy.
“Stop, please, for a moment!” Vladislav’s presentation was
interrupted by a voice coming from the group of his debating
opponents, headed by his friend Radomir. “It’s senseless to
continue with your talk. It would have been impossible for
something like that to happen on the Earth.”
‘!AI1 right, I shall break off my presentation, if you can re-
ally prove the improbability of what I have said.”
From among the group of opponents one young man stood
up and argued as follows:
230
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“We have reliable reports about the existence of religion in
Earth society: Religious treatises talked about the Earth and
everything growing thereon as being created by the Mind of
the Universe, which they called God. They worshipped him
and performed many rituals in his honour. I trust, my dear
presenter, that you will not deny that fact?”
“No, I shan’t deny it,” replied Vladislav.
“Then tell me, how could they perform rituals in honour of
their god and at the same time destroy his creations? It would
be impossible to do both at the same time. Consequently,
these densely populated cities you speak of could not have
existed on the Earth. And people could not have fouled the
water created for them by the God they worshipped. In any
case, the Mind of the Universe could not have countenanced
such chaos, or he himself could not have been termed a ‘mind’.
On the contrary, it would call into question any speck of ra-
tionality in what he created — Man first and foremost. What
have you to say to this, my honourable presenter?”
“I say that the existence of a Mind, especially of the
Universe, is the union of two great principles — Mind and
Anti-Mind.
“The age of the Anti-Mind was necessary for the people of
the planet Earth. And if you will permit me, in the next part
of my presentation I shall prove the existence of two great
principles in Man.”
“Fine, then, carry on!” the young man agreed, and sat down.
Vladislav continued his presentation, now more confidently:
The world of the Universe is the union of opposites. Man
also reflects this union of opposites within himself. Amidst
the incredible chaos that has taken over Earth-dwellers’
consciousness, all at once there appeared people capable of
understanding... These people changed their attitude to-
ward Earth’s creations, but not with words and not through
A new civilisation
231
the aid of religious treatises. They began to change their way
of life. While not yet fully comprehending the scope of
their creation, they referred to their actions simply as ‘the
building of a family domain’.
They did not yet know that by approaching the Earth
with a new conscious awareness, they were beginning to
revitalise the planets of the Universe. They did not yet
know that for them death would no longer exist, or that
the children they gave birth to would be called gods by
their descendants. They were simply building their family
domains on the planet Earth.
In the meantime the Mind of the Universe followed
their activities with trembling anticipation. And eventu-
ally the day came when all the people of the Earth began
to live in their marvellous domains. And the day came
when... Look, I shall show you a hologram — it has two
people in it.
In the space in front of the assembly appeared a three-di-
mensional earthly landscape. Two elderly people, a man and
a woman, were walking hand-in-hand along a pathway leading
from their domain to a nearby forest. They were clearly more
than a hundred years old. Evening was coming on, and the
sky was filled with still barely noticeable stars. The couple
walked up to a cedar tree, and the elderly woman leant her
back against it.
“Here I am a grandmother now, and a great-grandmother,
too,” the woman tenderly remarked to her companion, “and
you’re still after me to go for a night-time walk under a starry
sky just like we did when we were young.”
“But isn’t that what you want, too?”
“Of course I do, my beloved.”
He quickly grabbed her by the shoulders, gave her an im-
petuous hug and kissed her on the lips. Then he pushed the
232 Book 8: The New Civilisation
strap of her dress to one side, baring her shoulder. The now
bright moonlight clearly revealed three birthmarks all in a
row on the woman’s left shoulder. The man kissed each of
these in turn.
“Ifbu are just the same as you were before, my beloved, you
are. I never want to part from you.”
‘And part we shall not. We shall die and be born anew.”
“We can’t afford to be born anew,” she said sadly. “Just
look, there’s hardly any free land left on the Earth — it’s all
gardens and domains, everywhere you look. And it’s possi-
ble our grandchildren won’t have enough room. Probably the
Creator failed to take this into account when He created the
Earth.”
“I don’t think so. There is some kind of solution, but we
don’t know yet what it is. But I am confident that our love
cannot be interrupted. You and I shall die to be born again.”
“But where?”
“Look, my beloved — on that star out there! Let our
thought create life anew on that planet, similar to life on the
Earth. Think about it — why else would God have thought
to create so many planets? It can’t be just a coincidence. Our
thought has a material form — it will create life for us on that
lifeless planet. We shall be re-embodied again and again. Our
love will be forever the same...”
“I thank you for this marvellous dream, my beloved, in-
deed I do. With you... I shall help you create life on that
planet new”
“What shall we call it, my beloved, this planet of our new
life?”
‘Arreta, that’s what it’ll be called.”
“Wait for us, Arreta! In the meantime you can blossom out
in gardens and spread yourself with herbs, the way I desire,”
said the man, fervently and confidently
“Me too,” responded the woman.
A new civilisation
233
The hologram disappeared. Vladislav bowed to the assem-
bly and stepped off to one side, making way for his friend and
opponent, Radomir.
Radomir stood in Vladislav’s place, glanced around at the
gathering and began to speak.
“I beg to disagree with my friend. I shall say right off: in his
version of events there is a great deal that is unprovable and
even contradictory. Like my friends here, I cannot believe in
the existence of a period in people’s history which is so ut-
terly absurd.
“The hologram he showed, as we all realise, is only a whim
of his thought and imagination and is lacking in confirmation.
Though this hologram gave me a kind of strange sensation. It
seemed as though my learned friend had taken it from a story
already known — I just can’t recall what source it is from.”
A hushed whisper spread through the amphitheatre, and
cries of “Plagiarism!” could be heard.
“Could it be plagiarism? Unheard of! But perhaps the pre-
senter didn’t know...”
“Plagiarism... Yes, there is a distinct impression of some-
thing we’ve seen before here.”
Vladislav stood to one side and hung his head. He shud-
dered upon hearing a child’s cry from one of the back rows.
‘A-a-a-ah! A-a-a-ah!” his sister Katerinka kept calling out,
refusing to be silenced.
At least she’s just calling out, and not criticising the proceedings,
thought Vladislav. But he was wrong.
After waiting for the inevitable silence to ensue, Katerinka
declared in a loud voice:
“Don’t even think of arguing with my big brother! ’Cause
he’s very, very clever and sensitive too.”
“Now there’s a weighty argument,” someone said, as snick-
ering could be heard all round.
234
Book 8: The New Civilisation
“Quite true, very weighty indeed,” little Katerinka went on.
“And you, my Radomirchik, don’t you go fancying Liudmila.
Just don’t go fancying her, and that’s it!”
“Katya, keep quiet!” Vladislav cried out.
“I shan’t keep quiet! Liudmilka loves you, and you love
her — I know that for certain.”
“Katya!” Vladislav cried out again, and headed over to
where his sister was standing.
“Liudmilka, what are you sitting there for?” exclaimed
Katya. “Stop him. He won’t let me have my say! He’ll drag
me away! By force!”
A brown-haired girl rose from the back row, headed toward
Vladislav and stood in his way. Liudmila’s cheeks had broken
out in a soft blush. With head lowered, she whispered:
“Your sister’s right, Vladislav”
Her whisper could be heard through the hushed amphithe-
atre. All heads turned toward little Katerinka, people smiled
and applauded her. Inspired by the audience’s support, the
little girl ran down to Radomir, who was still standing on
stage. She took up a position right beside him and held up
her hands to signal the gathering to quiet down.
When all were silent, she started speaking again, this time
to Radomir.
“Abu know, Radomirchik, you almost played the traitor
there. You musn’t criticise my big brother. He showed every-
thing fair and square. He’s your friend. You’re his friend. So
don’t you criticise.”
Radomir glanced down condescendingly at the little girl
beside him, and with equal condescension began speaking to
her, as well as to the people in the amphitheatre:
“I’m not criticising. I’m simply stating a fact. There’s not
enough pieces of evidence in the hologram he showed. In
fact, there’s none.”
“There is one. Or maybe two,” Katerinka firmly declared.
A new civilisation 235
‘And where might it be — or where might they be, if there’s
two?”
“One of them is me. And the other is you, Radomirchik!”
the little girl confidently stated.
With these words she undid two buttons on her dress and
bared her shoulder. On Katerinka’s left shoulder Radomir
glimpsed three birthmarks, exactly the same as they had seen
on the elderly Earth-woman in the hologram. Radomir exam-
ined the birthmarks on the little girl’s shoulder, and his blood
began rushing through his veins. He concentrated on trying
to recall something. Then appeared before him a hologram
which only he could see.
A country scene on the Earth. There he is, kissing the three birth-
marks on his beloved’s shoulder. Then she gives him a hug. She
laughs and rumples his hair and kisses the end of his nose, still
laughing as usual.
The hologram disappeared.
Radomir looked for a while longer at the little girl stand-
ing in front of him, her shoulder still bared as before. Then
he suddenly bent over, took Katerinka in his arms and held
her close. Embracing him, she rumpled his hair and gave him
a quick kiss on the end of his nose. He kept holding little
Katerinka in his arms, and she whispered in his ear:
“Either you were in a hurry to be born, Radomirchik, or I
was born later than I should have been. Now you must wait
while I grow up. Wait fourteen years. You won’t be happy
with anyone else — Em your better half!”
“I shall wait ’til you growup, my dear,” the lad responded quietly
Exhausted by all the excitement, Katerinka now felt calmed
down. She put her little head on Radomir’s shoulder and fell
into a sound sleep. Ele stood there silently before the hushed
amphitheatre, carefully holding in his arms his bride-to-be.
236
Book 8: The New Civilisation
With his mind, he began drawing letters of the alphabet
in space. Those assembled read the text of the hologram he
created:
There is proof. It is in each one of us!
Love is infinite and eternal in the Universe.
Then, slowly and carefully, so as not to awaken the little girl
asleep on his shoulder, Radomir headed for the exit.
But he had forgotten to turn off the spatial expression of
his thought, and so the hologram continued to sprout more
letters. The audience realised that these words were not ad-
dressed to them, but they could not help reading them:
''tou RAN BAREFOOT THROUGH STARS, NOT LOOKING FOR LOVE,
And in no way self-serving, no never.
Throughout infinite space you alone did preserve
What we should be preserving together.
These words were intended for a little girl of the planet
Arreta, as well as for the Earth-woman — the goddess who
had given life to their planet.
The little goddess slept sweetly on Radomir’s shoulder.
Perhaps she too was hearing in her sleep the words of her be-
loved.
<B©
“That’s terrific, Anastasia! That means that when people
follow the Divine programme and give the whole Earth a
A new civilisation
237
makeover, they will also have the opportunity to resettle on
other planets?”
“Of course. Otherwise the very existence of other planets
in the Universe would be meaningless. But He has infused
everything with great meaning. The love between two peo-
ple — a dream, born in love — is capable of breathing life into
any planet.”
‘And again, Anastasia, as I understood it, the people who
are now building their domains will not die. They will only
change bodies and be reincarnated in life on the spot.”
“Of course. Their actions on the Earth are more needed
than anyone else’s. They please God. And even people who
have never managed to touch the earth with their hands, but
have mentally begun to build their own future living cor-
ner of Paradise, are many times more needful to the Divine
programme than hundreds of wise men sitting behind stone
walls — men who have cut themselves off from God’s crea-
tions, simply talking about God and spirituality
“Their words are blasphemous and sad. Death without re-
incarnation awaits them. They can look forward to a fearful
fate, but far from being God’s punishment, this is what they
have chosen as their own destiny!
“ God has shone forth in the Universe with a new thought —
it is not only a great energy, but a judge as well. Much has been
said in treatises and legends about God’s judgement. It is now
coming softly and invisibly, God’s judgement. It touches all
the people now living on the planet. And every M a n will be
his own judge.
“Whoever chooses life and creates living life will be eternal
and resemble the grand Creator of the Universe.
“Whoever visualises death in his imagination is doomed to
death by his own thought.”
238 Book 8: The New Civilisation
It seemed as though these words of hers, spoken with a soft
and confident tone on the bank of the River Ob, were taken
up by the Space like an echo over the Earth. Over the past
ten years I have not been the only one who has learnt how
Anastasia is able to create the future through her thoughts
and words.
©0
As my boat took me further and further up the river, I could
see her still standing on the shore. The Space around picked
up her words on eternal life and repeated them over and over.
From what galaxies, or from what worlds of the Universe, I all
at once began to wonder, did Anastasia appear in her earthly
likeness and impart a conscious awareness of eternity to the
planet Earth? She is not one to lightly toss out words at ran-
dom turns. And this has been confirmed in real life.
And that being the case, my dear readers, I must offer you
my heartiest congratulations! On your conscious awareness!
We shall live for ever, co-creating life in the Universe.
’Til our next joyful meeting, dear friends!
End of Part One
For Notes
For Notes
For Notes
For Notes
For Notes
For Notes
THE RINGING CEDARS SERIES AT A GLANCE
Anastasia , the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series, tells the
story of entrepreneur Vladimir Megre’s trade trip to the Siberian
taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena
connected with sacred ‘ringing cedar’ trees. He spent three days
with a woman named Anastasia who shared with him her unique
outlook on subjects as diverse as gardening, child-rearing, healing,
Nature, sexuality, religion and more. This wilderness experience
transformed Vladimir so deeply that he abandoned his commercial
plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to fulfil Anastasia’s request
and write a book about the spiritual insights she so generously
shared with him. True to her promise this life-changing book, once
written, has become an international bestseller and has touched
hearts of millions of people world-wide.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia, the second book of the Series, in
addition to providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the
story of how Anastasia came to be published, offers a deeper explo-
ration of the universal concepts so dramatically revealed in Book 1.
It takes the reader on an adventure through the vast expanses of
space, time and spirit — from the Paradise-like glade in the Siberian
taiga to the rough urban depths of Russia’s capital city, from the an-
cient mysteries of our forebears to a vision of humanity’s radiant
future.
The Space of Love, the third book of the Series, describes author’s
second visit to Anastasia. Rich with new revelations on natural
child-rearing and alternative education, on the spiritual significance
of breast-feeding and the meaning of ancient megaliths, it shows
how each person’s thoughts can influence the destiny of the entire
Earth and describes practical ways of putting Anastasia’s vision of
happiness into practice. Megre shares his new outlook on educa-
tion and children’s real creative potential after a visit to a school
where pupils build their own campus and cover the ten-year Russian
school programme in just two years. Complete with an account of
an armed intrusion into Anastasia’s habitat, the book highlights the
limitless power of Love and non-violence.
Co-creation , the fourth book and centrepiece of the Series, paints a
dramatic living image of the creation of the Universe and humani-
ty’s place in this creation, making this primordial mystery relevant
to our everyday living today. Deeply metaphysical yet at the same
time down-to-Earth practical, this poetic heart-felt volume helps us
uncover answers to the most significant questions about the essence
and meaning of the Universe and the nature and purpose of our ex-
istence. It also shows how and why the knowledge of these answers,
innate in every human being, has become obscured and forgotten,
and points the way toward reclaiming this wisdom and — in part-
nership with Nature — manifesting the energy of Love through our
lives.
Who are we? — Book Five of the Series — describes the author’s
search for real-life ‘proofs’ of Anastasia’s vision presented in the
previous volumes. Finding these proofs and taking stock of ongo-
ing global environmental destruction, Vladimir Megre describes
further practical steps for putting Anastasia’s vision into practice.
Full of beautiful realistic images of a new way of living in co-opera-
tion with the Earth and each other, this book also highlights the role
of children in making us aware of the precariousness of the present
situation and in leading the global transition toward a happy, vio-
lence-free society.
The book of kin , the sixth book of the Series, describes another
visit by the author to Anastasia’s glade in the Siberian taiga and his
conversations with his growing son, which cause him to take a new
look at education, science, history, family and Nature. Through
parables and revelatory dialogues and stories Anastasia then leads
Vladimir Megre and the reader on a shocking re-discovery of the
pages of humanity’s history that have been distorted or kept secret
for thousands of years. This knowledge sheds light on the causes of
war, oppression and violence in the modern world and guides us in
preserving the wisdom of our ancestors and passing it over to future
generations.
The energy of life, Book Seven of the Series, re-asserts the power
of human thought and the influence of our thinking on our lives
and the destiny of the entire planet and the Universe. Is also brings
forth a practical understanding of ways to consciously control and
build up the power of our creative thought. The book sheds still
further light on the forgotten pages of humanity’s history, on reli-
gion, on the roots of inter-racial and inter-religious conflict, on ideal
nutrition, and shows how a new way of thinking and a lifestyle in
true harmony with Nature can lead to happiness and solve the per-
sonal and societal problems of crime, corruption, misery, conflict,
war and violence.
The new civilisation, the eighth book of the Series, is not yet com-
plete. The first part of the book, already published as a separate
volume, describes yet another visit by Vladimir Megre to Anastasia
and their son, and offers new insights into practical co-operation
with Nature, showing in ever greater detail how Anastasia’s lifestyle
applies to our lives. Describing how the visions presented in previ-
ous volumes have already taken beautiful form in real life and pro-
duced massive changes in Russia and beyond, the author discerns
the birth of a new civilisation. The book also paints a vivid image of
America’s radiant future, in which the conflict between the power-
ful and the helpless, the rich and the poor, the city and the country,
can be transcended and thereby lead to transformations in both the
individual and society.
Rites of Love — Book 8, Part 2 (published as a separate volume) —
contrasts today’s mainstream attitudes to sex, family, childbirth and
education with our forebears’ lifestyle, which reflected their deep
spiritual understanding of the significance of conception, preg-
nancy, homebirth and upbringing of the young in an atmosphere of
love. In powerful poetic prose Megre describes their ancient way
of life, grounded in love and non-violence, and shows the practica-
bility of this same approach today Through the life-story of one
family he portrays the radiant world of the ancient Russian Vedic
civilisation, the drama of its destruction and its re-birth millennia
later — in our present time.
To be continued...
R.in^n^ Cedar;
The New Civilisation f>y V. Megre
Book 6 of Tfic Rinsing Cedars Series
o o
The New Civilisation paints a viv r id image of America’s radiant future, in which
the conflict between the powerful and the helpless, the rich and the poor, the
city and the country can be transcended and lead to transformations in both
the individual and society. Vladimir Megre describes a new visit to Anastasia
and their son, and offers new insights into practical co-operation with Nature,
showing in ever greater detail how Anastasia’s lifestyle applies to our lives and
how her words already produce massive changes in Russia and beyond.
BBS
I’ll I I lAj.lt
ISBN 978-0-9763333-8-8
RINGING CEDARS PRESS
www.RingingCedars.com
1-888-DOLMENS
USS14.95 CANS19.95 AUS24.95
9 780976 333388
Vladimir Megre
RITES OF LOVE
The Ringing Cedars Series
Book 8, part 2
Translated from the Russian by
John Woodsworth
Edited by
Leonid Sharashkin
Ringing Cedars Press
Paia, Hawaii, USA
Rites of Love by
Vladimir Megre
Translation, Translator’s Afterword and footnotes by
John Woodsworth
Editing, Editor’s Afterword, footnotes, design and layout by
Leonid Sharashkin
Cover art by
Alexander Razboinikov
Copyright © 2006 Vladimir Megre
Copyright © 2008 Leonid Sharashkin, translation
Copyright © 2008 Leonid Sharashkin, afterwords
Copyright © 2008 Leonid Sharashkin, footnotes
Copyright © 2008 Leonid Sharashkin, cover art
Copyright © 2008 Leonid Sharashkin, design and layout
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, except for the
inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007934233
ISBN: 978-0-9763333-9-5
Published by
Ringing Cedars Press
www. RingingCedars . com
© 6 )
Contents
1. Love — the essence of the Cosmos i
2. Do our lives correspond to the Divine programme? 12
3. Why does love come and go? 16
Should we seek, out our ‘other half’?. 18
False images 20
4. Wedding rites 25
5. Conception involves more than flesh 33
6. Into the depths of history 42
Arkaim — Academy of the wise-men 42
What is the message of Sungir? 5/
A family-centred society 64
A mysterious manoeuvre 68
Love and the State’s military preparedness 84
7. Russia erased 87
8. The elders’ mistake 94
From a hired hand to a prince 94
A mistake not to be repeated. 97
9. The Creator’s greatest gift 101
Childhood love 101
Love as a fully fledged member of the family toy
True love will most certainly be reciprocated t ty
vi Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Love, too, was teaching in the Vedruss school up
10. Pre-wedding festivities 129
Ritchey ok', 129
‘Chastushha-gpvorushka ’ 130
n. The wedding rite 135
12. Conception 148
13. Telegony can be overcome 155
14. The psychology of Man’s genesis and
appearance in the world 159
When a man brings a child into the world, 164
15. A rite for a woman giving birth without a husband 173
16. Where should we have our babies? 179
17. The Vedruss birth 182
18. Not Radomir’s last battle 189
19. From the stars will they return to the Earth 196
20. Even in chaos there is a purpose 208
21. ‘Soulmate gatherings’ 212
22. A nuptial rite for women with children 220
23. High-society ladies 227
24. Millennial encounter 239
25. Anastasia’s wedding 247
A voyage of self-discovery. Translator’s Afterword 253
The Book of Happiness. Editor’s Afterword 275
Chapter One
0©
Love — the essence of the Cosmos
All of a sudden a figure appeared on the roadway ahead. He
was standing practically smack dab in the middle of the travel
lane with his back to my oncoming jeep. I began braking at
once, so as to carefully go around this strange-looking grey-
headed figure.
When I got within ten metres of him, the old fellow qui-
etly turned around and I instinctively pressed the brake pedal
to the floor.
There in front of me on the roadway stood none other
than Anastasia’s grandfather. I recognised him at once. His
grey hair and beard were a complete contradiction to his in-
credibly young, sparkling eyes — a discrepancy which imme-
diately set him apart from many of his peers. And the long
grey raincoat of indeterminate cut from goodness-knows-
what material was also something I was able to recognise all
too easily.
Still, I had a hard time believing my eyes. After all, how
could this oldster from the Siberian taiga turn up here in the
heart of Russia, on a roadway leading from Vladimir to the
city of Suzdal? 1 How, indeed? By coach and horses? How
could this Siberian recluse hope to master all the intricacies
of our transportation networks? Add to that a complete ab-
sence of any kind of identification documents.
1 Vladimir (pron. vla-DEE-meer), Suzdal (pron. SOOZ-dal) — two of Russia’s
oldest historic cities, located not far east of Moscow For further informa-
tion see footnote i in Book 5, Chapter 6: ‘A garden for eternity”.
2
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Money, of course, he could have laid his hands on, by sell-
ing dried mushrooms and cedar nuts , 2 as his granddaughter
Anastasia had done. But with no identification...
Of course we have lots of homeless people without identifi-
cation, and the police can’t do anything about it. But Anastasia’s
grandfather is far from resembling your average homeless per-
son. Sure, he was dressed in old shabby clothes, but they were
always clean, and his appearance was well-groomed, his face
was bright and a light blush adorned his cheeks.
I sat there, unable to move, behind the wheel of the jeep.
He came over and I opened the half-door for him.
“Hi there, Vladimir!” the old fellow greeted me as though
there were nothing unusual about the circumstances. “Abu
heading to Suzdal? Can you give me a lift?”
“Yes, of course I can. Hop in! How did you end up here?
How on earth did you manage to get here all the way from the
taiga?”
“How I got here isn’t important. The main thing is why I
came.”
“Well, why did you come?”
“To take a tour into real Russian history with you, and
to dispel your resentment toward me. My granddaughter
Anastasia told me to. She said to me: ‘Grandpakins, you are
to blame for his resentment.’ So here I am, joining you on the
tour. That’s why you’re going to Suzdal, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I want to go see the museum. And I really did feel
resentment, only it’s gone now.”
We rode for some time in silence. I recalled how frosty our
parting had been back in the taiga. In fact, we didn’t even say
good-bye. It had happened like this:
"cedar nuts — referring to the fruit of the Siberian cedar (Siberian pine, Pinus
sibiricd), known in the West as ‘pine nuts’. This tree is akin to the European
stone pine — see footnote 4 in Book x, Chapter 1: “The ringing cedar” (esp.
the 2nd edition).
Love — the essence of the Cosmos
3
Anastasia’s grandfather had recommended I set up a political
party. He suggested calling it the Motherland Party }
The idea of forming a party based on Anastasia’s ideas had
actually been noised about for some time, by various people.
Many believed a political party was essential to make it easier
for people to acquire land for the building of family domains
and head off any kind of encroachment on the part of govern-
ment officials, since none of the existing parties, regrettably,
had even considered such questions in their platform.
In view of the fact that there are some sort of powers op-
posed to Anastasia’s ideas and that all sorts of attempts have
been made to discredit not only the ideas themselves but also
people who have been attracted by them, as well as Anastasia
and me, it was suggested to draft the party’s constitution
without any reference in its ‘Aims and objectives” section to
creating favourable conditions for the setting up of kin’s do-
mains. Nor should there be any mention of Anastasia’s ideas,
or the Ringing Cedars Series.
The would-be organisers were trying to persuade me that
this would be the only way to get the party officially registered.
And so I decided to consult with Anastasia’s grandfather on
this question, as well as on the topic of the party’s structure,
its primary aims and objectives. I surmised that since he was
well acquainted with the acts of the priests who were con-
stantly setting up all sorts of societal structures and religions
which had lasted millennia, he must surely know about the
secret organisational tenets underlying such longevity
Besides, he himself was a priest of some standing . 3 4 Quite
possibly, even stronger than the ones currently ruling the
3 See Book 8, The New Civilisation, end of Chapter 12: “People power”.
4 Anastasia’s grandfather inherited the priesthood when his own father,
Moisey, passed on. The first reference to the family’s priestly status comes
in Book 7, Chapter 7: “A conversation with Anastasia’s grandfather”.
4
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
world. If so, then he must certainly be aware of the principles
underlying the priesthood itself, which had turned out to be
more resilient than religion.
Indeed, the priesthood was and is a suprareligious struc-
ture, since the priests took direct part in the creation of cer-
tain religions and secular institutions. This is clear from the
history of Ancient Egypt and other countries.
It followed that Anastasia’s grandfather would be able to set
forth certain fundamentals for the Motherland Party, making
it a most powerful, if not the most powerful, institution.
I sincerely wanted to hear what he had to say on this, and
so I took advantage of what I thought was a moment when he
was not immersed in his inner contemplations, and said:
“You were speaking about a party. My readers, too, have
been talking about this for some time. But some of them are
recommending that I don’t include any mention in its consti-
tution of Anastasia, or her ideas, or the books — so that the
registration will go smoothly.”
The grey-haired old fellow stood before me, leaning on
his father’s staff, without saying a word. It wasn’t just that he
kept his silence — he stared at me fixedly, as though seeing
me for the first time. His eyes reflected more criticism than
kindness.
And when he did start speaking again after a lengthy pause,
his voice, too, betrayed notes of disdain.
“Registration, you say So, you’ve come to ask my advice?
To betray or not to betray?”
“What’s this about betrayal? I came to consult with you on
how to proceed so that the registration will go smoothly”
“Registration, after all, is not an end in itself, Vladimir.
Even the party is not an end in itself. No ideas, you say, not
even a mention? So how are readers going to realise that it’s
their Motherland Party, and not just some mercantile traitors’
party? You’ve been asked to set up some kind of meaningless
Love — the essence of the Cosmos
5
organisation — without any basis, idea, or symbols which
would already guarantee leadership for centuries to come.
And now you’ve come to ask me whether you shouldn’t fol-
low their advice. Don’t tell me you couldn’t see through even
this simple trick?”
I realised I had got myself into a rather sticky situation,
and so I tried to get out of it by asking another question:
“I only wanted to see if there were some principles you
could recommend including in the draft of the party’s consti-
tution, its aims and objectives?”
What happened next nearly drove me out of my mind. As
it seemed to me back then, the old fellow was not only refus-
ing to answer my questions, he had started making fun of me
in a high-handed way. First he looked at me wide-eyed, then
he gave a kind of irritated chuckle and turned away, even tak-
ing a step back from me. But then he turned around again
and said:
“Don’t you understand, Vladimir? All the answers to the
questions you raise should be given birth within yourself, and
within everyone who joins you in creating the party’s struc-
ture. Sure, I can give you a hint. But tomorrow someone else
will give you another hint, and then a third, and you won’t
act — all you’ll do is focus your attention on the hints. Go
right, go left, you’ll all go forward and then backward again
or keep going round in circles because of the laziness of your
minds.”
I strongly resented this latter phrase. Over the years since
my first meeting with Anastasia I’ve been stretching my mind
to the limit day and night. Maybe it’s starting to overheat
from the constant stress of the work. I’ve published eight
books now and have often taken to contemplating what is
written in them myself. Sometimes I’ve found myself pon-
dering the accuracy of particular phrases time and again. And
surely the old fellow must know all about this.
6
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Even though my resentment was starting to become in-
flamed, I managed to restrain myself, explaining:
“Indeed, it seems as though everybody thinks and re-
flects, and various political systems are set up — communist,
democratic, centrist. But as someone once said, no matter
what party we aim to create, it all ends up looking like the
Communist Party’s Central Committee!”
“That’s very true. That’s what I’ve been telling you —
you’re going round in circles because of the laziness of your
minds.”
“What’s laziness of mind’ got to do with it? Maybe it’s
simply that not enough information is available?”
“So, there’s not enough information out there and you’ve
come to me to get it, eh? But if your mind is lazy, will you be
able to make any sense of it?”
I could feel my resentment increasing, but I endeavoured
to conceal my irritation and continued:
“Okay, I’ll try to make my brain work harder.”
“Then pay attention. The party should be structured along
the lines of the Novgorod vieche 5 — I mean, in its early pe-
riod. You’ll figure out the rest later.”
This answer made me really angry. The oldster knew per-
fectly well that documents on pre-Christian Russia were no-
where to be found — they had all been destroyed. So nobody
could ever tell how this Novgorod vieche worked, especially in
5 vieche (also spelt: veche ) — an ancient form of self-governance in which
a circle of local residents collectively discussed and decided questions of
importance by general consensus. In later times, the term vieche was used
to describe an assembly of freemen which served as a governing council
in a number of cities of Western Russia from the tenth to the fourteenth
centuries, even longer in the city of Novgorod (about 100 km south of
St. Petersburg). Not unlike the Ting in Scandinavian (esp. Icelandic) com-
munities, these latter assemblies had the power (among other things) to
enact local legislation, appoint and dismiss princes, wage war and conclude
treaties with other territories.
Love — the essence of the Cosmos
7
its early period. That meant he was mocking me. But why?
What had I done to make him—?
Trying to restrain myself out of respect for his age, I apolo-
gised:
“Excuse me for disturbing you. You were probably occu-
pied in something important. I’ll leave you.”
And I turned around to go, but he called after me:
“But the aim or objective of the Motherland Party should
be the creation of favourable conditions for the restoration of
the energy of Love to families. It is essential to bring back the
rites and celebrations which can help find one’s ‘other half’,
one’s soulmate''
“What?” I turned to face the old fellow again. “Love?
Bring it back to families? I realise you don’t want to talk seri-
ous with me. But why are you making fun of me?”
“I’m not making fun of you, Vladimir. It is you who are not
capable of understanding what it’s all about. If you don’t train
yourself to contemplate, it can take years to figure out.”
“Figure out what? You have at least a rough idea what kinds
of aims and objectives parties all over the world write into
their constitutions?”
“I have a rough idea.”
“Then tell me, if you know that. Tell me!”
“They claim they will definitely raise the standard of living
for everyone, and will offer people greater freedom.”
“Exactly. And in particular they promise industrial devel-
opment, guaranteed housing and control over inflation.”
“Nonsense. Utter nonsense!” the oldster chortled.
“Nonsense??? Yes, it will be nonsense if I follow your ad-
vice and put in as a basic tenet of the party’s constitution: The
Party will work toward the goal of helping every individual find
their soulmate.
‘And you can add: The Party will restore to the people a way of
life and rites capable of preserving love in families forever"
8
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“What on earth are you talking about??!! "You — youwantto
make a laughingstock of me in front of everybody? Questions
like this — like searching for one’s soulmate — this is what
marriage agencies do, on a commercial basis. If I include
statements like that in the party’s platform, it’ll end up being
not a party but a dating service! And as for love in families,
well, that’s a personal matter for families, and nobody, no po-
litical party, has the right to interfere in family affairs. That’s
none of the State’s business.”
“But don’t tell me your State isn’t made up of families!
Aren’t families the basis of any State?”
“They are, they are! That’s why the State is obliged to raise
the standard of living both for families and for individual citi-
zens.”
‘And what then?” the old fellow snapped. “By raising the
standard of living in the country, will you then restore love to
a great many families?”
“I don’t know But it is accepted that states should care
about the welfare of their citizens.”
“Vladimir, ponder for a moment what that word welfare
means. Calm down and delve into its meaning. Now I’m
going to say it just a little differently: well faring or faring
well, that is, a state of well-being. If you think about it, you’ll
realise that love alone is capable of raising any Man’s well-
being to the highest possible level — not money or palaces,
but only the feeling given to Man 6 by the Creator — the
state of love.
“Love is the essence of the Cosmos. Living, thinking, with
an advanced intellect. It is powerful, and it’s no wonder God
6 Man — Throughout the Ringing Cedars Series, the word Man with a capi-
tal M is used to refer to a human being of either gender. For details on the
word’s usage and the important distinction between Man and human being,
please see the Translator’s Preface to Book 1.
Love — the essence of the Cosmos
9
was so excited about it, giving its great energy as a gift to Man.
It is imperative to try to understand love, and not be shy about
paying attention to it even on the national level.
‘And when the nation is comprised of a multitude of fami-
nes giving birth to their children in love and creating a Space
of Love, it will not suffer from lawlessness or inflation. Such
a nation will have no need to fight against criminal tenden-
cies; they will disappear from society. And all the prophets
with their cunning philosophising will be silenced. Whether
they foolishly neglected to mention it or whether it was sim-
ply beyond their comprehension is unimportant, but they led
people away from the most important thing to a place where
there is no love.
“The priests knew about this, and consequently humoured
the prophets.
“For centuries mankind had been creating rites in aid of
life and love. Whether these rites were suggested by the
Creator or the people’s own wisdom had perfected them is
unimportant. They, in fact, over the centuries, created a state
of well-being and helped young people obtain love and joy in
perpetuity. None of these rites was characterised by occult
superstition, as today Each one served as a school of higher
learning, an examination by the Universe.
‘Anastasia told you about the Vedruss 7 wedding rite that dates
back centuries. You mentioned it in just one ofyour books , 8 but
it deserves to be mentioned in every book. It is far from being
fully comprehended by people living today, including you.
“If you remember, she also told you about ancient ways of
searching for your one to love. But again, you today have not
7 Vedruss — referring to a people prevalent in pre-Christian Russia, from
which Anastasia is descended — see Book 6, Chapter 4: “A dormant civilisa-
tion”. Ved is a Slavic root signifying ‘awareness’ or ‘to know’.
S See Book 6, Chapter 5: “The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia”.
IO
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
been able to make sense of them. My granddaughter said:
‘I, apparently, have not created strong enough images.’ She
takes all the blame upon herself, but I claim that the laziness
of your mind (or minds) is also to blame.
“Let the best learned men study the Vedruss wedding rite
letter by letter. They won’t — and you’d better believe me,
Vladimir — they won’t find a single occult or superstitious
act. It is an act which is both rational and exactly suited to
love’s creation. Compared to it, you will see how absurd are
today’s wedding celebrations — traditions smacking of oc-
cultism and superstition.
“You must realise that Anastasia knows immeasurably
more than she tells you. Her acts, her logic, her behaviour are
not immediately understood even by the priests, who subse-
quently can only marvel at what my granddaughter has done.
“Enquire of her and inspire her with your question. Ask
her what rite the Vedruss people had for childbirth.
“Don’t count on her to bring the subject up. She takes care
to talk to you only about what she thinks interests you. But
you don’t have the slightest idea of what tremendous hidden
wisdom lies in the ancient rites. They are the creation of cos-
mic worlds.
‘Any world that forgets the wisdom of its age-old forebears
deserves derision. It makes no difference whether an indi-
vidual has forgotten on his own or under the influence of the
priests who have mastered the occult sciences.
“Enquire of my granddaughter and inspire her with your
question. And summon your party to the creation of love.
Until that happens, you are of little interest to me. You need
to have the most obvious things explained to you at length.
Show forgiveness to an old man. Go. I do not find it useful to
talk and think of unpleasantries.”
The old fellow turned and started slowly walking away
I stood there all alone in the taiga, feeling I had been spat
Love — the essence of the Cosmos
ii
upon. The resentment I had felt right from the start of our
conversation prevented me from making sense of everything
he said. But subsequently, upon returning home, I mentally
went back to our conversation in the taiga, pondering it and
analysing it. I very much wanted to prove — perhaps not so
much to Anastasia’s grandfather as to myself — that I had not
become completely lazy of mind.
I wanted to either disprove or confirm what he said —
within myself.
Back in the taiga, the oldster had told me that as long as
people are content merely to listen to hints and not begin to
think about the essence of life for themselves, society will
never be free from its cycle of social upheavals. And M a n will
never be happy
I guess that’s the way it is.
He also talked about the existence of some kind of pro-
gramme created by God. Now, what might that be? To what
extent does the life of Man today correspond with this pro-
gramme?
Chapter Two
Do our lives correspond to the
Divine programme?
A Man was born in the operating room on the second floor
of a hospital. The doctors were surprised to see an absolutely
healthy baby
Days and months flew by like seconds. The child attended
kindergarten, then school, then university ‘Wise’ educators,
teachers and professors instilled in him some kind of pro-
gramme of life.
The Man decided that the most important thing in life was
to have lots of money, which would enable him to feed him-
self well, have an apartment, a car and clothing. And he began
to work hard, sometimes even taking two shifts a day
Still, the seconds dragged out into years, and when he
reached retirement he had been able to earn enough for a
modest two-room flat and a used car.
Long before retiring, he fell in love, got married, divorced
and re-married. His first wife bore him a child, but after the
divorce the child stayed with his mother. A child was born
from the second marriage, but he went off to the Far North.
They talked on the telephone once or twice a year. Seconds
counted down the years of the Man’s old age. He took ill and
died.
Such is the sad fate of the majority of people living on the
Earth today
There is a minority who manage to become famous enter-
tainers, politicians, presidents or millionaires. Life for this
category of people is considered to be more happy, but that
Do our lives correspond to the Divine programme? 13
is an illusion. Their cares are no fewer than anyone else’s,
and their end turns out exactly the same: old age, disease and
death. Was such a fate included in the Divine programme for
residents of the Earth? No!
The Creator could not predestine such a sad and cruel fate
for His children. It was human society itself, under the influ-
ence of some kind of powers, that ignored the Divine pro-
gramme and started down a path of self-torture and self-de-
struction.
Perhaps somebody doubts the existence of the Divine
programme of human life? After all, it is not something our
scholars or politicians talk about.
Religions propound God’s design, but invariably through
intermediaries and mostly in different ways. About the only
thing they agree on is that God exists.
Philosophers and many scholars, too, believe in the exist-
ence of a higher, rational, intelligent being that has created
the visible world and earthly life. It is impossible not to be-
lieve this. Everything comprising our world, after all, is too
logically interconnected for it to be otherwise. Well, if that is
the case, then a supremely rational being could create only in a
meaningful way, create only that which is eternal, and predes-
tine a joyful perspective for all living beings — first and fore-
most, His beloved Man, made in His likeness. Man, in other
words, is offered a specific way of life on the Earth which al-
lows him to become aware of himself and all creation — to
learn about and continue to carry out the Divine programme,
contributing his own marvellous creations thereto. God de-
sires from His son, Man, conjoint creation and joy for all from
its contemplation. 1
See Book 4, Chapter 2: “The beginning of creation”.
H
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
There is no doubt that God’s programme exists, and it is
not just a select group that can become acquainted with this
programme, but everyone who wishes to do so. The Divine
programme is not set forth in letters or hieroglyphs on sheets
of papyrus, but in living signs of Nature — - Nature as God has
created it— and which belong only to Him.
The minds and intellects of the people of the Ancient
Russian period still allowed them to read the grand Book of
the Divine. Out of the billions of such letter-signs, the major-
ity of people living today are acquainted with but a few, and
we must begin anew to study the Divine alphabet.
The book I am writing at the moment is not on a religious
theme. It is not an attempt at sheer philosophising. This
book is a call to research, to becoming aware of the Divine
programme.
I am not about to teach anyone or preach anything. I only
want to acquaint my readers with information on the culture
of our forebears, through the rites perfected by the ‘wise-
men ’ 2 through careful calculation and designed to preserve
family love, and to call upon everyone to disprove or confirm
the arguments presented.
I was prompted to publish this material by the sayings
and logical conclusions of the Siberian recluses, especially
Anastasia.
Publication is needed in order to let the information seep
through to the level of one’s own feelings and, through col-
laborative efforts, to start to act according to the logic of life,
as well as in the hope that our generation will begin to con-
template, and then accelerate the building of a new civilisa-
tion for themselves and their children.
2 wise-men (Russian: volkhvy) — a reference to ancient ‘scientists’ with par-
ticular knowledge of the workings of Nature, often possessing exceptional
powers. For further information, see footnote 13 in Book 7, Chapter 20:
“Pagans”.
Do our lives correspond to the Divine programme? 15
It is possible that Anastasia has conceptually outlined just
the first point in the programme of mankind’s development,
to wit:
Human society should study the Divine programme, using the
materials God has provided, and transforming the whole planet
into a marvellous Paradise oasis, thereby creating a harmoniously
balanced society for all living beings. Man’s attainment of this
level of life will open up possibilities for the creation of life on
other planets and in other galaxies.
Against the background of this grand concept, Anastasia
first proposed the creation of family domains.
Let us too begin our research by examining commonly
known and outwardly simple issues.
Chapter Three
( cB
Why does love come and go?
Oh, how many poems and philosophical treatises have been
devoted to this very feeling! In fact, it is hard to find a literary
work where it is not touched upon to some extent. Nearly all
religions talk about love. It is considered to be a great feeling
imparted to Man by God.
The reality of our current human conditions, however,
portrays the feeling of love as a most sadistic phenomenon.
Let’s face the truth. Statistics show that sixty to seventy
percent of marriages are doomed to failure. The failure comes
after years of an uneasy coexistence on the part of two people
who were once in love. Sometimes these years are marked by
mutual insults, scandals and even face-smashing.
The original beautiful and inspired feeling vanishes, only to
be replaced by years of anger, insults, hatred and, ultimately,
unhappy children.
This is the sad result of what we call love today
Could such a result be considered a gift from God! No
way!
But perhaps it is we ourselves who turn aside from some
kind of way of life inherent in Man, and that is why love van-
ishes, telling us, in effect: I can’t live in such conditions. Tour way
of life is killing me. And you yourselves are dying.
Remembering my conversation in the taiga, I recalled how
unusually the grey-haired recluse talked about love. “Love,” he
said, “is the greatest and most powerful energy in the Cosmos.
It is never thoughtless. It has thoughts and its own feelings
too. Love is a living, self-sufficient entity, a living being.
Why does love come and go?
!7
“By the will of God it is sent to the Earth, ready to bestow
its great energy on every Earth-dweller and make their lives
eternal in love. It comes to each one of them, endeavour-
ing to tell them, through the language of feelings, about the
Divine programme. If Man doesn’t listen, it is forced to leave,
not by its own will, but by Man’s.”
Love! A mysterious feeling. And even though almost every
Man who has ever lived on the Earth has managed to experi-
ence it, love remains largely uninvestigated.
On the one hand, the theme of love is touched upon in
most works of prose and poetry, and in most artistic genres.
On the other, all the information these contain merely estab-
lishes the existence of such a phenomenon. At best, it de-
scribes but the outward manifestations of love and variations
in behaviour on the part of different people under the influ-
ence of the feeling as it has appeared in them.
But is it really necessary to investigate the feeling of love,
which everybody knows?
The extraordinary and brand new information I received
in the Siberian taiga confirms that investigation is extremely
necessary. We need to learn to understand love.
I believe one of the most accurate answers to the question
as to why love fades is simply that it vanishes when it finds no
understanding.
People in the past understood love.
Judge for yourselves: more than ten thousand years ago the
Vedruss people possessed knowledge enabling them to carry
out actions which not only strengthened love but made it ever-
lasting. One such action was the Ancient Vedic wedding rite.
After the description was published in one of my books, many
academic researchers came round to affirming that this partic-
ular rite was capable of transforming an initially flaring feeling
into a permanent one. Comparing it with the rites of various
peoples both past and present, I began more and more to draw
i8
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
the conclusion that the Ancient Vedic wedding rite was a ra-
tional deed thought up by the wisdom of the people, which is
capable even today of helping many family couples find lasting
love. However, let’s go through everything in order.
And let us begin with the most important thing.
Should we seek out our ‘other half?
‘My other half’ — ‘my soulmate ’ — it’s a popular expression.
Let’s see what it means, exactly I think many people will ac-
cept the following definition: a man or a woman close to you in
spirit and their views on life, a pleasant communicator, someone you
feel attracted to (including their appearance), someone capable of in-
spiring you to love.
Should we seek out our soulmate, or let our ‘other half’ be
found all on its own, through the will of destiny?
As many centuries of mankind’s experience has shown, a
determined search is essential. This is attested in multitudes
of stories in which stout-hearted young men have set off on
long quests in search of their intended.
There are a number of ancient rites which can aid this most
important search of one’s life.
There are ancient rites, too, which can help determine
whether one has made the right choice. What if that ‘other
half’ has come to you straight from the devil himself?
Some of these rites I have already described in my previous
books. I did not touch upon well-known rituals, but mostly
introduced rites that are not commonly known and have not
i9
Why does love come and go?
been encountered heretofore. The present book focuses on
the wedding rite and, at the same time, the rite for determin-
ing whether one has made the right choice of partner, which
I shall go over again in a different context.
“Then get on with it — show us these miraculous rites,”
some of my readers may be thinking. “Why bother with all
these expositions?” But the expositions are absolutely essen-
tial! We need a vision of our reality today, otherwise we shall
not understand the tremendous signification of the wisdom
of the people. Everything in the world is relative and, hence,
comparisons are crucial.
So let’s now take a look and see which life situations in to-
day’s world can facilitate a meeting and which may just get in
the way.
Strange as it may seem, in our present so-called ‘informa-
tion age’, situations favouring a meeting of two ‘halves’ are
getting harder and harder to find.
People living in large, densely populated megacities are vir-
tually cut off from each other by invisible barriers. Someone
living in a modern multi-storeyed apartment block is often
unacquainted with his next-door neighbour . 1 Passengers on
public transport, even those standing jam-packed shoulder-
to-shoulder in the aisles, are all absorbed in their own indi-
vidual problems. Pedestrians walking along the same street
have no reason to communicate with each other.
And in America, for example, you can’t even look closely at
a woman without being suspected of sexual harassment.
And so, just sitting in your flat or travelling to work or stud-
ies, there’s practically no opportunity to find your soulmate.
Let’s say your work involves contact with a lot of differ-
ent people. Let’s say you’re sitting at a cash register in a large
For a description of what this means in Russian apartment blocks, see
footnote i in Book 8, Chapter 13: ‘A new civilisation”.
20
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
supermarket. But none of the customers passing by you every
day thinks of striking up an acquaintance with you. It’s more
likely they see you merely as an adjunct to the cash register.
A college or university where a whole lot of young people
congregate, though it indeed offers opportunities for con-
versation and coupling, is not a place for general selection of
one’s soulmate, since an educational institution is designed
with a completely different function in mind.
Today the most acceptable locales for meeting people are
generally bars, restaurants, discotheques and resorts. But en-
counters here, even those which end in marriages, do not, as a
rule, result in a happy life in love and harmony According to
statistics, ninety percent of such marriages end in divorce.
The principal cause lies in a false image. And what might
that be? Well, here’s an example.
00
False images
Back before I met Anastasia I took a two-week cruise on the
Mediterranean Sea.
Each day in the ship’s dining room my mealtime compan-
ions were three young people — two women and a man —
who worked in a design institute in Novosibirsk. Each day
the girls appeared in new and stylish clothing, with intriguing
hairdos. It was a delight to chat with them. Nadia and Valia , 2
2 Nadia — an informal variant of the name Nadezhda (the Russian word for
‘hope’); Valia — an informal variant of Valentina.
Why does love come and go?
21
as they were called, were always cheerful and outreaching.
One time I found their male companion in his cabin, and I
asked him:
“What pretty and pleasant girls we have at our table!
Maybe we can make some time with them?”
To which he replied:
“I have no desire to make time with riff-raff like that.”
“Why ‘riff-raff?”
“’Cause I work with them in the same institute and I know
what they’re really like.”
‘Mid what are they really like?”
“In the first place, they’re rowdies. Secondly, they’re lazy
and slovenly It’s only here that they try to keep up appear-
ances and make people think they’re nice and smart. It’s quite
clear they’ve come here specially to find themselves husbands
among the wealthier class. You’ve noticed how they play up
to the Armenian men on board.”
I had an opportunity to see for myself the discrepancy he
mentioned when I paid a subsequent late-afternoon visit to
the design institute to see my table companions from the
cruise ship. To put it mildly, they weren’t nearly as impressive
as they had been on board, and all their former cheerfulness
and pleasantness had somehow vanished.
Which means that back on the ship they were putting on
a false image.
Many men and women in the world today try to find their
‘other half’ with the aid of an external image which doesn’t
correspond with their real nature. Perhaps such a sad phe-
nomenon is due to an obliviousness to other possible meth-
ods? In that case both parties end up being deceived.
A man will give flowers and expensive gifts to an image
which has taken his fancy He may go so far as to offer her his
hand and his heart. Then, after marriage, all of a sudden he
sees her real character, which doesn’t appeal to him at all. He
22
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
feels a sense of irritation and a yearning for the earlier image
which has now vanished.
A woman all of a sudden sees that the suitor who only re-
cently was so kind and attentive to her doesn’t love or under-
stand her at all. How did this happen? But he never did love
her — he only loved the image.
The striking discrepancy between the artificial image and
the real person is particularly evident in the case of entertain-
ment celebrities, especially if you should happen to see them
in their everyday lives.
A situation no less unfortunate arises from the fact that
women often change their outward appearance after mar-
riage.
When a man falls in love with a woman, especially at first
sight, it is difficult to say what, specifically, has aroused the
feeling of love in him. Perhaps it was the colour of her hair or
the way she plaited her braid, or maybe her eyes. It is custom-
ary to think that the feeling of love is aroused by the whole
gamut of external and internal traits. And when a woman
changes her external appearance, she thereby takes away part
of her appeal and weakens the love between them. Even if
following a radical change of clothes, hairdo and make-up,
everybody around tells her how beautiful and attractive she’s
become, and even if these compliments ring true, and even if
her husband gets excited over his wife’s new look, it may be
only a matter of time before his love begins to fade or disap-
pears altogether.
After all, he has glimpsed a great many beautiful women
who are a lot more attractive than his wife at present. Still,
he has fallen in love specifically with her, and with the appear-
ance she had when they first met. And all of a sudden that
previous image is no longer there. And you will, no doubt,
agree that in falling in love with the new image, he thereby
betrays the image she presented before.
Why does love come and go?
23
Why were people in ancient times so cautious about chang-
ing their clothing? Perhaps they didn’t have much in the way
of a selection of fabrics? But they did. They imported silks
from far across the seas, and they themselves knew how to
weave cloth, either coarse or fine. They could do all sorts of
designs on the cloth with different colouring agents, or em-
broider them.
Perhaps they were lacking in imagination or finances?
They had plenty of imagination — an abundance, in fact.
Practically every other person was a fine artist or designer.
You only have to look at houses from those times — how they
are all decorated with wood-carvings.
And every woman was a master of embroidery. As for fi-
nances, both people of modest means and even those well-off
were very conservative when it came to changes of clothing
or hairdos. They were extremely cautious about altering their
own appearance, being careful to preserve their image.
The current fashion world, especially women, is wont to
change their image like a kaleidoscope.
Such extreme fashion swings are extraordinarily profitable
to the clothing manufacturing industry, when people throw
out things that are still perfectly serviceable and buy new
fashions in the hopes that they will bring something new in
the way of a semblance of happiness. But no, it never comes.
In its place appears only a new artificial image someone has
created — an image people put on under the influence of ag-
gressive propaganda.
In all the round of modern life I never have discovered
any efficient system of measures designed to help people
find a life-long companion. Not only that, but I have been
getting more and more the impression that our modern liv-
ing — indeed, our whole way of life — is designed in such a
way that we shall never meet our true soulmate. Maybe this
situation even works to somebody’s advantage. A Man who is
24
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
dissatisfied with life, who has no goals or meaning in his life,
can be a profitable catch for many a man out to make money.
Not to mention profitable to the powers that be.
As to the question of whether or not we are actually seek-
ing out our ‘other half’, I think the answer will be: no, we are
not. We don’t knowhow to. And there are no favourable con-
ditions to facilitate the search.
I attempted to discover sagacious hints on finding one’s
soulmate in the rites of bygone centuries. I shall cite a few
typical examples of wedding rites. Let us examine just how
sagacious — or primitive — they are. I shall include my own
commentaries as we go along, but if you don’t happen to agree
with them, you can always cross them out, or white them out
and write in your own, right here in the book.
I find myself tapping more and more into the feeling that
Anastasia’s grandfather is right: if we don’t start thinking for
ourselves, well go on accepting any sort of crap as the wisdom
of life.
I shan’t even name modern weddings. Apart from drunk-
enness, tripping around in cars and laying flowers at the so-
called ‘eternal flame’, 3 there’s precious little worth saying.
Let’s take a closer look, then, at some earlier wedding
rites.
: laying flowers at the ‘eternal flame’ (i.e., at tomb of the unknown soldier) — a
common practice among Russian newlyweds which takes place shortly af-
ter the wedding ceremony.
Chapter Four
(5©
Wedding rites
I shall cite a typical rite from pre-revolutionary Russia with
a view to examining it from the standpoint of social degrada-
tion in relation to love.
Courting rituals in Perm / Weddings for the people of Perm
involve a whole complex of preliminary operations. First,
a father has to seek permission from the local authorities
and from the parish priest before setting about courting a
bride for his son. This kind of procedure invariably takes
place without the participation of the groom, evidently ac-
cording to ancient custom, and is limited to just the opin-
ion of relatives and close friends called in to give advice.
And these are the ones who will decide the fate of their
closest relative’s future well-being.
It happens that the groom first meets his intended only
after the matchmaker has already reached an agreement
with the bride’s father, and sometimes not until the day of
the wedding. Rarely does a young Permian have a chance
to court his future bride on his own. The groom’s father
seeks out, on his son’s behalf, a bride with a fair-sized dow-
ry, a maiden of character and respectable moral standing.
Once the final decision had been made as to which girl is
to be targeted, the courting itself begins, known as the kora-
siom. This task is always entrusted to the family elder or, in
1 Perm — a major city in the Ural Mountains, founded in 1781, located about
1,000 km east of Moscow on the Kama River.
26
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
his absence, to the godfather or one of the older relations,
or to someone who has had experience in such matters.
It is further explained how and what the go-betweens should
say: But it seems to me the whole process is utterly absurd,
since the primary principle is violated right from the start.
As we can see, there is not even a hint of the young peo-
ple’s love in carrying out this rite. Sad, too, is the fact that
with this abusive attitude toward the energy of Love, they are
implicating God.
In preparation for the groom’s departure to bring back his
bride, the groom’s mother (or matron of the house) places
on the tablecloth a loaf of bread intended for the blessing
of the groom, along with salt, beer and braga , 2 and lights the
candles in front of the icons . 3 The groom prays and bows
low at his mother’s and father’s feet, seeking their blessing.
After reciting Jesus’ prayer, he takes up a position at the
table as all the wedding guests approach, reciting the same
prayer. One after another they reach out with both hands
to present the groom with the gifts and goodies they have
brought: a cooked shoulder or cut of raw pork, always with
bread, and each one chants: ‘Accept these precious gifts,
young prince”, followed by the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ”
and so forth. At this the groom replies to each one individ-
ually: ‘Amen to your prayer”, before accepting (also with
both hands) the gifts of food, placing each one first on his
head and then on the table, and honours each wedding guest
2 braga — a mild, home-made brew.
^ icons — sacred paintings on wood. Every Russian Orthodox church fea-
tures a multitude of icons, but at least one icon stands or hangs in a corner
of the living or dining room in practically every Orthodox household, often
with candles in front.
Wedding rites
27
with beer and braga (on rare occasions, wine) as he recites
Jesus’ prayer and intones: “Drink this to your health, (name
of guest).” This naturally meets with a response from each
wedding guest the groom addresses with the words “Amen
to your prayer”. Taking the glass from the groom, he bows
to the groom and intones: “May the Lord grant you long
life, great happiness, good living , 4 may He grant you to at-
tain happiness, cattle, a full stomach, and bread and salt , 5
obtain a young princess, accompany the princess to the
church as her swain, retain a standing position beneath the
golden crowns and maintain the law of God!” And then
the guest takes a drink.
And here is some more intriguing information.
Permian women rarely preserve their virginity, but their
grooms pay no special attention to this and do not avoid
such women, but rather accept them eagerly, even those
who are pregnant, anticipating the speedy arrival of anoth-
er worker in the family. It is said that the fathers in some
families, considering their daughters to be blameless, will
resent any attempt at matchmaking, will swear and even
chase away the go-betweens, sometimes even beating
them, saying: “What, you’re telling me my daughter is pen-
na ?” — that is, guilty (from the word penya, meaning guilt).
4 good living — the Russian term here is zhit’ da byt’ (literally: “to live and to
be”). This ancient expression indicates a distinction between life (which is
given not only to Man, but also to plants and animals) and being (in the sense
of existing in a space of conscious awareness —accessible only to Man).
The now largely forgotten meaning of this phrase is a wish not only for a
‘good life’ but also for spiritual fulfilment.
5 bread and salt (Russian: khleb-sol ) — a symbol of Russian hospitality (also
found in other Slavic cultures), symbolising the earth (bread) and the Sun
(salt).
28
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
So we end up not with a continuer of the family line, con-
ceived in love, but a worker for the household.
There are, in fact, many characteristic features of wedding
rites which portray our ancestors as wild barbarians. I should
point out, however, that none of the rites we know of are tra-
ditionally Slavic, even though they’re sometimes called ‘tra-
ditional’ in the literature on the subject. They stem from a
period when the really traditional, wise rites were prohibited
by the Church, with nothing rational offered in their place.
So, for example:
Removing of hoots. It happened (and in some places still hap-
pens), according to a native Russian custom, that a newly-
wed woman is supposed to remove her husband’s footwear.
In ancient times this custom generally signified meekness,
a servile attitude, even humiliation, since who would take
off another’s boots if she were not fully subordinate to the
wearer of the boots? History teaches us that this custom
existed at the time of Vladimir’s reign, along with the fact
that the prince of Polotsk’s 7 daughter was unwilling to re-
move her husband’s footwear.
The same custom existed in Germany during Martin
Luther’s time: on their wedding night the young wife
would take off her husband’s boots and place them at the
head of the bed as a sign of the husband’s domination over
the wife, the man over the (enslaved) woman.
Olearius and von Herberstein observed from their stays
in Moscow that even princes’ and noblemen’s weddings
^Vladimir I (?-ioi5) — Prince of Kiev (980-1015), who accepted Christianity
fotRus’in 988. See footnote 4 in Book 7, Chapter 20: “Pagans”.
' Polotsk — an ancient city in what is now Belarus, formerly under Polish and
Lithuanian control, before the territory was absorbed into the Russian empire
in 1772. The Polotskian princedom lasted from the ioth to the 14th centuries.
Wedding rites
29
included the rituals of footwear removal along with three
strokes of the whip (the whip was then placed, together
with baked goods, in a special box). This rite was contin-
ued in Lithuania before the Jagiellonian dynasty 9 and is
still preserved in peasant culture.
As we can see, the taking off of boots and honouring the
bride’s slave status is mistakenly passed off as a traditional
Russian rite. But before the princes came along, Russia had no
slavery at all. Hence this rite is not traditional for our people,
but a transient custom not accepted by the people at large.
But there is one situation which strikes me as even more
stupid, cruel and immoral — a situation typical of wedding
rites among many peoples as late as the eighteenth or nine-
teenth centuries.
Directly the last food dish is placed on the table — i.e.,
the roast — the best man wraps up the dish, along with
the bread and salt, in a tablecloth and takes it to a bed in
the hayloft, to which the young couple are led immediately
afterward. Whereupon the father of the bride, in hand-
ing over his newlywed daughter to her husband, stands in
the doorway of the hayloft and offers her seemly advice
g
Adam Olearius QoomAdam Ohlschldger, 1603-1671) & Siegmund Freiherr von
Herberstein (1486-1566) — Austrian and German diplomats, respectively,
each of whom travelled to Russia in his time. Von Herberstein (sometimes
spelt von Herbenstein), a German mathematician and geographer, visited
Moscow in 1517 and again in 1526, setting forth his observations in a work
entitled Notes on Moscow affairs; Olearius (also known as Omarius), a mem-
ber of the Kaiser’s council in Vienna, followed suit in the mid-i630s, and
later published his Description of my travels to Muscovy.
5 Jagiellonian dynasty — a royal dynasty that began in the Grand Duchy of
Lithuania (1377-1392, 1440-1572) and spread to other East European coun-
tries, including Poland, Ukraine and even parts of Russia.
3 °
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
about marriage life. After the young couple have reached
the bed, the wife of the master of ceremonies, wearing two
coats at once (one in the normal fashion, the other turned
inside out), showers them with grains, coins and hops, and
feeds the young couple on their bed.
The next morning all the wedding guests show up at the
hayloft and quickly remove the blanket so as to determine
by well-known signs whether the newlywed girl has been
chaste at the time of her marriage.
This part of the rite may be considered the most sinister
and perverted, even if the newlyweds were in love with each
other. In the sight of all the guests, the young people, having
eaten and drunk their fill, were supposed to go to their room
to consummate their marriage without fail, accompanied and
encouraged by the lustful — one might even say, perverted —
stares of the guests.
In the first place, after all the ups and downs of the pre-
nuptial preparations, not to mention the wedding itself, the
free-flowing libations of alcohol and the generous intake of
food, it is best to hold off sexual intimacy for a period of time,
so as to avoid the conceiving of a child in such a condition.
Secondly, why should newlyweds enter into intimate rela-
tions the same day and, on top of that, be called to account
for their actions in front of the guests? What if the bride
happens to be having her period on that day? All-in-all, it
is something resembling the imposed mating of animals, or
even worse.
Nobody in their right mind would think of bringing a bitch
to a male dog — or a cow to a bull, or a ewe to a ram — when
the female is not in heat. But the attitude here is: you’d better
get on with it, or you’ll be put to shame.
The following story was told me by a seventy-year-old man
upon learning that I was investigating various rites:
Wedding rites
3i
I was living in the country when I got married. They fixed
me up with the one I loved. She was oh so quiet, and kind.
Her name was Ksiusha . 10 She was nineteen then, I was
twenty. We had been looking at each other for about six
months, and were probably in love.
On the first night of our wedding, when everything was
winding down, the two of us were sent to bed in a separate
room. They placed a guard at the door, and the following
morning they were supposed to hold up the sheet for all
to see: was the blood of virginity there or not? The mo-
ment of decision for Ksiusha and me came. Maybe it was
wedding jitters, or maybe something I ate, but I got the
feeling nothing was going to happen between Ksiusha and
me. She did this and that, and began awkwardly showing
me her breasts, then she kissed me, and later got undressed
completely.
Only there was no proper reaction in me to her caresses
and undressing, and I got more and more embarrassed.
I sat down on the bed, and turned my face to the wall. I
felt Ksiusha’s cheek press against my back, I could feel her
trembling and her tears running down my spine. I too be-
gan weeping for sorrow. There we were both sitting on the
bed, crying our hearts out. After that I told her:
“Don’t worry, Ksiusha, I’ll declare to everyone that it’s
my fault.”
And she replied:
“Don’t — they’ll only make fun of you.”
Before the dawn came, she did the piercing herself with
her finger, and the blood came out. In the morning they
showed off the sheet to the great amusement of the guests
who were once more imbibing in an effort to counteract
the effects of their hangover. They summoned us in their
l °Ksiusba — an endearing variant of the name Ksenia.
32
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
half-drunk state, joking around and calling out Gor’ko,
gor’ko ! 11 before taking their next glass.
Ksiusha and I lived together for six months in the coun-
try, then moved to the city and divorced. Turned out I
couldn’t get anything to happen all those six months. I
married again, and now I have four kids — three sons and
a daughter — and grandchildren too. But that horrendous
wedding I’ll never forget my whole life long. And I still
remember Ksiusha to this day
11 Gor’ko, gor’ko! (lit. ‘Bitter, bitter!’) — the traditional call at Russian wed-
ding receptions for the bride and groom to kiss (and thereby sweeten the
‘bitter’ wine).
Chapter Five
Concept
tves
Those who have read my Book of Kin will remember that the
Vedruss wedding rite I described ended with the loving cou-
ple, Liubomila and Radomir, conceiving a child . 1
But back then I wasn’t about to ask Anastasia whether
there were any particular aspects of the Vedruss civilisation
concerning the conception of children, or whether or not it
was worth paying special attention to this topic in any case.
But, as though anticipating my question, she said:
“The Vedruss people had a deep understanding of what
was involved in the conception of their children. But for the
moment I do not know how to talk about it in a way you will
be able to understand.”
Later on, after my conversation with Anastasia’s grand-
father and my search for various peoples’ rites capable of
preserving love in families, I obtained some information
on conception and realised that it had nothing to do with
Anastasia — I was the one who had not been ready to com-
prehend what she said. Even now this question has not been
sufficiently researched by modern science.
Scholars have been attempting to clone Man, but it seems
that even if they succeed, they will end up with an entity only
superficially resembling Man. You see, it is not just the sperm
and the egg that are involved in the act of conception, but
something else besides — something invisible, something not
tangible as matter.
’See the section entitled ‘A union of two — a wedding” in Book 6 , Chapter 5 :
“The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia”.
34
Book 8, part z: Rites of Love
It is possible that any further exposition of the information
I obtained will be shocking to some. I spent six months pon-
dering whether it was something worth sharing with my read-
ers or not. In the end, I decided that it was. Here is what it’s
all about:
Many families living on the Earth today are unknowingly rais-
ing children that are not their own in the fullest sense. This
statement is supported by some weighty evidence.
The scientific world has a term telegony. In medicine it is
called the paternal impression phenomenon. They try to talk as
little as possible about ‘telegony’. What’s this all about?
The discovery began in England about a hundred and fifty
years ago when Lord Morton decided to raise a new breed
of horse with exceptionally resilient characteristics. At one
point he crossed a thoroughbred mare with a zebra colt. But
no offspring resulted, because of the genetic incompatibility
of the two species.
Some time later this purebred English mare was crossed
with a purebred English colt. Subsequently the mare gave
birth to a foal, only... with marked traces of stripes, as with
a zebra.
Lord Morton called this phenomenon telegony , 2
2 The ‘zebra’ was actually a quagga, an equine mammal of South Africa,
with zebra-like stripes, which is now extinct. The experiment, conduct-
ed by a Scottish peer, the Right Honourable George Douglas, 16th Earl
of Morton (1761-1827), was reported in a communication he wrote to the
Royal Society of London in 1820 and described in many journal pieces of
the past — for example, byJ.C. Ewart of the University of Edinburgh in an
1899 article “Experimental contributions to the theory of heredity. A. Tele-
gony” published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, vol. 65 (1899),
pp. 243-51; and later in Menia S. Tye’s article “Pre-natal influences” in The
American Journal of Nursing vol. 7, n° 5 (February 1907), pp. 362-67 (see esp.
p. 365; here, as in some other sources, the experimenter’s titular name is
misspelt Martori). Tye also mentions a female hybrid resulting from the first
Conception involves more than flesh
35
Specialists in animal husbandry quite often encounter this
phenomenon in their practice. Any dog-breeding club, for ex-
ample, will dispose of even what was the most thoroughbred
dam if it happened to mate with a mongrel. That particular
dam would no longer produce thoroughbred pups, even if it
were to be mated with the most thoroughbred sires.
Pigeon breeders will not hesitate to kill even the most pre-
cious purebred pigeon if it has been violated by a non-thor-
oughbred male pigeon. Practice has shown that it will never
produce purebred offspring.
Scientists in various countries have done a great many
studies showing that this phenomenon also extends to peo-
ple. There have been instances where white parents have
given birth to black children — where a black-skinned baby
has come into the world as a result of a liaison between the
grandmother or mother of the birthing woman and a black
man. The cause of this phenomenon always turns out to be a
previous relationship with a black man on the part of the girl
or one of her direct progenitors . 3
But these are clearly distinguishable cases. How many oth-
ers are there that are not clearly distinguishable? After all,
union. And she subsequently observes (p. 366): “It would seem as though
the Israelites had some knowledge of telegony, for in Deuteronomy we find
when a man died leaving no issue, his wife was commanded to marry her
husband’s brother, in order that he might ‘raise up seed to bis brothel” (ital-
ics ours).
3 While dozens of scientific articles on telegony were published in the 19 th
and the first two decades of the 20th century — by such luminaries, for
example, as pioneer statistician Karl Pearson (1857-1936), subsequent ac-
ceptance of theories based on Gregor Johann Mendel’s (1822-1884) ‘laws of
heredity’ brought the concept of telegony into disrepute and many consid-
ered it “disproved”. However, present-day genetics is far from being able to
fully explain the mechanisms of heredity, and throughout the 20 th century
a great many prominent scholars have been conducting experiments and
drawing conclusions quite at variance with the materialistic approaches of
‘official’ (‘orthodox’) science.
36
Book 8, part v. Rites of Love
pre-marital relations are the ‘in’ thing today: That being the
case, there’s no point in blaming the woman if she is not a
virgin when she marries. It is our society, our monstrous sex
propaganda and sex industry that have made her that way
In the West parents supply their school-age children with
condoms, realising that they’re no longer chaste. But what they
don’t know is that there is no condom that can counter the ‘pa-
ternal impression phenomenon’, or telegony This is evidenced
in concrete examples in the case of both people and animals.
Many ancient teachings and religions also speak about the
phenomenon of telegony Even though they may call it some-
thing else, the substance is the same. Both scientists and
wise-men of old have determined that the first man in the life
of a virgin leaves his imprint on her in spirit and in blood — a
mental and physical portrait of her offspring to come. All
other men who enter into intimate relations with her there-
after for child-bearing purposes have nothing to offer her but
their semen and diseases of the flesh.
Isn’t this what’s behind the current massive lack of under-
standing of fathers and children? Not to mention the degra-
dation of our whole human society of today?
A multitude of specific examples testifies to the involve-
ment of some kind of energy in the conception of children.
But if that is the case, then it is not just scientists but the
public at large that should know about it.
It is probable that our recent forebears had some inkling
of it. They tried to make sure that a girl entering into mar-
riage was a virgin beyond the shadow of a doubt. It is possible
that this is what lies behind the custom in many cultures of
locking the newlyweds in a separate room, and subsequently
hauling out and putting on display the blood-stained sheet in
confirmation of the bride’s virginity.
Earlier ancestors of ours, however, did not consider virgin-
ity in itself sufficient to qualify someone to be a continuer of
Conception involves more than flesh
37
the line. They maintained that if a woman was engaged in in-
timate relations with one man while thinking about another,
the resulting offspring would bear resemblance to the one she
was thinking about.
Such statements indicate that people of old assumed — and
quite possibly knew for certain — that the most important
factor in conception was thought. Or, more specifically, the
energy of thought.
The phenomenon of telegony also testifies to this. A wom-
an, perhaps sub-consciously, retains information in her mem-
ory about the first man in her life. As a result, a child is born
who either fully or partially resembles him.
At first I hesitated to write about this subject for fear of
provoking unpleasant questions among parents and their
children, and between spouses — let them be happy in their
ignorance. However, such happiness has not been all that
noticeable. And perhaps one of the reasons it is not particu-
larly noticeable is a lack of knowledge as to the culture of
conception.
The question of sex education courses for children in
schools has been an issue for some time now. People argue
over whether they should be introduced or not. If such cours-
es touch only upon the use of condoms, there’s no point in
introducing the courses at all. If, however, children are told
about the woman’s chief purpose, about the correct approach
to conceiving children, in that case the subject is absolutely
essential. For that, however, the instructors must have a thor-
ough grounding in the very essence of the question, and have
appropriate literature available. It is a subject that must be
discussed, even though the mass media, unfortunately, serves
up nothing but sex propaganda.
There is a lot of talk in so-called democratic countries
about human freedom. But can a Man be called truly free
when important questions of life are hidden from him, and
38
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
in their place allegedly beneficial perversions are fobbed off
on him through some kind of supposedly ‘free’ propaganda?
In a situation like that it turns out that Man is ‘liberated’ only
from a true and happy human life.
Still, I wouldn’t have written about telegony if I hadn’t
learnt from Anastasia about how to correct this situation,
even if the marriage-bound woman has already had a relation-
ship with another man.
Not only that, but it turns out that the Vedruss people had
a momentous rite through which ‘stepchildren’ could become
one’s own in blood and spirit.
Our pagan ancestors, the Vedruss all the more so, were
very well acquainted with what is known in modern medicine
as the ‘paternal impression phenomenon’. And through the
help of special rites they were able to protect their young peo-
ple against it.
With the aid of particular acts or rites, wise-men, too, were
able to erase the genetic code of the ‘first sire’ and make even
girls who had been raped during enemy attacks absolutely
clean. As proof of this, they were not afraid to let their sons
take such women in marriage.
However, there is one ‘but’. It is impossible to understand
and reproduce pagan (and especially Vedruss) rites simply
through a knowledge of their outward aspects. They must be
experienced through feeling.
What’s the use in just writing about it? It is essential to
love, it is essential to prepare for the appearance of the child,
it is important to give birth only at home, at the very place of
conception.
“To preserve love in the family for ever, it is essential to
combine — into one — three points, three feelings, three
planes of being”. But what’s the point in simply re-stating the
words? An intellectual understanding is far from sufficient —
it must be felt. The philosophy of our forebears must be felt.
Conception involves more than flesh
39
And the first essential act must be one of sheer repentance
in respect to our forebears, who are now called pagans, who
have been slandered and whom we have betrayed. We betrayed
the traditional Slavic culture of our fathers and mothers — a
culture that lasted for tens of thousands of years. Instead we
started calling Christianity ‘traditional’ for Rus’. 1 But in Rus’
it has been around for a mere thousand years. There’s no way
it can be classified as ‘traditional’.
Why is repentance necessary? For the simple reason that
if we go on thinking of our ancestors as wild, dull-witted
barbarians (as we are urged to believe) but still adopt their
rites, those rites will have no effect. After all, all such rites
are founded on a knowledge of the Cosmos, of the designated
purpose of the planets and on a knowledge of the power of
mental energy, the power of thought.
Even if we try harnessing the tremendous energy of our
thought with the aid of their rites, we shall not obtain any
positive results, since our thought will be contradicted by an-
other thought of ours — namely that the Vedruss people were
ignorant.
Hence a paradox: you’re an ignorant fool, but your acts are
marvellous. The one excludes — or, at least, contradicts —
the other.
Perhaps the culture of our forebears is being deliberately
concealed from us? After all, a bunch of ignorant and diso-
riented people cut off from their roots are easier to control.
Perhaps this is God’s retribution to our civilisation? Popular
wisdom says “What you sow, that shall you reap.” 4 5 We have
4 Rus’ (pron. ROOS) — the name of the East Slavic state of the first millen-
nium of the Common Era (A.D.). See footnote 5 in Book 7, Chapter 12:
“The ultimate taboo”.
’Compare Galatians 6: 7: “ whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap” (Authorised King James Version).
40
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
broken the ties with our forebears, and consequently the
threads linking us with our children are also being broken.
We can get another glimpse of the elevated culture of our
pagan forebears in the question of conception of children
by examining the traditions that are even today preserved in
modern China and especially Japan, where a man and wom-
an about to enter into intimate relations for the purposes of
conceiving a child undergo a special rite of purification. The
beliefs of Ancient China, Japan, India and Ancient Greece —
and these are traditionally ancient pagan countries — lay tre-
mendous emphasis on the matter of conception.
So what, then, can anyone do who desires to bring forth
good offspring? Should they first spend a lot of time studying
the volumes of literature on this subject — besides spending
a lot of time on studying treatises on choosing one’s soulmate,
and on the education of children?
I can tell you right off: there’s absolutely no need to waste
part of one’s own life on such study I myself spent several
years — not studying such sources, but simply familiarising
myself with them, and I came to the sudden realisation that
the Vedruss people have condensed all their monumental
works into a system of simple, cheerful and rational rites cov-
ering all events of one’s life. It gives the impression that God
Himself helped them in formulating these rites, as well as in
understanding the essence of Man’s existence.
Before attempting to apply the experience of our ances-
tors, we need to determine: which ancestors? I mean, how
many years ago? And which territories of present-day Russia
were settled by our forebears?
As is known, history textbooks, including those written
in Russian, tell about people’s lives in Egypt and Rome of
five thousand years ago. These countries have carried out
(and are still carrying out) archaeological excavations, which
draw huge crowds of tourists every year. Russian history, on
Conception involves more than flesh
41
the other hand, if we take the word of even our own history
books, covers a mere thousand-year period.
That would mean our country’s territory before that time
was somehow home to a culturally backward people, or may-
be there wasn’t anybody there at all? Either that, or possi-
bly somebody’s been deliberately hiding our history from us?
Indeed, they have. I have already written about this , 6 but now
I should like to present some archaeological data.
I shall tell you about Arkaim, a place which has a direct
connection with the question of telegony According to
Anastasia’s grandfather, it was there that three and a half
thousand years ago a remarkable discovery was made.
6 See, for example, Book 6, Chapter 5: “The history of mankind, as told by
Anastasia”.
Chapter Six
00
Arkairn — Academy of the wise-men
In 1952 satellites sent back to the Earth photographs of sev-
eral unusual circles clearly delineated on the surface of the
Southern Ural steppe. No one doubted that these circles had
been artificially produced, though nobody could say exactly
what they were.
A debate was raging in both scientific and occult circles of
the time as to where one should look for the original Indo-
European homeland. Not without some justification sci-
entists posited that the many European peoples, as well as
those of India, Persia and part of Asia, could be traced back
to a single source — a mystery people known as Proto-Indo-
Europeans.
Many researchers have dreamt of finding the remains of
the land where once lived the legendary White Aryan race.
Researchers have been attempting to reach the fringes of
the lost ancient and precious knowledge which the ancient
Aryans possessed.
When excavations began in the Arkairn Valley, archaeolo-
gists announced to the academic world that an ancient city
dating back more than forty centuries had been unearthed,
and that it had been inhabited by people of the ancient Indo-
European civilisation. The researchers started calling Arkairn 1
a city, a temple and an observatory, all at the same time.
Whoever is interested in the academics’ hypotheses can
read about them in specialised literature on the subject.
Into the depths of history
43
I shall pass on what Anastasia’s grandfather told me about
Arkaim. The logic of his thinking is much more accurate and
intriguing than the logic underlying the scholars’ scientific
hypotheses.
He stated right off:
‘Arkaim is not a city and not a temple. The part about
the observatory is true, but that’s not the main thing here.
Arkaim is an academy — that’s what it would be called today
It was in Arkaim that the teachers of the wise-men lived and
worked. Here they engaged in research on the Universe; they
also determined the interrelationship of celestial bodies and
their influence on Man. Their tremendous discoveries were
never recorded, nor did they make long speeches in public.
Through their many years of research they worked out the
rites, presented them to the people and subsequently kept
track of how effective they were. They made corrections as
required. They were able to sum up their lengthy researches
in a brief word or two which signified the substance of their
discovery
“For example, there are some very early rites, such as the
Saviour of the Honey 1 2 (14 July) and the Saviour of the Apple 3
1 Arkaim (pron. ar-ka-EENP) — located in the Chelyabinsk Oblast of Russia,
near the border of Kazakhstan. For further information on Arkaim, see:
Genadii B. Zdanovich, ‘Arkaim Archaeological Park: a cultural-ecological
reserve in Russia”, Chapter 20 in: Peter G. Stone & Philippe G. Planel, The
constructed past: experimental archeology, education and the public (Oxford &
New ’’fork: Routledge, 1999), pp. 283-291.
* Saviour of the Honey Feast Day (Russian: Miodovy Spas) — a Russian
Orthodox Church holiday (actually celebrated 14 August) to mark the be-
ginning of the Assumption Fast. New gatherings of honey are brought to
churches on that day for blessing before sharing with parishioners.
3 Saviour of the Apple Feast Day (Russian: Yablochny Spas ) — a Church holi-
day coinciding with Transfiguration Day, celebrated at the mid-point of the
Assumption Fast (actually 19 August). On this day farmers take grapes to
the churches — or, in their place, apples from the new crop.
44
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
(19 July). People did not use any new-crop apples until the
Saviour of the Apple feast, or any new gatherings of honey
until the Honey feast.
“Through their lengthy researches and observations the
wise-men discovered that up until this date the apple does
not give any significant benefit to Man, even if it is ripe. And
this goes far beyond just the apple. Many berries, edible herbs
and root vegetables beneficial to Man ripen before the Apple
feast. If Man began to eat apples too soon, he would not have
room left for the produce that was more beneficial to him at
this very time.
“It was these wise-men who discovered that the particular
sequence of fruit and vegetable ripening in Nature is no mere
coincidence. It is this very sequence that constitutes Man’s
divine dietary regime, which the science of the centuries to
follow would be searching for in vain.
“Volumes of treatises could be written about how they con-
ducted their research. The wise-men, however, never com-
piled any, and did not burden people with the task of reading
them. They imparted their conclusions to people — in ready-
made form — in just a few words. And people believed the
wise-men. Their advice invariably proved true in life.
“Besides, there is no comparison between the Vedruss wise-
men and their counterparts in Greece, the Egyptian priests
or today’s acclaimed academic lights. The Vedruss wise-men
never received any honours or rewards for their remarkable
discoveries. They could not accumulate wealth or power that,
say, the Egyptian priests enjoyed. And they were not given the
kind of adoration showered upon many in church hierarchies
today The only thing a wise-man could expect upon arriving
at a certain settlement was food and any replacement clothing
or footwear he might need, as well as a place where he could
lay his head, though some wise-men might decline the offer of
shelter in favour of sleeping under the stars, in the open air.
Into the depths of history
45
“Beyond that he enjoyed the people’s sincere, unfeigned re-
spect. Over the centuries such an arrangement ensured the se-
lection of only the best teachers and thinkers among the people.
“The receptive populace also showed their gratitude by
building, according to the wise-men’s own designs, complex-
es like Arkaim where the wise-men could retreat for medita-
tion and a mutual sharing of thoughts. Here they would tell
each other of their discoveries and describe the rites they had
come up with based on their discoveries. It was something on
the order of a supreme academic council.
“Most of the time ordinary people didn’t even know who
was behind any given rite, or whom they had to thank for a
particularly insightful and effective rite.
“There was one wise-man, for example — an acclaimed
philosopher, astronomer and psychologist — who devoted
ninety years to the study of how to combat the phenomenon
we know today as telegony
“He discovered a cure and offered people an effective rem-
edy, consisting of a rite of only fifteen minutes in duration.
True, the preparation for the rite took a lot longer. Why don’t
you ask Anastasia, Vladimir — she might tell you about it.
“Only I’ll say right off: this rite can be felt only through an
understanding of the feelings of love possessed by our distant
ancestors, the philosophy of their love. The farther back you
manage to go with your thought, the more you’ll be able to
make sense of the rite.”
To be more thoroughly persuaded of the truth of what
Anastasia’s grandfather has said regarding Arkaim, let us take
a look at its architecture.
Arkaim has the form of a circle with an exterior diameter
of approximately 160 metres. As you can see, that’s rather
small for a city. But I shall still call it a city, as scholars at the
moment are doing.
4 6
Book 8, part v. Rites of Love
It is surrounded by a two-metre-wide perimeter trench,
outside a massive exterior wall. The wall was five and a half
metres high and five metres thick. There were four entrances
in the wall, the largest facing south-west; the other three were
smaller, located on opposite sides. 4
All the entrances led directly into the only ring road, about
five metres wide, which separated the dwellings attached to
the outer wall from the inner ring of walls.
This ring road was covered with logs, under which, for the
whole length of the street, ran a dug-out two-metre-wide
ditch, which connected with the perimeter trench. Thus the
city had its own storm-drainage system: surplus water would
seep through the logs into the ditch and eventually into the
perimeter trench.
All the dwellings attached to the outer wall, like lemon sec-
tions, had doorways on the main street. No more than thirty-
five dwe llin gs were discovered around the outer circle. That’s
not much, even for a village.
Next we see the mysterious ring of the inner wall, which
was even more massive than the outer one. Three metres
thick, it reached a height of seven metres.
According to the excavation findings, there was no en-
trance through this wall except for a small passageway at the
south-east point. Hence, another twenty-five interior dwell-
ings, identical to those around the outer perimeter wall, were
practically cut off from everything by the thick, high inner
wall. In order to reach the little passageway to the inner ring,
one had to travel the whole length of the ring road. This had
a hidden significance. Anyone entering the city had to travel
the same path as the Sun.
Finally, Arkaim was ‘crowned’ by a central plaza almost
square in shape, approximately 25 by 27 metres.
4 opposite sides — i.e., north-east, north-west and south-east.
Into the depths of history
47
Judging by the traces of fires spread out in a particular pat-
tern, this plaza was used for some kind of rites.
Thus we see the schematic figure of a Mandala — a square
inside a circle. In ancient cosmogonic 1 * * * 5 texts the circle sym-
bolises the Universe, the square — the Earth, our material
world. Ancient men of wisdom, who had a perfect knowledge
of the structure of the Cosmos, saw how naturally and har-
moniously it was constructed. And so in building a city, it was
like re-creating the Universe in miniature.
Arkaim was built according to a pre-determined plan as a
single complex whole, oriented with extreme precision to ce-
lestial bodies. The design resulting from the four entrances
in Arkaim’s outer wall forms a ‘right-facing’ swastika, reflect-
ing the clockwise movement of the Sun . 6
The swastika (in Sanskrit, ‘connected with good’, ‘the
best success’) is one of the most ancient sacred symbols. It
is encountered as far back as the kipper Paleolithic period'
in the cultures of many of the world’s peoples — including
those of India, Ancient Rus’, China and Egypt, as well as of
the mysterious Mayan people in Central America, to name
but a few The swastika may be seen in old Orthodox icons.
It is the symbol of the Sun, success, happiness and creativity.
Correspondingly, a backwards (‘left-facing’) swastika symbol-
ises darkness and destruction — the ‘night-time Sun’ of the
dwellers of ancient Rus’.
Both swastikas were used, as may be seen on ancient or-
naments — in particular, on the Aryan jars found around
1 cosmogonic — relating to cosmogony, the astrophysical study (or a theory or
model) of the origin and evolution of the Universe.
b clockwise movement of the Sun — that is, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere.
' Upper 'Paleolithic period — a period of between 40,000 and 10,000 years
ago (also known as the late Stone Age, particularly in reference to Africa),
before the advent of agriculture.
4 8
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Arkaim. This has a deep significance. Day takes the place
of night, light the place of darkness, and a new birth takes
the place of death — and this is the natural order of things in
the Universe. Hence in antiquity there was no such thing as
a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ swastika — they were perceived as a unified
entity (like the energy of yin and yang 1 in the Orient).
Arkaim was outwardly beautiful: the ideal circular city
marked by distinctive gate-towers, burning torches and a
beautifully formed facade — probably featuring some kind
of meaningful sacral pattern. Everything in Arkaim, after all,
was fraught with meaning.
Each dwelling was attached on one side to either the
outer or inner wall, and faced either the main ring road or
the central plaza. In the improvised ‘entrance-hall’ to each
dwelling was a special watercourse, which emptied into
the ditch under the main street. The ancient Aryans were
thus provided with a sewer system. Not only that, but each
dwelling had its own well, furnace and a small cupola-shaped
storage area.
From each well, above the water-level, two earthen pipes
branched out. One led to the furnace, the other to the stor-
age area. What for? Quite brilliant, actually. We all know
that if you glance down a well, you will invariably feel a cur-
rent of cool air. So, in the Aryan furnaces this cool air, passing
through an earthen pipe, created such a strong draft that it was
capable of melting bronze with no need for bellows. There
was a furnace like that in every dwelling, and all the ancient
blacksmiths had to do was to perfect their craft and compete
with their artistic rivals! The other earthen pipe leading to
the storage area ensured a lower temperature there.
yin, yang — the two opposite (though complementary) principles of
Chinese philosophy (see footnote 2 in Book 7, Chapter 23: “Significant
books”).
Into the depths of history
49
The famous Russian astroarchaeologist Konstantin Kon-
stantinovich Bystrushkin researched Arkaim as an astronom-
ical observatory and came to the following conclusion:
Arkaim is not just a complex installation, but it is subtle in
its complexity In examining its schematics, one can easily
see parallels with the well-known Stonehenge monument
in England. For example, the diameter of the inner circle
of Arkaim is always reported as being exactly 85 metres. In
fact, it is a circle with two radiuses — 40 metres and 43.2
metres. (Try drawing it!) Compare that to the radius of
Stonehenge’s Aubrey Hole ring, 9 which is also 43.2 metres!
Stonehenge and Arkaim are positioned at approximately the
same latitude, and both are at the centre of a bowl-shaped
valley The distance between them is almost 4,000 km...
Researchers have determined that on the basis of all the
known facts, Arkaim amounts to a horizon observatory. Why
a ‘horizon’ observatory, specifically? Because the measurings
and observations made there are based on the moment of the
rising and setting of the Sun and the Moon on the horizon.
The recording of the moment of ‘disengagement’ (or ‘touch-
down’) of the lower edge of the disc on the horizon allows the
accurate determination of the place of this event. If we keep
track of sunrises on a daily basis, we shall note that the actual
point of sunrise shifts from day to day Reaching its northern
limit on 22 June, this point then moves south to its opposite
apogee on 22 December. This is part of the cosmic order.
That means there are four visible points of observation of
the Sun each year — two points of sunrise (on 22 June and
9 Aubrey Hole ring — a ring of j6 pits (‘holes’) thought to have held posts
forming a timber circle — named after the poet and antiquary John
Aubrey (1626-1697) who discovered them in the seventeenth century.
50
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
22 December) and two corresponding points of sunset on the
western horizon. Add to these two more points — namely,
sunrise and sunset during the equinox (22 March and 22
September). This offered a sufficiently accurate determina-
tion of the length of a year. However a year is made up of a
whole host of singular events, and these can be determined
with the aid of that other celestial body, namely, the Moon.
Regardless of the complexity involved in its observation, peo-
ple of old knew the laws of its movement across the empy-
rean. Here are a few of them:
(1) The full moon which occurs closest to 22 June is ob-
served at the point of the winter solstice (22 December) and
vice-versa.
(2) Lunar events can be observed near the points of the sol-
stice on a nineteen-year cycle (‘high’ and low’ Moon).
As an observatory, Arkaim allowed astronomers to fol-
low the events of the Moon. It is possible to note eighteen
astronomical events just on these huge circular walls alone!
Six of them are connected with the Sun and twelve with the
Moon (including the ‘high’ and low’ Moon). By comparison,
researchers at Stonehenge were able to identify only fifteen
cosmic events.
In addition to information about these amazing factual
events, the following data were obtained: the Arkaim unit
of measurement of length is 80 cm. The centre of the in-
ner circle shows a displacement from the centre of the outer
circle by a factor of 5.25 Arkaim units, which is close to the
Moon’s orbital inclination: 5°9’ plus or minus 10 minutes. In
Bystrushkin’s opinion, this reflects the correlation between
the orbits of the Moon and the Sun (for the terrestrial ob-
server). Correspondingly, Arkaim’s outer circle is dedicated
to the Moon, its inner circle to the Sun. Not only that, but
astroarchaeological measurements have shown a link between
some of Arkaim’s parameters and the wobbling of the Earth’s
Into the depths of history
5i
axis — this is getting into some pretty sophisticated science,
even in terms of modern astronomy
And so we see that by any stretch of the imagination
Arkaim hardly falls under the category of ‘city’.
Its extremely small rooms offer no accommodation for
families, but serve as an ideal space for philosophical re-
flections. Historians know that in ancient times so-called
‘wise-men’ were considered to be scientists and teachers.
Consequently, it is possible that Arkaim, as one of the most
celebrated scientific centres, could have belonged exclusively
to these ‘wise-men’. There were simply no other scientists
around in those times.
It is also known that the wise-men devised and adjusted
their rites on the basis of their knowledge of the Cosmos.
The question is: what has become of these unique rites to-
day? What kind of obscurantism has destroyed them or is
concealing them from people’s view?
00
What is the message of Sungir?
And now I should like to bring to your attention some even
more sensational news, eclipsing that of even the pyramids of
Egypt or the ruins of Ancient Rome.
This information is also needed, as Anastasia’s grandfather
said, in order to better understand the phenomena and knowl-
edge of the Universe prevalent in our ancient forebears’ time.
And for that we have to delve as deeply as possible into history
52
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
The Siberian recluse said, furthermore:
“If your thought can dig down to three thousand years ago,
you will begin to gradually feel the knowledge of three mil-
lennia. If it can go as deep as five thousand years, then five
millennia, though not everything you discover will be com-
prehensible to you. You actually need a minimum of nineteen
thousand years.”
This attempt to dig into our country’s historical past
seemed to me utterly unfeasible. I was already prepared to
go off to India or Tibet where, it is said, one can learn more
about our ancestors than here at home. But, as it turned out,
there was no need to go anywhere. Everything was available
right here, and now I invite everyone reading these lines to
cast his thought about our forebears more than nineteen
thousand years back in time.
The archaeological finds I am about to describe were made
(by mere chance) on the outskirts of the city ofVladimir, which,
according to official sources, is approximately 1,015 years old.
In 1955, while excavating a clay pit mine for the Vladimir
Ceramics Factory, Alexander F. Nacharov discovered in one
of the buckets the bones of some very large animal, which had
been resting at a depth of three metres. Archaeologists were
informed about the discovery
The first excavations thereafter simply astounded the sci-
entists. Buried on the site were the remains of people, jewel-
lery, clothing ornamentation and everyday objects, all testi-
fying to some kind of ancient culture. Further investigation
confirmed that our ancestors had arrived on the banks of the
Klyazma River 10 as early as the Old Stone Age, approximately
25,000 years ago.
10 Klyazma River — a tributary of the Oka, which in turn flows into the
Volga at Nizhny Novgorod east of Moscow. Vladimir is one of the major
cities on the banks of the Klyazma.
Into the depths of history
53
Now somebody could be wondering whether they might
have run about on all fours, dressed in home-made skins and
carrying clubs! Not at all. The scientists were amazed by an-
other finding.
On the skeletons themselves or close by were a whole lot of
jewellery and ornaments which aided in reconstructing the ap-
pearance of the clothing worn by these ancient people — some-
thing similar to either overalls or a perfectly civilised dress.
The finding is such that if we are not going to relegate these
remains to the category of buried extra-terrestrials, then we
shall have to completely revise our whole historical outlook
on the world.
In one of its halls the Vladimir State Museum of History
and Ethnography mounted a special exhibition dedicated to
these unique findings. It put out a booklet stating that the
Sungir site is the most interesting archaeological monument
in Russia, and is known to archaeologists the world over. It
has hosted a number of international scientific conferences.
Sungir represents one of the northernmost settlements of
Ancient Man in the Vladimir Region on the Great Russian
Plain. In terms of richness of both objects and state of pres-
ervation of such ancient remains, it has no compeer anywhere
in the world.
Thanks to the collaborative efforts of archaeologists, ge-
ologists, paleontologists and paleobotanists, we have a fairly
clear picture of how people lived back then, in this incredibly
distant time-period.
Here, on the edge of a glacier, was where the tundra used
to begin, dotted here and there with islands of fir, pine, birch
and alder groves. The animal world was quite diversified.
According to the booklet, “ancient Sungirians hunted
the reindeer, wild horse, Arctic fox, wolverine, bison, brown
bear, wolf, Arctic hare; they also went after the black grouse,
junglefowl and herring gull. And of course, they hunted the
54
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
mammoth — a huge animal, now extinct, almost four metres
tall and weighing six tonnes. This represented for them a
much sought-after trophy: meat, skins (indispensable in con-
structing dwellings) and tusks (a solid and superb material for
the preparation of both weapons and ornaments.”
The inventory of objects made from bone and horn is most
interesting: shaft adjusters, hoes, spearheads, arrowheads and
beads from mammoth tusks, jewellery made from the fangs
of the Arctic fox. A small silhouetted figure of a large-headed
horse came to be recognised as a rare example of primitive art.
This famous Sungir horse was decorated with tiny dotted or-
naments and red ochre. The number of dots on the figure —
a multiple of five — testifies to the use of a quinary counting
system among inhabitants of the site. A seven-based system
points to the knowledge possessed by people living 25,000
years ago. But it is the unique burial sites of these ancient
people that have brought global fame to Sungir.
In 1964, in a heavy layer of ochre-coloured rock, was found
the skull of a woman; lower still were the remains of an eld-
erly man. On his chest was a pendant made from a pebble,
while on his arms were twenty-five plate bracelets made from
mammoth tusks. In addition, on the skull, all along the arms,
legs and torso almost 3,500 beads were arranged in rows. The
pattern of their arrangement on the skeleton allowed scien-
tists to reconstruct the embroidered costume of this ancient
Sungirian. It was reminiscent of the fur clothing worn by
Arctic peoples today. At the bottom of the shallow grave they
discovered a knife and some kind of scraper made of flint.
Just as much a treasure was the next burial site, unearthed
some five years later.
This grave contained the remains of an adult body, but with-
out a skull. Beside it lay a necklace of mammoth-tusk beads, a
ring and a pair of reindeer antlers. But farther back, at 65 cm
below the upper grave, were found two skeletons of children.
Into the depths of history
55
A boy of twelve or thirteen and a girl between seven and
nine had been placed in the grave in a stretched position,
their heads pressed tightly against each other. Children on
their way to ‘the next world’ were accompanied by hunting
weapons made from mammoth tusks: eleven darts, 3 daggers
and two spears made out of split and straightened tusks, one
2.5 metres and the other 1.5 metres long. The grave also yield-
ed mammoth-tusk ‘rods’, very expressive figurines of a horse
and a mammoth, carved discs of an apparently ceremonial
nature and connected with the worship of the Sun and the
Moon. The children’s clothing, too, was embroidered with
thousands of little beads, and fastened across the chest with
pins made of bones. The back of the costume had been out-
fitted with threads of beads in the shape of animal tails.
This finding testifies to the complex rite of burial and the
developed religious beliefs of the ancient people of the Stone
Age. One may confidently assume that they believed in the
afterlife.
Multidisciplinary archaeological investigations have been
going on at Sungir, with a few interruptions, ever since 1956.
For almost twenty years the project was under the supervi-
sion of the famous archaeologist Dr Otto Nikolaevich Bader. 11
Anthropologist M. M. Gerasimov/ 2 along with his students
u Otto Nikolaevich Bader (1903-1979) — an internationally recognised
archaeologist of Soviet Russia, accorded membership in the Italian Institute
of Prehistory and the Society of Prehistoric Archaeology in France. As early
as 1924 he was appointed head of the Archseological Division of Moscow’s
Central Industrial District Museum, and, in 1931, Academic Secretary of
Moscow State University’s Institute and Museum of Anthropology He went
on to hold a number of other prominent positions in Russian academe.
12 Mikhail Mikhailovich Gerasimov (1907-1970) — a prominent Soviet an-
thropologist, archaeologist and sculptor, who specialised in the re-creation
of the outward appearance of a human being on the basis of skeletal re-
mains. He has created reconstructed portraits of historical figures such as
Yaroslav the Wise, Tamerlaine, Ivan the Terrible and Schiller.
5*5
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
G. V Lebedinskaya 13 and T. S. Surnina succeeded in recon-
structing the external appearance of the ancient Sungirians.
As is known, anthropologists are often able to reconstruct a
person’s face with sufficient accuracy on the basis of the skull.
This offered a rare opportunity indeed to gaze upon the faces
of ancient people — an opportunity I decided to take advan-
tage of. A wise, intelligent-looking face on the adult male. A
slightly sad expression on the young girl’s face, a thoughtful
one on the boy’s.
And yet the presumptions about hunting, and especially
the mammoth, I believe, were not entirely accurate.
I brought Anastasia’s grandfather to this unique exhibition
in the Vladimir museum. The old fellow slowly made his way
around the displays, without stopping at any of them. Then
he stood in the middle of the hall and bowed four times, each
time shifting his position by ninety degrees. When I told him
about the scientists’ conclusions, he began to refute a good
deal of it, explaining:
“These people, Vladimir, never hunted mammoths.
Mammoths were their household animals, and a very great
help to families, also a way of transporting heavy loads. They
performed a greater variety of tasks than elephants do today
in India, which are controlled by mahouts, or drivers.
“Standing on a mammoth, the Sungirians could gather fruit
from very tall trees and store them in woven bags and baskets,
and then carry them to wherever they liked.
“In the domain glades, the mammoths cleared out young
underbrush from the forest encroaching on the glades or,
depending on the task assigned, would shake and then pull
13 Galina Viacheslavovna Lebedinskaya (1924-) — a specialist in remains recon-
struction. Following Gerasimov’s death in 1970, she succeeded him as head
of the Waxed Reconstruction Laboratory at the Ethnographical Institute
of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.
Into the depths of history
57
up trees so as to enlarge the glade. Whenever people had to
move from one place to another, they would load their be-
longings, utensils and food supplies onto the mammoth.
“This was a very kind and industrious household animal.
Even a small child could put his fingers around the end of its
trunk and lead it about at will. Indeed, children often played
with the mammoth, making it suck up water into its trunk and
then give them a shower. The mammoth took great pleasure
in watching how the youngsters jumped and squealed with
joy.
“The mammoth was especially delighted, too, when his
wool was combed out and removed by a special, rake-like in-
strument. A Man would wash the wool, dry it and then use it
for his own purposes, for example, in making a bed.
“There was absolutely no need for these people to hunt the
mammoth. This can be deduced just from the information
available in the booklet, which contains quite a few contra-
dictory statements.”
“Why contradictory?”
“Think about it. They list all sorts of wild game which
could easily be caught in sufficient numbers with the aid of
special traps. If a Man killed a mammoth, which weighs six
tonnes, he could not possibly eat all its meat right off.”
“But what if there were a whole lot of people?”
“There couldn’t have been that many Back in those times
people didn’t live packed tight together the way they do now
in cities or towns. Each family tribe had its own lands. Each
family had their own territory, their own home. On an area of
three square kilometres might be living fewer than a hundred
people. Even collectively, they couldn’t eat a six-tonne mam-
moth in just a few days, even if they didn’t consume anything
but meat during that time. The rotting meat would start to
decompose and attract a huge number of insects. It could
have started an epidemic.”
58
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“But maybe they invited people from other territories to
some kind of feast?”
“What sense would there be in travelling several kilome-
tres just to eat meat which there was enough of at home?”
“But if you say the mammoth’s decomposing carcass could
run the risk of provoking an epidemic, the very same threat
could be posed by a household mammoth when it died.”
“Vladimir, a mammoth would never die in the family sur-
roundings. When it got old and felt death approaching, it
would walk a little ways from the house and trumpet three
times, before heading off to a cemetery for mammoths, where
it died. You should have known that yourself, as that is what
wild elephants do in India today. Before they die they trum-
pet and then leave the herd.”
“So that means we have a very distorted understanding of
how the ancient people fed themselves?”
“Yes, that’s right. Perhaps it’s an attempt to justify your
current barbarity in regard to the treatment of animals. The
farther you go back into history, the fewer people you’ll en-
counter eating meat. They had a sufficient supply of growing
things to sustain themselves. As for animals, they took from
them only what the animals themselves gave to Man — milk
and eggs, for example. Meat could have been harmful to the
stomachs of the first people.
‘Another argument in favour of the premise that hunting
was not a basic source of food for primitive people is its illogi-
cality by comparison with other ways of obtaining food.”
“What other ways?”
“From tamed, domesticated animals. Picture to yourself
a Man whose household includes a female mammoth, a cow
and a goat, all of which can be milked, yielding a daily sup-
ply of top-quality fresh produce. This Man’s household also
includes domesticated fowl: a goose, a duck, a chicken, all of
which provide eggs with little effort on his part. He has the
Into the depths of history
59
opportunity of gathering honey and pollen from bees, and a
great many root vegetables and edible herbs are also at hand.
“Then all of a sudden it appears as though the Man is going
out of his mind. He kills all his domestic animals — which,
apart from everything else, have also been guarding him when
he is asleep — eats them and begins hunting for wild game,
thereby putting himself in danger without guaranteeing him-
self and his family a regular supply of fresh produce.
“In place of friendly surroundings and the love expressed
to him by his household animals, he ends up with nothing but
an aggressive environment in which it is virtually impossible,
one might say, for his household to survive.”
“But did the first people really begin right off to domesti-
cate and train their animals? Maybe that came along at a later
period?”
“There would have been no later period for Man if he had
taken an aggressive stance from the start. You must be ac-
quainted, after all, Vladimir, with situations where an infant
alone in the forest may be fed even by carnivorous wolves —
the very same forest where a pack of wolves could tear an
adult to pieces. What would account for the discrepancy in
their attitude toward Man?”
“I really can’t say”
“Because in the first instance the infant Man has no aggres-
sion, while in the second we have aggression and fear which
create unease in the surrounding environment.
“The first people had no sense of fear or aggression. It was
love that was dominant in them, along with a genuine interest
in the world around them. Consequently, it was no effort to
domesticate or train animals and birds. Their primary con-
cern was to determine the purpose of every creature they en-
countered on the Earth. This they did. As far as the animals
go, you already know that they find their own highest benefit
in Man’s feelings of love and care for them.
6o
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“Meat was first consumed by a less-than-complete Man,
one drained of the energy of Love. It seems that he either
went out of his mind or was infected with the most terrible
disease — a disease which has come down to the present day”
“But what connection can there be between love and Man’s
first consumption of meat?”
“There is a direct connection. A Man living in love is inca-
pable of killing.”
“Possibly. But can you determine why these children died
25,000 years ago? Why were they buried in such an unusual
manner, head to head like that?”
“I could tell you, of course, but it would be a very long sto-
ry Besides, it is not important for you to know why they were
overcome by death, but for what purpose .”
“For what purpose?”
“There you go again, Vladimir, constantly asking ques-
tions. Too lazy to think for yourself. Only don’t blame me for
speaking like this, the way you did back in the taiga when you
let resentment take over. Think, instead, on the whole point
of my telling you things. What I say will bring you more harm
than good if you don’t begin to think for yourself.
“I speak, and you listen, and instead of working out your
own conclusions in your thought, you are merely talcing note
of mine. You have set yourself up a goal of finding conditions
in the past under which love could remain with people for-
ever, and then reintroducing them in this present day. That’s
fine, the path is correct, and the goal is the most important
of all.
“You are trying to determine how many ages ago love began
to dwell with people. Look: here is a date right before your
eyes. Think about it. Right in front of you lie two child skel-
etons. Their death at such a young age is meaningless unless
people can realise what important information is concealed
in their burial.
Into the depths of history 61
“Their death will acquire meaning if you retrieve this infor-
mation right now”
I didn’t resent the old fellow for his remark on my laziness
of mind. I had long realised that he was using some kind of
methods of his own, trying again and again to teach me how to
control my thoughts by alternative means. But I, after all, did
not go through the same school as they training their thought
from childhood. I went to an ordinary school, which quite pos-
sibly serves to do just the opposite — to switch thought off.
So here I am standing in front of these child skeletons,
straining myself mentally, without being able to grasp how
I can look on them and learn at least something about the
love that existed 25,000 years ago — if it existed at all at that
time.
“It did exist,” the old fellow suddenly said.
“What made you decide that? There’s not a word about
love on the museum signs.”
“Not a word, but so what? Look carefully Judging by the
skeletons, these are children. The boy is twelve and a half.
The girl, she’s eight.
“On their skeletons are hundreds of bone beads. On the
basis of their arrangement your scientists have determined
what kind of clothing the children were wearing. But is that
all the bone beads can tell us?”
“What else can they tell us?”
“That their parents, Vladimir, loved these children very
much. They loved their children and they loved each other.
Only loving parents could get involved in such time-consum-
ing ornamentation of their children’s clothing. We can also
tell that they had more than enough free time for artistic pur-
suits and for designing and then making fine clothing.
“Note that the objects found in the grave include absolute-
ly no weapons capable of killing.”
“What about the darts? Aren’t those weapons?”
62
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“Of course not. And they’re not even harpoons for catching
fish, since there are no barbs on the ends. The end of the ob-
ject they’ve called a ‘dart’ is not even sharp. A thin, lightweight
dart like that could hardly kill or even wound any creature.”
“Then what was this object used for?”
“For training and controlling animals. See how it resem-
bles a stick animal trainers use today? Elephant drivers, for
example, use sticks like that to control their charges.”
“But why did they need to make them out of bone? They
could have also taken a real stick and not wasted time straight-
ening out the bone and putting ornaments onto it.”
“A wooden stick couldn’t last very long. Animals, on the
other hand, get accustomed to a single object — its shape
and even the smell it acquires from contact with the master’s
hand.”
“Right, then — everything you say sounds rather convinc-
ing, but there are other objects which resemble arrowheads.
And arrows were meant for killing.”
“In the case of these specific people, who were not of the
very earliest period of human life on the Earth, arrows were
intended for scaring away carnivorous beasts when they at-
tacked.
“There are also some objects that look like hoes. These,
indeed, were instruments for planting seeds and digging up
roots.”
“But the jewellery? Look, this necklace is made from the
fangs of an Arctic fox. And scientists assume that the cloth-
ing was made from leather. So, they killed animals after all!”
“Your scientists are right about their clothing being made of
leather, but there was absolutely no need to kill any animals for
this purpose. There were reptiles which shed their old skin on
a regular basis. Reptiles might die for some reason, and then
ants would eat out their insides, leaving the skin untouched,
which turned out to be very useful for making clothing. Given
Into the depths of history
63
such circumstances, it would be silly to waste time on killing
an animal, cutting up the carcass, processing and drying the
skin or softening it. What for? Since it was possible to acquire
a ready-made skin in an ideal condition. In the Divine Nature
all Man’s needs have been provided for in advance. As for the
necklace from a fox’s fangs, it was a lot simpler to take them
from a skeleton already worked over and dried by Nature.”
At this point I’m going to interrupt, for a moment, Anastasia’s
grandfather’s account about the archaeologists’ unique findings.
In the booklet put out by the Vladimir State Museum
there are drawings showing two exhibit halls — the Sungir
Architectural Park and the Sungir Museum Complex. It
mentions that international conferences have been organised
around these unique findings.
However, I would not advise any great haste to visit the
excavation site of this ancient civilisation. There are no ac-
tual pavilions on the site — only the remains of unfinished
construction. And the archaeological work is not proceeding
at any intensive pace. The State has no funds for such impor-
tant projects. They are going ahead, one might say, thanks to
the level of enthusiasm both of the scientists involved and of
the local authorities.
I arrived at this unique place on a weekend. In one of the
pits I saw two men taking soil samples from the side of the pit
and carefully placing them into plastic bags. They turned out
to be workers from the State Archaeological Institute. They
confirmed that Sungir is considered the richest archaeological
site for the study of Ancient Man anywhere in the world.
The Vladimir Museum exhibition is the only one of its
kind in Russia. They said that tourists sometimes visited
the Sungir excavation site, but mainly tourists from Japan,
since there is an even fuller exhibition on Sungir at the Tokyo
National Archaeological Museum.
6 4
Book 8, part z: Rites of Love
It seemed pretty strange that the people in the Land of the
Rising Sun show more respect to our ancient forebears living on
our country’s territory than we do ourselves. Thankyou Japanese
friends, for protecting the culture of our joint forebears.
We talk about Russia’s lofty mission, about spirituality and
the need to support the national image, but what support can
we talk about if foreign tourists see our relationship to his-
tory through their own eyes?
Well, the only thing we can do is hope that possibly our
more civilised descendants will learn what secrets still remain
to be discovered in Sungir.
I managed to find out that 25,000 years ago our forebears
were civilised people, who knew how to love passionately and
preserve love forever.
00
A family-centred society 14
To all appearances, in order to bring back lost effective tradi-
tions and rites capable of preserving love in families, it would
seem necessary to obtain full information about the life of
our forebears.
To this end we must delve even deeper into our historical
past, right down to the family-community-centred society,
14 Here and throughout this section of the chapter, the Russian term f ox fam-
ily is rod/ rodovoi, which refers not just to the family in any particular moment
of time, but rather to the tribe, clan or family line, which includes all forebears
in addition to the present generation and all future descendants. See also
footnote 7 in Book 4, Chapter 33: “School, or the lessons of the gods”.
Into the depths of history
65
when a husband and wife who loved each other created a
friendly family community together with their children,
grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
In today’s world a husband and wife simply cannot hold on
to even their closest relatives — their children. No sooner
do their offspring approach adulthood than they try to get
out from under their parents’ wing. They go off to live in a
university residence, or rent an apartment — often at consid-
erable expense, but they still go.
And we’re not just talking about children! Many couples
separate even before children come along, or shortly after
their appearance.
The family-community-centred society existed many mil-
lennia in Rus’ before the princes came along. It was charac-
terised by an absence of divorce and stronger family units, in
comparison with subsequent social structures in our history.
Only genuine love is capable of starting a family line. In the
past it was much easier for grown children to leave the family
than today I’m talking about the early period in Rus’, before
the arrival of the princes.
If two young people who loved each other weren’t happy
with their relationships with their parents, they could leave
home and set up their own dwelling on whatever territory
they took a fancy to. They could start by nourishing them-
selves on what they found in the forest; then they would till
the ground and establish a household. But they didn’t go away.
That means the founders of the family line treated them with
understanding and love.
We need to study this period and from it draw into our
modern way of life grains of logic capable of helping build
strong families today
But how, by what means can we access information about
this era in people’s lives, when Russian history describes only
the Christian period?
66
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Another factor necessitating an investigation into our peo-
ple’s historical past is the importance of determining whether
the ancient rites and culture disappeared all by themselves,
having outlived their usefulness, or whether the traditions of
many millennia were deliberately destroyed.
If they disappeared all on their own, then there is no point
in digging into the historical past, since the people them-
selves rejected their ancient culture, not seeing it as useful,
which means it would not be accepted today either.
If, on the other hand, the ancient traditions were deliber-
ately destroyed, then we must look into the question of by
whom and for what purpose. We must seek them out, find
them and present them to society for evaluation.
It is possible the ancient rites and traditions conceal within
themselves such important secrets of human existence that
without uncovering them we shall continue to move toward
an abyss, die out and torment ourselves with family strife. We
often talk about large-scale wars. Family conflict, however,
is often more painful for each of its participants than news
about war in Iraq or events in Israel.
Recalling everything I knew about Ancient Russian his-
tory, I decided that, strange as it might seem at first glance,
the only thread leading through the vast labyrinth of histori-
cal falsehoods was the conqueror Genghis Khan 1 ’ — in other
words, the three-hundred-year period of the so-called ‘Tataro-
Mongol Yoke’ in Rus’. Why? Because this period began
shortly after the Christianisation of Rus’, when the traditions
of our ancestors had not yet been completely annihilated.
15 Genghis Khan (Mongolian: Chinggis Khayan; real name: Temujin, 1162-
1227) — the founder, reformer and unifier of the State of Mongolia (1206).
After uniting the nomadic tribes of north-east and central Asia, he organ-
ised campaigns of conquest throughout Asia and Eastern Europe, thus
forming the largest contiguous empire in world history
Into the depths of history
67
Not only that, but Genghis Khan was just about the bright-
est, most interesting and enlightened personality of his time.
It is not only that he and his descendants conquered half the
world, but it is fascinating to see how they did it.
I can tell you right off that their army played only a sec-
ondary role in this process. We know from various historical
sources that Genghis Khan sent expeditions to many lands,
as far away as China and India, which supplied him with wise-
men. He spent a great deal of time conversing with men of
wisdom. He was attempting to determine the purpose of hu-
man existence on the Earth, and to find immortality. In other
words, he was gathering the wisdom of various peoples and
could well have possessed information about the social struc-
ture of Ancient Rus’.
And it turned out, in fact, that he did. I am convinced that
it was thanks to this information that his family, his sons and
great-grandchildren were able to hold the so-called elite of
many countries in subjection over the centuries. And I mean
exactly that — it wasn’t countries or their peoples that he held
in subjection, but their elites that were usurping the peoples
of these countries.
Somebody might wonder what on earth the knowledge of
ancient family traditions and love-preserving rites has to do
with the successful subjugation of states.
You shouldn’t be surprised — there is a simple direct rela-
tionship, and such knowledge is more powerful than millions
of soldiers’ swords or even the most state-of-the-art weap-
onry.
I shall not bother describing the whole three-hundred-year
period of the Tataro-Mongolian hold on Rus’. I shall cite just
one episode — albeit a very typical and interesting episode —
the subjugation of the Vladimir- Suzdal principality, on which
I have collected information from various sources. Let’s try
to arrive at some conclusions together.
68
Book 8, part v. Rites of Love
( 3 ©
A mysterious manoeuvre
Chronicles, modern historical sources and church literature
all talk about a mysterious and even secretive manoeuvre on
the part of Batu Khan' 6 , grandson to Genghis Khan, on the
outskirts of the city of Vladimir in 1238. What is the mystery
here? This is how the chronicles tell it:
“Having taken Riazan' 7 in 1237, in the spring of 1238 Batu
Khan and his cavalry pushed their way into the city of
Suzdal...” As subsequently reported in a multitude of eccle-
siastical sources, he burnt Suzdal, exterminated part of the
population and took the remaining part captive. A lot is said
in these sources about the “atrocities committed against the
people”.
Secular historians, on the other hand, describe the situa-
tion more accurately and impartially Thus, for example, in
the materials available in the Vladimir-Suzdal State Museum
the event is described as follows:
l6 Batu Khan (also known as Baty, 1205-1255) — the son of Jochi and grand-
son of Genghis Khan, who inherited the leadership of the so-called Golden
Horde (Mongolian: Altan Ordyn Uls ; Russian: Zolotaya Ordd) — part of the
Mongol Empire that covered much of present-day Russian territory (along
with Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the Caucasus) for almost three centuries,
beginning in the 1240s.
17 Riazan — a city on the Oka River south-east of Moscow (see footnote 6 in
Book 5, Chapter 17: “Questions and answers”).
Into the depths of history
69
The Tatars set up their camps at the city of Vladimir, while
they themselves went and took Suzdal, and plundered the
Holy Mother of God (cathedral), and burnt the prince’s
court, and burnt the monastery of Saint Dmitry, and plun-
dered others; and the old monks and nuns, and the priests,
and the blind, and the lame, and the deaf, and the labour-
weary and all other people were slaughtered, while the
young monks, and monks, and priests, and their wives,
and the deacons with their wives, and their daughters, and
their sons — all these were led away to the Tatars’ camps,
and they themselves went to Vladimir.
As we can see, Batu Khan did not take anywhere near the
whole population captive. And he killed off the old high-
ranking monks and took the young ones captive. He didn’t
burn and plunder the whole city, but only the prince’s resi-
dence along with Suzdal’s churches and monasteries.
And now let us try to solve a superhistorical mystery Why
(as the document says) did the Tatars “set up their camps at the
city ofVladimir, while they themselves went and took Suzdal”?
Any military historian — as, indeed, any modern army
commander — will tell you that this manoeuvre completely
goes against standard military tactics.
To establish a camp under the walls of a major fortified city
and then leave it and move one’s troops to a smaller target —
that is tantamount to suicide.
The distance between the cities ofVladimir and Suzdal
at the time was equivalent to 35 kilometres. With the roads
rendered impassable by the spring rains, it was a good day’s
journey on horseback.
The taking of Suzdal required a minimum of several more
days, and then a day’s journey back.
It wouldn’t have taken any more than a day for the soldiers
defending Vladimir to go out of their fortified city on a foray
70
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
and rout the defenceless enemy camp. All they had to do was
seize the spare horses, the spare quivers of arrows, the sup-
plies, the wall-storming ladders and stone-throwing devices,
and they would have shorn the enemy not only of the pos-
sibility of launching an attack on them, but of their battle-
readiness in general.
But they never went out. Why not? Perhaps they didn’t
know that Batu Khan’s troops had left the camp? But they
knew; They could have easily seen that from their battle-
ments; besides, their scouts would have reported it.
Possibly Batu Khan’s forces were in such great numbers
that more than enough guards had been left behind to repel
an attack on the camp?
This is the way historians initially explained it. They said
the Golden Horde’s troops numbered almost a million. Then
they changed their minds and reduced their estimate to
130,000, some even to as few as 30,000.
Naturally it is tempting to explain one’s defeat by citing
the enemy’s significantly superior numbers. More objective
scholars have begun to say that moving a million-strong army
at that time was an absolute impossibility.
A million swordsmen together with equipment would
mean three million horses. If a herd like that were kept in
one place, even in the summertime, they would die of hunger,
since the grass all around would be trampled down. And in
the wintertime no amount of feed supplies would be enough.
So the figure was reduced to either 130,000 or 30,000. A
humiliating figure indeed. With a scant hundred and thirty
thousand men Batu Khan quietly went about conquering
Russian principalities and whole countries too.
But even this figure is inflated. To subjugate the Russian
princes of that time using the knowledge left by Genghis Khan
to his descendants, there was simply no need for even a fifty-
thousand-strong army All that was required was knowledge
Into the depths of history
7i
of the way of life of the Russian people, Russian families, and
the proper strategy based on such knowledge.
After setting up camp at the city of Vladimir, Batu Khan
did not go with a whole army to Suzdal, but sent a small de-
tachment to take it. This is why the people of Vladimir did
not leave their fortified city to rout the camp and destroy the
enemy’s military facilities.
Do you know how many days and nights it took for Batu
Khan’s small detachment to conquer one of Rus’s spiritual
capitals of the time, surrounded as it was by more than a half-
dozen monastery fortresses — this legendary city of Suzdal?
No time at all. He simply arrived, entered the city and burnt
the prince’s residence. The prince, meanwhile, had fled togeth-
er with his armed garrison. It was no effort to cut down every
last one of the high-ranked clergy and take the young monks
captive. And the Mongols later caught up with the prince and
his garrison at the Sit’ River and destroyed them too. 18
How could that be? someone may wonder. Where were the
brave Russian people, their indomitable and freedom-loving
spirit?
I can tell you right off that there was nothing wrong with
the Russian people and their spirit. Logic suggests that the
people applauded Batu Khan’s small detachment on its return
journey from Suzdal. They served kvas and braga v> to the war-
riors along the whole route back to their camp at Vladimir.
The reason is that the people of that time did not look upon
Suzdal as their city Rather, they viewed its royal inhabitants
as traitors and its clergy as foreign aggressors and enslavers.
18
This battle took place 4 March 1238. Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich was
beaten and beheaded by the detachment commander Burundai, who later
presented the prince’s head to Batu Khan as a trophy
I9 kvas — a Russian fermented drink made from rye bread or vegetables;
braga — a milrl Russian alcoholic beverage.
72
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
This led to the flare-up of a number of rebellions on the part
of the people against unbearable oppression.
Documents at the Vladimir- Suzdal State Museum put it
this way:
By the end of the thirteenth century Suzdal had eight mon-
asteries. Founded by the princes and representatives of the
Christian religion, they played a major role in assimilating
new territories and served as fortresses in the event of en-
emy aggression. ...
In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries the
Church owned a third of the best lands in the country and
was endeavouring to subjugate the power of the Grand
Princes to itself. From the end of the fifteenth century on,
the State made repeated attempts to limit the landhold-
ings of monasteries and churches, along with attempts
at secularisation (in other words, complete eradication).
The question of land provoked two ideological tenden-
cies within the Church: Josephism 20 and the Non- Possessors
Movement . 21 The first defended the monasteries’ property
interests, while the second emphasised the idea of inner
self-perfection and condemned the monasteries’ acquisi-
tive pursuits. The ideological leader of the Josephites
~° Josephism (Russian: Iosiflianstvo, also known as the Possessors Movement) — a
movement defending the ownership of land by the Russian Orthodox Church,
led by Iosif (Joseph) Volotsky (or Volokamsky; secular name: Ivan Sanin, 1439-
1515), later recognised as a saint. Not to be confused with the 20th-century use
of the same term, designating a movement opposing the Russian Orthodox
Church’s kowtowing to communist authority following the 1917 revolution (in
this case named after Metropolitan Iosif [Joseph] of Leningrad).
21 Non-Possessors Movement (Russian: nestiazhatel’stvo) — an opposition move-
ment to Josephism, rejecting church land-ownership, led by Nil Sorsky (sec-
ular name: Nikolai Fedorovich Maikov, 1433-1508) and a Greek immigrant,
Maxim Grek (secular name: Mikhail Trivolis , 1475-15 56).
Into the depths of history
73
was Father Joseph, abbot of the Volokolamsky Monastery
while the Non-Possessors Movement was championed by
a monk of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, Nil Sorsky
The monasteries and clergy of Suzdal, as major landholders,
came down solidly on the side of the Josephites. However,
in the sixteenth century the authority of the Grand Princes
did not manage to carry out its intended secularisation of
the Church’s wealthy landholdings, which continued to in-
crease, even though on a limited scale.
Quite a trick! A third of Russian lands ended up in the
hands of the Constantinople-derived 22 clergy and its puppets.
Monasteries were transformed into large-scale slave-owners.
And it wasn’t the monks who tilled the ground and raised cat-
tle, but the peasant serfs.
The princes were already trying to reclaim part of the
country they had lost. But that was by no means easy!
And just how was this ‘enriching’ the souls of the peasants,
whose primordial family lands had now become monasterial
property at one fell swoop? What was offered to people in
exchange for their centuries-old traditions and rites, which
were now labelled ‘barbarian’? The same archival documents
show what happened here:
Fees and penalties imposed on the peasant serfs
of the Pokrovsky Nunnery in 1653
From each household — two altyns , 23 a chicken and lamb’s
wool from the first shearing.
22 Constantinople (onguialmme-.Byzantmm, now Istanbul) — the seat of the Greek
Orthodox Church, from which the Russian Orthodox Church was derived.
23 altyn — a mediaeval coin worth three kopeks (derived from the Tatar word
for ‘gold’). A kopek is worth i/ioo of a rouble.
74
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
On the purchase of a:
Horse — 2 dengas. 24
Cow — 1 denga.
On the sale of:
Grain, horses, cows, hay — 1 altyn for each rouble received.
Log houses — 1 denga per internal corner.
For settling disputes:
Regarding field-lands — 2 altyns, 2 dengas.
Regarding household lands — 4 altyns, 2 dengas.
Court fees:
For travel to the site of a dispute — 1 denga per verst. 25
For travel in cases of acquittal — 2 dengas per verst.
From the guilty party — 1 altyn for each rouble assessed.
From the vindicated party — 7 altyns, 2 dengas.
For taking an oath — 4 altyns, 2 dengas.
Wedding fees:
From the groom — 3 altyns, 3 dengas.
From the bride for a table — 2 altyns, 2 dengas.
From a groom from outside the district — 2 grivnas. '"
From holiday beer-making
for weddings or funerals — 1 bucket of beer.
24 denga — a mediaeval coin worth half a kopek. The plural of this word
{den’gi) is the current Russian generic word for ‘moneyf
~ 5 verst (Russian: verstri) — an old Russian measurement of length, approxi-
mately equivalent to 1 kilometre.
~ 6 grivna (also known as grivennik ) — an old Russian coin worth ten ko-
peks.
Into the depths of history
15
Penalties:
For alcohol distillation for one’s self without a permit, or
for sale — 5 roubles, a beating with a cane, and arrest.
For consumption of wine except on holidays — 8 altyns, 2
dengas, and a beating with a cane.
And here is a description of the property of the highest-
ranked church official:
List of people and property
belonging to Metropolitan Illarion
16 elders, 6 overseers in charge of properties, 66 personal
bodyguards, 23 servants, 25 singers, 2 sextons, 13 bell-ring-
ers, 59 craftsmen and labourers. In total: 180 persons.
Weaponry numbering 93 pieces, silver dishes weighing 1
pood 27 20 pounds, pewter dishes weighing more than 16
poods, 112 horses belonging to the Metropolitan’s horse
farm, 5 carriages, 8 sleighs and chariots, 147 books.
(From the inventory of the Metropolitan's household, 1701)
A most extraordinary document. It is free of any kind of
historical inaccuracies. It simply provides an impartial inven-
tory of the Metropolitan’s household property However, it
also begs a great many questions.
What kind of properties did the Metropolitan have that
required the services of six overseers? Why a whole twenty-
three servants for one man? And were the ninety-three pieces
of weaponry also intended for the conducting of church rites?
pood (rhymes with ‘food’) — an old Russian unit of mass approximately
equivalent to 16.4 kg. A pood was divided into 40 funt (pounds).
76
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Note that none of this was the monastery’s property — it
was just the Metropolitan’s personal effects. The monastery
had its own.
Just who was such a large contingent of guards supposed
to protect the Metropolitan from? He had more bodyguards
than the first American presidents.
The large contingent of guards, like the high monastery
walls, were designed to protect the Metropolitan from the
Russian people, of course. The walls of the Suzdal monaster-
ies had no strategic significance in terms of military poli cy.
But why then do almost all historical sources describe the
high monastery walls with their embrasures as fortresses, de-
signed to protect the people from the enemy? Why were not
these so-called fortresses capable of holding out for at least a
month?
Because they weren’t at all designed for defence against
any external aggressor, let alone a smart one.
For the soldiers under Genghis Khan’s grandson, in any
case, such fortifications were no more than a distraction. If
the possessors of these mock fortresses had not acceded to
the enemy’s demand for immediate surrender, the Mongols
would have thrown up an embankment a little higher than
the walls and dragged their stone-throwing devices up onto
it. There are many possible scenarios here. One of them in-
volved putting a bag into the stone-launcher attached to a long
rope, and launching the bag over the monastery wall. Before
it hit the ground, the bag would become undone, showering
the people hiding behind the wall with infected meat. After
that, all they had to do was shoot the people as they attempt-
ed to escape through the main entrance gate.
The only thing that the high monastery walls served as a
protection against was their own people, the peasant serfs —
or, rather, the monastery slaves — who from time to time re-
belled.
77
Into the depths of history
It was none other than the Constantinople clergy who ap-
plied their lofty ‘spirituality’ to the inculcation of serf law 28 in
Rus’.
One document from the Suzdal Museum archives attests
to the following:
Church landholdings prevailed in Suzdal in the seven-
teenth century, as they had before. Monasteries and the
Metropolitan’s residence were major feudal landlords,
with enormous financial resources at their command,
not to mention the free labour of many thousands of
peasants.
Thus, the Spaso-Yevfimiev Monastery 29 placed fifth
among all Russia’s church-based feudal landlords. Its pros-
perity depended wholly upon land grants and contribu-
tions. In the second half of the seventeenth century the
earlier established fiefdoms did not increase in size, as the
inordinate expansion of monastery lands was held in check
by the State. The peasants were subject to a double exploi-
tation — first by the landowners (the corvee and tribute
system) and secondly by the State (taxes payable in both
money and kind).
~ 8 'serf law (Russian: krepostnoye pravo) — a feudal system prevalent in Russia
(as in other European countries), binding the peasants to the land, subju-
gating them to the will of the landowners, church and political authorities.
In Russia it was introduced by the Law Code ( Sudebnik ) in 1497 and not
officially abolished until 1861. Even after abolition, most peasants, being
granted no land of their own, had no choice for survival except to continue
in their servile relationship with the landowners. Slavery-like conditions
persisted throughout the Soviet period: peasants could not leave their vil-
lage without a special permission from the authorities, and were compelled
to do unpaid labour.
Spaso-'Yevfimiev Monastery — one of Suzdal’s principal monasteries, founded
in 1352 by Boris Konstantinovich, Prince of Suzdal and Nizhegorod, as a for-
tress designed to protect the city from enemies both within and without.
78
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
Or take this quote from a similar document on the history
of the Sviato-Pokrovsky Nunnery-. 30
The full and free life enjoyed by the nuns was made pos-
sible by the labours of peasant serfs and the enormous staff
of servants; the landholdings of the Pokrovsky Nunnery
grew, t hank s to rich donations and grants on the part of
Russia’s most elite families, including princes and tsars.
So there we have it: more lands — more serfs and more
wealth.
But let us return to the thirteenth century
What, then, actually happened with the arrival of Batu
Khan’s detachment at Suzdal? And where do traditions and
love enter the picture?
The population of Suzdal at that time was fewer than
4,000 inhabitants. It consisted mainly of the prince’s armed
garrison and servants, craftsmen and clergy with their host of
unpaid servants, hiding from the people behind the monas-
tery walls.
All around Suzdal and Vladimir lived tens of thousands of
peasant families, who were the only ones capable of worthily
resisting an aggressor. But they didn’t do this, they didn’t rise
up in arms, they didn’t go to the monastery walls to protect
the clergy. To put it simply, they hated the clergy. Note that
they didn’t hate God, only their oppressors. The people loved
and revered God.
30 Sviato-Pokrovsky (lit. ‘Holy Veil’) Nunnery — situated close to the Spaso-
Yefimiev Monastery founded in 1364 by the then Prince of Suzdal, Andrei
Konstantinovich (brother to Boris), in gratitude for protection from a
violent storm. It received special attention from the Grand Princes of
Moscow, including Vasily III and later Ivan the Terrible (the first to pro-
claim himself tsar).
79
Into the depths of history
It was for this reason that the people didn’t rise to the de-
fence of the city of Vladimir.
Batu Khan waited six days before storming Vladimir. He
waited until the news spread that it wasn’t the people he was
taking captive, but their enslavers.
He waited and took the well-fortified city in a single day
It was to this end that he made the foray against Suzdal. The
foray was of no military importance, but it served to deprive
the authorities of support from the populace at large.
And then what did the Mongols do?
Realising that they could find no better overseers and tax
collectors than the princes in collaboration with the clergy,
they began to issue the princes licences to govern and the
right to collect taxes from the Russian people, a portion of
which was to be handed over to the Horde. Many monaster-
ies were exempted from taxation.
All of this is confirmed by specific documents. Just so people
don’t go pointing the finger at me or the scientists or secular his-
torians, let us turn directly to literature from the Church itself.
There is a fairly decent historical book published by the
Sviato-Pokrovsky Nunnery — with the blessing of Evlogii, 31
Archbishop ofVladimir and Suzdal, which states:
Saint Fiodor, the first Bishop of Suzdal, was from a Greek
family He arrived in Rus’ in 987^ in the entourage accom-
panying Saint Michael from Constantinople.
Evlogii (secular name: Yuri Vasilevich Smirnov, 1937—) — consecrated
Archbishop ofVladimir and Suzdal in 1990. He is an author of two books:
Eto bylo chudo Bozhie (This was God’s miracle) and Premirnoe sluzhenie (A
humble service).
3 9<?7 - the year before the official ‘Christianisation’ of Rus’ by Vladimir I
of Kiev (988), through his baptism at the hands of Saint Michael of Kiev —
see footnote 6 in Chapter 4: “Wedding rites” above.
8o
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Saint Michael baptised Grand Prince Vladimir at
Korsun, 33 and subsequently became the first Metropolitan
of Kiev. 34
After the baptism of the Kievans in 988, the prince, who
had been accorded apostolic status, travelled around the
Russian cities together with his sons and Saint Michael, on
a zealous proselytising campaign. Bishoprics were estab-
lished in Chernigov, Belgorod, Pereyaslavl, Novgorod and
Vladimir-Volynsk. 3 ’
As can be seen from these reports, as well as from other
sources, foreign ideologists were descending upon Rus’ en
masse. Complete with hired bodyguards and the prince’s own
contingent, they began to travel around the Russian cities,
breaking down foundations that had been in place for millen-
nia, planting an ideology profitable to the Church and govern-
ment of the day and establishing foreigners in charge of cities.
Many historical documents testify to how the people re-
sisted, though it appears they were poorly organised, and they
did not expect treason on the part of their own prince. It
was this treason that was largely responsible for the massive
foreign invasion that befell Rus’. The saddest part was that it
was done in the name of God. What an incredible sacrilege!
What if Prince Vladimir and the bishops from Constanti-
nople actually believed sincerely in Christ’s commandments?
33 Korsun (also known by its Greek name Chersonesos) — on the southern tip
of the Crimean Peninsula, in what is now Ukraine.
34 St-Michael was appointed first Metropolitan of Kiev by Nicholas II
Chrysoberges, who served as Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church in
Constantinople from 984 to 996.
35 Chernigov ; Belgorod etc. — names of major cities in Ukraine and Russia.
Pereyaslavl is now known as Riazan (see footnote 6 in Book 5, Chapter 17:
“Questions and answers”).
Into the depths of history 81
But subsequent events show that their real masters were the
exact opposite of God. They were the servants of this oppo-
site, with the advanced ability to manipulate the people, to
subjugate to themselves their spirit and their will. They sug-
gested to Man: you are God’s slave, actually meaning: you are my
slave. And Man began to forget that God has not and cannot
have slaves. Man is the son of God, His beloved son.
All the quotations reproduced in this book are taken from
historical documents. I gained access to them not by going to
some super-secret archives, but simply by paying 15 roubles 36
to get into the State Museum and 30 roubles for the right to
take pictures. I photographed the displays set up for general
viewing. One of them was entitled: Monasteries as ecclesiastical
feudal landlords.
And that is by no means the only official State source.
There are many of them.
One that exerts an immeasurably greater influence, for ex-
ample, especially on the young, is a Grade 10 high-school text-
book published by Prosveshchenie 37 in 2003 and recommend-
ed by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.
This is a high-quality publication under the editorship of A.
N. Sakharov 38 and V I. Buganov 39 On page 63 it says:
36
IS roubles ~ equivalent to approximately USSo.jo at the time.
37 Prosveshchenie (lit. ‘Enlightenment’ or ‘Education’) - agenerai educational
publishing house founded in 1931 (named Uchpedgiz up until 1964) as a state-
controlled enterprise for the publication and distribution of textbooks and
educational literature. The textbook in question is entitled: Istoria Rossii s
drevneishikh vremen do kontsaXVIl v. (History of Russia from the earliest
times up to the end of the 17th century),
38
' Andrei Nikolaevich Sakharov (1930-) — historian, author of books on the
politics, ideology and culture of Ancient Rus’. Not to be confused with the
nuclear physicist and political activist Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (192 1—
1989).
82
Book 8, part z: Rites of Love
Along with this the Church persecuted the old folk pa-
gan culture and came out against the Roman model of
Christianity, calling it ‘Latinism’ and apostasy. This dam-
aged Rus’s relations with countries confessing the Catholic
faith, and contributed to Rus’s isolation from Western
European culture. Church facilities began to introduce
slave labour. Some clerics and monasteries engaged in usu-
ry and victimised people. There were cases where promi-
nent politicians active in the Church took part in political
machinations. Thus there frequently arose a discrepancy
between the words of the Church and its deeds, and this
provoked a feeling of discontent among the people.
The textbook also mentions that Prince Vladimir, who
baptised Rus’ in 987, “...was the son of Sviatoslav 40 by a slave
of his mother’s named Malusha. Consequently he was ac-
corded a secondary ranking among the Prince’s sons”.
It further states:
Vladimir spent more than two years in foreign parts, and
when he was approaching Novgorod, he had with him a
strong Varangian 41 contingent. He quickly took control of
39 Viktor Ivanovich Buganov (1928—1996) — historian, author of books on the
sociopolitical history of Russia from the nth to 18th centuries. He has also
published a number of chronicle manuscripts.
40 Sviatoslav (?- 972) — Grand Prince of Kiev, who brought many lands — as
far away as the Oka River (near present-day Moscow), the Balkans and the
Caucasus — under the control of Rus’. He also established alliances with
the Hungarians and the Bulgars.
^Varangians ( Russian: Varyagi, equivalent to Vikings) — Scandinavian (main-
ly Swedish) explorers and traders who used the Dnieper River through
Russia and Ukraine as a conduit to the Mediterranean and Black Sea mer-
chants. According to the Chronicles, they had significant interaction (and
intermarriage) with the Slavs and took an active part in the political life of
Ancient Rus’.
Into the depths of history
83
Novgorod and began preparing for his trek south. Along
the way Vladimir conquered Polotsk, where he killed the
reigning Varangian prince Rogvolod and his sons, raping
Rogvolod’s daughter Rogneda and forcibly taking her to
wife . 42
The textbook goes on to describe how the Kievan prince
Yaropolk, Vladimir’s brother, came to negotiate with him.
“No sooner had he entered the hall than Vladimir’s body-
guards ran their swords through him.”
We also read an account of the baptism and the imposi-
tion of a sacramental obligation to pay the Church 10% of
the tribute collected from the people. It should be remem-
bered that at that time the Church was in subjugation to the
Patriarchate of Constantinople (Russia still did not have its
own patriarch), which means that 10% of the tribute mon-
ey collected from the Russian people was at the disposal of
Constantinople.
Might it not be in historical facts like these that we un-
cover an answer to the question as to why the people didn’t
rise to the Church’s defence when Peter the Great closed a
third of all Russian monasteries and melted down church
bells to produce cannon, or when Catherine the Great went
about ‘secularising’ (i.e., confiscating) monastery landhold-
ings, which meant that formerly wealthy monks were obliged
41 Rogvolod (also spelt: Rogvold, Rogvald, Rognvald, Ragnvald, 936-982 or
920-978, depending on source) — Scandinavian-born Prince of Polotsk
(on Polotsk - see footnote 7 in Chapter 4: “Wedding rites” above). Rogneda
(also spelt: Ragnbild, 962-1002) — reportedly a descendant of the Ynglings
royal family of Norway She bore Vladimir four sons (including Sviatoslav
the Wise) and two daughters. It is also reported that after being divorced
by Vladimir she entered a convent and took the name Anastasia, Her story
was the basis for composer Alexander Nikolaevich Serov’s (1820-1871) op-
era Rogneda, which had its premiere in 1865.
8 4
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
to beg for food and live at the mercy of the tsar. Or, when the
Bolsheviks started killing clerics and blowing up churches,
why some of the people themselves participated in the plun-
der of church property.
My remarks on the subject of the Church are based on his-
torical facts and documents. I have resolved to call upon sen-
sibly-minded members of the Church hierarchy and its wise
elders who I am sure are out there, to transform the mod-
ern Church into a highly spiritual institution, one capable of
helping society escape from its economic and spiritual crisis.
010
Love and the State’s military preparedness
But what link can there possibly be, readers might wonder,
between the conquest of Russia and love ? The connection
is quite direct. After seizing Russian lands, enslaving the
Russian peasants, prohibiting rites capable of leading to love,
the Constantinople assault force thereby began to hinder the
formation of strong loving families and especially family do-
mains. This meant, in effect, the immediate imposition of
serf law.
Love among slaves, as a rule, is a most unhappy love.
In order for the feeling of love ignited in young people to
be preserved, one’s own Space is required. If it is not there,
love, as a rule, vanishes. And what Space could be possessed
by slaves? None at all.
Let’s think: why, over the many millennia before the princ-
es came to Rus’, was our territory never conquered? There
85
Into the depths of history
was the Egyptian army, after all, and the Roman legions, but
all these hosts with all their well-trained and well-equipped
soldiers did not succeed in conquering our lands.
To answer this question, let us suppose that Genghis Khan’s
troops had launched an invasion of pre-Christian Rus’.
At that time, the territory of our present-day country
was inhabited almost exclusively by people living in family
communities. At the approach of any army, no matter what
its size, the members of the community would hide part of
their food supplies, take the remainder with them — along
with their household livestock — and head off into the for-
est. Their horses and cows were loaded up with family be-
longings.
An invading army could move into a territory only so far as
the provisions they carried with them allowed. But this was
already an army on its last legs. The return journey would be
impossible.
They couldn’t go hunting in the forest, as that had to be
done in small groups (any larger groupings would scare away
the game), but once they penetrated the forest, small groups
would quickly fall into traps and perish.
They ate, for the most part, the meat of their own emaci-
ated horses, whose numbers kept rapidly decreasing, so that
any kind of movement became exceedingly difficult.
Our ancestors would set up a whole bunch of clever traps
all along the route of the foe’s retreat, both in the forests and
on the rivers. For example, they would sink a huge tree with
prickly branches and stretch a cable tied to the tree across
the water and fasten its other end on the shore. Whenever a
boat approached the spot, the tree would float to the surface
and catch the side of the boat in its branches, and then sink
again, overturning the boat in the process. In the meantime
the retreating soldiers would be met with a hail of arrows and
harpoons launched from the shore.
86
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
But when the retreating soldiers stepped out on the bank,
after gathering together the rest of the troops that had been
spread out along the flotilla, there was nobody to be seen.
The people annihilated any enemy that invaded their
Motherland. After all, they had something worth protecting.
This was no abstract Motherland defined only by a beautiful
word with not even a clump of native soil to back it up. They
had their own family land, the same land that their ancestors
had called home, and now it was where they lived along with
their families, children, grandchildren and great-grandchil-
dren.
And there was love in their families. And they protected
their dear mothers, fathers and children. They protected
their love! And that was why they could not be conquered.
Chapter Seven
©0
Russia erased
Anastasia’s grandfather and I rode along in silence. As we ap-
proached Suzdal and could see its buildings in the distance, I
said to him:
“Look, there’s Suzdal! It’s a city around a thousand years
old. Part of the Vladimir- Suzdal Principality In fact it was
one of the religious capitals of that period.”
“Why are you going there, Vladimir?”
“I want to pay another visit to the museum, and take a look
at the ancient sites, so’s I can get a picture of how people lived
over the past millennium.”
“Try to get a picture before going into the city Everything
that lies around it is worth immeasurably greater attention
than the city itself.”
‘All around are just fields,” I protested, “with the occasion-
al dilapidated village here and there. No information to help
with the picture.”
“Vladimir, stop the car. We shouldn’t be talking while driv-
ing.”
“Don’t be afraid, I’m a good driver.”
“I’m not afraid. I know, and so I’d better be quiet.”
I pulled over to the side of the road and stopped the car.
After a few moments I realised that I couldn’t really drive and
have this conversation at the same time. The difficulty was
that, just like Anastasia, her grandfather sometimes spoke
with certain special intonations, so powerful that the listener
could perceive visible images, almost like holograms in space.
This kind of speech allowed the possibility of showing scenes
88 Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
of the past or future, or even on another planet, as Anastasia
once did. 1
It’s hard to tell just what is behind this phenomenon.
Possibly hypnosis, possibly some kind of mysterious abili-
ties enjoyed by people of the priestly class. Or maybe it was
something possessed by everybody living on the Earth back
in ancient times. A talented actor on stage can also create all
sorts of pictures and images for an audience with the help of
intonations and his own emotions — albeit not as vivid and
detailed as those of Anastasia’s. Still, it is actors above all oth-
ers who confirm, through their mastery, the existence of such
possibilities in Man.
It turns out that people of long ago didn’t need television,
with its huge network of personnel and technology, including
satellites even. It turns out that in losing his natural, God-
given abilities, Man replaces them with awkward artificial
substitutes which are far less perfect. And he even boasts
about it, calling his inventions a significant achievement.
The saddest part is that mankind today is losing its capac-
ity for logical thinking. This is more than just a sad state of
affairs. It is a most frightful epidemic, capable of transform-
ing modern humanity into a bunch of mad rodents, devour-
ing one another and destroying their own living environment.
Suicide-rodents.
What Anastasia’s grandfather was to tell me in the field
needs to be understood. It gives rise to the following conclu-
sion: in losing the ability to think logically, the people of the
Earth no longer are able to see and understand the unenviable
situation they are being pushed into. Judge for yourselves.
I had stopped the jeep at the side of the road. The grey-haired
oldster got out and headed into a field. I followed along behind.
Before long he stopped and bowed low to the ground, saying:
'See Book 4, Chapter 22 : “Other worlds”.
Russia erased
89
“Health to your thoughts and aspirations, dear people!”
He uttered this greeting most sincerely and with such a
tone that it seemed as though there really were people stand-
ing there in front of him. Then something happened that I
can’t put a name to, at least not for now.
At first there was some sort of stirring in the air, and a bare-
ly noticeable mist arose from the earth. It seemed to be con-
gealing, and soon afterward I could dearly see the outlines of
some kind of human figure becoming increasingly distinct.
And, finally, there standing before us was an elderly man with
a powerful physique. A headband encircled his light-brown
hair. He had a calm expression on his face, with just a trace
of despondency Behind him, in the distance, I could see gar-
dens, copses and beautiful wooden mansions. It looked as
though the barren fields of a moment ago were now popu-
lated with a whole lot of families.
The man standing before us was speaking in inaudible tones
to the Siberian elder. The vision lasted for several minutes.
Then it slowly began to dissipate, as though being erased by
an invisible hand. What was being erased was the genuine
Rus’, not a Rus’ someone had simply thought up. The vision
disappeared altogether when Anastasia’s grandfather turned
in the direction of Suzdal. He stood there silently staring to-
ward the city, then turned to me and asked:
“What, do you think, Vladimir, was the original purpose of
the city we see in the distance?”
“What’s thinking got to do with it? Everybody knows this
from their history: Suzdal was where the clergy was clois-
tered. The first Christian bishops lived here. The monaster-
ies and the kremlin 2 where the elite lived are still preserved
today That’s a historical fact.”
kremlin — the Russian word describing a fortress in the middle of a city, the
most famous example being the Kremlin in Moscow
90
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
“Yes, you’re right, historical. But all Russia’s ancient cities
have two histories. The original history is more significant.”
“I guess we’ll never be able to rediscover the original history”
“We shall know, Vladimir. You will figure it out through
your own logic and you will even be able to see it. But start
by determining the reason these cities sprang up, along with
their original purpose.”
“I would say their purpose lies in the fact that they made it
easier to live together and defend themselves against enemy
invasion. For example, apart from the clergy and the elite, Suz-
dal was home to many craftsmen. They produced equestrian
harnesses, carts, sleighs, earthenware pots, ploughs and har-
rows. They would sell these items and live off the proceeds.”
“Who did they sell them to?”
“To the peasants, of course,” I responded.
“That’s it,” the old fellow confirmed. “They sold or bar-
tered their handicrafts for produce. And the produce came
into the city from all the many outlying domains.”
“Yes, of course.”
“But which d’you think came first, which was primary in
this place — the domains or the city?”
“The domains, I would say. The builders and the craftsmen
would want to eat every day If they started to build things in
the open fields, there would have been nowhere to get their
food from.”
“Correct. So we’ve come to the conclusion that a little more
than a thousand years ago the fields around this city were the
site of marvellous, rich domains. And the place where the
city of Suzdal sits now was the site of their kapishche. ” 3
“What is a kapishche?*-
“It’s a place where people gathered together from all
around for fairs, to exchange goods and procure household
3 kapishche — pronounced KAH-peesh-cheh.
Russia erased
9i
effects. They shared experiences with each other. They put
on massive celebrations with singing and dancing, and some
of which were designed to help people find their soulmates.
“This was also the place the elders of the families gathered
for a vieche 4 and adopted unwritten rules for living. They
could censure a wrongdoer for his crime, although such in-
stances were rare. Their censure was even a more fearful sen-
tence than physical punishment.”
“And who was in charge of this whole land?”
“A hired h a nd. I really can’t think of an alternative term.
A hired hand was the administrator in the kapishche. But he
wasn’t really in charge. Rather, he carried out the decisions
taken by the elders.
“For example, when they desired to put in a new tether-
ing-post or a new road or build a big barn, it transpired that
people from each domain would be assigned to carry out that
decision. Sometimes the hired hand would be required to
find other hired workers like himself.
“It was also his job to keep the whole kapishche clean and
neat. Let’s say they had a fair, and after it was over, people dis-
persed to their homes. Then the tethering-posts might have
had to be fixed and the horse-droppings cleaned up all over
the place. This task would be carried out by the hired hand
and his assistants. If he performed his work carelessly, the
elders could sack him from his job. And then either the hired
hand would go and look for work at another kapishche, or he
would stay where he was, but be demoted to a hired hand’s as-
sistant. It was difficult for the elders to maintain hired help,
as just about everyone wanted to live in their own domains.
Thus it might happen that hired hands for kapishches could
be acquired from foreign lands.
4 vieche — a council in ancient Russia. See footnote 5 in Chapter 1: “Love
the essence of the Cosmos” above.
92
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“The Vedruss social order of Rus’ before the princes rose to
power lasted for many thousands of years. It was superior to
all the state social orders we know today, and it extended to all
the continents of the Earth.
“When the Earth was overcome by corruption, Egypt and
Rome fell into slavery, but the Vedruss social order in Rus’
still lasted five-and-a-half thousand years.”
“But why did the Vedruss social order give way to corrup-
tion, too?”
“Which are you most interested in — Rome, Ancient
Egypt or Rus’? Pretty much the same thing happened in all
three.”
“If they’re pretty much the same, then let’s go for Rus’. I al-
ready know that it was subject to external invaders, resulting
in the destruction of the traditions and culture of the great
Vedruss civilisation.”
“There were invasions, but there’s much more to it than
that. The Vedruss social order underwent its first changes in
other lands, back when there was no foe to invade. There were
no armies. There were no wars or military campaigns, because
there was nothing that could lead to them. The whole Earth
at the time was made up of marvellous domains. People’s cul-
ture and concepts were truly outstanding. Everybody knew
that to take vegetables or fruit out of someone else’s orchard
by force or stealth was not only improper — it was useless and
dangerous to one’s self.
“Only through produce that was given freely and with de-
sire could benefit be acquired.
“Neither was it considered proper to take household ani-
mals from someone else’s domain by deceit or by force. A
cowwould not have let a stranger come close. And somebody
else’s dog might have shown itself to be not a friend, but a foe.
And a horse might have taken the occasion to throw a rider if
it were not its own.
Russia erased
93
“With concepts like these, who would dare invade? Such
concepts made invasions absurd. Corruption, in the main,
came from ignorance, or rather from treason or betrayal,
even in little things, of the culture of one’s forebears, their
way of life. The family chain leads us to God. To betray one’s
forebears’ meaning of life is tantamount to killing God within
one’s self.
“Yes, in Rus’, of course, the people were deceived, through
the priests’ well-honed manipulative techniques — tech-
niques which are still active in our own time. Back then the
elders overlooked this subtle play, and their mistake is still be-
ing paid for by subsequent generations even today”
Chapter Eight
00
The elders' mistake
From a hired hand to a prince
At the beginning of the present era many countries were
already ruled by emperors, pharaohs or tsars. The form of
government under which a large state is controlled by one
Man is unnatural. It has never brought and will never bring
a good, happy life to a single nation on the face of the Earth.
This form of government benefits the priests, who manipu-
late countries through their rulers. It is difficult, after all, to
negotiate with all the people at once, a lot easier to deal with
just a single individual . 1
Only in Rus’ they did not succeed in setting up a single
ruler. Everyone there was guided by the tribal elders’ council.
These councils were not something that could be corrupted
or forced, under threat, into a decision that would lead to the
oppression of the people. Who would make such an obscene
decision for one’s children?
Several times, through various subterfuges in different
places, the priests’ assistants attempted to set up a princely
authority, a single ruler over the people. In this particular
area, for example, events unfolded as follows.
One day a stranger from afar arrived at the Vedruss kapish-
che situated where Suzdal is now. Like the wise-men, itinerant
minstrels, and craftsmen, he was offered food and lodging.
’The first section of this chapter, told to the author by Anastasia’s grandfa-
ther, is presented without identifying quotation-marks.
The elders’ mistake
95
The stranger stayed two weeks, but did not engage in any
useful activity. The hired hand in charge questioned him:
“What useful contribution, stranger, can you make to our
kapishche?”
And the stranger replied:
“None at all, but to you personally I can render an invalua-
ble service. I have heard rumours that the elders are not hap-
py with you. In a year, maybe even half a year, you will be let
go. If you take my advice, on the other hand, the elders will be
crawling on their knees before you. You can have your pick of
girls from any domain to wife, whereas right now there’s not
a single one that would live with you. I can make it so that it
will be your decisions, and not those of the tribal elders, that
will be carried out.”
The hired hand in charge of the kapishche (and part-time
janitor) agreed. He listened to the stranger, an agent of the
priests. And the stranger proposed:
“When people gather for a fair at the kapishche from all
around and stay until the following morning, during the night
you will cut your face with a knife, and leave the kapishche
along with your trustworthy assistants, so that you can re-
turn in the evening with broken-winded horses. During the
night I and my assistants (they are already here in the guise
of artists and craftsmen), will take the horses away from their
tethering-posts, and you will bring them back in the evening,
saying you recaptured them from the miscreants.
“In your wounded state you will ask the elders for an armed
garrison for their own protection. They will agree. You will
take my companions into your garrison: they will all meekly
obey your command.”
The hired hand agreed to the criminal act. He did every-
thing according to the stranger’s proposal.
When the ‘wounded’ man returned toward evening with
the herd of stolen horses, he learnt that not only had the
9 6
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
stranger’s henchmen stolen the horses — they had also killed
three people, and burnt the smithy and a barn. The ‘wound-
ed’ hired hand appeared before the elders. He told how he
and his assistants had given chase to the miscreants, but they
were outnumbered, and his assistants were beaten back. And
then he began asking the elders for the resources to maintain
a strong armed garrison. He asked them to grant him the au-
thority to take decisions on his own in the interests of general
security.
The elders were taken aback at the hideous crime and
agreed to maintain the garrison, only they were unwilling to
pull their own sons away from the domains. So it was decided
to bring in strangers to form a garrison, and allot them a trib-
ute from each domain. Other kapishches followed their lead
and also began to create their own armed garrisons.
Indeed, since they now had power, the hired hands began
transforming themselves into princes. They started waging
war against each other, justifying this to the elders as a neces-
sary preventative first strike.
The princes supposed they had achieved considerable au-
thority In fact, for centuries now, they have been strictly fol-
lowing the priests’ advice, often without realising it. Such a
system of authority came together all by itself. The hired hand
remained a hired hand — he merely exchanged masters . 2 The
new master was exceptionally cruel to his hired hands.
For thousands of years the priests’ hired hands kept killing
each other, conspiring and hatching their schemes, aspiring
more and more lustily for power.
2 In Russian, the word for ‘prince’, kniaz’ (formerly spelt koniaz ), is derived
from kon’ (horse) and originally meant ‘a herder in charge of horses’. This
original meaning of koniaz’ survived in parts of Russia until the 19th century.
Also, a Russian proverb says: izgriazi v kniazi (‘princes [are derived] from
dirt’) — preserving the memory of the fact that it was the most marginal
members of the society that became the princes.
The elders’ mistake
97
You surely know yourself from history how many deaths
the path to princely power is strewn with. They even resorted
to slaying their fathers and brethren. Pretty much the same
thing came about in various countries, and little has changed,
even today.
Thus the time of the princes had its start in Russia, too,
just as it had in other lands long before. You know the rest of
the story, I dare say And the armed garrisons are still around
today, still serving somebody’s interests.
The armaments and weaponry may have changed, but the
essence is still the same. And the crimes have not abated —
they keep multiplying, and keep getting more and more so-
phisticated.
The elders made a mistake. It is a mistake which, if you form
your own political party, you will not want to make again.
00
A mistake not to be repeated
“What, precisely, was the elders’ mistake?” I asked. “Was it
in forming the garrisons with foreign mercenaries? But the
way things have turned out now, a state can no longer survive
without a militia or an army”
“The garrisons here, Vladimir, are not the underlying cause.
It goes a lot deeper, into the psychological.
“I don’t know how to put it more clearly It has to do with
forgetting the precepts of our ancestors — God’s precepts.
Think about it: God gave each and everyone equal author-
ity Consequently, the only social structure that can claim
9 8
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
perfection is one where there is no centralised authority —
where every individual is endowed with equal power.
“When you give somebody your vote, you are not bestow-
ing authority on anyone. By voting for someone, you are sim-
ply placing them in subjection to the existing system, and vol-
untarily relinquishing the authority God has given you. And
over the centuries most people’s minds have been perverted:
it is the job of the ruler and the government to deal with all im-
portant questions for us, they think. These people’s thoughts
don’t even touch the question of the order of life.”
“So, that means that there’s no longer any point in voting
at all? Well never establish a party that way By law, we have
to vote.”
“Well, if you have to, then vote to make sure no one indi-
vidual is able to control people’s lives.”
“If you’re talking about the vieche 3 gatherings they had in
Vedic Rus’,” I said, “that’s totally impossible today People
can’t keep constantly coming together from different parts of
the country Besides, there’s no way a party like that can ever
get registered.”
“Why do they need to come together? Just turn all the mod-
ern inventions at your disposal to a good purpose. Use any
kind of communications link — the computer, for example.
As for registration, isn’t that a bit ridiculous for a party of the
majority of the people? You ought to be registrars yourselves.
‘Anyway securing some kind of registration isn’t the main
point at issue. The main thing is not to allow the setting up of
any centralised authority Anybody working in the central appa-
ratus, if it is absolutely necessary according to your law; should
be strictly hired staff — with no access to financial control.
Besides, money should never be concentrated in one place.”
3 vieche — see footnote 5 in Chapter i: “Love — the essence of the Cosmos”
above.
The elders’ mistake
99
“But the law requires all parties to elect a central commit-
tee,” I observed.
“So, elect all party members to it, or at least every tenth
person in the party”
“There’s something else to think about here. I got really
angry at first when you said the party’s main goal was the res-
toration of love to families. I thought you were making fun of
me, that you were trying to make me into a laughingstock.”
“I remember.”
“But now, I’ve given quite a bit of thought to this question
and have come to the conclusion that it really is not just one
of the main goals, but the main goal. And that the question of
finding one’s soulmate requires specific conditions to be set up,
special events to be organised. The rites of Ancient Rus’ should
be made public, and we need to get not only science but also cul-
ture and ideological propaganda involved in working out these
questions. They need to be resolved on the state level. The de-
gree of civilisation of any given state needs to be judged on the
basis of the number of happy, loving families living therein.”
“Congratulations!”
“On what?”
“On understanding that.”
“Congratulations are still premature. I can’t for the life
of me think of a way to formulate this goal without people
laughing at its constitution, or at me, or at our future party”
“So, let them laugh.”
“What d’you mean, let them ? If people start laughing, then
I’ll be the only member of a party with a constitution like
that. It will end up being an unregistered party with a laugh-
able constitution, supported by a single individual, and an or-
dinary member of the party at that.”
“Why just a single individual? There’ll be at least two. I
shall be supporting it as well. Amd the two of us will raise
some money and hire ourselves an executive secretary.”
IOO
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“You serious? What, you’re going to join the party, too?”
“No. I shan’t be joining it. Anyway, as you point out, I
can’t be registered under your law. But I’ll be supporting the
Motherland Party with my whole heart from right there in
the taiga.
‘And if you’re concerned about there just being the two of
us, remember that all great causes have always begun not with
a mass of people, but with just a single individual. Years down
the road, humanity will indeed laugh, but not at you. They’ll
be laughing at themselves, and they’ll be happy.”
“Okay, I’ll try. I’ll give some more thought to drafting the
constitution. And I’ll ask my readers to think about it, too.”
“If I were you, Vladimir, I’d ask Anastasia to tell more
about the wedding rite. In the Vedruss culture, after all, it
began right at birth.”
“How on earth could a wedding rite begin at a Man’s birth?”
“Vedruss people considered the primary birth to be not the
appearance of the body, but the illumination of love. Nobody
in today’s world can illustrate this the way Anastasia can. Ask
her to re-create a picture of life in a Vedruss family.”
00
I shan’t say where or how this meeting with Anastasia took
place. I’ll start right away to set forth her description of one
Vedruss family’s attitude toward love.
Whoever manages to make sense of it and feel the signifi-
cance contained in the culture of their love, may also be able,
perhaps, to figure out the great wisdom and cosmic dimen-
sion of the Vedruss rites.
Chapter Nine
©0
The Creator’s greatest gift
Childhood love
It was with childlike joy and inspiration that Anastasia began
telling me about the Vedruss rite associated with the energy
of Love: 1
The activities of the Vedruss people amounted to a continu-
ous learning cycle. It was a great and joyous school of con-
scious being.
All Vedruss celebrations could be described as tests of
mind and skill. They all involved, one might say, reminders
to the adults, as well as wise lessons to the young. But even
during the days of intense harvest gathering, the Vedruss peo-
ple worked with a joyous heart. Their work was imbued with
meaning that went beyond material creations.
Look, Vladimir — see, it is haycutting time. A magnifi-
cent, clear day. The whole settlement, from the littlest ones
to the greatest, is heading out to the meadows with the first
rays of the Sun. See, there go two drays carrying a whole fami-
ly. Only the elder family members have stayed behind to keep
the household animals company
But the guys — the young lads — are riding horseback,
with only collar-bands on the steeds and long lengths of rope
'Anastasia’s story of the Vedruss family over this and the following three
chapters is presented without identifying quotation marks.
102
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
in their hands. On these horses they will use these long ropes
to cope with the task of dragging the stooks of hay over to the
main stacks.
The stately muzhiks 2 in the carts hold their scythes poised,
blades up, while their wives and older children sit beside them
with their rakes, ready to start raking up the hay the men will
be cutting.
Also riding on the drays are some very small children.
What for? Just for the fun of it, out of curiosity, to mingle,
frolic and play, and to observe the grown-ups on this day
The people are by no means dressed in rags. See their clean
white shirts, and the women wearing flowers entwined in
their braids, and embroidered dresses. Why are they dressed
up in their best, as if going to a celebration?
The answer, Vladimir, is that they are under no constraint
to actually cut hay They all have their own piles of hay back
in their respective domains. Though naturally it does not
hurt to have some community stacks in reserve.
The main thing, however — the tacit purpose behind all
the general activity — is to show themselves at work in their
neighbours’ eyes. To steal furtive glances at each other, and
give a chance to the young guys and girls to get to know each
other in a common activity That is why the young people,
even from outlying communities, are so happy to turn out for
the haymaking.
Now it has begun — look!
The scythemen are moving forward steadily, all in a row.
Not one of them must fall behind. Their wives are raking up
yesterday’s cuttings to be dried, singing as they work. The
2 muzhiks (English plural of muzhik, stress on last syllable) — the Russian
term for a hardy male peasant, or rural dweller. In modern Russian the
word is also used in a broader colloquial sense, roughly equivalent to ‘gu/ in
American English usage.
The Creator’s greatest gift
103
young people gather the dried hay into stooks. Those slightly
older will build the haystack.
See those two guys standing on top of the haystack? One of
them is eighteen, the other, twenty They are piling the hay on
the stack which those six smiling girls are handing up to them.
The guys have taken off their shirts. Perspiration is stream-
ing down their tanned skin. But they are trying to keep up
with the merry girls below.
There are two guys up top, and there ought to be four girls
throwing up the hay from below, but it turns out there are six
of them down there, laughing and joking, trying to drown the
lads in hay
The guys’ father comes over to the haystack to get a drink
of water. He has quickly sized up the whole situation. His
two sons are trying to keep up with the six girls. They simply
cannot afford to get done in. Besides, in the group of nim-
ble, laughing girls below there may be two brides for his sons.
After taking a drink the father calls up to his boys:
“Hey, there, boys! I don’t feel like cutting any more for
now. How about I climb up there and help you? Seeing as
how there are six down below instead of four.”
“Why, Father?” answered the elder son, not slacking off
for a moment. “There are two of us up here stacking hay, my
brother and I, and we haven’t even got warmed up yet!”
“It’s as though I’m still asleep!” added the younger, as he
somehow inconspicuously wiped the perspiration from his
brow.
Down below the light-headed girls took notice of his move-
ments. One of them called out over the general laughter:
“Watch out, don’t let the sleepyhead get wet!”
The father broke into a smile of contentment, before re-
joining the row of scythemen.
The train of four steeds, which the young men were leading
by the bridle, was on its way to the haystack from the farthest
104 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
meadow. The last horse was led by the youngest, whose name
was Radomir . 3 He had turned eight just before the start of
the summer, and was now into his ninth year. But the boy
Radomir was very well developed for his age.
But it was not only his physical height that elevated him
above his peers. Fie had a quicker grasp of knowledge than
did the others, and he excelled in festive games. And here
at the haymaking he swelled with pride at having been given
work usually assigned to kids just a bit older. He was in no
way going to lag behind his elders.
He himself was trying to bind up the stooks as quickly as
possible, and the horse obeyed him. Even though he brought
up the end of the ‘train’, he was still not lagging behind.
Just a little distance away, a chorus of younger children
could be heard in play, over by the edge of the forest. As soon
as they took notice of the train of horses dragging the stooks,
they rushed over to catch a ride on them.
The kids rushed headlong to their goal, only one little girl,
barely four years old, lagged behind. The others had already
reached the stooks when she took a mind to try a shortcut
and anxiously started running across a swampy stretch of
ground. This small swamp had almost dried up, but one could
still find patches of elevated ground dotted around. The dear
girl jumped from hillock to hillock, very close to the horses
dragging the stooks. All at once, however, trying to jump to
the next patch of ground, the girl slipped and took quite a fall,
scratching her knee badly on a stick and getting her dress and
her face all muddied in the process. She picked herself up,
3 Radomir (pron. ra-da-MEER ) — a name first encountered in the section
entitled “A union of two — a wedding” in Book 6, Chapter 5: “The history
of mankind, as told by Anastasia”. See esp. footnote 2 in that chapter. The
name Liubomila (with its endearing variants Liubomilka, Liubomilochka —
pron. liu-ba-MEE-la, liu-ba-MEEL-ka, liu-ba-MEE-lach-ka, resp.) is encoun-
tered in the same chapter (footnote 4).
The Creator’s greatest gift 105
but fell back at once and started screaming at the top of her
lungs, smarting with annoyance at her plight, just as the last
of the stooks came by and began to recede into the distance.
The stately youth Radomir heard the little girl’s cries. He
brought his steed to a halt, and followed the sound of her
cries to the swampy ground. Here he found a dear little girl
with clothes and hands all muddied, sitting in the midst of a
puddle, using her tiny fist to wipe away the tears, and bawling
with all her might.
Radomir took hold of her under her arms, picked her up
out of the puddle, set her down on a dry patch of ground safe
from harm and asked:
“What’re you bawling for, little one? Is it that bad?”
Still crying, she tried to explain through her tears:
“I was running, running — see — I was jumping from
patch to patch, trying to catch up, only I took a bad fall. All
the stooks had gone, and I was lagging behind. Now all the
other kids are having fun riding on the stooks, and I ended up
in this puddle.”
“They haven’t all gone,” Radomir responded. “Look, I’m
still here, and there’s my stook. If you can stop your bawling,
I’ll give you a ride on it. Only you seem to have got so dirty
all over. Now stop that screaming once and for all,” he de-
manded. “It’s making me deaf!”
Radomir took hold of the hem of the little girl’s dress. Finding
a clean patch of dress, he put it up to her nose and commanded:
“Come on, now, blow your nose!”
Completely taken aback by this move, the little girl let out
a loud “Ow!” and covered the front of her exposed lower torso
with her hands. Now she blew her nose hard — one! two! —
and stopped crying. Radomir let down the hem of her dress,
and stared with a critical eye at the filthy and dishevelled lit-
tle girl standing before him.
“You’d better take your dress off altogether,” he said.
io6 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“Shan't!” she declared firmly
“Take it off, I shan’t look. I’ll rinse out your dirty dress
in the lake. You can sit here in the tall grass while you wait.
Here, you’d best take my shirt. It will go right down to your
ankles — it’ll be longer on you than your dress.”
Radomir rinsed the little girl’s dirty dress in the lake while
she wrapped herself in his shirt and peeked at him through
the tall grass.
As she sat there in the grass, the girl was struck by a pierc-
ing, frightening thought. She remembered once overhearing
her grandfather telling her grandmother:
“A terribly scandalous act took place in the next settle-
ment — some good-for-nothing lifted up the hem of a maid-
en’s dress before marriage.”
“If he lifted up her hem, it means he’s crushed the poor
dear’s life,” her grandmother had sighed.
The little girl decided that something must be crushed in
her too, now that a strange lad had lifted up the hem of her
dress. She examined her little arms and legs and, even though
they seemed to be in working order, nothing crushed, her fear
did not dissipate.
If grandfather and grandmother believed that lifting up a
dress hem would crush something, then something of hers
must be crushed, too.
The girl jumped up from the grass and called out to
Radomir, who had been rinsing out her dress in the lake:
“You’re a dirty good-for-nothing!”
Radomir straightened up, turned toward the girl standing
in the grass wearing his shirt and asked:
“What’re you carrying on about this time? I don’t know
what you want.”
“I’m telling you, you’re a dirty good-for-nothing. You dared
lift up the hem of a maiden’s dress before marriage. You’ve
crushed everything of hers.”
The Creator’s greatest gift
107
Radomir looked at the girl’s mud-covered face for some
time, then burst out laughing. After getting a hold of himself,
he said:
“Well, you’ve heard the song but got it wrong! Sure, lifting
up the hem ol a maiden’s skirt before marriage is a bad thing.
But in my case, I didn’t lift up the hem of a maiden’s skirt.”
“You did, you did! I remember, you lifted up the hem of
my dress.”
“ Tour dress, sure,” Radomir agreed. “But then you’re not a
maiden, are you?”
“How come I’m not a maiden?” the girl asked in surprise.
“’Cause all maidens have protruding breasts, but you don’t.
Instead of breasts all you have are two little spots which are
hardly noticeable. That means you’re not a maiden.”
“Then who am I?” the little girl asked distractedly.
“You’re still a ‘little one’. Now you just sit there in the grass
and don’t say a word. I haven’t the time to talk with you.”
Once again he stepped into the water, finished rinsing out
the dress, then wrung the water out of it and laid it out neatly
on the grass to dry. Then he called out to the girl:
“Come down to the water, little one. You need to get your
face washed.”
She came to him obediently, and stood quietly while he
washed her face.
“Now let’s go to the stook, and I’ll give you a ride.”
“Let me have my dress back first,” the girl asked, almost in
a whisper.
“It’s still too wet. You can stay in my shirt for the time be-
ing. I’ll bring your dress along with me. It will have dried out
by the time we get to the haystack and you can change there.”
“No! Give me back my dress!” the girl insisted. “Maybe it’s
wet, but I’m going to put it on anyway It can dry on me.”
“Have your own way, spruce yourself up,” said Radomir, as
he handed her the wet dress and headed over to his horse.
108 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
The little girl quickly put on her dress. She rushed to catch
up to Radomir at the stook.
“Here I am,” she said, panting away. “And here’s your shirt
back.”
“Okay You’re my bad luck charm. All the other lads are
heading back already, and here I’m stuck with you. Climb
aboard!”
He helped the girl climb onto the stook. He took hold of
the bridle and they started off in the direction of the hay-
stack.
The little girl sat on the stook in her wet dress, jubilant as it
whisked smoothly over the ground. She was riding the stook
all alone, not in twos or threes like the other kids. She sat
there all by herself. Her face was beaming with joy, as though
she had suddenly been turned into a goddess. If only her girl-
friends could see her now, not as part of a train, but all alone.
He was carrying her all by herself.
She noticed the way Radomir led the horse by the bridle,
and couldn’t take her eyes off his back. Her little heart began
to beat faster. She felt a sensation of warmth permeate her
whole body Naturally, she was still too young to realise what
was going on: she was in love.
Oh for the love of childhood! It is the ultimate of puri-
ty — the precious gift of God. Only why does it sometimes
make an early start, and perturb a little one’s heart? Why?
What does it mean when it comes early like that? It turns out
that there is truly great meaning in early love, something the
Vedruss people well knew.
Upon arriving at the haystack, Radomir came back to the
stook.
“Climb down, little one. Don’t be afraid, I’ll catch you.”
Catc hing the little girl in his arms, he set her down on the
ground and asked:
“Whose kid are you?”
The Creator’s greatest gift
109
“I’m from the next settlement. My name is Liubomila.
My sister and I are visiting, helping our brother,” she re-
plied.
“Go on then, go to your sister,” Radomir admonished,
walking away He did not turn back even once to look at the
little girl.
She stood there, watching everything: how he untied the
rope from the stook, climbed up onto a barrel from where
he could leap onto his steed. Then he took off at a gallop to
fetch a new hay stook.
010
Love as a fully fledged member of the family
Little Liubomilka returned home with her sister. It was al-
ready the family’s supper-time. But Liubomilka didn’t want
to sit down to the table. Clinging to her grandmother’s skirt,
she begged:
“Can we go for a walk together in the garden, Grammykins?
I want to tell you about a miracle — just you alone.”
Upon overhearing this request, the father protested:
“It’s not proper, daughter dear, to go off when the family’s
about to sit down to table, let alone take your grandmother
with you...”
But when the father looked into his daughter’s face, he
broke into a smile. The Vedruss people knew the grace of
childhood love. They knew how to treat love kindly, to em-
brace it as a heavenly gift to the family to refrain from m akin g
fun of it and to respect its every trace.
IIO
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
They valued the grace of its great energy, and so the diverse
energies of Love would come to them with great joy.
“You and your grandmother go for a walk in the garden and
eat some berries,” said the father, feigning an air of noncha-
lance.
Little Liubomilka sat her grandmother down in a far corner
of the garden and right off began excitedly telling her story:
“Grammykins, I was playing with my friends there at the
haymaking, and they ran off to have a ride on the stooks. I
didn’t feel like joining them. I was just minding my own busi-
ness. All of a sudden this most kind and handsome young lad
stops his horse and comes up to me. Yes, indeed, Grammykins,
he comes just as close as you and I are right now. And he was
so handsome and kind. Here he stands in front of me and
says: ‘Little girl, I invite you...’ No, he didn’t say that. He
put it another way He said: ‘Little girl, not only do I invite
you, I beg you to take a little ride on my stook.’ And I had
a ride. There. You see, Grammykins? Has something hap-
pened with him?”
“Something’s happened with you, granddaughter dear. And
what might his name be?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t say.”
“First of all, my little Liubomilochka, tell me the whole
story, and try to remember the way it really happened.”
“The way it really. . . ” Liubomilka hung her head. “The way it
really happened? I took a fall into a puddle, he came along and
washed out my dress, then he gave me a ride on his stook, but
I guess he never told me his name. Lie called me ‘Little one’,
and when he left, he never once looked in my direction.”
Liubomilka finished her story and began crying. She con-
tinued through her tears:
“I stayed standing there, and watched him go away. Only
he never looked at me even once, and what his name was he
didn’t say”
The Creator’s greatest gift
m
The grandmother gave her granddaughter a big hug, strok-
ing her dark blonde hair, as though stroking the energy of Love
within her. And she whispered, as though saying a prayer:
“O great energy from God! Turn and help my granddaugh-
ter with your grace. Do not burn her still immature heart.
Give her inspiration to take part in co-creation!”
Aloud she said to Liubomilka:
“Granddaughter dear, would you like this very good lad to
always have eyes for you alone?”
“Yes, I would, Grammykins. I would!”
“Then you should not let him come by or see you for three
years.”
“But why?”
“When he spied you, you were all dirtied by the mud. He
saw you as a crying, helpless little girl. That is the impression
he still has of you. In three years’ time, if you yourself make
the effort, you will be older, smarter and more beautiful.”
“I shall try I shall try the very best I can. Only tell me,
Grammykins, how should I try — what plan should I fol-
low?”
“I shall share all my secrets with you, granddaughter dear.
If you earnestly try to follow them, you will be more beauti-
ful than all the flowers on the Earth, and people will rejoice
at your presence. You will not need to wait to be chosen, you
yourself will have your choice of lovers.”
“Tell me, Grammykins, and I shall do everything you say.
Only tell me faster!” Little Liubomilka was trying to hurry
her grandmother up, tugging impatiently at the hem of her
dress.
And, slowly and solemnly uttering the words, the grand-
mother told Liubomilka:
“You need to get up earlier in the morning. You spend your
mornings just lazing around. You should get out of bed, run to
the stream and wash yourself with pure spring water. When
1X2 Book 8 , part 2: Rites of Love
you get home, have a little porridge to eat. But you always
demand sweet berries instead.”
“But Grammykins, why should I try doing this all at home
if he’s not there to see me?” Liubomilka asked in surprise.
“He won’t see how I bathe in the stream and eat my porridge
each morning.”
“That, of course, is something he won’t see. But your ef-
forts will be reflected in your outward beauty And the energy
will be made apparent within.”
Liubomilka tried to follow her grandmother’s advice. She
did not always succeed, especially that first year. But on those
mornings her grandmother would come to her, sit down on
her bed and say:
“If you don’t rise with the Sun and run down to the stream,
you will not become more beautiful this day.”
And Liubomilka began rising early By the second year she
had become accustomed to the new regimen, and easily went
through the routine of washing in the morning and cheerfully
eating her porridge at breakfast.
Now the three-year waiting period recommended by her
grandmother was almost at an end — only one month re-
mained. People were gathering at the kapishche 4 from all
around for this season’s fair. Liubomila and her elder sister
Yekaterina watched as carriages regularly passed by their do-
main on the way to the fair. And all at once they noticed one
carriage pull off the road and approach their gate, where the
sisters were standing. And lo and behold, there in the car-
riage...
Liubomilka recognised him right off. There sitting with
the other passengers and holding the reins was none other
than her beloved Radomir, looking just a little older.
4 kapishche — see footnote 3 in Chapter 7: “Russia erased” above.
The Creator’s greatest gift
113
The little girl’s heart began trembling when the carriage
came up to their gate and stopped. An older gentleman
among the passengers, probably the father, said:
“Cordial greetings, my maidens. Please convey my respects
to your father and mother, and all your elders. We would like
a drink of your kvass. We forgot to bring our own along on
the journey.”
Liubomilka rushed into the house, calling out:
“They send all of you greetings. Where’s the pitcher? Our
pitcher with the kvass, where is it? Oh, yes, it’s in the pantry,
keeping cool.” And off to the pantry she dashed, overturning
a pail of water standing by the door in the process. Turning
around, she rattled off to her grandfather and grandmother:
“Not to worry! I’ll mop it up when I come back.”
Grabbing hold of the pitcher, she ran out to the gate, where
she stopped to catch her breath. Restraining her excitement,
she opened the gate, walked out with stately stride and hand-
ed the pitcher of kvass to the gentleman.
While the father of the family was drinking the kvass,
Liubomilka kept her eyes fixed on Radomir. But he had eyes
for Yekaterina.
When his turn came to be handed the pitcher, he drank
up the remaining kvass, then jumped down from the carriage
and held out the pitcher to Yekaterina, saying:
“Thank you. This kvass was prepared by kind hands.”
Liubomilka watched as the carriage drove off, then, run-
ning to the deep far corner of the garden, collapsed on the
bench and began weeping bitterly
“Why so sad again, Liubomilka?” Grandmother had come
over and sat down beside her.
Through her tears the girl told her grandmother what had
happened:
“They came to us and asked for kvass, and the boy was there
who gave me a ride on the stook three years ago. He’s even
ii4 Book 8 , part 2: Rites of Love
more handsome now. I ran and brought the kvass in a pitcher.
They all took a drink, and said how good it was. He took a
drink too, and then gave the pitcher to Yekaterina. Not to
me, Grammykins, but to her, my rival, Yekaterina. And it was
her he thanked, not me. She’s a real dingbat, that sister of
mine. She must have been chatting him up while I was get-
ting the kvass. He looked back at her and even smiled. My
own sister — a rival! A real dingbat!”
“Why are you blaming your sister? She’s not at fault. You are.”
“Why am I to blame, Grammykins? What have I done wrong?”
“Listen carefully Your sister made a colourful embroidery
pattern, which she neatly applied to the sleeves of her dress.
You wanted to do everything yourself, too, but on your dress
the sewing didn’t come out straight.
“Besides, your sister can speak in verse, she’s better than
anyone at singing koliadki , 5 and you’re unwilling to talk with
any wise-men who can teach you to recite and compose verse.
The boy you’ve chosen — no doubt he’s a pretty smart lad, he
has an appreciation of beauty and intellect.”
“Does that mean I have to study another three years,
Grammykins?”
“Three, perhaps. But it could be five.”
5 koliadki (pron. kalTAT-kee) — songs traditionally sung during winter sol-
stice celebrations, venerating the Sun and light which bring forth life and
joy as well as bountiful harvests and family happiness. The term is derived
from the ancient Slavic name of the winter solstice holiday — Koliada (from
kolo = circle, annual cycle) — the beginning of the new solar-year cycle.
(The Latin word calenda, signifying the first day of a month, and English
calendar are derived from the same root.) As part of the Koliada celebra-
tions, children went from one house to another offering good wishes to
the families, who offered them holiday treats in return. It was expected
that the children would make up songs on the spot for each particular fam-
ily — an opportunity for them to demonstrate their creative abilities. In
the Russian Orthodox Church the term was later applied to what we would
call Christmas carols. Koliadki are still practised to the present day
The Creator’s greatest gift
US
00
True love will most certainly be reciprocated
Ten years went by One day Radomir was walking through
one of the regular holiday fairs with his best friend, who had
the unusual name of Arga . 6
Arga had a flair for creating marvellous pictures and do-
ing fantastic wood-carvings. He could fashion statues of clay
that looked as though they were alive. This was a talent he
had inherited from his grandfather. From his father was de-
rived his blacksmith’s art.
The two friends took little interest in the long rows of carts
with their vast array of savoury offerings. Nor was the young
men’s attention attracted by the rows of assorted dishes and
household utensils. In fact people did not come to the fair
for any material acquisitions at all. The main attraction was
talking with others, getting to know them, sharing their expe-
riences with them.
The lads decided to head over to the place where they were
getting ready for a colourful show by visiting performing art-
ists. Suddenly they heard themselves being hailed:
“Radomir! Arga! Have you seen it yet?”
Radomir and Arga turned around to see who was calling
to them. Three young men from among their community
friends were standing a little distance away, engaged in ani-
mated conversation and beckoning Radomir and Arga to join
them.
“Seen what?” asked Radomir as he approached.
6 Arga — pron. ar-GAH.
ii6 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“That extraordinary shirt,” answered one of the three. “It’s
made from smooth fabric, and embroidered with very unusual
ornaments. There’s probably some secret meaning in them.”
A second lad corrected him:
“The shirt’s really good, but the girl selling it is much pret-
tier. I’ve never seen a maiden like that at any fair anywhere.”
“So, where do we find this marvel?” asked Arga.
The five boys headed over to the carts displaying jewellery
and ornaments, marvellous handicrafts and fine clothing.
One cart in particular had drawn a bigger crowd than usu-
al. Everybody was admiring an exceptionally beautiful shirt,
hanging on a wooden hanger. The fabric was rippling light-
ly in the breeze, and people could see how different it was
from the usual shirts made of coarse cloth, exuding, as it did,
a feeling of lightness and tenderness. And the patterns em-
broidered on the collar and the sleeves were extraordinarily
delicate and fanciful.
‘A pattern like that is the mark of an accomplished crafts-
man,” Arga said aloud in excitement.
“Never mind the pattern, squeeze your way through the
crowd and see who’s sitting beside it,” said a neighbour from
their settlement.
After making their way around to the other edge of the
small crowd, the friends managed to approach the cart and
catch a glimpse of the maiden.
Her eyes were blue as the sky, her dark blonde hair in a tight
braid was tied. Her eyebrows were like two brown arches, her
lips betrayed just the faintest hint of a smile. Her movements
were gracious, but seemed to be entwined with some kind of
energy. It was some time before the lads could take their eyes
off the maiden.
“She’s clever with her tongue, too,” the tallest of them qui-
etly observed. “She can speak in verse and comes up with
witty sayings.” Another added:
The Creator’s greatest gift
117
“She’s kind of tender, but as aloof and inaccessible as a high
cliff. Try talking with her.”
“I can’t,” answered Radomir. “She’s taken my breath away”
Arga spoke to her first:
“Tell me, fair maiden, are you the one who crafted this
magnificent shirt?”
“I am,” the maiden replied without raising her eyes. “I
wove this shirt to while away the boredom, to make the win-
ter nights shorter. Sometimes I would do some embroidery
at dawn.”
‘And what kind of price are you asking for your handiwork?”
Arga enquired, so that he could keep hearing the maiden’s
tuneful voice a little longer.
The maiden raised her eyes to look at the young lads and
it seemed as though her gaze was carrying them away into
heavenly heights. She let her gaze rest just for a moment on
Radomir, thereby dissolving him, as it were, into the blue.
From that point on he felt as though he were in some sort of
unusual, unreal dream.
“What price again? Let me explain.” The beautiful girl sit-
ting on the cart went on: “I can give this piece without pay-
ment only to a kind and courageous young man. I shall ask
only something trifling for myself as a souvenir — a colt, for
example.”
“What a beauty she is! And such a worthy reply, she’s a true
master!” Loud exclamations could be heard from the crowd.
“A colt,’ she says — ‘just a trifle’! Yes, a real beauty all right,
no doubt about it!”
The exclamations went on, but the crowd did not move
along. Then suddenly the whole throng divided into two
halves. There was Arga, leading a dun-coloured stallion by a
halter rope. The steed was unbroken and hot-tempered, and
kept bucking and prancing on the spot. Whispers spread
through the crowd:
n8 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“Now that is quite a horse! Such a marvellous steed! Could
the fine young man have decided indeed to give it away?”
Arga approached the cart and said:
“My father gave me this steed. I offer it to you, my beauty,
in exchange for the shirt.”
“Thank you,” the maiden calmly replied. “But I did say,
and people heard me say that the shirt is not for sale. I can
only give it away to you, or perhaps to some other young man
fine and true.”
‘Aha, the beautiful maiden is frightened!” Mocking voices
rose from the crowd. “Of course, the steed is hot-tempered,
and too flared up to handle for many a young man. A while
ago she was expecting a tame and gentle mare, and now she’s
got cold feet! See, she’s given up the game. So, anyone should
be careful. It’s a downright shame when a steed is unbroken
and hot-tempered.”
The maiden looked out at the crowd with an artful smile
and jumped down from the cart with an amazingly lithesome
style.
At this point all the exclamations from the crowd ceased
at once. The girl’s torso was absolutely stunning, as though
refined to perfection by a master artist. She stood before eve-
rybody standing around in all her beauty smiling at the steed.
She took three steps in Arga’s direction, seemingly floating
toward him, barely touching the ground.
Completely taken aback, Arga suddenly let go of the halter-
rope. The hot-tempered stallion reared on its hind legs. But
the maiden managed to catch hold of the rope with her hand.
And then...
And then, to everyone’s amazement, her left hand deftly
squeezed the stallion’s nostrils. Letting go of the rope, she
began caressing the steed’s nuzzle with her right hand. And
the hot-tempered stallion all of a sudden calmed down. She
inclined his head toward the ground. At first he put up some
The Creator’s greatest gift
1x9
resistance, but eventually began bowing to the ground — low-
er and still lower. And then the steed suddenly fell to its knees
before the maiden.
A grey-headed oldster stepped forth from the crowd and
said:
“Only the old wise-men know how to tame a beast like that,
and not even all of them. But you are still a young maiden!
What is your name? And whose girl are you?”
“I am Liubomila, from the next settlement. And whose am
I? Nobody’s. I am simply the daughter of my father. And
here he comes, that strict father of mine.”
“If only I had been strict!” said the father, who had just
come back to the family cart. “What have you been up to
this time, my little gal?”
“Nothing much. I’ve just been playing a bit with this little
colt.”
‘A bit? I see. Let the steed go. It’s time we got on the road
home.”
00
Love, too, was teaching in the Vedruss school
What had happened to Liubomila during these years? Where
had she learnt such wisdom and agility all of a sudden? In the
Vedruss school.
People studied their whole lifetime in this school, from
their early childhood to their most advanced age. Every year
they sat for exams. The school programme had appeared
right at the beginning of creation in all its minute detail and
120
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
then become further enriched over the centuries. The wis-
dom was imparted unobtrusively The lessons were not at all
like those in your contemporary schools.
You once told me, Vladimir, about a certain expression
used in your society When it turned out that a child is mis-
chievous and rude and bad habits show up in him, people
would say that he was brought up by the street, that he’s been
granted too much freedom.
The Vedruss people had no fear about granting freedom
to their children. It was common knowledge that the system
of festivals and rites was so intricately and skilfully thought
through that all children were absorbed in preparation for
them. Even though it seemed as though they were playing,
they were actually teaching themselves various disciplines,
often without the help of adults.
Examinations in the Vedruss school were like one festival
or celebration after another. With their help the adults taught
the children, and they themselves learnt from the children.
Take the Festival of the Koliadki, for example. During the
festival days children walk about and sing koliadki to all their
neighbours. The verses and melodies, along with the accom-
panying dance movements, were all composed by the children
themselves.
Children started preparing for their performances long be-
fore the start of the festivals, eager to learn from adults, their
families, their peers and the wise-men as to the best way of
mastering verse composition, along with singing and dance
movements.
Not all children had the same abilities, of course. Those
that were not as quick to learn as others would ask their par-
ents to tutor them. And sometimes parents found they could
use their children’s thirst for knowledge to draw them into
helping around the house and grounds.
A little boy might badger his grandmother, for example:
The Creator’s greatest gift
121
“Grammykins, dear, read some verse to me. Please do read,
I beg you. I don’t want to fall behind and be worse than the
rest. My friends might not take me with them to sing koli-
adki next time.”
And the grandmother would answer:
“I’ve quite a bit to do. Perhaps you could help me, and then
I would be able to read you some verse this evening.”
The child would be eager to help all day long and afterward
would listen intently to his grandmother, and try to memo-
rise all her verses or songs, and implore her to teach him the
appropriate dance moves. Then he might implore his grand-
father, and perhaps his mother and father, too, to tutor him
just a little bit more. And he would be grateful to his parents
when they offered him a lesson.
Compare this approach, Vladimir, with the lessons chil-
dren get in schools today — in literature, let us say
You are right, there is absolutely no comparison. The
Vedruss children aspired to become poets themselves, right
from a very young age.
The parade of merry festivals in the Vedruss period was
a system that helped people learn about the order of the
Universe and in turn teach their children the simple wisdom
of life.
The wise-men were itinerant teachers and sources of infor-
mation in regard to what was going on in the world. The bay-
ans 1 and bards, too, not only reminded people of events of the
past, but gave portents of the future, commending the world
of marvellous feelings or reprehending unworthy ones.
Such lessons were constantly taking place in every settle-
ment, but nobody would ever compel their children to attend.
'bayan (pron. bah-YAHN) - see footnote 4 in Book 4, Chapter 33: “School,
or the lessons of the gods”. On the role of bards, see Book 2, Chapter 10:
“The ringing sword of the bard”.
122
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
It was felt that each teacher himself should attract children’s
attention to the stories of science he was planning to tell.
Over the centuries rules such as these helped perfect the
abilities of the wise-men-teachers.
You asked, Vladimir, whether any wise-men-teachers, in an
effort to attract children’s attention, would simply play some
sort of game with them instead of actually giving them a les-
son in science or the arts.
Indeed, if such a thing were to occur, the wise-man would
be relieved of his wise-man’s status. In talking with their
children at home, parents would perceive right off that the
children had not been properly taught. News of his dishon-
ourable conduct would be made known in other settlements,
and no matter what community he thought to visit, he would
probably be asked to leave.
Before the appearance of love within herself, the little
girl Liubomilka made no attempt to attend the wise-men’s
lessons or listen to the songs of the bards and bayans. The
parents would not have forced their children to attend, but
might drop a surreptitious hint at an appropriate occasion.
It was Love that enfolded little Liubomilka in its energy
In Vedruss families the appearance of love was greeted as a
new member of the family sent by God to help them. And
they knew how they could, in harmony with Love, make the
little girl’s life marvellous. This was why the grandmother ad-
vised Liubomilka to go and study with the wise-men. Not
just to study for the sake of studying, but with a specific pur-
pose — to become the very best she could be for the one she
loved. Liubomilka consented, and decided that the next time
a wise-man presented himself who could teach people to sing
songs with a beautiful voice, she would indeed go see him
along with her friends.
But the wise-man they needed never came. Liubomilka
decided she would simply go listen to the next wise-man that
The Creator’s greatest gift
123
showed up. She did, and began to listen to his lecture. This
wise-man began talking about the specific function of various
plants, the fragrances these gave off, and about how plants
could be used to treat Man’s diseases.
“What do I need this for?” Liubomila thought to herself.
“Indeed, this is neither here nor there — everyone knows
how to treat: Mama, grandmother, sister — they all know.
And even if I should learn more than anyone else about the
various herbs, how will that be noticed by my intended? He’ll
never notice it.”
So Liubomilka listened to the wise-man without paying
too much attention. She sat there on the log simply for her
girl-friends’ company. And sometimes she would get up, walk
out and wander about the little glade. She was glad when the
wise-man ended his lecture and everyone made ready to go
home.
Then all of a sudden the elderly wise-man turned to
Liubomilka:
“Tell me, little girl, you did not find my presentation inter-
esting?”
“It’s just that it’s really of no use to me, it does not fit in
with my secret aspiration,” little Liubomilka informed the
wise-man, almost in a whisper.
The wise-man-teacher broke into a faint smile. The per-
spicacious old fellow knew all about little girls’ secret aspira-
tions, and remarked:
“You know, little girl, you may be right — I can allow that
this knowledge has nothing to do with you right now. After
all, you are still pretty young. But for older girls I explain how
they can become beautiful and create a Space of Love for the
one they love. When he sees this Space of Love, he will defi-
nitely want to know who was able to co-create such beauty.
And he will be so excited to meet whoever steps forward as its
creator. I shall also reveal to the maidens the secret of how to
124
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
weave a garland, how to prepare a tea of herbs for their belov-
ed, and what to use in washing in the morning to make their
bodies smell flower-sweet. I shall further be explaining...”
Little Liubomilka listened to the elderly fellow and began
to regret more and more that she had not gone to his class-
es. He stayed in the settlement for more than a week. He
revealed to the maidens important secrets, which she knew
nothing about. And Liubomilka asked the wise-man:
‘Are you going to be staying much longer in our settle-
ment?”
“I shall be on my way in a couple of days,” he responded.
“In a couple of days?” The little girl could not hide her
disappointment. “Hmm, in two days... Then I would kindly,
kindly beg of you to spend your last two nights with us.”
“I have already accepted invitations to other homes,” re-
sponded the wise-man. “But if it means so much to you...”
“Yes, I very, very much need to learn from you about the
different herbs.”
Each evening the old wise-man spent his whole time talk-
ing with the love-smitten Liubomilka. He knew that the in-
spiration of love would help this little girl grasp the essence
of the subject in a day or so, while even a year might not be
enough for some others.
When it was time for him to leave, Liubomilka escorted
the wise-man to the outskirts of the settlement, and he told
her:
‘After me another wise-man will be coming here. He will
be talking about the stars and the Moon in the skies, about
the Sun and about worlds invisible to our eyes. Whoever suc-
ceeds in understanding him will be able to light a guiding star
in the skies for her beloved, and that star will shine for them
both for ever.
“Then along will come a wise-man who knows how to
tame wild beasts — indeed, how to render even the most
The Creator’s greatest gift 125
headstrong steed obedient to your beloved and a faithful
friend to him.
‘A bard, too, should be coming to you. He knows how to
write verse and come out with such songs that many people
will fall in love first with the voice, then after that, everything
expressed in the song. And he can also teach dance.”
“Tell me please, which wise-men should I not bother going
to hear?” Liubomilka suddenly said to the old fellow. ‘After
all, I can’t spend all my time listening to wise-men.”
Once more the old fellow, cleverly concealing a smile, an-
swered the girl in all seriousness:
“Yes, you are right. If you go hear all of them day after day,
then there simply will not be time enough for play. You do
not need to go and hear every single one. Why, for example,
would you want to learn how to draw? Or embroider clothes
with ornaments and imbue them with meanings that only
your heart knows? Why would you need this kind of teach-
ing, if you have an older sister and she, I believe, will turn out
to be an unsurpassed master thereof?
‘And why would you, for example, go and learn how to in-
stil feelings of kindness in a shirt you sew — a shirt that will
protect its wearer from many ills?
“Or learn how to make fresh porridge with love for your
dear ones, which will satisfy not only their flesh but their soul
as well? The taste of that porridge will be unsurpassed. But
that is something that can be done to perfection by your sis-
ter’s friend who lives next door.
‘And when you want to obtain a beautiful dress or shirt to
present to someone as a special gift — a gift that will arouse
everyone’s elation — you can always ask your sister and she
will come up with a marvellous creation.
“And if, in the end, you want to treat someone to an ex-
traordinary dish of porridge or kvass, you can always ask your
sister’s friend.”
126
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“I shan’t ask anybody /” Liubomilka suddenly blurted out,
even stamping her foot, quite forgetting herself. “Those are
my rivals!”
“Rivals? In what way?” the old fellow asked in all serious-
ness.
And Liubomilka did not blush but responded:
“There’s this boy — he’s the best of the bunch, only he
doesn’t pay any attention to me, ’cause these dingbats man-
aged to grow up ahead of me. They kept smiling at him all
the time. I saw it when they danced the khorovoct at the ka-
pishche. And I’m supposed to present him with a shirt my
sister made? And kvass prepared by her girl-friend? No way!
Never!”
“But why should it not be that way? You say he is the best
of all the lads.”
“He is the best. That I know for sure.”
“Then answer me, why should not the best lad receive the
very best shirt as a gift, and the best porridge, and kvass be-
sides? And...” The old wise-man paused, and very quietly, al-
most to himself, he added: “I think it is only just for him to
have the best bride of all.”
“Bride?” Liubomilka’s cheeks flushed.
“Yes, bride,” replied the wise-man. “Indeed, should you
not wish him only good? Let him have the best bride of all!”
Liubomila looked at the wise-man, not able to utter a
word. She was filled with feelings which set her on fire. And
S khorovod (pron. hur-a-VOT) — a circle dance accompanied by choral sing-
ing, traditionally popular among Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.
The khorovod is one of the ancient rites venerating the Sun. The dancers
would almost invariably move clock-wise, symbolising the movement of
Sun across the sky (as seen from the Northern Hemisphere). The dance,
music and song served to put the participants into a trance-like state,
so as to help them reconnect with the spiritual forces permeating the
Universe.
The Creator’s greatest gift
127
suddenly she began running off. But after a short distance she
stopped, turned around, and cried out to the wise-man:
“I agree. He does deserve to have the best bride of all. And
that bride will be me\”
GO
Liubomilka eagerly paid a visit to every wise-man that came
to the settlement thereafter. She was always the first to ar-
rive and the last to leave, and the wise-men could hardly be-
lieve the surprising questions she asked. She memorised in
her head everything the men of wisdom said. In a learning
situation this is possible only when a child not simply attends
the classes, but actually comprehends where he will apply the
knowledge received.
When instruction proves too gruelling for the pupil, it
can be counterproductive. When a Man has a specific goal
that can be mastered through the study of various disciplines,
learning for him becomes an exhilaration, and the assimila-
tion of knowledge proceeds a hundred times faster.
And when love enters into the equation, the resulting ef-
fect is unsurpassed. Love is capable of scanning the thought
of any wise-man. Just a few words spoken by the teacher can
be sufficient not only to explain the whole subject to the pu-
pil in the blinking of an eye, but even beyond that, to further
engage his thinking.
Love — a great energy, the gift of God — was paramount in
Liubomilka’s instruction.
Back at home the little girl followed her Mama and grand-
mother’s dinner preparations with great eagerness. She had
128
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
them explain all their actions in full detail, and tried her own
hand at creating various dishes. And the little one came up
with some rather unusual creations.
Once at Maslenitsa 9 a group of relatives had come to join in
a meal. Two stacks of pancakes stood on the table — - one of
them cooked by the girl’s mother and grandmother, the other
by little Liubomilka herself. The guests found her pancakes
much tastier than the others. And this now-not-so-little girl
watched from a far corner of the room as her stack of pan-
cakes began disappearing faster than the other.
When the whole family sat down to the table on a week-
day, Grandfather would be the first to taste the cabbage soup
from a wooden spoon. And he would say:
“I know for certain who made this soup. It has a pleasant
and tender taste that no one else can match.”
“Hear, hear!” the girl’s father added. “Not only does it con-
tain flowers from unusual herbs, but there is feeling in it.”
Little Liubomilka found learning the disciplines no chore
at all. In her life she became a craftsman without peer. She
herself blossomed into an extraordinarily beautiful woman.
From the first wise-man she had learnt without realising it
the truth of great love: if you wish to be close to God, become
a goddess yourself.
9 Maslenitsa — a traditional week-long celebration in late February or early
March, marking the coming of Spring and involving the ritual preparing
and eating of pancakes (symbolising the Sun). Russia’s Orthodox Church
later incorporated the holiday into its calendar, known in English as
Shrovetide — the week prior to the beginning of Lent. For further informa-
tion please see footnote 1 in Book 7, Chapter 22; “The marvellous Vedruss
holidays”.
Chapter Ten
The children grew up. The time came to search for soul-
mates. Festivities were a great help to young people in this
important undertaking.
Young Vedruss people would gather in the evenings at a
designated place, usually just outside the settlement. They
would light a bonfire, chat among themselves or sing songs.
And once a week there would be a common festivity involv-
ing three or four settlements all told at one of their favourite
spots, where they would similarly light a bonfire, sing songs
and chat among themselves. But there were some festivities
which were especially useful in helping young people find
their soulmates.
While such festivities were outwardly quite simple, their
simplicity harboured a great inner significance.
<3B
‘Rucheyok’
There was a game called Rucheyok, 1 for example. Young people
lined up in pairs, one couple after the other, took each other’s
1 Rucheyok (stressed on last syllable) — the Russian word for a small stream.
130
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
hands and raised them high, forming an arch overhead. To
start with, boys were paired with boys, girls with girls. The
first pair — or anyone left without a partner — would go to
the end of the ‘stream’ and, bending over, pass under the arch
of raised arms to the head of the line.
Those passing through the ‘stream’ were not supposed to
look up. They were to slap somebody’s arm at random, thereby
selecting him or her as a temporary partner. Whoever was se-
lected followed suit, and the two of them then stood at the head
of the line of couples. Those left without a partner went to the
end of the line and chose a new partner in a similar fashion.
The game was simple, but think about it, Vladimir: upon
clasping hands for the first time, the young people could convey
a great many feelings for each other without words: recogni-
tion, gratitude and love, or, on the other hand, revulsion. As the
game went on, the couples switched, and it was easy to compare
which pair of hands held the most pleasant feeling for you.
640
‘Chastushka-govorushka’
This ancient wedding game was the most complex of its kind.
Modern chastushki, which people still sing today, are derived
from it.
The game, known as Chastushka-govorushka , 2 can be de-
scribed as follows. Two rows of people stood facing each oth-
er. One row was made up of young men, the other of young
maidens. The last girl in the row dedicated a four-line chas-
tushka to the last chap in the men’s row, standing opposite
Pre-wedding festivities
131
her. Her singing would be accompanied by dance movements.
Directly she finished, the rest of the girls quickly stamped
their feet twice and clapped their hands three times. And if
the lad standing opposite her did not succeed in composing
or recalling from memory a worthy response, the girl started
singing a new chastushka to the next young man in line.
If the lad managed to come up with a worthy answer in
the time allotted, the conversation would continue between
them with the use of poetic witticisms. But that did not hap-
pen very often.
In spite of the fact that young Vedruss people knew a great
many verses, still, not everyone was able to think up a worthy
reply in the brief time available, especially since their rivals
were trying their hardest to distract them from the sidelines
by all their stamping and clapping.
00
At one of these get-togethers of young people from different
settlements, Liubomila was present. Radomir’s five friends
who had caught a glimpse of this extraordinary girl at the fair
kept stealing glances at her. His closest friend, Arga, could
not take his eyes off her at all.
2 Chastusbka-govorushka ( che-STOOSH-ka ga-va-ROOSH-ka ) — The word
chastushka (plural: chastushki ) denotes a type of humorous, satirical or ironic
four-line verse in trochaic tetrametre, sometimes sung to musical accom-
paniment. It is often compared to the limerick in English. The word chas-
tushka is derived from the verb chastit’ (to talk fast). In the name of this
game it is paired with the rhyming word govorushka, a derivative of the verb
govorit’ (speak).
132
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
When the Rucheyok game began, the usually bold and deci-
sive Radomir walked under the couples’ raised arms with the
full intention of taking Liubomila’s hand and making her his
partner. But all of a sudden he got ‘cold feet’. He could feel
her as he passed by between the two rows. He would have felt
her even if his eyes had been closed. But as he approached
the spot in the ‘stream’ where she was standing opposite her
girl-friend, he slowed down ever so little, and found himself
moving as in a dream. He ended up choosing a lad from a
neighbouring settlement.
His friend Arga, however, turned out to have more self-con-
fidence. When it came his turn to pass through the ‘stream’,
Arga picked Liubomila right away, grabbed her hand and took
up a position with her at the head of the line of couples, much
to the envy of all the other young men.
Afterward they questioned him:
“What was it like when she held your hand? Did she
squeeze it tight or not?”
“I don’t know,” Arga replied. “I cannot remember aught.
It just seemed as though my hand caught on fire. Touch and
see for yourselves — it still feels hot.”
“What a gal!” the fine young lads exclaimed in amazement
on the spot. “She’s so hot with passion, it’s as though she’s
burning with a flame from some mysterious fire!”
Radomir in turn heard all of this without saying a word.
His own internal yearnings had been burning for some
time — ever since that day he first discerned this wondrous
girl at the fair. He had been thinking about her day after day,
first thing upon waiting in the morning. She even appeared
to him in his dreams, but even there, it seemed, he could not
bring himself to touch her.
Always successful in any undertaking, Radomir had a repu-
tation as a poet, but now all of a sudden even the simplest of
words to describe her utterly failed him.
Pre-wedding festivities
133
When the Chastushka-govorushka game got going, he stood
in the middle of the row of young men, next to his friend Arga.
Liubomila was almost at the end of the maidens’ row. When
it came her turn to sing and dance the chastushki, she began
her song with ease. At once it was clear to all that here was an
extraordinary maiden indeed, impossible to beat.
She switched themes in a flash. She sang couplets no one
had ever heard before. One after the other she won out over
all the young men, even though she herself was the youngest
of all.
When it came Arga’s turn, he was still able to give a response
to the crafty maiden, albeit not without a bit of a glitch. He
replied to Liubomila with a quatrain, but she, without even
waiting for the stamping and clapping, suddenly changed top-
ic and offered up such a smooth new witticism in verse that
Arga was completely thrown off the track and didn’t even at-
tempt to counter with one of his own.
Next it was Radomir’s turn. Liubomila began singing to
him, jauntily dancing to the rhythm of her verse:
Bold and eloquent you are,
Much you know, oh yes!
D’you recall how in the lake
You once washed my dress?
Some listeners laughed, thinking Liubomila was making
a joke with her couplet. Some, including Radomir himself,
could not figure out what it was all about. And, not being
able to figure it out, he found it impossible to offer any kind
of answer.
So Radomir could give no response to Liubomila. When
the stamping and clapping came to an end, signifying the
deadline for reply was up, he realised that his time had irre-
trievably gone by This was something he could not allow. As
134
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
though completely forgetting himself, he now began mov-
ing toward Liubomila — first one step, then a second, then
a third. By this time he had come right up close beside her.
Everybody fell silent, wondering why the rules of the game
had been defied.
Radomir stood silently before Liubomila. And all at once,
against this background of silence everyone standing in
the rows heard Radomir utter, with audible aspiration, the
Vedruss declaration of love:
“With you, my marvellous goddess, I could co-create a
Space of Love to last forever.”
Everybody waited with bated breath to hear what response
this fiery-tongued maiden would come up with.
But all of a sudden she became very meek. At first she def-
erentially lowered the gaze of her fiery eyes, but then raised
them again. Tears began rolling down her cheek and she
whispered:
“I am ready to help you in your grand co-creation .” 3
Finally Radomir recognised in the maiden standing before
him the same little girl whose dress he had washed in the lake
so many years ago. He recognised her, and took her by the
hand. As they walked along side by side, they no longer had
eyes for anyone else. The two rows of young people stood
facing each other in silence as they watched the couple’s love
head into eternity.
3 See the section “A union of two — a wedding” in Book 6, Chapter 5: “The
history of mankind, as told by Anastasia”.
Chapter Eleven
0 ©
The wedding rite
The Vedruss wedding rite, Vladimir, is something you already
know about. You wrote about it in The Book of Kin.' Let me
remind you of the essence of these great acts.
It was the lovers’ task to jointly choose a place for their
future domain. They would usually go out beyond the pe-
rimeter of the settlement where he lived with his parents,
and then inspect the area around the settlement where she
lived. And there was no need for the lovers to let their par-
ents know of their intentions, as everyone in the settlements
had an awareness and comprehension of the deed that this
was leading to.
On their chosen plot of land, measuring a hectare or more,
the lovers drew up plans for their real life together. Their task
was to mentally envision a house and arrange a whole lot of
plants so that every part worked together with each other in
harmonious precision.
Liubomila and Radomir quickly found a spot for their
future domain. As though by mutual agreement, they had
each gone outside the boundaries of the settlement to a spot
where there was a small grove of trees and a stream flowing by
almost unnoticed from a small spring.
Radomir had been here before. He had sat here alone,
dreamt about the future, about his future life together with
his beloved.
r See the section entitled “A union of two — a wedding” in Book 6, Chapter 5:
“The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia”.
136
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Liubomila had twice come by on her faithful fast-running
horse without Radomir. She herself, without knowing why,
had once halted her horse by the stream, walked over to the
grove, let down her hair, put on a headband and stood for a
long time by a goodly young birch tree.
Now the lovers stood on the spot together.
“I was really pleased when I came here on my own,” said Rado-
mir. “I would very much like to continue our family line here.”
“And I like this place, too,” Liubomila whispered.
Early the next morning, as soon as the dawn broke,
Radomir brought to the place they had selected more than a
dozen rods in a cart and long willow shoots, along with some
small posts and a scythe. No sooner had he begun to cut the
grass than he saw Liubomila approaching on her steed at a
gallop. Radomir was absolutely delighted at the sight, and his
heart started trembling. The beautiful girl leapt down from
her horse, before it had come to a full stop, three metres short
of the as yet unmarked boundary line of their plot, and dashed
over to Radomir.
“I greet you with the dawning day, creator,” she said to
Radomir, smiling. “The day has turned out to be a fine one,
and I decided to bring along some coloured ribbon to mark
out the places for our future plantings.”
“Thank you for brightening the day,” replied Radomir.
The lovers did not kiss nor even embrace. According to
Vedruss custom, anything like that was not seemly to do be-
fore the wedding. And there was a considerable significance
to be perceived in this: they did not make a daily routine out
of kisses and embraces before their children were conceived.
And therefore, when the moment for conception arrived,
their energies were at their peak potential. And they never
set up dates for themselves.
Each one would visit the selected spot on their own when-
ever they wished.
The wedding rite
137
Radomir was always the first to arrive with each day’s dawn.
Liubomila would follow suit on her steed.
Within a week Radomir had constructed a shelter resem-
bling a magical little house. It was two-and-a-half metres
wide and three metres deep. He dug the rods into the ground,
made the walls out of interwoven branches, and covered it
with a combination of rods and branches.
The lovers covered the whole thing with dried grass, and
Liubomila spread a fabric cloth over the interior walls and
ceiling. And she made two beds with straw on the bottom,
hay on top, each bed covered with a cloth.
When the magical little house was ready, the lovers would
often rest and spend the night there, but they did not enter
into intimate relations. Such intimacy before the wedding,
before creating the ‘nest’, was considered an affront to their
future children.
Besides, the young people had a lot to keep them busy
Radomir brought a large board, on which he carved the plan
for their plot, indicating all the points of the compass, in-
cluding the rising and setting of the Sun and the risings of
the Moon. Wind-speed and direction for both daytime and
nighttime were also recorded.
Liubomila would often go to the perimeter of the plot,
where she would stand for a long time, picturing in her mind
their future plantings. She would also check with Radomir’s
plan to make sure they would not have any harm from the
wind or shade.
When winter came, Liubomila made less frequent visits to
their love domain. She would spend her days weaving fabric
in her parents’ home, and embroidering a shirt for Radomir
with love.
But Radomir came again and again to their future domain.
He continued to obtain and note down information on wind
movements, and memorised how the snow lay in the plain.
i 3 8
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
This is how the Vedruss people over the years made a
weather calendar. Every Vedruss family had boards inscribed
with such plans and were able to accurately describe the
weather to come for a year in advance — two and three years
ahead, even. It might seem as though it would have been eas-
ier simply to copy a calendar like that from one their parents
had made, but it would not have been entirely accurate. The
landscape would be just a little bit different, and a copse or a
hillock might be able to protect a plant from the wind. The
wintertime snowdrifts, too, could be different.
By the time spring arrived, the design was already complete
in Radomir’s and Liubomila’s thought, and in early spring
they began once more to live in their little house. The task
now before them was to mark out all the planting areas with
posts, ribbons and branches, and harmonise their ideas with
each other. Radomir also had to dig a well and fence off the
waterspring.
There were only two weeks left until they could put the
seedlings into the ground, and the lovers began preparing for
the wedding.
First they went to the settlement where the groom lived,
and then to the bride’s. They would pay a visit to every house,
inviting its residents to their wedding. In every house their
arrival was eagerly anticipated. Everyone wanted to see their
love and decide on a gift for their future living home. When
the young couple visited a garden, a house or a household
courtyard, they would speak briefly to the residents. Just a
sentence to each one — something like Oh, what a splendid ap-
ple tree you have! Tour cat has a knowing look! or Tour bear is a real
worker, very considerate!
To any resident hearing the lovers praise a tree growing in
the garden or the household cat, this was a sign of appreciation
of the resident’s worthy life. It also indicated that the young
couple, too, would like to have a plant or an animal like that.
The wedding rite
139
The couple was not invited into the house nor given any-
thing to eat. This was not just a random practice on the part
of the Vedruss people. It would not have been deemed con-
siderate for the young lovers to refuse an invitation for a visit
and a meal, but if they had started making extended visits,
they would not have had enough time to go round to all the
families before the wedding.
Arga, who had known Radomir from childhood, broke
the rules slightly When the lovers paid a visit to his house
and began talking with his father, Arga suddenly ran off and
fetched a marvellous colt from the stable — the one that had
earlier caught the fancy of the whole settlement. He started
talking excitedly:
“Please, accept this steed as a present from me. Just as be-
fore, he has not let anyone near him since Liubomila made
him submit that day at the fair.”
The father gave his son a sly smile and said:
“Perhaps, Arga, you are not letting any horse-breakers near
your steed? For some reason you don’t seem to want to break
him in yourself.”
Arga replied, slightly embarrassed:
“I haven’t been breaking him in. I decided to leave this
stallion forever free. But now I’ve changed my mind. Take
this steed as a present from me.” And he handed the reins to
Liubomila.
“Thank you,” replied Liubomila. “But I cannot accept this
steed, seeing as he is already accustomed to another. But if he
has a colt, we shall gratefully accept it indeed.”
When the young couple had completed the round of the
domains, and the wedding day that had been announced to all
finally arrived, young and old began hastening at daybreak to
the designated spot.
People lined up along the perimeter of the plot of land
which the young couple had staked out with dry branches.
140 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Right in the centre, next to the shelter, a little mound rose
out of the ground, decorated with flowers. Radomir mounted
the hillock, and excitedly outlined the plan for the future do-
main before the gathering.
And each time the young man pointed to a spot where some
sort of plant was to grow, someone would step forth from the
circle of listeners and go over to the place Radomir was indi-
cating. And this Man held in his hands a seedling of the plant
Radomir had named. And each contributor who stepped
forth was accorded a bow from the people in turn. After all,
each contributor had earned the young couple’s praise during
the visits to the domains for having been able to grow a mar-
vellous plant. This meant that he was worthy of the praise of
the Creator, the Father of all, the all-loving God.
After announcing their design, Radomir came down from
the mound and went over to the spot where his Liubomila
was following the whole procedure with excitement and
trembling. He took her hand and led her solemnly to the lit-
tle mound, where the lovers now stood together before the
whole gathering.
Then Radomir once again addressed the crowd:
“I was not alone in creating this Space of Love. Here be-
side me, and standing before you, people, is my marvellous
inspiration.”
The girl — or, more properly, a maiden — initially lowered
her gaze before the gathering.
Every woman has her own beauty But there can be mo-
ments in every woman’s life when she shines above the rest.
Such moments are absent in our modern culture. But back
then...
Now Liubomila raised her eyes to focus her gaze on the
assembly
The excitement of the whole throng before her merged
into a single exultation. The girl’s face shone with a radiant
The wedding rite
141
smile, not of impudence but of courage. She was filled to
overflowing with the energy of Love. Her cheeks were aflush
with a brighter than usual glow. The people and the whole
Space around them were captured by the warmth radiating
from her luxuriantly healthy body and her sparkling eyes. For
a moment everybody froze in rapture.
The young goddess stood before the people, shining in all
her beauty. The people, in turn, could only admire the most
delightful vision.
This was why the maiden’s parents waited before begin-
ning their solemn procession, accompanied by the elderly and
younger members of the whole family, to the mound where
the loving couple was standing.
Stopping at the mound, the family first bowed to the young
couple, and now the mother asked the maiden, her daughter:
‘All the wisdom of the family line lies in you, my daughter.
Tell me, do you see the future of the land you have chosen?”
“Yes, Mama, I see it,” replied Liubomila.
“Tell me, daughter dear,” the mother continued, “do you
like everything about the future you have been shown?”
“I really do like the design. But still I should like to add just
a little something.”
Quickly jumping down from the mound, Liubomila all at
once ran through the crowd to the edge of her future garden,
where she stopped and said:
“Here is where an evergreen should grow, with a birch be-
side it. When a breeze blows from that direction, it will first
meet the branches of the pine, then the birch, and after that
the breeze will ask the trees of the garden to sing a tune. It
will not be repeated exactly the same way each time, but it
will always be a delight to the soul. And here,” the maiden
added, running off a little to one side, “here flowers are to
grow First there will be a flush of red, then over here, a little
later, violets will spring up, and burgundy over there.”
142
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Liubomila, all aglow like a fairy, started dancing around
her future garden. And once more the people remaining in
the circle set themselves in motion, hurrying about to carry
the seeds in their hands to the spots on the ground the high-
spirited girl had pointed out.
Upon finishing her dance, she once more ran up to the
mound. Here, standing next her chosen one, she said:
“Now the Space here will be splendid in its sheen. The
earth will produce a most marvellous scene.”
“Tell, my daughter, for all to hear,” her mother once more
addressed her, “who will be crowned to reign over all this mar-
vellous Space around? Of all the people living on the Earth,
upon whom could you bestow the crown?”
Turning to her fiance, the bride responded:
“He is worthy to wear the crown whose thought is able to
create a future that will be splendid all around.”
With these words the girl touched the shoulder of the
young man standing beside her. He got down on one knee
before her. And the girl solemnly placed on his head a most
beautiful crown, a garland woven from nice, sweet-smelling
grasses by the maiden’s own hand. Then, running her fingers
thrice through her fiance’s hair with her right hand, she took
hold of his head with her left and drew it a little closer to her-
self. Then Radomir, now crowned, stood up, while Liubomila
ran down from the mound and bowed her head ever so slight-
ly before him in a sign of meekness.
Now, as was the custom, the young man’s father, accom-
panied by his whole family, made its way over to the mound.
As they approached, they stopped in respect, and the father
asked his son, who was standing over the whole assembly:
“Who are you whose thought is capable of creating a Space
of Love?”
And Radomir replied:
“I am your son, and I am the son of the Creator.”
The wedding rite
143
“A crown has been placed upon your head, a sign of a great
mission to come. You who are wearing the crown, what will
you do as you reign over your domain?”
“I shall create a future that all around most splendid will
remain.”
And the father asked again:
“Where will you gain the strength and inspiration, my son,
and crowned son of the Creator?”
“In Love!”
Another question:
“The energy of Love is capable of wandering through the
whole Universe. How will you manage to see the reflection of
universal love on the Earth?”
“There is one girl, Father, and for me she is the reflection
of universal love on the Earth.”
With these words the young man came down to where
Liubomila was standing, took her by the hand and led her
back up to the mound. Whereupon the two families merged
into a single group, sharing hugs and jokes and laughter.
Then the young man thanked everyone, and they all be-
gan to plant their living gifts in the spot Radomir had indi-
cated earlier. Those not assigned a specific spot set about to
walk around the perimeter of the plot which had already been
marked out and to the sound of the khorovod threw the seeds
they had brought with them into the ground. Within the space
of a few minutes a marvellous garden had been planted.
Once again the young man wearing the crown held up his
hand, and, when all was quiet, said:
“Let all the creatures given to Man by the Creator live to-
gether with us in friendship!”
And those who had brought animals as gifts approached
the shelter, carrying a kitten or a puppy or a wee calf on a lead,
or even a bear cub. Arga, Radomir’s friend, gave them the
colt he had promised.
144
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Then people quickly fashioned tree branches into a wick-
er fence to attach animal pens to the shelter. And soon the
dwelling which just a short time ago had been used by people
as sleeping quarters was now filled with animals, who were
similarly young. And there was tremendous significance in
this. For in mixing with each other this way, these animals
would forever live together in friendship, caring for and help-
ing each other.
After accepting the gifts, the young couple once again
thanked everybody, and then a joyful celebration with songs
and khorovods began. The young people, however, withdrew
with their families each to their own house. They would not
see each other again until after two nights and one full day
had passed.
During this time the best craftsmen of both settlements
carried the pre-built framework of a log-house to the new do-
main, put a roof on top, laid down the floor and filled all the
seams with moss and grass. And the women placed their best
fruits of their harvest in the new home. The two mothers
covered the bed with a linen counterpane. And by the second
night every last one of the visitors was gone from the domain.
The energy of Love lingered over it in anticipation of the
young lovers’ coming.
00
“Look what happens, Vladimir,” said Anastasia, after fin-
ishing her account. “The Vedruss family, in this case little
Liubomila’s family, accepted the appearance of the feeling of
love in the little girl as the gift of God. And they treated the
The wedding rite
145
appearance of this feeling as that of a new member of their
family, sent by God, as a helper in the raising of their little
girl — perhaps as the primary helper. As a result, the girl’s
grandmother helped her understand what the great energy of
Love wanted of her, pointing to concrete actions in a simple
language comprehensible to a child.
“The little girl was inspired to start learning various disci-
plines, the pristine wisdom of being, and worked to perfect
her own spirit and body
“Who was primarily responsible, Vladimir, for Liubomila’s
success — her grandmother, the wise-men-teachers, the girl
herself, or the great inexhaustible energy of Love?”
“I would say that if you took away the energy of Love, then
all the other participants in the girl’s upbringing would hard-
ly be capable of getting even half of that done. But without
them, the energy of Love would have a hard time setting the
girl on the right path all by itself.”
“So then, what happened was a joint creation, and joy was
shared by all from its contemplation! Well, that is precisely
what God wants of Man.”
“I agree. The wedding rite itself is a festive masterpiece
altogether unsurpassed in beauty, significance and rationality.
If you compare it to modern wedding rites, it looks as though
we’ve all transformed ourselves into a bunch of occult idiots.
What are young people left with today, after a modern wed-
ding? Memories of gadding around in a car, for some reason,
to the ‘eternal flame’, 2 a drunken spree in a cafe or restaurant,
cries of Gor’ko, gor’ko !, } and public kisses wasting energy that
2| eternal flame’ (i.e., at the tomb of the unknown soldier) — Such a visit
shortly after the wedding ceremony is a common practice among Russian
newlyweds.
'Gor’ko, gor’ko! (lit. ‘Bitter, bitter!’) — the traditional call at Russian wedding re-
ceptions for the bride and groom to loss (and thereby sweeten the bitter wine).
146
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
should be saved for the conception of a child. Whereas af-
ter the Vedruss wedding rite the couple is left not with just
memories but with an actual house built with joy by the finest
craftsmen, a garden with a multitude of growing things plant-
ed by the hands of relatives as well as friends and neighbours
who contributed to the young lovers’ design.”
“In reality, Vladimir, they are left with an actual Space of
Love. A sacred, living, truly Divine nest, where the concep-
tion of a child may subsequently be expressed.
“The witnesses at a Vedruss wedding rite comprise not just
two friends, as happens today, but all the relatives from the
whole area, and they create designs not on pieces of paper but
in a living creation on the earth.
“The young people in turn sit an examination together, de-
scribing their design for their future domain in front of the
whole community. I would say their presentation is on an in-
comparably higher level than today’s doctoral dissertations.
“Of course the materialisation of living Space — the house,
the homestead, the beauty of the actions used to create these,
all play an undoubtedly important part. But there is one in-
credible aspect that is just as important. See who actually
marries the young couple. Not the parents, not some random
official in the Civil Registration Office or a priest whom they
often see for the first and the last time.
“Liubomila herself places the crown on Radomir’s head, in
front of the whole gathering! This is an act that God’s chil-
dren are indeed entitled to fulfil. It is a psychological factor
that is not as simple as may seem at first glance.
‘A Man who lets his love be registered by some random per-
son is already relieving himself, on a subconscious level, of the
responsibility for the subsequent fate of his family. Liubomila,
by contrast, takes this responsibility upon herself.
“There are many formalities placed between modern cou-
ples registering their marriage and God. These include the
The wedding rite
147
blessing by the parents, the registration at the Civil Office
and a priest in the church. By contrast, nobody stands be-
tween the Vedruss couple and God. Consequently their mar-
riage can be blessed only by God Himself.
“And even before the crowning, He really makes this into
an actual manifestation. He sends them mutual love. The
Vedruss people knew how to accept it and make it eternal.
‘And what happened, one might ask, before conception in
the Vedruss period?”
Chapter Twelve
The wedding rite had now taken place. But the young people
did not simply hop into bed to engage in the wedding-night ac-
tivities we know about today, following a drunken spree. Their
relatives did not make them lie in bed and then display the
bloody sheet to the wedding guests the next morning, as has
been done in many wedding rites, especially in the Caucasus . 1
The young lovers went off, each to their respective parents’
homes. They slept, and then made their ablutions. And in the
execution of this whole custom there is a great significance.
The excitement associated with the approval of the do-
main’s design quickly passed. The excitement associated
with the wedding itself, where their attention was totally oc-
cupied with each other in a climax, may have had a pleasur-
able dimension, but it was still accompanied by a degree of
nervous tension.
At their parents’ homes they rested and slept off the ex-
citement, while of course still thinking about each other.
Two days later they experienced their first encounter as
husband and wife. And by this time everything was ready for
the conception of their child. It was not just a question of
material benefits. The house, the warm enclosure for their
animals, the vegetable garden and the orchard were all very
important, of course. But equally important was the mental
and physical state of the young couple.
Once more, this chapter is a continuation of Anastasia’s narrative.
Conception
149
Radomir awoke before dawn. And without a word to any-
one, he put on his garland and picked up his shirt that had
been hand-embroidered by his mother. Then he headed off
to the spring-fed stream.
The moon illumined his path through the pre-dawn dark-
ness, while garlands of stars twinkled in the heavens. After
washing in the stream, he put on his shirt and quickly made his
way to his sacred creation. The heavens began to brighten.
And there he stood alone on the spot where the two vil-
lages recently celebrated their joy — the place he created
through his dream.
The power of the feelings and sensations within a Man at
such a moment can scarcely be comprehended by anyone who
has not experienced them at least once for himself.
It can be said that these sensations and feelings are Divine
in nature. And they have increased in quivering anticipa-
tion of the first ray of dawn, in which... There she is! His most
marvellous Liubomila! Illumined in the dawn’s rays, she ran to
greet him and their co-creation.
The vision incarnate ran to meet Radomir. While perfec-
tion, of course, knows no real limit, it seemed as though time
had suddenly stopped for the two of them. Enveloped in the
mist of their feelings, they entered their new home. The ta-
ble was spread with delicacies, and a tempting fragrance of
dried flowers wafted from the embroidered counterpane on
the bed.
“What are you thinking about right now?” she asked him
in a heated whisper.
‘About him — our future child,” and Radomir gave a quiver
as he looked at Liubomila. “My, how beautiful you are!” No
longer able to contain himself, he very tenderly touched her
shoulder and cheek.
It was not just that Liubomila and Radomir felt a joy in
their hearts, they kept looking at each other in silent delight.
150 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
My husband , Liubomila whispered to herself without mak-
ing a sound. My husband, I thank heaven and the whole Universe.
O righteous God, what happiness Ton give to people — the happiness
of living a life in love!
My wife, Radomir thought as he looked at Liubomila. He
closed his eyes and opened them again so as to see her all of
a sudden afresh. As though she were the best vision in the
world. As though the most important goddess in the world
had appeared before him. But it was not just ‘as though’ he
saw the goddess Liubomila before him. Radomir saw a god-
dess in real life.
The warm breath of Love enveloped the twosome and car-
ried them away to heights unknown.
Nobody in a million years would ever be able to describe in
detail what occurs between him and her, when people merge
together into one for the purposes of co-creation and bring
forth the image of themselves and of God in a mutual impulse
of love.
But the god-people of the Vedruss culture knew for certain
that when two people are joined together by an unexplain-
able miracle, each of them subsequently maintains his or her
individuality At the same time, the Universe shudders at that
unexplainable moment upon seeing the vision of the infant’s
Soul tripping barefoot through the stars, making its way to
the Earth, thereby embodying in itself the twain — plus a
third — in one.
The dawn progressed into a happy day And the Sun was
rising over the Earth. It shone more brightly with its deli-
cate ray on the spot where the gods stood on the Earth. And
the energy of Love, God’s gift to the earthly gods, illuminated
them with a light greater than the Sun, invisible, radiating
blessings. And the energy of Love celebrated in joy!
Is this energy intelligent? It is! Like all feelings — par-
ticles of mind — it was considered by God to be the most
Conception
151
important of all. When the grand creation of the Earth was
given birth by God, he told Love:
“Hasten, My Love, hasten, do not stop for rational con-
templation. Hasten with your last spark. Envelop them with
your great energy of grace — all My future sons and daughters
in your embrace .” 2
And now, when Liubomila and Radomir’s conception took
place in love, Love called out to God:
“You are invisible, Great Creator. But Your children are
visible. I too was invisible. Now my reflection on the faces of
Your children I see. They are Yours and, in a way, mine to be.
I want to nurse their children and understand how You, Great
Creator, were able to foresee when you gave to them, as a gift
from You, the whole of me. How You could likewise foresee
earthly grace. Show Yourself in all Your beauty and grandeur
for all Your children to see.”
God responded to Love in a whisper of a barely noticeable
breeze:
“I Myself would not presume to distract My children from
their grand and inspired co-creation. And I beg you, My
Love, do not burn these young hearts in an impulse of your
own delight. I remember how with the grace of your energy
you once set Me alight. I feel you are also burning our chil-
dren with your delight.”
“My God, I do not bum, I only warm them. When You said
‘our children’, I gave just a little shudder, and for a moment
my energy in turn increased in me. But I restrained them,
I declined to burn them. You distinctly said ‘our children’,
which means they must also be, at least a little bit, mine.”
“Those who are bom in love will understand who their
mother and father are.”
’See Book 4, end of Chapter 6: “First encounter”.
152
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
640
It might not be easy, Vladimir, to understand, but you must
try The intimate relations involved were by no means the
lead factor in the Vedruss conception of children. What peo-
ple do in bed today, calling it love-making’, is a mere mockery
of Love and a debasement of God. The satisfaction of fleshly
needs lasts but for a moment, and I would venture to say that
it cannot compare with even a hundredth part of what has
been determined in God’s plan for Man.
The Vedruss people did not see each other as an object
of fleshly desire. They saw something quite different alto-
gether.
When the desire came to Liubomila and Radomir to create
a child, they did not see him as being separate from them-
selves. The culture of feelings was quite different in those
times. The husband and wife, in their love, saw in each other
their own child. And, consequently, their caresses were quite
different from today People were not drawn to each other
by the passion of copulation, but by the grand aspiration to
co-creation.
And Radomir embraced Liubomila almost as his own
child. He tenderly stroked her hair with his hand, touched
her supple breasts, gently caressed her shoulders and kissed
the palms of her hands. Her hands touched his face and his
shoulders. She tenderly clasped him by the neck and drew
him to her breast as though comforting a child...
There are many treatises in the world which try to teach
the subject of intimate copulation. But there never has been,
and never will be, a treatise capable of outlining the Vedruss
approach to conception.
Conception
153
The lovers’ bodies were not the focus of attention. The
bodies simply carried out people’s will and desire. People at
that moment found themselves living in a different dimen-
sion. When the great and worthy act was accomplished, they
returned to the Earth. The satisfaction they derived was no
fleeting fancy It remained with them eternally, as though lift-
ing Man one step higher in the direction of Divine perfection.
At the actual moment of conception, Radomir seemed to
be in a state of oblivion, as though he had not yet returned
from a dimension he had never known before. He kissed
Liubomila as though she were his own child, and fell asleep
in a blissful dream. Men cannot help but fall asleep, perhaps
because of an innate desire to return there once again.
But Liubomila did not sleep. She felt within herself, or so
it seemed, an extraordinary particle of being. She rose from
the bed and went over to the window, where the Sun was
streaming through, dividing the windowsill into bright and
shady sections.
Liubomila ran over the line with her finger where the light
and dark met. She took off the flaxen ribbon encircling her
wrist and put it on the same line. The Vedruss people always
marked the day and moment of conception.
Then on the spot where the wedding took place they
planted a tree whose trunk would be sure to grow straight.
A second tree was planted at the moment when the border
between light and dark coincided with the flaxen ribbon
marking on the windowsill. The second tree was planted in
the shadow of the first. This act allowed them to forever re-
member the moment at which they conceived the child. A
horoscope calculated from this point will always be more ac-
curate. The Vedruss people knew about the positioning of
the planets and their influence on the flesh; nevertheless, in
spite of the planets, they were able to accomplish successful
deeds, since it was a great energy that they possessed.
i54
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Subsequently they poured the birthing water there, and
buried the placenta there in the earth. And when he got older,
a Man would go to sleep in the same spot on the anniversary
of his conception. The position of the planets slightly varied
from year to year, and a Man could feel all the information
coming from the Cosmos on the night of such a sleep — not
with his mind, but rather with his feeling, in his subconscious-
ness — right up to God’s creation of everything earthly. And
if there were any sorrow or disease, the dream could eliminate
it on the spot with ease. But only very rarely could any dis-
ease of the flesh affect the Vedruss people.
The place of conception served them as a place to sleep
and to become consciously aware of the whole order of the
Universe.
Chapter Thirteen
©0
Telegony can be overcome
‘Anastasia, I heard that the wise-men knew how to overcome
the phenomenon of telegony, i.e., the consequences of previ-
ous relationships. If a woman has had a prior relationship,
then the first man, as is now known, will undoubtedly exert an
influence on the appearance and character of a child fathered
by another man — the woman’s husband, for example.
“If they go through the wedding rite you spoke of, does
that mean that the consequences of the woman’s previous re-
lationship will be eliminated once and for all?”
“Vladimir, the child does not always have to resemble
the previous partner. When the new events in the woman’s
life and the sensations of her feelings are sufficiently bright,
the information about prior unsuccessful relations will be
erased. Still, the Vedruss people had a rite which could help
erase old, unwanted information. It purifies both the man
and the woman, and three thoughts must participate. Whose
thoughts those are, try to guess on your own.”
“It would be better for you to tell me yourself, Anastasia.
My brain is overtaxed as it is from too much information.”
“Fine, I shall tell you. But it is very important that people
learn to draw the conclusions they need for themselves.”
“At some point they will learn, but for right now you had
better explain it, seeing as how the question is so impor-
tant.”
“Then give me a full formulation of a question as to what
interests you.”
“What d’you mean, a ‘full formulation?”
156 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“Vladimir, you are aware, are you not, that this phenom-
enon touches not only women, but, in equal measure, men.
A man’s previous relationships can also exert an influence on
his future children. And the most upright and chaste girl can
bear a child which is not her own, if the man is not a virgin.
You know about that, Vladimir?”
“Yes, Anastasia, unfortunately I do. I read how one soldier
on his way home from army service had too much to drink at the
railway terminal and slept with an Asian prostitute. He came
back to his village and married a girl who had been waiting for
him. They produced a child who had swarthy skin and slanting
eyes. Everybody started blaming the girl, but there wasn’t a
single Asian anywhere in the vicinity I thought, though, that it
wasn’t really that necessary to bring up the subject of men.”
“It is vitally necessary to talk about men too. They are to
play the principal role in the rite.
“The rite consists in this. The man must set up their bed in
the open air under the stars on the spot where the couple live
in natural surroundings. He should prepare the bed for him-
self and the woman. They should fast for three days and sleep
three nights under the stars. And before they go to sleep, each
time the man should wash the woman and himself with spring
water. The man should rub the woman down with flaxen fab-
ric, but not rub himself down, just get the water drops off
himself with his hands. The man should be still wet when he
lies down in the bed with the woman. During those three days
they should not let themselves indulge in intimate relations.
“While they are falling asleep under the stars, on the first
night they should forgive each other for all past transgres-
sions and right away, right from that very first night, visualise
their future child.
“The man should think about how their child should be
like the woman, and the woman about how the child should
resemble the man.
Telegony can be overcome
*57
‘After these three days have gone by, they are free to en-
gage in fleshly intimacy, while the planets will erase all the
information they might be harbouring about the past, about
children that have never been conceived.
“But before entering into intimate relations, the man has
an obligation to place a garland upon the woman’s head. In
the normal Yedruss wedding rite this is done by the girl: she
places the crown on the head of her chosen one, but in this
variant it is the man who is to crown the woman.
“This rite does not necessarily pertain to couples who have
jointly sought out and found their own domain and have
started to live in it.”
“Why not?”
“The search itself, and the first three days of preparing the
site, will purify them if they spend three days thinking of their
future child without actually conceiving it... “
‘Anastasia, what about the third thought? You did say
three thoughts had to take part at the same time.”
“Yes, I said that, and in the case we are looking at there
were three thoughts. By the third night, while the man and
woman were sleeping under the stars, they were already re-
ceiving help from the thought of their future child.”
‘And where might he have been?”
“Where all children await earthly embodiment before con-
ception.
“So here, Vladimir, is the whole rite which a great wise-
man came up with and freely offered to people. He himself
rejoiced at how effective the rite proved to be, and there was
a subsequent increase in the number of happy families.
“Did you understand everything, Vladimir, and can you
now try your hand at telling people about this rite?”
“Of course, I understand, and I shall tell it all in time.”
‘And you will not add anything to this account of mine?”
“No, I shan’t.”
i5«
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“Then I can say that the rite will not be effective.”
“In what way? Why not?”
“There is no participation on the part of our ancestors’
thought.”
“Yes, I remember your grandfather saying that we need
to apologise to them. 1 I shall remind my readers of this.
Although it’s still not entirely clear to me why it is up to our
generation in particular to apologise. After all, we were not
the ones responsible for hiding their culture from people’s
eyes, or for its demise.”
“Of course one could think that ‘we are not to blame’. But
it would be better if a different thought came to mind.”
‘A different thought? What kind?”
“Upon our generation has fallen the great honour and grace
of restoring the culture of our forebears, to bind up the torn
threads that have remained, linking us with them. Only then
will great discoveries begin to take place among mankind.
Only then will their thoughts be able to help ours. For now,
their thoughts — in view of our lack of understanding — feel
constrained to withstand us.
“See the reference to ‘repentance’ in Chapter 5: “Conception involves more
than flesh” above.
Chapter Fourteen
©0
The psychology of Man’s genesis
and appearance in the world
In regard to this question, I have to say right off that accord-
ing to Anastasia’s information, the process of conception and
carrying a child — as well as its appearance in the world as a
Man — is not primarily a physiological, but a psychological
one. It is the highest form of joint creation between a man
and a woman. It is the apex of achievement of their thoughts,
feelings and intellect.
Initially such an affirmation met with some scepticism on
my part, as, indeed, I think, on the part of many of my read-
ers. So I shall reproduce here my more detailed dialogue with
her on this topic.
“Anastasia, how can you say that it is mainly psychological?
After all, it’s a real material foetus that develops in the moth-
er’s womb. The woman experiences actual physiological sen-
sations, sometimes even painful ones. There have been lots
of popular scientific books written on the subject of carry-
ing a child and its appearance in the world, and these often
go into great detail about what a pregnant woman should do,
how she should act on a physiological level. When you come
right down to it, physiology is primary, after all.”
“Yes, sadly, such an opinion has indeed been thoroughly
rooted in human society It means that the principal compo-
nent of the human self has been either relegated to the back-
ground or eliminated completely The result is that people
have come into the world who are, in essence, quite the op-
posite of God’s likeness.
160 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“Think about it, Vladimir: the foetus in the mother’s womb
lives and develops not because someone has written a bunch
of treatises on the subject, but because this was the original
thought of the Creator — indeed, of Nature. To interfere
with this eminently perfect process is tantamount to replac-
ing what is natural and perfect by something that is artificial
and less perfect.
“The physiology involved in the formation of human flesh
was pre-programmed by the Creator and is quite capable of
developing all by itself, without bothering the mother or fa-
ther with a need to control this process.
“On the other hand, the psychology and philosophy of birth —
a process on an immeasurably higher level — is wholly de-
pendent on the mother and father. It is a joint creation by
Man and God.
“The appearance of pain at the moment of birth is a sign of
an erroneous psychological approach to the birth process on
the part of the parents.
“Many, many animals give birth to their offspring in natural
surroundings and none of them perish or experience suffer-
ing. Nor did the Creator come up with any thought of pain for
His most beloved creation, Man. Just as loving parents would
never conjure up the thought of pain for their children.
‘As she fulfils her highest purpose — that of co-creating
God’s Man — the woman who has carried the Divine child
within herself receives a reward ordained by the Creator. This
reward is the feeling of bliss and the chain of joyful ecstasies
during labour, but certainly not pain. Quite to the contrary,
the process of giving birth to a Man should be a joyful and
pleasant one.
“It is Man himself, deceived by the occult sciences and sug-
gestions from the dark side, who by his own intrusion has
made childbirth painful for the mother and a fatal shock for
the baby”
The psychology of Man’s appearance in the world 161
“What’s this about a shock, Anastasia — a shock fatal for
the baby at that? The baby just gets born.”
“Yes, it gets born, but it does not understand why it is be-
ing so rudely torn out of its pleasant and perfect Space and
why its mother suffers and experiences pain. The mother’s
pain occasions untold mourning on the part of the child.”
“What, is it possible for a mother to give birth without any
pain at all?”
“Not only is it possible without pain, but with a supreme
and most pleasing joy and delight!”
“You know, Anastasia, our modern medicine is equipped to
do just that — it can guarantee an almost painless childbirth
with the help of anaesthetics.”
“Anaesthetics can lessen the mother’s physical pain,
Vladimir, but they increase the mental pain for the infant,
since anaesthetics cut him off from contact with his mother.
Such a state instils in him fear and a lack of self-confidence,
which continue even into adulthood, even into his most ad-
vanced years. They prevent him from being born again.”
“But why does something like that happen?”
“When a Man is living in his mother’s womb, he feels a
coziness there — he feels comforted, cared for, peaceful. On
the physical plane his needs are completely met. He is free of
the problems plaguing Man in everyday life, he is allowed to
experience the whole order of the Universe.
“Over the nine months all the information about the mar-
vellous order of the Universe, about Man’s purpose right from
the beginning of creation, is imparted to him.
“The world he knows inside his mother’s womb is vast and
marvellous.
‘And then all of a sudden, something rudely tries to thrust
him out of this world of supreme grace. Every woman knows:
this means the labour has begun — an inevitability, or so it
seems — and hence people do not think about the effect it
l6 2
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
might have on the infant. Few women in today’s world re-
alise that they do not have to frighten their baby — on the
contrary, they can caress their child during labour, talk with
it, express their thoughts to it, invite it to be born into the
world. And this need not be accompanied by any sensation
of stress or pain.
‘After hearing the call of his mother and father, the child
will perceive the labour contractions as a caress — an invita-
tion to make his appearance of his own free will, to explore a
world that is brand new to him.
“To be born of his own free will — that is an indication of great
and extraordinary significance. All the information imparted
by God during a birth like this will be preserved in him.
“When the woman experiences fear over her labour, this
fear is felt by the child in the womb.
“When the woman experiences pain from her labour trou-
ble and has thoughts only for herself, the child in the womb
experiences double the amount of pain. He feels abandoned,
and, above all, helpless and defenceless. Such feelings are
harmful, and they are lasting. They wipe out the information
the child has earlier received about the grand Creation, since
they are in contradiction to it. In this kind of birth, the child
feels for the first time in his life that he is not the master of
the Universe, but a worthless nonentity, subject to some kind
of external forces.
“His body is born, but the spirit of mastery and of a kind
creator is not born in him. Such a Man will not become the
likeness of the Divine. A mere slave of some other entity he
will remain, and he will try his whole lifetime to free himself
from slavery, but in vain.
“Earthly tsars, presidents, along with their bodyguards and
service staff, are likewise the slaves of circumstance. They
think they are deciding something of importance, and try to
make their life a happy one, but life for them only becomes
The psychology of Man’s appearance in the world 163
more and more unhappy and hopeless, like the ever deeper
blackening of both the air and the water.
“This thought of hopelessness suggested at the birth by
pain, interferes with human society’s ability to make the right
decisions.”
“Yes, Anastasia, a birth like that presents a very scary pic-
ture. Maybe that’s why some women today opt for a Caesarean
section? That would prevent something like that from hap-
pening, eh?”
“It still happens. One could hardly explain such a proce-
dure as the birth of a Man — it is more like a routine opera-
tion. Who is thereby causing the Man to emerge into the
world — the mother, who has not given birth to the child,
or the surgeon, who has torn the foetus out of the mother’s
body?
“The infant, who has not yet appeared in the world, sud-
denly loses contact with his mother and, consequently, with
the whole order of the grand Creation. Then he is forcibly
torn from the womb. What for? Whereto? And why so rude-
ly? And why is he not in charge of anything himself? The
whole world crashes before him!
“People believe a child is born into the world, while he, at
the moment of birth, feels himself forlorn. And while it seems
as though this infant Man has thrived, what has remained
alive, in fact, is only his flesh. He will try to use what paltry
remains he can reclaim of his spiritual substance to search for
his Divine self throughout his life. And for this only his fa-
ther and mother are to blame.”
‘Anastasia, as I understand it, it is on the women and on
the way they carry and birth their children that the whole fu-
ture of their offspring, not to mention the future of human
civilisation, depends. Is that true?”
“Yes, it is true, Vladimir. But no less — in fact, in equal meas-
ure — does human birth depend on the men, on the fathers.”
164
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
e®
When a man brings a child into the world...
“Hold on, hold on there, Anastasia. Explain what you mean
when you say ‘a man brings a child into the world’. After all,
men cannot actually give birth. They are physically incapable
of giving birth.”
“There is a trap hidden in there, you see, Vladimir. In ac-
cepting the suggestion that birth is mainly a physiological
procedure, the majority of people have thereby excluded
the Great Spirit, the Father-Creator, from the birth process.
More specifically, they have excluded God the Father from
the birthing mother’s labour. It was God’s absence that first
got reflected in the woman in the form of labour pains, and
subsequently of general human suffering.”
“Can you explain in more detail the man’s role in the labour?
And why is excluding him tantamount to excluding God?
Should the father, or the man, attend to his wife’s labour?”
“It is quite unnecessary for the man to attend to the labour.
It is sufficient for him to be by her side, but that is not the
father’s main purpose.”
“But what, then, is his main purpose?”
“To comprehend that, you must realise that the mother’s
womb nourishes the flesh of the foetus conceived in her from
her beloved male partner. It feeds the flesh, and that is im-
portant indeed, but it is not the most important factor.
“The foetus reacts to the condition and feelings not only of
the mother, but in equal measure to those of the father.
“When a husband talks with his pregnant wife, the foetus
conceived does not understand the parents’ words, it does not
The psychology of Man’s appearance in the world 165
really comprehend the meaning of the words uttered to their
full extent, but acutely perceives the feelings of the parents.
“Sometimes a man is led by an impulse of tender feelings
to caress his pregnant wife’s tummy or to put his ear to it and
hear the baby’s movements. Caresses like that are pleasing to
the woman, but the foetus inside her, it would seem, does not
perceive them physically, but it feels them on an immeasur-
ably greater level.
“The feelings of the baby’s mother and father come to him
in a flood. He receives them with great joy, with supreme
bliss.
“On the level of feelings, the foetus takes account of thoughts
as well. When parents wait for their child in love and harmo-
ny and keep thinking about him, then from the very moment
of conception he constantly dwells in the father’s and moth-
er’s energy field, and this is very pleasing to him.
“It is through the mother’s and father’s feelings that the
child feels the surrounding world outside his mother’s womb.
“If a father at his pregnant wife’s side hears and exults in
the song of a nightingale, the foetus in the mother’s womb will
feel both the song and the father’s joy After he is born and
grows up, he will continue to delight in the nightingale’s song,
just as he did in the womb.
“If the father or mother suddenly takes fright upon behold-
ing a serpent, the child, once born, will be frightened at the
same sight, too. In the womb, of course, he could not actually
see the serpent, but through what his parents see, the infor-
mation about it will be stored in his subconscious throughout
his life.
“When a father, Vladimir, skilfully sings songs to his preg-
nant wife, their infant will sing no worse than his father as
he grows up. If a father starts contemplating the stars in his
mind, their offspring after birth will show an interest in the
stars.”
1 66
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“I have also heard, Anastasia, of how a certain composer
played the piano for his pregnant wife, repeating over and
over again a tune he had composed which had caught his
wife’s fancy. But later the composer divorced his wife before
the birth of their son.
“When the child had grown a bit, his mother put him in
a music school. And one day she heard him performing his
father’s tune. The amazed mother decided that her son had
somewhere discovered an old musical score, since this tune
had never been performed at any concert, and the score had
never been published. But upon entering the piano room, she
saw that he was playing without any score at all. She asked
her son:
‘“Who taught you to play this piece, son?’
“‘Nobody,’ the boy replied. ‘I just heard it somewhere, but
I can’t remember where. I like it. What about you, Mama?’
“‘I like it, too, very much,’ replied the woman, and asked
her son how he could have memorised it, since in school he
had never started playing new works right off, even from a
score.
“‘No, never right away, but this one took hardly any time at
all to learn by heart, for some reason. It just seemed to be in-
side me. I want to continue it, and add to it in the same key.’
“The boy continued to develop his father’s melody which
he had heard in his mother’s womb. Like his father, he too
eventually became a composer .” 1
‘A very similar experience is recounted by Boris Brott, former conductor
of the Hamilton Symphony Orchestra in Ontario (Canada), who as a young
musician found himself able to play certain pieces sight unseen. It turned
out these were pieces his mother, a professional cellist, had played during
her pregnancy. His experience is cited by Toronto psychiatrist Thomas
Verny in his book The secret life of the unborn child (New York: Random
House, 1981), pp. 22-23.
The psychology of Man’s appearance in the world 167
“That is a good example you cited, Vladimir, and it is by
no means the only one. Many examples point to the fact
that child-raising effectively begins right from the mother’s
womb. And even a little bit earlier, before the conception
even takes place.”
“What d’you mean, earlier? Prior to conception, after all,
there isn’t anybody there yet.”
“Remember, you were telling me about telegony, Vladimir,
about how a child born to a woman may resemble the first
man in her life, rather than the father with whom the mate-
rial conception took place. This very phenomenon attests to
the fact that someone who is not yet conceived, but just wait-
ing his turn in the conception queue, can ‘read’ information
about the father.”
“Is there really such a thing as a conception queue?”
“There is. Just as soon as intimacy occurs between a man
and woman, a spirit is born in space, ready for a material em-
bodiment.”
“What, even if they’re just having sex for fun, without any
thought of childbearing?”
“The spirit appears whenever the man experiences satis-
faction.”
“Vbu mean, orgasm?”
“I do not like that word, Vladimir. It implies information
which gives a false impression of the essence of the act.”
“Okay, let’s just call it satisfaction. But is there any way you
can prove the existence of this spirit?”
“Vou yourself can find the proof, Vladimir, if you wish.
After all, one person may grasp the essence of this phenome-
non from just a few words spoken, while another may require
years, even after being presented with a multitude of exam-
ples, and even then may still be reluctant to understand.”
“Well, can modern science offer at least indirect proofs of
what you are saying?”
i68
Book 8 , part 2: Rites of Love
“Of course.”
“What kind of science — biology, genetics? To tell the truth,
I need to know, so that I can more easily search for proofs.”
“You will easily be able to find them in physics, Vladimir.”
“In physics ? What’s physics got to do with it? You were
talking about the spiritual — maybe I could try esoterics, but
physics ?”
“In physics there is a law of conservation of energy”
‘And what’s that law got to do with it?”
“During intimacy with a woman an unusually powerful en-
ergy builds up inside the man, and the moment comes when
he releases it. According to the law of conservation of energy,
it cannot simply disappear without a trace, but is capable of
mutating from one state into another. In the situation we are
talking about, it is precisely the man’s colossal energy and the
lightning speed at which it is released that forms a spirit .” 2
“Yes, I can agree with that. But at the same time it’s sad.
How many spirits have men formed that haven’t ever ob-
tained a material embodiment! They probably number many
times more than the population of the Earth!”
“Yes, many times more.”
“Do they suffer, or do they just stay as senseless energy?”
“They have feelings. Their suffering is monumental.”
“What about the spirits that are conceived? Do they begin
right off to feel their parents?”
2 One of the most prominent scientists to study energy released during or-
gasm from the physical standpoint was the Austrian- American psychiatrist
Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957). He named this universal life force orgone (from
orgasm) and was even able to build working apparatuses capable of accu-
mulating it and using it for therapy. In 1956 he was arrested and thrown
into prison, where he died the following year. His orgone accumulators
were destroyed by the U.S. government and his books burnt, including his
monumental work The function of the orgasm: Discovery of the orgone (New
York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986).
The psychology of Man’s appearance in the world 169
“Yes, right away And they feel their father and mother in
equal measure.
“Over the nine months in the mother’s womb the parents
can teach the living child a great deal. Such lessons need no
repetition. The child will instantly memorise, with life-long
retention, any information imparted by his parents.
‘A father who possesses a thorough knowledge can ‘carry’
or shape, as it were, his child’s spiritual and intellectual self.
“It is the father in particular who is responsible for the
higher-level components of Man, and in this his role is indeed
Godlike in nature.
“It is the father who gives birth to the Man’s spiritual com-
ponent. Fathers should spend the whole gestation period
compiling the programme which shapes the spirit, character
and intellect of the future Man.”
“You are talking, Anastasia, in terms of a ‘programme’, of
a father who has a thorough knowledge of the procedure of
raising a child still in the mother’s womb...?”
“I am not talking about the father raising his child, but
about giving birth. The father does not do any ‘raising’ per se,
but simply gives birth to the second, non-material self of his
future son or daughter.”
“I would say that we don’t have any concept of that at all
in our society Our loss, no doubt. It is considered that the
principal role of the father in a child’s birth is finished after
conception. Thereafter, in the best-case scenario, the father
helps his pregnant wife with household tasks, makes sure all
her needs are met.”
“Unfortunately, that is all too often true.”
“But, Anastasia, who then forms the Man’s main spirit-
ual component if the father doesn’t understand his role in
this?”
“Either circumstances, or someone who knows about it
and uses it to forward his own agenda.”
170 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“So it turns out that men who are ignorant of the possibil-
ity of full participation in the formation of their future child
right from conception are not raising their children in the
fullest sense of the word?”
“Unfortunately, Vladimir, that indeed happens all too of-
ten.”
It seems I have only just begun to understand the signifi-
cance of what Anastasia has said, which in turn has showed
me the whole absurdity of our way of life. It may be that all
our social upheavals are the result of the fact that the over-
whelming majority of us, even when we are together with our
children, have little in the way of a relationship to them in
practice. We abandon them to the whim of fate, hand them
over to somebody else. But at the moment I was having my
conversation with Anastasia on this subject, it was not soci-
etal but rather personal circumstances that were calling forth
sad feelings in me — hopelessly sad, perhaps — feelings that
will remain with me my whole life. I didn’t even feel like con-
tinuing the conversation.
“You have gone pale, Vladimir,” Anastasia observed, notic-
ing my condition. “Your eyes have dimmed. Why?”
“I have no strength left to talk about it, Anastasia.”
“I have a good idea of what has happened to you. But you
will feel better if you can describe the cause of your unhappi-
ness on your own.”
“What is there to describe? It’s perfectly obvious. When
I realised the importance of the information you gave about
childbirth, it made me realise, too, that I had not participated
sufficiently in the birth of my own daughter, Polina. But back
then neither my wife nor I had any idea of how we should
relate to the question of childbirth.
“But you , Anastasia, had knowledge of this information.
You bore a son, and a daughter, and I, it turns out, am once
more on the sidelines. You knew this, and still, you didn’t tell
The psychology of Man’s appearance in the world 171
me in time what a father’s supposed to do. Not only that, but
I remember you telling me that I shouldn’t see my son at all
for some time, even after his appearance in the world. What
did you do that for?”
“Yes, I did say that to you, Vladimir. But think about it
yourself: what would you have begun to teach your son if you
had stayed the nine months with me in the taiga? Do you
want me to give you a hint as to the answer?”
“Go ahead.”
“You remember, you asked me at that time to leave my
family glade in the taiga, my Space of Love, which my parents
had formed for me. You wanted me to give birth in a city, in
a hospital. Then you said we had to send our son to kinder-
garten and the best schools, that you would make him into a
businessman and that he would carry on your business.”
“Yes, I did say that, but there was a lot I didn’t know back
then. Afterward I finally accepted that you would never be
able to, or never want to, live in the city, but still, you did not
invite me to stay with you in the taiga.”
“If I had suggested it, would you have stayed?”
“I don’t know, but quite possibly I would have.”
‘And what would you have done?”
“Like anyone else, I would have found some man’s work to
do around the home.”
“But you should know, Vladimir, that I do not need any
physical assistance. Everything here is all ready for willing
service: the air, the water, the beasts and the grass. I asked
about your activities in the hopes of finding out the most im-
portant thing, namely, where would your thoughts have been
while awaiting the arrival of our son?...
“So, you have nothing to say. After all, your thoughts were
just like your words back then.
‘And you might have regretted that you did not succeed in
persuading me to live in the city You even had a plan in mind
172 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
of taking me by force to give birth in a hospital. Yes? Admit
it!”
“Well, yes, I did, but it didn’t last very long.”
“Now tell me, Vladimir, just how was our son supposed to
react to such thoughts coming from his father? Such aggres-
sive thoughts, besides.”
“Yes, I see now, it wouldn’t have been very good for him.
And still, I’m sad that now I... In any case, it turns out that
I’m not a fully-fledged father. And that means that you bore a
son, and a daughter, too, who are not completely Man.”
“Trust me, Vladimir, and don’t be upset, and don’t be sad.
You are a fully-fledged father to our children. And our chil-
dren have received everything in full measure. It turns out
that our son is even a little overloaded with information and
sensitivity — at one point my great-grandfather Moisey was
not able to restrain himself and told him more than he should
have.”
“But how so? I wasn’t with you during your pregnancy. I
didn’t compile any programme, I wasn’t present at the birth,
I did not invite my children to be born, yet you still say that
I’ve come out a fully-fledged father. A moment ago, you were
arguing quite the opposite.”
Chapter Fifteen
00
A rite for a woman giving birth
without a husband
“The Vedruss civilisation, Vladimir, had a great many rites.
The word rite 1 is not entirely appropriate for such acts, but
I simply cannot think of an alternative. Let us use it for the
sake of brevity, only you must understand that in today’s lan-
guage the Vedruss ‘rite’ could easily be termed a scientific
and rational act on the part of Man, one grounded in the
knowledge of all the diverse energies of the Universe and
their interrelationship with Man’s soul. These rites, as you
know, were thought out by generations of wise-men and en-
lightened thinkers, who also connected them with the stars.
Subsequent generations checked their effectiveness in prac-
tice and perfected them as the years went by
“One of these rites was for women who were carrying and
giving birth to a child far from their husbands. Such situa-
tions did exist in the Vedruss civilisation, albeit rarely It
might happen that a woman’s husband was obliged to go on a
long trek somewhere. His pregnant wife left at home carried
out an outwardly simple rite, but one which lasted a long time
and was very complex in terms of the mind and will. If the
woman’s love for the child’s father was strong, she achieved
The Russian word for ‘rite’, obriad (pron. abr-YAT), is derived from the
verb obriazbat’ (‘to dress, enrobe’), and initially signified ‘to dress [a spiritual
concept into a material form]’, referring to an action (or symbol) based on
deep spiritual insights and giving an actual physical embodiment to these
insights.
174
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
her goal on her own and bore a fully-fledged child. She was
assisted in this by the great energy of Love.”
“What actions did this rite involve, specifically? In our
modern-day society there are also women who are obliged
to carry a child and then give birth without their husbands
around. Maybe the rite you speak of would apply to them.”
“Over the nine-month period, a pregnant woman whose
husband is absent should spend at least three hours a day
communicating with her child in the father’s name — some-
times also conversing mentally with the father about the fu-
ture child. They might argue, but under no circumstances
should they allow any suggestion of aggression to enter in,
even during an argument. The parents’ dialogue should al-
ways proceed in a spirit of good will both toward each other
and toward the child.
“The dialogue should preferably take place at the same time
each day The woman’s communication with the child in the
father’s name may be divided into two segments — evening
and morning. Approximately fifteen to nineteen minutes
before engaging in this kind of mental dialogue, the woman
should definitely take a small amount of easily digestible food
or drink, which will be healthful both to her and to the child.
“The drink taken in preparation for the mental dialogue
should not vary over the course of the nine months, and
should not be used in any other circumstance or for any other
purpose.
“I, for example, prepared a drink consisting of about a hun-
dred grams of cedar milk, three drops of cedar oil and a pinch
of pollen. I also took a little honey on a twig, mixed every-
thing together in a wooden bowl and drank it in tiny swal-
lows.
“The drink could also be made from other substances, only
they must definitely be natural, ecologically clean and eas-
ily digestible by the mother’s body, as well as healthful and
A rite for a woman giving birth without a husband 175
pleasing to the child in the womb. This is very important. If
the mother’s drink is not healthful or pleasing to the child, he
will associate the dialogue with his father with an unpleasant
phenomenon and afterward reject his father and resist com-
municating with him.
‘After the birth of the child the woman should take the
same drink shortly before a feeding at which she plans to
communicate with her nursling in the father’s name.
“If the father does not return by the time the child ceases
to take his mother’s milk, the mother’s drink should never be
given to the child until the moment of his first contact with
his father.
“The woman also needs to choose a star in the heavens
through which to communicate with her beloved man. A star
to think upon each time before initiating a mental dialogue
with her child.
“In this mental communication, the woman should formu-
late as distinctly as possible a thought-picture of the child’s fa-
ther — his character, intonations and world-view — without
falsification or embellishing any details. If she has a differ-
ence of opinion with him, she should try to explain her point
of view, not aggressively but lovingly. Instead of blaming the
ma:n for the misunderstanding, she should point the finger to
herself as incapable of setting forth thoughts understandably
and convincingly. 2 Or possibly she should think more care-
fully about what her husband has said.
“In addition, during her dialogue the pregnant woman
should stroke her tummy while cherishing an image of the
father in her thought.
‘And it is very important, while conversing mentally with
her husband, to rule out all negative aspects that might have
“Compare Anastasia’s dialogue with her great-grandfather in Book 2,
Chapter 7: “Who’s to blame?”.
176
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
occurred earlier. It is vital to remember only the good while
communicating with him.
“The woman should spend as much as possible of the nine-
month period in real solitude. Then the child will feel both
her and his father. And if the husband and father is not physi-
cally present, the child will still find himself in his father’s
aura.
“If the woman carries out the aspects of this rite, the man
will come back to her and to their child. Even if earlier his love
was weak, or was not there at all, love will flare up in him with
unaccustomed strength, and provoke him to good deeds.
“Many Vedruss women knew the effectiveness and power
of this rite. Later the wise-men tried to erase it from women’s
memories and turn to it only when they were confident that
the woman was not harbouring any perverse feelings.”
“What kind of perverse feelings, Anastasia?”
‘A woman in love could, through the help of this rite, se-
duce a man who was not in love with her — even if he were
living with another wife and even if they had not had intimate
relations.”
“But how could it happen if they had not had intimacy?
Without intimacy a child could not have been conceived at
all, and, in that case, who could she talk to about a father?”
“No matter what man she conceived with, she might try
communicating with her child in the name of her most belov-
ed, thereby drawing this man closer to herself. Not only that,
but the child will even outwardly bear a greater resemblance
to her most beloved, rather than the man who was actually
with her. You should know that, Vladimir, from the phenom-
enon of telegony .” 3
“Yes, I know, Anastasia, but why are you giving out this in-
formation that the wise-men suppressed? Now some women
3 See Chapter j: “Conception involves more than flesh” above.
A rite for a woman giving birth without a husband 1 77
will start luring men they fancy away from their families with
the help of this rite. It shouldn’t be published.”
“You needn’t be concerned about publishing it, Vladimir.
I purposely left one particular aspect out of my description.
Now it will not destroy any happy families.”
“But if you were able to leave out some aspect, why didn’t
the wise-men do the same?”
“The wise-men did not know what to put in its place.”
“If the wise-men didn’t know, how could you possibly
know? Besides, Anastasia, you said that the wise-men always
checked the effectiveness of their rites in practice. But you
didn’t have the opportunity to do that.”
“I did.”
“When? With whom?”
Oh, God! I remembered Anastasia’s words from many years
ago. I didn’t pay much attention to them back then, but
now... She said:
“I shall restore to you the respect of your daughter and the
love of your wife.” 4
It’s incredible, but she did it! But why, then, is my wife
not jealous of Anastasia? And why does my daughter have
such respect for her? I went back to see my family this year.
Anastasia was able to perform the incredible! I don’t know
how she did it, but she did it.
All our earthly institutions taken together — institutions
that pride themselves on their technological achievements —
are incapable of solving the number one problem on the
Earth: how to restore love and respect to families. But she can.
Oh, Lord! What colossal, truly Divine knowledge mankind is
losing! Why? Who can give an answer?
'Originally conveyed through Anastasia’s grandfather. See Book 2 , Chap-
ter 26: ‘Anastasia’s grandfather”.
i 7 8
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
And what strength of love Anastasia herself is worthy of!
What she has accomplished will probably be appreciated
more by our descendants than by people today. I felt like do-
ing something very nice for her. I went over to Anastasia, got
down on one knee and kissed her hand. She also got down on
her knees and embraced my neck. I heard her heart beating,
and sensed the extraordinary aroma of her hair, her intoxicat-
ing breath, the fragrance of mother’s milk as though it was
coming from my own mother’s breast, and I whispered:
“What can I do to be worthy of you, Anastasia?”
But she didn’t answer, only pressed my head a little more
strongly to her breast. My life has probably never been bless-
ed with happier seconds, hours or days than these.
Chapter Sixteen
©0
Where should we have our babies?
How hard it is to write in a dry style, and yet it is absolutely
necessary to determine, without agitation or emotion, where
the best and most comfortable place is for parents and infants
to go through the birthing process. In a hospital operation
room or a home setting?
As far as I know, the first maternity homes appeared dur-
ing the period of slavery in Ancient Egypt and Rome, where
they were organised for pregnant slaves.
A birthing slave-mother stayed from five to nine days with
her baby before returning to work. She was allowed access to
her child for nursing and at nighttime. This continued from
six to twelve months. It was different in different places, de-
pending on how the slavemasters treated their slaves. After
being weaned from its mother, the child was taken care of
by specially trained slave-nurses. Later, when the child had
grown, he would go off to be raised by other slaves, depending
on the function designated for him by the overlord.
For example, boys might be handed over to specialists to
be trained as warriors. After going through special physical
training and psychological conditioning, these warriors, who
knew not their parents, proved to be the most loyal to their
slavemaster. They were brainwashed from childhood to con-
sider him as father and mother — in short, God. There was
even a religion worked out especially for the purpose of this
brainwashing.
How close seems this situation from antiquity to our real-
ity today! A maternity home — nursery — kindergarten —
180 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
school — college — and presto, the slave is ready; But since
the slavemaster is invisible, the slave thinks he is free and,
consequently, will not rebel.
The elite of Ancient Rome and Egypt, and even their middle
classes, couldn’t begin to imagine, even in their wildest night-
mares, the birth of their own children outside the home.
They would first call in midwives, later doctors and sooth-
sayers.
In Russia the first huts for birthing mothers were designat-
ed for prostitutes. Sometimes this category of women went
off to give birth in a gypsy camp, where they would leave their
unwanted children to be raised by the gypsies. The gypsies
accepted them.
A ‘maternity home’ — or a maternity ward in a hospital —
is utter nonsense. It is clear testimony to the loss of wom-
en’s instinct to continue the family line, as well as to modern
Man’s ignorance, not only of his pristine origins but even of
the fundamental culture of feelings — - his loss of feelings of
true love for his wife and child as being a part of himself and
his legacy.
A child born in an institution cannot be exclusively yours.
He belongs to someone else besides. The birthing process
includes conception, carrying to term and the appearance of
the infant in the world. And the last stage is no less significant
than the rest. If you hand him over to strangers who are com-
pletely indifferent to both you and your offspring, then you
have less than a full relationship to the birth. Consequently,
you will not have fatherly feelings for him in full measure, and
he will feel this, and afterward requite it with an absence of
strong filial feelings toward you.
More than that, the love will not be what it could. Such a
child will not be able to love — not just his parents, but life it-
self, since life was never, right from the moment of his appear-
ance in the world, presented to him as something attractive.
Where should we have our babies? 1 8 1
Of course this lacuna can be compensated for by means
of certain behaviour toward the newborn, but that is by no
means easy
The birthing of children among different peoples of the
world can be considered more and more perfect the farther
we go back in history, and primitive in the absurd today. In
our modern world it has become tantamount to removing the
appendix from the body of a sick person . 1
And so I should now like to switch to a brighter note.
In spite of everything, mankind is beginning to ponder the
meaning of what has been happening.
In Russia, America and France, so-called ‘schools of spir-
itual midwifery’ have sprung up. There is also an organisation
known as the Association for Prenatal Education’ active in a
number of countries.
Courses on home births are being offered in Moscow and
St. Petersburg. People are trying to bring back the knowledge
and traditions they have lost — the love they have lost.
Let us see how the birthing process took place in Vedruss
families. According to Anastasia’s account, it went as fol-
lows.
An evident reference to a Csesarean section, which in many Russian hospi-
tals today is used in more than half of all births.
Chapter Seventeen
©0
The Vedruss birth
The birthing mother’s mama and grandmawould tell her what
symptoms to expect on the eve of her labour. Liubomila’s
grandmother, in this instance, told her in detail how she gave
birth to her own children . 1
Vedruss women as a rule gave birth in their own homes,
in a wooden tub, something like our bathtub, only shorter in
length and not as deep. It was a container designed especially
for childbirth. Afterward it served as a cradle for the new-
born.
To start, it was filled with pure spring water, heated to body
temperature. There were little ledges on the outside of the
tub which served as footrests.
The edges of the tub were curved so that it was easy for the
woman to support herself with her hands. The air tempera-
ture in the room was not measured with a thermometer back
then. They said it should feel comfortable for a naked body in
a state of repose, with no sensation of either heat or cold.
The tub for birthing mothers was placed on the floor and
oriented so that the woman sitting in it would be facing to-
ward the rising Sun. Another smaller container of water was
placed beside it. On the bench next to the tub lay four plain,
smooth-textured flaxen towels (without embroidery or de-
signs).
The first part of this chapter and the following two chapters are told in
Anastasia’s words, without identifying quotation-marks.
The Vedruss birth
183
During a Vedruss birth only the husband was to be present in
the room with a birthing mother. Even the couple’s parents and
close relatives, as well as experienced midwives, were excluded.
Just before labour began, the child’s father would light a fire
he had already prepared at the outer entrance to the domain,
from which wafted sweet-smelling smoke. This was where
the close relatives usually gathered, along with the midwife,
and often a wise-man.
The birthing mother’s and her husband’s parents would
bring in bundles and baskets of food and drink. They would
sit down on benches under a tent-roof which had been set up
earlier next to the fire-pit by the husband. Vedruss tradition
forbade them from crossing the line into the domain. Nor
was the birthing mother’s husband permitted to go out to
them, or even to talk with them at a distance.
Such rules were not the product of some kind of supersti-
tion, but the result of finely tuned psychological calculations.
Nobody and nothing was supposed to distract the thought of
the father, let alone the birthing mother, from the reception
of their child.
The presence of the parents and midwife at the entrance
to the domain, however, had a calming effect on the young
parents-to-be. In case any abnormalities cropped up, they
could always come in to help. But there was rarely a need for
such assistance.
During the contractions the mother would constantly
talk with her emerging child, giving him words of encourage-
ment, helping him enter upon his new world without fear.
The Vedruss people well knew how important it was to com-
municate both mentally and audibly with the new Man as he
emerged into the world. As a result, all three — mother, child
and father — were participants in the process.
It was also very important that the mother’s first look
at her newborn be without any fright at his appearance (a
184
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
temporarily snubbed nose, for example, or the birth-colour
of his skin), that her gaze be tender and joyous.
The father would pick up the baby out of the water he had
been born in, use his own mouth right off to suck the mucus
out of his little mouth and nose, and place him on his moth-
er’s tummy. The mother would then offer the baby her breast.
This prompted the expulsion of the placenta, which the fa-
ther placed in a specially prepared container, before cutting
the umbilical cord with a knife which had been disinfected
over a flame, and tying it.
Then the father took the baby and placed him on a towel.
After washing him, he wrapped him up in a second towel and
placed him on the bed. Then he washed his wife’s body, using
water from the other container next to the tub, dried her off
with a clean towel and led her over to the bed where the baby
lay
Next the father, using either his mouth or his hands,
strained off a small quantity of milk from the mother’s breast
and sprayed it over a flaxen sheet, with which he covered the
new mother and the infant lying on her tummy or breast.
After that, the father sat down and gazed silently at his
wife. If she desired, he would talk with her, but even if she
were asleep, he would not leave the room.
About fifteen minutes later, he would light the wood-fire
he had earlier prepared in the hearth.
He would then pour out the birthing water, as well as the
water the woman had used to wash herself, between the two
trees which had been planted soon after conception. Here,
too, was where the placenta would be buried.
The relatives that had gathered at the entrance to the do-
main would see the smoke from the chimney and understand
this, along with the father’s actions, to signal that the birth
had taken place successfully At this point they began ex-
changing congratulations and partaking of the food and drink
The Vedruss birth 185
they had brought with them, after which they dispersed to
their homes.
The Vedruss people understood that even in the womb the
child could sense relatives’ thoughts and feelings. And after
coming into the world, he would continue to find himself in
his parents’ aura. If some kind of outsiders, even a relative
with good thoughts about the child, happened to be in the
birthing room, their feelings — even good ones — would be
unfamiliar to the child, and put him on the defensive.
Besides, either deliberately or inadvertently, the relatives
might distract the parents’ thought from the infant. It was
in the parents’ mental field, after all, that the baby would feel
the most comfortable.
00
A little experiment should help prove what Anastasia has said
here.
Many women are aware that during breast-feeding they
should not allow themselves to be distracted by random con-
versations and thoughts, especially on negative topics. They
are concentrating their whole attention on their child, on his
feeding, and mentally conversing with him.
For evidence that the baby really does feel the mother’s
thought, try entering the room where a mother is nursing
her baby and strike up a conversation with her. The baby
will at once feel uneasy, and may even stop his sucking and
start to cry. He has become uncomfortable, and his Mama’s
thoughts about him have weakened or have wandered off
somewhere.
i86
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
But perhaps the baby was simply disturbed by the stranger’s
voice or odour?
I telephoned my daughter Polina. She picked up the receiv-
er and started talking with me. Thirty seconds into the con-
versation I heard the cry of my granddaughter Mashenka. 1
“Why is she crying?” I asked my daughter.
“I’m breast-feeding her, Papa,” Polina responded. “She
doesn’t like it when I’m distracted.”
I tried to end the conversation quickly I did the same
whenever I rang at an inopportune moment. My granddaugh-
ter would always start crying.
Many nursing mothers who are familiar with the culture of
breast-feeding will confirm this phenomenon. But it does not
happen, as a rule, with children of mothers who are unaware
of the importance of mental contact with their nursling, who
chat away at feeding time with all and sundry or spend the
time thinking about their own problems. Why not? Because
their child has no concept of mental contact with his mother.
It is something he never had, and so has no point of compari-
son.
There’s an old saying: He took it in with his mother’s milk.
What are our babies today taking in with their mother’s
milk?
Human society has learnt to create all sorts of satellites and
intercontinental ballistic missiles. Yet at the same time it has
lost something more important — the culture of giving birth
to and raising Man. As a result, people end up aiming these
missiles at each other.
Now what possible connection could there be between the
culture of prenatal education, the breast-feeding of children
and wars? A most direct connection, indeed!
2 Mashenka (stress on first syllable) — an endearing variant of the name
Maria (corresponding to Mary in English).
The Vedruss birth
187
Many still remember the account of the Rostov serial
killer Chikatilo . 3 He performed sadistic acts on young
women and then killed them. Such maniacs have appeared
in many other cities, terrorising the populace. Each time
hundreds of policemen are despatched to hunt down and
capture the killer.
But an interesting pattern emerges from this. It has been
established that in the case of three Rostov maniacs, at least,
their mothers had all made unsuccessful attempts to abort
their foetuses in the womb. As a result, when the foetus was
born and grew into manhood, it then began taking revenge
against women.
Now tell me which is more important for high-school
graduates: to get high marks in physics, chemistry and a for-
eign language, or to acquire a high knowledge of the culture
of the conception, carrying and raising of a child?
I would say the latter is by far the more important. And yet
the disciplines which present such knowledge are not even
taught in the school curriculum. Hence there are graduates
of schools, colleges and universities who give birth to children
which they have conceived haphazardly. They often reflect
on whether to give birth at all, or perhaps an abortion would
be better?
They may end up giving birth, only what kind of babies are
they giving birth to? The kind that not only should not be
exposed to the achievements of physicists and chemists, but
should even be kept as far away as possible from knives and
sticks.
The birth of advanced spiritual thinkers is especially im-
portant in this age of scientific and technological progress.
3 Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo (1936-1994) — a Russian serial killer in the
city of Rostov-on-Don, who was convicted of murdering 52 women (mainly
prostitutes) and children between 1978 and 1990.
i88
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
It is a tragedy when a maniac like Chikatilo kills and tor-
tures women. It is a blessing that nobody like him is sitting at
the controls of nuclear missiles.
A blessing — a blessing, okay — but the caveat must be
added: for now. The worst will happen if society does not
change its attitude toward the culture of giving birth to Man.
010
Anastasia continued:
With their knowledge of this culture, Radomir and
Liubomila effected the transition of their first-born son from
his mother’s womb to his new world quite smoothly and pain-
lessly Possibly, even joyfully both for themselves and for the
infant.
Liubomila had an easy and fear-free birth, and a cheerful
one, too. When the baby came, she let out not a cry of pain
but a cry of joy, of welcome. She herself drew him out of the
water and embraced him.
When Radomir washed Liubomila with pure water and
then dried her off, he felt like kissing every corner of her body
He even wanted to get down on his knees before her. And he
knelt beside the bed as his smiling Liubomila lay under the
sheet with her newborn son. As he stood there on his knees,
he said softly and penetratingly:
“Thank you, Liubomila. You have co-created a child, you
are a goddess. You can make dreams come true.”
“We have co-created a child, Radomir,” Liubomila respond-
ed with a smile.
Chapter Eighteen
0 ©
Not Radomir’s last battle
Many happy years went by. By now their children, grandchil-
dren and great-grandchildren were living in domains of their
own. But Radomir and Liubomila’s love was as strong as ever.
Even though their hair had gone grey, they grew happier with
each passing year.
Radomir stood alone at the entrance to his domain. He
looked at the road which led toward a little hillock and dis-
appeared behind it. It was along this road that his sons and
grandsons had headed off to battle two days ago. Even his
teen-age grandsons had gone.
The enemy that lay ahead of them was most unusual. A
prince had brought some sort of people from a foreign coun-
try who were all dressed in black and, for some reason, called
themselves monks. In each settlement they visited, they de-
clared that the entire populace had not been living a proper
way of life, that their ancient beliefs and rites needed to be
eradicated and that they should bow down to a different god.
The prince himself bowed down to it, as did his entourage
and armed garrison. No sooner had the prince adopted a dif-
ferent faith than the men in black proclaimed his authority as
coming from God.
Along with the men in black came soldiers dressed like
those in the prince’s garrison. They attacked each settlement
in turn, demanding that everybody think differently about
what they called ‘God’. When they found people unwilling
to bow down to the foreign ‘God’, they killed them with the
sword and burnt their houses and orchards.
190 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
The tribal elders held a council to decide what to do. They
called the monks and the prince before the council, but these
only spoke to them of the ‘higher good’ their new ‘God’ would
bring, thereby misleading them with a doctrine nobody could
make head nor tail of. The elders were encountering a phe-
nomenon they had never seen before. Whenever an out-and-
out enemy had attacked the settlement before, men from all
the families quickly formed a militia and collaborated in driv-
ing the foe from the land.
But here were monks carrying on about ‘love’ and ‘meek-
ness’ — about ‘blessings’, and the marvellous life in Paradise
awaiting anyone who submitted themselves to the new faith.
What the elders did not at first understand was that hid-
ing behind the shield of these beautiful words was an entity
which had definitely not been sent to them by God.
The God of the Vedruss people used no swords. The monks,
on the other hand, were backed up by aggressive armed gar-
risons. Residents in some of the communities headed off to
the woods, while others joined battle. Some immersed them-
selves in deep contemplation.
That day at dawn Radomir witnessed the departure of his
grandsons from his own domain and his sons from neigh-
bouring domains. They met at Radomir’s domain early in the
morning, as though they had planned it among themselves
the night before.
Of course, they planned this, Radomir decided. After all, just
the night before, his and Liubomila’s eldest son had said:
“Tomorrow we’re heading out for some war games. We
shall learn how to keep enemies from invading our lands.”
They departed, but still had not returned by the next day’s
sunset. And old Radomir kept watching the road.
Before long, a lone horseman emerged from behind the
hillock, heading toward Radomir’s domain at full gallop. On
the spirited steed another grey-haired oldster, not unlike
Not Radomir’s last battle
191
Radomir himself, sat skilfully in the saddle. Squinting his
eyes, Radomir recognised his old childhood friend Arga.
The grey-haired horseman climbed down from his steed
with a groan and quickly began questioning Radomir:
“Who’s left in your domain? Only talk fast.”
“Liubomila’s working on supper and our youngest great-
grandson is after her with questions,” Radomir calmly re-
plied, adding: “It’s strange, Arga, how you started asking me a
question right off, without even saying hello.”
“No time, I’m in a hurry. Get two horses right away, bring
along Liubomila and provisions for three days, and bring your
great-grandson with you, and come with me immediately.”
“Whereto?”
“To the woods, to the Drevlians. 1 There’s one family there
I know fairly well that will give us shelter. No foe will find
us there in the dense forest. Perhaps the people will come
to their senses as time goes by. Save your great-grandson,
Radomir, and you’ll save your family line.”
‘And here I thought you’d galloped over to help me, Arga.
I see two Vedruss swords tied to your saddle. What do you
need them for, if you’re planning to hide out from our ene-
mies tonight in some place in the woods?”
“The swords are just in case. I’m not about to fight any-
one. Besides, there’s a whole horde of them — we’d be utterly
routed. What’s the point of dying thoughtlessly like that?”
l Drevlians (Russian: drevlianye, stress on middle syllable) — the name ap-
plied to a collection of East Slavic tribes from the sixth to the tenth centu-
ries along the Pripiat River in what is now Ukraine. The name is derived
from the root drev signifying both ‘of the woods’ and ‘of ancient origins’.
Following their armed resistance to the invading Kievan princes, which re-
sulted in significant bloodshed and executions among the civilian popula-
tion, by the mid-tenth century their territories had been absorbed into the
Kievan Rus’ empire, while their popular resistance to the ‘authorities’ and
the Christian church continued for many centuries thereafter.
192
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“Yes, I know, Arga. You never fought with anyone. You
never even tried to join in any of the manly games at Maslenitsa
time .” 2
“That’s beside the point. You and I both know, Radomir,
that Man’s life may be eternal, that his soul may be reincar-
nated in turn in an earthly form. But for that to happen, Man
must not reflect on death as death approaches, but instead
direct his thought toward a marvellous future. Where his
thought is to be found, there will Man be regenerated anew.”
“I know all that, Arga. You and I were both taught togeth-
er by the wise-men.”
“Then you ought to recall, Radomir, that you can fall and
be fatally wounded in battle, and be deprived of the opportu-
nity to think about your reincarnation.”
“I remember, but, again, Arga, I cannot leave my family do-
main. It is alive, and it won’t understand if its friend and mas-
ter suddenly betrays with disdain the Space which has given
him its love and abandons it to be torn apart by an enemy.”
“‘It is alive, and it won’t understand!’ You’ve always been over-
ly sentimental, Radomir, and you still are today Well, then,
stay if you like. Go ahead and stay”
Arga paced quickly back and forth, gave his horse’s mane
a bit of a tousle, and again came over to Radomir. The two
grey-headed oldsters stood facing each other without a word.
Nobody can ever say what made their hearts beat back then —
perhaps each was immersed in a whole range of thoughts of
his own. Once more it was Arga who was the first to break
the silence, as he began entreating with noticeable agitation.
“Stay, if that’s what you’ve decided, Radomir. But... but...
do give me Liubomila and your great-grandson, and one of
your steeds. At least let them depart and save themselves.
2 Maslenitsa — see footnote 9 in Chapter 9: “The Creator’s greatest gift”
above.
Not Radomir’s last battle
i93
Stay yourself, if you like, if you are unwilling to part from your
living Space.”
Radomir gazed at his friend and replied:
“You can ask Liubomila about that yourself, Arga. I know
you’ve loved her all your life. That was why you could never
marry any other girl and set up your own family domain.”
“Who? Me? I loved her? That’s utter nonsense!” Arga ex-
claimed, as all at once he started pacing again, as though try-
ing to persuade himself of the truth of his claim. “I’m an art-
ist, and all my life my aim has always been to draw designs and
carve small statues. What would I need a wife for? I’m your
friend, and my intent was to help you save and extend your
family line. As for Liubomila, I’d quite forgot about her.”
“You are an artist, Arga, and a great one. And an ace of
a wood-carver — the best around. Your little statues grace
many of the houses in these settlements. And doesn’t every-
body concur that all the women you draw have a face resem-
bling Liubomila’s! Your carvings, too, look like her.”
“'Look like her? So what of it? It’s just that I’ve tried to per-
fect a certain type of face in my pictures.”
“You’ve taken pains to hide your love all your life, Arga,”
Radomir maintained. ‘And now you’re hiding it again. I
was at the pine tree which remains all by itself at the edge
of the forest. I know you often liked to sit beneath it and
carve your little statues. I recently came upon your hiding-
place there, where you’ve stowed away your latest unfinished
work — the one that shows a beautiful maiden taming a hot-
tempered steed. That is something only Liubomila could do,
as is known to both of us, me and you.”
“I loved, I didn’t love, I carved, I drew. That’s beside the
point — it’s not what we’re about now, do try to understand.”
Then, after a brief pause, Arga exclaimed, almost shouting:
“Radomir! Radomir, all your sons have been slain in battle,
and all your grandsons too!”
194
Book 8, part z: Rites of Love
Radomir maintained his outward calm, looked at Arga but
refrained from speaking.
“Save yourself!” Arga continued to exclaim. “I saw them
before the battle. I tried to dissuade them from joining such
an uneven fray. Your eldest son, your first-born, he’s made just
like you, an exact copy, in fact...”
“Stop beating around the bush, Arga!” Radomir entreated
his childhood friend, though showing no outward signs of
concern. “Tell me, what did my eldest son say?”
“He said: ‘We’ll join the fray We’ll manage to hold off those
‘black monks’ at least for an hour or two.’ I asked your son:
‘Why should you die in strife? What good are those couple of
hours to you?’
“‘Our whole family decided this in a council meeting,’ your
eldest son replied. He said: ‘May our parents, Radomir and
Liubomila, enjoy at least two more hours of a happy life.’
“Even though they were greatly outnumbered by the
‘black monks’ and their soldiers, your sons, along with some
children from the next settlements away, managed to stave
them off for a whole day. Eventually the monks stayed the
children, hacking them to pieces, then went back to their
lair again. Tomorrow morning they’ll start heading for your
domain.”
Radomir listened to his friend but gave no response. Arga
continued, agitatedly:
“I galloped over here to help you save your family line. "You
and I both know that reincarnation on the Earth is possible.
But this way there will be a finer chance of being reincarnat-
ed in a body of a family member. Only your great-grandson
this time is capable of extending the family line. Let me have
Liubomila and your great-grandson, I’ll help...”
All of a sudden Arga stumbled in his speech and paused.
He began to peek past Radomir. Radomir turned and looked.
Behind him, resting against a tree, stood Liubomila. Tears
Not Radomir’s last battle
195
were rolling down her cheeks. A trembling hand was clasped
to her breast.
“Did you hear what Arga said?” Radomir asked Liubomila.
“Yes, I heard,” she replied with a trembling voice.
“So why are you crying, Liubomila?” Radomir went over to
her and began stroking her hair and kissing her hand. “Our
children have surrendered their lives so that we can thrive
one more day here in gladness. It is not right for us to spend
it in sadness.”
“No, it is not,” smiled Liubomila through her tears.
“You are bright, my dear wife. You have gained the wis-
dom of the wise-men more mightily than anyone else. Think
about how best the remainder of the day, the night and the
morning, should be spent.”
“I think, so as to do right by the children, we should enter
into our Space of Love. Our grandson is there in need — it is
time to feed him.”
And, taking each other’s hand, they headed for the en-
trance to their family domain.
Arga climbed into the saddle and cried out as they walked
off:
“You’re both mindless, sentimental old fools! You ought
to save yourselves. You’re not in a position to fight with any-
one. If you’re wounded, it’s possible you might not succeed
in sending a thought into space about your reincarnation. I’m
getting out of here. I’m going to save myself. I recommend
you do the same.”
At the entrance to the domain, Radomir turned around
and responded to his old friend:
“Save yourself, Arga. Gallop off to your hiding-place in the
forest. We are tracing a different path to salvation.”
Arga spurred on his steed, which rose on its hind legs and
galloped off to the forest at full speed.
Chapter Nineteen
From the stars
will they return to the Earth
As they were walking toward the house, where their great-
grandson Nikodim 1 was waiting for them, Liubomila said:
“I think, Radomir, that we should now begin a brand new
game with our little great-grandson — the game of life.”
“What kind of a game is that?” Radomir asked in surprise.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“I’ve never played it either. But I learnt about it back in my
childhood, when I happened to overhear two old wise-men
talking with each other. The gist of the game is this: one per-
son plays out all the different stages of life with a child, while
the other recalls in detail, as fast as he can, everything he has
known in his lifetime, and imparts this knowledge mentally
to the child. And if the thought of the narrator is clear, the
child memorises the story through his subconscious. And
when he grows up, he finds all sorts of hints about life within
himself.”
“Who d’you think should lead the playing with our great-
grandson, Liubomila?”
“You do that, Radomir, while I tell him the story through
my thought.”
“But how will you be able to impart to him all the wisdom
of life in just one hour? After all, it’ll be time to put Nikodim
to bed in an hour from now”
1 Nikodim (pron. nee-ka-DEEM) — a Russian name corresponding to
Nicodemus in the Bible (see John 3: 1).
From the stars will they return to the Earth
197
“I shall manage. You just start the game, and mark off the
different stages of life with a clap of your hands.”
Four-year-old Nikodim ran to meet them, his arms open
wide. Radomir caught him and gave him a toss in the air.
Then he set him back down on the ground and began to say:
“I recently heard tell of an interesting game. Would you
like to play it?”
“I would,” answered Nikodim. “But how is it played?”
“I shall name something from life in words, and you tell
us what it’s about without words, using actions and gestures.
And Grandmother will watch you act it out.”
“Terrific!” exclaimed Nikodim, as he started jumping for
joy on the spot. “Let’s start playing it right away”
“Okay, let’s begin,” said Radomir, clapping his hands. And he
went on: “Once upon a time there was born into the world a
little boy named Nikodim. He was just a wee little baby back
then.”
The boy at once lay down on the ground, flung out his
hands and bent his little legs at the knees. “Waa, waa...” he
bawled, imitating a baby
Radomir clapped his hands and continued:
“In time the baby began to get up on his little feet and walk.”
Whereupon Nikodim at once got up on his feet, and took
a step as though it were his first, staggered a bit, and then
dropped down to all fours. He crawled along for a metre or so
and then got up again. But this time he was already walking
steadily
Another clap, and Radomir went on:
“The little one’s interest connected with everything: he
inspected the bugs, and the grass, and tried to detect how ap-
ples grew on trees. He reflected on why the Sun came up and
why he felt so warmly affected by everything both in summer-
time and when winter came.”
198
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Little Nikodim bent over to inspect a bug creeping over
the grass, he looked up at the sky and jumped for joy, then all
at once ran over to his grandfather, put his arms around the
old man’s legs, then he dashed over to his grandmother, who
was sitting on the grass. Clasping her around the neck, he
pressed his cheek against hers and gave her a kiss.
Radomir again clapped his hands and said:
“One day it happened that all the people left their domains.
They did not travel along the roads, and where they were go-
ing was not heard. Perhaps they flew away like the birds, on
their way to the stars.
“Then into the domain, where the little one had been left
alone, came a foe who burns houses and hacks down orchards
with an axe.”
Little Nikodim listened to his great-grandfather’s frighten-
ing tale. This time he stood motionless, without attempting
actions or gestures, and finally said:
“I don’t like this game. That should never happen in life.”
“Yes, in life it shouldn’t, you are right,” Radomir replied to
his great-grandson. “But this is a game, after all.”
“Well, I shan’t play it!” The boy stamped his little feet and
cried out: “I shan’t /”
“I’ll take over,” declared Liubomila, getting up from the
ground. “When the little one caught sight of the foe, he called
over the bear that he had played with when still just a wee
mite. He took hold of the nape of the bear’s neck, just as he
had always done. He grasped hold of the bear’s fur with all his
might, and the bear lumbered off with him into the woods.”
With these words Liubomila called out in the direction of
a little grove of trees where their household animals lived:
“Hey there, brown bear, come over to me! Come on, come
on, as quick as can be!”
Out from the grove emerged the bear and bounded over to
Liubomila. When he came up beside her, she began stroking
From the stars will they return to the Earth
199
its muzzle. Then she whispered something in its ear. She tou-
sled the fur on its shoulder, then, grasping hold of it with her
hands, sprang onto its back.
“Hey, giddy-up!” she called to the bear.
The bear ran around in a wheel formation with all his
might, until halted by Liubomila.
“But why would our great-grandson go off to the forest on
a bear, and not on a horse?” asked Radomir, and Liubomila
replied:
“Of course, a steed could go faster than a bear over the
fields, but a horse would be helpless indeed in the woods,
while the bear will find food and shelter there. Besides, in the
woods the bear will offer the best protection. So there’s your
answer. Let’s go on with the game...
“So, the bear ran off into the forest and hid the child there
from the foe. He took care of him until the boy grew up to
be a man.
“When he had grown, one day the young lad caught sight
of a girl in the forest, who had come to pick berries in a glade.
They liked each other right off, and later got married. They
found a spot on the ground which would be hidden from ma-
levolent eyes, they built a domain and began to bear children.
And all their relatives who had flown off to the stars long ago,
came back to the Earth.”
As he drifted off to sleep, little Nikodim thought about the
game, but he did not find it entertaining.
During this time Liubomila and Radomir walked about
their family domain and recalled the life they had lived there.
It had been a thoroughly joyful experience.
Liubomila laughed like a child when Radomir tried to por-
tray her as a little girl standing amidst the tall grass.
“D’you recall? You remember how you called out back then
that I was a good-for-nothing, ’cause I had raised the hem of
200
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
your dress? I dried your tears with your dress, and you talked
about being dishonoured.”
“Yes, I remember it all,” his wife responded, laughing. “But
I thought of something just now: you could have dried my
tears with the edge of your shirt.”
“I was a smart boy, I was. I decided: why soil and mess my shirt,
when I was going to have to wash out your dress in any case?”
“Yes, you were a smart boy But still, you did lift up the hem
of my dress, you good-for-nothing!... Oh, look at our spot,
the wedding mound! New flowers have come up. And look
how tall and majestic the cedar has grown! It was so small
when we planted it on our wedding day”
Liubomila pressed the palm of her hand to the trunk and
rested her cheek against it. She stood there without saying a
word. Radomir, as love-struck as ever, put his arms around
her shoulders as before and said:
“Where shall we sleep tonight — here or in the house?”
“Wherever you say, my darling.”
00
The next morning a detachment of fifty soldiers entered
the domain. With them were two monks dressed in black.
The soldiers saw an old man standing by the cedar, and an
old woman beside him, her back pressed against his. Each of
them held two swords in their hands.
“You see?” the elder monk called out to the soldiers. “You
see the infidels standing there? These infidels have borne
children. Don’t use your arrows — hack them to pieces with
your swords.”
From the stars will they return to the Earth 201
Two warriors approached the elderly couple from differ-
ent sides, their swords raised. They tried to land a blow, but
Radomir managed to turn back the foe and disarm one of the
warriors with his sword. And Liubomila warded off the at-
tack against her. Then the old people repelled a second at-
tack, then a third. After that the soldiers began fighting with
each of them by twos. But Radomir had two swords in his
hands, which flashed like lightning. He warded off both at-
tacks simultaneously, but did not shed the soldiers’ blood.
The grey-haired Liubomila laughed as she, too, repelled
both attacks on her.
“Everyone step back,” shouted the elder monk. “They
are being helped by an unclean force! Everyone step back.
Everybody shoot at them with your bows.”
Those wielding the swords retreated. Others prepared
their bows, but as soon as they had reached for their bow-
strings the old couple threw down their swords, turned to
each other and embraced. Radomir whispered something to
Liubomila, and she smiled in response.
“What’re you waiting for? Shoot!” shrieked the monk.
“ They are infidels! You have been sent by God! Shoot or I’ll
curse you!”
One arrow went into Liubomila and two into Radomir.
But as though they did not feel any pain, the old couple still
stood there embracing as before.
The arrows flew The ground was covered in blood. And
Liubomila and Radomir slowly sank down, or perhaps they
flew off to the stars. As their bodies lay on the ground, the
elder monk, the priest’s emissary, looked into their faces and
said to himself: They were not thinking about death as death ap-
proached. Their thoughts were of life. Their faces show no fear nor
sorrow. What must be done to prevent them from being reincarnated
again? He stood there in fear, feverishly trying to come up
with a solution.
202
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
All at once behind his back rose a murmur of agitation.
The monk turned around and saw six soldiers lying dead on
the ground beneath the apple tree. Each of their hands was
clutching an apple core.
The monk knew right away what had happened. The high
priest’s emissary knew that the Vedruss orchards produced
marvellous fruit, but it could only be eaten when the gar-
den’s owner gave it of his own free will. The Vedruss people
treated their trees and flowers as living beings, which repaid
them with their love. When the trees and flowers saw how
strangers acted toward the people who had bestowed their
love upon them, the apple tree called up other juices from the
depths of its roots and infested its fruits with an extremely
strong poison.
“Don’t touch it! Don’t eat anything here!” cried the monk.
“I told you, this is a devil’s tribe, and the place here is unclean.
I command you in the name of the Almighty to cut down eve-
rything, but everything, here.”
“Look!” yelled one of the soldiers. “Look over there!”, wav-
ing his hand in the direction of the entrance to the domain.
Everybody turned to see a bear heading out of the domain
by leaps and bounds. On top of it, clinging on to its fur, rode
a little boy. The bear rushed out of the domain and made a
headlong dash for the woods.
‘After them! Go get them!” shrieked the monk. “Don’t
come back until you have hacked the little vermin to pieces.”
Lie knew that if even one of the Vedruss people escaped,
their whole line could be regenerated on the Earth. But he
did not tell this to the soldiers. To them he simply kept refer-
ring to the ‘will of God’.
“Go get ’em! God commands you to rout out everything
unclean from the Earth! You see how unclean it is here?!”
The detachment’s commander ordered a dozen soldiers to
follow the bear, catch up to it and kill the boy The soldiers
From the stars will they return to the Earth 203
jumped on their steeds and headed out after the bear at a gal-
lop.
In the meantime the bear was bounding quickly toward the
forest. But it could not keep up such a feverish pace for long.
And the pursuers, galloping as they were at full speed, were
gradually catching up. The distance between the bear and the
horsemen slowly but surely narrowed. They were only about
a hundred metres from the forest when one of the pursuers
caught up. Racing alongside, he raised his sword to kill the
child. But the bear suddenly rose on its hind paws and took
the blow on itself. The horse with the rider struck out to one
side and reared. In the meantime, the wounded bear contin-
ued streaking toward the forest. Now it had a mere fifty me-
tres to go, but by this time the detachment of horsemen had
almost caught up, swords in their hands at the ready
But then all at once the soldiers noticed another horseman,
this one all on his own, heading out from the woods directly
toward them. An old man was sitting with ease in the sad-
dle, his grey hair and beard waving in the breeze. Each of his
hands brandished a sword, while he controlled his steed with
his legs alone.
“Giddy-up! Giddy-up!” the old man called, and spurred on
his horse which was already moving at an incredible gallop.
“He’s ready to fight us. Make ready for battle with this
crazy old man!” the detachment commander shouted to the
rest.
“But he’s all alone, and there’re ten of us,” a warrior pro-
tested. “He’s just an old man, what’s there to be afraid of? We
need to get on with the chase!”
“Yes, he’s alone, but he’s a Vedrussl Make ready for battle,
whoever’s not a timid goose!”
The elderly attacker on his steed galloped around the de-
tachment of horsemen. With his swords he managed to dis-
arm the two outer warriors and cut the saddle-girth from two
204
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
of the horses, at which point his own extraordinary steed was
wounded by an arrow.
But the old fellow did not direct his wounded steed toward
the forest, but galloped along the edge of the woods, causing
the whole detachment to pursue this course as well. When
they got to the lone pine tree at the edge of the forest, his
horse stumbled and the rider fell. The old man jumped up
from the ground and started running toward the pine. He
was looking for something in the grass at the time the detach-
ment caught up with him.
The pine tree took seven arrows in its chest, but the eighth
pierced Arga’s breast. The thrown Vedruss rider lay on the
ground, but did not groan. A stream of blood flowed from
his chest. The pine tree, being wooden, could not lament the
wound, while Arga’s thought rose to the heavens in a state of
doom:
I don’t ask for myself any reincarnation,
But I give them my thought for their future creation,
To add to their joy and their great inspiration.
Get together, reincarnate, and live without end,
Radomir, Liubomila: I’m no foe, but your friend!
The Vedruss lay there on the ground, but did not utter a
sound. Even in his weakened state, he was still able to press a
little statue of his beloved to his breast.
“ Good shall prevail '/” he whispered to his beloved, al-
most in a wail. And the wooden pine tree wept. A rather
strange-looking pitch began showing itself, flowing down
its trunk.
All at once the Vedruss opened his eyes and his vision was
clear. And, barely able to enunciate the words, he blurted
out:
From the stars will they return to the Earth 205
Don’t be sad, little pine tree, it’s all nonsense here.
My thought will break through these bad times of barbarity.
Once more there will flourish bright ages of clarity.
To all earthly goddesses the morn will give hail
And my thought will imply to them: Good shall prevail!
The soldiers on their steeds did not succeed in catching
up to the boy on the bear. They tried to penetrate the forest,
but the forest did not turn out to be a friendly place for them.
Their steeds began snorting in fear, and no clear path under
their feet remained. The soldiers returned and explained to
the monk that the boy had been slain.
00
A few years went by, and people began to say that while they
were mushroom-picking in the woods, they caught sight of
a boy about ten or older. He would peer at them from the
bushes, but seemed afraid to come near. And there was al-
ways an old lame bear with him.
Some time later, two young boys got lost in the forest and
became frightened. A youth came toward them and ges-
tured them to follow him. He led them to the edge of the
woods, right to the road which led to their settlement, while
he himself retreated once more into his forest hiding place.
After this incident people stopped being afraid of the forest
youth. And when, a year later, he headed out of the woods
one day toward a group of young lasses gathering berries in
the glade, the girls were not afraid of him and did not run
away.
20 6 Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
The youth was blue-eyed and of slender build. He was
dressed in clothing woven from grasses. He stood at the edge
of the glade. One lass in particular caught his eye, whose name
was Praskovia. In truth, he could not take his eyes off her, and
everyone suddenly stopped picking berries and stared at the
youth.
Then very slowly, so as not to frighten them, he took several
steps toward the group of girls, and stopped. Seeing that the
maidens were not running away and were not afraid of him,
he approached young Praskovia, stood facing her, smoothed
out his hair and blurted out, though not without some stum-
bling:
“Together with you, my fair maiden, I could create a Space
of Love to last forever!”
Praskovia had absolutely no idea as to what these words
meant, but for some reason her cheeks flushed with a rosy
glow and she began to talk with the young lad.
“Where do you live?” she asked. “Everybody says you live
in the forest, all on your own.”
“For the time being I live on the Earth alone,” replied the
youth.
‘Alone? But where are your parents, then? No one exists
without some kind of family.”
“They are living. My father and mother, and elder broth-
ers, and my sisters. And my grandfather Radomir, and my
grandmother Liubomila.”
“And where do they dwell? In the forest as well?”
“They have flown way up high to the stars in the sky. They
will come back down to the Earth from afar when I have
found my intended. I shall create and form a Space of Love
all around, and this is where our children will be born.”
“But how will you look for your intended in the forest?”
“I shall not need to look — she has already been found.”
“And who is she?”
From the stars will they return to the Earth 207
“ 3 oz/, my maiden — you are the most splendid of all. I ask
you now to come with me to my Space, which I have already
begun to create. I shall build a house, but... there are just a
few tools I need to get. Not having them yet, I have con-
structed a shelter in the meantime. I have been observing
from afar how it is done.”
The maidens whispered amongst themselves and made fun
of the youth. By this time they had become quite unafraid.
Praskovia did not answer his proposal right away, but with-
drew to her group of maidens. The young man stood a little
apart, looked to the sky and opened his arms wide, as though
apologising to someone, then slowly turned and headed away
from the glade.
A hush fell over the maidens. Praskovia watched him de-
part and then all at once called out loudly and confidently to
the youth:
“Wait for me here tomorrow. I’ll steal the tools you need
from my father as a dowry”
The youth quickly turned around, and ran over to Praskovia.
The maidens saw him smile for the first time. And all their
cheeks flushed with a rosy glow. The young man’s smile was
extraordinary, and his eyes were beaming all the while.
“How handsome he is! Too bad he didn’t pick me!” whis-
pered one of the girls.
“I’m ready to go with him, too,” another announced all of
a sudden.
In the meantime the young man said to Praskovia, not see-
ing anyone around:
“You mustn’t steal. That is not a kind deed.”
“I was only joking. My father will be glad to give me any-
thing I need.”
From that point on, nobody ever again laid eyes on the pair —
they saw neither the forest youth nor the maiden Praskovia,
who had gone off with him to goodness-knows-where.
Chapter Twenty
00
Even in chaos there is a purpose
“Life continued on the Earth,” Anastasia went on. “But it was
not the same life as before. The great Vedruss civilisation,
its traditions, rites and culture, which had existed for tens of
thousands of years, were replaced by a chaotic, barbarian or-
der of human society In our state the period of slavery began
with Kievan Rus’ 1 and continues to the present day”
“But wasn’t the Vedruss civilisation destroyed even earli-
er in other territories of the Earth? I remember you saying,
Anastasia, that the Vedruss way of life was prevalent among
the inhabitants of what is now Germany, England, Poland and
the Baltic countries.” 2
“Yes, I did say that. It was all one people, one language,
one culture. If you look closely, Vladimir, you will see that
they all resemble each other even in outward appearance.
This despite the fact that for more than two millennia there
was a good deal of blood-mixing between them and Asian
peoples.”
“But why did things come about like that, Anastasia? You
said it was a great civilisation and a great culture, yet in the
blink of an eye this civilisation was destroyed by the sword,
fire and arrows.”
1 Rus’ — see footnote 4 in Chapter 5: “Conception involves more than flesh”
above.
2 A reference to Anastasia’s declaration in Book 6, middle of Chapter 4: “A
dormant civilisation”.
Even in chaos there is a purpose
209
“Not destroyed, Vladimir. That word is not really appropri-
ate. As long as there are at least nine people on the planet who
are striving for a conscious awareness of the Divine earthly be-
ing, the Vedruss civilisation is alive. But now, after all, there are
not just nine people, but hundreds of thousands who are dis-
covering more and more the truth within themselves and are
changing their way of life at the core. They will soon number in
the millions, but for now these hundreds of thousands should
be seeking for the answer to the puzzle within themselves, for
an understanding of how the disaster came about.”
“But what if they don’t understand? On our Internet site
there’s a whole lot of people who’ve been trying for several
years now to determine what specific mistake mankind per-
mitted to slip through in the Age of the Image . 3 There’s a
discussion forum there, known as “The mistake of the Age of
the Image”. But so far nobody’s managed to make out what
that mistake might be. There’s a lot of variants, but no overall
answer here. It may not come for another thousand years!
Maybe nobody will ever be able to determine the mistake.”
“They will. Perhaps in a day, or perhaps in five to nine years.
They will find the answer.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Think about it, Vladimir. It was only a short time ago that
people did not even talk about the subject at all, and there
were not even any attempts to think along these lines. Now
you tell me yourself that a whole lot of people are endeavour-
ing to solve the mystery Thought is switched on. Just like a
little shoot from a seed, it will find its way to the light.”
“It will find it someday perhaps. People today are mainly
involved in the routine of their everyday life. Your grand-
fathers and you have had the opportunity to do a lot more
3 Age of the Image — see the section on “Vedism” in Book 6, Chapter j: “The
history of mankind, as told by Anastasia”.
210
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
reflecting. Besides, you have access to a huge amount of in-
formation about the past, and then, naturally, you have your
own view of things. Why not share it? At least give people a
hint?”
“In other words, Vladimir, you are asking me to switch
people’s thinking off?”
“Now why would I be the one who wants to switch it off?
Why would a simple hint have that kind of result?”
“If everybody who is trying to work out the solution today
in their thought takes the hint as ‘gospel truth’, their thinking
will immediately cease operations. Then they’ll be expect-
ing even more hints. And you may be sure that the hints will
come — in fact they’ll quickly pour down in showers upon
them. That is precisely what is happening right now. People
are getting hints right and left about what is healthy to eat and
drink, how to dress, where the best resorts are, how to live,
where to search for God. And what is the result? Life pro-
gressively gets worse. God created the order of the Universe
with His thought, and He gave thought as a gift to Man. But
somebody is constantly trying to bring it to a halt.”
“Does that mean you know the answer, but you don’t want
to talk about it?”
“I do not know the answer, but I can presuppose.”
“Well, what presuppositions have you come up with, for
example, pray tell?”
“Perhaps a period of chaos was needed, a period of mis-
takes, so that mankind might have a complete account of
it and not repeat it in the future. Similar phenomena have
emerged in history when mankind is on the verge of a great
discovery — a discovery of universal proportions.”
“Now that, Anastasia, is what I call a good and encourag-
ing presupposition. Your story about the Vedruss family,
Liubomila and Radomir, had a very sad ending — quite unlike
your usual optimism.”
Even in chaos there is a purpose
211
“Vladimir, why have you decided that the story has come
to an end? Life continues, and so not a single story about life
can ever be considered to have come to an end.”
“I remember how the great-grandson, Nikodim, went off
with Praskovia and continued the family line, but I still feel
sorry for specific individuals like Radomir, Liubomila and oth-
ers. The story about them cannot be continued. One can talk
only about continuing the family line. If there’s something
more you can tell me, then please do tell me, Anastasia.”
“Fine, I shall tell about events that took place in the very
near future.”
Chapter Twenty-One
©0
‘Soulmate gatherings’
The time came when people started to realise the need of
searching for their soulmates. Earlier they had been taught
that the lovers themselves should find each other by the
whim of fate. Of course that is true, but then Man may also
control his own destiny Or at least give fate a hint as to what
Man desires of it. 1
And so people in different towns began to organise special
events to facilitate two soulmates getting to know each other.
And they even applied some of the rites of the Vedruss period,
with just a smidgen of adaptation to fit modern situations.
Every autumn, after the tasks of summer are completed,
large gatherings take place in various towns, attended by
young and old — anybody who has not yet been blessed with
a happy home.
These are mainly your readers, Vladimir — those among
them who have been endeavouring to build a domain to start
up a happy family line.
These gatherings might go on in various towns over a peri-
od of two or three months. Your readers spread word of them
ahead of time. And they come from different places and
countries. Some might come for a week, some for a month.
And your readers in particular have a significant advantage
over others desiring to create a happy home. All the partic-
ipants in these gatherings have a single goal — a conscious
’in the first part of this chapter, as well as in the following chapter, except
as otherwise indicated, the narrative is presented by Anastasia herself.
‘Soulmate gatherings’ 213
awareness and concept of how to build a happy life for their
future family
“Wait, Anastasia, how is it that my readers specifically had a
significant advantage? After all, many married couples apart
from my readers have such a single goal in mind. There are
often married couples, for example, among performing art-
ists. But the majority of them get divorced, some several
times over. They all have the same goal and aspiration, but
there is no happy life for them.”
“You and I are talking about different goals, Vladimir. One’s
profession cannot be — and should not be — a goal of life for
a Man. In such cases, the Man would be debasing himself.
“Think about it — take a salesperson, for example. Is it in
the nature of a son or a daughter of God to consider one’s life
goal to be simply selling things? Or driving a vehicle, or doing
laundry, or going back and forth to a factory all the time to
perform the same task over and over again?”
“Wait, Anastasia, you named off what may be necessary
professions, but they’re still not very prestigious. There are,
however, some fairly prestigious professions — or, rather,
professions everybody holds in high regard. For example,
everybody knows about surgeons and cosmonauts, military
commanders and marshals, or presidents of countries.”
“But their significance, Vladimir, lies simply in the fact
that they have created a bigger illusion of importance and
significance than others. Who knows? Possibly sotneone has
tempted one of them — a commander or a president, let’s
say — by the illusory significance of these particular profes-
sions or positions just so as not to allow his own spirit to de-
velop — a spirit which is capable of accomplishing the acts of
the Universe. The deeds such people have accomplished are
not interesting to God. But when a Man builds his own cor-
ner of Paradise on the Earth and founds the happiest family
214
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
line you can imagine, his deeds not only resemble those of
God’s — he actually becomes a god himself.
“And the readers who came to these gatherings had a noble
goal, the same for both women and men. Their advantage was
that both men and women were creating through their dreams
a way of life for their future families. When they met togeth-
er, they had a subject of common interest to talk about.”
You know, after all, Vladimir, how often in modern families
there is rarely a single topic of conversation of interest to both
marriage partners. They have nothing in common, no com-
mon aspirations. Two people get married and live together in
the same dwelling, but each of them thinks and dreams only
of what is of interest to them individually. People like that
become strangers to each other, and their cohabitation ends
up in nothing but irritation.
The people who come to the gatherings are not married,
but even those unacquainted with each other feel closer than
many marriage partners.
They go on excursions together and organise fashion shows
in which first women — and then men — of all ages take part.
The clothes modelled at these shows have either been bought
in stores or sewn by the women themselves.
The evenings are spent in playing wedding games in town
squares or somewhere in one of the glades. One of them is
Rucheyok, which I told you about before.
And there is no feeling of embarrassment, no concealing
that they are seeking to find themselves a life companion.
And women who are left to deal with life with children and
no husband bring their children along to these nuptial gather-
ings. And they reveal the purpose of the trip to the children.
The children’s thought and participation help them a great
deal in their search. Here, I shall show you a scene from one
of these gatherings.
‘Soulmate gatherings ’
215
Look, a summer theatre in the open air. A full audience,
comprised of adults and children of various ages.
See how they are introducing themselves from the stage.
Those who are bold enough get up on stage, where they are each
given five to ten minutes to talk about themselves and answer
questions. Sometimes they introduce themselves in a humor-
ous fashion, or sing and dance a chastushka-govorushka. They
have full freedom in their choice of repertoire. Take a look.
G0
A girl who looked to be in her mid-twenties came out on
stage. She sported a fashionable hairdo and a skin-tight out-
fit. She had barely taken two steps in the direction of the
microphone when she did a somersault and burst out laugh-
ing. After that she took a turn around the stage, strutting the
catwalk like a professional model. Straightening her hairdo,
she approached the microphone and purred teasingly:
“Hey guys! Is this chick hot, or what?”
From the audience rang out peals of laughter and loud ap-
plause, and the girl went on talking about herself in a humor-
ous vein.
“Hey, the way I look, you know, that’s not even my greatest
asset. I graduated from the Family Domain Academy with
top honours. That means I’m tops at cooking, too. And I
can rid your body of any ailment, you name it, and, hey, I can
make one really coo-ool bed! And I can give you children
that’ll grow up big and strong...
“I’m not after anyone in particular, but here’s a contest
for you guys. But like they say, ‘this ain’t no cakewalk’. The
21 6
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
contestants can do whatever they like to show what stuff
they’re made of. And the winner is... the one I fall in love
with!”
After this a young boy came up the microphone and said:
“Hi! I’m Dima . 2 That’s what they call me. And I’m eleven.
Well, maybe not quite eleven yet, but I shall be very soon —
this December... My Mama’s name is Svetlana, or Svetlana
Nikolaevna. She’s a great restaurant cook. That is, she used
to work in a restaurant, but now she doesn’t... At first she
cried when she stopped working there, but now she does fine
catering for a whole bunch of rich people. She put an advert
in the paper and they ring her up on the telephone...
“I’m in school. Mama says I’m not a very bright student,
but I know I’m doing okay It’s just that I really don’t need
fives — threes 3 are perfectly good enough for me...
“My Mama and I are here to look for her future husband
and my future Papa. Then well have a jolly friendly family...
My Mama’s a really nice person. She’s pretty, even though
there’s no way she can lose weight. She’s still pretty!... Mama
and I have been spending lots of evenings talking about how
well live as a complete family. Right now we’re in a one-room
flat for which we have a monthly rent to meet. But when
we’re a whole family well treat ourselves to a house and plant
a garden...
“Mama’s already been given land, and we lived there in a
tent for a whole month this summer. It was really neat!...
“She — my Mama, that is — she didn’t come up here with
me on the stage, she’s shy. But I’ve been tellin’ her: you’ve got
~Dima (pron. DEE-ma) — an informal variant of the Russian name Dmitri.
3 'fives (piatyorki), threes (troiki) — part of the marking system in all Russian
educational institutions: 5 — excellent (= A), 4 — good (= B), 3 — satisfac-
tory (= C), 2 — unsatisfactory (= D), 1 — fail (= F).
‘Soulmate gatherings ’
217
to show yourself! If you don’t show yourself, then why did we
come all this way and waste a whole lot of money which we’ve
been saving for a house?...
“Hey, there, Mama! C’mon up onto the stage!” the boy
called out into the audience.
But nobody made a move toward the stage. Then the audi-
ence started clapping in unison, urging the boy’s mother to go
up to the stage.
Finally, a short, slightly plumpish woman of about thirty
could be seen making her way to the stage. She stood beside
her son, her cheeks flushed a bright red with embarrassment.
She put her arms around the boy’s shoulders and gave him a
big hug, but couldn’t bring herself to speak. Then the boy, in
a very businesslike manner, took a crumpled piece of paper
out of his trouser pocket, unfolded it and began to read what
was written on it:
“My Mama and I live in the Briansk Oblast, in the city of
Novozybkov. 4 There used to be a lot of radiation there, but
now there’s not so much, and there’s going to be even less in
the future. Here at the gathering we’re listed under number
2015. If anybody wants to, they can write to us. That’s all.”
The boy’s mother took him by the hand and they started
heading over to the stage exit under noisy applause from the
audience. But when they got to the edge of the stage, the boy
suddenly released himself from his mother’s grasp and quick-
ly, almost running, went back to the microphone.
“I forgot to say — I mean, I didn’t write it down, that’s
why I forgot. My Mama can play the guitar and sing really
4 Novozybkov (pron. na-va-ZIP-kaff) — a city of some 45,000 people not far
from Briansk, a major centre located 350 km south-west of Moscow, not
far from Chernobyl, just across the Ukrainian border, where a devastating
nuclear accident occurred on 26 April 1986, spreading radiation clouds for
hundreds of kilometres around. An oblast is a territorial division similar in
status to a state or province.
2l8
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
cool songs with it, even though they’re sad. And my Mama
can draw, too. She’s drawn a house and a garden... And I,
too, can help build a family. And even help build a house...
When the elections were held in our town, I got hired to put
up campaign posters. And we’re gonna be having elections
again soon.”
Once more the audience thundered their applause, and
the boy headed back to his mother. She took his hand, and
they came down off the stage and took their seats in the audi-
ence.
Then four men got up from their seats at the same time and
headed for the stage. The first looked around fortyish, and
he walked with a bit of a limp. But the other three beat him
to it, and he ended up last in the queue for the microphone.
One by one, the men went up to the mike and said something
about themselves, but they didn’t make any public propos-
als of marriage. That simply wasn’t done at gatherings like
this. People were supposed to write notes. But the fact that
they went up on stage was a good indication of their desire to
get better acquainted with the mother and her son. When it
came the lame man’s turn at the mike, he said:
“My name’s Ivan . 5 I have my own flat in Moscow. I’ll soon
be forty years old. I’m a former paratrooper, discharged as
an invalid by a medical review board three years ago. I make
something on the side in multi-level marketing, but I’m tired
of it. I’ve still got a pup tent, an axe and a mess-kit, which
my buddies gave me. Right now my dream is to set up this
tent in Briansk Oblast around the town of Novozybkov Next
to your tent, Dima. I’ll be glad to work in return for a place
5 Ivan (pron. ee-VAHN) — considered to be one of the most common names
in Russia, derived from the Biblical name Ioann, which corresponds to John
in English.
‘Soulmate gatherings’
219
to deploy my tent. I’ve been trained in bunker construction,
and can put up a log house, only I’m not sure how to get an
orchard or vegetable garden going.”
“I know, I can show you!” cried out Dima, jumping up from
his seat.
A day or two later Svetlana Nikolaevna, her son Dima and the
former paratrooper Ivan left the gathering.
“Anastasia,” I pleaded, “tell me, please, how did life turn
out afterward for these three people?”
Chapter Twenty Two
©0
A nuptial rite for women
with children
Their lives unfolded quite well. Ivan invited Svetlana and her
son to come for a visit, and they stayed a week in his apart-
ment. After that they corresponded with each other. When
spring came, Ivan let his Moscow flat to tenants for a goodly
monthly rent, while he himself went off to Novozybkov He
set up his pup tent next to Svetlana and Dima’s tent.
The former paratrooper had everything needed for life in
field conditions, including a camp stove that could be used
for heating. Ivan eagerly set about digging trenches for the
foundation of their future house. He was assisted even more
eagerly by Dima, who visited with his mother on weekends.
With the onset of the summer holidays, they all began sleep-
ing in the tents. Each evening they would gather round a fire
and talk about plans for their future domain.
One evening when it came time to go to bed and the fire
was burning low, Dima said:
“In normal families a husband and wife sleep together in
one room, and their children in another. Is it okay if I sleep
in your tent, Ivan, and you and Mama in ours?”
“But we aren’t husband and wife just yet,” Svetlana pro-
tested.
Ivan rose to his feet and held out his hand to Svetlana,
helping her up. Solemnly, with just a slight trembling, he pro-
nounced:
“With you, fair goddess, and with our fine young son, I
could co-create a Space of Love to last forever.”
A nuptial rite for women with children
221
And Svetlana quietly responded:
“We are ready to help you in your grand co-creation.”
Dima jumped for joy and clapped his hands. Then, under
a starry sky, they performed the nuptial rite to become hus-
band and wife, as well as the rite of adoption at the same time,
whereby Dima became Ivan’s own son.
“Maybe you intended to say, Anastasia, that the boy Dima be-
came Ivan’s adopted son?”
“He became his very own son. And Ivan became Dima’s
very own father.”
“But how could that be, Anastasia? It goes against all the
laws of biology!”
“But it does not go against Heaven. The Vedruss people
knew the laws of Heaven. Ivan, Dima and Svetlana were fa-
miliar with the Vedruss nuptial rite for women with children.
They performed it.”
“What kind of rite is that? How did they know about it?”
“You described it.”
“I never wrote about it.”
“Don’t forget, Vladimir, I’m telling you about events that
will happen in the future. And you will describe this rite. I
am going to tell you about it.”
This rite derives its principal power from the thoughts and
desires of three people who want to build a future together.
Women play a central role in preparing for this rite. The
woman should be able to explain to her child the necessity of
living as a family, the necessity of having a father and creating
a domain together with him, building a house and planting
an orchard. When a child shows or generates an interest in
such a project, he must be brought into the search for a future
spouse and father. Every mother knows her own child better
than anyone else. There is no single formula for achieving the
222
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
desired result — it will be different for every mother. The
main thing is to achieve one’s goal.
Many children do not immediately desire to welcome some
other person into their home. And in the absence of such a
desire on the part of the child to have a father and join in the
mother’s search, it is better not to introduce anyone else into
the home.
The mother plays a central role in preparing for the nuptial
rite only at the beginning stages. At the moment when the
rite is actually performed, the motive energy source will be
the thought of the child.
If a man and woman have decided on co-habitation while
the woman’s child is still very small, they can live together
without performing the rite until the child grows a little and
acquires his own conscious awareness of what family life
means. The man and woman should make joint efforts, too,
toward this end. If the child grows up accepting his stepfa-
ther as his own father, the nuptial rite is still necessary, since
it is able to transform an adopted son or daughter into the
father’s own — in terms of both blood and spirit. This rite
can exert a tremendous beneficial influence only if it is per-
formed on the ground of their future family domain, regard-
less of whether it was first started by the man or the woman.
What is important is that it is to everybody’s liking, espe-
cially the child’s.
The rite should take place in the open air, under the stars.
There should be a fire burning, or three candles. Svetlana
and Ivan were lucky; after their mutual declaration of desire
to co-create their life together, there were lots of stars in the
sky, the fire was still burning, so they did not have to wait for
another night, but got married right away. And they did eve-
rything just the right way
Ivan and Svetlana stood in front of Dima. Ivan looked up
at the stars and spoke first:
A nuptial rite for women with children
223
“Here, on the ground of our family domain, I wish a happy
life for our family line. I wish to build a house and plant an
orchard.
“I ask you, Dima, for your agreement to allow me to be
wedded to your mother for ever, and for you to become my
own son.”
“I shall be very happy if you, Ivan, will live with my mother
and me. Perhaps I shall even become a better pupil. And can
I call you Papa?”
“Of course,” replied Ivan.
Then it was Svetlana’s turn to speak:
“Thank you, my son, for helping me find a husband. I
agree to become his faithful wife. A wife should take care of
her husband. With your permission, my son, I shall surround
Ivan, your father, with loving care.”
“Of course, Mama. You should most certainly take care of
Ivan. And I shall take care of him. Let us buy Papa a new
prosthesis. I saw him wrapping his old one around with in-
sulation tape.”
It is not important to pronounce the same words each time in
this rite. The most important aspect is thought, which should
be heard by the planets currently standing above the mari-
tal pair and their child or children. For this it is necessary to
bring a wide-mouthed vessel of some sort — a glass, or a mug,
for example — out of which each participant should take a
drink of water (at least three swallows), and then pour water
on their hands and wash their hair. Then all three should lie
down on the grass for no less than nine minutes head to head,
hold each other’s hands and look up to the starry sky, mentally
asking the planets above them to help them build a happy life
for their family line, and requesting love to take up residence
in the family domain. This will happen if the thought of all
three of them is sincere and strong.
224
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
It is not necessary for the love to be strong at the moment
of the wedding. A strong mutual sympathy or attraction is
sufficient. Love will undoubtedly grow stronger with time.
It almost always happened within a year or two among the
Vedruss people.
This is a very powerful rite, but it is not occult. When
astronomers and psychologists restore at least a part of the
knowledge people used to have, they will understand its cos-
mic power.
Have you understood, Vladimir? This is something in
which plants, water, the Earth, the planets and human thought
all take part. As the people’s aspirations merge into a single
whole, they will harness the elements into forwarding their
cause in accordance with Divine essence of the Cosmos.
You most certainly know already, Vladimir, the close inter-
connection between the faraway planets in the heavens and
the blades of grass and flowers and bugs and everything else
living on the Earth. The ebb and flow of the tides are gov-
erned by the planets.
Of course, there is a lot in human life which is influenced
by the planets, but in this particular instance, the three peo-
ple performing the rite, uniting into one, charge the plan-
ets with the task of making their union beneficially strong.
Man’s request to the planets, when his goal corresponds to
God’s programme, is treated by the planets as a great gift,
giving them a feeling of pride in themselves and in Man. His
conscious, earnest appeal sets many of the planets in the sky
into a rousing, propitious acceleration. The heavenly bodies
located at that precise moment above the people lying on
the ground, form a wordless alliance to assist these people in
their deeds.
This discovery was made by a wise-man, after a period of
ninety years leading up to it, in which he observed the planets
and compared them with people’s deeds.
A nuptial rite for women with children 225
When the wise-men- scholars were endeavouring to un-
derstand this rite, they came to the conclusion that in some
miraculous fashion, either the planets or the power of various
cosmic energies can erase unpleasant reminiscences of one’s
past life from human memory, making room for new, bright
sensations.
Not only that, but these energies unite three people to-
gether in ecstasy.
Remember, Vladimir, how you were telling me about tel-
egony. Modern science has learnt that there is some kind of
energy which participates in the formation of the physical
bodies of animals and people. Note that these energies are in-
visible to the eye and are not contained in visible matter, but
their power is effective. Besides, their participation comes
about by the will of Man. When they act in accordance with
human will, their effectiveness increases a hundredfold.
It is important to point out that the essence of the rite
we have been discussing is such that, in contrast to telegony,
there is no invasion of the old liaison into the new alliance,
but that it completely extirpates the energies of the old al-
liance and endows the participants with new strength, and
gives them new life.
“Wow! It’s such a brief rite, and yet the results are extraordi-
nary It really creates blood ties among them.”
“Brief, you say? Think about it carefully, Vladimir. The
preparation for this ‘brief’ rite, as you call it, may take several
years.”
The rite must be preceded by two important customs.
Take the first — here is an example: the mother needs to
prepare her child ahead of time, then — pay close attention,
Vladimir — Ivan started by saying that he wanted a place to
set up his tent and offered to do household work in return.
226
Book 8 , part 2: Rites of Love
This point actually comes from a different rite. Every ‘old
stag’ — as old or middle-aged bachelors used to be called —
was supposed to spend one month a year working in a wom-
an’s home, either for a widow living alone or one living with
children. He was not obliged to spend the whole month with
the same widow The bachelor could work a week for one, and
then go on to another. This custom, of course, was not de-
signed just to offer aid to single women. Its aim was to get peo-
ple acquainted with each other and help them create a family
A bachelor might come to a widow and say:
“Madam, I am looking for work, you see. Would you hap-
pen to have anything for me?”
If the woman did not like the man’s looks at first sight, she
might reply:
“Everything here’s been done over and over again. Besides,
I can’t afford to pay anything right now.”
On the other hand, if she liked the man, she might give him
some sort of work to do for two or three days. Then she could
offer him more work. It did not really matter how knowl-
edgeable or skilful he was. The main thing was whether the
two people liked each other or not.
If there was a mutual attraction, the woman might ask the
man to stay longer than a month and, if he stayed, start calling
him her primak! And after a year of co-habitation they could
either get married or go their separate ways.
“Tell me, Anastasia, after this rite, would the newlyweds still
need to go to the Civil Registration Office?”
“People can go through with whatever formalities are nec-
essary in life, but these can never interfere with what is most
important.”
1 primak (stress on last syllable) — roughly equivalent to an ‘associate’ (a per-
son one has tentatively joined with).
Chapter Twenty Three
00
High-society ladies
As I was completing the preceding chapter, it came to me
that a rite like this could be successfully applied in our day,
too. People in many parts of Russia today, mainly readers of
the Ringing Cedars Series, are gathering together in groups,
each family taking a hectare of land, planting orchards, build-
ing houses and setting up their own little Motherland. They
are doing this, by and large, as families. But these groups also
include a significant number of single women.
The settlement I have visited the most often is the one
near the city ofVladimir, which numbers at the moment more
than sixty domains under construction. Already, children are
growing up who have been born in them. But there are also
single women who have taken a hectare and are building their
domain, sometimes with the help of their children, but some-
times all by themselves. Can you just see it? A woman builds
a house all by herself, and plants an orchard. It’s not just a
little dacha on a mere 600 square metres of ground that she is
putting up, but an actual domain that she is building.
Is it hard for them? In a financial sense, yes. I know one
woman who has rented out her Moscow apartment and is
building a house in a field on the proceeds.
Because of insufficient funds, she is not always able to hire
tradespeople, so she does a lot of the work herself. And she
does it joyfully She has a goal, and takes joy in progress to-
ward that goal. The progress may be slow, but it still more
than compensates for all the challenges, and makes them
seem insignificant by comparison.
228
Book 8 , part 2: Rites of Love
After collecting information from various communities, I
came to the conclusion that I should write a book about them
as soon as possible. This will be a truly historic book. Our
descendants ought to know how their new and happy civilisa-
tion got its start, and who started it.
In the meantime I asked the wife of one of the founders of
the Rodnoye 1 settlement in Vladimir Oblast to describe some
of the unmarried women and what they were doing. Here are
her brief descriptions:
Evgenia T. — born in Moldavia, 53 years old, a geologist,
a real beauty, with a smile that would outshine Hollywood
stars. She has an apartment in Malakhovka near Moscow,
but she doesn’t go to it. She says: “My home is here.”
She first came to have a look around in 2003. She went
mushroom-picking in the woods.
“They warned me,” says Evgenia, “they said that’s not
your average forest! But I told them: ‘I’m a geologist, I
shan’t get lost.’ I spent twelve hours wandering within a
three-kilometre radius! My legs were practically broken by
the time I got back around midnight. ‘This is my place!’ I
said. I rented out my flat in Malakhovka for 10,500 roubles
a month. 2 1 was able to start building with the money I re-
ceived. I rented a house in Studentsovo, close to my plot.
Turned out the furnace hadn’t been lit in ten years, and the
house was falling apart. I pulled out a nest from the chim-
ney — I hadn’t been able to light a fire.
1 Rodnoye (pron. rad-NAW-yeh) — the name of the settlement in question,
literally meaning ‘one’s own’ or ‘native’, derived from the root rod - (‘kin’
or ‘family). For further information on this Slavic root, see footnote i in
Book 4, Chapter 24: “Take back your Motherland, people!”.
"Note that in terms of the then current official exchange rate, one thousand
roubles would be roughly equivalent to US$35, but closer to US$70 in terms
of actual purchasing power.
High-society ladies
229
“I spent the winter in the village alone. Sometimes I
would go visiting, to Koniayevo . 3 * 5 I was sparing with the
wood, lighting a fire only every other time. In the fall I
laid a foundation and put in a four-metre-by-four-metre log
b any ad I spent the whole winter caulking the walls with
tow. I now know the sound of falling snow.
“I would go about the house wearing three pairs of trou-
sers and three sweaters along with a jacket and a shapka. '
But when I worked outdoors I got by with not so much
clothing.
“In the spring I took a knife and scraped the rest of the
bark off the timber frame. I now have a house which looks
as though each log has been finely planed. I can hear the
snow melting.
“I needed someone to fix the furnace. So I got dressed
warmly and took a fishing rod (with no hook) and went
down to the pond where some men were fishing (God
forbid they should see my ‘tackle’). I got into conversa-
tion with the men and ‘caught’ myself a furnaceman. And
whenever I needed a tractor, I just went out onto the road
and stopped the first one that came along.”
Evgenia’s got herself a vegetable garden — it’s all in or-
der, everything’s coming up. The first year she put in a lav-
atory and a summer kitchen made of wattle. When there’s
absolutely nothing left to eat, she makes up some porridge
with fish oil. She’s a marvellous cook. Her feverish activity
has been giving everyone a pain in the neck — the locals
3 Koniayevo (pron. kan-YA-ye-va) — like neighbouring Studentsovo, a village
in Vladimir Oblast, close to the eco-settlement under discussion.
A banya — a Russian bath-house, similar to a Finnish sauna. For a more de-
tailed description see footnote 20 in Book 2, Chapter 1: “Alien or Man”.
5 shapka — a warm hat, usually made of fur, with ear-flaps, to keep one’s head
warm in winter.
230
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
tend to shy away from us — but her house is already up!
She says what she thinks.
Liubov E. — born in the Far East, 58 years old, lived 27
years in Perm 6 and 20 years inTsimliansk in Rostov Oblast. 7
She’s an ichthyologist, worked with fish conservation, now
retired. 8 She has a mother 84 years old and a son, 30, who
lives in Perm (two grandsons); another son, 18, lives in
Tsimliansk.
This year she began counting time in reverse, says she’s
now 57. She began settingup her domain in 2003. She came
for ten days, cut down the wild grass, planted a hedge (fir,
pine, birch, aspen, linden, maple). An ideal plot indeed. In
the winter she brought 50,000 roubles with her — all her
mother’s savings. She put up a house-frame and covered it
with asphalt roofing... In the spring she arrived with her
ex-husband; he dropped her off on his way to Perm. They
worked on the plot together. She says if it had been like
this before, she would never have left him. She arrived in
the summer, on 6 July (she was hurrying to get here in time
for the Feast of Ivan Kupala 9 ).
She really loves holidays. She sings, plays the guitar and
dances. She gets a pension of 2,000 roubles a month. She
took a leave of absence from her work for the summer.
She’s got enough money, except for travel expenses... The
6 Perm — a major city of over a million inhabitants 1,500 km east of
Moscow.
'Rostov Oblast — a large territorial jurisdiction of just over 100,000 km s
north and east of the Sea of Azov (north of the Black Sea). Its administra-
tive centre is Rostov-on-Don. The town ofTsimliansk (stress on last sylla-
ble) dates from the construction of an electric power station on the nearby
Tsimliansk Reservoir in 1961.
g
retired. — The normal retirement age in Russia is 60 for men, 55 for
women.
High-society ladies
231
community has helped her buy bricks, cement and timber.
She herself spent a month laying the foundation under
the furnace, then she put in the foundation for the house
frame, put in uprights under the floor joists, caulked the
whole house, made an awning and built a summer stove.
She dragged around barrowfuls of rocks, sand and crushed
stone. She thought she couldn’t do it, but she could! She
got stronger, lost weight, and began swimming across the
lake and back (something she couldn’t do earlier). She
took off ten years (she dreamt of looking just a year young-
er). Her eyes sparkle, she’s always smiling, and she’s made
friends and gets along with everybody... She’s building
the house for herself and her mother, and hopes the two
of them can move in come spring. She wants her son and
grandchildren to come and see her from Perm, and stay
for a while so they can see whether they might want to live
there... She’s got no money, and no source of income. She
does have an old Italian violin which her father brought
back from the war. Fifteen years ago experts appraised
it at between ten and fifteen thousand dollars minimum,
without restoration. She really hopes she can sell it — it’s
9 Ivan Kupala — the ancient Russian Summer Solstice holiday, later adopt-
ed by the Orthodox Church under the name of a Christian saint, Ivan
Kupala — the Russian name for St John the Baptist, whose official day of 24
June in the Orthodox Church’s Julian calendar falls on 7 July by our modern
(Gregorian) calendar. Even in their present form, the Ivan Kupala celebra-
tions preserve key traits of the pagan festivities, including letting burning
wheels run downhill into water (to symbolise the descent of the fiery, mas-
culine energy of the Sun-god Yarila into the water — the feminine element
of Mother Earth), jumping over a bonfire with one’s intended mate, bath-
ing in the lakes and rivers, searching for a ‘fern’s blossom’ (symbolising a
spiritual insight into the workings of Nature) and picking medicinal plants
throughout the night. One of the main festivities of the pre-Christian era,
the Summer Solstice was traditionally the day on which weddings were
‘played out’, more or less as a game.
232
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
a violin ready to be played, not just a museum-piece. If
she pulls it off, the work will go faster; if not, she’ll have
to do everything herself. But you can’t lay down a floor or
ceiling without boards. She’s very concerned over the lack
of funds, but the house is getting built... She’ll be com-
ing again in September, for a month. This past winter she
visited her grandchildren in Perm, and paid a visit to her
new domain on the way back — just for one day, to walk
around, and stand in her own place, even though she could
have taken a direct train to Rostov...
Natalia D. — born in Vologda , 10 came here from Moscow,
has two children — daughters two and five years old.
She’s been living in a tent since the end of May She’s
divorced, and wants to take her children out of the city to
avoid having them turned into puppets of the system. The
summer’s been cold and rainy, but not a single complaint
from Natalia. They brought in an old trailer for her. She’s
peeled off all the old wallpaper and given it a thorough
cleaning. She wants to cover it with board siding and put in
insulation, so she’s buying up boards... She has no money
Her husband provides enough to feed the children. She’s
now living with them, and earning a living by working in
the old field, helping the men put in the foundations. She
dreams of staying on in the domain — even if not for this
winter, then at least for the following one. She’s studying
all the different house plans that she can build herself (in-
cluding an adobe and a dugout). The children have become
calmer and more cheerful.
l °Vologda (pron. VAW-lag-da) — a city of more than 300,000, located 400
km north of Moscow. Like Moscow, Vologda’s first recorded mention was
in 1147.
High-society ladies
233
When she drops by Liuba 11 E.’s house and sees what she’s
managed to do, she says: “Well, if you can do it, I can, too.
After all, I’m younger and stronger than you.” She’ll do it!
She’s always smiling, and has a terrific singing voice.
She’s got a college-level education. A beautiful soul!
Sorry to be so emotional, but I just love them all so
much...
Nadezhda Z. — a farmer from Belarus. After the
Chernobyl disaster they lived near Azov , 12 then spent a year
at Paretskoye in the Suzdal area (while waiting for a field),
and this past year they’ve been living in someone else’s
house at Koniayevo.
This summer she began construction on her own house.
Two grown-up children are currently living in Moscow. Her
daughter and sister have also taken plots. They all want to
get together. The husband and children work. Nadezhda
looks after the household, supervises the construction,
and works on building the house herself... For many years
she was part of a professional dance ensemble. She has the
poise of a ballerina, even when she’s pushing wheelbarrows
full of manure... You can’t help but admire her! The family
has two dogs, four cats (mousers), rabbits, hens (Smirnov
breed, preserved in homesteads during revolutionary
times), a goat, and pigeons.
The house is awash in all sorts of flowers, both plain
and exotic. She has an encyclopaedic knowledge of every-
thing she needs to know about. Her husband and children
support her, but she has to do everything herself; they’re
" Liuba — an informal variant of the name Liubov, a name which literally
signifies ‘Love’.
'"Azov — a port on the Don River, not far from Rostov-on-Don.
234 Book 8 , part 2: Rites of Love
leading their own lives for the time being. She is firmly and
confidently building the future.
She recently broke her right arm (falling off a bicycle
which her children gave her as a fiftieth-birthday present,
so that she could get around everywhere). She took one
day off. The very next day she was back forking hay (winter
fodder for the animals). Now she’s painting and planing
the boards. When I asked her how she does it, she smiles:
“With one hand tied behind my back!” She’s always smil-
ing, she loves to sing, she’s the life of any party, she’s eve-
ryone’s darling, a real storehouse of knowledge, and our
consultant to boot. She’s tiny and slender, a support for
the whole family She’s successful in everything she puts
her hand to — house, construction, animals, vegetable gar-
den, canning preserves, and what fruit liquors she makes!!!
She hasn’t any apartment or house to go back to, and by
the fall she’ll have to vacate the house in the village, as the
owners are returning. She’ll be spending the winter in her
new house!
This information I obtained a year ago. Now all the heroines
described have already finished building and none of them
plan to retreat from their goal. No doubt it was women such
as these the poet 13 had in mind when he said:
She’ll stop a wild horse on the gallop,
And enter a hut all inflames.
l ^the poet — These lines dedicated to simple Russian village women (partic-
ularly their bravery in saving others) are taken from the epic poem Moroz,
Krasny nos (‘Frost, Red-nose’), written in 1864 by the celebrated Russian poet
Nikolaj Alekseevich Nekrasov (1821-1878). Later he would write another
epic poem (in two parts), entitled Russkie zhenshchiny (‘Russian women’).
High-society ladies
235
And I would add: She’ll build the domain herself, and take her man
into eternity. But where is this man of hers? When will she
have a chance to meet with him if she’s engaged in such a big
undertaking from morning ’til night?
How many bright young women in various parts of the
country dream about co-creating a family domain! And it
would be good if they could find their life partner before cre-
ating it.
I’ve thought about the possibility of organising a data bank
where such women could register, and men could pay them
a visit as temporary workers. Maybe the women could even
choose themselves soulmates. It shouldn’t be that the men
choose them, but that they should choose the men.
We have an expression: a high-society lady, 14 meaning a wom-
an who is ‘in’ with the elite crowd of the rich and famous. But
what is this ‘high society’, if the in-crowd has nothing better
to offer society at large than spread gossip in the tabloids?
But if you marry one of these ladies, as many men have not-
ed, you get nothing but caprices and unreasonable demands
thrown at you.
It has come to me that the real ‘ladies of high society’ are
the married and unmarried women of today who are build-
ing their family domains and are getting ready to give birth
therein to healthy children, or pass along what they have built
to their children already born.
Good can come only from them — good which will benefit
not only single men but the nation as a whole. The children
they bear will be the face of our future civilisation.
And Anastasia’s grandfather could not have been more
right when he spoke of the vital importance to resolve
14 a high-society lady (Russian: zhenshchina iz vysshego sveta) — literally, ‘a wom-
an from a higher world’. Note that the Russian word svet (world) can also
signify ‘light’.
236
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
questions of the family on the national level. How they are
being resolved today, the Russian families themselves know
better than anyone — and not just Russian families.
Somehow we have got to resolve the question of organis-
ing events which will be able to assist these women, or rather
assist the men to get acquainted with women who are setting
up their own little Motherland.
I hereby request the administrators of the Anastasia.ru
website to consider ways to better facilitate such acquaint-
anceships on-line. Perhaps each unmarried woman or man
among my readers could post their address and contact co-
ordinates on the site. I would remind anybody who doesn’t
have a computer that there are Internet clubs in almost every
city, where they can read information from websites, as well
as post offices which offer Internet access services.
For my part, I shall formulate here the text of my greet-
ing to men of all countries where my books are available, and
would ask all the translators in Europe and America to high-
light it.
Gentlemen. 1 I know that many of you, and especially those
who are not yet involved in family life, would love to meet
that unique woman with whom you could find joy in a life-
time companionship. But where to find such a woman?
Just about the only recourse you have is to apply to one of
the many marriage bureaus around. Beware, however, that
almost all of them give priority to outward characteristics,
as well as age, with only a little attention paid to character
and life-goals. And even this ‘little’ has not been confirmed
for certain. But what is for certain?... Women have shown
up offering their youth, beauty and smiles, all ready to sign
a marriage contract with you on the condition that you are
rich and can guarantee them an abundance of material ben-
efits. Already in Moscow there are cafes where beautiful
High-society ladies 237
women gather to offer themselves to rich suitors. This is
no new phenomenon.
“But what’s wrong with it?” certain men might think.
“I’m a man of some means and I can afford to sign a mar-
riage contract with a young and beautiful girl. All she has
to do is take care of my needs in bed and make me the envy
of everyone at social gatherings. After all, if you have rela-
tionships with young people, you’ll become younger your-
self.”
All this is fine and dandy, but there is one but. What
does your young cohabiter think and dream about? She is,
after all, a living being and capable of attraction and affec-
tion, only the object of her affections is by no means you.
So along comes the desire, sooner or later, to free herself
from you, whom she sees as an obstacle on the road to hap-
piness. So then, even if she doesn’t resort to putting out a
contract on your life (such things occasionally do happen,
as you know), or to slipping poison into your morning cof-
fee, it doesn’t take much more than a thought — a subcon-
scious thought at that — to get you permanently out of the
way. And even though you may think you are bringing into
your home a kind and tender beauty, in fact you are bring-
ing home a poisonous serpent. The distinction between
the two is only in external appearance, and so, instead of
placing this serpent in an aquarium behind impenetrable
glass, you are putting her beside you in your bed.
Perhaps, as a counter to the destructive phenomena of
our life, some women have shown themselves to be harbin-
gers of a new and happy civilisation. In building a family
domain, they are not merely putting a roof over their head,
they are actually laying the foundation for a whole new life.
An actual foundation]
A dying billionaire, for example, will be revivified and
will regain his youth upon meeting a woman like that. A
238
Book 8, part 2 : Rites of Love
prosperous businessman will flounder without her. It is
not money that prolongs life, but the thought of your be-
loved and the Space of Love which the two of you have co-
created together. And insofar that it guarantees the condi-
tions requisite for a quick and conscious reincarnation, it
not only prolongs life, but makes life eternal.
No matter what words I have written, no matter what
arguments I have put forward, they will not succeed in
touching your heart the way an acquaintanceship with
such women can. I would urge you to make every effort to
get to know these earthly goddesses of eternity
And it is quite possible that this encounter will be simi-
lar to the one Anastasia told me about . 15
IJ The whole of the following chapter is narrated by Anastasia.
Chapter Twenty-Four
©0
Millennial encounter
One day a girl in her mid- twenties by the name of Liuba came
to one of the ‘soulmate gatherings’. She was wearing an em-
broidered linen blouse and a plain skirt whose hem reached
just below the knees. A small travel-bag was slung on a strap
over her shoulder, but it contained nothing more than a few
rather plain outfits.
The girl walked up and down the street in the hopes of find-
ing some sort of privately run lodging for the night. During the
gatherings all hotels (both for Russian and foreign visitors) and
pension rooms had been booked up in advance. Besides, Liuba
could not afford an expensive hotel room, and so she was look-
ing for plainer lodgings. But there was no chance of finding any
privately-run accommodation during the nuptial gatherings.
With little hope of success, Liuba asked a woman who hap-
pened to be coming out of the gate in front of a private house:
“Hello, there. Could you tell me please, whether you might
have any rooms available in your house for overnight accom-
modation? I’m looking for something not too expensive.”
The woman replied:
“Not much chance of that, dearie. Everything’s been
booked up for ages. All the visitors make arrangements in
advance through the housing office. You’re just wasting your
time. You’d better head for the railway station, or you won’t
find a place to sit down even there.”
“Thanks for the advice. I’ll probably do that,” Liuba re-
sponded and headed down the street in the direction of the
terminal.
240
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“Wait a minute, dearie. Come here,” the woman called
out, and Liuba came back to her.
“I’ll tell you what you can do. Try knocking or ringing the
bell five houses down. There’s a doorbell right at the gate —
try ringing it. Maybe an old woman will come out — one that
looks like Baba-Yaga . 1 She’s Greek, and has a hooked nose.
My husband says that all Greek women are beautiful when
they’re young, but when they get old, they all end up looking
like Baba-Yoshkas.
‘A nyway dearie, you can ask and see if she’s got any rooms.
Before, when her husband was still alive, she used to have all
sorts of people stop over, but he died, and she hasn’t let a sin-
gle person in these past three years now. Anyway you can al-
ways try asking — she just might give you a room.”
“Thanks, I’ll try,” replied Liuba. And she went along to the
house the woman pointed out. She rang the bell once, and a
minute later she tried it again, right at the gate, but nobody
came out. Finally, after ten minutes had gone by, the door
creaked open, and a bent-over old woman came out. She
came down the grapevine-lined path and opened the gate,
groaning at every step. She started in speaking without any
formalities of saying hello.
“What you knockin’ at my gate for, girl?” she asked with a
tone of annoyance.
“I wanted to ask you about a room. A kind lady, your neigh-
bour, suggested I should.”
“She was not bein’ no kind, she was laughin’ at you. I haint
had no roomers for ages.”
1 Baba-Yaga (stress on final syllable), also known as Baba-Yoshka — a witch
(usually portrayed as an old hag with a hooked nose), who, despite her
threatening looks and habits (in the Christian period her image was often
demonised to represent evil), actually offers help to the good and punishes
the evil in traditional Slavic folk-tales.
Millennial encounter
241
“I know, she told me that too. But I’ve been looking all day
and I haven’t found anything, so I decided to ring your bell,
just on the off-chance.”
“Just on ‘off-chance’, eh? Well, you won’t find any ‘off-
chance’ with me. You’ve all come here just on ‘off-chance’...
So, just like everyone else, you have come here to find your-
self ‘a bloke’?”
“I want to meet my intended. Please, forgive me for both-
ering you. I’ll head down to the station and spend the night
there.”
It began to drizzle, and the old woman grumbled:
“To hell with these girls! To hell with them! And now — it’s
started: rain. Fine, I will set you under this tent-roof in my
garden. There is this hammock there, and this bench, and
nails for you can hang your clothing up. And for this you will
pay me five hundred roubles each night.”
“Five hundred?!” exclaimed Liuba in surprise.
‘And just how much was you thinkin’ it will be? What, you
imaginin’ that you are come to visit your relations?”
“Okay, I’ll give you five hundred. Only I wanted to stay
here ten days. Never mind, I’ll just stay for five. I agree to
your terms, Granny ” 1 2
“Then come. You can see where you will sleep and pay me
this money each day in advance.”
Five days went by On the fifth morning Liuba began neatly
packing her plain-looking clothing away in her bag. The old
woman approached her, groaning and leaning on her cane.
“So you already start packin’, eh, girl? You leavin’?”
“Yes, Granny. It’s been five days now.”
“Five days. You got your ticket?” the old woman asked, sit-
ting down on the bench.
1 Granny (Russian: babushka, pron. BAH-boosh-ka) — a more or less respect-
ful term of address to senior women.
242
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
“Yes, I bought a single/return ticket before I left home.
The return is actually for five days from now, but I think I’ll
be able to exchange it at the station and get one for today or
tomorrow”
“No chance of that — not with everyone and her dog
cornin’ and goin’ around here these days. I will tell you some-
thing, girl, you stay with me five days more until your ticket
will be good.”
“I can’t. I’ve got no money left to pay you.”
“No worry No need to pay, you just stay”
“Thanks, Granny!”
“‘Thanks,’ she says... Only your stayin’ will not do you any
good!”
“Why d’you say that?”
“I been watchin’ you. That is no good way to look for ‘a
bloke’ these days. Why you are up at dawn each day? What
is the use? All ‘a blokes’ are still asleep that time of day But
you — you go to bed right early Right when all this partyin’
begins, this is when you decide to go to bed for each night!
All those ‘a blokes’ keep partyin’ ’til midnight, while you are
in bed at ten. Besides, you dress like a nun, no makeup. That
is no good way to find ‘a bloke’ today”
“I’m preparing my body, you see, Granny, for my encounter
with my intended. And so I try to maintain a strict daily rou-
tine. I don’t make myself up so that he can recognise me.”
“Recognise?! You, girl, you sound like you are ‘a mite daft
in the head’!”
“That’s what my Mama says, too. But there’s nothing I can
do about it. I often have dreams about him looking for me all
over the globe and not being able to find me.”
“Dreams? You have been dreamin’? Here too?”
“Yes, twice already Once it seemed I was walking in a huge
garden, and he was there, too, only there was no way we could
approach each other. And it seemed as though I could hear
Millennial encounter
243
his voice, calling to me over and over: ‘Where are you? Where
are you?’”
“You heard? A voice? You know, you probably ought go
see a doctor, girl. What is all this about an ‘intended’ bein’
pounded in your head? To a point where you even hear voices,
in your dreams?!”
“Sometimes I dream that I lived with him once a long, long
time ago. And we had children and grandchildren.”
“Once upon a time? Well, girl, next thing you be tellin’ me
you can say what he look like!”
“Yes, I can: he’s half a head taller than me, with light brown
hair. And hazel eyes. And a kindly smile, only a little gap be-
tween two of his teeth. And he walks in a proper, dignified
fashion.”
‘A gap between his teeth? His walk? But what if someone
else should come?”
“They’ve come. My Mama’s always after me about that at
home, saying that my dreams will keep me an old maid for-
ever.”
‘“An old maid’? Of course, ‘an old maid’. You will never
find your ‘bloke’ that way, not with those dreams of yours.
You know, girl, I will tell you something. Here, take my rain-
bow shawl. Put it over your shoulders, and tie it just little
more fashionably. And go walk along the embankment later
tonight.”
“Thank you, Granny, for your concern. But I can’t cover up
my blouse with a shawl. You see, I did the embroidery myself.
It came to me in a dream. And it seems as though at some
time in the past I was wearing this embroidered blouse when
I was taking a stroll with my intended in the garden.”
“Embroidered? Takin’ a stroll? Well, girl, you... Well, God
be your judge. There is some milk there on a table, and I have
made scones. Have a bite to eat! I will just scoot to my neigh-
bours’ for a bit.”
244
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
The old woman hobbled off with a groan, muttering all the
while to herself: She will put me in my grave yet. I must be daft.
I took her in, and now I cannot help worry about her. I will go talk
to my neighbour’s son, see if he will show her some attention. Yes, he
will show her some attention. He is dark-haired, and she wants light
brown with a gap between his teeth, but there is nobody like that
among my neighbours. She will put me in my gravel
That morning Liuba began wandering around the pub-
lic garden. She picked up a pirozhok 3 with potato filling for
lunch. As she was walking past a restaurant, a group of men
were just coming out of the door. They were laughing and
chatting away in some foreign tongue. When they saw Liuba,
they spoke to her in their own language. Liuba didn’t under-
stand and walked on past. Right off the men began talking
with other girls.
Then, all of a sudden, without turning around, she could
feel someone detach himself from the group of cheerful for-
eigners and come after her. She knew for certain that she was
his specific target. She even counted his footsteps without
quickening her own pace, and for some reason her heart start-
ed to tremble. She could feel his breath behind her, and all
at once the foreigner began addressing her in a language she
couldn’t understand:
“Mit dir, die wiinderschone Gottin, diirfte ich den ewigen Raum
der Liebe schaffen. ” 4
Liuba could not decipher the German words. But for some
reason she found herself whispering:
' 'pirozhok (pron. pee-ra-ZHOK) — a Russian pastry with a meat, vegetable
or fruit filling, akin to a Ukrainian pierogie. See footnote 2 in Book 2,
Chapter ir: “A sharp about-turn”.
4 Mit dir ... schaffen — German for: ‘With you, marvellous goddess, I could
create an eternal Space of Love’.
Millennial encounter
245
“I’m ready to help you in your grand co-creation!” and she
turned around to look at the stranger.
There before her stood a young man, half a head taller than
she. Light brown hair, hazel eyes, a kindly smile and a small
gap between two of his teeth. He held out his arms to Liuba,
and without realising quite what she was doing, Liuba snug-
gled her head against his chest. He hugged her trembling
body as though he had known her for an eternity
The unseen planets in the heavens began to quiver for joy
Oh, how many events did they need to create to arrange the
threads of destiny for the ages! But it worked! They met and
they embraced!
Radomir with his marvellous Liubomila! And even if they
don’t remember the past, their souls will create a future to
marvel at.
People on the beach couldn’t figure out why the young cou-
ple were creating some kind of design or sketch in the sand.
They were speaking different languages, but it seemed as
though they understood each other. First they would discuss
the drawing, then argue a bit, and then all of a sudden come
to an ecstatic agreement.
Carried away as they were with the drawing, Liubomila
and Radomir did not know, either, that they were sketch-
ing in the sand a design of the splendid family domain which
they had created just before their wedding five thousand
years earlier.
“There should be a pond here, a round one,” said Radomir
in his own language, and dug a little round hole in the sand to
represent the pond.
“But not that shape,” whispered Liubomila. “It should
definitely be oval,” she countered, changing the round hole
to an oval shape.
“Yes, exactly, an oval pond is much better,” Radomir agreed,
as though suddenly remembering something.
246
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
That evening they came back to the house where Liubomila
was staying. She asked her elderly landlady permission for her
companion to drop in for the evening. The landlady agreed.
With a smile on her face, Liubomila drifted off to sleep in
the hammock, while he sat on the bench, gently rocking the
hammock and delicately fending off flies with a small tree-
branch. And he sang something very, very soft.
From a window in the house, the old woman peered at
them through a crack in the curtain, until just before dawn.
In the morning on the little table in front of the house
stood milk and scones, covered with a white linen tablecloth.
There was also a note, written in an ageing hand. Liubomila
read it aloud:
“I have gone away on errands. Will not be back for couple
of days. Look after house. To look after it, stay in my big
room. There is food in a fridge...”
Liubomila and Radomir left town together. But where did
they go? The ages will show where their family line will be
reborn.
Chapter Twenty-Five
©0
Anastasias wedding
As I bade farewell to Anastasia’s grandfather, I said to him:
“You’ll have to forgive me for my misunderstanding back
in the taiga, when we were talking about the party’s goals and
activities. Now I realise that the stronger the family’s role in
the State, the more loving families will be living in it, and the
more order there will be in the nation as a whole.
“We must restore the customs and rites which our ances-
tors thought through. They only need to be somehow adapt-
ed to our modern age. Anyway I’m beginning to realise that
they are not even ‘rites’ in the traditional sense of the word.
They constitute the great science of life. And the wise-men
were the greatest scholars and wisest teachers of all.
‘Apart from that, you know what I’m regretting right now?
I’m regretting that I knew nothing of these rites back before
my first encounter with Anastasia. About how they help in
using the planets for the benefit of families. I didn’t know
that, and so Anastasia had to bear a son, and then a daughter,
without being wedded.”
Anastasia’s grandfather gave me a sly look and, smiling
through his grey moustache, said:
“And so, nowyou know that, you’re concerned as to wheth-
er Anastasia bore her son and daughter by you?”
“No, I wouldn’t say I’m terribly concerned. But still, it
wouldn’t hurt for Anastasia and me to go through the appro-
priate rite.”
“It’s a good thing, Vladimir, that you have these regrets. It
means you’re beginning to understand the essence of being,
248
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
and where human society finds itself at the moment. But you
need not feel regret when it comes to Anastasia. She was mar-
ried before you spent that first night with her.”
It was several minutes before I could get over the shock
and regain enough composure to speak. Finally I sputtered:
“To whom? I didn’t go through any wedding ceremony I
remember that for certain.”
“You didn’t. It was enough for us that she went through it
alone. For three days my father couldn’t get over her weird
behaviour. It was the kind of gaffe that not a single man of
wisdom could have thought up in a million years. But the up-
shot is, she’s married.”
“To whom?”
“Maybe, to you.”
“But I never went through a wedding. And what’s this
about ‘maybe’? What, you don’t know for certain?”
“What she did, Vladimir, nobody can evaluate, at least
not yet. It’s entirely possible she created this magnificent
rite herself and thereby offered all women the opportunity
of making their illegitimate children legitimate. It’s entirely
possible she created something in Heaven, besides. What she
has created, perhaps only a wise-man would be in a position
to evaluate. I’d better tell you everything in order.”
And Anastasia’s grandfather recounted to me the follow-
ing:
That first time you came with Anastasia to her glade and were
getting ready to go to bed in the dugout, we had to come to
our granddaughter’s glade, too.
“Why?” you might ask.
She summoned us. We felt her summoning us and my fa-
ther and I came to the lake.
Anastasia was standing on the shore, holding in her hands
a crown of flowers woven together. She was all prettied up in
Anastasia’s wedding
249
her very best, just like a bride. As we approached, my father
asked her in a rather severe tone:
‘Anastasia, what events prompted you to prevent the flow
of our evening thoughts?”
“Oh, Grandpakins and Great-Grandpakins, I have no one
else to present myself to but you. You alone are capable of
comprehending me.”
“Then speak,” allowed my father.
“I am now about to get married, and I’ve summoned you as
my witnesses.”
“Get married?” I queried, “get married? And where is your
bridegroom?”
I was not supposed to speak when Father was leading the
dialogue. He gave me a stern look. She didn’t respond to me ,
but to him as the elder:
“When the wedding rite is performed, the young couple
are first asked how they will set up their life, what Space they
will co-create.”
Father knew about that, and agreed, without violating
any rules. But here, it seems, our granddaughter somehow
managed to ‘switch off’ our consciousness, as you say in your
language — either that or she charmed us as in a marvellous
dream.
Anastasia began talking about her future neighbours. You
know how she can create holograms with her thought, don’t
you, Vladimir?... Yes, I thought so.
Only this time over the surface of the lake she changed
the pictures of the future of the Earth at an incredible rate of
speed. Her pictures were incredibly clear and involving.
In one scene there were people walking along flower-lined
allees, self-confident and with dignified smiles. Another por-
trayed angelic-looking children running through a meadow to
a river. In a third, we seemed to be looking down on a lake from
a great height and seeing the reflection of the whole planet.
250
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
And there were a great many scenes and episodes showing
marvellous landscapes of extraordinary beauty
And all at once a single Man appeared over the lake, as
though out of a mist. And everything else suddenly disap-
peared. This Man stood in the middle of the lake all by him-
self, looking at us. Presently, another man approached from
his right, then a maiden of extraordinary beauty, then a sec-
ond, and a third. After that they were joined by two little
twin boys holding hands. A whole lot of people were stand-
ing around, all tall and slim. They looked at us with kindly
smiles, which made a pleasant feeling of warmth run through
our bodies. At that very moment we heard the voice of our
granddaughter:
“Grandpakins and Great-Grandpakins, look: these are
your descendants thinking about you with warm smiles on
their faces. Look, Great-Grandpakins Moisey — you see the
boy standing at the end, he looks like you and his gaze is radi-
ant with your soul.”
When all the holograms disappeared, leaving us standing
there with extraordinary feelings, Anastasia all at once said:
“What do you think, who can place the crown upon my
head?”
And my father, feeling absolutely no sense of subterfuge,
enquired (as was customary in the wedding rite):
“Maiden, who may place the crown upon your head?”
And she replied:
“I place the crown upon my own head in the sight of you,
of Heaven and of my own destiny.” And with that she placed
the crown upon her own head.
‘And where is the one you have chosen to wear the crown?”
Father asked.
“He is getting ready to go to sleep. But even when he is
awake, he is sleeping, too. He knows nothing about our rites.
You will need to ask him again, after several years sweep by.”
Anastasias wedding
251
“You have violated the rules, Anastasia,” said Father, stern-
ly. “The ancient science of the wise-men. Two people ought
to take part in the rite. People can only get married to each
other. The wedding rite has not taken place.”
“Believe me, Great-Grandpakins, it has. I am now married
in the sight of Heaven. Two people should take part in the rite.
But, after all, it is customary to ask one first, and then the
other, as to their desire to be wed.
“I was asked, and I gave my consent for all to hear. My cho-
sen one is still thinking about his, and he can think for as long
as he likes as the years go by Nobody has ever defined how
much time is permitted between the two questions. It could
be a moment, it could be ten years. But even if in the nega-
tive might be his reply here, I shall remain married in my own
sight. And the covenant of the ages I shall not defy”
Father wanted to say something more. He had even start-
ed speaking when a huge peal of thunder resounded from the
sky, drowning out all his words. And he turned and started
walking off, paying no attention to the path under his feet, as
he was wont to do when he got agitated about something. I
could just barely keep up with him as he walked, but I heard
how fast he was talking, as though to himself:
“She’s a stubborn lass, cunning and clever, not an easy one
to countermand. It seems that she is being eternally pandered
to by Heaven itself. She is changing the very correlation of
the planets. Does that mean women now have the opportu-
nity of wedding themselves and begetting their children on
a lawful basis? We must figure out what Anastasia has done,
but first, all ought be returned to the existing laws of being.
They have not endured these many ages for nought. To do
this, we must come up with a weighty objection. But I was
not able to: she’s greatly cunning and clever, but I... Aha, I’ve
discovered away to object and make her wedding rite of none
effect.”
252
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
All at once Father did a sharp about-turn and headed
for the lake. As we approached the shore, but had not yet
emerged from the bushes, we saw over the lake an extraordi-
nary light, albeit barely noticeable — and the stars reflected
in the water. It looked as though they were falling into the
lake in a shower. And there was our granddaughter, sitting all
by herself on a fallen pine log, wearing her floral crown. She
was looking in the direction of the dugout where you were
sleeping, and softly singing.
My father did not emerge from the bushes. He listened to
her song, and then said:
“She is wedded.” And he tapped with his staff on the
ground, adding: “Nobody has the power now to annul her
marriage. In terms of strength it knows no equal, and...
whether she was married by Heaven or by herself on her own,
it makes no difference.”
‘And what did Anastasia sing?” you ask, Vladimir. “What
song?” It was this one:
By my own hand in wedlock I am crowned —
And now to be your woman I am found.
Tou are, you know, the only man for me.
Our dreams shall all be brought to life, you’ll see.
On Planet Earth, our Terran world of blue,
Our son will happy be with me and you.
Our daughter will be fair and quick of mind,
To many a Man they will be good and kind.
By Heaven I am joined with you together.
You know I am. your woman now for ever.
The grandchildren we have will live afar —
We’ll see them on that big, bright, distant star.
To be continued....
A voyage of self-discovery
Translator’s Afterword
And the Lord said unto me,
Arise, take thy journey before the people...
— Moses (Deut. io: n)
It has been a long and interesting journey indeed. This jour-
ney began for me in the autumn of 2004 — in a manner of
speaking, aboard ship. The ship was the Patrice Lumumba, and
belonged to one Vladimir Nikolaevich Megre, a seasoned en-
trepreneur who traded up and down the Ob River in West-
ern Siberia, selling produce and manufactured goods brought
from southern cities to northern villages and buying up local
handicrafts in return. As with the vast majority of Megre’s
readers, the description of the Lumumba in Book 1, Chap-
ter 1 (“The ringing cedar”), served as my first introduction to
the much more powerful (mentally speaking) literary vessel
known as the Ringing Cedars Series ( RCS ).
I was invited on board the RCS by its editorial ‘Captain’,
Leonid Sharashkin, who had in turn been commissioned by
‘Admiral’ Megre to sail across the seas and bring the ship’s pre-
cious cargo of ideas to the land of Anglophonia. I was hired as
an English-speaking ‘navigator’ familiar with this new land’s
linguistic waters, and equipped by forty years’ experience in
Russian-English translation to present these ideas in a format
capable of reaching the hearts and minds of Anglophones.
The adventure sounded promising, and, admittedly impelled
by a sense of divine guidance, I gladly signed on, eager to set
sail with a Yo-heave-ho! (or Ey-ukhnem! — as the Volga boatmen
254 Book 8 , part 2: Rites of Love
were said to chant). Eight times (count them!), no sooner had
we delivered a shipment to its destination than we went back
for more.
Now, as we approach a layover of indefinite duration (fol-
lowing the completion of our ninth voyage), I can look back
and honestly say that the experience really has delivered on
its promises — these trips have been truly rewarding in terms
of both excitement and education , 1 and I am actually going to
miss the many ups and downs that my editor and I have been
tossed about by in this particular venture in literary naviga-
tion. Part of me will be sad, at last, to disembark onto terra
firma (safer, perhaps, but not nearly as exciting), but I shall
content myself with the ‘glad’ part — watching from afar as
the nine shipments of ideas we helped deliver begin bearing
fruit in the consciousness and lives of Americans, Australians,
Britons, Canadians, New Zealanders, South Africans and
countless others who for some reason have had the English
edition of the RCS land in their hands.
From a translator’s point of view, each of the linguistic
shoals, sandbanks and icebergs we met along the way (not to
mention the occasional typhoon!) offered a particular chal-
lenge. Some of these challenges were more formidable in ap-
pearance than others. My editor and I soon discovered that
the task at hand was not just a matter of translation, pure
and simple, for we were soon confronted in our journey by a
whole host of cultural phenomena (references to people, plac-
es, institutions, historical events and cultural traditions) that
would not be as familiar to Westerners as they were to native
Russian readers of the Series, and hence required (sometimes
substantial) research and documentation.
'One of the ‘educational’ rewards was a ‘side- trip’ around to the other side
of a ‘mountain’, which provided fresh insight into my own beliefs and faith.
See Translator’s Afterword to Book 6.
A voyage of self-discovery. Translator’s Afterword 255
Mindful of the lessons of the Titanic, I hope we were at least
moderately successful in resisting the temptation to place too
much trust in technology or to become over-confident and
over-reliant on our own previous professional experience. 2
The above-mentioned challenges, both large and small, were
met through constant reference to both paper-published and
on-line ‘charts’ (Russian and English dictionaries, thesaurus-
es, encyclopaedias and Google searches) — sometimes it came
down literally to ‘phone a friend’, and on several occasions to
a prayer for more of that ‘divine guidance’ that had urged me
to climb aboard in the first place! Not only that, but results
were checked over and over again before being entered into
the final ‘log’.
On occasion we even found ourselves exploring hitherto
uncharted waters and had to navigate, as it were, by the seat
of our pants. For example:
How to describe a Russian dacha and its primary func-
tion as a vegetable-raising centre to North Americans (and
other anglophones) raised on vacation cottages with their
swimming, boating and sundry recreational facilities? 3
How to select a suitable English equivalent for the word
chelovek — a Russian word that still designates a human be-
ing of either gender — when faced with a choice between (a)
human, derived from words associated with lower concepts
(like the ground) and (b) man, which originally (like chelovek )
described a ‘thinking, intelligent being’ of either gender but
has since become narrowed in meaning to include (in popu-
lar parlance, at least) only half the human race? 4
"Certain aspects of technology, I admit, were most definitely a time-saving
boon. Thank goodness for e-mail and the Internet!
3 See Translator’s Preface to Book 1.
4 See Translator’s Preface to Book 1 (especially the 2nd edition).
256
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
How to portray dolmens and other ‘sacred sites’ to a cul-
ture more accustomed to high-rise construction sites and
Internet web sites?’
How to put across the concept of one’s millennia-old
Rodina (‘Motherland’) to readers whose roots in their cur-
rent place of residence may go back no more than a few
years or even mere months? 0
How to express concepts of the pre-Christian Vedic
Russian culture in an intelligible manner to English-speak-
ers, when such concepts are still unfamiliar to many Rus-
sians themselves in their native tongue?! 7
How to reproduce the author’s plethora of writing styles
(from ‘choppy novice writer’ to authentic-sounding ‘blue-
collar dialogue’ to the ‘poetic prose’ of Anastasia’s meta-
physical descriptions — not to mention poetry itself) in
such a way as to convey to the reader not only the semantic
meaning, but, just as importantly, the literary feeling of the
original work? 8
It is the RCS ’ s readers (even more than its literary critics)
wdio will be the ultimate judges of our success in meeting
these challenges.
Then, beyond the translation questions (which, after all, can
sometimes get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of historical
etymology and psycholinguistic nuances), lies the broader is-
sue of how the Series as a whole is reaching an anglophone
readership far more attuned to Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek
or J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter than to the Holy Bible or the
’See Translator's Preface to Book 2.
6 See Translator’s and Editor’s Afterword to Book 4.
'See Book 6, Chapter 5: “The history of mankind, as told by Anastasia”.
g
Again, see Translator’s Preface to Book 1.
A voyage of self-discovery. Translator’s Afterword 257
Bhagavad Gita 9 — a readership that is only too ready and will-
ing to embrace phenomena that lie outside traditional physi-
cal perception, provided that the works presenting them are
duly confined to the ‘Fiction’ or ‘Occult’ shelves of their local
library, bookshop or video store.
After all, one doesn’t have to read too far into the RCS be-
fore encountering passages that look as though they might be
right at home in a Star Trek episode or a sci-fi novel — Anas-
tasia’s telepathic ray, 10 for example, or the “fiery sphere” de-
scribed to the author as watching over Anastasia as a baby. 11
Or her later reference to the not-so-mythical fire-breathing
“Gorynytch Serpent”. 12
It is all too easy, on the basis of such examples, to dismiss
the whole Series as just another (albeit very intricately wo-
ven) sci-fi yarn. It is all too easy, upon first glance, to classify
Anastasia’s descriptions (in this present volume, for example)
of so-called ‘pagan’ rites in the pre-Christian Vedic Russian
civilisation as just another fanciful foray into the esoteric, or
the occult. Or to pass off the RCS as yet another entry in the
‘wishful thinking’ category, where a number of critics have
pegged recent ‘feel-good’ films such as The Secret A
What distinguishes the RCS from science fiction (or, at
least, from the vast majority of science fiction works) is the
9 Bhagavad Gita — a sacred Hindu text written in Sanskrit; the name liter-
ally means ‘Song of the Divine One’.
I0 See Book 1, Chapter 7: “Anastasia’s ray”.
n See Book 2, Chapter 27: “The anomaly”.
12 See Book 4, toward the end of Chapter 3: “The first appearance of you”.
^The Secret — afilmproduced by RhondaByrne for Prime Time Productions,
directed by Drew Heriot. Since its release in 2006, the film has stirred up a
good deal of excitement along with a heavy barrage of criticism. In my view,
this work does indeed hint at a great truth, but one with much deeper rami-
fications than suggested by the superficial treatment presented on screen
(which seems to be focused more on effects than underlying causes).
258
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
fact that it attempts to show how even such ‘far-fetched’ ac-
counts as those mentioned above could actually refer to natu-
rally occurring, scientifically explainable phenomena rather
than just mere literary inventions or the occult fantasies of
the human mind. 14 After all, in 1865, Jules Verne’s From the
Earth to the Moon was written and received as a science-fiction
classic, only to turn into scientific reality a little more than a
century later with the success of the Apollo XI Moon mission
on 20 July 1969. As for the charge of ‘occultism’, Anastasia
(through the author) takes great pains, especially in Book 6,
to distance her concept of the Universe from any kind of oc-
cult phenomena. These only lead mankind, she says, to being
“completely disoriented as to the Space created by God”. 16
And in regard to the “rites of love” in particular (described in
I4 See, for example, the technical explanation of the ‘flying saucer 1 phenom-
enon presented in Book 1, Chapter 16: “Flying saucers? Nothing extraor-
dinary!”. The above-mentioned Book i, Chapter 7, includes a reference to
experiments on ‘rays’ by the Director of the Russian Academy of Natural
Sciences’ International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics. And
the account of the ‘fire-breathing serpent’ in Book 4, Chapter 3, also in-
cludes a logical explanation for what is generally dismissed as a mythical
phenomenon.
Tt is interesting to note, too, that a number of Star Trek’s ‘inventions’ have
already become ‘science fact’, within mere decades of their presentation
as ‘science fiction’ — the ‘medical tricorder’, for example — a Star Trek-
inspired device under development at the University of Alberta. See: Jodie
Sinnema, “Scientists test ‘tricorder’ to root out disease”. The Edmonton
Journal, 16 September 2005, p. Bi. In fact, a whole array of books may
be found dealing with the factual aspects of Star Trek — e.g.: Lawrence
M. Krauss, The physics of Star Trek. With a Foreword by Stephen Hawking.
New York: Harper Collins, 1995. Still another ‘science fiction’ TV series of
the 1990s (this one all too short-lived) — Sea^uest DSV — featured a com-
mentary at the end of many of its episodes by Dr Robert Ballard, Scientist
Emeritus in the Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering
at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, relating the series’ science
fiction to science fact.
l6 See Book 6, Chapter 8: “Occultism”.
A voyage of self-discovery. Translator’s Afterword 259
the present book), Anastasia’s grandfather assures the author:
“None of these rites was characterised by occult superstition,
as today Each one served as a school of higher learning, an
examination by the Universe.”' 7
‘Anastasia says. . . ’ Anastasia S grandfather does. . . ’
Yes, in almost any discussion of Vladimir Megre’s Ringing
Cedars Series among its readers, phrases like these tend to trip
off the tongue without a second thought, leaving many out-
siders (and even some ‘insiders’) to wonder: Who is this Anas-
tasia? Which brings us to what may be the most frequently
asked readers’ question of all — one which Quebec writer
Mado Sauve chose as the opening sentence of her review of
the Series in the Spring 2007 issue of Le Journal Vert-.
“Anastasia existe-t-elle (Does Anastasia exist?)
I have a feeling Sauve expresses what is on many readers’
minds as she continues:
Does she really live in the Siberian taiga or was she born of
the imagination of a clever entrepreneur? Even after read-
ing the first four {books} of the Series ... it is still difficult
to answer this question. lS
A broad range of opinion on this issue has indeed been
expressed to date by RCS readers collectively — from those
who dismiss her as a mere figment of the author’s imagina-
tion to those who see her as the reincarnation of some ancient
' 7 Quoted from Chapter 1: “Love — the essence of the Cosmos”.
l8
Original: “Vit-elle vraiment dans la taiga siberienne ou est-elle nee de
l’imagination d’un habile entrepreneur ? Meme apres avoir lu les quatre
premiers {livres] de la serie ... il est encore difficile de repondre a cette
question.” — Mado Sauve, “Le mystere de la deesse russe”. Le Journal Vert
(printemps 2007).
z6o Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
prophet. But to me this only begs a further set of questions:
What does it mean, to ‘exist’? Is ‘existence’ an objective or a subjec-
tive state? Is ‘existence confined to material perception, or can it be
determined by non-material criteria (faith, for example)? Megre
quotes Anastasia herself as saying:
“I exist for those for whom I exist.” 19 What could that pos-
sibly mean?
In pondering the question of the existence of Megre’s
Anastasia and her family, it might be worthwhile consider-
ing a few other personages whose existence has been a sub-
ject for questioning over the ages — names like Shakespeare,
Santa Claus (Father Christmas), Job in the Old Testament
and even Christ Jesus in the New. In a civilisation so reli-
ant upon physical, material evidence as the primary, if not
the only criterion for proof of existence, perhaps it is little
wonder that sometimes figures with a larger-than-life repu-
tation fall prey to public suspicion as to their very existence.
Are we not almost globally educated to be sceptical about
anything that departs from a society-defined, materially de-
termined norm?
Such is the case with the man considered to be the great-
est writer the English-speaking world has ever produced. No
simple village-dweller, some have said, could have possibly
produced all the time-tested plays and sonnets credited to
the Bard of Avon. 20 And yet few today would deny that the
I9 Quoted from Book 1, Chapter 2 6: “Dreams — creating the future”.
-°For a sampling of the controversy surrounding Shakespeare’s authorship,
see: George McMichael & Edgar M. Glenn: Shakespeare and his rivals. A
casebook on the authorship controversy. New York: Odyssey Press, 1962; IT. N.
Gibson, The Shakespeare claimants: a critical survey of the four principal theo-
ries concerning the authorship of the Shakespeare plays. Oxford & New York:
Routledge, 2005; Mark Anderson, ‘Shakespeare’ by another name. New York:
Gotham Books, 2005.
A voyage of self-discovery. Translator’s Afterword 261
writer universally known as Shakespeare actually existed in
some form. After all, his masterpieces did not magically ap-
pear one day out of a vacuum! 21
Many people today, not only in America but elsewhere in the
world, are familiar with the appeal of a little eight-year-old
girl named Virginia O’Hanlon to the editor of the New York’s
Sun newspaper in September 1897:
“Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa
says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so.’ Please tell me the
truth: is there a Santa Claus?”
And few can forget the key phrase (italicised below) from
veteran newsman Francis Church’s memorable reply, even if
they are not as familiar with the writer’s name or his remark-
able justification for this reply:
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been af-
fected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not
believe except [what] they see...
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly
as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know
that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty
and joy... 22
2I The thought has often come to me over the past few years that, given the
powerful ideas and intricately crafted literary structure evident throughout
the RCS, if it should somehow turn out that the whole story of Anastasia
was entirely the author’s invention, then Vladimir Megre would have to
be considered one of the world’s cleverest and most gifted writers since
Shakespeare! Even if most of his information were drawn from a variety
of secondary sources, weaving them all together into a plausible plot-line
over two-thousand-plus pages of text could be considered nothing short
of a major literary feat. On the other hand, it would be no denigration of
Megre’s writing skills to accept that he has simply described pretty much
what he actually witnessed, in some form, from experience.
262
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
And lest anyone hasten to dismiss Santa Claus (in contrast
to Shakespeare) as a completely mythical figure, it should be
remembered that St Nicholas was indeed a real human being
in the flesh. He was the Bishop of Myra in what is now west-
ern Turkey, back in the 3rd century C.E. It was his reputation
for secret giving to the needy that eventually evolved into the
popular story of the world’s ultimate holiday gift-giver.
A similar question hangs over the Old-Testament character
of Job in the Bible. According to Dummelow’s Bible com-
mentary:
It has always been a question whether the book of Job is to
be regarded as history or parable. Among the Jews them-
selves the prevailing opinion was that it was strictly histori-
cal, though some of their Rabbis were inclined to think that
the person of Job was created by the writer of this book in
order to set forth his teaching on the problem that was vex-
ing human thought. ... The opinion of Luther is probably
the correct one, viz. that a person called Job did really exist,
but that his history has been treated poetically 23
22 Francis Pharcellus Church, editorial in The Sun (New York City),
21 September 1897 (italics— JW). (The full text of the editorial is avail-
able in many on-line sources.) Many books and cinema films have echoed
Church’s thesis in different ways, notably director George Seaton’s 1947
film classic Miracle on 34th Street. In the 1994 re-make under the same title
(this one directed by Les Mayfield), Santa’s existence is ‘p rove< L in a court
of law by reference to the phrase In God we trust, which appears on the re-
verse of every American one-dollar banknote. This is cited as evidence of
the United States government’s endorsement of the existence of an entity
based on faith alone.
23 Rev. J. R. Dummelow, A commentary on the Holy Bible. New York:
Macmillan, 1908, p. 292. According to Dummelow, Daniel is another bibli-
cal figure whose historical existence is a matter of some controversy (see
Commentary, pp. 527-526).
A voyage of self-discovery. Translator’s Afterword 263
Can we expect a similar commentary to be written about
the person of Anastasia a millennium or two hence?
While Job may indeed have been mainly an allegory written
for moral instruction, what of that most celebrated among
the human figures of the Bible — namely Christ Jesus , 24 whose
life and works form the very foundation of the whole move-
ment of Christianity? Many Christians believe Jesus to be
the earthly incarnation of God Himself; others accept him,
rather, as God’s Son and messenger to mankind, but there are
few indeed who deny his historical existence. And yet the
authenticity of the Gospel records is occasionally called into
question, and not just by atheists.
It is instructive to examine the writings of two late-nine-
teenth-century spiritual thinkers on this point — one of them
a peasant philosopher in Russia and the other the founder and
leader of a world-wide Christian movement headquartered in
America. While neither of them actually question Jesus’ ex-
istence themselves, both shed a non-traditional light on the
ultimate significance of that ‘existence’.
On 12 May 1888 the Molokan 25 peasant writer Fedor Ale-
kseevich Zheltov (1859-1938), a deeply committed Christian,
sent a treatise he had just written to Leo Tolstoy (whom he
regarded as a mentor), entitled “On life as faith in Christ”.
24 While Christ and Jesus are often used synonymously, the two words are
quite distinct in meaning. Jesus ( lesous ) is a Greek adaptation of the Hebrew
first name Thowshua (lit. ‘Jehovah saves’), identical to the Old-Testament
name Joshua, while Christ ( Khristds ) is the Greek translation of the Hebrew
Mdshiyakh (‘Messiah’, or ‘the anointed one’), and can be thought of more
as Jesus’ title, or the spiritual, immortal idea he embodied (the message it-
self as distinct from the messenger). For a further explanation of the dis-
tinction, see: Mary Baker Eddy Science and health with Key to the Scriptures.
Boston: Trustees under the will of Mary Baker Eddy final English edition
1911, p. 333.
264 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Toward the end of the treatise he makes a rather startling
declaration:
None of the actions and events accompanying Christ’s ser-
mon are a stumbling-block for me — I do not rely upon
them as a basis for understanding truth, and it makes no
difference to me whether they happened or did not hap-
pen, or how they happened, whether they were imaginary
or real, whether the Gospels were written by the apostles
or by someone else — none of that makes a difference nor
is it dear to me. What is dear to me is only the truth which
Christ imparted — it in itself is a precious jewel and my task
is to know its price and to know why it is so precious. 26
About two decades later, on 1 December 1906, the discov-
erer of Christian Science, 2 ’ Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910),
published a statement 28 in the weekly magazine she had
25 Molokans — a Christian sect which broke away from the Russian Orthodox
Church in the mid-i6th century, rejecting ecclesiastical hierarchy and its
alliance with government and militarism and insisting God must be wor-
shipped primarily in one’s heart and mind. They left their initial alliance
with the Doukhobors, who, unlike the Molokans, preferred oral Scriptural
traditions over written texts. Toward the end of the nineteenth century
many Molokans went to America, while large numbers of Doukhobors
emigrated en masse to Canada, their trip financed largely by Leo Tolstoy
and his followers. Interestingly, like the Doukhobors, the Vedic ‘wise-men’
Anastasia describes also favoured an oral method of teaching; they were
able to sum up volumes of detail in just a few words and a single easily re-
membered rite — see the first section of Chapter 6 (“Into the depths of
history”) in the present volume.
z6 In: Ethel Dunn (ed.), A Molokans search for truth: the correspondence of Leo
Tolstoy and Fedor Zheltov. Translated by John Woodsworth. Original editor:
Andrew Donskov. Berkeley (Calif.), USA: Highgate Road Social Science
Research Station and Ottawa, Canada: Slavic Research Group at the
University of Ottawa, 2001, p. 48.
21 Christian Science — see footnote 1 in Book 6, Translator’s Afterword.
A voyage of self-discovery. Translator’s Afterword 265
founded, the Christian Science Sentinel, detailing her profes-
sional relations with Rev. James Henry Wiggin (whom she had
hired as a publishing consultant) and refuting public allega-
tions that he had had a hand in the authorship of her seminal
work Science and health with Key to the Scriptures. In this state-
ment she reports Rev. Wiggin as asking her the question:
“How do you know that there ever was such a man as Christ
Jesus?”
To which she replies (in part):
I do not find my authority for Christian Science in history,
but in revelation. If there had never existed such a person
as the Galilean Prophet [i.e., Jesus], it would make no dif-
ference to me. I should still know that God’s spiritual ideal
is the only real man in His image and likeness.
It is evident that for both Zheltov and Eddy it was not the
person of Christ Jesus that was sacred and significant, but the
ideas (the ‘Christ ideas’, one might say) that Jesus presented
to the world — ideas which could be effectively practised in
our age and their practice taught to others, as Eddy proved
not only by her own remarkable works of healing, but, more
importantly, by the thousands upon thousands of spiritual
healings brought about by her students, their students and
students of their students, right up to the present day. 29 For
28
Reproduced in: Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and
Miscellany. Boston: The First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1925, pp. 317-319.
" 9 Many of these healings have been verified by the medical profession or
other eye-witnesses and published as testimonies. See especially: Yvonne
Cache von Fettweis & Robert Townsend Warneck, Mary Baker Eddy:
Christian healer. Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1998; A
century of Christian Science healing. Boston: The Christian Science Publishing
Society, 1966; Robert Peel, Health and medicine in the Christian Science tradi-
tion: principle, practice and challenge. New 'fork: Crossroad, 1988.
266
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
these students, textbook study and class instruction, while
an acknowledged help, inevitably have taken second place
to individual prayer, to their own direct mental and spiritual
connection to God as their ultimate Teacher and ultimate
Healer . 30
And, lest there be any doubt as to how Eddy viewed her
own role as a presenter of the science of spiritual healing to
the world, in her later years she stated unequivocally: “Those
who look for me in person, or elsewhere than in my writings,
lose me instead of find me. ” 31
So now, perhaps, we can look at the Journal Vert reviewer’s
question “Does Anastasia exist?” in a new light . 32 It was the
same question Sauve had put to me in an interview in prepa-
ration for her review, where she quotes my reply (in French)
along these lines:
J °Eddy also makes some very similar statements to Anastasia’s regarding
occultism and mysticism. In Science and health (p. 569), she foresees an oc-
cult-free future for mankind: “The march of mind and of honest investiga-
tion will bring the hour when the people will chain, with fetters of some
sort, the growing occultism of this period.” And in the same work (p. 80),
she observes: “{Christian} Science dispels mystery and explains extraordi-
nary phenomena; but Science never removes phenomena from the domain
of reason into the realm of mysticism.”
3I M. B. Eddy The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 119 (ital-
ics— JW). Similar sentiments are expressed in other places in her writings —
see especially the article “Deification of personality” in her Miscellaneous
Writings (Boston: The First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1925, pp. 307-310).
Note also Eddy’s statement in Science and health (p. 82) in her discussion
of the importance of writers’ thoughts and ideas over their personages:
“Chaucer wrote centuries ago, yet we still read his thought in his verse.
What is classic study, but discernment of the minds of Homer and Virgil, of
whose personal existence we may be in doubt?” (italics— JW).
J "For one thing, in the ‘club’ of those with a questionable historical exist-
ence, these ‘Siberian recluses’ appear to be in pretty good company
A voyage of self-discovery. Translator’s Afterword 267
I believe that Anastasia certainly exists in some form, but
not necessarily in a fleshly body visible to our material eyes,
even though I would not rule that out. As I see it, there is
no doubt that she exists as a very powerful idea and that
she is a force of inspiration. She exists in the words, in the
rich thoughts of feelings and promises as transcribed by
Megre.
And today I would add (in the spirit of Zheltov): “She ex-
ists in the hearts of them who are ready to seek out and apply
for themselves the ideas she presents, and this is what is truly
dear to me.”
Does that mean that the author’s portrayal of Anastasia as
a living human being is irrelevant or unimportant? Not at all.
For some readers, accepting her as a bodily personage, at least
to begin with, may be extremely helpful. By identifying with
a figure who expresses what seem like incredible qualities of
the Divine and yet still affirms “I am Man”, 33 many readers
may get their first glimmer of awareness of their own innate
capacities. But the more they read — especially in a second
or third examination of a text they have read before — their
initial impressions may gradually evolve away from personage
and more into idea.
When Francis Church identified the real Santa Claus with
the spiritual qualities of “love and generosity and devotion”,
he did not thereby obliterate the image of a jolly old man in a
sleigh from a young child’s mind, but enriched her temporary
image of ‘Santa’ with a new dimension, a new idea. As the child
grew older and developed her reasoning capacities, she would
have been able to retain this new idea in her thought even when
she no longer clung to the old image of a personal gift-giver.
33 See (for example) the middle of Book 1, Chapter 26: “Dreams — creating
the future”.
268
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
In each of the cases we have looked at, we can witness the
evolution of an image at work in individual human thought. 34 In
Book 6, Chapter 6 (“Imagery and trial”), Anastasia describes
the image as “an entity of energy invented by human thought,
... created by a single Man or by several together”, and fur-
ther likens it to an actor’s portrayal of a dramatic persona on
stage — a portrayal in which “the invented image acquires a
temporary embodiment”. Note that the portrayal of one and
the same persona will vary from actor to actor, and even from
performance to performance by the same actor, especially as
the actor gains new insight into the deeper dimensions of the
character he is portraying. 35
But just as Zheltov’s image of the central figure of the New
Testament evolved into one focused more on the truth itself
than the person of its human embodiment, just as Eddy (a
real-life historical figure who frequently found herself target-
ed by both adoring worshippers and malicious critics) finally
urged her followers to stop looking to her as a person and
start practising the truths she revealed by healing their own
34 Note also Megre’s observation in Book 7, Chapter 3 (“You create your
own fate”): “ the power of the energy of thought has no equal in the Universe: every-
thing we see, including ourselves, is created by the energy of thought.” Yet he also
relays Anastasia’s warning that the ‘energy of thought’ which we all pos-
sess is vastly underutilised. In Book 3, Chapter 12 (poignantly entitled “Do
we have freedom of thought?”), after taking account of all the distracting
subjects on which people tend to waste their thinking capacities, Anastasia
concludes: “All told, the average Man spends only ij to 20 minutes of his life
reflecting on the mystery of creation.”
35 Anastasia goes on (in the same chapter) to show the effects of collective
images held by members of a society — images of others, of themselves and
of the world as a whole. And in Chapter 3 (“Why does love come and go?”)
of the current book she points out the vital role played by image in finding
(and keeping) one’s soulmate and how one’s image may change or stay the
same independently of the real person (see especially the section entitled
“False images”).
A voyage of self-discovery. Translator’s Afterword 269
and others’ mental and physical ailments, so Anastasia, what-
ever personal form she may possess, urges (through Megre) a
similar charge upon her would-be followers. 36
In Book 2, for example, in reply to the author’s query as to
whether she personally might have been helping him in a par-
ticular situation, Anastasia tells him:
Everything in the Universe is interrelated. To perceive
what is really going on in the Universe one need only look
into one’s self. 3/
And in Book 3 when Vladimir expresses curiosity as to
the extent of her abilities — “Can you answer any question
confronting science today?” — Anastasia offers the follow-
ing reply:
3& Does ‘practising the truths’ revealed by Anastasia mean that every single
reader should start looking for a plot of land in the country with a view to
setting up his or her own ‘family domain’? Anastasia herself recognised that
this would not be feasible for everyone at the present time, although she
does promote this option as especially suited to providing an ideal nurtur-
ing-ground for discovering one’s inner being, even if it starts off with just
a simple flower-pot on the window-sill (see Book 5, Chapter 15: “Making it
come true”). In Book 8 she outlines the benefits which the ‘domain’ move-
ment will have even on those still living in the city (see the section “Let’s
create” in Book 8, Chapter 10: “The Book of Kin and A Family Chronicle”).
While I can definitely see the logic in Anastasia’s own recommended ve-
hicle of expression for the ideals she shares, I would think there may be as
many avenues for putting these ideals into practice as there are individual
readers of her books. The important thing is to keep in mind that these
ideals are eminently practicable in some form — i.e., they are like seeds des-
tined to push their way above and beyond one’s mental soil into the fresh
air and sunshine of one’s whole life (see Translator’s Preface to Book 2 for
one small personal experience along this line). In many cases this will bring
joy to others as well as to one’s self.
37 Quoted from Book 2, Chapter 6: “The cherry tree”.
270
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Many of them, perhaps. But every scientist — indeed, every
Man — can find the answers. Everything depends upon
the purity of one’s thoughts, and the motive for asking. 38
Over and over again she emphasises that the ideas and
powers she possesses are within the grasp of every individual
on the Earth, because they all come from the same source,
i.e., the Creator (God). Over and over again both she and her
grandfather keep urging Vladimir (and, by extension, every
reader of the RCS ) to resist the temptation to rely upon them
as a personal source of wisdom and seek instead to find and
utilise the ideas within themselves.
“Try not to wallow in all your information and contempla-
tions, Vladimir,” Anastasia’s grandfather exhorts in Book 4.
“Decide what’s real for yourself.” 39
And in Chapter 1 (“Love — the essence of the Cosmos”) of
the current volume he accuses Vladimir of “laziness of mind”
for constantly pestering him with questions when he should be
looking for the answers within. 40 Subsequently he admonishes:
“I speak, and you listen, and instead of working out your
own conclusions in your thought, you are merely taking note
of mine.” 41
Similarly, time and again Anastasia urges Vladimir not just
to accept her conclusions at face value, but to reason things
through for himself by logical thinking — a capacity which (as
38 Quoted from Book 3, Chapter 6: “Forces of light” (italics— JW).
39 Quoted from Book 4, Chapter 33: “School, or the lessons of the gods”.
4 °He teases Vladimir on this point: “So, there’s not enough information out
there and you’ve come to me to get it, eh?” Note also his advice to Vladimir
regarding the problem of getting legislative approval for setting up family
domains: “You ought to be deciding your own course of action, without any
kind of advice” (Book 8, Chapter 9: “A fine state of affairs”).
4I Quoted from Chapter 6: “Into the depths of history”.
A voyage of self-discovery. Translator’s Afterword 271
her grandfather points out), when not actively cultivated, is in
danger of being lost by mankind. 42
She, too, warns the author against “laziness of mind”. In
Book 8, Chapter 5 (“Divine nutrition”), when Vladimir con-
fesses: “It’s still not too clear to me just how I should be
thinking”, she gently assures him: “It will become clear if you
are not too lazy to think.”
Again in Book 8, Anastasia cautions Vladimir to be wary of
relying on words alone. When asked by Vladimir about the
role of words, she replies:
...it is not the words that are important, but, rather, peo-
ple’s conscious awareness. Words, of course, are necessary
to bring it forth. A conscious awareness of eternal life will
help perfect Man’s way of life. 43
Words are similar to outward appearances: they often play
an important role in shaping one’s initial conscious awareness
of an idea. But, like one’s early person-focused impressions,
they tend to fall away as the image evolves in the direction of
the Divine.
Hence, if one is truly to follow Anastasia, it would seem
wise to heed her own advice and start seeking her out (as many
readers are already doing) not in person, and not just in words
about her (as fascinating as those may be), but in idea — the
idea which, she says time and again throughout the Series,
exists in every single one of us, if we are only alert enough
to harness our mental capacities to discover our own innate
42 See the middle of Chapter 7 (in the present volume): “Russia erased”.
43 Quoted from Book 8, Chapter 13: % new civilisation”. See the Editor’s
Afterword to the present volume for a delightful illustration of the dangers
of putting too much stock in printed books and words at the expense of
one’s own logical thinking and feelings.
272
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
purity and power of thought in the likeness of our Creator.
And then to start applying this idea to renewing and improv-
ing our day-to-day lives.
And because the evolution of an image is primarily an in-
dividual phenomenon (although yes, it may at times be col-
lective, i.e., a shared individual experience), we shouldn’t be
surprised if our own discovery of Anastasia and her idea ap-
pears to evolve in a different way or at a different pace from
that of other readers, or is different from the perception we
ourselves had in a previous reading . 44 Like an actor honing a
portrayal on stage from performance to performance, each
one of us is evolving our own image of her as a persona. But
the more we seek and find her not so much “in history, but in
revelation” — the more we focus on the message rather than
on the person of the messenger — and within our own hearts
and minds, the stronger a position we shall be in to discov-
er harmony within ourselves and with others, and the more
deeply we shall be able to comprehend and appreciate her
own beautiful self-declaration: I exist for those for whom I exist.
The power of the Anastasia idea’ presented throughout this
Series was certainly one of the reasons I signed on to these
‘voyages’ three years ago, and the fascinating concepts that
have multiplied therefrom have indeed made the whole ven-
ture most worthwhile.
44 In a remarkable little book entitled The five docks, former University of
Toronto linguistics professor Martin Joos (pron. Tose, rhyming with ‘dose’)
states that one of the hallmarks of great literature is the capacity to convey
a variety of different meanings to different individuals, or to the same indi-
vidual upon each successive reading. The dedicated writer, he says, can en-
able the searching reader “to educate himself indefinitely far beyond what
the writer put into the text in the first place”. — Martin Joos, The five docks.
New York: Harcourt Brace, 1967, p. 42. There is no question, to my mind,
that this ‘capacity 1 Joos describes is eminently inherent in the writings of
Vladimir Nikolaevich Megre concerning Anastasia.
A voyage of self-discovery. Translator’s Afterword 273
Anastasia’s (and her grandfather’s) emphasis on the need
for logical thinking and a conscious application of universal
ideas to one’s life-practice is a clear example of how the RCS
eminently transcends what is popularly classified as science
fiction. In my Translator’s Preface to Book 1, I described the
work (and, by extension, the Series) as a chronicle of ideas — a
metaphysical treatise
...set forth with both the supporting evidence of a docu-
mentary account and the entertainment capacity of a nov-
el. In other words, it can be read as any of these three in
isolation, but only by taking the three dimensions together
will the reader have something approaching a complete
picture of the book. And all three are infused with a de-
gree of soul-felt inspiration that can only be expressed in
poetry
Having completed the whole Series, I would now add that
it is a chronicle which touches upon very many of the disci-
plines traditionally defined as ‘academic’, but in the context
of their interrelation with each other and their application to
our daily human life. As I look back over the RCS, apart from
its obvious focus on ecology and environmental science, I can
think of references to astronomy, biology, chemistry, phys-
ics, forestry, agriculture, horticulture, geology, archeology,
engineering, architecture, medicine and the healing arts, psy-
chology and psychotherapy, sociology, criminology, political
science, economics, philosophy, religion, drama, literature,
music and poetry, linguistics, foreign languages and quite
possibly several more — all presented with a view to their ap-
plication to everyday life, including work and leisure activi-
ties, along with love, marriage, family and other interpersonal
relationships. The voyage of the RCS has taken in all these
‘ports of call’ along the way, and not just from a sailor’s point
274
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
of view (try an astronaut’s perspective!). The voyage, indeed,
reaches unto the very stars!
In line with the ‘Moses’ epigraph above, I have now taken
my journey. And by the time you read this, you may well have
already taken yours, at least once. But I trust the ideas you
have taken in along the way will stand you in good stead for
many ages yet to come.
As your English-speaking ‘navigator’, I salute you and wish
you a hearty Bon voyage! as you set out on (or continue) your
own voyage of self-discovery in the likeness of the Creator.
See you on a star! On a star see ya! 4S
Ottawa, Canada
31 December 2007 John Woodsworth
4S An approximation of the Russian pronunciation of Anastasia — see
footnote 5 in Book 7, Chapter 28: “To the readers of the Ringing Cedars
Series”.
e©
The Book of Happiness
Editor’s Afterword
“Papa, which do you like better — your computer or us, your
family?” my daughter Lada enquired of me one morning as I
was sitting at work in my home office.
“What? Of course I like you better. Why?” I replied, still
glued to the screen.
“It’s just that you spend all day long in front of computer,
but I’d rather you played with me, or come see the pumpkins
Mama and I’ve planted. Even when we go for a walk all to-
gether, all you do is think about your work — you barely no-
tice us!”
“Well, that’s true” I admitted. “But I do need to earn mon-
ey, too — to pay for the piece of land we plant our garden on,
for example. In other words, to afford things that are impor-
tant in life.”
“Nonsense!” she protested. “It’s all arranged like that on
purpose — so as to make you think that everything important
in life you can buy for money — to make you think money’s
the most important thing of all.”
As I turned to face her, Lada looked me straight in the eye
and added, tugging at my sleeve:
“You know, Papa, I really feel you need to come with me
to my tree house. I’ll teach you three lessons on how to live
happily ever after... without money.”
Seeing the seriousness of the issue, I rose from the desk.
Lada took me by the hand and escorted me to her green ‘class-
room’.
276
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Half an hour later, as she finished delivering her three lessons
and made sure I grasped their key concepts, Lada surprised
me with a fresh demand:
‘And now, before you go, you must promise me that you shall
never ever share what I have just taught you — with anybody”
“How come?” I queried. “If the path you outlined to me
can really lead people to happiness, I thought you would en-
courage me to tell others about it!”
“Don’t you know about what happened with The Book of
Happiness ?”
“What Book of Happiness} Never heard of it.”
Lada crossed her hands on her knees, sighed, and began
telling me the story.
040
Once upon a time, in a large city with dirty, polluted air, there
lived a man who had lost his happiness. It seemed as though
he had searched for it everywhere — including behind the
sofa and under his desk — but happiness was nowhere to be
seen. It occurred to the man that his cat might have taken his
happiness outside and hid it somewhere — so he searched all
around his apartment block, but found nothing.
Exhausted by the search, he decided to spend the following
day — his day off — in the woods, picking mushrooms. And
so he did — he put on his big rubber boots and his backpack,
took a knife and a large basket woven out of willow twigs —
and headed off.
He had a very good day, and even forgot his grief over the
lost happiness. By the time the Sun was setting, his basket
The Book of Happiness. Editor’s Afterword 277
was so full of beautiful large mushrooms it was hard to lift
off the ground. The man was ready to go home, but now he
couldn’t find his way out of the forest. There was no visible
path. He tried going in one direction — which he hoped
would lead him out onto the paved road — but ended up in
a swamp. He had no electric torch, no flashlight, and in the
fading twilight it was hard to see the way, so the man decided
to spend the night in the forest, and try to find his way home
the following day.
He made a bed out of dry pine needles under a tall pine
tree, put his backpack under his head for a pillow and tried to
go to sleep. But the mosquitoes attacked him, putting sleep
out of the question. So he just lay there, immersed in his
thoughts. Finally he drifted off into a dream.
The man awoke suddenly in the middle of the night. The
forest was dark and quiet all around, but far off in the dis-
tance, over to one side, he could make out what seemed to
be a light glistening midst the branches. Thinking it could be
a house, or a lamppost on the road, the man picked himself
up and walked in the direction of the light, slowly making his
way through the darkness.
After a while he found himself emerging from the dense
bushes into a glade. There was no house or lamppost any-
where in sight, but in the centre of the glade there was a moss-
covered hillock radiating a soft, golden light. As the man ap-
proached the hillock, he saw an old book in a leather binding
lying on the top. The light was coming from the book!
The gold lettering on the cover read: The Book of Happiness.
He opened it and began to read.
The book opened with a promise to show the reader how
to find his happiness.
Wow. this is exactly what I need! thought the man as he hefted
the heavy tome from the moss and hurried out of the glade,
taking the book with him.
278
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Perhaps it was the light coming from the book, or perhaps
his own insight, but he now felt confident as to which way
he should go. And, indeed, it wasn’t long before he found
the path, then the paved road, and began walking along the
empty night-time highway in the direction of the town, his
mushroom-filled basket in one hand and The Book of Happiness
in the other.
Dawn was breaking in the sky when he reached the out-
skirts of the city and, soon afterward, his home. Despite his
heavy load he felt neither tired nor sleepy He put the basket
down by the front door, took off his rubber boots, plunged
onto the sofa and immersed himself in reading.
He finished the whole book that same day and it delivered
on its promise. It brought him his happiness back. His hap-
piness turned out to be lying behind the bookshelf — the
only place he had not looked when searching for it. Presently
he remembered that at one time he had indeed put his hap-
piness on top of this bookshelf to save space in his small flat.
Then he had added more books on top, which had apparently
pushed the happiness over and caused it to fall behind.
When the man — following the instructions from the
Book — regained his happiness, it was all covered in dust, hair
and cockroach feces, but he wiped it clean and it began to
look like new once more.
So as not to lose it again, he decided to carry it with him all
the time. He attached it to a watch chain he bought specifically
for this purpose, and now carried his happiness in his pocket.
For days and weeks he found himself in a state of bliss and
joy But seeing the unhappy people all around him — on the
sidewalks of the streets, in offices and shops — he could not
help but go back in his thought to the very last statement
contained in the Book, namely:
Ton shall not show this book to others.
The Book of Happiness. Editor’s Afterword 279
But just why, he thought, can’t I share The Book of Happiness
with others to make them happy? This can’t be fair — seeing how
much suffering and injustice there is in the world!
Gradually, as he contemplated the world around him, his
feeling of happiness began to give way to a sense of disqui-
etude, which over time became unbearable. Eventually the
man resolved to try sharing the Book with just one man — a
fellow-worker who had spent his week compiling some sort of
production reports on his computer and who looked particu-
larly lean and unhappy.
And so one day he brought the Book with him to work and,
toward the end of their shift, entered his workmate’s cubicle.
Explaining its significance, he lent the Book to him for just
one night, on his earnest promise that he would return it the
next morning. That night, as he was going to sleep, lying in
his bed and clasping his chained happiness to his chest, he felt
blissful and fulfilled once more at the thought of sharing the
path to happiness with even one fellow-human being.
The next morning, however, a sticky feeling of unease crept
into him when he saw that his workmate he had lent the book
to the night before was not in his office. The man managed
to bear this uncertainty until noon, trying to console himself
with the thought that his friend must be finishing the last
page of the Book at home and would appear at the end of the
corridor any moment.
As this did not happen by the lunch break, the man ob-
tained his colleague’s home address from the manager (who
had been trying to reach him by phone the whole morning,
without success) and ran over to his place. There, he found
the door of the apartment wide open, and his workmate gone.
With him was gone, too, The Book of Happiness.
At first the man found it hard to live with the nagging
thought that he himself had not heeded the Book’s warning
and was now to blame for its disappearance. But as the days
280 Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
turned into weeks and weeks into months, the sensation of
loss gradually wore down, and life returned to normal.
Then one morning a year later, as the man was walking to
the office, he sensed a strange agitation in the air. Everywhere
people could be seen shouting and running, and a huge queue
had formed in front of the neighbourhood bookstore. With a
dark feeling of foreboding the man made his way through the
crowd to the bookshop window where, lo and behold, a hun-
dred copies of the latest sensational release were on display
He gasped as he read, in large golden letters on the cover of
each book — The Book of Happiness.
At this moment the store window lost its ability to with-
stand the pressure of the human bodies leaning against it and
it shattered. Pieces of broken glass showered down on the
crowd. A moment later a flood of people rushed to the dis-
play case and emptied it. Dozens of people were now running
away from the bookstore, each clasping a volume to their
chest. One of these people was the man who had found this
book more than a year ago in the forest.
He rushed back to his apartment and leafed through his
prize. There was not a shred of doubt left — this was an exact
reprint of his Book, apparently made from the copy stolen a
year earlier by his workmate. Strange as it may seem, though,
the man did not feel angry at him, but rather quivered in ex-
cited anticipation as to what would come next.
For the next few days the whole city was caught up in a
reading frenzy Nobody seemed to go to work or even go
outdoors. The whole populace, young and old, were staying
home and reading the amazing yet simple revelations of The
Book of Happiness. And yes, more than one soul puzzled over
the last sentence in the Book:
Tou shall not show this book to others.
The Book of Happiness. Editor’s Afterword 281
They questioned themselves as to why this restriction was
imposed and, more importantly, why the Book had gained
such tremendous circulation despite this reservation. But
the general welfare resulting from the wide distribution of
the Book and its ideas was so palpable that these questions
were soon forgotten.
For the next two weeks, few businesses were open in the
city, as all citizens joined in a spontaneous festival to celebrate
their new awareness and congratulate each other on the new
era that the discovery of this remarkable book had ushered in
upon them.
And when the people did return to their workplaces, they
were so overfilled with happiness that they took to their rou-
tine tasks with joyous enthusiasm. The bakers were baking
tastier bread, the builders were laying stronger foundations
for new buildings, and the policemen became more polite
than ever before (!) — while not just crime, but even traffic
accidents seemed to completely disappear overnight.
Weeks passed, and the whole city and the surrounding
countryside were transformed in such a remarkable, benefi-
cial fashion that everyone was going to bed with smiles on
their faces in excited anticipation of what new joys the next
day would bring. And only the man who had originally discov-
ered the Book seemed to have any recollection of the warning
it contained in its final line. Yet the warning, even for him,
seemed to pale into insignificance.
Months went by As he came out of his apartment block one
morning into the blossoming of the Spring, his ears were blasted
by the sound of nearby police-car sirens, which no one had heard
for a very long time. He hurried around the corner just in time
to see two policemen shove an arrested felon into a patrol car
and take off. The elderly lady left standing on the pavement was
explaining to passers-by that a young delinquent had assaulted
282
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
her and tried to wrench her happiness from her. Her attacker
had complained that she possessed more of it than he himself...
The next day similar incidents started to take place all
over the city as more and more people began to suspect their
neighbours, colleagues or just passers-by of usurping a larger
portion of happiness than they were entitled to.
Before long, all hell broke loose. Shooting began in the
streets and neighbourhoods. People were murdered for the
tiny pieces of happiness they were desperately trying to cling
on to. The police department was overwhelmed. Days later,
the police themselves joined the trend and raided homes to
carry out whatever happiness remained — “for government
needs”. Rumours had it, however, that police were keeping
the confiscated happiness for their personal greed, and even
fighting over it amongst themselves.
A large portion of the populace fled the distressed city,
most of the businesses closed, and of the few individuals who
remained, nobody so much as cared even to remove the rot-
ting corpses of the slain men, women and children from the
streets and squares that just a few weeks ago had been home
to — as it had seemed at the time — boundless happiness.
As the man who had originally found The Book of Happiness
in the woods was making his way stealthily along a complete-
ly deserted avenue leading to the city’s main square, he sud-
denly heard the squeaking of brakes, a lone gunshot, the clap-
ping of car doors, and the receding noise of a motor. When
it finally died away in the distance, he mustered his strength
and turned the corner into the plaza where the incident had
happened only moments earlier. There, by the fountain, lay
the man who had stolen the original of the Book a year ago
and — in a pool of fresh blood nearby — the hefty leather-
bound volume, opened to the last page.
Ton shall not show this book to others — read the final line.
The Book of Happiness. Editor’s Afterword
283
Centuries went by: Wind and water had eaten away stone,
concrete, and metal; paved streets and squares had given way
to trees and meadows. Virtually nothing now betrayed the
traces of the former city, concealed as it was in a lush, dense
forest. The few ruins that remained had been fenced off and
designated as historical monuments, occasionally drawing
the odd tourist group from a faraway urban centre.
One day a visitor with a basket woven from willow twigs
separated from his group and, lured by the most beautiful
mushrooms he had ever seen, wandered deep into the forest,
off the beaten path. Late in the afternoon, as he was crossing
a large glade on his way back to the tourist camp, he stumbled
over something in the high grasses. He reached down and
brought up a thick book in a leather binding with gold letter-
ing. The Book of Happiness, read the title.
Wow! thought the man. This must be a real oldie — and prob-
ably worth a fortune. Hiding it from his companions, he re-
turned to the camp and when alone in his tent, took out the
book, opened it and started reading.
He read all through the night, feeling no drowsiness nor
fatigue. When he emerged from his tent in the morning, the
world presented itself to him in a new and happy light. There’s
only one thing I cannot grasp, he thought as he watched his fel-
low-campers busying themselves around a fire. Just why does
it say: “You shall not show this book to others”?
284
Book 8, part 2: Rites of Love
Lada finished her account, and we spent some time sitting
there quietly without saying a word, listening to the breeze
ruffling through the treetops and the crickets chirping in the
grass.
“Do you know what the surest way to keep a secret is?”
Lada finally asked, breaking the silence.
“No idea,” I confessed. “What is it?”
“To forget it!”
Then she opened the palm of her hand in which, it turned
out, she had been clasping all the while three little round
clumps rolled from some kind of herb.
“But I have an even better solution, one especially for
you,” she continued. “This is a special kind of grass that helps
keep secrets. You go ahead and eat these clumps. If you eat
enough of them, you will still be able to remember the three
lessons I taught you, but you will not be able to share them
with others. But if you eat too many of them, you will forget
everything I told you — either way you won’t be able to share
them with others.”
‘And how much is ‘enough’? If I eat all three, will I still
remember the lessons myself?” I enquired.
“That,” Lada observed, “you will find out for yourself after
you’ve eaten them!”
Noticing our prolonged absence, my wife Ira came looking
for us in the far corner of the garden.
“And just what might you be doing here?” she asked with a
smile, finally spotting us under the tree.
“We... ah...” I hesitated, looking at my wife and daughter
by turns as I swallowed down the last bit of the third clump.
“We... were playing tree house!”
“Aha, I see,” Ira gave me an understanding look and
started on her way back to the house. “Come when you’re
The Book of Happiness. Editor’s Afterword 285
hungry, lunch is ready Though I gather you’ve just had some
snacks!”
“Hey Mama!” Lada called out after her. “D’you happen to
know, what’s the most important thing in life?”
Ira turned and confidently replied:
“Life is!”
“Wow, you got it right this time!” Lada jumped up and
clapped her hands for joy. Then she turned to me, beaming
with pride and delight at the degree of mutual understanding
our family had achieved.
I hope the three clumps were just enough.
Maui, Hawaii, USA
19 December 2007
Leonid Sharashkin
THE RINGING CEDARS SERIES AT A GLANCE
Anastasia , the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series, tells the
story of entrepreneur Vladimir Megre’s trade trip to the Siberian
taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena
connected with sacred ‘ringing cedar’ trees. He spent three days
with a woman named Anastasia who shared with him her unique
outlook on subjects as diverse as gardening, child-rearing, healing,
Nature, sexuality, religion and more. This wilderness experience
transformed Vladimir so deeply that he abandoned his commercial
plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to fulfil Anastasia’s request
and write a book about the spiritual insights she so generously
shared with him. True to her promise this life-changing book, once
written, has become an international bestseller and has touched
hearts of millions of people world-wide.
The Ringing Cedars of Russia, the second book of the Series, in
addition to providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the
story of how Anastasia came to be published, offers a deeper explo-
ration of the universal concepts so dramatically revealed in Book 1.
It takes the reader on an adventure through the vast expanses of
space, time and spirit — from the Paradise-like glade in the Siberian
taiga to the rough urban depths of Russia’s capital city, from the an-
cient mysteries of our forebears to a vision of humanity’s radiant
future.
The Space of Love, the third book of the Series, describes author’s
second visit to Anastasia. Rich with new revelations on natural
child-rearing and alternative education, on the spiritual significance
of breast-feeding and the meaning of ancient megaliths, it shows
how each person’s thoughts can influence the destiny of the entire
Earth and describes practical ways of putting Anastasia’s vision of
happiness into practice. Megre shares his new outlook on educa-
tion and children’s real creative potential after a visit to a school
where pupils build their own campus and cover the ten-year Russian
school programme in just two years. Complete with an account of
an armed intrusion into Anastasia’s habitat, the book highlights the
limitless power of Love and non-violence.
Co-creation, the fourth book and centrepiece of the Series, paints a
dramatic living image of the creation of the Universe and humani-
ty’s place in this creation, making this primordial mystery relevant
to our everyday living today. Deeply metaphysical yet at the same
time down-to-Earth practical, this poetic heart-felt volume helps us
uncover answers to the most significant questions about the essence
and meaning of the Universe and the nature and purpose of our ex-
istence. It also shows how and why the knowledge of these answers,
innate in every human being, has become obscured and forgotten,
and points the way toward reclaiming this wisdom and — in part-
nership with Nature — manifesting the energy of Love through our
lives.
Who are we? — Book Five of the Series — describes the author’s
search for real-life ‘proofs’ of Anastasia’s vision presented in the
previous volumes. Finding these proofs and taking stock of ongo-
ing global environmental destruction, Vladimir Megre describes
further practical steps for putting Anastasia’s vision into practice.
Full of beautiful realistic images of a new way of living in co-opera-
tion with the Earth and each other, this book also highlights the role
of children in making us aware of the precariousness of the present
situation and in leading the global transition toward a happy, vio-
lence-free society
The book of kin, the sixth book of the Series, describes another
visit by the author to Anastasia’s glade in the Siberian taiga and his
conversations with his growing son, which cause him to take a new
look at education, science, history, family and Nature. Through
parables and revelatory dialogues and stories Anastasia then leads
Vladimir Megre and the reader on a shocking re-discovery of the
pages of humanity’s history that have been distorted or kept secret
for thousands of years. This knowledge sheds light on the causes of
war, oppression and violence in the modern world and guides us in
preserving the wisdom of our ancestors and passing it over to future
generations.
The energy of life, Book Seven of the Series, re-asserts the power
of human thought and the influence of our thinking on our lives
and the destiny of the entire planet and the Universe. Is also brings
forth a practical understanding of ways to consciously control and
build up the power of our creative thought. The book sheds still
further light on the forgotten pages of humanity’s history, on reli-
gion, on the roots of inter-racial and inter-religious conflict, on ideal
nutrition, and shows how a new way of thinking and a lifestyle in
true harmony with Nature can lead to happiness and solve the per-
sonal and societal problems of crime, corruption, misery, conflict,
war and violence.
The new civilisation, the eighth book of the Series, is not yet com-
plete. The first part of the book, already published as a separate
volume, describes yet another visit by Vladimir Megre to Anastasia
and their son, and offers new insights into practical co-operation
with Nature, showing in ever greater detail how Anastasia’s lifestyle
applies to our lives. Describing how the visions presented in previ-
ous volumes have already taken beautiful form in real life and pro-
duced massive changes in Russia and beyond, the author discerns
the birth of a new civilisation. The book also paints a vivid image of
America’s radiant future, in which the conflict between the power-
ful and the helpless, the rich and the poor, the city and the country,
can be transcended and thereby lead to transformations in both the
individual and society.
Rites of Love — Book 8, Part 2 (published as a separate volume) —
contrasts today’s mainstream attitudes to sex, family, childbirth and
education with our forebears’ lifestyle, which reflected their deep
spiritual understanding of the significance of conception, preg-
nancy, homebirth and upbringing of the young in an atmosphere of
love. In powerful poetic prose Megre describes their ancient way
of life, grounded in love and non-violence, and shows the practica-
bility of this same approach today Through the life-story of one
family, he portrays the radiant world of the ancient Russian Vedic
civilisation, the drama of its destruction and its re-birth millennia
later — in our present time.
To be continued...
Rifes of Love tv vfaefimir Mcptc cSS*
£\; S- ( , y ( i , , M
Book 6 (par( 2) oi Tnc Ringing Cedars Series
This book contrasts today’s mainstream attitudes to sex, family, childbirth and
education with our forebears’ lifestyle, which reflected their deep spiritual under-
standing of the significance of conception, pregnancy, homebirth and upbringing
of the young in an atmosphere of love. In powerful poetic prose Megrc describes
their ancient way of life, grounded in love and non-violence, and shows the prac-
ticability of this same approach today. Through the life-story of one family, he
portrays the radiant world of the ancient Russian Vedic civilisation, the drama
of its destruction and its re-birth millennia later — in our present time.
New
Updated
author's
Edition!
n
J
(ddimir Megre
/\
\
\
Anasta
Volume X
of The Ringing Cedars of Russia book series
A New Updated author’s Edition!
© Vladimir Megre
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in
any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except
for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
www.vmegre.com/en
Russia,
First published in 201 0
Translation by: Susan Downing
We seek the cooperation of translators and publishers.
For inquiries and suggestions please contact us at:
PO Box 44, 630121 Novosibirsk, Russia.
E-mail : r ingingc edars @megre. ru
Phone: +7 (913) 383 0575
Skype: re. press
ANASTA
* * *
It was the year 2010 according to the Gregorian calendar. On the planet Earth,
the first humans were awakening from a ten thousand-year sleep. What lay ahead of
them was to see what had happened to the Earth while they slept, to understand the
reasons for it, to engrave a record of what had happened into their memory as an
anti-virus, so that nothing like this would ever happen again.
They engraved the many car accidents and wars. They engraved the stench in
the air of the cities and the extensive pollution of the water. They engraved the
numerous illnesses that had befallen humans’ physical bodies while humanity was in
this sleep state. They engraved...
But for the moment, they were unable to formulate the causes. But they will be
able to. Of course they’ll be able to! They’ll return to the earth its primordial nature.
A small child is walking through a glade in the heart of the vibrant Siberian
taiga, smiling. Nothing frightens him, no one attacks him. On the contrary, the beasts
are ready to rush to his aid at the first sign of trouble. The small person walks like a
royal successor walking through his kingdom. He finds it interesting to observe the
lives of the bugs, the squirrels and the birds. To study flower blossoms and see how the
blades of grass and the berries taste. He ’ll get a bit older, and then he ’ll perfect this
beautiful world.
And where is your child at this moment in time? What kind of air is he
breathing? What kind of water is he drinking? How will he occupy himself when he
grows up?
But first things first.
THE BEGINNING
I decided to start this book by reminding the reader of the events that took place
in Siberia more than fifteen years ago, so as to make the book easier to grasp for people
who haven’t read the earlier books in the “Ringing Cedars ofRussia” series. I’ll try to
introduce some additional information about my first meeting with the unusual
Siberian hermit Anastasia.
Anastasia lives in the heart of the Siberian taiga, in the same spot where her
parents and her ancestors once lived. The distance from the spot where she lives to the
nearest god-forsaken Siberian village is about twenty-five to twenty-seven kilometers.
There are no roads and not even any paths. You’d have a very difficult time managing
a trip like that without a guide. The actual glade where she lives doesn’t differ much
from all the other taiga glades. Except in that it looks somewhat cared for, and in the
number of flowers. There are no structures in Anastasia’s glade, no fire pits. But it’s
precisely this spot that Anastasia considers her family space.
The first time I met Anastasia, in 1994, she was twenty-six years old.
The Siberian woman Anastasia is a very beautiful woman, even extraordinarily
beautiful. The words “extraordinarily beautiful” are not an exaggeration. Imagine a
young woman, a bit more than a hundred seventy centimeters tall, with a good figure -
not waiflike, like contemporary models - but genuinely well built, and lithe, as if she
were a gymnast. She has regular facial features, gray-blue eyes, and hair the color of
golden wheat spikes that cascades to her waist.
Perhaps you could see a woman anywhere who looks like her - on the outside.
But I don’t think you’ d ever come across the other, special qualities deep inside her that
make the taiga-dwelling Anastasia extraordinarily beautiful. Everything about her
external appearance speaks of ideal health - it comes through in the fluidity and
lightness of her gestures, in the springy way she walks, as if she were flying. You get
the impression that her body contains within it some kind of other-worldly energy,
whose abundance warms the surrounding space with invisible rays.
Your body warms up slightly when Anastasia looks at you, and by squinting at
you with some kind of special gaze, she can heat up your body to such an extent at a
distance, that your whole body begins to sweat, especially around the feet. Toxins
leave the body, and afterwards, you feel significantly better.
In general, I surmise that Anastasia’s knowledge of the properties of the taiga
plants and some kind of internal energy enable her to cure a person of absolutely any
illness. At least, she cured my ulcer with her gaze in the course of a few minutes.
However, she categorically refused to do any subsequent healing.
“Illness is a serious conversation between God and man,” says Anastasia.
“Through this pain, which is both yours and His at the same time, He’s letting you
know that you’re living in some unacceptable way. Change the way you live, and the
pain will pass, the illness will recede.”
Anastasia has one extraordinary ability: when she’s telling a story about
something, pictures of the events she’s narrating arise in the listener’s consciousness,
or in actual space. And the images she shows are much more picture-perfect than any
modem television picture. They’re three-dimensional, complete with the smells and
sounds of the time she’s describing.
It’s quite possible that at one time many people possessed these capabilities. If
you bear in mind that in our tec lino cratic time, man hasn’t invented anything that
wouldn’t have existed in nature, then it’s possible that something perfectly analogous
to our modem television and telephone also existed in early human civilization.
Anastasia has shown me p ictures from the lives of people of a variety of periods,
starting from the very creation of the world. Pretty much all of the events she shows are
connected with her ancestors.
If you were to try to characterize Anastasia’s capabilities in one phrase, here’s
what you could say: the taiga-dweller Anastasia preserves the experiences and
emotions of the members of her extended family - starting with the creation of the very
first human - in her genetic memory, and she is able to call them up at will.
She can also model pictures from the lives of people in the future.
Anastasia’s life in the Siberian taiga differs significantly from the lives of people
in modem cities. So that you’ll be able to understand the conditions in which she lives
out her life, I have to say a few words about what the Siberian taiga is. It’s Russia’s
largest expanse of open land, ancient and snow-covered. In European Russia, it extends
for 800 kilometers, while in Western and Eastern Siberia, it stretches out for 2150
kilometers. As you can see, this is an impressive land mass. Today the taiga is
considered the Earth’s lungs, and rightly so - it produces the majority of free oxygen.
You have to bear in mind that the taiga zones began forming even before the
onset of the glaciers. So, by studying life in today’s taiga zone, we can learn about life
on the planet Earth before the Ice Age.
Remains of a well-preserved baby mammoth, now kept in the Zoological
Museum in Saint Petersburg, were discovered in the permafrost.
It’s hard for us to get a good idea of the animal world in taiga zones before the
Ice Age. In today’s taiga, lynxes, wolverines, chipmunks, sables, squirrels, bears, foxes
and wolves are numerous and widespread. The ungulates you’ll encounter include
noble and northern deer, elk and roe deer. There are numerous rodents: shrews and
mice.
Among birds, woodgrouse, hazel-grouse, nutcrackers and crossbills are
ubiquitous.
During the winter, the great majority of animals settle into anabiosis or
hibernation. This state of living organisms has been little studied by scientists and is
generating greater and greater interest among those who study outer space.
As far as the plant world is concerned, various types of bushes grow in the taiga:
juniper, honeysuckle, currant and willow, and others. You find bilberries, cowberries,
cranberry and cloudberries, all with marvelous vitamin content. Among grasses
suitable for consumption, sour grass, wintergreen and ferns predominate.
YouTl find majestic trees reaching forty meters in height: spruce, fir, larch, pine
and a tree with unique qualities - the cedar, which scientists sometimes call cedar pine.
I’ 11 say right off that, in my opinion, they really shouldn’t call it that at all. But what can
you do? Let science focus on the pine they mistakenly call a cedar - I’m going to talk
about the incomparable Siberian cedar. Why is it incomparable? Because the cedar
gives unique fruits - cedar nuts - and deserves its own, separate name. The quality of
the fruit of the Siberian cedar, these cedar nuts, greatly surpasses that of the nuts of
cedars in other climate zones on the planet Way back in 1792, the academic Pallas
wrote about this in a letter to the Russian Empress Catherine the Great.
Cedar wood possesses special phytoncidal properties even once it’s been cut, so
a moth will never take up residence in a closet made of cedar.
And the Old Testament’s King Solomon, who also seems to have known of
cedar’s mysterious properties, built a temple out of it, having given away several entire
cities of his kingdom in exchange for certain specially chosen cedars.
But the priests were unable to perform services in the temple because a cloud
formed inside it. (3 rd Kings, 8:11.)
After having pored over a multitude of sources that talk about the Siberian cedar,
I’m inclined to suggest (and not without basis) that the cedar is a representative of the
Pre-Ice Age plant world, and that it may be an envoy to us from a different, more
developed civilization (in the biological sense.)
How was it able to survive the planetary catastrophe and come to life anew in
our world?
Cedar seeds can survive frost and are able to hold out for an extended period of
time, so that they can come up during more favorable climatic conditions and adapt to a
new environment. This adaptation continues up to the present day.
What is so unique about the fruit of the cedar? Why is it that today we can state
with certainty that they are the most ecologically pure and healing food product of our
time?
The cedar nut kernel contains the entire necessary complex of vitamins.
Scientists from the university in Tomsk who have studied the properties of cedar oil
added it to the diet of people who had served as responders to the accident at the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and who were suffering from radiation poisoning. The
results of the experiment showed that the test subjects’ immunity began to increase.
There are no contraindications for the use of cedar oil - even pregnant women
and nursing mothers can use it.
There’s one other mysterious fact about the cedar nut kernel. During periods
when cedars do not bear fruit, the females of certain fur-bearing animals don’t allow
males to come near them and don’t conceive. It’s still unclear how the cedars let the
animals know that they won’t bear fruit in a given year. After all, the animals mate in
the spring, but cedar fruits ripen only in very late fall, and it’s very difficult to tell, just
by looking at a cedar tree, that it’s not going to bear fruit.
There are a great many other plants in the taiga for the entire taiga animal world
to feed on. Similar taiga-dwelling animals in Russia’s central zone get along entirely
without cedar nuts. So why do females who have fed on cedar nuts consider it
impossible to conceive and bear young without this food?
It’s been noted that the fur of taiga-dwelling animals, particularly those from
regions where cedars grow, is of much higher quality than the fur of all other animals.
No matter how scientists and specialists fine tune the diet of the animals they’re raising
on fur farms, they can’t manage to achieve fur of anywhere near the same quality. The
fur of the Siberian sable from the regions where cedars grow has always been the
highest quality fur in the world.
It’s well known that the condition of fur-bearing animals’ fur reflects the
condition of their organism as a whole. So, if their condition improves when they
consume cedar nut kernels, then the same should be true for humans, especially
pregnant women. Our women might not be getting enough high-quality food products
to enable them to bear healthy fetuses, and this situation can’t help but degrade society.
The fruit of the Siberian cedar disproves scientists’ opinion that agriculture is the
great achievement of humans, evidence of their development. 1 think that agriculture
came into being because human civilization lost its knowledge of nature and because
people’s way of life changed. As a result, man began sweating in the fields to get Iris
daily bread. You can draw your own conclusions.
Let’s image that there are two fruit-bearing cedar trees growing on a parcel of
land where a family of three people lives. You can be absolutely certain that the family
that owns that parcel of land where the two cedars grow will never go hungry, even in
the years with the worst harvests. And it isn’t just that they won’t go hungry, won’t live
from hand to mouth - they will feed on the best, most refined food there is.
One cedar alone is capable of producing - in one year - up to a ton of cedar nut
that can be used as food, once they’re shelled. But that’s not all, not by any means. You
can extract cedar milk from the kernel of the cedar nut, which is not only suitable for
human consumption, but which you can also successfully use to feed infants. You can
get world-class cedar oil from the kernels, which you can add to salads and other dishes
and also use medicinally.
After you express the oil from the cedar nut kernels, you’re left with an oil-cake,
which you can use to make excellent baked goods - bread, cookies, pastries, or crepes.
The cedar also gives us a sap that’s recognized by official and folk medicine
alike as a medicinal and prophylactic substance.
The Siberian cedar doesn’t require any care at all by humans - you don’t need to
fertilize or till around it. You don’t even need to plant it. Its seeds are planted in the
earth by a little bird called the Eurasian nutcracker.
It starts to become clear why it is that our ancient ancestors knew nothing about
agriculture. If s just because they knew much, much more.
Maybe someone will say, well, the cedar bears fruit only once in two years, and
if the barren year comes along in the same year as a bad harvest, then how can the cedar
remedy the situation? I’ll tell you. It’s true that cedars bear fruit once every two years,
sometimes even less frequently, but its unique nuts can last from nine to eleven years if
you don’t remove them from the cone.
Of course, nothing is quite this simple today in our real life. The cedar has a hard
time taking root near cities. It can’t tolerate ecologically polluted zones. But there are
also encouraging outcomes. Many sources indicate that the cedar responds to human
emotions, that it can take in energy from humans and, having increased it, give it back.
I had the chance to convince myself of this personally.
Seven years ago, twenty-five taiga cedar seedlings were sent to me. Together
with the residents of the five-story building where my apartment is located, I planted
these seedlings in the little wooded area bordering the building. I planted three of them
along the edge of the plot of my country house. Before long, somebody dug up the
cedars we’d planted in the wooded area. I wasn’t too terribly upset by this - I figured
that if somebody dug them up, that meant people knew about their properties and
would most likely plant them somewhere else and take good care of them. But one
seedling still remained there. It had been planted near the brick wall of the garages
located in front of the building. The soil there was so, so far from fertile. For the most
part, it was construction refuse covered over with a thin layer of fertile dirt.
Nonetheless, the cedar took root and is still growing today. As far as its rate of growth
and how smooth its trunk is, it’s quite different from the cedars I planted at my country
house. And it’s about twice as tall. I got to thinking about why that would be, and I
began to notice that when the people in the city come out onto their balconies, they
often look at the cedar, and sometimes they remark, “What a beautiful tree we have.”
And I, too, when I walk or drive by, happily admire it. In this way, the cedar growing
by the garages receives human attention and strives to be worthy of it.
Now, especially since the “Ringing Cedars of Russia” series of books started
coming out, there are many companies that put out cedar products, including cedar oil.
I also asked my daughter and her husband to set up cedar oil production. I told
them about the ancient technique I’d learned of from Anastasia.
Polina’s husband Sergei made every possible effort to work in accord with both
ancient techniques and today’s requirements for producing food products. We arranged
for the production to take place at a medications factory under the control of
experienced specialists. The expression was carried out using the cold pressing
method, which is supposed to preserve the greatest amount of the oil’s beneficial
substances, and using wooden blocks. It was necessary to do this, because the cedar nut
kernel and oil contain the entire periodic table, and certain elements can oxidize if they
come in contact with metal. In addition, only glass containers were used during
bottling. The oil we ended up with may also have been of better quality than if we’d
produced it using other methods, such as hot pressing. However, it differed from the
cedar oil I’d tried in the taiga. I got the impression that it contained less life force than
the taiga cedar oil.
I won’t go into detail about our extensive attempts to find the reason for the
differences. I’ll start by saying that we saw a change in quality as soon as we moved the
whole production process - from nut storage up to the pressing of the oil and its
packaging - to a village out in the taiga a hundred and twenty kilometers outside the
city.
It turned out that you just can’t produce a high quality oil in an urban setting,
even at a medications factory. At every stage of production, the kernel and oil come
into contact with the air, and big city air is very different from air in the taiga, which is
full of phytoncides.
As a result of moving production, the products of this small company, which
was perhaps not very technically well-equipped according to today’s standards, were
of higher quality than those produced by all other companies, not only in our country, 1
think, but in the world. I’m happy to have played even a small role in the appearance of
this unique product - cedar oil. I think that this taiga company is really the only one
that produces actual cedar oil, because the others produce the oil of the “cedar pine.”
A great many products in the world are marketed as “ecologically pure.” But I
immediately ask myself where these products are from? Where were they grown? Can
you really call any product ecologically pure at all if its raw materials are grown and
produced in an area surrounded by highways or big and small cities? I don’t think any
product produced in areas like that can be ecologically pure, even if no toxic chemicals,
pesticides or fertilizers are used to grow it.
The cedar grows deep in the Siberian taiga, hundreds and thousands of
kilometers from large cities. There are no highways there, and you can only ship this
unique product out by river. Of course, our civilization’ s filth can also end up there, but
everything in the world is relative, and compared to giant cities, the air and water in the
taiga really are immeasurably cleaner, and no one is pouring any poisons into the
ground.
And so, I think that there is no more pure, beneficial or healing product in the
world than the cedar nut kernel and the products made from it.
In telling about the Siberian taiga, I’ve given special attention to the cedar. But
in the taiga region there are also many other food products that are of much higher
quality than those we’re already aware of. For example, cranberries, raspberries,
cloudberries, currants and mushrooms. And to answer the question, what does
Anastasia eat out there in the taiga, I can tell you that she eats world class ecologically
pure food of a type that you can’t possibly buy, not even for a million dollars.
Back in my first book I described how Anastasia lives out in the taiga and how
astonished I was by her way of life. Now that so many years have passed since we fust
met, in thinking about her, I’ve come to the conclusion that the way people live in
today’s giant cities looks unnatural and absurd if you juxtapose it with Anastasia’s life
out in nature.
At first glance it seems extraordinary, the way the wild animals bring food to
Anastasia when she gives them a certain signal. But even a limiting dog today will
bring its prey to its master. And a falcon released to hunt also turns its prey over to its
master. Goats and cows in a village farmyard are happy to feed their owners by giving
them milk.
The wild animals inhabiting the area around the glade where Anastasia lives
mark their territory, and within this territory they consider a person something like a
pack leader. I think that over the generations, they were trained by Anastasia’s
forbears, and then they themselves trained their offspring.
Anastasia actually eats very little. She never makes a fetish out of food.
Many people have been asking recently about how Anastasia makes it through
the severe Siberian winter - when the temperature reaches thirty-five to forty degrees
below zero - if she doesn’t have any warm clothing or a heated dwelling. I’ll stall by
saying that if the air temperature out in the open gets down to minus thirty, it’s always
significantly warmer in the taiga, and there can be up to a ten-degree difference in
temperature.
Anastasia has dug-outs at various locations in the taiga. The main one, where I
myself have had occasion to pass the night more than once, consists of a spot hollowed
out in the ground, about two and a half meters long, two meters wide and also about
two meters high. The entrance to the dug-out is narrow, about sixty centimeters wide
and a meter and a half high. The entrance is covered over with cedar branches. The
walls and ceiling of the taiga bedroom are woven of vines with bunches of dried
grasses and taiga flowers stuffed into them. The floor has been carpeted with dried hay.
It’ s very comfortable sleeping in that kind of bedroom in the summer. No sounds
penetrate it, to say nothing of all those radio and electrical emissions that a person
living in a multi-story building is subjected to.
In late fall, Anastasia fills the entire area of her bedroom with dry hay and enters
into an extended sleep similar to the state scientists call anabiosis.
Anabiosis as modem science explains it, is a state in which all of a living being’s
vital processes, including metabolism, slow down to such an extent that there are no
visible signs of life.
Scientists have been focusing on this unique biological phenomenon as they
develop plans for extended space travel. What primarily attracts them is the fact that
creatures in an anabiotic or hibernation state use much less oxygen and do not need
food. It’s been proven that their resistance to negative environmental factors increases.
So, for example, it’s been shown that infectious diseases don’t develop in such
animals, even when they’re artificially infected, and that many poisons which would be
fatal for their organism under nonnal circumstances are entirely harmless to them
when they are hibernating or in an anabiotic state. It’s even been proven that if you
subject such animals to a fatal does of ionizing radiation, they will still survive, since
their metabolism has greatly decelerated, and that once they awaken, their vital
functions resume entirely normally.
But here’s what’s interesting. If a person - who is a thinking being - falls into a
deep sleep in the winter, then what happens to his Soul during this period? I haven’t
come across any hypotheses at all about this in scientific writings. But it is an
extremely interesting question.
One day I, too, had occasion to partially experience the unusual state of
anabiosis for myself. This happened when I was in the taiga in late fall. Where
Anastasia lives, the days at that time of year are very short. When it began to get dark,
Anastasia suggested I take a rest. I immediately agreed. The accumulated fatigue of
city life and my taxing journey through the taiga were already driving me toward sleep.
This time the dug-out was full of more hay than usual. Since I knew you don’t
get cold sleeping in hay even when it’s below zero, I stripped down to my underwear
and lay down, putting my jacket beneath my head.
“It’s already time for you to be waking up, Vladimir,” Anastasia said, waking
me.
I felt her massaging my right hand, and I looked toward the entrance of the
dug-out. Its opening was barely visible. That meant the sun hadn’t yet come up.
“Why do I need to wake up? The dawn is just breaking.”
“It’s the third dawn since you went to sleep that’s breaking, Vladimir. Should
you not wake up, your sleep might continue for several months and even years. Your
Soul, since it won’t need to worry about keeping your body safe, will want to have a
rest and wander around other worlds in the Universe. No one would be able to bring it
back until it decides on its own that it wants to come back.”
“So that means it wasn’t with me while I was sleeping?”
“It was with you Vladimir, right alongside you. It was waiting for your sleep to
become more even, and deeper, and then it would have been able to take its leave. But
I decided to wake you.”
“But why doesn’t your Soul leave when you fall into a deep sleep?”
“My Soul leave, too, but it always comes back right on time. After all, I don’t
torment it.”
“What do you mean? You mean I torment my soul?”
“Vladimir, every person who falls prey to harmful habits and thought patterns,
and who consumes harmful food, brings torment first and foremost to his Soul.”
“What importance does food have for the Soul? What, does it also consume the
food a person eats?”
“The Soul doesn’t feed on material food, Vladimir, but it is able to see, hear and
actualize itself only through your body. If the body is unhealthy, if, for example, a
person is drunk and his body is helpless, then the Soul, as if it were bound, has no way
of manifesting and actualizing itself. It can only feel, only weep over the helpless body
that has been destroyed by the harmful drink. It can only attempt to warm damaged
organ of the body, and it will expend a colossal amount of energy as it does so. When
the Soul’s energy is exhausted, it becomes powerless and leaves the human body. The
body dies.”
“Yes, Anastasia. What you’ve said about the Soul is interesting and, it seems,
accurate. Because there’s a folk saying: when a person dies, they say that he ‘gave up
his Soul to God.’ What we get in your interpretation is ‘the Soul ran out of strength.’
Hmm, I wonder - does my Soul still have strength left?”
“Since it came back, that means your Soul still has strength, Vladimir. But
please, try not to torment it.”
“I will try. But wait, doesn’t a person’s Soul get a rest when he’s sleeping?”
“The Soul is energy, Vladimir. A living energetic complex. Energy doesn’t need
rest.”
“But what do you think, Anastasia, where does the Soul go off to during sleep?”
“It can go off to other dimensions, soar among the planets of the Universe. And
if the person wishes it to do so, it can gather information he needs. For example, if the
person wants to learn something about the past or future, he can ask his Soul as he falls
asleep to visit the time and place that interests him, and the Soul will fulfill his wish.
But if the person sleeps an ordinary sleep that isn’t sufficiently peaceful, and if the
environment is not ideal, then the Soul can’t go off anywhere. It has to guard his body.”
“From whom?”
“From all manner of hostile influences. You sleep in your apartment, Vladimir,
and its walls are filled to bursting with electrical wires, and the wires give off radiation
that adversely affects people. Sounds of the artificial world force their way in through
the glass. The air in the apartment is not entirely healthy to breathe. Your Soul cannot
leave you alone. It has to be able to wake you in the case of a critical situation.”
“I get it, Anastasia. This dug-out I slept in is actually a great deal more
comfortable than the most elegant bedrooms in today’s hotels and apartments. It’s like
some kind of hypobaric chamber. The air here is ideal, and there are no harmful rays
and noise, and the temperature is stable. And so I sleep much better in it than I do in my
apartment. I understand that, and I’ve experienced it for myself. But I don’t get why it
is, when you fall asleep for a long time, that it doesn’t bother your Soul that your body
is resting in a dug-out where the entrance isn’t even shut up. And if there’s some
danger - say there are some intruders - there won’t be anybody to wake it up.”
“Vladimir, any time anyone makes the slightest attempt to approach the glade
we’re in, no matter what their intentions, the entire space within a radius of three
kilometers is put on its guard. The animals, birds and plants begin sounding the alarm.
Those who are approaching will be gripped by terror, and if they succeed in
overcoming it and aren’t thrown off course, then the space - by means of the animals -
will wake the body and call the Soul back.”
“What about in the winter, when everything’s asleep?”
“Not everything is asleep in the winter. Besides, in the winter, it is easier for
those who are awake to keep watch over what goes on.”
I don’t understand everything Anastasia said about the Soul during her winter
sleep period, but I have had occasion to see for myself the way the wild animals and
birds bring Anastasia troubling or happy news.
Now that I’m familiar with the way Anastasia thinks of sleep, I can draw the
following conclusion:
Modem man and mankind as a whole don’t have any opportunity to get enough
good sleep. Besides the fact that modem bedrooms can’t measure up to the natural one,
we have to add one more factor that’s also of some importance: modem man is
continually caught up in a whirlwind of everyday worldly concerns, and he often keeps
on thinking about them as he falls asleep. And if that’s the case, then the question arises
of how man is using the energy of his Soul - his Soul, which is capable of learning
about other worlds when a person is sleeping and bringing him information about them
when he wakes. Perhaps we need to construct our bedrooms so that no random sounds
will penetrate it and so there are no wires and telephones in it. It’s possible for us to
achieve this. It’s more complicated to manage the necessary air quality.
And so, Anastasia, the hermit of the Siberian taiga, has become the heroine of
the “Ringing Cedars of Russia” series of books. She has borne me a son and a daughter.
She now lives in the taiga, in my heart, and in the image of the heroine of my books.
I don’t think I’ve been able to do this amazing woman’s beauty, her intelligence
and her extraordinary capabilities justice in my descriptions. Really, it’s probably not
even possible to do this using ordinary language.
Even now, I only sometimes see Anastasia as someone who is close to me, as a
loved one. More often I see her as unattainable and mysterious, as someone who
possesses an inexplicable strength of spirit that she can use to create the future.
Her characterization of our modem day reality and her story - or more precisely,
the image she has created of the beautiful future of Russia and of the whole earth -
have given birth to a beautiful phenomenon in society. Without waiting for decrees to
be handed down from on high, or for government financing, tens of thousands of
people have independently set about turning this image created by Anastasia into
actual reality. You can understand the main idea for building our future country by
reading the books in order. But if I were to try to briefly - not in its entirety -present the
idea that is helping these positive transformations take place, I could characterize it
using the following words.
Anastasia thinks that every family should have its own plot of land that’s no less
than one hectare in size. The family needs to transfomi this plot, which the taiga hermit
calls a family homestead, into a heavenly living oasis that can provide for all of man’s
material needs. The external appearance of the person’s living creation and the way the
creator himself lives on it are indicators of the person’s spiritual makeup. She considers
it unacceptable to bury family members in a cemetery. They must be buried only on the
family homesteads. Then the souls of relatives who have passed on won’t suffer
because their bodies seem to have been tossed into some deep hole in a cemetery, far
away from their loved ones. People who are buried on the family homestead will - with
their spirit - help and protect those living on it.
Cemeteries analogous to our modem ones did exist back in antiquity, too, but
they were intended for animals that dropped dead from disease, criminals with no
family, and warriors who died in a foreign land.
Anastasia has told us how to set up our own family homestead so that we can
free ourselves from physical ailments with its help.
She has talked in relatively great detail about the ancient and very lovely rite of
marriage that helped newlyweds - along with the power of their thought - create the
design for their future family homestead, and about how at the moment of marriage,
with the participation of the parents, relatives and friends, what they had conceived in
thought would materialize in the space of several minutes. 1 think that this rite is one of
the greatest discoveries of our millennium. After all, by using it, newlyweds even today
can acquire a house, a garden and a family homestead right during their wedding.
Anastasia also asserts that for newlyweds who create their family homesteads in
this way, love never fades, but actually grows stronger over the years. And she explains
why this happens: “When a husband looks at his wife, he subconsciously associates her
with his glorious homestead, too, and also with his child, who must also be bom on the
homestead.” And one can believe in this. After all, the very best place on earth for each
person is always his small motherland. His child will always be the most beautiful and
best of all children.
And Anastasia also asserts that if all people, or the majority of them, begin
consciously creating their own family homesteads and turning them into heavenly
oases, then the whole earth will be transformed. Natural disasters and wars will not
occur on earth. Man’s inner spiritual world will change, and new knowledge and
capabilities will open up to him. Man will be able to create beautiful worlds resembling
the earthly world on other planets.
She considers today’s technocratic method of exploring space and other planets
a dead end, harmful for the planet Earth and the people living on it. The sensible way to
explore the planets is through psychoteleportation. But if people are to be able to do
this, they first have to demonstrate their ability to develop the Earth and express their
spirituality in their way of life, not in words.
Official critics might respond to the subjects of the books and to the taiga
hermit’s statements in any of a number of ways, but their opinions aren’t really so very
important. The people - the most important critics - have already expressed their
approval in tens of thousands of letters and hundreds of thousands of emails. They’ve
expressed it not only in words, but in concrete actions, too, and the hundreds of large
and small settlements that have arisen and continue to arise throughout all of Russia are
a confirmation of this.
Now, here’s where a riddle arises, one that’s as yet insoluble and cryptic: if a
mass movement has been set in motion solely by the statements of a taiga hermit that
have been introduced in books, then what kind of power lies behind her phrases?
Perhaps they’re constructed in such a way that the letters combine into some kind of
code. Perhaps, a certain rhythm of her phrases has significance.
Anastasia usually tries to adopt the speaking mannerisms of those she’s talking
with, to use his lexicon and way of constructing phrases, but at certain moments she’ll
suddenly being speaking in some different kind of language that’s emphatic and
flowing and rhythmical. She pronounces each letter of the phrases she utters very
precisely, and you clearly sense an extraordinary energy behind each sound. And then
you remember what she’s said verbatim, as if there’s some recorder at work in your
brain. And that’s not all. Living pictures appear before the listeners, and the
subconscious grasps the meaning of what’s been said. By way of example, I’ll give you
an excerpt from Anastasia’s retelling of a conversation between God and the first man,
from the book “Co-Creation”: “Where is the edge of the Universe? What will I do
when I come to it? When I have filled everything with myself, when I create that which
I have thought?” a man of the wellspring people asks God. And he receives this
answer: “My son, The Universe is thought. A dream was born of the thought, and it is
partially visible as matter. When you come to the edge of everything, a new beginning
and continuation shall your thought discover. Out of nothing will arise the new,
beautiful birth of you, and of the aspiration, reflecting in itself your Soul and your
dream. My son, you are endless, you are eternal, your creating dreams are within you.”
There are several theories regarding Anastasia’s abilities. I’ll share mine with
you, too.
Anastasia’s abilities, which seem extraordinary at first glance, were actually
inherent in all or the majority of the wellspring people. The effect the taiga henuit’s
statements have had on many people’s actions is due not to some mystical force, but
rather to people’s very own ability to embrace them with their heart and Soul. You get
the impression that some memory has been preserved in modem day people’ s genes, or
in their subconscious: a memory of the way individual families and human society as a
whole lived, stalling back in the time of the wellspring people, when Man still
understood how to communicate directly with God.
This way of life - the wellspring people’s - is significantly more advanced than
today’s. Maybe it’s from those times when people still knew what heaven was. But I
don’t think these people’s actions were connected to any specific religion.
All the homesteads that readers of the books are building turn out differently
from each other. The houses they put up don’t just differ in their external appearance.
Some are two-story wooden houses, while others are one-story wattle and daub affairs.
And the gardens, living fences and ponds are also constructed differently.
It’s common knowledge that religious ritual requires all its participants to
strictly observe standardized ways of acting and speaking. But here, we clearly see
each individual’s personal creativity in the way they realize this beautiful idea.
If people are thankful to Anastasia for anything, it’ s probably for the fact that she
has awakened within their Souls the aspirations of a human-creator.
THE LITTLE TAIGA DWELLER
More than fifteen years have passed since I met Anastasia, the hermit of the
Siberian taiga. And when I learned that she was going to bear my son, I took great pains
to move Anastasia to the city of Novosibirsk, even going so far as to try to intervene
physically. Back then, it seemed unacceptable to me for her to give birth in the taiga,
and impossible to raise a child outside social institutions.
At first, Anastasia’s way of life in the taiga seemed strange to me, to put it
mildly. But now the way people live in today’s giant cities seems even stranger.
And when she was pregnant with our daughter and stayed in the taiga, as she’d
done before with our son, my soul was joyous and calm. My views of life had changed
radically in the course of ten years.
Had Anastasia wanted to give birth somewhere other than the taiga - even if
she’d been in the best maternity ward in the capital - I'd have fallen into depression
and despair. And I’d probably have worried constantly about our child’s future if he’d
ended up being raised and educated within today’ s societal institutions.
I’d rethought my priorities and my views of life had changed.
Anastasia gave birth to our daughter in her family glade in the Siberian taiga. I
wasn’t present for the birth, and there were no qualified doctors at her side, no modem
medical equipment. But in my soul I was calm. I knew that she was giving birth in one
of the most perfect maternity wards on earth - in her family space.
When Anastasia gave birth to our daughter, she asked what I would like to name
the newborn. Without thinking, I answered - Anastasia. And it wasn’t because
Anastasia had named our son Vladimir. It’ s just that by the time our daughter was bom,
I’d come to see Anastasia as a wise, brave and very kind woman. Her name had
become synonymous for me with these qualities, and I wanted our daughter to inherit
them. I couldn’t imagine anyone other than Anastasia raising our daughter. Even
though at many points her approach to childrearing looks like a total lack of a
conscious approach to childrearing, that’s far from the case. For example, here’s what
happened one time with our little daughter in the taiga.
This time when Anastasia met me, she was in a jolly mood, even playful, it
seemed to me. She appeared suddenly when I was approaching the familiar glade
where the three of them were now living. Wearing a light dress reminiscent of a Roman
tunic, she stood on my path and smiled. I wondered where she’d gotten that dress. I
stopped, delighting in the unusual vision.
“It’s really something,” I thought. “So much time has passed, and she’s given
birth to two children, but she looks just as young and extraordinarily beautiful as
before. Look at me - I’ve grown old and gray, but she doesn’t age a bit.”
I recalled how, waking up early in the morning, she’d take joy in the coming day
and set off racing against the she-wolf, performing elaborate somersaults. Would she
be able to do that now?
As if she’d heard my silent question, Anastasia performed a double somersault
with almost no running start at all, and then there she was again, right next to me.
Her voice rang out. “Hello, Vladimir.”
I wasn’t able to answer right away. A captivating aroma and extraordinary
warmth radiated from Anastasia’s body. I shyly touched her on the shoulder. For some
reason I hesitated to embrace her. And I responded lamely:
“And hello to you, Anastasia.”
She snuggled up against me, hugged me and whispered:
“Our darling little daughter is such a smart and beautiful little thing.”
Then Anastasia walked ahead of me barefoot through the grass. She stepped,
putting one foot in front of the other, the way a model does on a runway. This wasn’t
the first time she’d done this, but eveiy time she does it, her gait looks hilarious, and it
raises my spirits.
As we usually did, we headed straight to the lake to bathe after my trip. I already
knew the purpose of this swim wasn’t just so I could freshen up after traveling. The
main point of it was to wash away all the smells that weren’t native to this taiga glade.
To do this, once I’d taken my first dip, Anastasia helped me give myself a brisk rub
down with a paste she’d made of various herbs. Rubbing me all over, she joked:
“You’re having less and less good food and your tummy’s a little distended.”
“It’s dysbacteriosis. That’s what the doctors say. Practically ninety percent of
the population has it,” I replied.
Anastasia laughed. “Or maybe the whole problem is that the tummies don’t have
enough will power? You yourself say that ten percent of the population doesn’t have
this dysbacteriosis.”
I had to walk around for a while with my body and even my hair coated with this
green paste and then dive back into the water and splash myself with water. After I
came out of the water and my body had dried off a bit, Anastasia removed her
tunic-like dress and held it out to me.
“It would be good for you to put this shirt on now.”
Anastasia stood before me, her breasts exposed. They were a bit larger than
they’d been before. A tiny drop of milk appeared on one nipple.
“You’re still nursing our daughter?” I asked.
“I’m supplementing with milk,” Anastasia answered brightly. She squeezed her
breast with both hands and splashed me in the face with a stream of milk, then laughed
and wiped the milk over my face.
“If you put this on and belt it, it will look like a shirt on you. I’ve been wearing
this shirt continually since I gave birth to our daughter. Sometimes she would sleep
wrapped in it. She’s grown accustomed to its smell and to the way it looks. If you do
what I tell you to do, it will be easy for our little girl to get used to you.”
“But what will you wear now?”
“Well, I have two very similar ones, and I’ve alternated wearing them. The one
I’m offering you - that one I wore more. And I’d often fasten my hair with a little braid
made of grass. Now I’ll go braid one like it for you, too, and meanwhile you can go
observe our little girl a bit.”
“Just observe her a bit? You mean I’m not allowed to touch her or have contact
with her?”
“Of course you’re allowed, Vladimir. Even so, it’s better just to observe her at
first. Even though she’s little, she already an independent being, so it’s better if you just
observe her first, without pestering her. You can acquaint yourself with her habits and
try to get a sense of her world.”
“I know that when our son was bom, I just observed him at first, too. Tell me,
Anastasia, how long before I can pick her up?”
“You will feel when the time is right. Your heart will let you know.”
It seemed to me that Anastasia wanted me to observe our little daughter on my
own and try to figure something out, and that’s why she’d come up with some urgent
tasks of her own. And I wasn’t against this way of doing things, either. I really did need
to find some way to study how our child behaves, because to my daughter, I was just
some “uncle” she didn’t know. And then this strange uncle suddenly goes and picks the
child up for no reason at all and starts with his sloppy sentimentality, squeezing her and
cooing to her to make himself happy. But maybe the child hates being cooed at, not just
by strange uncles, but in general, no matter who’s doing it. I asked:
“Anastasia, so where is our daughter now? If you go off to do your braiding, you
know, to braid the tie, how will I find her?”
“She’s somewhere around here, not far away,” Anastasia told me calmly. “Try
to find her yourself Let your heart tell you where she’s to be found.”
It seemed to me that I’d begun to understand a lot about life in the taiga glade.
But each time something new would still amaze me.
How can you allow a child who hasn’t even turned two yet to walk or crawl
wherever she wants through the taiga and not even keep an eye on her while she does?
And this is the taiga, where there are no people. In the taiga, where there are a great
many wild animals.
In the past I’d observed my newborn son and had seen him fall asleep against a
she-bear’s belly, while the she-bear lay motionless, waiting for him to get a good sleep.
I saw how the wolves would guard the infant and how the nimble squinels would play
with him. It was clear to me that the beasts living here in the glade or nearby it were
like pets. Within the territories they’d marked, they didn’t fight and didn’t attack each
other. A dog that lives in the same household with a cat might not touch the cat or
might even become friends with it, but he might still attack a cat from outside the
family. So it makes sense that here, too, the animals don’t attack each other within their
defined territory, and they certainly won’t attack the human’s offspring.
They revere the human living on their territory, so naturally they’ll protect the
human child and consider it an honor to look after him. All the same, this kind of
situation was a little unfamiliar. For example, what might happen if the child were to
go outside the marked territory? Other wild animals wouldn’t treat him the way his
own do. Basically, in spite of the logic of it all, some unfamiliar feelings arose in me.
“But what if I come across some wild animal while I’m looking for our
daughter?” I asked Anastasia as she was walking off. “I’m still not used to them and
they’re not used to me, either.”
“They won’t do anything bad to you, Vladimir - you’re wearing the shirt, after
all. You can walk around with complete confidence and not torment yourself with
fearful thoughts.” Anastasia ran off to her little earthen home.
After I came out into the glade and didn’t find anyone there, I set off through the
forest surrounding the glade, since I figured our daughter might be close by. I decided
that if I walked in circles, gradually increasing the diameter, then I’d be sure to catch
sight of her.
And I saw her before I’d even completed my first loop. Little Anastasia was
standing alone between some currant bushes. She was holding onto one of the branches
and examining some bug and smiling. I hid behind another bush and began observing
her.
The little girl was dressed in a short shirt-like dress, her hair bound with a tie
woven from the strands of some kind of grass.
Once she’d satisfied her curiosity about what was going on on the branch, she set
off barefoot across the grass in the direction of the glade. Then her foot must have
caught on a branch or in the grass, and she fell down. The little girl fell flat on her face
on the grass, but she didn’t cry. Without a word, she braced her little hands against the
ground and sat up. Then she crawled a meter or two on hands and knees and then got to
her feet once more and, stepping slowly, continued along her path.
Trying to remain unnoticed, I followed my daughter very cautiously. And
suddenly, right before my very eyes, Nastenka 1 disappeared. At first, shocked, I just
stopped and stood stock still for a bit. Then I quickly ran up to the spot where she’d just
been walking and began looking all around, but she was nowhere to be seen - not
behind the tree near where she’d disappeared, and not behind the bush. The little girl
couldn’t yet run fast enough to disappear from sight so swiftly.
I began circling around the tree near where she’d disappeared, increasing the
diameter of the circle with each round, but I still couldn’t see her. I stood for some time,
trying to decide what to do, then I ran to the little earthen house where I figured
Anastasia would be.
She was sitting calmly at the entrance, braiding a headband out of grass stands,
and quietly singing. Not far away, a silver fox was rubbing herself against the tree
trunk like an affectionate cat.
“Anastasia, our daughter’s disappeared,” I blurted out. “I was walking a few
meters behind her, not taking my eyes off her. Then suddenly she up and ... it was like
she dissolved into thin air. She’s nowhere to be found.”
Anastasia reacted with surprising calm - she didn’t even stop her braiding as she
answered:
“Don’t worry, Vladimir. 1 think she’s probably in the old fox den now.”
“Who told you that?”
“Do you see the lazy way the fox is rubbing against the tree?”
“Yes, I see.”
“That’s her way of letting me know the child is in her den.”
“But maybe she’s trying to tell you something else?”
1 Translator’s note:
Nastenka (in Russian “HacTeHbKa”, transliterated “Nasten’ka” and pronounced “NAH-steen-kuh”) is a diminutive form
of the name Anastasia (in Russian “AHacTacira”, transliterated “Anastasiya” and pronounced “Ah-nuh-stah-SEE-yuh”),
used affectionately as a nickname.
“If she was telling me about something bad, then she’d be showing her agitation.
She’d run off a bit, then come running back and try to get me to follow her to help.”
“All the same, you can’t be a hundred percent certain where our daughter is,
especially since there’s no den at all in the spot where she disappeared - I looked
around everywhere.”
“All right, Vladimir, then let’s go and have a look together and see where our
clever little one has hidden.”
When we arrived at the spot where the little girl had seemed to dissolve,
Anastasia pushed side some grass, and I immediately glimpsed the den. Its entrance
was partially collapsed, and a little hole had formed. I glanced inside it and saw
Nastenka sleeping peacefully, curled up on the bottom.
“There! You see? She’s fallen asleep on the damp ground. And 1 don’t think
she’ll be able to get out of there on her own.”
“The grass on the bottom is dry, Vladimir. And when our little daughter wakes
up, she’ll be able to solve the problem of how to get out of her shelter all on her own.”
“How will she figure that out?”
“If you want, Vladimir, you just watch, and I’ll head back and finish what I was
working on.”
I stayed put. After about thirty minutes, I heard a mstling sound in the hole. The
little girl had awakened, but she was having a hard time scrambling out of the hollow
on her own. But she wasn’t actually even trying very hard to do so. After making her
first attempt and testing her own powers, she let out a sound, summoning someone:
Yoohoo! Hey! Not a cry, but an actual summons. And right away, the vixen that had
been hanging around Anastasia earlier appeared. First she stood at the edge of her
former den; she looked in, sniffed, and then, turning her back to the den, lowered her
tail into it. The vixen tensed her muscles and slowly pulled the little child who’d
grabbed onto her tail out of the den. The little girl trailed along behind the fox for about
half a meter. After that she let go of the tail, got up onto her hands and knees, and then
stood up on her own two feet. Little Nastenka took a look around, smiled, as if recalling
something, and then, stepping slowly, she set off, smiling, in the direction of the lake. I
continued to follow her, unnoticed.
There were no wild animals around, and it seemed that no one in the taiga
besides me was watching the little one. But a bit later on I realized I was wrong about
that. It turned out that she and I were both being watched closely, and before long, I for
the first time saw a conflict between my daughter and a wild animal in the taiga.
When Nastenka had made her way out from amongst the raspberry bushes, she
stood where she was for some time and gazed at the mirror-like surface of the lake.
Then she took off her short little shirt and, stepping carefully with her bare feet, headed
toward the lake. She was about five to six meters from the water when a tough-looking
she-wolf suddenly sprang out of the bushes and, with several powerful leaps, put
herself between the shore of the lake and Nastenka. The little girl slapped the beast on
the back with her tiny hands, tugged at its fur and touched its snout. By way of reply,
the she-wolf licked the child’ s foot, but that’s where the mutual signs of attention or
affection ended. Playing with the she-wolf evidently didn’t enter into Nastenka’ s plans.
She wanted to get to the water, which she first tried to do by taking three steps to the
side and walking around the she-wolf that was standing at that spot. But as soon as the
little girl tried to move ahead, the she-wolf once again blocked her path. Nastenka
pushed against the beast’s side with her hands, attempting to remove the obstacle, but
the she-wolf didn’t obey the child and stood there, as if rooted to the spot. Then
Nastenka sat down on the grass, thought a bit and made an attempt to crawl under the
she-wolf s belly. But this attempt did not meet with success, either - the she-wolf
pressed herself to the ground.
Evidently Nastenka understood that the beast was not letting her get to the water
and that she could not remove the obstacle using force. She sat on the grass for some
time, pondering something, then started to crawl and even move away from the
she-wolf and the lake.
Before long she stood up, a small twig in her hands. She walked up to the
she-wolf s snout, ran the twig along it and threw it in the direction of the forest. The
twig only flew about a meter and a half. The she-wolf jumped for the twig and grabbed
it with her teeth. As this was going on, Nastenka set off running toward the shore of the
lake, her legs pumping away. The she-wolf understood she’d been outsmarted, and
with two headlong jumps, she caught up to the child at the water’s edge and knocked
her off her feet.
Nastenka fell onto her back, and her head touched the water. Pushing against the
sand with her little legs, she tried to push herself further out, into the lake. The she-wolf
grabbed the child’s foot with her teeth. She was probably trying not to cause the child
any pain - her grip was light.
Nastenka pushed her second leg into the she-wolf s nose, pulled the sole of her
foot from the she-wolf s maw and, in high spirits, crawled off into the water. The shore
in that spot dropped otf sharply to the depth of almost a meter, and the little tot was
submerged in the water up to her head, but right then she dove out. Working her little
arms and legs, she kept herself on the surface of the water.
I didn’t think our daughter could swim well. I ran out of my hiding place,
intending to jump into the water, but when I got to the shore, I saw the she-wolf
swimming up to the child. Splashing about in the water, the little girl nestled against
the wolfs side and took hold of the fur with her little hands, and they swam along the
shore in the shallows. Nastenka let go of the she-wolf as soon as she felt the lake bed
beneath her feet.
The wet she- wolf came out onto the shore and shook herself, the splashing spray
glinting in the sun. She didn’t run away, but remained on the shore, attentively
watching the child out of the comer of her eye and also - as it seemed to me - warily
glancing at me.
And Nastenka, standing in the water up to her waist, smiled and eagerly kept
calling the she-wolf to come over to her. She’d slap her little hands on the water, and
beckon her with a wave, but the she-wolf didn’t go to her. It’s possible that the beast
didn’t like this watery business, or that the games in the lake seemed dangerous.
Nastenka suddenly turned her little head in my direction and froze. For the first
time I felt my little daughter’s gaze fixed on me, and I stood there beneath her gaze,
powerless to move a muscle. I understood that she perceived me as some kind of
baffling creature that had suddenly appeared in the territory she inhabited.
She looked me over for some time, then turned away and came out of the water
onto the shore, taking her time, and walked up to the she-wolf lying on the glass. The
she-wolf picked up the little dress in her teeth and gave it to the little girl. But Nastenka
didn’t want to put it on her damp body. She took the clothing and set off in the direction
of the dug-out at the edge of the glade. I continued observing her path through the taiga
and thinking.
A tiny child is walking, smiling, through a glade deep in the Siberian taiga, and
nothing frightens her, no one attacks her. Quite the contrary - the wild animals are
prepared to rush to her aid at a moment’s notice. A tiny person is walking along, the
way a royal heir walks through her kingdom. It’s interesting for her to observe how the
bugs and squirrels and birds live. To examine the flowers and test the blades of grass
and berries to see how they taste.
But at this same time, some other little girl of the very same age finds herself in a
space bounded by four walls, and within it, she’s confined within four little playpen
walls like some kind of little wild animal, and it doesn’t matter that the walls are pretty.
And her kind parents buy up all sorts of plastic toys for her, and she tests them to see
how they taste.
Millions of little girls and boys in our world grow up in apartment-cages, like
little wild animals. And then we want them to grow up into intelligent, free, and noble
people.
Well, these individuals can’t even imagine... freedom first of all means free
thought, knowledge, and perception of the living universe.
A child will be told about this living universe in school when he grows up a bit.
Of course he’ll receive certain information about the great world of living nature, about
the universe created by the great Creator, but he’ll never be able to perceive it through
his own experience. You can’t replace the perceptions a person can receive in the first
years of his life while living in harmony with the great world of the Creator, not
through exerting effort or straining himself, but conversely, through playing. There are
no school lessons or university lectures at all that can replace this.
I’m not encouraging anyone to head out to the taiga with children. That would be
idiotic. Even so, we have to do something.
WHO DOES OUR DAUGHTER LOOK
LIKE?
In the evening, Anastasia was nursing Nastenka at the entrance to the little
dug-out where the little girl sometimes slept on her own. I was sitting quietly alongside
them, watching this interesting process.
I got the impression that the feeding as such, as a means of satiating the child’s
organism with mother’s milk, was not the main point of it at all. Grabbing Anastasia’s
breast with her little hands, Nastenka smacked her lips and nursed for a bit, but then she
came off the nipple and looked at her mother’s face. And Anastasia didn’t take her eyes
off her child, either. She paid no attention to me or to her surroundings.
It seemed to me that it was as if mother and child became one during the feeding
and communicated with each other non-verbally.
This went on for about twenty minutes, after which time Nastenka fell asleep.
Anastasia put our little daughter down in the dug-out on bedding made of hay
and covered with fabric. She covered the sleeping child with the fabric’s loose edges
and created a cozy little nest by mounding up hay from the sides. Then, she knelt there
by the entrance for a short while, looking at her sleeping daughter. When Anastasia
stood up and finally turned her attention to me, I asked her:
“What do you think, Anastasia, who does our daughter look more like, you or
me?”
“Like all parents, of course you’d like it if she looked more like you, wouldn’t
you, Vladimir?”
“All, you guessed wrong. Sure, I want my daughter to have something of me in
her, too. But she’s a little girl - she needs to be beautiful, and that means, she should
look more like you.”
“Does that mean you consider me beautiful compared to yourself, Vladimir?”
“I consider you beautiful compared not just with myself, Anastasia. I think
you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen, even in international beauty contests.
I’ve watched them on television. The contestants’ beauty pales by comparison with
yours. You’re better than all of them.”
“Thank you, Vladimir. What you said - is that a compliment? Or just an
explanation?”
“I’m complimenting you and explaining, too, and also marveling.”
“Thank you. That means it won’t sadden you then, Vladimir, if I tell you that in
her external appearance, Nastenka’s little face looks a tiny bit like you, but her little
eyes and eyelashes and her figure are mine, and she’ll also have hair like mine.
“When people resemble each other physically this also indicates that they
resemble each other in their abilities, habits and in the affinity of their Souls. That
means she’ll possess certain abilities and habits of yours. And certain ones of mine. But
three components are always present in a newborn’s soul, Vladimir.”
‘Three? But who’s the third one from?”
“The third component is a particle of the Soul that resided in the person’s body
in his previous life - perhaps a hundred years ago, perhaps a thousand or a million
years ago. In a harmonious person, this third component does not disintegrate into
particles, but waits for its chance, for the instant when it acquires a new body, through
whose eyes it can see the surrounding world and through whose ears it can hear the
sounds of this world, touch it with its hands, and utilize its gifts.”
“But if our Souls have united into one whole in their new life, then does that
mean they must know about all of each other’s lives?”
“Of course, they must. And they do. Otherwise it would be impossible for them
to unite. They wouldn’t be able to become one united Soul.”
“Then it would follow that my Soul can see our daughter’s past life?”
“Of course, it can, but you will perceive and see this only if you are able to abide
in harmony with your own Soul and if your thought isn’t thrown off by all manner of
distortions of the surrounding world, if it is able to concentrate.”
“If you take me, then everything’s totally clear: I and people like me can’t see
the past. But if you take you, Anastasia - it’s clear that you can find something out
about our daughter’s past life through that particle of her Soul.”
“I’ve been trying to glimpse and understand our daughter’s past life, Vladimir,
and I’m seeing it as strange in some way. Our daughter’s life in her body was very
short, no more than seven years long, and she lived many thousands of years ago.”
“Well, if the child lived such a short life, there’s not much to learn about the
past.”
“Yes, not much, but it sometimes happens that even in the course of a very short
life, a person carries out an act that can affect events that occur in subsequent
millennia.”
“I wonder, how can it happen that a child could carry out some act that could
affect people’s lives for millennia? Can you tell me about it, Anastasia, or better yet,
can you play back some pictures from our daughter’s past life?”
“Yes, I can, Vladimir.”
“Go ahead and play them back, then.”
And Anastasia began the extraordinary tale of our daughter’s past life. Or,
rather, the tale of the little girl, a particle of whose Soul now resides in little Nastenka.
INTO A DIFFERENT DIMENSION
“As you know, Vladimir, some time ago on Earth there began an ice age. In
those regions into which the glaciers advanced, the climate changed. The cooling made
it impossible for many types of plants to grow. Areas that had previously been rich in
forests, orchards and lush grasses interspersed with flowers, gradually turned into
valleys covered with only scant vegetation.
“The people who were living at that time in one of the valleys in the foothills
decided that it was impossible to continue living the way they had been living under
such cold conditions. They decided to leave their homes and head out in search of
places with a more hospitable climate.
“The men headed out and took the lead. Following their tracks, the head of the
family line, Wood 2 , was leading the children, women and old folks out of the
settlement.
“The gray-haired, hundred-and -twenty-year-old elder walked at the head of the
caravan of eleven mammoths laden with wicker baskets. The children were seated in
one of them, and the others held food stores - after all, they didn’t know how long they
would be traveling.
“Along both sides of the caravan of mammoths, the people of his family line and
all the livestock who had resided in the family homestead settlement were on the move,
on horseback and on foot. It seemed that all the living beings understood that it was
essential for them to set off for new climes, and they followed the person. Only the
plants had remained in the settlement - they had no way to move. Plants, doomed to
die.
“Wood was thinking things over, trying to answer the questions he’d posed to
himself:
“Why had the undesirable changes in nature occurred? Why had the cooling
begun?
“Whose will had set this disaster in motion?
“Might it not become a disaster for all of Earth?
“Did man possess the power to do something to head it off?
Translator’s note:
The name used here in the original is “By a” (transliterated “Vud” and pronounced “Vood”). The origin of this name is
unknown.
“Might disasters result from man’s actions?
“Wood understood that if the answers weren’t found, then a sad fate would await
his children and grandchildren and his entire family line. He could see that all the
adults who were now walking along in the caravan were viewing the changes in the
natural world as a tragedy - their faces were sad and thoughtful. Even the children had
grown quiet and were on their guard. Only his little favorite, his six-year-old
great-granddaughter Anasta 3 , was frolicking - she’d started up a game at the head of
the caravan with the lead mammoth.
“Wood observed his great-granddaughter’s game with the mammoth leader,
glanc ing at them out of the comer of his eye. She plopped the tip of the giant, seven-ton
mammoth’s trunk onto her little shoulder and made believe she was dragging the huge
animal. And he, the mammoth, was playing along with her. Of course, he was carrying
the whole weight of the trunk himself, touching the child’s shoulder only lightly with
it. F rom time to time Anasta would stop, as if catching her breath, wipe the nonexistent
sweat from her brow and say, ‘Oh, my, how big you are. You’re heavy and lazy.’
“The mammoth would nod his head, as if in agreement, flap his ears, and wipe
his own brow with his trunk. Then he’ d lay the tip of it on the little girl’ s shoulder once
more, as if he couldn’t move from the spot without her help. The game was funny and
harmless. But the other game his great-granddaughter started up next, Wood didn’t like
that one. Here’s what it consisted of.
“Anasta would scramble up the mammoth’s trunk, up to his head, and he would
help her, curving his huge trunk and pushing the child higher with its tip. After getting
herself settled atop the moving mammoth’s head, Anasta would sit there for a while,
then suddenly utter a frightened ‘Oh!’ and swiftly slide down the trunk. The mammoth
had to be very dexterous to manage to catch the child right above the ground and
prevent her from hitting the ground or ending up beneath his massive feet.
“Wood was thinking over the past, trying to discover in it the reason for the
disaster that had forced his people to leave their native valley, but his reflections were
constantly being interrupted by recollection-pictures from the life of his
great-granddaughter Anasta. He didn’t push these pictures away. He liked them, and
they distracted him from sorrowful thoughts about what had happened.
“At one point Wood even smiled, recalling the way Anasta had registered her
objection to an opinion that had been posited during one of their lessons. He saw the
whole picture, down to the smallest detail.
“Wood was giving the lesson at that point. Children of various ages and three
adults were sitting in front of him in a circle, beneath a spreading oak tree. Wood
started off the lesson with the following words.”
Translator’s note:
The name Anasta (in Russian “AHacTa”, transliterated “Anasta” and pronounced “Ah-NAH-stuh”) is meant to echo the
name Anastasia.
SNAKE GO-BETWEENS
“Many people know that our ancestors strived to determine the life’s purpose of
all creatures living on Earth. Once they’d done so, they would teach the animals how
they could become as useful as possible to people. The animals would then teach this to
their offspring, and in this way our generation, just like any that came before it, has
received a great gift from our forbears. And we, in turn, need to not just make use of it,
but also perfect the abilities of all earthly creatures living around us. It’s our
generation’s task to determine the life’s purpose of those creatures for whom our
ancestors didn’t do so.” Having said this. Wood pulled a grass snake out from under his
shirt and continued: “For example, we need to determine for what purpose reptiles
were created and how they might serve man.”
Those who were present looked at the grass snake that had wrapped itself around
Wood’s hand, and said no tiling. The first to raise his hand and ask to speak was a
red-haired little boy about five years of age. Wood permitted him to speak.
“I’ve seen that snake,” the little boy began, “or one just like it, crawl up to our
nanny goat and suck milk out of its udder. The goat stood right where she was. That
means she agreed to give it her milk.”
“Yes, grass snakes and other reptiles can suck milk from cows or goats. You’re
correct in noting that, Izor 4 . But at the moment,” Wood reminded those who had
gathered, “we’re trying to solve the question of what benefit the existence of these
creatures should bring to man.”
“Yes, I haven’t forgotten about our question,” the red-haired boy went on. “I
remembered the way he was drinking the milk, and I thought we should make a little
hole in this creature at the opposite end from his head. He can drink the milk and lower
his tail with the little hole into a pitcher so it fills up with milk. Then mama won’t have
to milk the goat.”
A disorderly choir of children’s voices could be heard from all sides:
“You can’t put a little hole in. . . ”
“You shouldn’t put a hole in - if 11 be painful for the creature!”
“The milk won’t run out of the hole if the creature itself doesn’t want it to.”
4 Translator’s note:
The Russian original is “Tbop” (transliterated “Izor” and pronounced “Ee-zore”). This name’s origin is unknown.
“The main argument against the hole is the pain the grass snake will
experience,” Wood said, summarizing. “And man shouldn’t cause earthly creatures
pain. Your suggestion is not accepted, Izor.”
Wood wanted to move onto the next question, but the red-haired boy wasn’t
giving up.
“If we can’t put a little hole in his tail, then we can do it some other way,” he
announced. “When that creature was sucking the milk from the goat, it got fatter and
fatter. That happened because there was a lot of milk in it. We need to train the creature
to crawl into the house with its milk and pour it out, into a pitcher. Then people won’t
have to go out to the pasture with a pitcher to fetch the milk, and the dairy animals
won’t have to leave the pasture and come to the houses to be milked. Many different
creatures will crawl to the house, and when they see that the pitcher is empty, they’ll
fill it with milk.”
The children liked the red-haired boy’s idea, and they vied to outdo each other
with their own additions to it.
“And you could also get milk from them far away from home, if you feel like
eating and your house is a long ways away.”
“We need to train them to crawl up to a person with milk when they hear a
certain sound. So we don’t have to go searching for them in the grass. You clap your
hands, say, or whistle, and they’d race to crawl right over to the person.”
“Well, I don’t feel like drinking milk that’s been pumped out of a snake - they
might add some snake thing of their own to it,” one little girl noted timidly. But the
others immediately started arguing with her.
“Well, with a cow the milk was inside, too, and everyone drinks that.”
“If they add some snake tiling of their own, then it’ 11 be even better. I mean, they,
these creatures, are always clean, even though they crawl along the ground.”
“Yes, exactly, they’re always nice and clean. I never saw a filthy snake.”
Izor listened as the children discussed his proposal, and he even blushed from
pride.
“Your second suggestion is worthy of attention, Izor,” Wood said, praising the
boy, and then he added: “We’ll discuss your second suggestion next time, and before
then, everyone will think and give their opinion or propose their own suggestion for
how to make use of creatures that crawl. And now I want to ask you what life’s
purposes have been determined for the animals you know. Who’s ready. . . ”
Wood didn’t finish what he was saying. He saw Anasta’s little raised hand, her
palm facing in his direction. This gesture indicated that the little girl disagreed with
something and intended to lay her objections out to those present.
“Tell us your objections, Anasta,” Wood said, giving his permission.
“I’m against having creepy crawlers deliver milk to homes.”
One after another, the children began challenging Anasta:
“But why?”
“We don’t have to say no to conveniences!”
“The creatures aren’t doing anything for man at the moment, and this way they’ 11
have something to do.”
“People will have more time to do something nice instead of milking cows.”
The little girl calmly heard out the objections and went on:
“If the creepy crawlers start bringing man milk from the cow, then man himself
will turn into a cow.”
One of the adults who was present at the lesson couldn’t restrain himself:
“What are you talking about, little girl? Explain what you mean.”
And Anasta went on:
“When a person receives milk from a cow or a goat or a camel or some other
animal, he gives the animal his attention and feelings in return. If he doesn’t take the
milk from the cow himself, and if she doesn’t feel his attention, then the milk won’t be
as good. The person will give his feelings of gratitude to the crawling creature when he
gets the snake milk from it. The snake will come between the cow and the person. It
will be a go-between between all creations and the person. It will lure the person in
with its enticing service and will milk him, sucking out of him the beneficial feelings
that were intended for all the earthly creatures.”
Everyone remained silent for some time, lost in thought.
All at once a picture arose in Wood’s imagination: a spreading apple tree,
studded with ripe fruit. Before it were standing a man and a woman. The woman was
saying:
“Look, my love - one apple has already ripened. It’s very pretty. The apple tree
wants to give it to us. Reach up to the branch and bend it down and pick the ripe apple.”
The man tried to reach the branch, but couldn’t. He wanted to jump up and grab
hold of the branch with the ripe apple, but right then a snake appeal ed on the branch. It
pulled off the apple, took hold of the branch with its tail and obligingly hung there,
offering the fruit to Man.
“Thank you, crawling one,” Man said and stroked the snake.
The man and the woman moved away from the tree without thanking it. They
gave the beneficial energy of their feelings to the snake. The apple tree shuddered, and
half of its fruit, still unripe, fell to the ground.
And Wood broke the silence that had fallen:
“Your protest is also worthy of attention, Anastochka 3 , and we accept it in part.
We must all think carefully about replacing man’s direct connection to all that grows
and lives on Earth with a go-between. We need to think about what that might lead to in
the future. I propose that we return to this topic in our future lessons. But now,” he said,
glancing at all those who had gathered there, “as we agreed to do earlier, please tell me
the life’s purposes of the animals you know.”
Translator’s note:
Anastochka (in Russian “AHacTOHica”, transliterated “Anastochka” and pronounced “Ah-NAH-stuhch-kuh”) is a
diminutive form of the name Anasta, used affectionately as a nickname.
THE MOST IMPORTANT INSTRUMENT
FOR BUILDING A HOUSE
“Me! Me!” the impatient children’s voices poured out.
“All right, all right,” Wood said, nodding, “Tell me one at a time, and each of
you name no more than two animals’ life’s purposes.”
One at a time, the children jumped up from their spots and spoke quickly:
“Cows and goats give milk. They eat grass, and every day they come to a person
so he’ll take the milk from them.”
“Donkeys and horsies are meant to haul a person when he doesn’t want to walk
on his own two legs.”
“Chickens and ducks walk around somewhere and fly around somewhere, but
nearly every day they come back and lay eggs so a person can come get them.”
“We need a mammoth to lift heavy things and move or carry them to the place a
person shows him.”
The children were alr eady going around the circle for the third time, striving to
recall the life’s purposes of all the animals they knew. Finally Wood posed a new
question.
“Who can tell me under what circumstances animals work together and in what
way a person directs them?”
The very same red-haired little boy addressed those present, saying, “Can I tell?”
And, hearing no objections, he looked at Wood. The latter nodded in assent. “Animals
start working together when a person wants to build himself a home 6 . Now, the person
uses a fife to direct the animals. First he plays a calling tune, and various wild animals
come to him, and birds fly over. When they come, they sit down not far from him and
wait - that’s the way our forbears taught them. When he finishes playing the calling
tune, the person looks affectionately at all the animals and bows to them. And all the
animals that have little tails all wag them joyfully when the person looks at them
affectionately. And the ones that can’t wag little tails express their joy in some other
6 Translator’s note:
The Russian word used here is “aom” (transliterated “dom” and pronounced “dome”). Throughout Anasta, this word both
refers to the physical structure in which one lives and also carries the sense of a place where one can feel “at home.” I have
translated this word as “home” throughout the book, so as to preserve both of these connotations and also the sound of the
Russian original.
way, because the nicest thing for all animals is when a person looks at them
affectionately. Then the person makes a different sound on his fife. Right away the
bears nm out from the group of wild animals and start digging a pit in the ground, right
on the spot the person has marked with twigs. When the person thinks the pit doesn’t
need to be dug any bigger, he makes a different sound on his fife, and the bears go back
to their spots. When the new sound is played, the mammoths place stones in the pit the
bears dug. This whole time, a whole lot of swallows are circling about the chosen spot,
very impatiently waiting to hear their time. And as soon as the person begins playing
their pretty tune on his fife, the swallows race off every which way and come back
again and again: they bring tiny little bits of dirt, straw and fluff in their little beaks -
everything they use to build nests for themselves, and they lay what they’ve brought on
top of the stones until they’ve got a wall of the home.”
The little boy stopped speaking, and Wood saw that Anasta had once again
gotten up from her spot and raised her hand with the palm facing him. Wood gave
Anasta pemiission to speak.
“Teacher Wood, I want to ask you whether the building of a home is considered
pleasant and interesting work.”
“Yes, of course,” Wood answered. “It is the very pleasant and creative act of a
thinking person.”
“Teacher Wood, but then why are children categorically forbidden to engage in
this pleasant and creative act?”
Wood blew of Anasta’ s obsession with the idea of building her own little home.
At home she’d brought up this topic with Wood many times, but he would always
patiently explain to her why children weren’t allowed to build homes. Now she’d
posed her question to Wood in front of the children and adults alike. Clearly she had a
reason for asking. “She’s thought of something,” Wood concluded, and he began to
answer:
“If children, especially those who haven’t fully grasped the essence of the
universe, pick up a fife and begin playing it, they might unwittingly distort the tune,
and the animal builders will get confused and not blow what to do.”
“Teacher Wood, may I show you something?” Anasta asked.
“Yes, you may, if it’s related to your question.”
“It’s related,” Anasta replied, and she began to sing. She began singing ever so
quietly. She offered up various tunes in her thin little voice, the very same tunes that
adults would play during building.
“She didn’t make a s ingle mistake,” one of the elders who was present remarked
quietly.
“That’s right, she didn’t make any mistakes,” agreed another.
“But you know, she’s only heard that tune once,” stressed the elder who was
sitting on a fallen tree in the last row. “The little girl has a good memory,” he added.
When she was done singing, Anasta asked Wood:
“Teacher Wood, did I make even a single mistake in even a single tune?”
“You did not distort the tunes, Anasta. You reproduced them with total
accuracy.”
“Then I’ve removed the first obstacle?”
“Let’s say you’ve removed it,” Wood admitted. “But there are also other
conditions. One of the children may be allowed to build a home, as an exceptional case.
This can happen if that individual - in this case one of you - tells about the design
they’ve conceived and the elders pronounce this design innovative. Then they may
pemiit the home to be built as an exceptional case, as a model.”
Sensing that an extremely favorable situation had arisen, and that he could
stimulate the creative thought of the children who were present. Wood said:
“I propose that all of you who wish to do so present your designs in two moons’
time. First we’ll discuss all the designs and will pick the best one, and then we’ll
propose to the elders that they examine it and hand down a decision.”
Wood hadn’t been mistaken: both the tiniest children and those who were a bit
older felt a burning desire to present their own unique designs. They all began
whispering amongst themselves, evidently discussing what innovations they might
introduce into the methods of building a home that had been worked out over the
centuries. Understanding that there was no point in continuing class any longer, since
the children were occupied with trying to solve the task that had been set for them and
it was unlikely he’d succeed in shifting their thought, which was fired-up by its
creative search, he stopped the lessons and dismissed those who were present.
Two moons later, the day the children had long been waiting for arrived. Many
up them came to class a bit early and, without waiting for the older ones, began telling
each other what they’d thought up. By the appointed time, many parents had gathered
at the lesson, too. When class began, each of the children, excited, took turns telling of
his design.
According to established rules, Anasta was to present her design last. Out of the
designs presented before her presentation, the best design turned out to be the one
presented by a little boy named Alan 7 . He was a good-looking boy, eight years older
7 Translator’s note:
The Russian original is “AnaH” (transliterated “Alan” and pronounced “Ah-LAHN”).
than Anasta, a good singer whom all the domestic animals happily obeyed just the way
they would a grown-up. Many of the girls in the settlement liked this boy, including
Anasta. Therefore, if he were to win, she wouldn’t be terribly upset. “Better him than
anyone else,” Anasta thought.
F inally it was her turn to present her design. Trying not to show her excitement,
she began to tell about it:
“On the surface, my design doesn’t differ much from already existing ones. My
innovation is in the wall. In the southern-facing wall. I’ll situate a beehive log on it.
When the bees start bringing back flower pollen and the sun begins to warm the log
hive, the bees will have to fan it with their little wings. Now, the log hive will be
connected to the house by means of a small opening, and the air from the hive will fill
the person’s room, along with the scent of the flowers.”
The grown-ups began talking amongst themselves, discussing Anasta’ s
innovation. F inally Wood made a decision that everyone agreed with. It was decided to
present two designs to the elders for consideration: Alan’s and Anasta’ s. Anasta wasn’t
pleased - she didn’t particularly feel like being rival to the boy she liked.
The elders came together the next day to consider the designs, right at the next
lesson, which a great many people had also come to attend. Anasta’ s design was
deemed best. The solemn announcement was made by a gray-haired, stem-looking
elder. But he did note:
“Anasta, we have deemed your design worthy of attention. It really does contain
an interesting innovation, but we cannot alio wyou to build the home. We can’t turn the
building of a home into a child’s game. Only a man and woman who have decided to
create a family may build a home. That is the inviolable rule. Do you agree with this
rule?”
Anasta said nothing. The lump that had risen in her throat prevented her from
speaking. She had worked on her design with extraordinary inspiration. She had
imagined and even sensed her little home. In her thoughts she was already living in it,
sleeping on her soft sleeping spot, looking out the window at the beautiful flower beds
through the curtain woven by a little spider, and breathing in the subtle scents of the
flowers the bees had brought back. . . Right then Alan rose from his spot.
“Might you allow me to say a word about the inviolable rule?” He glanced
questioningly at the elders and then continued. “Of course it’s fair, and it can’t be
changed, but there’s a way to do tilings so that the rule won’t apply to Anasta.”
The people and the children were looking at Alan in disbelief.
A voice rang out. “And just how could that be done?”
“Allow me to demonstrate,” Alan said.
Aii elder consented. “Go on, then, show us.”
Alan walked up to Anasta and stood opposite her. Then he removed the family
pendant from his neck and placed it around Anasta’ s neck:
“Will you marry me, Anasta?” he asked.
Those present gasped. Anasta was struck dumb. Only her eyes shone and looked
over the youth before her, from toe to head.
“Do you say yes, Anasta?” Alan asked.
Anasta nodded energetically, then quickly took her own family pendant off her
neck and held it out to Alan. But he didn’t take it. Instead, he knelt down before the
little girl so that she could place her beautiful pendant on him herself.
The people watched what was happening in astonishment. Then Alan took
Anasta’ s little hand and addressed the gray-haired elder, saying:
“Now there’s no obstacle for Anasta, and the inviolable rule does not apply to
her.”
“All right,” the elder began, a bit unsure, somehow, “but people come together
in order to raise a family. Anasta’ s still too little. She can’t bear children.”
“Yes,” Alan agreed. “She’s little. But she will mature with each day and each
year. And the day will come when she will be a fully mature beauty. I am sure that I
will see that day and that I will not go back on my decision.”
After conferring with each other, the elders gave Anasta permission to build the
small home, under the condition that it would be disassembled after eleven days, since
it wasn’t permissible for the home to be unoccupied, and Anasta wasn’t yet allowed to
live apart from her parents, due to her age.
On the appointed day, nearly all the residents of the family homestead settlement
came together on a hillock. Anasta stood beside her flower bed. Beforehand, she’d
marked out the border of her little home with sticks and twigs. She was very nervous -
after all, so many people would be watching her actions, but she was especially
nervous because among these people was Alan. Some unique feelings toward this
young man had been bom within her after his proposal that they join their lives
together. The village head walked up to Anasta and opened a pretty case before her.
Inside it there lay a fife - the most important instalment for building a house. With
trembling hands, the little girl took up the fife, covered several little holes with her
small fingers and brought the fife to her lips. But no tune issued forth - Anasta felt that
before beginning, she needed to calm herself somehow. She pressed the fife to her
chest and, gazing at the people standing on the hillock, she thought, fast as lightning,
about what she could do to calm herself down. But her nervousness was only growing.
Then a youth came out of the group of people and headed toward Anasta. It was
Alan. He walked up to the little girl and said:
“I know this tune, too, and I can play it. You’ve laid out where the house will be
located and how big it will be. You were victorious in our competition. That means this
will be your home. All I’ll do is play the tune.”
With eyes shining with tears, the little girl looked at the stately youth and
whispered with lips trembling with excitement:
“I want to do it myself, Alan. Thank you, but I need to do it myself, I definitely
need to.”
“Then listen to me carefully, Anasta. Breathe in some air and hold your breath.
Hold it for as long as you can and then exhale, but not all at once, but in three steps.
Exhale the last time so that as little air as possible remains in you. After that, begin to
breathe evenly. From your very first breath, you should think only about your
breathing. Forget about everything around you, and as soon as your breathing settles in
normally, begin playing. I’ll stand behind your back and look at the people on the
hillock. I won’t let their glances and thoughts through, won’t allow them to touch you,
and you, calm and confident, will build your little fairy tale home.”
Anasta did everything just the way Alan had instructed her. She brought the fife
to her now-calmed lips and. . . the calling time filled the space.
After a bit the wild animals began gathering from the forest and the pastures.
When enough of them had gathered, Anasta brought the calling time to an end, went
and stood in the middle of the oval that marked the walls of her future little home, and
began playing once more, a different time now.
Three bears immediately came out from the group of animals and hopping, ran
up to the oval Anasta had drawn, walked around it in a circle, sniffing, and started
digging a pit alongside the twigs Anasta had laid out.
They were trying, trying very hard. Suddenly two little bear cubs just couldn’t
hold back and jumped into the pit that their mother was digging. Thrown off, Anasta
stopped playing. Everyone froze in place. Then the she-bear grabbed one of the cubs by
the shoulder and, giving it a slap, set it down outside the pit. It rolled off, head over
heels, and she went through the same procedure with the second cub. Then she roared
at them, as a warning, looked at the little girl holding the fife and waved a paw in her
direction like a conductor. And Anasta began playing the fife once more.
When the pit had been dug, Anasta changed tunes - there rang out low, sedate
and rhythmical sounds. And one after another, mammoths walked out toward the pit,
each carrying a stone with its trunk. The mammoths placed the stones and continued
their work until they had filled the entire pit with them. Now the fife’s low, rhythmical
tones were replaced by modulations resembling the twittering of birds. The swallows
that had been circling above the building site suddenly disappeared, as if on cue, but
reappeared before long. They landed on the stones, first here, then there, laying down
something from their beaks.
The little feathered builders were able to bring just a tiny bit of building material
in their beaks, but there were a great many of them, and they carried out their actions
unusually swiftly and in unison. And so, the walls of the home grew before everyone’s
very eyes, accompanied by the fife’s melodious modulations.
DON'T GET AHEAD OF YOURSELF
Wood’s recollections of his great-granddaughter Anasta’s life just wouldn’t
leave him alone, and he even chuckled a bit, recalling one particular instance.
It was getting toward evening. Wood had washed his feet off in the stream and
was getting ready to go to sleep when he suddenly heard a child crying, or not even
ciying, but sobbing. He turned around and saw Anasta running toward him. She looked
unusual: her face was all smeared with something black, and hay was sticking out of
the opening of her dress. She ran up to Wood, limping a bit, sat down on the earthen
mound outside and, taking her head in her hands, began lamenting her sad state.
“Oh, woe is me, Granddad! My life is just coming to an end.”
Now that Alan had proposed to her, the little girl wanted to glow up as soon as
possible, and when she’d wake up in the morning, instead of running off to the stream
pool to get washed, she’d take a straight pole, stand it up against the wall of the house
and score it, to mark her height. And then at the stream pool, before taking a dip in the
water, she’d look at her reflection and wonder how long it would be before she’d get
breasts like the ones grown-up women have - the kind of breasts they nurse little
children with.
“Have a drink of water, Anastochka and calm down. Tell me what’s happened.”
Anasta swallowed some water from the pitcher and, through her sobs, began
telling Wood the tale of her woe.
“I knew it, Granddad, I knew it. . . They are all crazy about Alan because he’s the
handsomest and the smartest. I’ve been worried that in the time it takes me to grow up,
one of the grown-up maidens will make my Alan fall in love with her. She’ll make him
love her. And today, when it was just getting towards evening, I saw them, these
maidens, walking to the glade, toward the mountain, and they were talking about my
Alan. And I realized I can’t wait any more, can’t wait Til I grow up. I have to take
action now. That’s what I decided, and I started to take action.
“I took a little piece of coal and made up my eyes, the way the grown-up
maidens do it. Then I took a beet and painted my cheeks and my lips. And I even
covered over my birthmark with clay. The birthmark that’s right here, on my
forehead.” Anasta pulled aside her bangs and showed Wood the birthmark on her
forehead that resembled a tiny star.
“Why in the world did you try to paint over the birthmark, Anastochka 9 After
all, you can’t see it - your beautiful hair covers it,” asked Wood, concealing his smile.
“Sure, it covers it. But the wind blows, and it comes uncovered.”
“Let it come uncovered. I, for example, like your birthmark very much. It
resembles a little star.”
“Agh-h-h,” Anasta said, wailing again. “You like it, Granddad, but I don’t like it
one bit. It’ s like I’ m marked somehow. Mama doesn’t have a little star on her forehead,
and neither does Papa, and you don’t have one, either, Granddad Wood. Who drew it
on my forehead? Who was it who mutilated me? Agh-h-h. . . ”
“No one mutilated you, Anastochka. Quite the opposite - they adorned you. If
you start doing kind deeds for people, they’ll start saying that this act, say, was done by
the little girl with the little star on her forehead. And if you do bad deeds, people might
say, that was done by the little girl with the spot on her forehead. People see any
person’s appearance as beautiful if his deeds are beautiful.” Wood stroked his
great-granddaughter’s head and then asked, “Anasta, tell me: why is there some hay
peeking out of your dress?”
“I made two little wads of hay and tied them to my chest with a ribbon, so my
chest would be the same as the grown-up maidens’. And I put hay in my shoes under
my heels, too, so I’d be a little taller. And then, all grown up, like a maiden, I went out
to the glade where they get together with the young fellows. I got there and I saw Alan
standing there along with the young guys, and the maidens had gathered together a
little ways away from them and were talking amongst themselves, sneaking glances at
Alan. And Alan himself was glancing at the maidens.” And once again Anasta got all
worked up and started crying again, and then went on, through her tears. “I saw him,
Granddad, he was sneaking glances, sneaking glances. I knew that before long they’d
get into a circle and take each other’s hands and they’d do a circle dance and sing and
look at each other. And so I’d be able to get into the circle, too, I went up and stood next
to the maidens.
“One of them was just staring at me. She looks and looks and then she up and
starts roaring with laughter and all the rest of them too, when they see me, they start
roaring with laughter. And all the guys standing with Alan, they were laughing, too.
Oh, woe is me! Woe is me, Granddad Wood. I was standing there alone, and they were
all laughing and laughing. Looking at me and laughing. One guy fell right over onto the
grass - he was rolling around and laughing.”
Wood looked down, trying to hide his smile, and asked:
“Was Alan laughing at you, too, Anastochka?”
“Alan wasn’t laughing at me. Granddad Wood, not at all. Alan hit me.”
Wood was astonished. “He hit you? What do you mean, he hit you?”
“Just what I said, Granddad Wood. He hit me. First he walked up and picked me
up. Picked me up the way you’d pick up a little child,” she told him, blubbering. “And
I. . . I so wanted to be a grown-up. . . But he. . . he picked up me up like a little kid and
took me behind the bushes. There he set me down on the path and said, ‘Go along
home, Anasta. Wash up and don’t be such a dummy any more.’ And I... I said I
wouldn’t go, and so it would be convincing, I stomped my foot a few times. Then he
took me by the hand and spanked me. Like this and like that,” Anasta said, slapping
herself on the hip with her palm, all the while lamenting, “Now I’m all beaten up and
unhappy and abandoned and unmarried.”
“What, did he take back his pendant from you?” Wood asked.
“No, he didn’t take it back.”
“Well, that means you’re still married,” Wood said, reasoning with her.
“All the same, even if I’m married. I’m still beaten up and wretched.”
“Did it really hurt so much when Alan spanked you?” Wood asked.
“I don’t blow, Granddad. I don’t know. I didn’t feel any pain, but the bitter
insult was stronger than any pain.”
“Calm down, Anastochka. I can see that Alan spanked you out of love, so you
wouldn’t do things people would laugh at you for. That means he was shielding you
from taunting in the future.”
“Out of love? Do people really spank you like that when they love you?”
“Well, of course, that’s not the best method, but perhaps at that moment Alan
couldn’t think of anything better. And you blow, Anastochka,” Wood went on,
untying the bundles and taking the little wads of hay off her chest, “don’t try so hard to
be grown up. You’ll glow up without making any effort at all. And at the moment you
need to be thinking about other tilings, my dear little girl.”
“About what, Granddad? About what?”
“You lie down on my lap, Anastochka, and I’ll sing you your favorite song, the
one with no words.”
Anasta laid her head on Wood’s lap, blubbered another time or two and, at the
very first notes of the familiar tune, drifted off to sleep.
The next day Anasta ran up to Wood, joyful and excited. Before she’d even
stopped running, she announced to Wood:
“He came by my little home. He came by. At first I wanted to hide when I saw
him through the window, but then I just sat there, quiet as a mouse, so he’d think there
wasn’t anyone in the home. Alan walks up to the little home and takes a seat next to the
entrance. He takes a seat, Granddad Wood, and he says, ‘I know you’re home, Anasta.
You’re a very smart little girl, a quick study, and I’ll wait until you become a beautiful
girl. Believe me, I’ll wait, but don’t you get ahead of yourself any more.’ And I sat
there and didn’t say a tiling, and I wasn’t at all mad at him any more. I felt like running
out and hugging him and even kissing him, like a grown-up, on the cheek, but I didn’t
do that. I sat there, quiet as a mouse, so as not to get ahead of myself.
“Alan sat there a while longer near the entrance to my little home, then he got up
and left. And 1 ran to see you, Granddad Wood, to tell you about it. And you know what
else, Granddad? You know, Alan, when he was sitting there at my place, he drew three
little flowers on the wall of my little home - one bigger one, another a bit smaller, and
a third, tiny-tiny one. I saw them when I ran out. They’re very pretty.”
Wood hugged Anasta and said:
“Does that mean you’re not wretched any more and woe is no longer you?”
“Now I’m joyful, and I feel like making something unusual and pretty, so
everyone will look at it and be happy and say, ‘Very pretty, great, good,’ and so Alan
will hear that and be proud of me.”
“That’s a very correct decision that’s come to you, Anastochka. Create beautiful
creations in a burst of inspiration. Only in that way can we win the love of humans.”
WE HAVE TO THINK
Putting an end to his reminiscing, Wood turned to his great-granddaughter, who
had thought up a new game to play with the mammoth walking at the head of the
caravan. He said:
“Anasta, you’re keeping the mammoth in a state of great tension with your
playing. Is it really right to treat an inoffensive, kind animal that way?”
“Actually, Granddad Wood, I’m keeping him in a state of pleasant tension. I’m
distracting him from sad thoughts. And see, Granddad Wood, I distracted you from
your gloomy thinking,” Anasta said, jabbering away.
“Yes. . . Many people’s thoughts are gloomy right now. There’s a reason they’ve
come up. But what about you, Anastochka, can it be that you don’t have any sad
thoughts?”
“I don’t, Granddad Wood.”
“Does that mean you don’t understand why the adults of our family line are
gloomy?”
“I do understand. Granddad Wood. They’re gloomy because the cold glacier is
advancing. Many plants are dying from the cold. The people from various settlements
have had to leave their* family spaces 8 . And no one knows where they’ll have to go and
how long they’ll have to walk.”
“That’s correct...” Wood said pensively. And, somewhat astonished, he asked
his great-granddaughter, “But, what, aren’t you sad to take leave of our family space,
Anastochka?”
“I’m not sad, Granddad Wood. As soon as that sad, leave-taking thought came
up, I immediately rejected it, and now I don’t have it in me any more,” Anasta said,
jabbering away again light-heartedly and bobbing up and down on the mammoth’s
trunk. It was as if the mammoth walking alongside Wood understood he needed to
carry the little girl alongside her great-grandfather and give them the chance to spend
Translator’s note:
The Russian phrase here is “po/poe npocTpaHCTBo” (transliterated “rodnoe prostranstvo” and pronounced
“rahd-NOH-yuh prah-STRAHNST-vuh”). The first word has the same root as the first word in the phrase “poflOBoe
noMecTte” (transliterated “rodovoe pomesfe” and pronounced “mhd-ah-VOH-yuh pah-MYEST-yeh”), which I have
translated throughout as “family homestead,” and the second word, meaning “space” or “area,” occurs throughout the
“Ringing Cedars of Russia” series in the phrase “npocTpaHCTBo jik>6bh” (transliterated “prostranstvo lyubvi” and
pronounced “prah-STRAHNST-vuh lyoob-VEE”) which means “space of love.” As such, the phrase “family space”
brings together the two ideas of the family homestead and the space of love.
time with each other.
Wood was both astonished and intrigued by his great-granddaughter’s answer.
What mysterious method she had managed to use to cope with the sad thoughts? And
he asked:
“Anastochka, can you tell me how you managed to reject the sad thoughts, what
method you used?”
“A very simple method, Granddad Wood. I decided to remain with my family
space.”
“Remain? You decided to? But you didn’t remain. After all, you’re leaving it
behind, along with everyone, Anastochka.”
“For the moment, I happen to be leaving it behind. I’m accompanying everyone
on their journey to a far-off land. But as soon as we come up onto that rise, the one you
can see in the distance, it will be noon, and I’ll need to be heading off back. I’ll be back
on my motherland by evening. The morning will dawn and it will rejoice at seeing me.
I’m already rejoicing right now myself. I can just imagine how much my motherland
will rejoice at seeing me.”
Wood didn’t respond to his great-granddaughter’s words with alarm. He figured
she had been joking or was just imagining going back in order to drive the sad thoughts
off. Deciding to play along with the nimble- witted little girl, he said:
“Yes, the entire space will rejoice at seeing you, but what will you do there all
alone?”
“First of all. I’ll make up a hill of dirt and grass around my flower bed,” Anasta
replied, jabbering away, “and the little hill won’t allow the cold glacier wind to blow
on my beloved little flower. I need to be right alongside that little flower when it
blossoms. If nobody’s there next to it, the little flower will get very sad.
“‘What did I bloom for?’ it will think. ‘What for, if no one is going to rejoice at
my beauty?’ But I’ll be right there and I’ll rejoice.”
“The little flower will stop blooming, Anastochka and there will cold spells, the
like of which we’ve never before seen. Many plants won’t be able to bloom in the cold.
A huge glacier is advancing upon our family space,” Wood said, as if musing to
himself as he ascended the rise Anasta had mentioned. “Yes, a glacier is advancing.”
“I’ll stop the glacier, Granddad Wood,” the little girl suddenly blurted out,
jumping off the mammoth’ s trunk and enthusiastically jabbering on. “I still don’t know
how, but I’ll definitely stop it. Something there, on my motherland, will give me a hint
about how to stop it. I feel it. I feel it ever so strongly. Something will give me a hint,
and I’ll be able to do it.
“There’s a hint, there, on my motherland. It’s there, but everyone has left. No
one thought of the hint. And no there’s no one the hint can hint to. Everyone thought
about how to leave, where to go to get away from the cold. But no one wanted to give it
some thought together with the hint and think about how to push the glacier aside. And
you yourself said it so often at our gatherings, Granddad Wood, that we have to think.”
Wood froze in his tracks. The caravan leader stood still, too, and the others who
had been following behind the mammoth also stopped.
The gray-haired head of the family line looked intently at his
great-granddaughter, saying nothing.
What Wood did a minute later - he was never able to explain that later, not to
himself, and certainly not to the others. He signaled to the people who were walking
along the sides of the mammoth caravan to keep moving forward. But to Anasta he
said:
“The last one in the caravan is a mammoth that’s limping, the son of the caravan
leader. You blow him, and he obeys you better than all the others. Take him with you,
Anasta, and when it gets very cold, you can follow in our tracks on him and catch up to
us.”
“Thank you, Granddad Wood,” the little girl cried joyfully. She grabbed him
around the legs, snuggling up against him. “Thank you!”
“How am I supposed to tell your mama and papa, your parents, what you’re up
to?”
“I’ll let them blow myself once I get back home. There’s no need to say
anything right now. Goodbye, Granddad Wood.”
Anasta sbpped along off to the last mammoth at the end of the caravan, and
Wood followed his great-granddaughter’s receding figure with his glance, as if what
was happening hadn’t quite sunk in yet. He continued on his path, and for some time
there were no thoughts at all in his head. Only a few hours later did Wood ask himself,
“Why did I give my consent? ‘We have to think.’ ‘No one thought about how to stop
it.’ No one. She was the only one. Then he said, out loud now, “I did the right thing.”
DUN THE MAMMOTH
The huge mammoth Dun 9 was walking at the end of the caravan, limping
slightly. In his build and his strength, He resembled his father, the leader of the
mammoths.
When he was still just a young little mammoth, a boulder fell from the mountain
and fractured his leg. The people tied sticks to the animal’s leg with ropes so the bone
would knit properly. Dun had to spend many days lying on his own. It was at that point
that a touching friendship started up between the mammoth, three- year-old Anasta and
the kitten the little girl would bring along with her.
Little Anasta would often visit the mammoth as he lay there with the bandaged
leg and bring him treats and talk to him tenderly. She’d taught the kitten to chase
annoying bugs and flies away from the mammoth lying on the grass, and she’d place
the kitten on his hip.
But the main thing she did was to talk to the two of them and instruct them, the
way grown-ups instruct their children.
After she’d seated the kitten atop the mammoth, Anasta would stand before
them and point at the sky with her finger, direct her gaze upward and utter the words
“sky,” “clouds” and “sun,” and then she’d kneel down and stroke the grass with her
hand and tenderly utter the words “the nice green grass” and “the little flower has a
scent.”
The mammoth and the kitten would intently watch what the little girl did, and
after a few days, during which she would regularly repeat her lessons, something
astonishing happened. When Anasta uttered the words “sky” and “clouds,” the baby
mammoth - and then the kitten, too - directed their eyes toward the sky. Upon hearing
the word “grass,” they glanced at the grass. And upon hearing the words “the little
flower has a scent,” the kitten hopped to the ground and began sniffing the little flower,
the way the little girl had done.
Anasta continued her lessons with the animals even after the mammoth had
recovered. The little girl liked telling her four-legged friends about the meaning of each
new word she learned from the grown-ups. And the young mammoth and the kitten
liked the attention the kind little girl gave them. Like well-disciplined pupils, they
would come to Anasta’ s flower bed at noon. The little girl would usually show up at
Translator’s note:
The Russian original is “/Jan” (transliterated “Dan” and pronounced “Dahn”). This name, although similarto the Russian
name Daniil, also has other layers of meaning, including the root expressing the meaning of something given or granted.
that time, too, and she’d give her charges their next lesson. If she didn’t show up for
some reason, the four-legged pupils would sit waiting for their friend and teacher for
hours at a time or else head off to look for her.
When Anasta turned six. Dun the mammoth, who’d also gotten bigger, was
pretty much the same as the grown-ups on the outside, but his behavior differed
noticeably from the other mammoths’.
Wood, Anasta’ s great-grandfather and the head of the family line, was the first
to notice that Dun the mammoth could understand human speech. It was the following
event that preceded his conclusion.
Wood was sitting in the shade of a broad tree and weaving a wicker basket for
berries. Anasta would often spend time with her great-grandfather. She liked to listen
to his stories and be part of all he did, and so she was right alongside him this time, too.
His chatty great-granddaughter was quickly and animatedly telling him her thoughts on
collecting berries, and she told him he had to make the basket pretty, because then the
berries collected in it would be tasty.
Right then Wood noticed that Dun the mammoth, who was standing ten steps
away from them, was looking intently at Anasta and listening to what she was saying,
as if he understood the meaning of the words and the sense of his
great-granddaughter’s speech. “He must like the intonation of the little girl’s voice and
the energy coming from her,” Wood thought. Noticing that there was almost no water
left in the hough where the twigs for weaving the basket were soaking, Wood asked
Anasta to fetch a little water from the nearby spring. But his ever-obedient and diligent
great-granddaughter didn’t rush to fulfill Wood’s request. She just turned in the
mammoth’s direction and quickly told him, “Dim, fetch a little water from the spring.”
And then, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened, she continued her animated
story about the berries and the basket.
The mammoth slowly turned around and steadily took one step and then another
in the direction of the spring. Then Anasta said one more phrase. “Get a move on,
Dun.” And the huge mammoth began to mn.
Wood understood that unlike the other mammoths, Dun wasn’t simply carrying
out certain commands. Rather, he could understand human speech far better than the
other animals - he understood the meaning of the words and, what’s more, he
understood the meaning of whole sentences.
The mammoth brought a little water in his trunk and, at the little girl’s direction,
emptied it into the trough with the twigs.
“Thank you,” Anasta said, praising the mammoth, and she added, “Don’t forget
to water our flower garden this evening. But for now, go to the woods and have some
lunch. You can see I’m busy.” The mammoth answered the little girl with a nod of his
head and headed for the woods.
“What are the limits of the animal kingdom’s ability to serve man?” Wood
thought. “To what extent can man direct it? Now, people thought up the wheel and
everyone was so delighted by the invention and began looking for different ways of
using it. But living creatures, who have already been thought up and are far more
advanced than the wheel - we’ve stopped studying them entirely. Is our race doing the
right thing? Where might man’s ignorance of the capabilities and life’s purpose of the
varied nature around him lead?”
That’s what Wood was reflecting on, and these thoughts made his heart uneasy.
DON'T SURRENDER, MOTHERLAND!
I'M WITH YOU!
Seeing Anasta running toward him. Dun joyfully bobbed his head, flapped his
ears and halted. The huge mammoth stretched his trunk out toward the little girl and
lightly touched the little girl’ s shoulder with its tip. She took hold of the tip of the trunk,
pressed her cheek to it and tenderly stroked it. Then she gave the order, “Follow me!”
and ran hopping off back in the direction of the family space they had left.
The mammoth hastily turned around and ran after Anasta. When Anasta grew
tired, she gestured to the mammoth to stop and scrambled up his trunk and onto his
head. When she’d made her way up onto Dan’s back, she saw the kitten there, too. He
had long since grown into an adult cat, but had still retained his nickname of “Kitten.”
He started rubbing against the little girl’s leg and purring, expressing his joy and
devotion.
The three of them made their way to the abandoned family space by late
evening. Anasta sent Dun off to pasture, went into her little clay house, made her way
in the darkness to her sleeping spot with the aromatic hay, lay down on it and
immediately fell asleep.
Anasta was up with the dawn. She ran out of her little home and, blinking and
spreading her amis wide, she offered her body up to the tender, warm rays. After taking
this sunbath, the little girl ran to the stream and, taking a mining jump, went with a
splash into the little creek with its clear water.
The cold spring water burned Anasta’ s body, but she splashed and laughed in
delight. Then, after making her way out of the water, hopping and spinning around on
the shore, as if she had no idea where to go and how to use the unusual energy that had
filled her, she ran up onto a small hill.
A cold wind was blowing. The little girl tied her shawl around her waist and
threw its free end over her shoulder. She looked silently at the land where her family
line had lived so very recently.
The family space, where once the sounds of the voices of a great many birds and
the chirping and buzzing of insects had unceasingly been heard, was now keeping
some kind of fateful silence. Here and there the grass shone white from the drill of the
night. The trees and bushes in the gardens weren’t blooming. Their little leaves were
curled, as if in despair.
And the family space, shrouded in the oppressive silence, with its withering but
still living natural diversity, attended to the little girl with incomprehension. And all of
a sudden, everything all around shuddered, when. . . A cry of desperate and confident
joy pierced the oppressive silence like a warm ray of light:
“He-e-ey! He-e-e-ey!” Anasta shouted, in defiance of the oppressive silence.
“Don’t surrender. Motherland! I am Anasta, Motherland. I am with you.”
She ran down from the hill and dashed to her flower bed, touching the tree trunks
with her hands as she ran and stroking the little leaves of the bushes.
“He-e-ey!” she cried out once more, miming around the trunk of a big, old apple
tree with shriveled leaves.
The little girl’s thin, high and joyful little voice was conquering the silence that
had been oppressing the family space. And suddenly another voice joined hers, a
powerful, low bass - Dun the mammoth was miming from the pasture at Anasta’ s cry.
Running and trumpeting for all he was worth as he went.
And next to the little girl you could also hear a loud, incessant “Meow, meow” -
it was the cat with the nickname “Kitten,” meowing in support of Anasta.
Anasta stopped at the flower bed that she herself tended, the way all the children
in the settlement each tended their own flower beds.
The grass on one edge of the flower bed had turned gray, and the flowers had
dropped, and only one still unopened bud remained on the little girl’ s favorite flower. It
was drooping toward the ground as if it had thought the better of blooming. But the
sight of the drooping bud didn’t make the little girl sad. She was looking at it and
smiling. She wasn’t sad, because she was imagining her favorite flower not drooping,
but abloom in all its beauty.
Squatting down before the flower that had been getting ready to wilt, she quietly
and tenderly called out to it:
“Hey, little flower, I’m here. Wake up.”
Then she held her index finger in her mouth, then raised it, to determine from
which side the cold wind was blowing on the flower. Having determined the direction
of the flow of glacial air, she lay down on her side on that side of the flower, in an
attempt to block the path of the cold air with her own body. Even so, the cold currents
still enveloped the flower’ s small body and stung its little leaves, preventing them from
straightening up. Suddenly the cold streams of air stopped and Anasta felt the opposite
- she felt warmth on her back. She turned - Dun the mammoth had flopped down on
his side and shielded Anasta and her entire flower bed from the cold with with his own
body.
“Good for you, Dun! You smart thing!” Anasta exclaimed.
Latching onto his fur, she scrambled up onto the mammoth’s back and, turning
to face the wind that was blowing from the direction of the glacier, she joyfully and
victoriously shouted out her “He-e-ey !” The cold wind blew even more strongly. Then,
after thinking a bit, the little girl turned in the opposite direction and shouted out a
summons and waved her arms, as if inviting someone invisible to come. The mammoth
raised his trunk up high and trumpeted a summons, too. Kitten began meowing,
calling.
The cold wind quieted down, but some time later it started up again, only now it
was blowing from the other side, and it was caressing the flower and the mammoth and
the little girl and the cat standing on his back with warm currents.
The singing of the few remaining birds greeted the life-giving streams of air.
For several days, Anasta fought against the cold wind blowing from the
direction of the glacier; again and again, she would run to her flower as soon as the
wind started up. And each time, the mammoth would he down next to the flower bed,
as had become his habit, blocking the cold’s path.
Then the day came when the rejuvenated flower bloomed. Running up to the
mound of earth, Anasta got down on her knees before the flower and kissed the
orangey-red petals, touching them lightly with her lips. Then she took two steps to the
side and admired the beautiful miracle and the extraordinary, beautiful creation - her
flower.
Since she couldn’t stay standing in one spot, due to the exuberant energy that
had surged up from somewhere inside her, Anasta at first hopped up and down in place,
and then her hops morphed into an unusual, improvised and rousing dance. Even Dim
the mammoth was trying to dance along, shifting from one leg to another. Kitten was
spinning around, now flopping down on his back, now jumping up again. And the
living flower was waving its orangey-red petals at them in the warm breeze.
And then Anasta stopped. She’d caught sight of two youths standing on the
moimtain.
THE BROTHERS OPPOSITE
Both youths were of the same height and athletic build. In outward appearance,
they looked a great deal like each other, differing only in the color of their hair and
eyes. One was Light-haired and Blue-eyed, the other Black-eyed and Dark- haired.
The youths stayed where they were for a while, as if giving Anastathe chance to
get used to their unexpected appearance. Then, at a leisurely pace, they approached the
little girl.
“Hello, little girl!” Dark-haired said, addressing her. “You need to act more
quickly, little girl. You sensed intuitively that you will be able to stop the glacier, that
you have within you powers capable of changing God's program. Now, that's
impossible, of course. But you will continue seeking these powers within you. And I
will learn more about Man than I currently know. I’m prepared to tell you about the
world order and answer any question you might have, little girl. Only you need to act as
fast as you can.”
Anasta had no time to answer: the second youth began to speak:
“Hello, Anasta. You’re pretty and sharp, you’re splendid, just like many other
marvelous creations on the great planet Earth. My brother knows much about the world
order, but you should, I think, listen to yourself above all others.”
Anasta finally managed to greet the youths: “A good day and good, light
thoughts to you.”
“Hold on,” Dark-haired said, interrupting Anasta. “That’s just the way it always
is. It even makes me sick to hear those idiotic, thoughtless memorized words. There are
two of us here. I’m dark, so why do people wish me light thoughts?
“I’m dark, and my thoughts are dark and hostile. That’s the way I am, and that’s
my life’s purpose within God’s program!” Dark-haired was growing more and more
angry. “If I’m some kind of light little sniveling fool, a light thinker, then I won’t be
me. Poof - and there won’t be anything left of me. You get it, little girl? All that will be
left in front of you is one light little simpleton. There are two of us! You get it, little
girl? And you shouldn’t only speak about what’s light. Take your thoughts back, if
that’s what was behind your words, if your words weren’t just memorized parrot
sounds.”
“If my greeting has offended you, then I will change it and will say to you a
simple, ‘Hello,’” Anasta replied.
“Now, that’s more like it. ‘Cause otherwise, you and your light. . . ”
“Who are you?” Anasta inquired. “What family line are you from? I’ve never
seen you before.”
“Of course, you haven’t. No one has ever seen us. But our manifestations are
present in all human doings, in every moment,” the dark youth told her quickly. “Yes,
in each and eveiy one. Now, of course, there are more of my manifestations - they are
awesome. Almost all of humanity lives from disaster to disaster, dominated by my
energies.”
“Stop, my dark and talented brother,” said the light-haired one. “After all, we
didn’t even introduce ourselves.” And, turning to the little girl, he went on:
“Anastochka, try to understand what I say. Between the two of us, my brother and I
make up the two complexes of Universal energies. The entire immense space of the
Universe is filled with energy entities. When God created Man, He took an equal
amount of energy from each of the entities, brought them into inner balance in some
unknown way, and gave them to the person He had created. Out of everything, He
created a person with inner balance.
“When this happened, we all understood that Man must emerge as the strongest
entity in the Universe. That’s why he’s not called an entity, but Man. But where his
strength lies, what his capabilities are and whether they are limited - that is unknown.
And when it, this strength, will fully manifest - this has, up to the present day, been
known to no one in the entire Universe. Not even to us, despite the fact that we and our
separate energies are present everywhere. We are always invisible. We always fill up
space. We’re present in the water, and in every living wild animal and every little
worm. And the energies of the Universe - each and every one of them - exist within
each person.”
“You say you’re invisible,” Anasta said, astonished, “but you know, I can see
you!”
“Yes, you see us, because we solidified the air, solidified it so as to exhibit the
kind of bodies you’re used to. The clouds up there in the sky, for example - you know
they’re solidified air vapors, too. You get whimsical shapes when they solidify:
sometimes you get ones that look like wild animals, sometimes ones that look like a
human face or body. And in many ways the human body is made up of water that’s
been solidified to different degrees. It must be the case that the Creator alone knows the
meaning and ratios of the various solidifications of the human body. Our bodies
resemble human bodies only on the outside. My dark- haired brother represents all the
dark entities, while I represent all the light ones.”
“But why did you exhibit this solidification in the form of the human body?”
Anasta asked.
“So you wouldn’t be frightened when you heard our voices, so you wouldn’t
expend the energy of your thoughts on trying to guess where the sound was coming
from,” Light-haired answered.
“But what did you want to talk with me for?”
“You set out in defiance of the elements, or, to be more precise, in opposition to
a planetary disaster. You set out on your own, confident that you’ d be able to prevent it.
We are certain that this is impossible to do. God’s program includes provisions for a
disaster, should mankind follow a ruinous path. That has happened, more than once.
And we wouldn’t have paid any attention to your efforts. It’s just that all the Universal
entities shuddered when the flower on your mound of earth bloomed. It bloomed, even
though according to the Creator’s program, it should have died. But it bloomed.”
“The flower bloomed thanks to the mammoth who shielded it from the cold
breeze.”
“The mammoth is but one link in the chain of events that you constmcted.”
“I didn’t construct anything.”
“Your thought did the constructing, Anastochka.”
“So does that mean your particles are inside me, too?” Anasta asked
thoughtfully. “But I can’t feel them at all.”
“A person doesn’t feel us, especially when he manages to balance our particles
within him. When they are in balance, a third energy appears. And this third is found
solely in the Universal entity that is Man. It appears when we are in complete balance
and it, this new energy, is all-powerful. It’s capable of creating new worlds. No secrets
exist for it. This kind of person becomes a master of the Universe, a creator, and no one
can even imagine his creations. They can be magnificent and unfathomable.”
“Your particles are probably not at all balanced in me, since I can’t stop the
glacier,” Anasta said with a sigh. “The flower bloomed, but everything around it in our
family space is withering and dying.”
“Anastochka, you are on the path to unity. You can attain it in the next moment
or in three millennia. It’s for this reason that the Universal energies will strive to help
you, so that they can learn Man’s great secret and their own future fate as well.”
“What you said about the extraordinary power hidden in the unity of the
opposites is so interesting. But if you know about this extraordinary power, why don’t
the two of you just agree to unite?”
The two brothers exchanged glances and cast their gaze over Anasta’ s family
space. Then they began looking in different directions. They were slow to answer, as if
at that moment they themselves were looking for the right words to explain it. The little
girl waited patiently.
Filially Light-haired answered.
WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PROGRAM?
“That’s impossible. My brother and I have different tasks,” Light-haired said.
“Everybody has his own program. And nonetheless, only in Man can we, by each
carrying out our personal program, also work on the overall plan and become particles
of the new energy that’s found only in Man.”
“But how in the world can you each work on something different, something
opposite, and at the same time contribute to the overall good?” Anasta inquired
incredulously.
“We can, by continually outpacing each other by just a little bit. When you stall
walking, Anastushka, one of your little legs shoots out ahead, leaving the other behind.
Then the one that’s lagged behind suddenly shoots out ahead. It’s like the legs are
competing against each other. And in the end, together, by complying with the body’s
thoughts, they move it forward.”
Dark-haired entered the conversation: “Now that’s some example you gave.
You even cracked me up,” he said, interrupting his brother. “If you’re going to imagine
us as two little legs, then you’ re a really short one, and I’m super long. I take a step, and
the body goes right up over mountains, but you just loaf around, pretending to move.
I’m leading mankind to a planetary disaster for the fifth time now, as part of carrying
out my own program. And if the Creator’s thought regenerates it all over again, it
doesn’t matter - Bam! I’ll hit it all over again with a planetary disaster, so it won’t get
out of line.”
“Yes, you’re talented, my dear brother. You really have led the life of the whole
planet to the brink of a global disaster. But your disasters don’t bring you any
discoveries, any new knowledge, and they don’t add to your powers. But they do
always give Man new knowledge. And mankind regenerates all over again.”
“But before they do, they perish in hellish agony, along with all their
knowledge.”
“You and I, Brother, we don’t blow the Creator’s program. Perhaps one day it
will happen that mankind will prevent a disaster - an instant before it happens - and at
that point an aspiration unknown to you and me will illuminate its thought.”
“I’m sick of your light little dreamiekinses, my light little snotty-nosed brother.
You listen to me, little girl, not him,” the dark- haired youth said, addressing Anasta. “I,
little girl, will show you all my power in a form you can understand. My light little one
there got a thing or two right. Human thought really is a huge energy, equal to mine in
size, and way bigger than his. Each person, if he makes use of this energy properly,
really is capable of making the world different.
“But there’s another unseen energy-thought, too - collective thought. That’s
when a great many of separate people’s thoughts come together into a unified whole. If
all mankind’ s thoughts came together into a unified whole and you got a mankind-wide
thought - my brother and I would be like ants compared to it.
“But I’ve learned how to prevent collective thought from arising. I’m the one
who tosses various philosophical lines of reasoning and concepts out to mankind. And
what you end up with is one billion people collectively thinking one way, and another
billion thinking a different way, and that way they repudiate the first group. I, little girl,
am the incarnation of all the dark powers of the Universe, and if you join forces with
me, we will become a force second to none. I have a secret plan. You’ll get what it’s all
about, and you’ll help me.
“Together we’ll turn all people into our playthings. We’ll play with their minds.
I’ll make you mankind’s mistress, and one day you will tell me. . . ”
“I don’t like that plan,” Anasta replied, and added, “I will never take part in it,
and I don’t think any other people would agree, either.”
“You won’t take part? You, little girl, just don’t know yet, what an amusing
game it is - making people think what you want them to.
“And don’t be so quick to say that people won’t follow my program. The wheel
has already been invented - it’s primitive, so far, but then people will put two wooden
wheels together with a pole, and that’s in line with my plan, my ingenious program.”
“But what’s so bad about a wheel? When we had to haul food to the injured
mammoth Dun, a little wheeled cart helped us do that.”
“It’s all good, little girl. Just great, even. This wheel will be perfected. A great
many wheels will be made. And people will see that it’s difficult to roll a wheel over
the natural terrain, across hillocks and pot holes, through tall grass. And then they’ll
cover a huge portion of the earth over with a stone shell, so the wheels will be able to
roll along it unobstructed.
“And, growing more and more numerous, they will roll along over the groaning
earth, carrying some people atop them and ruthlessly crushing others beneath them.
“You, little girl - try to find an answer yourself: what can be more powerful than
the power which can send people to their ruin? But you won’t be able to find an answer
within you, so go ahead and acknowledge my greatness.”
Anasta pondered the question, but couldn’t find an answer within her. She
looked once more at the light-haired youth. In response to the little girl’s silent
question, Light- haired replied:
“Anastochka, my brother has painted a sad picture for you. That’s his task, and
he’s carrying it out in good conscience. I can see the question in your eyes : do I have a
program, too? I do, and I also want to appeal to you to take part in my program.”
“So what does your program want?”
“To try to comprehend the Creator’s great creation: Man. To understand the
greatness of His future achievements.”
“But hasn’t everything on Earth already been created?” Anasta asked,
astonished.
“The fact of the matter is, Anastochka. . . You see before you a beautiful
blooming flower. Each plant or animal is perfected in and of itself, but at the same time
they are all interconnected, too. It seems that the Creator has created a miraculous,
hannonious and perfected earthly world. But that doesn’t mean that this world can’t be
perfected even more.
“We can view the Creator’s creations as simply the rough material for a more
perfected creation: for creating a beautiful and perfected way of life never before seen
or imagined by anyone.”
“But who can be more perfect than perfection itself?” Anasta asked in
amazement.
“Those who issue forth from it: the Great parent’s son and daughter. For
example, you, Anastochka.”
“Me? But I can’t imagine how you could possibly alter what’s already been
created. I, for example, have no desire whatsoever to alter the little flower that bloomed
in my flower bed, even the tiniest bit. I even think that we shouldn 7 alter it, not under
any circumstances, so that we don’t spoil its perfection. And why alter Kitten? Or how
could you perfect, say, Dun the mammoth? By altering his trunk, or his ears? By
altering it how? And what for?”
“But see here, Anastochka, you altered Dim the mammoth.”
“No, I never altered him,” she objected in amazement.
“It’s true - you didn’t alter him on the outside, but your mammoth Dun carries
out far more human instructions than all the other mammoths who have ever lived on
Earth, and Dun’s understanding of what he’s instructed to do is qualitatively different.
You’ll see that immediately if you compare him with your other mammoths, the ones
that look similar.”
“Yes, now I get it. I think he’s smarter than all the other ones. It’s just that
before, I somehow didn’t give it any thought.”
“There, you see? Not only the external form and build are significant. What’s
inside and the life’s purpose are more important. And you were the very one who
created and determined what’s inside of Dun, and a life’s purpose for him. And Dun
the mammoth, who on the outside doesn’t look at all different from other mammoths
created by the great Creator, is different nonetheless. Now he is a joint creation - the
Creator’s and yours. And we don’t know who he belongs more to. After all, it isn’t only
that Dim the mammoth can carry out a larger number of commands that are essential in
every day human life. He’s grown more intelligent, loyal and responsive. Do you recall
how one day you fell asleep on the dry grass beneath a tall, tall tree, and when you
woke up, you saw Dun the mammoth standing above you, not moving a muscle? You
got angry - there was some really unpleasant smell coming from him, as if he’d gotten
smeared with some foul thing and had come on purpose to disturb your sleep with this
unpleasant smell. You got up and set off walking toward your home across the wet
grass, but before you did, you said to Dun the mammoth in a dissatisfied tone, "Dun,
you’re forever straggling off from the herd. Now you’ve started coming here of your
own accord, even when no one’s calling you. Go on off to your pasture, to your
brothers.’
“You went away, walking barefoot through the wet grass, without looking back
even once. Anastochka, do you remember that the grass was wet?”
“Yes.”
“And do you know why Dun the mammoth smelled so unpleasant?”
“No.”
""When you fell asleep, a thunderstorm began. Not only people, but animals, too,
know that lightning most often strikes tall trees. Dun saw you fall asleep, and when the
thunderstorm began, he got all agitated and came over to you, leaving his herd. He
didn’t wake you up. He just stood over you, shielding you from the rain. Some
lightning hit the tree you were sleeping under. One branch caught fire and began to fall.
It would have fallen on you, but Dim the mammoth managed to cast it aside with his
trunk. Then a second branch caught fire, and Dun cast that one off, too, but not before
the fire had scorched the fur on the mammoth’s head, and it began to smolder, giving
off an unpleasant smell. The scorched spot was unbearably painful, but Dun stood
above you without moving a muscle, while you slept. And when you left after rebuking
him for being a pest, he couldn’t even bring himself to take offense, and he forgot about
the pain. He was overjoyed that you hadn’t been harmed, and later, when tending to his
bum, he thought of you with tenderness.”
Anasta jumped to her feet and ran to the mammoth, who was standing a short
distance away. He nodded joyfully. Anasta took hold of the tip of his trunk, patted it
with her hand, pressed her cheek to it then kissed it. The mammoth froze. He kept
standing that way, motionlessly, his eyes scrunched up, even after the little girl had
walked away from him and gone back to the light-haired youth.
“I get it,” Anasta said to Light-haired. “Dun the mammoth has been remodeled.
Maybe it happened all on its own, or maybe I helped him in some way. He does differ
from the mammoths who were just created by the Creator.
“Does that mean Man’s been given that right - the right to remodel?”
“Yes, he’s been given that,” Light-haired answered. “So now think about this: in
accordance with which program?”
“In accordance with the good one.”
“So go ahead and define it. Choose. Create.”
“Do you mean that the One who created everything on Earth didn’t create any
one program that Man has to live by?”
“I think that He presented Man with a great many options to choose from, but
that He himself dreamt only of one tiling.”
“What?”
“Only Man can find an answer to that.”
“But where should we look for it?”
“Inside you. By mentally imagining, analyzing and comparing various options
for arranging life on Earth.”
“Do you mean people live on Earth, but know nothing of the Creator’s
program?”
“People have been given great knowledge about using biological resources for
development, but people possess various types of freedom, including the freedom to
replace biological resources with technocratic ones. It’s up to them to decide whether
to use their inner resources deep down inside them - those, say, of a living tree that
glows and senses biological rhythms and, by adjusting to them, regulates its own state
depending on the surrounding conditions - or the exterior, superficial resources of a
dead tree. When people step onto the technocratic path of development, they use the
superficial resources - they fashion this or that implement out of wood and use it for
fuel or for building material.
“For some reason, people always choose the technocratic path. But it inevitably
leads them to disaster. That’s happened more than once. After all, all planetary
disasters are created by people’s thoughts. Thoughts that are followed by actions.”
“But the glacier that forced my family line to leave its home - no people created
that.”
“Your family line, Anastochka, has already set foot on the technocratic path.
And in accordance with the program of life, the glacier will overtake it and bring it to
min. But life will rise anew. A new hope for human intelligence will appear. If
someone stops the glacier, and only a person can do that, your family line will live in a
technocratic world. And sooner or later the technocratic path will all the same lead it to
disaster. True, if a person finds a way to stop the glacier - meaning, a way to avert one
disaster - then in all likelihood, he’ll be able to avert the one after it, too. A short while
before the next one, he’ll be able to illuminate people’s souls with an understanding of
where they went wrong in their choices, and avert the disaster. Then mankind will be
able to choose a new path and gradually and carefully dismantle his lethal inventions.
But illuminating the souls of people of the technocratic world is an uphill battle.
“During a technocratic period of life, people cease to be intelligent beings. It’s
necessary to appeal not to their minds, but to their feelings and, through their feelings,
to inform them about the essence of the Divine program, and in order to do this, one has
to sense and comprehend it for oneself.”
“But haven’t you already comprehended it?”
“Not entirely. Really, I think it’s impossible to completely grasp it in the way
that one can completely comprehend my brother’s programs. It’s impossible to
completely comprehend it. Completion is cessation of motion. In addition, I see no
limit to how much you can perfect, say, your mammoth.”
“What about other wild animals?”
“Others, too. You know full well, Anastochka, that all animal offspring adopt
their parents’ habits and skills. That means that each new generation will be a bit more
perfected than the previous one, and if Man correctly determines all wild animals’ life
purposes, if each subsequent generation continues perfecting the animal world around
it - a world that will free man from all every day concerns - then in the very same way,
human thought will be freed up for more important achievements.”
“That probably is what can happen, if you’re speaking about wild animals. But
now, I wouldn’t ever take it into my head to try to perfect the little flower - it’s very,
very perfected.”
“I think so, too, Anastochka. Even so, your beautiful little flower is but the paint
that the Creator has presented to his daughter for her future creations.”
“But why paint? After all, the little flower is a living thing.”
“Yes, certainly, it’s a living thing and self-contained, and at the same time it can
be no more than a tiny particle of the living picture that is great in its beauty.
“Take a look at your flower bed. What looks most beautiful in it is your favorite
flower. But if you plant two or three more of the very same flower in it, the way the
flower bed looks will change. Then you can plant other pretty flowers, ones that don’t
look like these, and the way the flower bed looks will change once again.
“Then you can perfect the living picture by arranging the various flowers in a
different order. There’s no limit to the perfection. It is in accordance with the Creator’s
program to move toward it.”
“Does that mean that Man was created in order to make everything around him
lovelier and lovelier? In order to perfect the world the Creator gave him? Is that Man’s
main life’s purpose?”
“To create glorious living pictures, to comprehend and perfect the animal world
- of course, that is an important life’s purpose for Man. But I see the main one as
something different.”
“As what?”
“As Man perfects the Divine world order, he himself will necessarily become
more and more perfected, and there is no limit to be seen to this phenomenon. Great
resources will open up before him.”
“But why will he be more perfected? I mean, no one’s going to be instructing
Man while all this is going on.”
“You, Anastochka, created a lovely flower bed and your experience helped you
understand how to do that. You’ll try to make your creation next year even better. And
you’ll do so, using your previous experience and feelings. That means that by creating
the first time, you gained experience, knowledge and sensations that enable you to
create something more perfected. And that means that your creation itself is instructing
you.
“Creation in divine, living nature perfects the creator.
“And there is no end in sight to the heights such great creation can reach- there
is eternity.”
“I really want to live in a marvelous world like that, where everything can be
perfected eternally, where the creator will perfect his creations and the creations will
perfect their creator. I want my papa and mama, my brothers and Grandfather Wood
and our entire family line to live in that world.” Anasta smiled, and her eyes shone. “I
must stop the glacier. How do 1 do it? How?”
“Human thought is the most powerful energy of the Universe. There is no limit
to its potential. It’s important to learn to use it properly. But how to do this, using what
means - that is unknown. Only Man has the power to make this great discovery.”
“Most likely, my thought is still quite small and not powerful,” Anasta said
sadly, sighing. “I want the glacier to stop, but it’s coming closer and closer, and it’s
growing colder and colder every day. That means my thought is small.
“If Dun the mammoth knew how to think about the glacier. . . He has a big head,
and that means the thought in it might be big and powerful.”
Anasta ran up to the mammoth and, slapping her palm against the trunk he
extended to her in greeting, she said, excited:
“You’re so big, Dim, and you have a big head. That means it might contain a big
thought. Think your thought, Dun. Stop the glacier. Because otherwise all you do is
listen and listen. At the very least, take a walk over to the pasture, Dun - there’s less
and less food for you all the time there.”
Dun the mammoth stroked the little girl’s cheek and hair with the tip of his
trunk, slowly turned around and began walking off. The cat nicknamed Kitten took a
running start, sprang onto the mammoth’s leg and, latching onto his fur, scrambled up
onto his back.
“Anastochka, it’s time for you and your charges to flee this place,” the
light-haired youth said, addressing the little girl. “There’s already ice on the other side
of that mountain there. That isn’t even the main glacier yet, but even it can move the
mountain that covers the valley, and carry away the gardens and homes where your
family line lived. And it’s causing the temperature to fall with every day. The main
glacier will press against this ice and the mountain will slowly begin moving. This will
happen a few days from now.”
“I will not flee this place. I have to see it, this ice, and understand why it’s
advancing onto our Land. I have to think up a way to stop the glacier. Tomorrow
morning I’ 11 go up on that mountain and I’ll see it.”
Bowing to the little girl and taking his leave of her, the light-haired youth said, “I
wish you auspicious and sharp thoughts, Anastochka.” And he addressed his brother,
saying, “Let us go, Brother, and remove ourselves from the little girl’s sight. Let’s not
bother her. Perhaps she’ll be able to understand and will learn how to control her
thought.”
“Come on then, let’ s go. Of the two of us, you’re the main hindrance. You got all
carried away here, philosophizing and going on and on.”
“Oh, wait! Please wait!” Anasta suddenly said, starting. “Each of you told about
his program. That means 1 must also have a program, but I’ve never ever thought about
it. Could it be I don’t have one in me?”
“We’re getting out of your sight, little girl. You get busy thinking. Don’t slack
off. You’ve hardly got any time at all left, only two sunrises,” said Dark-haired,
without answering the question.
And the youths left.
WHO CONTROLS OUR THOUGHTS?
Anasta was left totally alone. Slowly, she set off walking along the wilted grass
of the valley where her family line had so very recently lived, and in the absolute
silence that had fallen, she tried to comprehend how she could control her own thought.
If thought was the strongest energy, the little girl reflected, then what could
possibly control it, this strongest tiling? If this energy-thought exists within me, then
what within me could be stronger than it? And why did the most wise elders teach us
everything at the gatherings, but say nothing about how you can control your thought?
Perhaps they didn’t know anything about this either?
The strongest energy remains uncontrolled. First it heads off in one direction,
then in another. Even though it’s inside me, all the same it’s also not mine, if I don’t
control it in any way. And maybe someone will manage to lure it over to them and play
with it, and since it’s inside me, then they’re playing some kind of game with me, too,
but I won’t even know about it.
All the way up until dusk, Anasta made efforts to reflect on the power of
thought. And when she lay down to sleep, she made an intense effort to think about it.
When she woke up in the morning, Anasta did not see Dun the mammoth next to
her little home the way she usually did. He used to always be right there as soon as she
woke up, but now he wasn’t there. Dim still hadn’t shown up by the time Anasta had
bathed in the creek, either. She began calling him, shouting in the direction of the
pasture, “Dun! Dun!” But, just as before, he didn’t show up. Kitten hadn’t been next to
her that night, either, and he also didn’t show up in the morning.
Anasta realized they had left. A mammoth needs a lot of vegetation to eat, and
there was less and less of it all the time. That meant Dun had left so he wouldn’t die a
senseless death, from starvation. And Kitten had gone off with him, too. “But I won’t
leave,” Anasta thought. Tossing a coverlet woven from grass bast around her little
shoulders, she resolutely set off for the mountain beyond which the glacier was
advancing on the world. Wending her way up the path toward the mountaintop, Anasta
once again made an intense effort to comprehend how this strongest energy - human
thought - worked. What did she need to do in order to stop the glacier?
When she’d reached the mountaintop, she stood on its peak, wrapping herself in
her shawl in the wind. Harsh, bitterly cold air currents tousled her hair, now uncovering
the star-shaped birthmark on her forehead, now covering it over again. But the little girl
didn’t notice the cold air currents. She was taking in what was going on down below,
on the far side of the mountain, whose foothills no longer sported any verdure. From
horizon to horizon, as far as the eye could see, there lay ice.
Blocks of ice were heading for the mountain. They were huge, and this wasn’t
even the main glacier, but merely the first ice cakes that the more powerful ones were
pushing along. That meant the mountain didn’t stand a chance against the giant masses,
Anasta was thinking.
One side of the mountain had already grown cold, and there was no vegetation
on it, and the second one would grow cold as well. As if confirming her words, the
sound of cracking ice was heard, and a stream of water mixed with ice chips rushed out
from beneath the ice, and the ice blocks traveled along the slush, coming closer and
closer to the mountain, plowing up the earth before them and pushing along the felled
trees.
Anasta directed her gaze to the tallest block of ice and started at what she saw.
There stood Dun the mammoth, his head pressed against this giant mountain of ice.
Alongside the giant mass of ice, he no longer seemed so big.
Anasta instantly recalled how attentively Dim had listened to her words about
the power of thought that is capable of a great deal. She recalled telling him that
probably there must be big and powerful thoughts in his big head. And he had
understood all of that in his own way. He’d figured that if he were to put his big head
with its big thought up against the ice block, then he’d be able to stop it from moving.
Anasta raced from her spot and ran headlong along the path to the foothill of the
mountain, to the spot where Dun the mammoth was standing.
The wind, with its biting snowflakes, tore off the little girl’s scarf in a violent
gust, but she didn’t pick it up. She jumped forward onto a rock, stumbled and rolled
down, head over heels. And then she got up once more and set off running.
When she’d gotten to Dun’s legs, she saw... A small depression had formed in
the ice, beneath the mammoth’s head. The ice there had melted a tiny bit, and water
was running down the mammoth’s trunk in thin streams.
The mammoth was trembling from the cold. And down below, at his feet, Anasta
saw that Kitten was trembling from the cold. He, his head pressed against the ice like
Dim, was attempting to hold back the glacier’s movement.
“He-e-ey,” Anasta shouted. “He-e-ey!”
But neither the mammoth nor the cat responded to her shout. The little girl
scooped up Kitten, who was trembling from the cold, and, cuddling him, began
rubbing his little body. When he’d gotten warmed up a little, Anasta made him
scramble up on the mammoth’s back. Kitten tried with all his strength to do it, but he
fell. He was only able to make it up on top on his second attempt.
Anasta stood up on the rock so she’d be as close as possible to the mammoth’s
ear, and she whispered to him:
“Dun! My faithful Dun. You are very smart and loyal. You are kind. You know
how to think - maybe not entirely correctly, but we’ll fix that. Thought isn’t just in the
head - it’s everywhere. Dun, you should go to the other side of the mountain.” The
mammoth stood there without moving. Only now and then a shudder would run
through his body. And Anasta began whispering once more: “I am Anasta! Do you
hear me, Dun? I am Anasta. I won’t leave here without you. T urn and look at me, Dun.”
Dim the mammoth slowly pulled his head back from the block and turned it to
the little girl. The thick fur on his forehead was wet, and he had a hard time raising his
eyelids and looking at the little girl. Then, he made an effort and raised his trunk and
touched its tip to Anasta’s shoulder. His trunk was totally cold. Anasta took it in her
hands began rubbing it and blowing on it, as if by doing so she could warm the
mammoth’s huge body. And she did actually warm it, not only with the warmth of her
breath, but with something warmer and more meaningful as well. And the mammoth
obeyed and followed Anasta, who led him by his trunk, as if she were leading him by
the hand. Barely putting one foot in front of the other, Dun ascended to the
mountaintop. There the exhausted little girl sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree and,
pointing to a slope that still remained green, ordered the mammoth to make his way
down.
“Dun, go down there. Go to your pasture. You’ll rest up there and get your
strength back. And you’ll find some food for yourself there, too.” And she added,
sternly, “Go, Dun, go down there.”
The mammoth obeyed and began slowly making his way down along the path to
the still green valley. When he’d taken ten or so steps, he turned to Anasta, extended
his trunk upward and trumpeted out a summons, the way he’d done when Anasta had
run through the valley, asking her Motherland not to give in to the glacier, when she
had shouted out her “He-e-ey!” and conquered the silence.
And just like she’d done then, Anasta summoned her strength and shouted out,
“He-e-ey!” and waved to Dun as a sendoff for him on his downhill path. And Dun the
mammoth made his way slowly down off the mountain, carrying out his mistress’
order. But she...
After a brief rest, Anasta stood up atop the rock and once again cast her gaze
over the giant ice masses that had filled the space before her as far as the eye could see,
and quietly, but confidently, she uttered the words:
“I am a person! My thought is powerful. I am directing my thought against you,
glacier. You must stop and crawl back where you came from. With my thought I
command you to do so.”
Down below, the sound of a crack was heard once more, and the ice moved a
tiny bit closer to the mountain. A gust of cold air hit the little girl in the chest, as if
trying to block her off her feet.
“Go back, ice! I command you! Back!” Once again a crack, and once again the
glacier advanced toward the little girl.
Anasta said nothing for a short time, gazing at the advancing glacier, and
suddenly she smiled.
“I get it. You are feeding on my thought, glacier. I get it. But now you will cease
to exist.”
Anasta turned her back on the glacier, sat down on a tree trunk and began
looking at her still green valley. But Anasta did not see flowers and grasses that were
withering from the cold. Rather, she was imagining the meadows blooming in vibrant
color, imagining that snow-white and pink flowers were coming out on the trees, that
birds were singing and grasshoppers were chirring in the grass. Imagining
Great-grandfather Wood returning to the valley and the entire family line returning
along with him And Anasta was running toward him barefoot through the grass. More
and more quicby all the time. . .
Anasta’ s thought was speeding up more and more. She had enough time! In the
space of a moment, she tenderly stroked a billion blades of grass. And she was able to
imagine each one separately, from its root up to its little stem. She was able to send a
little ray of sun to each one. Give each one a little drop of rain to drink and caress it
with a breeze.
Anasta fell asleep on the rocks near the trunk of a fallen tree. A cold wind blew
against her back. But even as the little girl was falling asleep, her thought was at work
and speeding up more and more.
Hurtling lightning bolts coming from her thought touched everything in the
space. Creation awoke. And the new was bom in the space, as if Anasta’ s entire
Motherland had risen from a deep sleep. The thought kept worbng, even when the
little girl Anasta fell into a sleep that would last thousands of years.
Her thought - the great human energy - lingered above the valley, caressing the
bugs and the blades of grass, Kitten and Dun the mammoth.
The ice blocks shuddered and cracked, but they could move forward any further,
not even a millimeter. They were melting. Streams of melted ice skirted the valley and
flowed into rivers and lakes.
The glacier was melting, powerless to overcome human thought, the strongest
energy of the Universe.
WHAT WILL THESE PEOPLE COME TO?
Torrents of water from the melting glacier formed a large river. Its raging current
swept up rocks and fallen trees as it went. It washed off and carried away the fertile
topsoil, along with the vegetation and everything living in it. But the family valley that
people had been forced to abandon was left untouched by the fearsome stream.
The foliage on the trees in the valley yellowed and fell off, and there was no
singing of birds to be heard. But some number of the plants continued fighting for their
lives, adapting to the cooling that was unusual for these parts. And, amazingly enough,
Anasta’s favorite flower still remained in her once very lovely flower bed.
The valley was shielded by the ridge of mountains, atop one of which the little
girl Anasta had fallen into a sleep that would last thousands of years.
Two athletic youths, one light- haired and one dark-haired, stood at the foot of
the mountain. They were looking at a huge block of granite that extended out over the
ground. Drops of water were forcing their way along both sides.
The dark-haired youth spoke with joyful Schadenfreude:
“That’s what they get, these people who’ve lost their sense. Little by little, some
time in the next two days, the water will gradually wash away the support around the
rock, and it will collapse, opening up a path for the death-dealing torrent to make its
way into the valley. The water will rush like a powerful waterfall, tearing off and
carrying the mountain rocks away with it, and little by little it will erode the entire
mountain and carry it away. Once the torrent that’s coming in on the right of the
mountain has thrown this giant rock aside, it will rush into the crevice that forms,
making it larger and larger, and it will change direction.”
“Yes, if this block collapses in the next two days, before the torrent reaches the
sloping lands beyond the valley and floods it, thereby lessening the water pressure,
then it will rush with all its strength into Anastochka’s family valley,” the light- haired
youth agreed. Aid he added, “Now I regret having taken form in a human body. Right
now we need an animal with a powerful body, to prop up this block.”
“Ha, ha, he regrets he’s not a powerful animal! Sure, you could have adopted its
appearance, but then you would have had to resemble it, too. You wouldn’t have been
able to speak like a human and realize that the block will soon be carried away by the
torrent.
“Yep, what are you jabbering on and on about, with your ‘family valley’ and
your ‘ Anastochka’ . . . It’s all the same to her now. Her Soul is soaring in the immense
Universe.”
“Soaring. Yes . . . ” Light-haired said, thoughtfully and tenderly. “The thought has
been carefully preserved in it, and the dream. Awareness, great knowledge. All the
same, she really did manage to stop the glacier. The Daughter of God grasped the
power of human thought through her feelings. She altered God’s plan a tiny bit.”
“Exactly - a tiny bit! And how much slobbery tenderness is there in your words?
Just a tiny bit, I might add. A tiny bit. And you? ‘She grasped it through her feelings’
and ‘Daughter of God’...” Dark-haired said, mockingly mimicking him. Speaking
with abandon, he went on. “The raging torrent will rush into the valley anyway. It’s
rushing after the crowd of idiots who don’t even suspect that they themselves - and
their thoughts and actions that drew them away from the natural and toward the
artificial - are the cause of the disaster. For now, their aspirations are still in the
beginning stages, but we blow how destructive these aspirations are for them, and for
the Earth and for the whole Universe. And so that they don’t suffer, and so that they
don’t tear the surface of the Earth to bits, they will be destroyed - in accord with God’s
program - at the very beginning stages of the disastrous aspiration. The raging torrent
will overcome them. A huge, roaring tidal wave of water, rocks, fallen tree trunks and
corpses of the formerly living will make its way unforgivingly toward them.
“At first, when they hear the rumbling behind them, they’ll feel something is
wrong and pick up their pace. But the rumbling will grow, and off in the distance
they’ 11 see a huge wall moving toward them, bringing death. F or them it will signify the
Flood. They will all be gripped by terror - their mammoth- elephants, their kittens, their
children and their old folk. And their Souls will fly up into the Universe, retaining
within them only the honors.”
With a kind of venomous passion Dark-haired began using facial expressions
and gestures to portray these people who had been gripped by terror. Mothers, pressing
their infants to their breast, people who had knelt down with their hands stretched out
to the heavens, feverishly praying for mercy. Others, running with their last ounce of
strength and shouting. Dark-haired began running around in a circle, wailing, showing
terror on his face. Then he stopped, glancing in the direction of the people who were
leaving, and said:
“My pale-faced brother, do you get it? Do you get what kind of unavoidable
destiny will overcome these people? And so, that little girlie, asleep on the mountain,
didn’t change God’s program in any substantial way.”
“The way you’ve modeled the human future is not to my liking, Brother. We,
Universal entities, can probably take some action. It’s not our business to remain
indifferent. When we’re indifferent, then we do not exist.”
“What does the future care about your ‘to my liking’, ‘not to my liking’, if it’s
unavoidable?” Dark-haired sneered.
Without waiting to hear his brother’s answer, he turned sharply and saw... His
light-haired brother had gone to stand beneath the granite block and all on his own,
with his shoulders and arms, propped it up. The stream of water flowing along the
edges of the block became significantly smaller.
“Idiotic, senseless and irrational,” Dark-haired said after a brief pause. Then he
was silent a bit longer, as if deliberating about something, and then he began shaming
his brother with new-found strength, attempting to prove the senselessness of his
actions: “There’s no one here, and thus, there’s no one to laugh at your total idiocy.
Before you went to stand under that granite block, you didn’t even take the time to
calculate how much it weighs. The water’s still oozing through, and the supports
holding the granite up are eroding, and that means more and more weight will be
pressing down on you. Do you understand that, you pale-faced idiot?”
“By force of my will, I will condense to the density of the granite, and I’ll be able
to hold my ground. I only need hold out for two days. I’ll hold out!” said the
light-haired athlete.
“Right! ‘I’ll hold out,’ ‘I’ll condense,’... Well, go on, then, condense away, to
the density of the granite. But what’s your load-bearing surface area? Your
load-bearing surface area is the size of the soles of your two feet. And along toward the
middle of the second day, the whole burden will come to rest upon you, and you’ll sink
into the ground like some kind of granite stake, shoving the smaller rubble off to the
sides. As soon as you sink in up to your knees, the torrent of water will shove the block
aside.”
“I’ll straighten my arms out. Then I’ll be able to to hold out half a day more.”
“Yes, of course, you’ll hold out. Only not for half a day. You’ll hold out, maybe
for an hour more, you clueless blockhead. Then there’ll be a landslide. For all of
eternity, since the moment of creation, never once has God’s program experienced a
glitch. And I am in agreement with it. Given that mankind is stepping onto an absurd
path of development, it’ s better to put them down at the beginning of their path. Maybe
a new civilization on Earth will comprehend its life’s purpose and then we’ll
comprehend. The Universe will see new deeds, not today’s primitivism. Numerous
times, the earth has experienced disasters that have washed away the filth that Man
accumulated.
“Who is it you want to save? Mankind, which with its very own hands will, in
the future, create a living hell for itself and everything living on Earth? Do I need to
remind you where the technocratic path will drag them off to in the future? Should I
remind you? Why don’t you say something? All, excellent! You’re condensing and
petrifying. Are you already having a hard time talking? Don’t talk, then. Excellent!
Stand there like a stone idol and look. Look at the pictures of the future life of the
people you’re trying to save. I’ve always admired them. There’s the most
unenlightened folly, absurdity and vanity in them. But you don’t like looking at them.
these pictures. Go on and look now, my pale-faced, petrifying, motionless one. Look!
But no, first listen and hear - what you don’t want to hear.
“If those who have left the valley aren’t destroyed, they’ll follow their
technocratic path. They’ll multiply, and from one generation to the next, they’ll break,
destroy and remold the great earthly harmony. And they’ll kill animals. Animals who
are meant to serve them. They’ll construct a multitude of various soulless devices out
of completely living material. They’ll start referring to their actions using the resonant
words ‘industrialization,’ ‘scientific and technical progress,’ and they’ll invest these
words with the implication of intelligent development.
“Well, and what kind of development? Do they possess rationality? Are they
developing in a rational way? Like crazy folk, they will destroy unsurpassed creations
and call their own barbaric actions ‘progress.’ They are ill! A virus has taken up
residence in their minds. And the epidemic will smite all of mankind. This virus is
more terrible than the complete annihilation of everything on earth. It threatens the
entire Universe. It is called... Have you already guess what word I’m going to utter
now? More than once you’ve beseeched me not to repeat it and have turned away from
me and hurried to walk off, away from me, but now you won’t turn away, you won’t
walk off. What will strike this whole human civilization is. . . anti-rationality.
“Struck by this anti-rationality, mankind will enter into the virus’ dimension. It
will begin performing deeds unsurpassed in their idiocy and villainy, cloaking them in
the words ‘progress,’ ‘advanced,’ ‘moral,’ ‘lovely,’ ‘rational,’ and ‘spiritual’ when
they speak to each other. Now that’s some kind of development, right?
“No, I can’t get by without a visual here! Now, take a look.”
The dark-haired youth traced a square in the air with his hand, and a hologram
immediately appeared inside it.
The hologram showed a twelve-story building being built. Two cranes were
raising building materials up to the already complete stories. People in orange hardhats
and blue coveralls who were busy doing the finishing work on the dwellings could be
seen through the window openings.
The dark-haired youth commented:
“This incomprehensible thing here with a great number of cells - they’re going
to call that a ‘home.’ Anti- rationality is turning people into anti-people. They have
distorted the concept and the meaning behind the words ‘my home.’
“They’ve replaced the home - a living space fonned by a person’s thought, and
reflecting his thought capacity - with an artificial, stone cell. And they’ve called it a
‘home,’ as some kind of travesty of Rationality. The Universe is not in need of their
limited thought. It is becoming a breeding ground for anti-rationality and develops and
strengthens its might. And this breeding ground is glowing larger and larger.”
The hologram stretched out from horizon to horizon, showing the building of a
multitude of little boxes with artificial, stone cells. Some of them were collapsing, but
the people in the orange hardhats were erecting new, even taller stone structures with a
multitude of cells in their place.
Dark-haired continued:
“To gain the right to live in these cells, they will have to perform deeds that
aren’t proper for a rational being-Man! Children of God! Goddesses! Takealook, my
pale-faced brother, take a look at these deeds.”
The dark-haired youth waved his hand once more, and a square with a hologram
appeared once again. This time it showed a huge grocery store. A great many people
were gathering all manner of items to purchase, placing them into metal baskets and
walking up to one of the cash registers arranged in a row, to pay for the goods they’d
chosen.
“These are the beings from the stone cells. Every day they engage in various
deeds that are worthless in terms of rationality, and they call their deeds ‘work.’ For
their work they receive slips of paper that they call ‘money.’ Here you see them
exchanging the money they’ve received for food.
“In the beginning, God created everything so that all a rational person had to do
was stretch out his hand and take the Divine creation that was to his liking and enjoy
consuming it, thereby increasing the energy inside him and satisfying his body. But
these beings have altered their way of life so much that there’s none of God’s food
around them. The food they acquire in exchange for the slips of paper does not possess
Divine energy. The beings who have created this way of life cannot be called rational.
Their way of life is the result of anti-rationality.”
The picture in the square changed, and now it was showing a close-up of a
female cashier. One after another, people would come up to her cash register and lay
out this or that kind of packages, boxes, cans and bottles on a little table in front of the
woman. Smiling, the woman would say, “Hello,” to each of them. She’d take the
packages, pass them over some kind of little pane of glass, after which numerals
representing the product’s price would light up on the cash register. The cashier would
take some money from the person and say to him, smiling again, “Thank you for your
purchase. Come visit us again.”
And now there was a close-up in the square, showing the woman’s face at the
moment when she turned away from the people who were standing in line and bent
down to the floor to pick up a bag that had fallen. She turned away from the people
standing before her for only a few seconds, and some kind of sad and doomed
expression appeared on her face. Her eyelids began to close a bit, betraying an
incredible weariness. The woman picked the bag up with one hand and pressed the
other to her side, wincing in pain. All of tins lasted just a very short time. When she
turned back to the people, there was a smile on her face once more, and once more she
said to each one, “Hello. Thank you for your purchase. Come visit us again.”
The dark-haired youth commented:
“You see, my brother? Before you is a being you call a goddess. She sits behind
a register made up of a multitude of little screws and circuits, and she herself is less
perfected than those little screws. The register has no soul and no rationality. It just acts
in accord with its prescribed program. Now this being sits behind it twelve hours a day,
tapping away at its keys and saying thank you to every person. What’s this being
thanking each person who comes up for? For nothing - it is simply a robot. It should
have rationality, but it sits and taps away at the keys of some register for twelve hours
at a time. It will do that for half of its life, so that it can finally end up in a stone cell.
“Rationality wouldn’t have allowed something like that to take place, so that
means that the anti-rationality virus is at work in her, that this woman is not a person,
but an anti-person, and that she is located in the dimension of anti- rationality. Her
internal organs have been petrified, she does not receive normal food, and the blood in
her veins is solidifying and stagnating because she has to sit for twelve horns at a time.
She looks older than her years. Look! This is the way she should look at her age, if she
were in the dimension of Rationality, if she were a person. Now I’ll show her in the
natural dimension at this same time. Look!”
A new hologram in the square showed a slender, blond beauty running along the
side of a brook toward a naked little boy, her son. The beauty ran up to him, scooped
him up in her arms and spun around, bursting into happy laughter.
The two women, living in different dimensions bore little resemblance to each
other.
The supermarket cashier sitting at the register appeared in the square once more.
“This is just one little isolated instance,” Dark-haired said. “Would you say it’s
totally uncharacteristic of all mankind? Take a look.”
Next he spread his arms out, and the picture in the square spread out from
horizon to horizon, and a picture appeared: hundreds of thousands of people were
sitting behind various registers in tightly packed rows, tapping away at the keys. They
were varied, these people. Very young girls and elderly women, and there were some
men, too. Then a picture appeared in space - hundreds of thousands of hands were
tapping away incessantly at the registers’ keys. In the comer of the boundless screen
the sun appeared, then the moon replaced it, then the sun appeared again, replacing a
half moon. The daytime and nighttime luminaries measured off the days and months
and years, like a clock. But the people who had filled the entire space from horizon to
horizon, kept on tapping away at the keys of their registers, repeating, as if they were
robots, “Hello, thank you for your purchase. Come visit us again.”
“Look, my brother. Take a look. Now it will get even more interesting. Take a
look at mankind’s future.”
A hologram appeared in space, showing a close up of a person running with a
sword in his hands, his face distorted by rage. It was replaced by a picture of a person
lying on the ground in the mud, spraying machine gun fire. Then three people appeared
who were shooting a cannon. And the entire space suddenly filled up with a multitude
of people. They were shown as very tiny, so that more of them would fit into the space.
With swords, pitchforks, scythes, machine guns and cannons, the people were cutting
each other down and shooting at each other. They were strangling each other with their
hands and kicking them with their feet. From up above, flying machines were dropping
objects down onto the ground that was teeming with a mass of people. Upon reaching
the ground, the objects would explode, sending up clumps of mud and the remains of
human bodies.
“Did rational beings create this mess, my brother? And they’re anti-rational
because they’ve taken into their heads to justify this, too. They’ll call this mess ‘war.’
They’ll give various decorations to those who excel in this slaughter, and the ones who
receive these medals will proudly wear them on their chest. They’ll leam to pass laws
that justify this slaughter that will go on for centuries without ceasing.”
Dark-haired waved his hands once more, and a hologram appeared in the space
once more, divided into a great many squares. Each square showed the interior of
various halls where people were sitting and listening to people speaking from
rostrums.
“They have different names for this: a Congress, Parliament, Duma, or a House,
but they’re all essentially the same thing.
“Do you see the people sitting their, my brother? You can still see, so take a
look. The people sitting before you are writing laws for various peoples and, if you
lump them all together, for all mankind. They’ve been writing them for millennia, but
there are no perfected laws - nor can there be. Do you get that, my brother? Of course,
you get it!”
Dark-haired roared with laughter. His spiteful laughter filled the valley, and its
echo bounced off the ridge of mountain. He stopped laughing and, turning to the
pictures with the people sitting in them, shouted, as if they could hear and understand
him:
“You’ll never be able to write perfected laws because you don’t know the most
important thing. You don’t know the life’s purpose of each separate man and of
mankind as a whole. This life’s purpose - the Universal life’s purpose - has been
expressed in just four words, ft is the foundation of all laws. It and only it, can string all
the Earth’s laws onto itself, like beads onto a thread, or repulse them But you don’t
blow what it is - you’ve forgotten it.
“Do you get it, my brother? They’ve forgotten the most important thing, and
now they’re in the dimension of anti-rationality. They’ve forgotten that their life’s
purpose has been laid out in four words. What words are those? Do you want me to
utter them, my brother? You do! Of course you do, very much. You’re always uttering
them, in the hope that they’ 11 hear you and understand. You utter them, but they don’t
heai'. They don’t hear because they’re located in the dimension of anti-rationality, and
if I utter them, if you and I utter them together, they’ll hear. They’ll start to take action,
and they’ll become people. But I won’t utter them.
“Let them deliberate until the next worldwide disaster, which will be
unprecedented in scale and strength. It will approach inexorably, and they will be
powerless to use their laws to stop it from approaching. These beings know of the
approaching disaster. They even know why it will occur, and they can’t manage to
change their way of life. They can’t manage at all. If you look at them, they still
resemble people, but only on the outside. They themselves - just think about it, my
brother - for centuries, they themselves have been inventing various mechanical
substitutes for human capabilities. Just look what they’re turning into.”
A hologram appeared in space. The right side showed the handsome,
well-proportioned body of a youth, clad only in a loincloth, while the left side showed
a girl in a short little grass skirt. Between them was a circle filled with a great many
small, multicolored circles.
“In the circle I’m showing the capabilities with which each man was endowed
inherently. They were capable of much. . . ”
Night replaced day in the hologram. The young man glanced up at the heavens
and said, “Today in the heavens above me, nine billion, eighty two stars can be seen.”
“My love,” the gill said, replying to the youth, “right now in the heavens above you,
nine billion eighty three stars can be seen. There’s one you didn’t notice. It’s not at all
bright. I will wait for you on it. We will create a space of love on it, and it will begin to
shine with a bright blue light. For the time being, our star is barely noticeable.”
“Yes, they were capable of much,” Dark-haired commented. “Their initial
capabilities enabled them to create everything you can imagine. And even things you
can’t. But once they start inventing mechanical, non-rational capability substitutes,
they’ll begin losing their God-given talents.” Calculating devices appeared one after
another and then disappeared, and as each of the instruments appeared, several of the
little circles decreased in size, some of them actually turning into black dots. “They
used to be capable of counting all the stars by glancing at the sky for just an instant, but
they’ll get to the point in their inventions that they’ll be calculating Two plus two’ on
calculators.
“They’ll invent the telephone and will begin losing the ability to communicate
over distance and imagine their loved ones’ whereabouts.
“In the end, they’ll begin implanting artificial devices into their bodies,”
Dark-haired went on, “and they themselves will turn more and more into a primitive,
soulless device. It will be impossible to call them ‘people.’ Their rationality is stuffed
down somewhere deep inside. Anti-rationality dominates them. It is simultaneously
around them and within them. Take a look, my brother - now you’ll see my final little
picture.”
Dark-haired waved his hand, and on the screen, in the steaming air, hovering in
the air, was a folded-out map of the Earth - that part of it where people lived very
densely in the cities. And in each city, the stout tentacles of some monstrously large
being were wending their way between the large concentrations of people, weaving in
and out and shuddering. They were great in number. They encircled the cities and were
also located inside them. Some kind of foul-smelling, dark-colored gas was being
emitted from the great number of pores on each tentacle. But the people weren’t
shrinking back from these terrifying emissions - they were breathing them. The people
were building their homes close to the tentacles. From time to time, first in one spot and
then in another, the reeking tentacles would burst, seemingly due to great pressure, and
the people would rush to patch and smooth out these blow-outs, so as to restore the
monstrous octopus’ vital functions.
“My brother, do you see the tentacles of the monstrous octopus? Perhaps you
want me to show you the body of the monster that has covered the world with its
tentacles? Naturally, you don’t even want to think and speak about this. But I’ll tell you
right where this death-dealing body is located. I'll tell you where the tentacles are
coming from. They’re coming from the brains of these beings who used to be
considered rational people. The monster’s body is inside their brains - that’s where
they’re all coming from. And they are proud of their death-dealing progeny - they
cherish it. They call the monstrous tentacles ‘roads’ and ‘highways.’” Dark-haired
roared with laughter. “There you have it - the future of mankind ! And you want to save
to save those who are heading for the dimension of anti-rationality? You want to save
them for that fate?” Dark-haired asked, turning to his brother who was holding the
block of granite back, keeping it from falling.
It wasn’t just little drops of water that were seeping around the block of granite
any more - now the water was flowing around it in thin streams. The body of the
light-haired youth supporting the block of granite was petrifying ever more intensely.
Even his facial muscles had hardened, and he could neither speak nor blink. Only his
blue eyes, still alive, were looking at the pictures of mankind’s future.
The dark-haired youth stuck his palm beneath a stream of the water that was
running off and said, his voice full of venom:
“There’s precious little time left before the flood. Maybe I’d have time to say
three or four more phrases to you, my brother, but I’m not going to say anything. Most
likely you can’t hear me any more.”
The dark-haired youth spread his arms out to the sides then bent his elbows,
amusing himself with his athletic muscles, then shook Iris head, tossing Iris black locks
of hair back. He spent a bit more time observing the streams of water flowing around
the block of granite his brother was propping up, watching them grow stronger. Then
he said:
“It’s time for me to be going. It’s time. Now what has been preordained to come
to pass shall come to pass. But. . . it shall not come to pass.”
The dark-haired athlete strode up to the bock of granite and, taking his place
alongside his light- haired brother, propped up the block of granite with his own
shoulders and amis.
The muscles of the athletic body tensed, and the veins stood out, but the
dark-haired athlete slowly straightened out his slightly bent knees and raised the
granite a bit. The water stopped seeping around the edges of the block - only a few
drops were still rolling off it.
The Universal opposites united in one for a short time, having changed God’s
program. God’s program... Perhaps by uniting, they had opened up new possibilities
for the program?
After a short time, the raging, shattering torrent reached the plains, and the
danger that Anasta’s family valley would be flooded passed - and along with it, the
danger that the people who had left the valley would perish.
The light-haired youth’s petrification began to gradually pass, a smile came to
his face, and he regained his ability to speak.
“Thank you. Brother,” Light-haired said, albeit it still with difficulty.
“Only I don’t need any of your ‘thank yous.’ This disaster that was predestined
for people, it’s passed. Now they’ll go even further along in their absurd worldview.
They’ll stubbornly construct the anti- wo rid. There will be more of them, and there will
be a new disaster, on a bigger scale.”
“There won’t be one, Brother. Maybe it’ll happen just an instant before any
disaster happens, but the Soul particles, and feelings and knowledge that the little girl
Anasta dissolved in the space will awaken within people’s hearts. And a great many
women and men will stop the unprecedented disaster with their thoughts. And people
living in the dimension of anti- rationality will suddenly see the light. They’ll begin to
build a new world on Earth, never before seen by anyone.
“They, the ones who have simultaneously experienced both anti-rationality and
Rationality, will unite what is opposite within themselves, in harmony. And they will
bring to life the Divine impulse of His dream in matter and spirit. Not simply will they
bring it to life. To it they will add their dream's perfection."
Anastasia fell silent. And I was silent, too, as I tried to make sense of what had
been said and seen. Only after an hour or two did I ask her a question.
COMING FACE TO FACE WITH OUR
PRIMEVAL IMAGE
“Anastasia, everything you showed me and told me about the dark-haired and
light-haired youths and about the little girl Anasta - did all of that exist in reality, or
only in your imagination?”
“You can choose your own answer to that question yourself, Vladimir.”
“What do you mean, I can choose it myself? You’re the only one who can say for
certain whether it actually happened or whether you imagined it.”
“Tell me, Vladimir, did any new information appeal' to you from my story?”
“I sure did. Of course, I did. Information and images... I’ll say!”
“So that means the information exists?”
“Yes, it exists. I need to analyze it, make sense of it. And I have questions.”
“If information appeared, then it follows that its source also exists.”
“Of course. There has to be a source.”
“Information is an image. An image is information. If someone decides he wants
to erase information within you, lie’ll try to prove to you that the image doesn’t exist in
reality. And as soon as you agree with the image’s lack of reality, then you yourself
erase the information you’ve taken in from the image.”
“Well, but if this or that image was created by a person, then who’s the
information coming from in that case?”
“From the image.”
“Why from the image, if some specific person created it?”
“If a child was bom to you, Vladimir, a child who imparted new information to
all people - including to you, too - then who is the source of the new information?”
“The child, of course. But an image - now, an image isn’t a child who has a
material body. An image can be non-material, too.”
“So, does that mean the difference lies only in that in the first case you can see a
material body, but in the second you can’t?”
“Maybe that’s not quite it. It’s just that when there’s a body, it looks more
familial' somehow, more credible.”
“A body you can see bears no definitive evidence. And what’s more, it can lead
you astray.”
“Now that’s true. It sure can! There’s even an article in the criminal code called
‘fraud.’ That’s when a criminal - who has a body - deceives someone for his own
personal gain. I think I’ve got everything, Anastasia. If information appears, and
what’s more, if it comes from an image, then all of that exists - you can’t deny it - and
we need to analyze the information we’ve received. But when we get caught up in
thinking about it - ‘does it exist or doesn’t it exist’ - then we’re wasting time and
depriving ourselves of the information we’ve gained.”
“Yes, you’ve understood correctly, Vladimir.”
“There’s just one tiling I don’t get. If every person can think up an image, and
the image begins to exist, then how much information do we have to sift through in
order to come up with what’s genuine?”
“Not much at all. Certainly, every person can think up an image, but people will
not accept every image with their whole heart and soul, not at all.”
“Well, yes, of course. Not every image. Really, thank you, Anastasia. It’s
interesting what you have to say about the image. Tell me something else about the
image. What's your opinion - what is it?”
“Man himself is, in fact, an image that has taken material form, and since he is a
materialized image, man himself can use his thought to create and can materialize
images. This is where his Universal power, a power unsurpassed by no one and no
thing, lies.
“If this or that person doesn’t recognize the capabilities within him that have
been given him by the Creator, then that person himself blocks his lofty power and falls
under the influence of other images and materializes their thoughts, until finally he
destroys himself, his family, his family line, his state and the whole planet.
“The artificial, technocratic world was also created by Man using the energy of
an image suggested to Man by his antipodes. The technocratic world is fragile and
transitory. Even the most advanced car, building or any other object of the artificial
world disintegrates with each second and within but a few years turns to dust or, worse
still, into waste products harmful for Man.
“Man himself, by living in the artificial world, becomes fragile and transitory as
well. For it is hard for a person who spends each minute looking at a multitude of
disintegrating objects that lack autogenic capability, to imagine eternal life, create the
image of his own eternity and materialize it.
“The natural world that is visible to us has existed not for billions of years, but
for significantly longer, for at the beginning it already existed within an as yet
non-mat erialized image. The scientists who determined the Earth’s age calculated not
the date of its birth, but merely the date of its materialization, as one of the stages of its
life.
“The natural world possesses the capability for autogenesis, and this capability
renders it eternal. The Creator, who created eternity, is himself the very same. He is
Alpha and Omega, and Alpha once more.
“A great many people might say or think, ‘What was there before the birth of the
Creator and of His extraordinary, multitudinous energies?’ At one time nothing
existed. No tiling! But recall what the Creator said about ‘no tiling’ to His son: ‘Out of
nothing will arise the beautiful new birth of you and of the aspiration reflecting your
soul and dream. My Son, you are infinite, eternal. Within you he your creating
dreams.’
“But if out of ‘nothing’ arises something, this means that ‘nothing,’ too, takes
part in the birth.
“By giving birth - out of ‘no tiling’ , in part - the Creator completed the circle and
presented to Man the image of eternity.
“The knowledge, understanding and perception of the energy of the image
within him enable Man to not die, but rather to drift off into an ambrosial sleep. Upon
awakening, he incarnates in the spot, time and image necessary to him and created by
him before his sleep.
“Gaining knowledge of the science of imagery leads to understanding the entire
universe created by the Creator, and to the creation of new and beautiful worlds.
“Lack of knowledge and understanding of the science of imagery leads
unavoidably to unskillful interaction with the perfected, natural world, and to the
creation of an artificial, primitive, unnatural world.
“Lack of knowledge of the science of imagery turns entire states and peoples
into puppets, into chess pieces in the hands of those who are acquainted with this great
gift” '
“But Anastasia, after all, images can be positive and negative. How are we
supposed to figure out which of them bears useful information and which is
misinforming us, perhaps for personal gain?”
“Through your own self, Vladimir, and through your own image you will
discern the value of any information.”
“You mean every person has an image?”
“Why of course, Vladimir. Every person has his own image. Each differs
strikingly from the others.
“Were every person to preserve his primeval image, then tell me, Vladimir, how
would the world now look?”
“Primeval? That means every person has - or used to have - a primeval image?
What was it like?”
“Divine! Such is the way our parent - the Creator - did create it in his inspired
impulse.”
“It - our primeval image - was it God, or what?”
“It was the son of God, and so it remains.”
“But where’s this primeval image of man gotten to? We can see images of
drunks and drug addicts outlie streets. And images of prostitutes along the roads. And
various images make fools of themselves on TV. Where can we get a glimpse of man’ s
primeval image?”
“Within ourselves. Imagine it yourself. Go out to meet it. And joyfully will it
rush toward you. Joyful will the path be. Gradually coming nearer and nearer to each
other, you will one day encounter each other. You will unite! Safeguard your primeval
image. Do not give it over to others for their own delight.”
“But how can I imagine it? There’s all sorts of information raining down on us
about how man’s imperfect.
“First they say he’s an eternal slave, then that he’s like a lab rat. One of my
friends told me a while back that he read in some book somewhere that they said
something like some alien beings created people and are now feeding on their energy
and are training them to be imbeciles.”
“Should you wish to be an imbecile, Vladimir, then go ahead and believe them.
“Should you believe you’re a slave, you will give birth to a slave within you.
“Should you believe that someone is feeding on your energy against your very
will, you will waste away and really will give over your own energy.
“Everything exists that you yourself believe to exist.
“From the very moment of birth, they try to belittle the significance of Man - the
son of God. But take note, Vladimir, behind this there always stands someone striving
to elevate himself. He is, in actual fact, not elevated when compared to Man, and is
unable to elevate himself. And only one path is left to him - to belittle the elevated one
and prevent him from growing.”
“Yes, Anastasia, you’re exactly right here. I somehow can’t recall even a single
book or movie where man is presented as the strongest being in the Universe. It’s
always the aliens that emerge as the strongest, and if the people are strong, too, then it’s
always connected to some otherworldly powers. Now I understand what serious and
ongoing indoctrination man is being subjected to, and of course, it’s no accident.
There’s somebody who needs this very much.
“If Man really were weak and didn’t possess some kind of mysterious and
unknown power, then why be afraid of him? Why take such great pains to prove the
opposite?
“Anastasia, you’re the only one who sees man as the son of God and the
strongest being in the Universe. But that means that a great many other images will
come out in opposition to your explanation of what man’s image is. They have
methods that have been developed over the course of millennia.
“They’ve already created a great many images of powerless people.
“Plus many various teachings that belittle man. The press the world over is
working for them, and the screenwriters and directors, too, and there a lot of them,
really a lot. Looks like you’re on your own, Anastasia. But all the same you’re placing
your hopes on something. Where are you placing them? Where, Anastasia?”
“On my very own primeval image. And on your primeval image, Vladimir. On
the primeval nature of those images of the people building homesteads. Those who will
in the future set off to meet their true image.”
“Anastasia, and they also say you don’t exist at all. And about me, they say I’m
not the person I seem to be, not the way I appear in the books. Now I see that by doing
what they’re doing, they’re trying to erase the information coming from your image,
erase it in people. And they’re succeeding in part. There are readers, even among those
who are building family homesteads, who say, hey, let’s not mention Anastasia’s
name. Let’s not talk about the books and let’s not call our family homesteads family
homesteads, given that someone has convinced the authorities that these names are
bad. They even offer them various concessions for doing that.”
“And you, Vladimir? How do you feel about suggestions of that sort?”
“To tell the truth, Anastasia, even I had the thought that, given that these words
are irritating to some people, maybe it would be better not to utter them. You know, so
things would move along more quickly. Now I get that the process might move along
on the surface, but it won’t be in quite the direction man needs. Now I get it: they don’t
want us to utter the words ‘Anastasia’, ‘family homesteads’ and ‘ringing cedars of
Russia’ because strong images and information immediately come up once we do.
They want to deprive people of them. Am I understanding things correctly?”
“Of course, Vladimir, behind each word there really does stand an image, and
information. It is sometimes the case, that behind just one word there stands such a
huge volume of information that it would be impossible for even a hundred volumes to
reflect its image, to substitute for it.”
“Well, you blow, there are words that awaken different images in people. For
example, the word ‘war. ’ Some people might see a liberating war behind this word, and
others an invasive one.”
“But nonetheless, when this word is uttered, in people’s imaginations there
immediately arise a great many pictures of battles, of warring countries, of weaponry
and many other things. And even if the pictures are a bit different, this is of no
consequence: they are great in number, and similar, but there is but one word.”
“‘Family homestead’ - can there be a great many different images behind these
words, too?”
“‘Family homestead’ is a word-combination backed by the most powerful of
images, images capable of settling a person in a Divine dwelling land 10 . Judge for
yourself, Vladimir: the first three letters of this word-combination fonn the word
“rod” 11 . “Rod” means the people who come into life one after another, and the first of
these came from God. Each person bom today takes his place at the head of this great
chain. It is within his power to settle his “rod” in one dwelling land or another. In a
stone cell or in the beautiful space of his family homestead. Or - he can break the
family chain altogether. It is within his power to nourish his family with Divine
10 Translator’s note:
The original Russian phrase here is “cpeaa ooiiTaHiia” (transliterated “sreda obitaniya”, pronounced “sree-DAH
a-bee-TAH-nee-yuh”). It expresses of the area, space or spot in which one resides and is often rendered as “habitat.”
However, in this book the phrase encompasses all that is part of the area where one lives as well as all the beings and
energetic forces present within it. Thus, I have translated it throughout as “dwelling land,” as it is related to the phrase
“cpe^a odeTOBaHHaa” (transliterated “sreda obetovannaya” and pronounced “sree-dah ah-bee-TOH-vahn-nah-yuh”).
See note 16 below for commentary on this phrase.
11 Translator’s note:
The original Russian is “po/t” (transliterated “rod” and pronounced “roht”). Where “po/f’/“rod” occurs in the text,
referring to the chain of family members stretching in the past or future, I have translated this using the phrase “family
line.” See note 8 about other phrases in the book containing this same root.
creation or with food that doesn’t bear the energy of the Soul.”
“What does food have to do with anything here, Anastasia, if my family’s
ancestors are long dead?”
“Tiny parts of all your ancestors live on within you, Vladimir. Both your body
and your spirit come from them.”
“Well, sure, they come from them. But. . . But that means that each person bom
anew bears a colossal responsibility for the fate of the entire family line.”
“Yes, each one bears it, Vladimir, and each one is given the power to decide his
own fate and the fate of his family line.”
“I agree that we’re given that power. But the great majority of people don’t
really think about their family line, and maybe their ancestors didn’t think about it,
either. So does that mean the family line that stretches from the wellspring people 12 ,
from God himself, has disintegrated, fallen to pieces, that it no longer exists?”
“Family homestead - please, Vladimir, think about it. Family homestead - two
words. One word-combination. As soon as a person utters it, then the person - who
perhaps hasn’t yet even fully realized his aspiration - except subconsciously - has
given voice to it: ‘I gather together my entire family line and settle it here.’”
12 Translator’s note:
The original Russian word, coined by Vladimir Megre, is “nepBOHCTOKii” (transliterated “pervoistoki”, pronounced
“pir-vah-ee-STOH-kee”). The roots in this word express both tire idea of coming first or being in an original position, as
well as the idea of flowing water and source. Hence, these are the people who served as the source for all others, in both
the literal and figurative meanings of this word.
THE GATHERER OF ONE'S FAMILY LINE
“A person who has established his family homestead can gather together within
it the souls of people from his family line, and they will be grateful to him for this great
deed. Like guardian angels, they will protect and guard the family homestead and the
person who created it. Nothing in the Universe disappears without a trace; it only
passes from one state into another. When a person dies and his mortal body is given
over to the land, then trees and grass and flowers grow up out of it. It passes from one
state into another. But then, into what state does the main energetic complex - the
human Soul - pass?
“At first, it lingers, hovering at the place where the person’s body is located, and
in some religions, people understand this and don’t immediately commit the person’s
body to the earth. And when the person’s body does join into an embrace with the
earth, when the person is buried in a cemetery, then the Soul hovers above the spot
where the body has been buried. The relatives spend some period of time near the
grave. The Soul, deprived of its body - and so, of hearing and sight - cannot see or
hear, but it can feel when people are speaking of it, or thinking of it. If they are saying
good things, the Soul feels good, but if they are saying bad things, the Soul feels bad.
“Then the people leave the cemetery. For a certain period of time, the Soul
remains above the mound of earth where its body is buried, but it no longer feels
anything, only emptiness. Modem people, caught up in the everyday bustle of life,
quickly forget their deceased relatives. In modem people’ s apartments, often nothing at
all serves as a reminder of the deceased relatives. After a year or five or ten, basically
no one remembers them any more, and the souls of the deceased end up in a complete
void. And we are speaking here about the recently deceased, but you know, there are
also those relatives who lived a hundred, or a thousand or a million years ago, and they
all find themselves in complete oblivion.
“A person who creates a family homestead can gather together his entire family
line. To do this, he needs to call to mind his relative and imagine him or her, and then
the Soul will give a little start. It will sense it’s being thought of, and no matter in which
comer of the Universe it might be located, it will shoot off along this thought-ray to the
place from which it is emanating.
“A person isn’t able to remember all his relatives and continually think about
them and recall them, but he can plant a small grove of trees, preferably family trees l3 ,
3 Translator’s note:
The original Russian phrase, “po/joBbie /lepeBbH” (transliteratred “rodovye derev’ya”, pronounced “ruh-dah-VY-yeh
di-REV’-yuh”) contains the root “po/f’/“rod”, relating to “family line.” Thus, I have rendered this phrase as “family trees”
to establish the link with the phrase “family homestead.”
that live a long time. These include oaks and cedars. As he plants them, he should
definitely contribute his own family thought, saying to himself: ‘I am planting this
grove or alley in memory of the members of my family line. I am creating a family
homestead, and may all the members of my family line who have lived in the past and
who will live in the future gather together on it. ’
“As he plants each individual tree, it’s essential that he recall the name of one or
another relative who has recently passed, and to imagine each of them and say a kind
word about them.
“A person isn’t able to recall each of his family members every minute and every
hour, but the trees, which have received this information, will preserve it within
themselves every moment. The Souls of the relatives of your family line will sense this.
And they’ 11 live in your homestead in the trees, the blades of grass and the flowers. The
rays emanating from the trees are much weaker than those coming from people, but
they are more constant. The Souls will sense this, and at first the Soul of the closest
relative you’ve recalled will come to this spot, and after it comes, others will also
gradually be drawn to this spot, too.
“In nine years, there will grow up a grove of trees that were planted by the
person, and these will be extraordinary trees. They will possess colossal, beneficial
energy. No one will be able to sense this energy’s benefits - no one except the gatherer
of the family line himself and his close relatives.
“Imagine, Vladimir, what an extraordinary and kind thing it is that man will
accomplish! He, like unto the Creator, will gather together anew his family line that
had scattered through time.”
“But Anastasia, you said that the Souls are an energetic complex and that when
people die, some of them disintegrate into particles and give their energy to various
bugs and plants and animals.”
“Yes, I did say that, Vladimir. This happens when, during its life on earth, this
energetic complex - the human Soul - is in disharmony with the surrounding
environment to such an extent that it represents a danger to earthly existence. The
Souls of the deceased preserve the complete complex when the imbalance has not yet
reached a critical point. The more harmonious ones are the first to incarnate into
earthly bodies. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of them all the time within the
Universal space, and the program is now choosing from the best of a bad lot.”
“But what if all the Souls of my family line have disintegrated into particles?
Then will none of them come to the family grove I plant?”
“Since you exist, Vladimir, that means that your family chain has not been
broken, either.”
“But what happens when a person is buried on the family homestead?”
“When a person’s body is buried on the homestead he himself established, his
Soul does not fly off into the Universal darkness. It remains on the family homestead -
after all, it is there that the person planted trees and communed with the land. The Soul,
which cannot see or hear anything, but can feel, will sense the warmth that the plants
give it, and besides that, the people - this person’s descendants - will recall him more
often as they come into contact with what he created.”
“Anastasia, I know of one instance when the little old mother of some people I
know came to their homestead to visit them. She was a little over eighty years old.
She’d just come to visit for a few days. She’d come to visit her daughter, just to see
what in the world she and her husband had cooked up. Then she asked them to let her
stay forever. And she stayed. She’d spend a long time sitting on a little bench.
Sometimes she’d walk through the homestead’s little forest, and one day she said to her
daughter and son-in-law, ‘When I die, please don’t take me off to the cemetery. Bury
me here.’ And she pointed out the spot she herself had picked out. When this elderly
woman died, the daughter and son-in-law carried out her request. What will happen to
this elderly woman’s Soul, if she didn’t manage to plant anything on this homestead?”
“Her Soul will remain on the family homestead, even if all she did was sit on a
little bench. She herself decided she wanted to be buried there. That means she was
thinking about that before she died, and her relatives will visit the spot where she was
laid to rest more often than they would go to a cemetery, and they will think of her
more often.
“You must not bury a person on a family homestead against his will, even if he
has done something there. If that happens, it is essential to ask the person’s
forgiveness, to go to the spot where he is buried and mentally explain to him why that
was done, and ask for his help.”
“Yes, Anastasia, it’s an interesting situation. But way back when, did people
know about this? Did they understand it?”
“Of course they knew, Vladimir. Even in the not so distant past many people had
family crypts. You know about that. But in earlier periods of human existence,
cemeteries didn’t exist at all. They came into existence when people appeared who had
no family land at all: artisans in cities, domestics, various servants, and soldiers for
hire. When they died, they needed to be buried, and so they’d carry their bodies off and
toss them without their family members into the latrine pits where they’d throw sick
animals. Or they’d bury them in common graves. A bit later on, when the cities grew
larger and many various families lived in them, including well-to-do ones, then
cemeteries began to appear. Well-to-do people would buy up small plots of land where
they would bury their deceased relatives, and then other people would do the same
nearby. As a result, cemeteries began to be divided up into - to put it in modem
language - into upper class, middle class, and ordinary ones, for servants.”
“Those kinds of cemeteries still exist today: if you want to get into Vagankovo
Cemetery in Moscow, you'll need to bring a lot of money and effort to bear to get a
good plot, and the plots are assigned by a special burial committee.”
FOUR WORDS FROM THE UNIVERSAL
LAW
“Anastasia, what about those four words from the Universal law, the words
Dark-haired referred to, the ones that define the life’s purpose of each individual man
and of all mankind as a whole - do you blow what they are?”
“Yes, Vladimir, I know these four words, those that define the common task
facing mankind.”
“Can you utter them for me now?”
“lean.”
“Then utter them”
Anastasia rose to her feet and, painstakingly speaking each word, said:
“PERFECT THE DWELLING LAND.”
“And that’s it?” I said, disappointed.
“Yes, that’s it.”
“To be perfectly honest, I thought they’d be some unusual, magic words.”
“These are unusual, magic words from the Universal law. These are the most
important words of all the Divine programs. With their help, it is possible to determine
the degree to which both an individual person and mankind as a whole are necessary
for the Universe. With their help it is possible to determine the usefulness or
uselessness of the earthly laws conceived by people.
“Perfect the dwelling land means perfect yourself.
“All that exists within the Universe and on Earth represents through itself a
united dwelling land, inseparably interconnected, and with man in the center.
“Perfect the dwelling land means give birth to and raise children who are more
perfected than you yourself. Each generation should be more perfected than the
previous. For this to come about, the generation that comes before should present the
following generation with a more perfected dwelling land.
“In perfecting the dwelling land, man perfects his own thought. The perfected
dwelling land quickens and refines man’s thought.
“In perfecting the dwelling land, man comes to know immortality.
“In perfecting the dwelling land, man turns the Earth into the most perfected
planet of the Universe.
“Earthly perfection permits and helps man to perfect other planets of the
Universe.
“Universal perfection permits and helps man to create new worlds.
“‘Where is the edge of the Universe? What will I do when I come to it? When I
have filled everything with myself, when I create that which I have thought?’ a man of
the wellspring people asks God. And replied to His son: “My son. The Universe is
thought. A dream was bom of the thought, and it is partially visible as matter. When
you come to the edge of everything, a new beginning and continuation shall your
thought discover. Out of nothing will arise the new, beautiful birth of you, and of the
aspiration, reflecting in itself your Soul and your dream. My son, you are endless, you
are eternal, your creating dreams are within you.”
Anastasia fell silent. Astounded by the unusual intonations and by the meaning
of the words she’d uttered, I kept on looking at her. And with complete clarity, I
suddenly realized: she isn’t simply a taiga hermit living in the Siberian taiga. Not
simply an extraordinarily beautiful woman.
Anastasia is a person from another dimension, a dimension where human
Intelligence triumphs. She senses and sees this dimension of intelligence. She is
worthy of it. Of a dimension in which a perfected, happy creator-man makes the planet
Earth the most beautiful planet in the Universe. And the planets of the whole Universe,
delighted by his earthly creations, call to him to contemplate them, too. To touch their
surface ever so lightly, even with just their hand and, through a smile, give them a
future. And how unbearably painful it must be for her to look at today’s earthly
bacchanal.
But she gave birth to two children, and wasn’t put off by the danger that the
anti-rationality that rules today would swallow up the children. That means she’s
convinced that everything will change on its own - or that she’ll change it herself.
“Anastasia, given your world view, isn’t it painful for you to look at today’s
reality?”
“Very painful, Vladimir,” Anastasia whispered.
“Then how do you bear such pain?”
“By creating pictures of a beautiful future, admiring them and delighting in
them. The joy of beholding them vanquishes the pain. And what’s more, there is even
more benefit from such beholding: the way you imagine the future to be, is the way it
will come to pass.”
THE DIMENSION OF ANTI-RATIONALITY
“Anastasia, can it really be that modem mankind actually does live in the
dimension of anti-rationality that the dark-haired youth mentioned? And what exactly
is anti- rationality? How can we see this in real life?”
“Thought or information appears, and we need to assess its reality only through
ourselves.”
“But how can we assess it, by what means? If a person is living in the
anti-rational dimension, then he’ll think in the categories of anti- rationality.”
“Yes, that is so. But rationality all the same remains within a person, although in
a significantly smaller degree.
“And if you mentally appeal to it, it is activated, and then you can use it to help
you identify anti-rational manifestations. For now, we will speak no more on this topic,
Vladimir. For now, go take a stroll here around the glade, around the taiga and reflect a
bit. Here, in this spot, Rationality and anti-rationality are in balance. But in you they
are not, and for that reason, help your rationality out - activate it from time to time.”
“How do I activate it?”
“Just mentally say within you: ‘Rationality.’ Or better yet,
‘ Raaatio-naaal-iii-ty. ’ ”
I was left alone and tried to reflect from a position of Rationality. And these are
the conclusions I began to draw.
The Artificial World
Today’s community of people lives in an artificial world, not a natural one.
It created it and slavishly serves it.
We have created an artificial world and live artificial lives within in.
The real, natural world is to be found along the side of the asphalt roadways
along which modem mankind is rushing headlong toward an abyss.
Artificial concepts have been implanted into the collective consciousness of
modem people.
Our scientists and “educated” researchers have, in their great wisdom, started to
call modem medicine - which has existed for only two hundred years - traditional,
while calling folk medicine - whose history is calculated in the hundreds of thousands
of years - non-traditional. At the same time as they’ve begun referring to healers - and
here I’m talking about real healers, who are well versed in the properties of medicinal
plants - as charlatans. The result is that modem man ends up having to treat many
diseases - ones that people just a hundred years ago easily cured themselves of, at no
cost, using herbs from their veiy own garden - using expensive pharmaceuticals, on
the advice of their doctor. Perhaps there should be two paths in medicine. We need to
teach folk medicine in school and train specialists in medical schools. Eighty percent of
ailments can be cured using folk medicine, and this will significantly lower the burden
on today’s medical facilities, which will make it possible to substantially improve the
quality of medical service. But to do this we have to think in categories of Rationality.
Artificial Plumbing Systems
Mankind has buried millions of kilometers of metal pipes that they call
plumbing systems in the ground. Colossal effort has been expended to manufacture
these pipes and lay them in trenches. They require continual servicing and major
overhauls, which come at the cost of people’s hard labor. Meanwhile, the water that
comes out of the faucets in our apartments ends up being unfit to drink. And besides
that, we have a natural plumbing system in the natural world - by which I mean not just
rivers, but groundwater aquifers as well. Living, healing water capable of filling
millions of wells flow through the Earth’s veins there. The natural plumbing system
requires no repairs. But what’s more, it’s capable of purifying polluted surface water
and of saturating a vital product with minerals and other necessary substances. But the
city person’s modem way of life has deprived him of the opportunity to utilize the
natural plumbing system that was designed and constructed by the Creator.
The question arises: did man choose this way of life on his own, or under the
influence of certain forces? In order to answer this question, let’s take a look at one
more case. We’d be hard pressed to call it anything other than the mental illness of a
society. What steps must the average family in Europe, America or Russia take in order
to acquire their own apartment or home?
The Anti-Rationality Mortgage
For example, they’re advised to take out a mortgage. Or, more precisely, they’re
advised to take out a loan from a bank for a period of twenty or thirty years, acquire a
modest residence with the bank’s money and then, every month over the course of
twenty years, pay the money back to the bank, with interest. If the family isn’t able to
pay the money back, the apartment will be taken away. A young family has to spend
twenty years living in fear of losing their residence and - as a rule - work at a job they
don’t like, just so they can get paid more. Grovel at their boss’s feet out of fear of
losing their job. But perhaps there’s no alternative to this kind of disconcerting
situation? But there is ! And that’ s not all - the alternative actually shows that obstacles
that stand in the way of young people acquiring housing have been artificially
implanted into their young heads. These obstacles are virtual, and intrinsic only to
virtual reality. I’ll give you a totally typical, real life example.
A young man named Andrei lived in the city of Vladimir, and on the outside, he
didn’t look much different from his peers. He went to cafes and discos; he smoked and
used alcohol. When he read about family homesteads, he began dreaming of his own
land and home.
He didn’t have the funds to buy a plot of land and build a house, and his parents
weren’t in a position to offer him financial help. In 2001, a hectare 14 of land on a
deserted spot overgrown with tall grasses near the village of Konyaevo, thirty
kilometers from the city of Vladimir, cost thirty thousand rubles'? Nearly fifty families
from among my readers have acquired their own hectares in this deserted spot and
begun putting up structures. People mostly in their middle years, who possessed some
financial reserves. Andrei also took a liking to this spot on the bank of a forest lake, and
there was still some free land left there. Driven by his dream of having his own
homestead, he stopped frequenting the youth club scene and, by working hard, was
able to save up thirty thousand rubes in the space of only six months and acquire a
hectare of land in the deserted spot. But where could he get the money to build a home?
At that time in the city of Vladimir, a square meter of housing cost twenty thousand
rubles, and thus, to build a home only fifty square meters in size, he’d need an
additional million rubles. Andrei wasn’t about to take out a loan from a bank, just so
he’d then have to spend twenty years paying it back with interest. At the age of
twenty-three, the young man went to the store, bought a good axe, and in the course of
a year, all on his own, put up a wooden home on his plot. That’s making a long story
14 Translator’s note:
One hectare is equal to 10,000 square meters, or 2.471 acres.
' Translator’s note:
This is equivalent to roughly 1000 U.S. dollars or 750 Euros (for 2010).
short. Here’s some more detail. First, Andrei got a job in a company where there were
master craftsmen who knew how to frame a log house. From them he learned how to
work with wood, while simultaneously earning the money to buy the logs for his future
home. On this young man’ s plot, a garden is now growing, a well has been dug, there’ s
a pond, and there’s a wooden home, and people who are new arrivals to the settlement
put themselves on the waiting list for him to build them log homes. Now Andrei is an
acclaimed and respected master craftsman.
You could say that through his own actions, Andrei saved a million rubles. Or
that he earned them. I think that’s not even important. He gained immeasurably more
than a million - he gained confidence in his own abilities, and a home built with his
very own hands.
I think Andrei will manage to find a worthy girl who will enter this home and
bear him a son and daughter, and the children will tell their grandchildren who it was
who built the home with his very own hands, who put in the garden, who established
their small motherland.
Andrei’s story isn’t the only one of its kind. In that same settlement, there are
other families who have built their homes with their own hands.
I remember how my father and grandfather also put up their* own wooden home,
and the neighbors next to them, my parents’ peers, did the same thing. More than half a
century has passed, but people still live in these houses, just as they did back then.
And this is where questions come up. How could it happen, that for half a
century, society has been developing new building techniques, new materials,
machinery and devices which would seem to be more advanced, but in the end. . .
The average family has to work hard for twenty to thirty years to get a dwelling
that it used to be able to provide itself with in the course of a year or two. For many
families, the housing question has become insoluble, and the government has had to
take it up.
Did the given situation come about by chance, or did someone artificially
construct it? That, however, isn’t important. The important thing is that the situation is
absolutely anti-rational, but society, caught up in its everyday bustle, has turned out to
be incapable of reflecting and analyzing. It’s gotten used to the situation and can’t
imagine anything different. Society has gotten used to anti-rationality. And is ceasing
to be rational.
Why Does Love Go Away?
Mail’s modem way of life has given birth to a great many problems that we are
strictly forbidden to discuss, and since they don’t get discussed, they don’t get solved,
either.
Billions of domestic conflicts take place all over the world, and they can get to
the point where spouses fight with and murder each other. In so-called civilized
countries, up to eighty percent of young people who enter into marriage divorce soon
afterward. This process is preceded by negative emotions and stress of long standing,
and children are made unhappy.
Over the course of millennia, millions of localized wars have been going on
practically all over the world between people who have attempted to establish a loving
union. It isn’t only both sides in these battles that take the crudest of beatings, but their
children, too.
This kind of situation has been presented to modem mankind as a given. It’s
natural, they tell us - love comes and goes. But as it turns out, this kind of situation is
characteristic only for people of the artificial world. It is not consistent with man’s true
nature.
For the first time ever, the taiga hermit has shown that young people’s initial
attraction for each other is not love - it is but the urge to give birth to the great feeling
which arises when three components are united.
She identified these components and showed us three ancient rites that help real
love be bom. I have included them in previous books. I had to use the word ‘rite’
because Russian lacks a more precise definition that expresses these rational acts by
young people who feel attracted to each other, and their parents.
But the given topic, like many others, turned out to be forbidden for the mass
media. And that’s not all - they began, using plausible pretexts, to make efforts to
slander the source. It got to the point that on a show called “The Mysterious Anastasia”
on Russian Central Television’s Channel One, certain individuals began collectively
declaring that people were going crazy from reading my books with the statements of
the taiga hermit. Ludicrous! They don’t go crazy from reading porn magazines or
bloody thrillers or watching movies about violence, but they do from reading
philosophical statements about love and man’s way of life? This position makes it clear
that there are forces in modem society that program social disasters. They target people
and act through them, making use of their ignorance about what’s really going on.
And we can understand these people. Imagine what would happen if a person
who’s read the “Ringing Cedars of Russia” book series starts asserting that by using
three ancient rites, modem newlyweds can, during their marriage ceremony, in the
space of thirty minutes and in plain view of all their relatives, create a family
homestead on a deserted spot, along with a garden that will contain around a hundred
plantings necessary for the family’ s sustenance. That they can erect a home with all the
necessary farmyard structures, along with devoted animals that seem to have been
settled in them as if by magic. Modem people who haven’t read the “Ringing Cedars of
Russia” book series might consider a person who asserts this fact crazy or gullible. But
allow me to reveal a bit about this mechanism, the mechanism with whose help the
given “miracles” really do take occur.
According to ancient rules or rites - you can call them what you want - a pair of
young people who feel drawn to each other go out to the outskirts of the settlement,
find themselves a plot of land no less than a hectare in size and build a small hut there.
Together, they create a detailed and thorough design for their future homestead. For all
intents and purposes, they are also creating a space where the energy of love can be
found. In their design, they indicate not only the spots where their future home and
farmyard structures will be located, but also where absolutely all the plantings will go.
Doing everything to create the design can keep them busy for anywhere from
three months up to a year. Once the design is finished, they go around to all their
relatives - on both the side of the bride and the groom - and invite them to partic ipate
in the rite of marriage. And each time they’re at the home of this or that relative, they
say, for example, “Ah, what a beautiful apple tree you have there.” These words serve
as a hint to the invited guest about what he should bring with him to the rite of
marriage. In this particular case, a slip of the apple tree that the future newlyweds liked.
To someone else they’re inviting they might say, for example, “What a feisty little coat
you have there.” That means that the guest doesn’t need to think about what gift to
bring the young couple - lie’ll give them a colt. And so on.
During the rite of marriage, the newlyweds will tell their relatives and friends -
as if they were taking some kind of great exam of life in their presence -all about the
design they’ve created for their homestead, indicating in detail where everything
should be located. Once they’ve finished the telling, they will give a signal, and the
relatives and friends who have gathered together will set out their living gifts in
precisely the spots indicated by the wedded couple. The newlyweds, all aquiver, will
observe as their closet relatives and friends engage in the great joint action. Then the
now-married young couple, having experienced great inspiration and emotional
elevation, will be led away, each to his parents’ home, where they will spend two
nights. In the space of this time, the relatives on the side of the bride and groom will
move previously readied structures to the spot, piece by piece. At dawn on the second
day, he and she will hurry to their newly created family homestead, to their first
meeting as husband and wife. It is impossible to describe what will pass between them
in their new home, full of nothing but positive emotions and an inspired, never before
experienced, energy of love for each other and for their newly created space of love.
What would have happened if the wellspring people had told such newlyweds
that there will come a time when marriage will be carried out in an entirely different
way? That two young people will come to some building, sign their names in some
ledger and ride around in someone else’s car that’s been decorated with ribbons, all
around a city that doesn’t and never will belong to them After that, along with their
invited guests, they will take their seats at a table in some restaurant and eat food that
wasn’t prepared by their hands or by their relatives’ hands, and drink vodka, and that
the then tipsy guests and relatives will shout “bitter-bitter” to them, demanding that
they kiss each other in front of everyone. And that’s it. Next comes the so-called
marriage bed and the lack of any pleasant after-effects from what has transpired. And
what’s more, any space that the energy of love can fill is totally lacking.
“Such a thing couldn’t happen! It could never happen!” the wellspring people
newlyweds will say. “Man is a rational being, not a crazed animal who would destroy
love like that, love that is just an embryo and hasn’t yet grown strong.”
So, who is it who’s really going crazy? Judge for yourselves, esteemed readers.
To answer the question of why love goes away, we can say that real, full-fledged
love simply doesn’t come to the majority of modem newlyweds, because there’s no
appropriate space for it.
What is love? It is a feeling, a great energy, that is capable of inspiring a person
to create and that increases his spiritual powers and capabilities. It is a rational energy -
it fills the space where two people in love are present and creates a unified whole for
them, a space of love. Take a look at what happens nowadays. The newlyweds go to the
marriage bureau to formalize their marriage. The marriage bureau facility isn’t their
space, but simple a temporary spot where they’re spending some time, and what’s
more, divorce proceedings take place in this very same facility. And the rational energy
of love is unable to fill a space like that.
Riding around in a car, often someone else’s, also isn’t fitting for the energy of
love. And it can’t fill a modem apartment, either. Because after all, the energy of love
can’t caress soulless, dying objects, and in a modem apartment, even in a very new
one, everything is aging and disintegrating with each instant. Nothing is coming to life
in it, and the energy of love can’t make its peace with that kind of disintegration. When
it’s present in that kind of situation, it can’t give its blessing.
What’s needed for the energy of love is a living space that’s been established by
people - in the given case, by actual people who feel drawn to each other. It can’t be
any other way. The proof of this is the great number of secular divorce proceedings
throughout the world.
The question of why love goes away deserves to be studied from all angles, and
I intend to devote my next book to this, a book in which I will tell of the ancient land
where people knew the secret of ever-lasting love. Today’s approach to love is truly
anti-rational.
Governing the Government
There are various methods one can use to influence people - we’re not excluding
the government here, either. And the most potent among them is the image. People
grow accustomed to absurd conditions and images and accept them as givens. There’s
an image that tells us that the government, including the State Duma, too, where laws
are developed and enacted, must definitely be located in the center of a big city. We’ve
gotten accustomed to it being this way. But does this make sense?
Where did the prophets receive their revelations? And where did the wise men
do their reflecting? Whence did they bring us the Divine laws?
Moses. He received the tables with the “ten commandments” after going into
seclusion on Mount Sinai. Christ. He went off into the desert for forty days. Buddha.
He spent several years deep in the forest. Mohammad. He spent months in seclusion in
the cave of Hira on the mountain Jabal al-Nour.
Philosophers and scholars - Confucius, Lao-Tzu, Kant and Nietzsche and many
others - have also spent years living in seclusion.
But where is our State Duma’s building located? Where do they write our laws,
these wise men chosen by the people? Do you recall?
Our State Duma’s building is located at the intersection of busy highways -
could we possibly create more absurd working conditions for our national chose ones?
What do we have here - a roadside Duma? !
What Causes Empires to Die Out
I can cite a great many historical examples of images influencing human society
and inducing planetary disasters. But for the contemporary person, particularly one
living in Russia, the most obvious example will be the situation connected to the
demise of Tsarist Russia and, later on, the fall of the USSR.
“From a spark a flame will burst forth,” said the leader of the worldwide
proletariat, V.I. Lenin, speaking of the Bolshevik newspaper “Spark,” in which the
Tsarist regime was smeared. All according to plan, a negative image of Tsarist rule
took root, and a new, beautiful image was created, an image of Soviet rule. Tsarism
was toppled. A new empire - the USSR - arose and began developing, an empire
possessing a huge army and equipped with nuclear weapons.
But only seventy years later, the great empire of the USSR collapsed into several
separate states, ones not always inclined to be friendly to each other. It was the
politicians who had signed the agreement concerning the division, as well as the
economic and political situation, that political scientists identified as the culprits in the
collapse.
When we take a closer look, we can see all of this, too, as simply the result of the
action of images. Let’s recall Solzhenitsyn’s gifted books about the GULAG and the
works of other masters of the pen who smeared the USSR. Other writers at the same
time were creating an image of the prospering Western states where, unlike in the
USSR, store shelves were groaning beneath an abundance of all possible products and
happy and free people were riding around in fancy cars. And at the same time as they
were speaking of the merits of Western civilization, they remained silent about the
problems existing there.
Russia’s future is also defined using images that are taking root in the minds and
souls of the people living in the country. Unfortunately, this is a whole pleiad of images
that are leading toward the annihilation of the state. The cult of violence and the cult of
money are forming the image of destruction in thousands of movies in theaters and on
television. “Catching up to the West” That’s what many of our politicians are
propagandizing. No economic or military achievements and no calls to be patriots in
our motherland are capable of opposing these images.
The only thing that can oppose this image is a different image, an image of
creation, an image capable of inspiring millions of people. And Anastasia has created it
as a counterweight to the armadas of destructive images. Hundreds of thousands of
people have taken up the image of a beautiful, future country and have contributed
their own ideas to it and have begun making it a reality - they’ve begun building family
homesteads. This grass roots initiative was in line with the government’s plans. Many
well-known politicians, government figures, well-known academics, cultural figures
and religious leaders have made positive statements about those who are building
family homesteads. I’m not going to bring in their statements here, but anyone who
wishes to do so can learn about them on the site Anastasia. ru.
Now, of course, these statements have inspired people, but they are nominally
off-the-record, although they’re also infinitely bold. After all, these rational words
have resounded within the landscape of anti-rationality and penetrated it.
Some of the taiga hermit’s assertions might seem fantastical, and that’s the way
they seemed to me, too, when I first started spending time with her. Now, fifteen years
after my first meeting with her, there’s much I’ve had to rethink. It’s we, contemporary
society, who live in a dwelling land that is fantastically unnatural for living a rational
life. Anastasia speaks about ratonal reality. She is establishing it, methodically, and she
will establish it. I will try to help her, and hundreds of thousands of people are already
helping.
And here’s what else is interesting. In electronic and print media, literature and
the movies, there are practically no positive heroes who commune with the earth in a
rational fashion. Call to mind the way of life and dwelling land of any main characters.
For the most part, they’re shown in apartments, offices, restaurants, casinos, on the
streets of big cities and in places like that. And if they do show a person who
communes with the earth in a conscious way - and this happens extremely rarely - then
this person is presented as immature, as an imbecile. Human society is methodically
and persistently being indoctrinated about the kind of dwelling land where he should
pass his life. Did this situation come about by chance? I think, and I am even
convinced, that it did not come about by chance. It is leading us toward a disaster - a
personal, social and planetary disaster.
When I was talking with Anastasia later on, after I’d done some thinking on my
own, I said, with certainty:
“I am absolutely convinced that contemporary mankind is living in the
dimension of anti-rationality. It thinks in the categories of anti-rationality, because it
has no clear plans for how to construct a harmonious future. All it does is state the
obvious - the fact that it is coming to an end - and speak about that.”
THE YEAR 2012
These days, the date of December 22, 2012 is being widely and actively
discussed, both in esoteric circles and among scholars, and on the Internet. Many
people believe that the world will come to an end on that day.
Why are people talking specifically about this date? It’s because this date is
connected to a gloomy, apocalyptic prediction by the enigmatic ancient Mayans,
according to whose calendar - and, by the way, experts admit that the Mayan calendar
is much more precise than the Gregorian calendar we now use - on this day, on
December 22, 2012, the current cycle of the so-called long count, the Era of the Fifth
Sun, or the Epoch of the Jaguar, will come to an end. According to legend, the
conclusion of Epoch of the Jaguar will be followed by years of death and destruction
that will continue until the epoch of the renewal of mankind begins.
Scholars recently ascertained that the date indicated in the Mayan calendar is
significant astronomically. On this day an event will occur that takes place only once
every 25,800 years: the Sun will come into alignment with the mystical energetic
center of the Galaxy, and modem civilization will, for the first time, live through this
rare astronomical phenomenon. Or it won’t live through it.
It has been suggested that during the second millennium B.C.E., the Mayan
forbears, whose monuments we encounter in Central America, came down from the
mountains where they’d been living into the tropical forests and plains of the Yucatan.
It is precisely on the plains that the Mayan civilization achieved its greatest flowering,
in the first millennium B.C.E. The Mayans knew how to write in hieroglyphs, and their
math and medicine were at a very high level. They built stone cities and unbelievable
ceremonial structures, such as the Great Palace at Palenque, and - here’ s the main thing
- they had a deep knowledge of astronomy.
Up to the present day, no complete explanation has been found for the fact that
the Mayan cities began to fall into disrepair long before the Europeans arrived.
At the heart of the Mayan civilization’s astrology lies the Count of Days. The
basis for generally accepted astrology (of Ancient Sumer and Babylon) is the
arrangement of the planets around the zodiac circle. The Mayans also knew the zodiac
constellations, but their Zodiac had 13 constellations, not 12. They included the
constellation Serpentarius (which the Mayans called the Bat,) through which the Sun
passes for only a few days.
Now about the enigmatic calendar. The current cycle of time, which comes to an
end in the year 2012, is measured starting from a very ancient date: the 13th of August
in the year 3114 B.C.E. And this is rather strange, because, as I’ve already noted, the
culture of the Mayans themselves is a minimum of a thousand years younger than that.
Experts who study Mayan culture have not been able to reach consensus about how
their famous calendar' came into being. It’s been suggested that the Mayans acquired
the calendar - along with their written language - from the Olmecs, whose culture has
a more ancient history. And actually, archaeologists have made finds on the territory of
the ancient Olmecs’ settlement at La Venta that confirm a certain continuity or
interconnection between those cultures. But what’s more interesting is something else.
When scholars took a look at comparative chronology, then it became clear that
certain momentous events from the past of human civilization fully coincide with the
beginning of the current cycle of the Mayan calendar, the 3 1 14th year B.C.E. . Thus, it
is roughly at this time that the mysterious megalithic structure of Stonehenge begins to
be constructed. Written language appears in Mesopotamia. In Egypt, following the
unification of the Upper and lower Kingdoms and the founding of the fortress of the
White Wall (Memphis in Greek,) mling dynasties are formed. In America they begin
cultivating maize. One gets the impression that precisely at that time, a global cultural
revolution took place across the whole planet and that people acquired new knowledge,
under the influence of certain external forces. According to one of the theories, priests,
shamans and holy men of that time came into contact with some repository of secret
knowledge during their meditations.
Of course, the predictions of the Mayan culture, the well-known prophesies and
official sources that speak of a planetary disaster are worthy of attention. Even so, it’s
each thinking person alive today who can make the most important and reliable
reckoning about the future.
Let’s try to analyze in what direction changes in the ecological situation in
Russia are tending.
Let’s take the time span of just the last fifty years. The majority of the country’s
population began living in big and middle-sized cities. People in the big cities have
ended up without good quality drinking water. As if that weren’t enough, people have
started having to pay for their most life-sustaining product. Fifty years ago, a situation
like this would have seemed simply fantastical to society. Today society has gotten
used to it. And it shouldn’t have done so. Water is a requirement for everything, and if
society agrees to the ever greater pollution of water, then it does not have the right to
exist. It isn’t someone up on high who’s sentencing man to this, but man himself.
’’I’m Cancelling the Predicted Hell on Earth”
This phrase was uttered by the taiga hermit Anastasia. I think it’s useful for the
majority of people living on Earth to utter similar words and to perform acts that
correspond to these words. Today this is a matter of life and death.
Many people living on the planet Earth are taking note of the negative results of
global warming. Scientists are spreading the word about changes in the Earth’s
geomagnetic field and about the flooding of entire continents in the not-so-distant
future. Such large-scale disasters have begun occurring right before our
contemporaries’ very eyes, like the one in Indonesia, where more than two hundred
thousand people perished, and in the USA, where New Orleans, a city with a
population of a million, was flooded. Scientists are also spreading the word about
impending changes in the Sun’s activity.
Questions about the ecological safety of the Earth have arisen so keenly that they
were included in the UN agenda in 2007, at England’s initiative. At the beginning of
2008, they were considered by Russia’s Security Counci
For the first time, assertions by those forecasting a global disaster began to
dovetail with the way contemporaiy scientists and the leadership of many states
viewed this topic.
The priests of the Mayan civilization also spoke about how a global disaster
would occur, and that it would take place in 2012.
Many people have heard about this to one degree or another, but even so, public
conversations about the 2012 disaster touch on only a small portion of what is spoken
about in talks behind closed doors.
It’s only by hearsay that we can guess that the Japanese government is taking
steps to resettle its population. According to the forecasts, England will be one of the
first to be flooded and, evidently, that’s why it was the one to initiate the inclusion of
ecological questions in the agenda for the meeting of the UN Security Council.
If s possible that the governments of various countries are acting correctly by not
publicizing the current situation widely and in detail. Why sow panic in the people?
But on the other hand, the majority of a population might perish because they’re out of
the loop, and if that’s the case, then only the informed elite would be able to save
themselves, taking one or two hundred slaves each along with them.
Scientists are making predictions about which countries will be swallowed up by
the elements, the way Atlantis was, and which ones won’t be subject to flooding. In
Russia, for example, the coastal regions will be flooded, and Siberia will end up being
the best place to live.
Following global wanning on the Earth, an ice age will ensue.
But what difference does it even make what kind of global disaster comes about,
if society is in no condition to withstand the disastrous phenomena we already have
today, such as the fumes that contaminate the air in the cities, the electromagnetic
radiation that penetrates our dwellings, and many others?
Is there an alternative to mankind’s sad future? Of course, there is. But all in
good time.
And so, at world forums, they’ve come to a clear conclusion: it’s possible that a
disaster will occur in coming years. And so here’s where an interesting question arises:
are leaders, the wealthy, and science capable of taking some kind of measures to avert
it? Representatives of global science have been unable to answer this question. The
governments of various countries, in an effort to affect the situation in some way,
developed the so-called Kyoto Protocol, according to which all countries would be
required to reduce harmful emissions into the atmosphere. Thus far, the protocol has
remained unratified by many countries.
What might happen in the future does, of course, cause us worry, but shouldn’t
the disastrous situation that’ s already playing out today - the situation masquerading as
the triumph of civilization - cause us even greater worry?
THE MAN-EATING OCTOPUS
The picture that Anastasia or the dark-haired youth showed, in which people
build their homes along the stinking tentacles of a man-eating monster is not fiction at
all, but the truest reality. A reality to which people have grown so accustomed that they
accept it as a given.
And the monster exists still and is growing in size. It is our roads and what
moves along them. Information about this is available to everyone.
We hiow, for example, that the length of the world's major paved highways
exceeds 12 million kilometers, which is, for purposes of comparison, three hundred
times the length of the Earth’s equator, which extends for approximately forty
thousand kilometers. The length of air traffic routes approaches 6 million kilometers,
railway tracks are 1.5 million kilometers long, major pipelines stretch for roughly 1.1
million kilometers, and interior waterways - for more than six hundred thousand
kilometers. The length of sea lanes equals many millions of kilometers. If we him to
the problem of pollution of the atmosphere by various means of transportation, then
automobiles’ share would make up 85 percent! And you know, the problem here isn’t
limited to harmful gases. We shouldn’t forget about such unfavorable ecological
factors as noise and vibration. So, 80 decibels - which is about the noise level on a busy
city street - already has the potential to harm one’s hearing. And the development of
various means of transportation and the laying down of highways doesn’t promote
psychological health, either. And here, too, these factors directly or indirectly affect
not only drivers and passengers, but also the many people who are outside the means of
transportation and communications lines. Crammed roads, sitting for many hours in
traffic jams, the fact that sometimes it’s impossible even to simply cross the road - all
of this sharply heightens nervousness, leads to chronic stress and increased aggression
and sometimes drives people to acts they not only never would have committed, but
couldn’t even imagine themselves capable of committing, had they been in some other
place.
Yearly surveys of the condition of the natural environment in the various regions
of our country eloquently express the acute nature of the problem of the ecological
safety of all Russian big cities without exception. And experts unanimously recognize
“the intens ifying process of the automobilization of society” as the fundamental reason
that the regions’ level of ecological safety has decreased. Even now, medical personnel
are already testifying that “ecological stress” caused by the automotive and
transportation system costs the average resident of a large city in Russia 4 to 5 years of
his life. Here we’re talking about people and a person, after all, can not only perceive a
problem, but articulate it, too. But what about the Earth, for example? Although the
Earth can also articulate a problem, too, in its own way. It’s just that amidst the noise
and clatter and fumes of ours lives, are we still capable of hearing the Earth’s voice?
What specifically is it about the automotive and transportation system that is
killing the Earth? First of all, you need actual earth when you’re building transportation
lines, just as you need water and air. In the USA, for example, there’ s a statistic that the
amount of land that highways, railways and airports occupy equals 101,000 square
kilometers, while cities occupy 109,000 square kilometers. In Russia, the length of
roads is greater than half a million kilometers.
Well, roads are built on the land - what’s the problem? The problem is that when
roads, pipelines and airports are built and used, the soil is destroyed: you get landslides
and sink holes, and erosion advances. And then you get gullies that run along the ruts in
dirt roads and grow wider, which exacerbates the situation even more.
The further you go, the more happens: a large expanse of land alongside
highways, railways and the oil and gas pipelines that come out onto the surface is
polluted with a combination of lead, sulfur, petroleum products and other substances.
Experts rank as most dangerous the strip of land that extends 200 meters outward along
both sides runs of the busiest highways. This is the reason it is expressly prohibited to
grow agricultural products, collect mushrooms and berries, and graze livestock -
especially milk-producers - along the sides of roads. (There are known cases of
children being poisoned by the milk of cows that have grazed around roads.) Near
roads, the layer of air near the ground, up to a meter above the surface, is also
devastatingly polluted with dust consisting of particles of asphalt, rubber and metal.
You’ll find lead in it, along with other substances that possess carcinogenic and
mutagenic functions. Those who are fond of taking a stroll or jogging along the
roadside should give this some thought, and one should be particularly mindful of this
when taking walks with little children - after all, when they’re in a stroller or are
walking, they’re passing right through this hazardous zone.
And here’ s something else I’ d like to add. Please note that the greatest number of
hannful roadways is concentrated not in the desert or in Antarctica, but in places with
the greatest concentrations of people. And huge cities and metropolitan areas take pride
in their killer multi-lane ring highways.
When putting their budgets together, all governments include major financing
for constructing and repairing highways. What else could they do? After all, if there
were no roads, the residents of metropolitan areas might be left without food and
medication. Roads are the blood vessels that provide a person living in a metropolitan
area with everything he needs.
Stop! What we’ve got here is some kind of gibberish. It truly is rampant
anti-rationality. The blood vessels which - it would seem - we can’t do without, are in
truth delivering to us a slow death.
All, what spiritual, well-educated and intelligent people we want to seem to be!
But if we leave monsters like this to the new generation, that means we are handing our
very own children over to it to be ripped to pieces. Who does that make us in that case?
And there seems to be no way out of the current, absurd situation. But it only
seems that way. There is a way out. And it lies in the way we live - both the individual
person and society as whole.
The exhaust gases from millions of cars, the smokestacks of giant and small
companies and other sources that belch out harmful pollutants are but an effect, and not
the cause that gave birth to them. The cause lies in the anti-rational, technocratic way
of life.
HEADING OFF A PLANETARY DISASTER
Now, many people - starting with the UN and the governments of many
countries and ending with ordinary people - are saying that we are on the brink of a
planetary disaster.
There’s also talk about how human acts are the cause of the disaster.
It goes without saying that simply stating the fact that a calamity is approaching
does nothing to head it off. We need concrete, efficacious measures that are capable of
changing the situation for the better. But does an efficacious method for finding our
way out of a crisis situation exist in nature? Yes, it does! Its “code names” are “family
homestead,” “the ringing cedars of Russia” and “Anastasia.” These words and the
images, information and philosophy that stand behind them are capable not only of
leading the country out of crisis in very short order, but also of initiating a new phase of
harmonious development in society.
So that we can understand how this might come to pass, let’s first enumerate
some of today’s problems.
Ecology. There is not enough good quality air, pure water and healthy food in
the cities.
Transportation. Traffic jams many kilometers long have become customary in
large cities. Because of poor roads in Russia, up to thirty thousand people die in traffic
accidents each year.
Corruption. There is much talk, including on the highest levels, about the scale
of this phenomenon. A bureaucrat who embezzles from the treasury, a bribe-taker and
a bribe-giver are no less dangerous than enemy saboteurs.
Unemployment. The most dangerous consequence of unemployment is
depression. When this illness overcomes one person, he turns into a living corpse. If it
overcomes a segment of society, then the state is in danger of dying out.
Drunkenness and Drug Addiction. We’ve been fighting these afflictions for a
long time now, and unsuccess frilly.
The Housing Problem. Despite all the efforts that have been brought to bear to
resolve it, the situation is only getting worse.
And now, let’s imagine the following scenario:
Fifty percent of the population of Russia, America and Canada decides to live a
healthy way of life and build a family homestead for their family on a plot of land not
less than one hectare in size.
The governments lay the necessary legislative foundation and grant these
families the necessary amount of land so they can create settlements of family
homesteads.
On the previously abandoned lands of former collective farms, state farms and
farmlands, the people who have received land begin building on an unprecedented
scale. They build residential homes and the necessaiy farmyard structures. Those who
lack sufficient means do the building using their own family’s labor. Those who have
the means to do so hire construction crews.
But what’s most important is that these people, each of them on their own
hectare, are planting gardens and putting in vegetable gardens.
Previously abandoned lands in the Far East, in Siberia and in the Central Region
of Russia turn into blooming oases.
In a state that has such oases, the food problem is entirely solved, since families
who have changed their way of life not only entirely provide for themselves with first
class produce, but are also able to feed the population of large and smaller cities.
The threat of a collapse of the transportation system in big cities disappears.
Since the quantity of cars falls by half, the air improves significantly. The housing
problem is completely solved, since the housing that has been freed up is granted to all
who need it. Unemployment entirely disappears, and the government need not worry
about what will happen when unprofitable businesses shut down.
Social tension in society falls sharply. Stratification into poor and rich no longer
elicits rage and envy in most people. People have found more important priorities than
how much money one has.
Consciously communing with the land opens up such possibilities and horizons
for man that the technocratic mind can’t imagine them, not even in science fiction
films. For this reason, I believe that all of us, all together, need to try to fathom what
lies at the heart of the secret of this communing.
Changing the way a significant portion of the population lives will eliminate the
possibility of an ecological disaster on a planetary scale.
Some might say that what we have here is a very rosy and fantastical picture of
the future. How can a significant portion of the population suddenly experience the
inspired desire to begin living a healthy way of life? To build family homesteads by
acquiring some land that’s overgrown with tall weeds, and pay for it themselves to
boot? And all thanks to some code names and phrases. That’s not realistic. That’s a
fairy tale.
I’ll tell you right off, there’s no problem where this question is concerned. The
words and phrases are efficacious. Tens of people are showing us this in practice. In
Russia there are already more than fifteen hundred settlements of family homesteads
that have been set up by readers of the books in the “Ringing Cedars of Russia” series.
There are the same kind of settlements in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
But what is fantastical, from the point of view of Rationality, is that government
agencies have not aided these people enough and have, in some cases, opposed this
beautiful aspiration.
A chorus of voices on the international and regional levels is calling for
measures to be taken to head off a planetary disaster. But the only people who are
really taking actions aimed at heading off social and ecological disruptions are the
people who are building family homesteads.
More than a year ago an idea was bom: for each person who has founded a
family homestead and who is planning to found one to declare his intentions and
aspirations. The first time I read a draft of a declaration like this out loud was at a
gathering in one of the settlements. The idea was picked up, and since then, the text has
undergone a great many changes and additions. I’m offering it here with the most
significant additions.
FAMILY HOMESTEAD DECLARATION
Declaration of My Family Homestead
(Draft)
I, a citizen of the Russian Federation, have familiarized myself with the
philosophy of a way of life that has been set forth in fictional form in the “Ringing
Cedars of Russia” book series. The idea of creating a family homestead has inspired
me to take action.
I have acquired a plot of land in a deserted spot out in the country, one hectare in
size, with the goal of establishing a more perfected dwelling land for my family and my
descendants, and in memory of our ancestors.
I gave the given spot the name “Family Homestead.” On the land I acquired I
have laid out a garden, dug a pond where fish will breed, and established several
families of bees. I cultivate berries and vegetables.
I plan to fertilize the land using solely natural and native means of fertilization.
I believe that it will be a positive development if a large number of families who
have the skills and desire to work the land, and who establish their daily lives on family
homesteads located around large and small cities, are able to provide urban populations
with a large quantity of ecologically pure vegetable produce and improve ecological
conditions in the provinces.
I consider it unacceptable that tens of millions of hectares of land in our country
are not cultivated and are overgrown with tall weeds, at the same time as we purchase
60% of our food products from foreign countries, and that in addition, these products
are also often of low quality and are harmful to humans, especially children.
I believe that this situation not only threatens the safety of food in our country,
but also destroys the populaces living within its territories.
I believe that under such conditions, it’s counterproductive to accuse the
government or anyone else of having made this or that mistake. Our entire society has
made mistakes, and not only our country’s society. As a result, the societies of many
countries stand on the brink of social disruptions. In the current situation, it’s essential
for each person to think about what concrete steps he personally can take in the very
near future to bring about positive changes.
The example of countries that have placed their bets on farm economy shows the
ineffectiveness and even destructive nature of this choice. Fanners who focus on
earning a profit from growing agricultural products enter into a competitive battle with
each other. In order to prevail, they must use pesticides and herbicides and raise
harmful genetically modified crops, and by doing this, they endanger the lives of
people of entire states.
On the family homestead, a family lives and grows produce to meet its own
needs and the needs of its relatives who live in the cities. Thus, a family living on a
family homestead has a fundamentally different relationship with the land. The surplus
produce from the homesteads will differ from all other produce that appears on the
shelves of city stores in its beneficial nature.
The intensifying worldwide economic crisis creates the threat of social disorder
in many countries. If we’re to come out of this crisis, we must have a fundamentally
new philosophy of a family way of life, one that people will understand. And such a
philosophy has been set forth in the “Ringing Cedars of Russia” book series. I have
accepted its fundamental concepts and they have inspired me to take the actions laid
out above.
More than a hundred families - families in which children are being bom and
raised in a more perfected ecological setting - have each acquired one hectare of land
and are already building their own family homesteads alongside my own family
homestead. Practice has shown that they’re doing so not because of some infusion of
capital, but because of this philosophy.
I’m aware that thanks to this philosophy, tens of thousands of families in various
regions of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are already building their family homesteads.
Millions of families are planning to do so as soon as a more favorable legislative basis
for this is established. Many families are planning to become small business owners
and produce agricultural products.
I Hilly support efforts by the Government and President of the Russian
Federation to create favorable conditions for building small houses outside the cities,
and to also make lands designated for agricultural use available for the constmction of
small houses, and to allocate each family a plot of land. I believe that each plot should
be not less than one hectare in size, since on a smaller plot it’ s impossible to establish a
comparably perfected and self-sustaining ecosystem and small-scale agriculture.
If families are not allocated a large enough plot of land, the settlements around
the cities will turn into consumers instead of producers, which will only exacerbate the
food, ecological and social situation in the country. I consider it essential for us to
urgently ask the Government and President of the Russian Federation to speed up their
work in this direction and adopt the necessary law regarding family homesteads.
I appeal to the President and Congress of the United States of America, to the
UN, and to the heads of all states who have a vested interest in the flowering of the
peoples living in them, and recommend that they examine and embrace the idea that
creating family homesteads is the most effective plan for enabling countries to come
out of the global economic crisis, avert the approaching ecological catastrophe, and
avoid a food crisis.
A significant portion of the peoples of Russia see the “Family Homestead” plan
as a national idea. May it become an international national idea - and may our
countries compete with each other to make the beautiful future a reality.
If the governments of various countries sincerely understand this idea, publicize
it and support it, then the depression that is advancing on us can be stopped. An
inspired, constructive international process will begin.
The actions of thousands of Russian families have already proven the positive
influence of the “Family Homestead” plan. More than fifteen hundred Russian
families, who have already begun building their own family homesteads have signed
declarations like this one. We continue to collect signatures.
I wish all like-minded people success and inspiration as they creatively build a
beautiful environment where their families can live - in various countries, and in the
world as a whole!
Signature of the founder(s) of the family homestead
With the passage of time, this document, which has already taken on a life of its
own, began to give rise in me to an ever-growing feeling of significance. I was getting
the feeling that it’s not a passport, a diploma or any awards that constitute a person’s
most important documents, but precisely this kind of declaration. Returning in my
mind to this document again and again, I kept trying to understand why I was having
these feelings. The text and language might vary, but they aren’t what’ s most important
here. What’s important is the essence.
I read the declaration to Anastasia, told her about my feelings, and asked:
“What do you think Anastasia, why do these feelings arise, and not only in me?
I’ve spoken with many people, and they also experience the feeling that the declaration
is very significant, but no one can explain why that happens. Why is it?”
“You see, Vladimir, the feeling that this document is significant immediately
arose in me, also. But like you and these others, what about it makes me feel that way -
I am unable to explain that immediately. Perhaps we need to ponder it a bit together?”
“Perhaps, but I’ve already pondered it a great deal. The feeling that it’s
significant remains, but I still haven’t understood why that is.”
Suddenly Anastasia drew herself up somehow and began to shine. She began
speaking, pronouncing each syllable distinctly, just the way she always did when she
was trying to emphasize something significant:
“Vladimir, I think I am beginning to understand where its great significance lies.
Look! When the Creator was creating the earthly world, before the great Creation, He
first gave voice to his intention. He imparted it to all the entities of the Universe, and
when they asked, ‘What is it you so fervently desire?’ he replied, ‘Co-creation and joy
for all who behold it.’”
“But can it really be so important to impart your intentions to everyone?”
“Of course. It is very important. For, imparting it to all means, above all,
imparting it to yourself, as well. It means comprehending what is taking place, and
believing in yourself.
“Besides, having declared your intentions in words, you are already
materializing them. By imparting them to all, you call upon them to join you in
co -creation.”
“Why do I need to call upon everybody? I mean, somebody might laugh at me,
or oppose me, or be indifferent.”
“Derision, opposition and indifference will be participants in the co-creation
from the other side. They are needed to fill out this creation, within which you will
bring everything into balance.”
“I’m feeling an excitement inside, Anastasia. Where’s that coming from?”
“Vladimir, I, too, feel excited. This document has appeared as a herald of a new
era on Earth. The aspirations of the people who stand behind it are ho lding within them
a great realization. For thousands of years people lived without determining their own
lives. What were they striving for, and why? What should the new generations carry
forth? Should they bear in mind where those paths went wrong? Which paths? Amidst
the bustle of life, women gave birth children, but they offered no goals in life to those
they bore. Their children knew not, what they were to carry forward. And they would
die, the earthly civilizations, having lived out their empty lives. Only pottery shards
remained of them, and arrowheads. The children would heed others’ opinions of their
parents.
“And what your grandfather wanted of life, Vladimir - he did not impart this to
your father and mother in words. Nor did they impart that to you in words. You are
their continuation. Tell me, what kind of continuation did they want in life?”
“I don’t know. I can only imagine.”
“You can imagine whatever you might like. But you know for sure that they did
not impart it, their life’s aspiration.”
“Of course they didn’t. Nor do all the other people I know.”
“For the first time in perhaps billions of year, as if awakening at dawn, a man has
said, ‘I have an aspiration. I will begin my creation, and my generations will live in a
promised land around them 16 . And they will perfect the promised land around them. Of
co in's e, they will be more perfected than I. But I will begin it all! And a little part of me
will live on in my descendants. ’
“You can cite many examples of how that which we do not impart in words dies
along with the physical body.
“A man was thinking about how he might improve for his descendants the land
where he lived, and he planted a cedar tree on his plot. Before long, the man died.
Twenty-nine years passed, and the tree grew into a beautiful, spreading cedar, fifteen
meters tall. Within but a year it would have borne marvelous, healing fruit, but people -
the children of the man who had planted it - cut it down. They thought, why do we
need this tree here? It casts a shadow over part of our plot, and its shade is keeping the
tomatoes and cucumbers from growing in their beds. And they cut down the spreading
cedar, and they cut it down precisely because the man had not given voice to his
intentions.
“Genghis Khan conquered nearly half the world and brought Russia, India,
China and Palestine together beneath his rule, so that there would be no war. He built
roads, lowered taxes, and honored the traditions and cultures of various peoples, but he
himself lived not in the palaces he had seized, but in a yurt. He sought to bring wise
men from all over the world to him. Together with these wise men, he talked about how
they could go about making people happy, and how to help everyone come to know
eternity and immortality of peoples. Of all conquerors of the Earth, his empire endured
the longest. He knew something. He attained and displayed it, but the empire collapsed
all the same. And Genghis Khan has come down to us through the ages as just a
conqueror. Who from among those alive today is able to say what his true intentions
were? He didn’t give voice to them.”
“Well, perhaps they were just destroyed or are preserved in scrolls somewhere
now.”
“Intentions should be preserved not only in scrolls, but in the hearts of the
people. Genghis Khan wasn’t able to give voice to them so that they would be passed
from generation to generation through the ages.”
16 Translator’s note:
The original Russian phrase is “cpe/ia oderoBaHHaa” (transliterated “sreda obetovannaya” and pronounced “sree-DAH
ah-bee-TOH-vuhn-nuh-yuh”). This phrase both echoes the phrase “dwelling land” (“cpe/ja odirra him”, transliterated
“sreda obitaniya” and pronounced “sree-DAH ah-bee-TAH-nee-yuh”) and is also meant to echo the Biblical phrase
“promised land” (in Russian “3eMJia odeTOBaHHa” (transliterated “zemlya obetovanna” and pronounced “zeem-LYAH
ah-bee-TOH-vuhn-nuh”). Thus, although “cpe^a” is often translated as “habitat”, I chose to translate it here as “the land
around you”, so as to retain the link to both “promised land” and the word “land” in the phrase “dwelling land”. See note
10 for discussion of the latter phrase.
“Those are striking examples. It’s amazing - why, for millions of years didn’t
people attach any particular importance to the need to give voice to their lives? Now
I’m thinking the same thing, that this document presages a new era. Tell me, Anastasia,
how will you give voice to your aspirations - both before people and yourself?”
“Why, all of my aspirations are already laid out in your books, Vladimir. If I
were to add anything else specific, I’d say, ‘I will gather together the best sounds from
the whole Universe and will embed them into combinations of letters and into musical
notes.’ I will ask today’s poets, you, Vladimir, and the bards to give voice to them. A
great many people will sense them with their souls. Let people express them in a
language they understand, let them model the dawn of the earth and its beautiful
flowering. And when the melodies of man’s worthy land embrace the entire Earth, then
I, amongst our kind neighbors, will help our grandchildren create their homesteads, and
all the while, I will not forget my own family space.
“But what should I say to myself, and how should I voice my own declaration
before people?”
“Each person needs to consider that on his own.”
“Yes. Of course. Each person on his own. Even this draft I already have
resonates with me. I’ll think on my own about what I can add to it to make it my own.
“I’ll ask all the readers to consider it, too.
“This document is essential. It’s an important missive from the founders of a
family homestead to the future generations of their family line. It’s a directive that
comes from the people and goes to those at all levels of power, a comimmication with
them. It will be a good tiling if each family keeps a beautifully designed document like
this, like a kind of relic, alongside the family book 17 of the family homestead’s
founders or those who intend to found one.
“A person will read it with awe and gratitude in his family homestead’ s beautiful
garden even a hundred years later, and he’ll read it and recall the founder. And another
person, a hundred years later, a person who has lost his way in life’s whirlwind will
suddenly come across it as he’s looking through his parents’ old tilings and will read
about their unfulfilled intentions. And the person will have a burning desire to make
them a reality.
“And I think it would also be useful to send this kind of document to each
member of local governments personally, and to the UN.
17 Translator’s note:
The original Russian here is “po^oBaa KHura” (transliterated “rodovaya kniga” and pronounced “ruh-dah-VAH-yuh
KNEE-guh”). This phrase, coined by Vladimir Megre, refers to a book that each family creates when they establish a
family homestead. In the family book, family members will write down informat ion about the members of the family line
and about the family homestead, so that this valuable information will be preserved and handed down from generation to
generation for centuries to come.
“Similarly, I consider it essential to establish a yearly scientific and practical
conference called ‘Family Homesteads of the Future.’ under the auspices of the UN.”
MY LONELY LITTLE HECTARE
Anastasia has one trait that is, in my opinion, a bit aggravating. She possesses a
colossal volume of information and is happy to answer many questions, but there are
some she categorically refuses to answer. Sometimes this categorical nature of hers
annoys me, and sometimes it simply enrages me. But even when she sees my
annoyance and rage, she nonetheless maintains her position.
For example, she categorically refuses to make a sample layout for a family
homestead and its landscaping. “If I were to do that, I’d be meddling in your creation,
Vladimir, putting the brakes on your thought’s motion. I would be the one birthing the
design, not you. It would be as if it were not your own child,” she says, and then she
brings in various other arguments, as well.
But a serious and insoluble situation had come up for me that was precisely
concerned with establishing a homestead. I spent a long time thinking about how to
convince Anastasia to either help me or to say that the problem was insoluble so that I
wouldn’t spend my time and have nothing to show for it.
I made another attempt to win Anastasia over and convince her to sacrifice her
principles. I picked a suitable time - it was a sunny day and the taiga was fragrant.
Anastasia was sitting beneath a cedar tree, weaving her golden hair into a braid. I was
walking back and forth near her, mentally selecting some weighty arguments. She was
the first to speak. Smiling, she asked affectionately:
“Have some complicated thoughts gotten you all stirred up, Vladimir? You’re
right here beside me, yet at the same time, in your thoughts, you’re far from these
parts.”
I took a seat next to Anastasia and began to speak, trying to be as convincing as
possible.
“You see, Anastasia, a certain situation has come up, and I can’t possible deal
with it without your help.”
“What situation, Vladimir?”
“Seven years ago, not far from the city of Vladimir, when I was having a look at
the surrounding countryside, I drove onto a field in my jeep and got stuck. The vehicle
was stuck up to its underside and the only way to pull it out was to use a tractor. While
I was waiting for the tractor driver, I looked around at the abandoned field, overgrown
with tall weeds. It was a rather pretty spot there. The field was surrounded by a mixed
forest, and a stream flowed in front of the forest, and not far off, you could glimpse a
big lake. And I thought, it would be a good thing if a settlement of family homesteads
were to spring up here. People would build pretty homes, dig flower beds, put in
gardens and build some normal roads.
“And I could hardly believe it - that’s exactly what happened: a year later, on
that very spot. People - readers of the ‘Ringing Cedars of Russia’ book series - began
acquiring land so they could build family homesteads. The organizers suggested I take
a hectare, too, and - I don’t even why, myself - I agreed. Maybe right then I felt like
supporting them. But I hardly did anything at all with my hectare, and sometimes I’d
totally forget about it. I only called twice and asked people to sow some mustard on the
land, to improve the soil. The lands there are not very fertile - there’s layer of fertile
soil about fifteen to twenty centimeters thick, and below that there’s about thirty
centimeters of sand, and below that, nothing but clay.
“I totally forgot about my hectare. I have an apartment and a country house not
far from town. You know of it, Anastasia. And I have a place to live in Siberia, too.
“But then, five years later, I happened to come to the spot where my jeep had
gotten stuck. Even as I was driving up, I was astounded by what I saw. Can you
imagine, Anastasia? Miracles do happen! Along both sides of the big lake, in the spot
where there used to be a deserted space, there were homes. All different kinds. Big
ones, solid ones and totally tiny ones. Driveways paved with gravel led from the main
road to the homes. People had divided up the abandoned fields surrounding the lake
into plots and were building up their family homesteads.
“I recalled how I’d dreamed there, by my stuck jeep, about family homesteads
on just one field. But here, I could hardly believe it - people were settling all the fields
surrounding the lake. A little island of the new and happy Russia was being bom on
this deserted space, overgrown with tall weeds.”
“That means your dream was powerful, Vladimir, and correct. They embraced
it. And now you’ve seen the way it’s materializing, developing.”
“I should have been more careful what I wished for, five years ago, by my jeep.
If I’d known how everything would turn out, then I’d have nipped that dream in the
bud. I failed to take one thing into account, Anastasia.
“Now I’ll tell you everything in order. And this is where I desperately need your
help.”
“Go on, then, Vladimir, and tell me everything in order.”
“F ive years later, I was riding along a gravel road in that very same jeep with one
of the local settlers. One spot caught my eye, and I stopped the jeep by a hectare that
was overgrown with tall weeks. To the left of it, on another hectare, was a construction
trailer, and next to it - a beautiful home with a roof had been put up. It didn’t have any
glass in the windows as of yet, but from all appearances you could see that people were
making their family homestead livable. And to the right of the abandoned hectare was a
beautiful, wooden home, too, as well as farmyard structures, and a bathhouse, and
they’d dug a pond. It was as if this home on the right took great pride in its flower beds
and, of course, in the people that had made it beautiful. And then I said to my travelling
companion, ‘I get the impression that these hectares of land have their own fates, and
that their fates are ties with the people’s.’
“‘I think so, too,’ my travelling companion replied. ‘Probably, each person has
his own hectare of land somewhere on Earth, but he doesn’t know anything about it, or
has forgotten about it.’
“I went on talking. ‘When huge fields are abandoned, individual hectares don’t
feel so insulted, because they’re all in the same situation, like homeless children. But
this is a different case. It’s insulting. The hectares to the right and the left are being set
up, but this one, between the two of them, looks like an abandoned child.’
“My companion said nothing and even looked down somehow, as if he felt
awkward, both for the hectare overgrown with tall weeds, and for the person who’d
abandoned it.
“And I asked, ‘Whose hectare is this?’ ‘It’s yours, Vladimir Nikolaevich,’ my
travelling companion replied, without raising his eyes.
“‘Mine?...’
“‘Yes. Well, we all got together and made a driveway onto it. We laid a pipe in
the ditch and covered it over with stone. We put in posts to mark the driveway, and we
planted little fir trees on both sides. But nothing more - each person looks after his own
land. ’
“I got out of the car. On my hectare, which is almost an exact square, a hundred
meters by a hundred, and which abuts the forest, only tall weeds were growing. It
didn’t just seem abandoned and lonely, like a homeless child. No, it was far worse off
than a homeless child. Even a homeless child can go off somewhere, find himself some
friends among his peers and somehow get himself set up. My hectare couldn’t do that.
“I set off along the perimeter of the plot and suddenly saw two beautiful little
flowers amongst the tall weeds. It was autumn. September. But they were blooming.
You couldn’t see them from the road because the weeds were taller. ‘Wow,’ I thought,
‘My hectare is striving to be beautiful, too. Who knows how the flower seeds got here,
but my hectare grew them and is reaching out to me through these little flowers, the
way a child reaches out with his arms, and it’s asking me to do something.’
“And some irresistible desire arose in me, the desire to set up this plot of land, no
matter what, so that it would be no worse than other people’s plots, and maybe even
better. I don’t blow why that kind of desire arose. I wasn’t thinking of this plot of land
as a family homestead for my family. I just wanted to make everything on it right and
beautiful. And I didn’t just want to - suddenly some irresistible idea arose to make it
the best of all of them. Maybe later on it will draw my granddaughters to it. When it
becomes the best in the world.
“I’ve returned to my hectare many times in my mind. I’ve sketched out the
layout of various outbuildings on paper and made a list of the plants that should grow
on it. I had to finish my work on the book and take care of a great number of other
day-to-day affairs, but this hectare continually stirred up my thoughts in a pleasant way
and even led my thoughts away from unpleasant problems. It’s amazing, but it’s
actually thanks to it that I’ve been able to overcome a whole series of day-to-day
difficulties and psychological problems. You know, there really is something
mysterious in man’ s bond with the land. Some living link stands behind this bond. And
the desire to make my land beautiful and well-tended has grown stronger and
stronger.”
“A good desire has arisen within you, Vladimir, even passionate, I’m sensing. It
will also be of help to you.”
“‘It’ who?”
“Your hectare. You yourself say that it stirs up your thoughts and leads them
away from unpleasant problems.”
“There are very big challenges connected to that hectare, Anastasia. It’s kind of
like a child with a congenital physical defect.”
“What kind of defect?”
“Nothing will grow on those lands except weeds. Vegetables won’t grow. And
the people in those parts don’t have normal gardens. There’s a village nearby, it’s two
hundred years old, but the village residents don’t have normal gardens, either. Those
lands there have a veiy thin fertile layer, and then right below it, nothing but clay. In the
spring the water sits on the surface for a long time, and in the summer, too, if you get a
rainy summer. Most plants’ roots can’t penetrate the clay. If you were to dig a deep
hole in the clay, fill it with fertile earth brought in from somewhere, even then the tree
might die. Water will collect in the clay pit in the rainy season, the clay will retain it,
and the roots will rot.”
“Vladimir, I do not think that the situation is so very hopeless as you’ve painted
it. Tell me, how do the people feel about what is happening? Maybe they’re
disheartened?”
“No, they’re not disheartened. The majority of them, they sense that this is their
family land, for centuries to come. Some of them, even their parents come to visit, live
there for a bit and then ask to be buried not in a cemetery, but on the family homestead.
Everything’s fine, but the fact that the land can’t bear fruit in a normal way is veiy
upsetting to me. I even regretted having dreamt of a settlement springing up on this
spot. Now it’s like I feel guilty.”
“What steps will you take now, Vladimir, in regard to your own hectare?”
“I don’t intend to abandon it. I think there must be some way out.”
“I also think so. You must search for it and find it.”
“I’ve searched for it, but I haven’t found it. So, I’m asking you to please help.”
“What task are you posing, Vladimir? Lay it out, in detail.”
I was overjoyed that Anastasia had asked about the specifics of the task, and I
decided to fonnulate it in the most complicated way possible. Otherwise, I thought, it
wouldn’t be interesting for her. I began to explain:
“Anastasia, I’m asking you, I ask from the bottom of my heart, please arrange it
so that apple trees and plum and pear trees, and cherries and sour chenies can glow on
my hectare, and on other people’s, too. So grapes can ripen! And good flowers and
various shrubs. And also arrange it so that all of this can be done at minimal expense.
Something an average person can afford, not an oligarch who can put in millions of
dollars.”
“Is that all, Vladimir?”
“No, Anastasia, that’ s not all. I ask you, please. I ask you from the bottom of my
heart. Arrange it so that all of this comes to pass in no longer than three years.”
“Four or five years would be better.”
“No, in three.”
“You’ve set a fine task for yourself, Vladimir. I will genuinely rejoice when you
solve it.”
I actually got worked up to a fever pitch by that answer. I jumped to my feet, but
restrained myself and didn’t say anything rude. I tried to calm down - as much as that
was possible - and explain:
“Anastasia, after all, I’m not just asking on my own behalf. Please understand.
There are three hundred families there on that spot. Three hundred. They’re building
family homesteads. They’ve understood what you’ve said, they’ve felt it deeply. It’s
become their dream! But they’re setting up their homesteads on land that is totally,
totally low in productivity. It’s even listed that way in the books. These people
wouldn’t be able to get any other kind of land. Before, back before Perestroika, these
lands belonged to a State farm At that time, the State worked to improve those lands -
with a drainage system, by sinking pipes into the ground to drain off the water, but even
so, aside from grain, nothing would glow on them.
“And now all those improvements are no longer in existence, the equipment has
all been stolen, and there’s practically nothing that can be done. And would it even be
worth doing, since it didn’t help? How can we improve the productivity of the soil on
my hectare now?
“And besides that, I can’t fully imagine the layout of my entire plot. I really want
to make everything beautifully and quickly. I need to catch up to the people who are
five years ahead of me. And so here I’m asking you to help, to do this layout for me and
choose the plantings.”
“Yes, certainly, Vladimir, the layout is very important. The layout - it is creation
done with the help of the thought of the future, and then the materialization takes place.
But if you fann out the layout to me, then what of yours will be materialized on that
plot of land?”
“I’m telling you - I’m also planning it myself, but I’m afraid of making a
mistake. So, in practice I came up against something that would seem to be such a
simple matter, like a living fence, and it turns out that it’s not a simple matter at all.
You can work on improving it forever, but you need just as much knowledge as a space
ship designer. You have to know what plant blooms at what time, what kind of soil it
needs, how tall it will get over the summer, what kind of flowers it has and how they’ll
go with the other plants’ flowers, and a whole lot more. I made a plan to build
something out of cob, but the experts say it the rain will wash it away. Can you imagine
- I’ll be building something and will hire workers, and then I’ll be a laughing stock.”
“Even if you do make a mistake, Vladimir, then it will be your mistake, and it
will materialize. For this reason, you need to do the layout yourself. Certainly, you can
consult with someone, but in this case, the final decision must always rest with you. In
the spring, Vladimir, it is all right for you to plant only annuals, and when they grow
up, mow them down and enrich the soil. And do the very same the following year.”
“I can’t wait. I want to do tilings fast. Otherwise I’ll lose more than a whole
‘nother year.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t rush? It’s better to do everything on a sound footing.
What’s more, if you set yourself the condition of creating everything anew all in one
year, then you will be extremely limited in your choice of plantings, and in the autumn,
when all the annuals dry up and your living fence is left without any plantings, it might
disenchant you. Now, if you do everything properly, then you will receive more
positive emotions. Although certainly, it is also possible to do everything using a fast
track approach.”
Anastasia grew thoughtful for a moment, and it seemed to me that she was
considering the fast track approach, but here is what we ended up with.
THE OBSTACLE OF LACK OF FAITH
“What you are asking for, Vladimir, can be done. I sense that it can be done, but
you do not want to seek the solution yourself. Rather than spending your energy on the
search, you are expending it on convincing me to find a solution.
“You have placed an obstacle before you, consisting of lack of faith in your own
powers, and, as you try to convince me, you are fortifying this obstacle more and more.
Beyond it, Vladimir, beyond your obstacle of lack of faith in your own powers, there
are beautiful gardens blooming and glorious flowers growing, and amongst them are
living happy people. Yet you cannot see all of this. The obstacle you have constructed
keeps you from doing so.
“If I find the solution, then it will grow more fortified still. What’s more, the
solution might turn out to be very, very simple, and that would be an affront to you.
You will think, why ever couldn’t I guess that myself? You will decide it is clear that
you are not competent.
“You have turned to me, perhaps thinking me a sorceress who is capable of
bringing to bear powers unknown to man to solve your problem, but I am no sorceress
at all. Through my feelings, I am able to take in from the Universe information about
everything that has been, about everything that the Universe knows, but every person is
also capable of taking in the very same information, if he does not erect the obstacle of
lack of faith in his own powers. If he is physically healthy and if he thinks in an
undistorted way.
“The infonnation of the Universe resembles that which a supercomputer can
contain within it. A person who possesses a computer taps several keys and receives
the information he needs. Now imagine, Vladimir, that instead of tapping several keys,
you ask me to do that. A person is in continual need of information, and if he does not
himself know how to tap these keys himself, then he will always need to have
alongside him someone who does know how.”
“Well, I know how to get information using a computer. I don ’t know how to get
it from the Universe.”
“It’s simple, very simple: seek the solution of your problem yourself. Believe
that you, precisely you, will find the correct solution. The most correct one.”
“Well, I’ve been thinking bout this, blinking about it for a whole year, and
there’s no answer.”
“And I am telling you: the answer cannot make its way through the obstacle you
have constructed, and your fervent appeal to me only confirms this. I will not solve
your problem for you.”
Anastasia’s decisive refusal to help me outraged me.
“Well, of course, you won’t. You’re firm in your convictions. No arguments can
make you act otherwise,” I said, with bitter irony. “I repeat, again: there are three
hundred families there, and God forbid the same situation arises for people building
family homesteads in other places that has arisen here, but there are three hundred. . . ”
“Vladimir, perhaps God actually gave rise to this situation. Imagine: if there had
been fertile soil there right from the start, then these people would not have received
these spots. Perhaps God himself arranged everything this way, and those in power
deemed these lands unsuitable for growing gardens. Tins situation made it possible for
three hundred families to acquire this land and begin building family homesteads.
Perhaps someone is even having at laugh at their expense and figuring that their
heavenly oases won’t succeed, but the information will push its way through to one of
them in the form of a tiny spark, and these spots will be lit up by billions of flowers on
fruit trees and in the grasses.”
“Maybe it will push its way through, that tiny spark, but look, we want to live
today, now, and with a beautiful vision of the future, not with hopelessness.”
All of a sudden I sensed a pleasant warmth behind my back and turned around.
My son Volodya 18 was standing next to me. Our eyes met, and the unusual warmth
grew stronger.
My son’s face looked like Anastasia’s and maybe a little bit like mine when I
was young. His height was nearly equal to mine. His still youthful build was
distinguished by its good proportions and unusual athleticism - one expressed through
ideal balance, rather than artificially pumped up muscles.
My son’s gaze... it resembled Anastasia’s affectionate gaze, and in this gaze
there was also... You see, in his gaze you could detect an inexplicable confidence. An
inexplicable and somehow calm confidence. It’s as if he has no idea that any
difficulties even exist in life, or as if he can’t imagine any situations that man can’t
overcome.
Volodya bowed to me and then began speaking, addressing Anastasia:
“Mama, I heard what you were speaking of here. Mama, please allow me to
address you and express my opinion.” He bowed deferentially to Anastasia and silently
awaited her reply.
Is Translator’s note:
Volodya (in Russian, “Bono^a”, transliterated “Volodya” and pronounced “Vah-LOH-dyuh”) is a diminutive name
Vlad imir.
This was the first time I had seen or felt the kind of deference and love he had for
Anastasia. He probably couldn’t begin a conversation without her permission.
Anastasia looked at our son attentively, in no hurry to answer. There was no
severity in her gaze, but rather tenderness and respect.
“Strange,” I thought. “Why is she taking so long to answer this simplest request
of his? The speed of her thought is great - in the space of such a long pause she would
be able to calculate a multitude of variations of the way events could play out. But here,
there’s nothing to calculate.”
Anastasia finally replied:
“Do speak, my dear son. Papa and I will listen to you attentively.”
“Mama, I feel it would be good and correct for you to help Papa. I feel it’s
important for him to solve this problem. And if you help him, the obstacle of lack of
faith in his own powers and his own intelligence will not grow more fortified, but
rather, smaller. It will even crumble - partially, perhaps, but it will still crumble.” And
Volodya fell silent.
Once again, Anastasia did not answer right away. For some time she looked at
our son affectionately, smiling, and then she said:
“Well, of course you are right, my dear son - in the given situation, it really is
necessary to help Papa. Volodya, you go ahead. Please help Papa The two of you will
find a solution, along with other people. It will be best if you begin searching for it right
away, right here, and I will not hinder you.”
Anastasia turned and began slowly moving away from us. After taking a few
steps, she turned around and added:
“You are faced with co-creating a very interesting and useful deed -
demonstrably and significantly perfecting the dwelling land.”
My son and I stood before each other. I asked him:
“Tell me, Volodya, can you use all the information there is in the Universe, the
way Mama can? Many thinkers speak of it. Stanislav Lem, a very famous writer, he
said the Universe is like a supercomputer. We can’t get along without it. Do you have
any success in utilizing it?”
“Not in utilizing it as fast as Mama does.”
“Why not?”
“Because Mama is a purebred.”
“What does that mean, ‘a purebred’?” I asked in surprise.
“That means the wellspring peoples’ breed has been preserved in her.”
“And why hasn’t it been preserved in you? Oh, I get it...” And I thought to
myself, “It’s because I’m not a purebred. That’s probably the way Anastasia explained
it to him. But then why the heck did she agree to have a child with a non-purebred? She
couldn’t find anyone else? Is that what it means?”
My son looked at me attentively. It’s possible he understood what I was thinking
about, and he said:
“Mama loves you very much, Papa. Come along with me. I’ll show you two
things.”
“Let’s go,” I said, agreeing, and set off following my son.
When we got to the entrance to the dug-out where I’d spent the night with
Anastasia when we first met, Volodya moved aside a stone, thereby opening up a way
into a longish little cave, or den. He stuck his hand inside and, as if taking something
out of a safe, pulled out an empty cognac bottle and a stick.
I recognized it: this was the bottle from which I’d drank the cognac when we
first met, when we stopped for a rest. “Wow,” I thought. “She kept the bottle.”
“But what’s that stick?” I asked Volodya.
“This is the stick you wanted to hit Mama with, when, before I was bom, she
wouldn’t agree to give me to you to raise.”
“She could have not saved the stick,” I said sheepishly.
“Mama says that when you were holding this stick, a great deal of energy was
surging through you, and now it’s very dear to her.”
“But what does she do with them, with these things? At the very least, she might
collect water in the bottle.”
“Mama doesn’t collect water in it. She often comes to this spot, moves aside the
stone, takes the bottle and the stick in her hand, looks at them, smiling, and says some
words. She’s made it so that you’ll live forever, Papa. From time to time you’ll go to
sleep for a moment and awaken in a new body.”
I was stunned. “But how can you create such a thing with words?”
“You can create a great deal with words, Papa, and especially when these words
are uttered by Mama. Oh, and when she repeats them so often, besides.”
“What words are these, Volodya?” I asked my son softly.
And my son began, as if reciting poetry, to recite the words Anastasia would
often utter at this spot:
“My love, you and I have before us all eternity. Life always comes into its own.
A little ray of sun will shine in the springtime, the Soul will don a new body, but the
mortal body, too, has reason to meekly embrace the earth - fresh flowers and grass will
rise in the springtime from our bodies. And should you, retaining your lack of faith,
scatter to the winds as specks of dust in the vast Universe, then I, my love, will put you
back together again from the specks of dust wandering adrift for eons on end.”
“Volodya, I also heard Anastasia say these words one day. I thought it was just
some pretty phrase she was uttering. I had no idea they had a literal meaning.”
“Yes, Papa, they have a literal meaning.”
“Well, how do you like that,” I said, drawing out the words. “Many thanks to
Anastasia for eternity.”
“Papa, say thank you to Mama when you see her. Say it to her with belief in her
words, and she will be very happy.”
“I’ll tell her.”
“We need to solve your problem, Papa, the problem that’s now our shared
problem. Let’s go to the lake. We’ll sketch out a layout of the hectare you’re talking
about in the sand, and we’ll think about how to set it up. We’ll think very powerfully
and we’ll think until the correct solution comes to us.”
I walked behind my son and thought, “Well, but how? How can it come to us,
this solution? There’s no answer to be found, not in the literature and not on the
Internet. I’d searched for it everywhere, but hadn’t found it. I’d consulted with experts
on agricultural methods, and they hadn’t given me any valuable advice. But he,
Volodya, had clearly not read anything on this question. He didn’t have Anastasia’s
capabilities. He didn’t know howto utilize information from the entire Universe. Then
what could he use to help him find something there? But there he was, walking along,
as if he was capable of solving the problem. We need to do something that will be more
effective than meaningless expectations or searching.” And I decided I’d talk with my
son.
“Stop, Volodya. Let’s have a seat on that tree there. I need to have a serious chat
with you.”
“All right, Papa, let’s have a seat. I’ll listen to you attentively.”
We sat down on the trunk of a fallen tree. My son laid his hands on his knees and
looked at me attentively with Anastasia’s gaze, but I didn’t know how to start off this
not very pleasant conversation with him. Not very pleasant, but necessary.
“Now I’m going to say some things that may be not very pleasant for you,
Volodya, but I need to say them.”
“Go ahead and say them, Papa. I can endure unpleasant things. I won’t be
offended.”
“Volodya, you need to understand that Anastasia directed you to help me so that
I’d stop pestering her with my questions. You won’t be able to offer any help
whatsoever, not to me, and not to those people who are setting up their homesteads.
You don’t have Mama’s capabilities, you don’t know your way around agricultural
methods, and clearly, you don’t know what ‘landscape design’ is. Am I right?”
“Papa, I think that landscape design is when a person is planning to create a
space that’s beautiful.”
“That’s more or less it, but in order to make it beautiful, people who have a
knack for this also spend five years or more studying, sharing information and looking
at various illustrations. But have you seen even one well-designed homestead?”
“When Mama and I went to the village, I saw the way, on the land around their
houses, people...”
“All you’ve seen is village gardens that have no design at all.”
“Yes, Papa, gardens. But I’ve imagined how I would make my own homestead.
I’ve reflected on that often and imagined it.”
“Just imaginings alone aren’t enough. You need serious and comprehensive
knowledge that you don’t have. And so, it follows that you have no basis for thinking.
As for me, well. I’ve been thinking for a lot more than a year. And not just thinking -
I’ve been consulting with experts, too. It’s all no use. And we won’t be able to get this
business off the ground now simply with our thinking. But you really can help. I’ve
hatched a plan. You should help me convince Anastasia to join in with us on solving
this problem. If we give it all we’ve got, she’ll give in.”
“But Papa, Mama already made a decision. And her decision is help. I cannot
allow myself to try to convince Mama to reverse her decision.”
“I see! He can’t allow himself!” I cried. “So, when Mama tells you to help, you
obey her without thinking. But when your father asks, then right away it’ s ‘I won’t.’ So
that’s how you’re being raised! No respect for your elders! For your father!”
“I have great respect for you, Papa,” Volodya objected calmly. “I will carry out
your request and help you.”
“Now, that’s more like it. Now, let’s take a bit of a walk somewhere until
evening, then we’ll go to Anastasia as if we’re really upset. She won’t be able to stand
it and will start helping us.”
“Papa, when I said I would help, I mean that I’d work with you to solve the
problem of how to make the soil more productive, and make a mock-up of the
landscaping for the whole homestead.”
“Ah, so that’s how it is! You mean, you’ll help me solve it. Do you even get...
Come on, you’ll get it. . . ” And I set off walking toward the shore at a fast clip.
I used a twig to sketch out a plan in the sand of the hectare abutting the forest.
Volodya used various grasses and sticks, which he stuck into the sand on one side, to
represent the forest that abuts the side of the plot opposite the road. I had sketched the
layout of the plot just so Volodya could realize in practical terms of how useless his
attempts were. But then it happened that I myself got caught up in searching for all
possible options.
We spent two days thinking about this problem of how to arrange it so that
gardens would grow up and various vegetables would mature on not very fertile land.
We went over and over it in our minds and discussed a great many options, but we
weren’t finding a solution to the problem. And we weren’t finding a solution, because
one of the conditions was to do everything with minimal resources. If not for that
condition, then with enough money we could bring in fertile dirt on dump trucks, but
we would need a minimum of fifty loads of dirt. Each load costs seventeen thousand
rubles. It follows that we’d need eight hundred-fifty thousand mbles.
The majority of the three hundred families couldn’t afford that. What’s more, in
the spring, water close to the surface might wash out the fertile layer and carry it away
as it ran off to the flat lands.
In order to distract ourselves from what at that point seemed like the hopeless
problem of improving the soil’s productivity, Volodya and I began designing the
landscaping for the area. Or, more precisely, we attempted to arrange various structures
so that they’d complement each other and the surrounding area.
I explained to Volodya:
“First of all we need to build the outhouse and the bath house, then the shed, the
home, the garage, the root cellar and the greenhouse. We have to arrange all of this
somehow so it will be both pretty and convenient.”
We constructed a mock-up of the home out of sand and placed it at the center of
the plot. The bath house and outhouse were next to the home, and the shed on the
backside of the home. We created the greenhouse out of sand, too. We laid a little white
stick atop the oblong mound so it would look like glass or plastic sheeting.
Clearly, this greenhouse wouldn’t fit in anywhere. We built it first to the right of
the home and then to the left, but even so, it stuck out of the overall grouping like a sore
thumb. And really, I didn’t like this so-called grouping itself, and, to all appearances,
neither did Volodya. Gazing thoughtfully at the rough design, he said:
“We’ve made some kind of mistake.”
“And not just one,” I added. “Looks like there’s a lot of them.”
“But even so, I think it’s one. There must be some kind of right approach, some
principle, some view, or some other kind of thing that will solve all the problems at
once.”
“And what kind of new approach could that possibly be? I’ve laid everything out
the way most people in the country do. This layout has been worked out over the
centuries. It’s all we’ve got. People just can’t have been mistaken for centuries, not
knowing some principle that might not even exist at all.”
“It does exist. I sense that.” Volodya was silent for a bit and then added, “Or,
perhaps it will exist. We have to think, Papa, and we’ll find it.”
“And where the heck will we find it, if neither you nor I is in contact with this
Universal data base?”
“We’ll look for it within ourselves.”
“Well, maybe you ’ll find it within you, but I’ll be sixty years old soon, and I
probably won’t have enough time.”
“We’ll have enough time, Papa. We’ll definitely have enough time. I’ll try very,
very hard. I’ll find it. We’ll find it.”
I had strained my thoughts to such a great extent, that even during the night,
when I’d fallen asleep on the fragrant grasses in the dug-out, I kept going over and over
all possible options in my dreams. In my dreams, the fruit trees and flowers grew
quickly, right before my veiy eyes, but then they just as quickly wilted and fell without
giving any fruit.
A DUEL OF WIZARDS
By the middle of the second day, we were considering this option: what if we
didn’t drive ourselves crazy worrying about soil productivity and didn’t draw the
spring waters off the plot, but rather, blocked the streams from draining off and chose
plants that love water? This option proved somewhat sparse, and it lacked a good
garden. At this point Anastasia came up, leading our daughter by the hand.
Little Nastenka probably figured that Volodya and I were playing some kind of
game. She quickly sat down with us and began attentively looking over the mock-up.
We’d already dug out a pit on it to represent the pond. On the edge there was a
mountain of sand that represented the clay, since there was a lot of clay in the soil on
the plot.
So as not to sit there like a lump, I began running a stick around the perimeter of
the hectare, deepening the boundary line. Then I threw away the stick and began
simply looking at the sand mock-up.
On all fours, Nastenka crawled right up to the mock-up, sat down at the edge,
thoughtfully rubbed her little nose for some reason and suddenly... Her chubby little
hand started raking the sand onto the boundary line and forming a little hill. She did
this slowly and carefully. When she got to the middle of one of the sides of the hectare,
Volodya, too, began making an oblong little hill on his side. And without knowing why
myself, I also began raking the sand up onto the line with both hands.
What we ended up with was a hectare framed on four sides with an earthen
mound. Silently, we looked at what we’d created. Each of us, me included, was
probably trying to understand what this might mean.
Anastasia’s voice rang out behind my back. “All! I’ve got it! How great! You’ve
found a very unusual solution! Now, now I will attempt to understand, to guess your
intention more precisely. There! I’ve got it! You decided to take the already existing
fertile soil on the hectare and spread a nearly meter-high mound of fertile soil along the
perimeter of the hectare. And to use a portion of the fertile layer as well as sand. Great!
You’ve increased the thickness of the fertile layer.
“Around the perimeter of the entire plot, you decided to make two little walls of
cob, four meters apart. There will be a lot of clay from digging the pond, and you can
use it to construct these little walls. In this way, your mound will end up being inside a
clay trench. Into this trench you will throw branches and rotting foliage from the forest,
and then you will even out the earth on top of them. You will have a long,
four-hundred-meter compost trench in which the elevated earth will be above the
regular level of the whole plot. The clay walls will prevent the fertile layer from sliding
off when the spring rains fall.
“The elevated earth will warm up more quickly in the spring, and this will enable
you to set out many plants two weeks earlier than usual. This means that you have
correctly understood, that it makes less sense to make compost by digging a hole in
earth where water stands on the surface for a long time, since the pit will fill with water,
water which, in soil with much clay in it, will have nowhere to go, and if you plant fruit
trees in it, their roots can rot.
“On this mound, already the first year, you will be able to plant com and
sunflowers, and along the external sides - flowers. By autumn, already in the very first
year, the hectare will be framed not simply by a mound, but by a mound on which a
two-meter high green fence will grow. Closer on to autumn you will cover it over,
spread earth over it again, and by the next spring, this mound will grow more fertile
still. When the earth firms up, you will be able to set out on it fruit trees, vegetables and
flowers. Over time, the clay walls might settle, due to moisture, but even so, the settled
clay will still retain the fertile layer, and the plants’ roots will keep it from sliding off.
“And those half-meter cob squares you will have built next to the pond - what
are they for? Oh, don’t tell me! I’ve got it. You will fill them with fertile soil you’ve
brought from the forest, and you’ll plant fruit trees in them, and around the trees -
vegetables and flowers.
“It’s great, what a simple and original solution you’ve found. You decided to
raise the fertile layer in the necessary spots, increasing it to half a meter. The roots will
be warm and comfortable in a little hill like that. And after that, the trees that grow will
themselves do what’s needed. Each autumn the trees will cast off their foliage, and it
will all rot, increasing the fertile layer.
“It’s great. It’s as if you pushed a button and turned on a self- nurturing
biological organism.”
I understood that Anastasia was laying out the solution she had found, but
making it seem as if we had found it and all she was doing was figuring it out. This
situation did not humiliate me in the least. I was thrilled with the solution she’d found.
It was simple and beautiful and wouldn’t require large expenditures.
But Volodya was not at all thrilled. He was staring fixedly at the mock-up of the
homestead without lifting his head. My heart even felt like it would break when I
understood what might be going on in his soul at that moment. He felt awkward before
me for having assured me that he could find a solution. And probably before himself as
well, for not carrying out the task Anastasia had given him.
My son and I had grown closer over as we’d working on the design together over
that day and a half, and I didn’t get offended at all any more at his stubbornness. I saw
how Volodya was trying, sorting through all possible options for improving the soil’s
productivity. And now I felt sorry for him, and I even stopped listening to Anastasia.
Really, you can’t go and humiliate a child like that! It wasn’t enough that the night
before, I’d kept telling him, hying to prove he wouldn’t be able to come up with
anything - now Anastasia, too, with her ensuing criticism, had totally reduced our
efforts to rubble. She shouldn’t act that way. Or. . . It seemed to me that Anastasia was
teasing our son on purpose, forcing him to rack his brains and speed up his thought.
“And so what does this square in the middle of your design represent?”
Anastasia asked.
“It’s the home,” I replied. “Volodya and I decided to situate the home right in the
middle of the homestead. There are various farmyard structures around it. We’ve laid a
road from the gates to the home, and flowers will be growing along the edges of the
road.”
I was convinced that Anastasia would begin praising such a decision, which is
why I said “Volodya and I,” although it had been my idea to situate the home in the
middle of the homestead. I wanted to support my son in at least some way, but I’d
ended up doing the opposite.
“Now, where is the entrance into your home?” Anastasia asked.
“On the driveway side, of course. You drive right straight up to the entrance,
leave your car in the parking area right in front of it and go up to the veranda. There’ll
be a table there. We can drink tea with friends and admire the flowers.”
“As well as the driveway,” Anastasia added, her voice a bit needling.
“As well as the driveway,” I replied, “if the driveway is done in a pretty stone.”
“And what is situated behind the home?”
“Behind the home are the pond, the garden, and a vegetable garden of some
kind.”
“That means your garden has ended up in the back yard. You’re drinking tea on
the veranda with your friends, admiring the flowers, and everything that’s situated in
the back yard is deprived of your attention. Vladimir, you know very well that all
animals and plants need human attention. Without it, they are unable to fully fulfill
their life’s purpose.
“Plants can give a person the energies he needs, assuming they know precisely
which energies he needs in the first place. But how will they learn about this if you
limit your interaction with them? Vladimir, do you know what the purpose is of
interacting with the plant world?”
“I do,” I replied, trying to hide my disappointment that - as it turned out - I
hadn’t been terribly successful in placing the home. Half the hectare, including the
garden, really had ended up in the back yard.
“And something else I don’t understand,” Anastasia continued, “is why you
didn’t remove that huge hill on the bank of the pond. It weighs down the space.”
After hearing these words, Volodya couldn’t restrain himself any more. He
stood up, bowed slightly to Anastasia as he’d done before, and said:
“Mama, please permit me to clarify this for you.”
“Please, dearson, clarify it.”
They were standing opposite each other, son and mother. But for some reason, I
got the impression that they were two great wizards of the Universe standing opposite
each other. Now they were going to enter into a duel. A duel of intelligence and man’s
capabilities. My God, how beautiful Anastasia was! How enigmatic and extraordinary
in her capabilities and thought was this woman who had become the person closest to
me. One life, and even two, would not suffice for me to reach her level. And our son,
whose facial features somewhat resembled Anastasia’s, was also handsome and
statuesque, but a bit foolhardy or excessively self-confident. Why was he entering into
the showdown? And in my presence, to boot. He himself has said that Anastasia’s
capacities exceed his own. Probably, he’s proud and decisive, but a bit foolhardy. Even
so, I was rooting for Volodya with all my heart - I wanted him to emerge victorious in
this competition, whatever form it might take. And it began.
“This isn’t just a hill, Mama,” Volodya said.
“Then what in the world is it?” Anastasia inquired with a smile, her voice a bit
needling.
“Well, how should I put it. . . ”
Slowly, drawing out the words, clearly trying to think up some rational
explanation for the hill, Volodya suddenly said:
“It’s the bath house, Mama.”
I even started, so surprisingly absurd was my son’s announcement, but, without
knowing why myself, I affirmed this, with a kind of gravitas:
“Yes, it’s a normal contemporary bath house, a structure you really need on a
homestead. If you don’t have a bath house, then where the heck are you going to wash
and have a steam bath?” I tried to draw out the time every way I could, to give Volodya
some way to get himself out of this fix and think of something. He would have been
better off saying this mountain would be for skiing during the winter. He definitely was
foolhardy. “And you can sleep in the bath house, too, before the home is ready,” I went
on, continuing my line of reasoning. But now I didn’t know what to say next, and I fell
silent.
“Strange. I see no resemblance between the mountain of clay and a bath house,
and somehow, I see no entrance at all into this bath house,” Anastasia noted.
Well, that’ s it, I figured - my son really put his foot in it with this bath house, and
he’s lost. No more battle of the wizards. However, Volodya went on:
“This is just a mock-up, Mama. The hill that represents the clay - we’ve made it
out of sand, and the sand slides off, and it’s difficult to show the entrance.” Just as
before, Volodya spoke slowly, and clearly he was thinking about something veiy
strenuously as he did so. And suddenly it was as if his face lit up, and he kept on
talking, but precisely and confidently now: “When we do it out of clay, then right here,
on the pond side, we’ll form a small entrance into an oval chamber with a cupola. The
chamber’s diameter will be two or three meters. The height will be two meters and
thirty centimeters. The walls of the structure might be as thick as a meter. There are
ducts in the walls to let out the smoke and hot air, and they all come together in one big
duct that you can then close off with a plug.
“There can be stones along the edges inside the oval chamber, and in the middle
is where the fire will be lit.
“The interior walls of the space will heat up. You’ll be able to admire the fire
from the pond side, and if you don’t want to admire it, you can cover the entrance over
with a door. When the walls heat up and the fire goes out, a person can go inside the
chamber. His body will be warmed from all sides, from below and from above. The
clay will emit a very healthy and benefic ial warmth for the person.”
“Yes, of course, that is a very healthy emission,” Anastasia said, now
thoughtfully, “especially if you were to place a vessel there containing an infusion of
medicinal herbs. Information about such a bath house did not exist in the Universe, and
you could not have received it. This means you have added this information to the
Universe, and now you. . . ”
I looked at the little mountain of earth in the mock-up and imagined this bath
house, and around it - flower beds, roses, and the bank of a beautiful pond. And even
just from imagining it, some kind of most beneficial warmth really was spreading
through my body. I intuitively understood that Volodya had thought up something that
hadn’t previously existed. That made me extraordinarily joyful, as if my body and Soul
were both rejoicing.
I began thinking once again about the overall homestead project, about how
awesome and beautiful Anastasia was, both in body and mind. Naturally, she isn’t
indifferent to this project and perhaps she deserved more credit than anyone for solving
the problem of how to improve the soil productivity, a problem that we’d previously
considered hopeless. Wow, what a tiling to think of- raising a regular compost pit just
above ground level and turning it into a living fence. That meant she’d agreed to help
after all, her principles notwithstanding. To help in some discreet way. I walked up to
Anastasia and softly whispered:
“You’re the one who thought all of this up. You found the solution. Thank you,
Anastasia.”
“We thought it up together, Vladimir,” Anastasia said, also in a whisper, “and
perhaps those three hundred families you spoke of deserve the most credit.”
“But they weren’t here while we were thinking.”
“Perhaps they weren’t here, but they were there, on their hectares, also
contemplating the best steps to take. And just imagine, Vladimir, what if they didn’t
exist at all? Would you have thrown the whole family into a tizzy? Would you really
have racked your brains so and demanded with such agitation that we find a solution?
If they did not exist, you might not have given this question the slightest of thoughts.
Perhaps they, these three hundred families are the main figures behind this project.”
“Yes, I agree. We created it all together, and I thank you even more for that
‘together’, Anastasia.” And then I added, “And thank you, too, for the eternity you’ve
given me. I was at the spot where you hid the empty bottle.”
Anastasia added, with slightly downcast eyes:
“And the stick.”
“And the stick,” I confirmed, and started laughing.
Anastasia also started laughing, a rolling, light-hearted laughter, and even little
Nastenka began hopping around near the mock-up, swinging her little hands and
laughing. Only Volodya, indifferent to what was going on, was still looking intently
and thoughtfully at the mock-up.
And I suddenly felt unbearably sorry for my son. Despite the fact that he’d
managed to think up the extraordinary bath house, he - naturally, of course - still
considered that he hadn’t managed the task Anastasia had set for him.
And he probably felt uncomfortable before me, too, for not listening to me, for
arguing that we’d get along without Anastasia. He really had tried, but ... I wanted to
support him somehow, cheer him up. But how could I do that? I didn’t know.
Volodya was looking at the mock-up intently, most likely trying to come up with
something else of his own in it. He didn’t understand that we’d already come up with
what was most important.
Late in the evening, before going to sleep, I asked Anastasia:
“But where do Volodya and Nastenka sleep?”
“In various spots,” Anastasia replied. “Nastenka will sleep with me sometimes.
Why are you inquiring about this, Vladimir?”
“Oh, no reason. I just wanted to talk with Volodya about something.”
“Then call him.”
“How do I call him? Do I shout, or what?”
“Just call him. He’ll hear.”
I called him. And a short time later, I saw our son coming in my direction. As
before, he was intent as could be. When Volodya got closer to me, I asked him:
“Volodya, when did you come up with the mountain of clay being a bath house,
and why didn’t you tell me about that earlier?”
“I decided to say that when Mama began criticizing our design and the clay
mountain in our design. I decided to call it a bath house because you, Papa, told me,
‘First of all we need to build the outhouse and the bath house on the plot.’ The
mountain was a bit too large to be an outhouse, and I decided to call it a bath house.”
“But then you began talking about how it would be arranged and used. Did you
think that up on the fly, just like that, or maybe you’re able to use the Universal
information after all, like Mama?”
“I can’t do it the way Mama does, Papa, but it’s possible that there’s some
benefit in that, too. What I’m unable to receive information about - I tiy to quickly
think that up on my own, and sometimes that works.”
“I’ll say! It works like a charm! You’re a real inventor. I can’t get your invention
out of my mind. I’ve even decided to make up a working model when I get back. I’ll
buy a clay pitcher, put a hole in its base and cover its mouth with a cover of some sort
with a hole for a pipe. I’ll light a candle inside it and leave it for an hour or two -
instead of a fire - so we can see how it’ll heat up. Only a pitcher’s walls are thin, so we
won’t have a perfectly accurate model.”
“Papa, apply a layer of clay around the pitcher, and the model will be more
accurate.”
“Perfect, I’ll apply a layer of clay. Now, Volodya, please forgive me, well, you
know, for being so hot-headed and saying that you have nothing to think with. Don’t be
angry with me.”
“I’ve never gotten angry at you, Papa,” he answered calmly.
“And I’m not angry at Mama. And of course you got it, that she was only
pretending that we’d thought up that earthen mound along the hectare’s perimeter -
actually, she and Nastenka gave us a hint.”
“Yes, Papa, I got all that.”
“But it’s not important, who thought it up. What’s important is that the problem
with the soil has now been solved. Good for Anastasia, right, Volodya?”
“Mama challenged us to a duel, Papa.”
“A duel? She challenged us? I had that kind of feeling when you were standing
opposite each other. Is that a kind of game, Volodya? To develop the mind, is that it?”
“You could say it’s a game, but to be more precise, it’s a duel.”
“That’s not a fair duel. Anastasia possesses information as broad as the
Universe, but we don’t have that opportunity. How can we duel under those
circumstances?”
Volodya heard out my arguments and replied, with calm confidence:
“I have accepted the challenge, Papa.”
“Well, there was no point in accepting it. The chances are a hundred percent
you’ 11 lose! Then you’ 11 get upset, the way you got upset today. I saw the way you were
sitting there all upset, hanging your head when Anastasia was talking about the earthen
mound, about the home in the middle and the back yard. And here you’ll get even more
upset.”
“I must not lose, Papa. If I lose, it will make Mama sad.”
“Well, then she should surrender to you in some non-obvious way, so that she
herself won’t be sad afterwards.”
“Mama can’t surrender.”
“Oh, Volodya, Volodya - sometimes it seems to me you’re a bit foolhardy.
Okay, what’s happened has happened. You go get some sleep, Volodya. I’ll go, too,
and I’ll think about how best to situate the home on the hectare. Maybe I’ll think of
something.”
“Yes, Papa, you need to get a good sleep. I wish you a serene sleep, Papa.”
My son and I went our separate ways, but I couldn’t go to sleep right away. I said
to Anastasia:
“Don’t wait up for me. Go to sleep on your own, Anastasia. I need to think about
something for a bit.”
I walked around by the entrance to the dug-out in the light of the white Siberian
night, thinking about howto help Volodya. From time to time I’d look at the sleeping
Anastasia. She was sleeping on her side, curled up into a ball with her palm beneath her
head, and smiling a little about something in her sleep.
She’s smiling like a child, the gentle beauty. But the day before - she sure had
ripped our layout apart mercilessly! She’d called the spot where we’d put the home in
the mock-up incorrect. Half the hectare had ended up as the backyard, she’d said. Of
course, that really was the case. I needed to recall how homes were situated in the
landscape design journals. Of course, Volodya wouldn’t be able to solve the problem
of where to situate the structures, since he didn’t have the information. I’d have to think
everything through. Otherwise, he’d lose all confidence in his own capabilities. I had
such a strong desire to help my son that I sensed that I wouldn’t fall asleep until I’d
thought up something useful. I’ve seen lots of country homes with various structures
on plots of land, so that meant it was up to me to find the correct solution. But it wasn’t
coming. Most of the houses I’d had occasion to see basically had their windows
looking out over the driveway.
It was getting long past midnight, but I was still walking back and forth along the
dug-out, sorting through various options for situating the home and fannyard
structures.
And suddenly it came to me! It came to me just like that, somehow, as if it just
erupted, and I really liked what came to me. Well, I’ll give her an answer tomorrow!
Yeah, I’ll answer her!
I started imagining the way, the next day, I’d answer Anastasia’s remark about
the back yard. I’d start in an off-hand way: “Anastasia, you were saying something
here yesterday about the spot where we put the home, about some kind of back yard.”
“Yes,” she’d say. “I was saying that half of your hectare has ended up in the back
yard.”
“That’s not true, Anastasia. That’s not the way it all is. You just failed to notice a
little indentation on the mock-up. That’s a veranda that goes around the whole home.
When it’s hot, we’ll sit on the shady side with our friends, along the wall that’s on the
other side of the house from the entrance. We’ll sit and admire the garden and the
flower beds, and thus you don’t have any back yard. An open veranda runs all around
the house.”
“Yes, that’s true,” Anastasia will say. “I didn’t notice that.”
I decided I’d come up with something good, and quietly, so as not to disturb her
sleep, I laid down on the fragrant bed next to the sleeping beauty.
During the night I had a strange dream about the bath house. It was as if I was
walking into it and closing the door behind me. And the bath house lifted up off the
ground and was flying into the sky, picking up more and more speed.
THE FIERY BIRD
I woke up around eleven o’clock. Most likely I’d slept so long due to the two
days of non-stop mental exertion. As soon as I woke up, I once again wanted to see my
son and talk with him about the bath house. To tell him this wasn’t simply a bath house.
It was a multi-function structure. It could serve as an outdoor fireplace, where it would
be great to sit with your friends or family. You could also dry clothing, mushrooms and
many other things in it. You could bake bread and prepare tasty dishes in it. And it goes
without saying that you could treat what ails you in it by warming your body with its
extraordinary heat. I reflected this way as I walked to the spot where the homestead
mock-up was, on the lakeshore. When I came out of the bushes, this is the picture that
presented itself to me.
Alongside the mock-up of the homestead lay an exhausted she-wolf, her legs
smeared with clay. About two meters from the she-wolf, a she-bear was shifting from
foot to foot in a small pit - she was working the clay. Volodya, kneeling, was was using
the palms of his hands to smooth out the bath house he’d constmcted of clay on the
bank of the pond. But no! You’d be hard pressed to call what I saw there a bath house.
Even my fear at the presence of the she-bear and she wolf took aback seat, and I went
up closer.
The central part of what Volodya had constructed resembled the head and torso
of some unusual kind of bird. At the base was a small opening - the entrance to the
interior room. Extending out from the central part of the structure that resembled an
unusual bird were its two wings. They were embracing the space. Beneath one of the
wings sat a man and a woman who resembled Anastasia and me. A little girl was
playing in the middle. It was a cloudy day - the sun would by turns shine brightly and
hide behind the clouds. The shadows’ play created the impression of a live bird that
might lift off in flight as soon as the people went inside it.
I could hear Anastasia’s voice - she had just come out onto the lakeshore,
holding little Nastenka by the hand. “This is simply a hallucination of some kind. Since
morning I have been thinking of nothing but your bath house. There’s something
extraordinary in it. I need to figure it out. I even. . . ”
Anastasia stopped speaking, without finishing her sentence. She caught sight of
what our son had constructed. Together with Nastenka, she went up closer, took a seat
by the mock-up, put her amis around her little daughter and for a short while silently
looked at the extraordinarily beautiful sculpture. And she began speaking, as if
thinking aloud:
“Earth, fire, water, air, light rays, man. And all of it in one bird. And such an
extraordinary one - a bird resembling an eagle teaching its sons to fly.”
“This structure is multi-functional,” I remarked to Anastasia, pleased by her
delight. “You can not only warm up with your friends in it, but bake bread, too, prepare
good and diy mushrooms and other things, too.”
“Yes, you can. But you shouldn’t do that with friends. Only with close relatives,
but more often on your own.”
“Why?”
“Vladimir, this apparatus might possibly function more effectively than a
dolmen. You can meditate inside it.”
During our conversation, Nastenka went up to the mock-up and for some reason
was diligently poking at it with her finger.
“Look, Anastasia, is our daughter Nastenka trying to destroy the mock-up?”
“I think she wants to show that we need to make some small round openings in
the cupola, make little windows that look out onto the four sides of the world. Then in
the day it will be light inside, and at night the stars will be visible.”
“And I planned to make a round window in the middle, too,” Volodya added.
Nastenka, as if she’d understood that everyone agreed with her, stopped boring
holes in the clay with her finger and slowly - as if reflecting on some thoughts of her
own - headed off in the direction of the forest.
“Anasta,” I said in her direction, without even understanding why myself.
Nastenka turned and looked at me intently. The breeze rearranged a lock of her
hair and uncovered a birthmark on her forehead - it looked like a little star. The little
girl smiled and continued her journey, whose goal was known to her alone.
Anastasia continued silently examining what Volodya had constructed. She was
trying to comprehend something. Never before had I seen her so concentrated. Finally
Anastasia began speaking, as if reasoning aloud:
“Five illuminated circles, and they will move in accord with the movement of
the sun and of the moon. They will move across the walls and the floor of the interior
oval or round chamber. That is very important. They will illuminate the person.”
“Tell me, Anastasia. What about the person who’s inside this structure - will he
be able to restore his health, just the way he’d be able to in any bath house?”
“It will function more effectively than any bath house, or than all of them put
together. The heated clay gives off rays that are very beneficial for a person. Blood will
move more quickly thro ugh the veins, and the internal organs will warm and be
cleansed.”
“But specifically, what illnesses can be treated with a session in this structure 9 ”
“A person will receive a healthy effect on his entire organism. Thus it follows
that it will be easier for the organism to fight off any illness, but it is possible to focus
the energies and direct them to a specific organ.”
“Well, take the kidneys, for example. How can you treat them? How can you
direct the energies?”
“You need to pour clean sand into a wooden tub, roll the tub into the center of
the oval chamber, and when the sand has heated up, bury yourself in it. Only your head
should remain outside. Before this you should eat a good amount of watermelon. The
sand is very good at absorbing sweat that comes out of the pores.”
“Well, sweat comes out of a person’s body even in a regular bath house. Why do
you need to lie in the sand?”
“But Vladimir, look - in a regular bath house, where does the sweat which
comes, for example, out of the upper pores on the back, or the chest or the shoulders
flow away to?”
“What do you mean, where? It mns down.”
“Precisely. It runs down, along the other pores, thereby hindering them from
perspiring. The dry, warmed sand is very good at absorbing moisture, and the sweat
will flow out directly into the sand, rather than down along the person’s entire body. It
is also good, when you’re in the sand bath, to drink a medicinal herbal infusion.”
“And what about the liver? How can you treat that?”
“Does this mean your liver is bothering you, too, Vladimir?”
“Yes, it bothers everybody.”
“Effective treatment of the liver in this structure can be carried out at three
o’clock in the morning.”
“Why precisely at three?”
“At that time all the other organs help the liver cleanse itself of all the
accumulated impurities within it. As well, if you place your palm on the spot where the
liver is located and think of it with gratitude, and in your thoughts say to it ‘Thank
you!’ then it will stir and begin to restore itself.”
“How can that be - restore itself? What, is it alive, or something?”
“Of course it’s alive, just as are all the organs of your body.”
‘"But why can you meditate well in this structure? You said it might possibly be
more powerful than in a dolmen.”
“People who entered into a dolmen would go off into internal meditation. They
were trying to transmit information to their descendants. The dolmen aided them in
this. This unique apparatus is even more effective than a dolmen: it can help transmit
information, but it can also, under certain conditions, receive information from the
Universe and transmit it to the person inside, while hiding away deep within itself any
negative information. . . ”
Anastasia suddenly fell silent, looked at our son and asked him:
“Are you wanting to add something else to the homestead design, Volodya?”
“Yes, Mama. But first I want to be alone for a bit and think.”
“All right. We won’t hinder you.”
She took Nastenka by the hand, intending to leave. But Volodya said:
“Let Nastenka stay.”
And Nastenka, hearing her brother’s request, quickly slipped out of Anastasia’s
arms and headed for the mock-up. Anastasia and I left.
DON'T JUDGE TOO HARSHLY
The next morning, Anastasia and I decided to go over to her grandfather’s glade.
I’d long been asking her to show me this spot, Inis glade, and besides that, I wanted to
have a chat with him. According to what Anastasia has said, it would take no less than
three hours to walk to her grandfather’s glade. Consequently, such a hike might take up
an entire day, but it stretched out to two days.
Even as we made our way through the taiga to her grandfather’ s glade, Anastasia
and I spoke about homesteads.
“You know, Anastasia, many people who build family homesteads feel they
shouldn’t run electricity to their homestead or use all kinds of technology. Others do
use it.”
“And what do you think, Vladimir?”
“I think that at the beginning stage, you can’t get along without technology and
even without professional builders.”
“You might possibly be right, Vladimir. Let the technical means that have
accumulated over the centuries be used for good. A unity of opposites will result. But I
think we must design life so that in the future we will gradually do without them.”
For some time I walked silently behind Anastasia. I was stepping over the fallen
trunks of old trees, skirting thickets of bushes along the invisible path and thinking my
own thoughts, and maybe for that reason, I fell a bit behind. I even lost sight of her. But
then, after I’d taken a few more steps, I heard Anastasia’s voice.
“You must be tiled, Vladimir. We can take a rest. Let’s take a seat.”
T agreed. “Let’s. This isn’t the easiest path. We’ve only been walking an hour,
but it feels as if we’ve gone ten kilometers.”
We sat down on a tree trunk. Anastasia held out a handful of currants to me that
she’d collected along the way. 1 silently ate the delicious berries from the Siberian taiga
and continued to think about my unpleasant situation. Then I decided to tell Anastasia
about it.
“Anastasia, it so happens that for a number of years now I’ve been thinking
about a situation I find unpleasant. In one of the books I told about the inception of
Christianity in Rus and included historical facts and information from museums. And I
ended up with negative information. This whole inception looked like a takeover of
Russia. It seemed as if F d laid out all the accurate facts and conclusions, but now I have
an unpleasant feeling in my heart, and for years, now, Fve been tormented by doubts.”
“Why unpleasant, Vladimir? Is it because certain representatives of the Church
have been responding badly to you?”
“That’s not it - I’m already used to that. It’s something else I just can’t figure
out.”
“What is it, Vladimir?”
“When I wrote about the baptism of Rus in such negative terms, then it ended up
that I was saying something negative not about some specific person, but about
everyone, all at once. Only afterwards did I get that no way I should have done that.”
“And how did you come to that understanding, Vladimir?”
“I spent the best years of my childhood at my grandparents’ place in the village
of Kuznichi. I remember lots of details from living there. I remember that there, in the
little Ukrainian hut, on a table in the comer, were Orthodox icons. My grandmother
would decorate them with an embroidered towel and light a little lamp.
“I also remember the way my mom would attend church, even with her ailing
legs. I often recall my spiritual father, Father Feodorit, the archpriest of Trinity-St.
Sergius Lavra monastery. To this day, I still keep the Bible he gave me.
“And so it turns out that by speaking out negatively about Christianity, I was
speaking out negatively about my grandparents, my mother and my spiritual father
Feodorit. Well, and maybe about many good and worthy people, too. When I realized
all this, then the first chance I got, I appeared on television, on Channel One, and
apologized to the Church. But I didn’t feel much better after I did that. What else do
you think I need to do to expiate my guilt before the people close to me? And before
myself, too, maybe.”
“I think you need to fully comprehend everything and summon up a positive
image that will eclipse the negative.”
“Of course, it’s easy to say ‘comprehend everything’ - I’ve been trying to do
that for more than a year, and I’m not doing such a great job. But tell me, how do you
feel about religions? Maybe you prefer some, and disavow or even reject some other,
false ones?”
“Vladimir, I don’t understand what meaning you assign to the word ‘disavow,’
but I will try to show you the links in your family chain. Take this twig here. That will
serve as your sabre for severing those links of the chain that you disavow.”
A depiction of a long chain of people holding hands arose in the space. The
people of the first group wore crosses and little icons around their necks.
“Do you see, Vladimir? These are your relatives of the Orthodox faith. And
those wearing turbans are Muslims. They also figure in your genealogy. And now here
is a large group of people who today are called pagans. Next, holding hands, come your
forbears from the Vedic period. Behind them come the blurred outlines of people of the
first race, and we can also say of them that these are people from the first civilization on
earth. They are blurry because information regarding them has not been articulated in
the space, but your relatives are present there, too.
“The first person in this family chain was created by God, and he even now
holds the hand of God. In all who follow also exists a particle of God. One day it will
come to pass that the next person bom of your line will come to know all and will sense
everyone. He will also link hands with God. It may be that this will be you, or it may be
your great-granddaughters. The circle will be formed. The circle - Alpha and Omega
and Alpha once more.
“But now think and tell me, which of these groups of people would you like to
remove from the chain?”
“I have to think about which one. . . Wait, Anastasia. Wait. But if I remove even
one group of people, then, you blow, the chain will be broken.”
“Of course, it will be broken.”
“And if it is broken, then the person who breaks it can never come to know God,
link hands with him and form the circle.”
“I also think this, that he will be unable to do this.”
“So what does that mean? Should a person accept absolutely all religions?”
“Which religion to accept - that is the choice of each person, but I think we
should disavow nothing from the path humanity has followed. It’s possible that all that
occurred in the past is essential for today’ s awareness. What you consider to be good is
essential to accept. That which to your mind appears negative is essential simply to
know, in order that it should not recur going forward. But not to be rejected.”
“But what about if you don’t blow? Will it necessarily have to recur, and in the
very same way?”
“Yes, it will recur. There will come a prophet who seems the bearer of the new.
Those who have forgotten will hark unto him in delight, not knowing that in doing so
they create nothing new.”
“But really, it’s impossible to blow with precision everything that has happened
to manbnd since the time of creation. Historians distort even the most recent historical
events to curry favor with those in power.”
“Within you, Vladimir, and within each person alive on Earth there exists a
particle containing all information of your family line, from creation up to the present
day.”
“I understand - this information is stored in each person on the genetic level, but
how can we learn to make use of it? That’s the question.”
“By not disavowing and not rejecting even a smidgen of your particle.”
“But nobody has the least intention of rejecting their own particle.”
“When you disavow information about the past that has come to you from
outside, you at the same time reject that particle that is within you.”
“But what about if this information is false?”
“The particle with false information is also within you. It has been preserved so
that you might gain insight into the lie.”
“But Anastasia, really, you were the one who showed me and told me about how
the black monks killed the Vedic Russian family who didn’t want to betray their faith
and their way of life. I wrote about that in a book. The image of the Vedic Russians
turned out very powerfully - that’s what many people have said. And I often recall it.
Especially the picture when the wounded Vedic Russian, the artist, is lying under the
pine tree, clutching to his chest the figurine he’d caned of the woman he loved. He’d
loved her his whole life, but she’d married another. He kept on loving her, hiding his
love. Only, when he’d carve figurines, they’d always end up looking like her.
“He, an old elder, entered into battle with a whole enemy detac lament, in order to
lead them away from the family of the woman he loved, and he was wounded. And I
wrote your words: ‘The Vedic Russian lay on the grass and did not moan. A small
stream of blood flowed from his chest. The wooden pine tree did not know how to
cry. . . ’ Well, do you remember?”
“Yes, Vladimir, I remember this emotional scene.”
“Well, so after this picture, then how can I - or someone else - not reject the
black monks?”
“Tell me, Vladimir who you feel yourself to be, that wounded Vedic Russian or
the black monk?”
“Me? Who am I? That means that’ s why you showed this ... To determine. . . But
what’s this got to do with me?”
“Back there, in the past, in that picture - your forbears were there. Who were
they? What do you think, Vladimir?”
“I don’t blow. I’d like it if they were the Vedic Russians. Of course they were
the Vedic Russians! Because the black monks came to Rus from a different state. Tell
me, Anastasia, have I understood all this correctly? Tell me!”
“Vladimir, don’t get agitated. Take in the information calmly. Your ancestors
really were Vedic Russians. But the screeching black monk, too, was your ancestor.
“Everything arose from the Whole, and this means all are brothers. Forgetting
this, peoples fight amongst themselves, thereby destroying within their ‘opponent’
their own selves. It was this way, perhaps, for a reason. With the beginning of the new
millennium, a new era has arrived as a new awareness of existence on Earth. The era of
the beautiful transformation of the Earth.”
“It’s arrived? It’s already arrived? . . . Basically, I have a feeling inside me, too,
that something new is going on in the world, especially when I see the way people are
setting up entire settlements of family homesteads in deserted spaces. Are they the ones
who will lead the new era forward?”
“Their awareness and feelings represent something new for the world.”
“But on the other hand, you watch the news on television, and everything there is
just the same as it’ s been - right off the bat, they talk about who among the leaders met
with whom, and how much oil costs, and how many years now have they been harping
on about an economic crisis, but they don’t suggest anything of significant.”
“On television, Vladimir, you are seeing news of the past life. The Universe is
already alive through different dimensions. Commit everything from the past to
memory. Leave nothing out. Take with you your ancestors’ prayer-fed strength.”
“How am I to understand that? What does ‘prayer-fed strength’ mean? What
does it look like?”
“From generation to generation, your ancestors would look upon an Orthodox
icon each day, pray to it and dedicate to it their thoughts, their hopes and their requests.
It would harken unto them and try to help, and with each day, the icon itself would
grow stronger. It will help you, and has helped already. As well, esteem the rosary and
the Koran that were given to you by the Grand Mufti of the Muslims. And the bible of
your Father Feodorit. Remember with reverence the day when you appeared before
people in the great Christ the Savior Cathedral. And the day when, in the most beautiful
Lyalya Tyulpan Mosque, you sat before the people who had crowded into the hall, at a
table, and alongside you were an Orthodox priest and a rabbi. You spoke of
homesteads. Ecologists spoke in support of you. Do you recall that day?”
“Yes, I do recall. The Grand Mufti organized that event, and people of various
faiths came to the mosque then, and they were all grateful to him. But I remember
something different, too. I remember the slanderous articles in the press. I remember
how there was an orchestrated attempt to ridicule me on television, on Channel One.”
“Perhaps it is necessary, this slander directed toward you?”
“Necessary? For what? What are you saying, Anastasia?”
“You enter into a palace and a temple. A hero? Yes! Only you were unable to
bear up beneath the brass trumpets and the fanfare of speech. How can you be saved
from your self? By means of yourself?”
“Come on, I have no self and no pridefulness. Only fatigue.”
“So that means that it was due to fatigue, Vladimir, that one day, when you
appeared in hall packed with readers in the capital of Belarus, you began to eject the
bishop from the church publicly. That was due to fatigue?”
“Oh, I wasn’t serious about that. They told me before my appearance, that he. . . ”
“And the crowd applauded you. The collective thought was energized and took
off.”
“And what’s up now with the bishop?”
“But we are speaking not about him right now, Vladimir, but rather, about you.
You wanted to understand how you feel about religions, to get a feel for this and figure
it out.”
“Yes.”
“You must do this only yourself, but I will tell you of future events. Perhaps the
information concerning them will help you.
“It will happen before long, that more than a hundred and fifty leaders of various
countries will come together. One question will they address, with scientists taking
part: how to reduce the amount of harmful gases that are emitted into the atmosphere
by human deeds. Gases that threaten the planet with disaster. But the hundred and fifty
leaders of the Earth will be unable to make a decision that will save us, and they will go
their separate ways. And the harmful gas created by mankind will continue to kill the
planet. * What can you say about such a situation, Vladimir?”
“What can I possibly say here? Heads of state have come together numerous
times to solve the question of how to improve the ecological situation, but to no end.
Most people don’t pay any attention to these meetings any more.”
“Why is that?”
1 Author’s note: In 2009, a climate summit of heads of state was held in Copenhagen from December 7-18, regarding
capping and reducing emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Representatives of 192 countries participated
in the summit.
“Well, because not a single state has announced any workable proposals. And if
there aren’t any workable proposals on the agenda, then what’s the use of meeting? It
only makes people laugh.”
“And what would you consider a workable proposal?”
“The kind of proposal where the majority of people on Earth will change their
life’s priorities. The desire will arise to perfect one’s dwelling land, instead of working
at harmful manufacturing plants to get money to subsist on. No ruler is in a position to
stop these harmful manufacturing plants, because unemployment will arise and there
will be riots, and his power will end up being threatened.”
“That means that heads of state are not in a position to stop a global disaster. But
perhaps different authorities, spiritual authorities, are capable of doing this. The
patriarchs of all the religions will come together, give their word before each other that
they will call upon their congregations to perfect the earth’s dwelling land.”
“Yes! Exactly! They’d be able to deal with this question more effectively and
have an effect on the people and the authorities at the same time.”
“And so that means that religions are important and needed. What do you think,
Vladimir?”
“Turns out, they’re important and needed. And it would be great if they could all
together direct their efforts toward perfecting both the spiritual and material dwelling
land. But we need specifics here, too. Your plan, Anastasia, is unsurpassed in terms of
specifics, and people’s hearts and souls everywhere are embracing it. But there is one
circumstance that calls into question how viable it is.”
“What circumstance is that?”
“There’s no doubt that the way of life for a family on the family homestead that
you’ve shown is greatly superior to today’s way of life for people in cities and rural
areas. And even now, the number of families living this way - without any support
whatsoever from the government - is growing steadily with each year. And there might
come a time when the majority of the Earth’s population will want to have their own
family homesteads and live on them. And at that point, there won’t be enough hectares
for every family that wants one. Even now, people are talking about how a portion of
the population needs to be eradicated due to the fact that there’s not enough living
space and natural resources. According to these rumors, there should remain on Earth
the so-called Golden Billion, plus two or three billion people who serve them. The
Earth’s population is now six billion, and people are already raising the question of
restricting births, like, say, China, where one billion, three hundred million people live
in an area comprising 9.6 million square kilometers.
“If people’s way of life begins to change in accord with your plan, then people’s
life expectancy will increase. It’s a completely obvious and undisputed fact, that the
life expectancy for a person living on a family homestead, assuming he has no harmful
habits - here I’m talking about drinking, smoking and others - has an excellent diet,
clean air and healthy water, will, on average, be twice as long.
“A family living on a family homestead will want to have children, and such
families have a significantly greater desire to bear children than those living in modem
cities. So it follows that before long, new families won’t be able to get a hectare to
build a family homestead.
“I understand that there must be some way out of this. When God was thinking
of all that’s beautiful, he can’t have set up this kind of dead-end situation that would
incite people to battle for living space. Your grandfather has said it’s absurd and futile
to explore outer space using current methods, and that there’s another method - he
calls it psychoteleportation. But no matter how much you think about it, it doesn’t
appear possible to understand it in a detailed way. Basically, people don’t believe it
exists, and science doesn’t say anything about it.”
“I am also aware that the psychoteleportation method of exploring outer space
and the planets of other galaxies does exist. But no one in my family line is privy to the
details or mechanisms of this method. I hope that people who are now establishing
family homesteads, or their children or grandchildren will discover and grasp what
helps it function. And this will definitely come to pass.
“But I understand your anxiety, too, Vladimir. If a person already today cannot
see at least a part of this mechanism, he will remain anxious, due to his uncertainty
regarding his family line. It is essential for us to grasp at least a part of it.
“I have been thinking tirelessly about it and searching, but I am finding only
more and more confirmations all the time of its existence. It is possible that it’s
essential for us to lay out the logical lines of reasoning, and to ask people who are
familiar with science, with biology and programming, to think together. We must
discover it all together.
“Vladimir, we’ve arrived,” announced Anastasia. “This is the home... This is
Grandfather’s space.”
THE FAMILY PARTY
Anastasia’s grandfather had always been notable for his unusual behavior. Even
when speaking about very serious tilings, he’d always use humor or try to trip you up.
And this time, too, he remained true to himself. When we came out into his glade, we
saw Anastasia’s grandfather sitting beneath a cedar tree with his legs crossed, looking
intently at a staff stuck into the ground before him. it was clear that he’d long since
sensed we were on our way to him, and besides, he couldn’t help but sense our
presence, but he paid no attention to us whatsoever. And even when we walked
practically right up to him, he still didn’t turn in our direction and didn’t greet us. We
stood there silently for three or four minutes. Then I whispered to Anastasia:
“You try saying something to him. Otherwise, we’re just going to keep standing
here like this.”
“All right, Vladimir. But I’m trying to grasp what he’s up to here,” Anastasia
replied, also speaking softly.
Then, all the same, she addressed her grandfather, saying:
“We arrived quite a while ago, Grandfather.”
And something totally odd happened next. Anastasia’s grandfather, turning to
the staff, suddenly said:
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, I announce a fifteen-minute break.”
Then he stood up, led us off to the side and, completely serious, began
explaining:
“I’m currently leading a party meeting of the Family Party. It will continue for
another forty-five minutes or so, so you will have to wait.”
“How’s that, a party meeting?” I asked, surprised. “There’s nobody here. And
besides, the Family Party hasn’t been constituted yet.”
‘Well, not by you, it hasn’t been,” Grandfather replied. “But I’ve constituted it
for myself.”
“How’s that, you’ve constituted it? Who’s joining it?”
“I’m joining it all on my own. And I’m preparing for the convention.”
“What convention, if there’s only you in the party membership?”
“For now there is only I, but perhaps someone else will come along and
constitute their own Family Party. And then we’ll convene.”
“But how the heck is something like that possible?”
“Well, you yourself said that we need to come up with something new. And so I
came up with the idea that each person can lead his own Family Party, so no one will
use his authority and position to put pressure on the party rank and file. And at the
conventions, everyone will be equal.”
“And what kind of agenda do you have here at this meeting?”
“The government’s report on the work it’s done in connection with perfecting
the dwelling land.”
“Well, and who do you have giving reports?”
“Various people. After the break I’ll be hearing from the Minister of Railway
Transport.”
“But he’s not here!”
“Not for you, but for me he is.”
“How about him, does he know you’ll be hearing from him?” I wondered.
“He doesn’t know. And really, why should I take him away from his work?”
“But when and where will your convention take place?”
“When the organizers set the date.”
“What organizers?”
“Other Family Party leaders.”
Really, in spite of how comical Grandfather’s display was, I do think the idea of
creating a Family Party, in which all are equal, deserves attention. The usual way of
organizing a party won’t get us anywhere, except to something resembling the CPSU.
And this is where I can see some grains of truth. Each person is free to act in
accordance with his own heart and soul, rather than orders or a universal charter.
Different party members can initiate the best actions and endeavors and advances. It
seems to me that in this case you’ll end up with a lively community of people that
develops on its own, in which each individual really can express his own initiative. As
we took our leave of Grandfather, I said, matching his tone, and trying to be serious:
“From this day forward I also constitute my own family party.”
Why go on and on about it? It’s time for each of us to take action.
Further developments connected to Anastasia’s grandfather deserve a separate
book, and I intend to tell about them at a later date.
EXPLORING VIRGIN PLANETS
On our way back, as Anastasia and I were returning from seeing Grandfather,
our conversation once again turned to the possible existence of a biological way for a
person on Earth to explore other planets and galaxies. I reminded Anastasia:
“Anastasia, you mentioned that you think tirelessly about a biological way to
explore other planets, and that you’re finding logical confirmations of its existence.
Can you lay out these logical lines of reasoning?”
“We can begin now, together, to analyze the situation. Further on you can
continue on your own.”
“All right, Anastasia, but you go ahead and start us off.”
“First of all it’s essential to authoritatively establish the first fact. All that has
been created in the technocratic world existed and exists in a biological and
significantly more perfected form. Do you agree with this, Vladimir? Do you
understand how important it is to establish this understanding?”
“Of course, I agree. Fm not the only one who knows this. Many other people do,
too. Man used to be able to do calculations in his head a lot better and faster - each
person had his own inner calculator. Well, and so on. You can cite a great many
examples here.
“The example I like most is a person’s birth. It’s the clearest and most striking
example, because two methods exist simultaneously in the world now - the
technocratic and the biological.
“The technocratic method is when scientists in a specialized institute take sperm
from a man and an egg from a woman, mix them together in a test tube that they keep
inside a special apparatus. They keep it at the necessary temperature and humidity, and
basically, it takes a lot of fuss and resources. Now, the biological method is a lot
simpler and more effective. A man and a woman in a bed... They enjoy themselves,
and soon afterwards a person is bom.”
“A good example, Vladimir, only, please, take note of one very important detail.
Even so, when a person is created, even if it is via a technocratic method, what lies at
the heart of him is the biological material.”
“Yes, of course, that’s what lies at his heart. You can’t get anything without the
spenn and the egg.”
“And the biological method has no need to adopt anything from the technocratic
world.”
“Agreed. Not a thing. Well, except for a bed. Although you can get along
without a bed, too. Basically, Anastasia, I totally agree, and I get it - the biological
alternatives are significantly more perfected than the technocratic. When the
technocratic man thinks up his so-called inventions and brainchildren, he’s replacing
existing and perfected biological mechanisms with primitive, technocratic ones. That
situation is completely anti-rational.”
“And nonetheless, time and time again, human civilizations, losing all memory
of their natural capabilities, have replaced them with primitive, technocratic
alternatives.
“We are unable to imagine now, how one can get to another planet using a
natural method. And in this very same way, people of a different civilization were
unable to imagine the birth of a child in a non-tec hnocratic way.
“Many women today cannot imagine giving birth to a child without others’ help,
without a maternity ward and technocratic equipment. If we continue further along
these lines, then more and more children will be bom using surrogate mothers.
“Something resembling farms will arise, where women who have been
artificially inseminated will be concentrated. Their whole lives, they will bear children
and give them up. They will be provided with food and lodging, but they themselves -
each one of them will see herself as an incubator for a human embryo. This has already
happened in history, in one human civilization.
“In this same civilization, the practice of cloning of people was also developed.
As a result, a person in this civilization was unaware that it was possible to give birth to
a person through biological means. Lacking awareness of this, lacking this thought, a
woman had no possibility of conceiving a child, no matter how much she entered into
intimate relations with a man. Now, if a woman did become pregnant by natural means
after all, this was considered pathological, and the human embryo was immediately
destroyed or was removed and grown artificially.
“Vladimir, do you agree with the assertion that any technocratic achievement is
preceded by a person’s act of losing the memory of his biological capabilities?”
“Ido.”
“But now, tell me, can a person use a technocratic method to transfer an image, a
photograph of his family homestead, for example, from one point on Earth to another,
or into outer space?”
“Of course, he can, using a computer and the Internet. All he needs to do is
choose an electronic address, scan this image into his computer, go onto the Internet
and send it to the address lie’s chosen, and it will come up there on the computer. You
can print it off the other computer using a printer. You can also send it into space, too,
if you know the spaceship’s electronic address. You can send it to the Moon, too, and
you can send an image from the Moon to Earth. That’s already been done.”
“Good, Vladimir, very good. Only you have forgotten one very important detail.
The most important.”
“Which one?”
“Before the person does all these various operations on the computer, the
thought was bom in him to send off the image.”
“I agree. I didn’t mention the thought because that goes without saying.”
“But now, tell me, can a person use a modem technocratic method to transfer not
only an image, but an object, too, to all the points you named?”
“And object? I don’t think it’ll work with an object.” I thought about it for a brief
time and then added, “Anastasia, I remembered that there are lathes that carve various
designs out of wood, little sculptures, for example, under the direction of computer
programs, and if you send the computer program tasked with carving out the little
sculptures to a different continent via an electronic address, or to the Moon, then
another computer there, if it’s hooked up to the same kind of lathe, will carve out very
same little figure, and there will be two of them - one that my computer made and a
second that the other computer will carve out. In that way, the little sculpture I have
will be copied on a different continent, or on the Moon.”
“So it follows, that one can use a modem technocratic method to transfer or copy
and recreate an object, even on a different planet?”
“Yes, one can.”
“But do you understand what this means, Vladimir?”
“What?”
“This means, that there exists a biological method for transferring an object from
one planet to another, and this means it is a thousand times more perfected, simpler,
and can be accessible to any person. The biological method requires the presence of no
technology whatsoever. It is the human thought that is most important in it.”
“Yes, I agree, and in the case of creating a child, the most important thing is the
thought, but a man who’s thought about creating a child needs a woman, too, and a
woman who’s thought about a child needs a man. Together they materialize what
they’ve thought.”
“Together they. . .
“Vladimir, the possibility of creation and birthing of a person by a man and a
woman is the highest achievement. This means that it is possible - all the more so -for
a person to create life on another planet using a biological method. F or now it is unclear
what components are necessary in order to materialize him.”
“Yes, Anastasia, a tremendous discovery. It would turn out to be tremendous, if
you or someone else could find or discover these biological components.”
“We need to think. It would be possible to comprehend and sense much, were we
to encounter that knowledge possessed by the people of the first civilization on Earth.”
PEOPLE OF THE FIRST CIVILIZATION
“I infer, I surmise, and the logic of life confirms this, that they possessed
potentials greater than did God Himself.”
“But who the heck are these mysterious ‘they’?”
“These are the children of God. People of the first earthly civilization.”
“The first civilization? Does that mean there were ones that came after? And
how might the first civilization have differed from those that came after it?”
“In the direction of its development. Mankind, Vladimir, has not always
followed the technocratic path into the dimension of anti-rationality, toward disaster.
In the beginning was the first civilization, which developed in a different direction. We
will call it the biological path. They made use of all that was originally created by God.
A person of this civilization would study the divine creations and, with their help,
would perfect his dwelling land. The divine creations are perfected, but each
generation must be more rational than the preceding one. Such is the way God
programmed it.
“ft could be no other way. Were it another way, God could not be called God,
and His creations, lacking the potential for becoming perfected, would represent the
end of creation. Man is the beginning of the great creation.
“And now it is taxing for us to even imagine what the first civilization achieved,
what heights, in its divine development, and how the planet looked during the period of
their material life.
“Naturally, people of the first earthly civilization might also have looked
different than contemporary man on the outside, too. They had an ideal body build, and
their physical health enabled them to hold within themselves immeasurably more
energy than contemporary man is able to hold. Their original knowledge of the
biological divine world that came from God, enabled them to perfect it.
“All the scientific and technological achievements existing today in the
technocratic world existed for them in a significantly more perfected, biological form.”
“Where’s the proof that this civilization and their achievements existed?”
“If you see a grown person, Vladimir, do you really need proof of the fact that
this person was at first an infant and then a child?”
“No, I don’t The person himself serves as proof that he used to be a child.”
“In just that way, today’s human civilization, too, serves as proof that there
existed the first. And this first one could not be technocratic.”
“All right, maybe it couldn’t, but we can see from historical evidence and
archaeological digs that people of ancient civilizations who lived a hundred thousand
years ago ran around in animal skins with clubs and hunted animals, as we’re told, and
that they had trouble finding food for themselves.”
“Archaeologists are finding people of the post-disaster period of technocratic
civilizations.
“Imagine, Vladimir, that on the earth is living a technocratic civilization, that it
is achieving great heights in so-called technocratic development. But any technocratic
path rends the planet Earth, impairs the ecology and disturbs the biosphere, and
large-scale techno logy- induced disaster ensues. Those in power, or the elite, always
know of its approach beforehand and make preparations to save themselves. One of the
civilizations, for example, constructed, in near earth orbit, an entire technological
complex of a size equaling two ocean liners. On it they saved themselves from the
disastrous changes that had befallen the earth. But this technological complex could
not hold the people indefinitely, for it itself was mortal. The people who were saving
themselves from the earthly disaster held out on it for around sixty years. Children
were bom to them. But there came a time, when life on the artificial complex became
impossible. The people, its inhabitants, began dying, and then the decision was made to
return to Earth, and they returned. They landed in groups, in special capsules. On the
Earth, which was cooling now after the great fire, grass was already growing up anew,
and the animal world was coming back to life. Not all the people managed to end up in
this kind of oasis. Those who ended up in the desert or on red-hot lava perished. Those
who managed to land on a plot of land where life had been partially preserved, rejoiced
at their luck.
“Now I will show you.
“Look, there they are - there are but six of them - coming out of their red-hot
capsule. They are rejoicing at the little green grass and the air they can breathe. Here
are two children, a little boy and a little girl. They’re examining a currant bush and the
bugs on it with interest. And here is an elderly man without any hair at all. He’s
returning to the capsule, and before long he carries a box out of it. There is food inside
it. The person sets the box on the ground, looks at the little boy and the little girl by the
currant bush and walks up to their mother, who is standing nearby.
“‘It’s best for you to go far away from this place and take the children with you.
We have enough food left for no more than a week. Your husband has died and I am
your distant relative, but I have no intention of protecting you when the fight for food
begins.’
“‘Give us at least a day’s worth of food.’
“‘Take it yourself, but try to do it so no one will notice you, and leave quickly.’
“The woman walked up to the box on the ground, bent over as if adjusting her
shoe, and quickly took three little tubes of some substance and hid them beneath her
jumpsuit. Then she quickly walked up to her children and, saying something about
wanting to show them some even more interesting bushes, led them off far away from
the craft lying on the ground.
“The people who had returned to earth possessed knowledge of the technocratic
world. They could use computers and satellite telephones, operate an automobile or a
spaceship, but their knowledge was now absolutely useless and even hazardous. All
communications and the majority of machines on earth had been destroyed. Many of
those that remained were radioactive and posed a mortal danger.
“The mother who left with her son and daughter carried on her family line. And
once again, for millennia, mankind developed in the technocratic direction.
Archaeologists excavated huge ancient cities. They excavated the graves of the
forbears, finding in them crude hunting weapons, and concluded that they were seeing
primitive people at the beginning of their civilization. But they were seeing people at
the end of their civilization. Archaeologists would sometimes find cave drawings of
people dressed in pressurized suits. The scientific world put forth hypotheses that
mankind arose from extraterrestrial beings, that in antiquity mankind had received
knowledge from extraterrestrials. But, just as before, they did not even want to
entertain the thought that in the cave drawings of beings in pressurized suits... they
were seeing people at the end of their civilization.”
“But then where is the first civilization now?”
“It has disappeared. It disappeared suddenly, for some mysterious reason. At the
moment of their disappearance, the people of the first civilization erased all
information about their achievements from the Universal database. They did this in
some inconceivable fashion. Why they took such steps, one can only infer and
surmise.”
“Well, so what do you infer, Anastasia?”
“I infer that, perceiving themselves as in control of the fates of Universal worlds,
they also recognized within themselves the germs of the anti-world, anti-rationality
virus and understood that they lacked within themselves sufficient immunity to it. And
at that point, they detonated themselves psychologically, along with their
achievements, leaving on earth those who were more infected with the virus of
anti-rationality and anti- world than the others. So that they could follow it to its
conclusion and come to fully blow the dimension of anti-rationality. And now we, the
descendants of the first civilization, will come to blow conclusively the essence of
anti-rationality, and one instant before the planetary disaster, we will bring rationality
and anti-rationality into balance within ourselves. All the achievements of the first
earthly civilization will open up within us in a new and more perfected form.”
“But if, as you say, their knowledge will open up, does that mean they’re
somewhere, that they exist?”
“They exist within each person.”
Anastasia suddenly broke off her tale and froze.
“What’s happened, Anastasia? Why did you stop talking and freeze?”
“Something has happened in the Universal space. I sense that, Vladimir. I sense
the vibrations. Do you also?”
“I don’t sense a tiling. Just some little breeze started to blow.”
“Yes, a breeze, but it’s variable.”
“Well, maybe it’s variable, but what of it? Did something bad happen, or
something good?”
“I don’t blow, Vladimir. Only one thing is clear: what has happened has
disturbed the space.”
“But where did it happen?”
“On the shore of our lake, I think.”
“And what, are you saying the whole Universe reacted to this thing that
happened?”
“It always reacts when interesting or unusual information appears.”
“Let’s run over to our lake as fast as we can, Anastasia.”
We set off walking at a fast clip. At times, when the taiga would allow me to, I
tried to run. Only once did we sit down to rest, and then once again rushed toward the
lake.
When we were already almost to the lake, I suddenly imagined what unpleasant
things might be in store for our son, and I asked Anastasia to stop.
“Wait, Anastasia. Hear me out, try to understand. Volodya’s under the
impression that you challenged us to a duel. Is that right?”
“Yes,” Anastasia replied calmly.
“I won’t going into it right now, about why it’s an unfair challenge. There’s no
time. But Fm asking you - please don’t criticize what Volodya has done during the two
days we’ve been gone.
“It’s clear that he’s been working on the mock-up from dawn to dusk. He’s been
trying. I know. I saw it when he and I were thinking over the design on our own. But he
doesn’t have enough information. If you start criticizing his creation, he’ll be very
upset. He’s said to me, ‘If I don’t win the duel, it will make Mama sad.’
“Can you imagine? He’ll try and try, so he doesn’t make you sad.”
“And you, too, Vladimir.”
“Yes. And me, too. But you and I - we’re grownups. We should understand that
there’s simply nothing else he can add to the homestead design. The earthen wall
around the perimeter was a brilliant idea, but it’s already been articulated, and the
pond’s been settled and you haven’t rejected where we’ve put the home with the
veranda all around it. What’ s left? F lower beds, raised vegetable beds - that’ s the small
stuff. The technical construction details aren’t significant. You need to understand,
Anastasia, there’s no room left there for creativity. I mean, you yourself have already
done everything. You gave us a hint, and didn’t leave anything for our son. At least
praise him for trying.”
“I cannot praise him just for trying. That would be humiliating praise.”
“Humiliating? But putting a child in a position where there’ s no way out - that’ s
not humiliation? No, that’s not humiliation. It’s mockery.”
“Please believe me, Vladimir. I am not mocking our son, not at all. Within him
are little parts of you and of me. Information and knowledge gathered by your
ancestors and mine. He has been raised and taught by Grandfather and
Great-grandfather. Our son’s capabilities are yet to be revealed, but I am certain that
they are great.”
“Maybe they are great, but I’m trying to explain to you, that there’s no area left
for creativity, for him to display them. The homestead design has already been
created.”
“You feel it’s been created. But for a long time now, I’ve been under the
impression that even so, neither you nor I, nor the people who are creating homesteads
are aware of some key purpose of theirs. Many sense it intuitively, and for this reason
the thought to create a family homestead draws people in. This thought is on the level
of feelings. They are not fully clear or grasped. Something very important for the future
and for eternity has not been grasped.
“From the moment of man’s creation and up to the present, within him has lain
all that was created in the beginning, and they, the man-gods of the first civilization, are
secreted away within each person, in the form of a small and perhaps microscopic
particle. It’s possible that they can see or feel what is transpiring. When I excessively
precipitously put our son in a difficult position in regard to you, it is possible that this
particle responded, that it couldn’t help it, and perhaps the time has come... It is
possible that Volodya senses, feels the knowledge stored within him. His structure, this
fiery bird, turned out too extraordinary in its beauty and function.”
“Anastasia, please understand, you’re asking the impossible. You want our son
to explain something to you or to create something, but you yourself don’t know what,
exactly. You only feel some new potentials for the family homestead, but Volodya
might not even know about your feelings.”
“My feelings lie within our son, too, Vladimir.”
1 was walking behind Anastasia, fully aware that she wasn’t going to pull any
punches with our son or praise him for no good reason. And she might even stall
criticizing him, too. But I wasn’t going to criticize him. I made a firm decision: I had to
find some kind of words to say to cheer him up and praise him for trying.
I fell a bit behind Anastasia. When I came out of the taiga, I saw that she,
standing by a cedar tree, was focused on peering from afar at what was transpiring on
the shore. And on the sandy shore of the taiga lake, surrounded by centuries-old cedars,
Volodya was making some kind of incomprehensible structure. It was a simple square
or rectangle that framed the earthen mound and enclosed it on both sides with little clay
walls. The little walls at the comers were white and higher than along the sides. On the
square’s inner edge was the pond, and next to it his unique bird, and in the middle of
square, right on the sand, sat Nastenka. That was it. I understood that Anastasia
wouldn’t be praising Volodya. There was nothing to praise him for. He’d made the bird
before, and he basically wasn’t the one who’ d come up with the earthen mound. Either
he hadn’t had time to construct the home and farmyard structures, or he didn’t know
where to situate them. To tell the truth, the square was a little bit strange. I turned to
Anastasia and said:
“Volodya hasn’t managed to do anything special, and since that’s the case,
there’s nothing here to criticize.”
But Anastasia gave me no answer and didn’t even turn in my direction. It was at
if she had lost track of everything and was focused on studying the square.
I set off in the direction of the square my son was fussing with, but here’s where
something incomprehensible happened. When I came to within a few steps of the
homestead mock-up, I stopped. I didn’t have the strength to move further. It was as if
the space around me was suddenly transformed. On the outside, everything was still
the same, but my sensations... Unbelievably pleasant sensations that seemed familiar,
or as if they’d come from another lifetime, were enveloping the whole surrounding
space and wanning my body from within. I was afraid to move - 1 didn’t want them to
go away. I just stood there and looked at a comer of the square. At a comer that was
shaped like a little white home with a window and a door.
I’d begun to come to, when I heard the voice of Anastasia, who’d walked up.
She addressed Volodya who, kneeling, was smoothing out the uneven parts of the outer
wall with his hands.
“May I ask you something, my dear son?” Anastasia seemed agitated to me.
Volodya stood up, went up to Anastasia, gave her a slight bow and replied:
“I’m happy to listen to you, Mama.”
“Have you found a new definition for the concept of a ‘home’?”
“I’ve been trying to seek one out, Mama, and I decided that a person should
simultaneously build a home for both himself and his hectare. Then they will be
inseparably connected to each other and united in their space.”
“Tell me about your mock-up, Volodya, and about how it is meant to function.
Tell me about all its details.”
“All right, Mama, I’ll tell you.”
And our son began to tell her. It was as if, through his telling, the conventional
labels of the extraordinary family homestead came to life in the mock-up.
Volodya pointed to a depression in the wall. “This here is the entrance to the
home. Mama. It’s located not on the road side, but the forest side.”
“You mean to say that this is the entrance to the territory of the family
homestead,” Anastasia clarified.
“The entire family homestead is the home,” Volodya replied, “and for that
reason I called it the entrance to the home. And the person should wipe his feet before
he walks in, if something has stuck to them, and even if nothing has, he needs to do this
mentally.
“Now this wall,” Volodya said, pointing to the greenhouse running along the
hectare’s perimeter, “is the living wall of the home. The plants growing inside it will be
warm and happy. This is a clay wall, heated by the rays of the sun that pass through
glass - or the transparent plastic sheeting Papa has spoken of - from above. During the
day, the clay wall will heat up, and during the night, when it’s cool, it will begin giving
off warmth to everything growing inside.
“There are rooms inside this wall. It’s a place where various garden supplies and
tools the person will use will be stored. And in this space, Mama,” Volodya said,
pointing to an oval extending out from the homestead’s perimeter, “a person can sleep
and eat in the winter.
“Next, there’s a compartment where the firewood is kept. The various domestic
animals - chickens, swans, a goat, a pony, a hedgehog, peacocks and doves - are
housed amongst the comers of the living wall that abuts the forest. There are two exits
from their dwelling, one in the direction of the forest, the other into the home space.
Papa has said that he often has to go away, and there won’t be anyone to look after the
animals. Papa feels a person shouldn’t take on animals if he can’t give them enough
attention and feed them at the right time. But I feel that animals shouldn’t have to
depend on the person for food, that that demeans the animals. The person should create
a comfortable dwelling land for the animals he likes, so that they can feed themselves
independently and come to the person when he needs them. Many various wild animals
live around our glade - our home - but there’s no need for us to feed them. On the
contrary, they are happy to bring us food. I infer that we can create the very same
conditions for animals on the family homestead, too, especially if it abuts a forest.”
“It’s possible,” Anastasia said thoughtfully, and continued asking our son
questions. “Volodya, on the road side, at the comers, there are two little homes with
small windows. What are they for?”
“Mama, I designed this for Papa. I know that Papa’s best childhood memories
are connected to the time he spent living as a little boy with his grandmother and
grandfather, in a little whitewashed clay hut with a straw roof. I built the little walls of
this little village hut. I think it will be really good if Papa’s homestead has other
elements, too, that will call up pleasant memories from his life.”
I quickly turned to the white... I began studying it. And I recognized it - my
childhood home. I recognized the little whitewashed Ukrainian hut with a straw roof,
with a little window and a door, and a little old bench beside it. I wanted to rush to my
son and hug him, and then the pleasant sensations enveloped me anew and wouldn’t let
me move from my spot. All I could do was to say:
“Thank you, my dear son. It all really does look like it - the little window and the
little bench, and the door.”
“The door to your little childhood house opens. Papa. If you open it, you’ll
immediately be inside the covered perimeter of your homestead, and you can pass
through it, to wherever you want to go.
“And Papa, I’ve also arranged various plants on the homestead space and have
c o mposed the necessary symbols out of them.
“In the greenhouse, Papa, you can grow everything you like to eat in the spring
and summer, but in addition to your favorite vegetables and fruits, it will be very good
if you set up raised beds no more than eleven meters apart and with a diameter of no
less than ninety centimeters. On these beds you’ll put in seedlings of, for example,
currant and raspberry, and it would be good to put in at least one little cedar seedling on
each side, along with grasses and flowers you’ve brought there from the taiga. And it’s
desirable for them to come not from the edge of the taiga, but from deep inside it.”
“It will be extremely difficult for people to do that, Volodya. Now me - I can do
that, but I’d like a lot of other people who are building family homesteads to have this
option, too. A lot of them won’t be able to put in plants from deep inside the taiga.
“There are no roads in the taiga, you can’t use public transportation, and you
can’t carry much out on our own, and then you still have to spend a long time hauling it
back on public transportation. All of this will require no small financial expenditure.
And when you add it all up, the plants you deliver from Siberia will cost significantly
more than ones that are grown in nurseries and sold right on site or not far away. You
know, there’ s even a saying: ‘For a cow abroad you you’ll pay a penny, plus a hundred
for her delivery.’ And besides that, can you explain why you should get plants from
deep in the taiga, when you can dig them up in your local forest or get them from your
nearest nursery?”
“But those will be different plants, Papa. After all, you yourself have told me
about how, for example, the milk agaric mushrooms that glow here and that you can
eat raw differ significantly from the milk agaric mushrooms that grow in the region of
Russia you call the central region. The cowberries, too, differ. And Papa, the currants
and raspberries differ, too. You yourself have written in your books, Papa, that
scientists have spoken of this, too, such as the academician Pallas.”
“Tell me, Volodya, is the way they taste the only reason we need to fill these
raised beds with plants from deep in the taiga?”
“That’s not the only reason, Papa. Taiga plants will not admit the anti-rational
information of that world in which you have to live. When they’re set out along the
perimeter, they will not let that information through onto the territory of the
homestead. Local plants, which you call regionalized, have gotten used to it to a greater
degree and will let it through. In particular, plants that do not produce seeds provide no
barrier whatsoever to this information.”
“I know about that kind of plants. They’re called genetically modified.”
“Papa, it’s important for the perimeter of the homestead to be able to not let
unnecessary, hostile information you don’t need through when it transports you to
another spot.”
I didn’t understand what my son had said and began asking him to clarify:
“To what other spot? How can it transport me?”
Volodya didn’t have a chance to reply. Anastasia, who was having a hard time
concealing her agitation, began to speak:
“You’ve come up with something very good, my deal' son. It’s very important to
concentrate positive emotions on the homestead. And, by wiping your feet when you
enter, to not bring the negative onto it.”
THE BURNING BLOOD OF THE
ANCESTORS
Anastasia took me by the hand. I felt the pleasant warmth of her tender palm.
And I also felt how agitated she was, and I glanced at her face. Anastasia was looking
into the center of the homestead mock-up. I also looked into its center. Nothing special
there. Unless the little white sticks arranged in the center had caught her attention.
Once again she asked our son a question.
“Tell me, my dear son, what does the white circle located in the center of the
homestead represent?”
I began explaining, instead of my son. “It represents a small, round greenhouse.
That’s what Volodya and I decided on. Our little white sticks represent some kind of
transparent material - glass, for example, or polycarbonate, or plastic sheeting. For a
long time we couldn’t stick it anywhere. It didn’t go with anything. But now that
Volodya has placed a greenhouse along the whole perimeter of the homestead, I really
like it. Here you get both a greenhouse and a fence at the same time, and various utility
rooms, too. And I also like it that Volodya made a small, round greenhouse in the
center, too. Now it fits. Now it even goes really well with the whole perimeter of the
homestead.”
“I think that what we have in the center is not a greenhouse, Vladimir,”
Anastasia said in a whisper, slightly agitated, as before.
Volodya heard her and calmly said, addressing me:
“Mama’s correct. The little white sticks in the center of the homestead do not
represent a greenhouse.”
“They what do they represent?” I asked our son.
“In the center of the homestead, Papa, I have placed a circle of mirroring water.”
I asked him to clarify. “Is it a mirror, or what?”
“You can put it that way. A mirror with mirroring water,” Volodya calmly
replied.
“Hmm. Very original, actually. You’ve situated a round mirror on a small rise in
the center of the homestead. The clouds are reflected in it, and the sun and moon can
admire themselves in it. And streaks of sunlight will fly off it and go dancing
throughout the whole homestead. There’s nothing like it in any landscape design, and
I’ve looked through a lot of them. Very original.”
“You’ve stuck little red leaves around the mirror, Volodya. What do they
represent?” Anastasia asked, speaking quickly.
“That’s a flame burning, Mama.”
“Where did the flame come from?”
“From oil and gas, Mama.”
After this answer, Anastasia squeezed my hand a bit more strongly and asked
our son the following question:
“Did they allow you to light their blood on fire, Volodya?”
“Yes. The Souls of our ancestors allowed me to light their earthly blood on fire,
Mama. If they had not wanted this, then what came to me wouldn’t have come to me.”
Suddenly Anastasia’s grandfather spoke, and I could sense agitation in his voice,
too. “Perhaps that’s enough of distracting a person from important business. After all,
you haven’t done all you’re going to do with the mock-up yet, have you Volodya?”
“No, I haven’t done all I’m going to do, Grandfather.”
“Then go on and do all you’re going to do, and no one will bother you.”
“Yes, go on and do all you’re going to do, Volodya. We’ll get out of your way
for now,” Anastasia added and led me off to the side, away from the extraordinary
family homestead design. When she’d sat herself down near the trunk of a large cedar,
I asked:
“Anastasia, I can feel that you’re agitated for some reason. Am I right?”
“Yes, Vladimir, I’m agitated. Much of what our son is doing does not exist on
earth today. Nor is there information about it in the Universe, either. That, which he has
created in the center of the homestead - you called it beautiful and original. But it is not
those words, not only those words, that describe what has been created. The
construction Volodya told us about is an apparatus, and the main component of the
apparatus is of unheard-of power, a biological mechanism. I can sense this, but I can
not find a precise word to describe its properties. Perhaps such a word does not yet
exist. We can only speculate about this device’s capacities, its unheard-of capabilities.
But please, Vladimir, do not rush me. Allow me to gradually come to an understanding
of what I have seen.”
A GIFT FROM THE FIRST EARTHLY
CIVILIZATION
“I similise, that all the separate details in the homestead design, when taken
together, fonn a unified whole. It is possible, that the homestead is a biological device
or mechanism, or something else previously unimagined by consciousness. We have to
think. We have to solve this riddle. The elongated oval of your hectare is framed with
an earthen mound with clay edges. The mound is covered over with some sort of
transparent material. Inside are various plants. There must be something significant in
them.”
“Volodya said the plants can be ordinary ones, vegetables, for example,
tomatoes, cucumbers, and various green, leafy plants. Basically, everything a person
wants to eat. But you have to put in raised beds with a diameter of about ninety
centimeters, spaced no less than eleven meters apart. On these beds you have to put out
plants from deep in the taiga, because they won’t let the information of anti-rationality
through. That’s what he was saying.”
“Yes, they won’t let it through. In this way, the perimeter functions as a
membrane.”
“A membrane for what?”
“For everything located inside the membrane. The greenhouse situated along the
perimeter, where all the areas a person requires for living and for his household needs
have been incorporated, looks pretty and sensible. Within a few years, the need for the
transparent dome will fall away. The most important thing remaining will be what is
growing strong and firm beneath it. Our son has pursued quite an extraordinary goal.
He has fenced the homestead space off from the pernicious influence of the anti- world
and anti-rationality, using the most powerful fence you can possibly imagine. It is not
the clay walls and the transparent dome that play the most important role in this fence,
but the plants inside the structure. They will exert a psychological effect simply by
being there, and they will help you immediately bring opposites into balance within
you.”
“How will they help me bring opposites into balance within me? That’s some
kind of mysticism, or magic.”
“There’s not a jot of mysticism or magic here, Vladimir. Rather, it’s science, the
one you call psychology. Imagine: you drive up to your homestead, and from far off
you can see the little white walls of the little home of your childhood, and this
immediately calls up positive emotions in you. Then you get out of the car and wipe off
your feet, once more mentally cleansing yourself of negative information. The gates
open wide before you, and your gaze takes in the living magnificence of your family
homestead’s space, which will never cease to amaze and delight you. Unlike a
non-living picture, it will always be varied. New flowers have blossomed on the raised
beds and trees, and the light playing in a new way, or the little flowers stirred by the
breeze will enchant you each time. Then you will want to take a look at whatever might
be transpiring inside the fence, and you’11 go into it. Its beautiful living richness and its
airs will completely draw you away from the negative information of the anti-world.”
“Yes, it really is great. The homestead will also play the role of my personal
psychologist, and an extremely effective one at that. You’re right, Anastasia - each
time I come back even to my country home after being gone for three or four days, each
time it’s interesting to look at what’s changed in the garden, in the beds and in the
greenhouse.
“Now, of course you can’t compare a country home to the homestead you’re
talking about. Of course, it’s much more effective. Look how much one bird on the
bank of a pond means to us. Wow, to come up with something like that. It all started
with an ordinary bath house, and it ended up with a magnificent and functional
sculpture. Now I understand that it will also have a very strong psychological effect.”
“ft certainly will, Vladimir. The bird will greet you, both when you have only
just crossed the threshold of the home, and when you light a fire, and then when you go
inside the bird, so as to warm your body and soul.”
“Tell me, Anastasia, but why did you take such notice, or get so frightened when
Volodya started telling you about the mirroring structure in the center of the
homestead?”
“The little walls of the little white hut from your childhood, the greenhouse
along the perimeter with the living organism inside, the earthen bird with the burning
heart who strives to carry a person off into the sky... It’s possible that it is a more
perfected analog. . . The mirror in the center, reflecting the heavenly bodies. . . ”
Anastasia stood up and, pronouncing her words precisely, the way she always
does when speaking of something significant, she said:
“Vladimir, our son has created a mock-up... He has constructed a biological
interplanetary ship.”
“What???” I was amazed. “Anastasia, are you sure?”
“Yes. I am sure. It’s possible that we need to use a different word to name it. I
don’t blow this word as of yet. But I am sure that the intended function of what we saw
is to teleport the space along with the people located in it.
“A person who builds a family homestead using the elements of this design will,
without a doubt, be able to build his own world on a different planet, and this world
will be beautiful.
“In the center of the homestead is located part of the apparatus a person can use
to transfomi (to psycho-teleport, to transfer) the space along with all its contents to
other planets and other worlds. Part of... But then where... I’ve understood it,
Vladimir. Before us is a mock-up of a beautiful family homestead, and at the same
time, before us is a mock-up of a perfected interplanetary ship. It is capable of moving
at the speed of thought. Of reaching, in one instant, the Moon, Mars, or Jupiter.
“Distance is basically of no consequence at all for it. It can cover a distance of
one meter or a distance of a million light years in one and the same amount of time. It is
capable of transferring people onto any planet in the solar system, and beyond its
bounds.”
“But Anastasia, scientists have proven that there’s no life on planets, at least not
the closest ones.”
“And that is why, Vladimir, I said it is capable of psycho-teleporting the space
along with all its contents, including the dwelling land of all that lives in that space. In
other words, this homestead can be transferred, or to express it more precisely, the
given homestead can be copied and situated on a different planet.”
“How about the people who live on the homestead? Will they be transferred to
the different planet, too?”
“The people, too, if they are located on the homestead at the moment of
transfer.”
“But if there isn’t any fertile soil on the other planet, or if it’s three hundred
degrees, or a hundred below zero?”
“When the space is teleported, something akin to an explosion takes place on the
planet, and as a result, the existence of the new space is secured.”
TELEPORTING THE SPACE
“Unbelievable information, Anastasia. It’s even hard to imagine that such
potentials exist in man. Perhaps you’re mistaken in your conjectures?”
“These are no longer conjectures, Vladimir, and I am not the tiniest bit mistaken.
Previously this information did not exist in the Universe. Now it has appeared. But
what is most important, is that the particle of mankind’s first civilization, which exists
within me and within you, just as it does in each person as well, will allow this
information in.”
“You know, Anastasia, I’m only just now starting to understand how mighty
those four words of the Universal law are: PERFECT THE DWELLING LAND. Turns
out a person can perfect his land to such a degree that he becomes a god. I mean,
because when he moves to another planet that hasn’t yet been made habitable, man will
begin creating life there, like God did on earth.”
“Man will never become a god, Vladimir. Each person is the son of God, or Iris
daughter. And God, the creator and parent, wanted his children to be more perfected
than he himself, and they most certainly will be, they will be! By bringing
anti-rationality and Rationality into balance within themselves.”
We heard the voice of Anastasia’s grandfather, who had come up without us
noticing him. “Now that is real scientific progress. He will open up a new era for
mankind.”
Anastasia stood up. Her grandfather, an elder with graying hair, but an erect
posture, stood there, leaning on his staff and looking thoughtfully at the shore of the
taiga lake.
“Granddad, are you speaking of Volodya’s design?” Anastasia asked her
grandfather.
“What can one possibly say when an epiphany comes? Throughout the
millennia, he or they, - it’s unimportant, which- have turned the living teachings of
messiahs and scientific luminaries into incoherent gobbledygook. He has shown the
potentials of people living on the earth. He has created a new image of man. Or has
brought back the man who was called the son of God. A man capable, like unto God, of
creating on lifeless planets a life more beautiful than earthly life.”
“People will have a hard time believing something like that,” I remarked to
Grandfather.
“Fine. Even if someone doesn’t believe, then what of it? What remains for an
unbeliever who doesn’t believe in his might? To be bom? Yes! But to what end, if the
ensuing life is meaningless, if it is death? And then again the question: to what end was
he bom?
“For millions of years, there has existed a multitude of teachings. And all about
one and the same thing, that mankind should live in expectation of receiving something
from someone. And mankind has done so, closing off its thought and rationality. It has
not thought about why and to what end the Universe lights up the stars above man.”
“And now what? Will our son become a messiah?” Anastasia said bitterly. “He
will have difficulty holding his ground in the face of pridefulness. What’s more, the
anti-rationality will rush to seek him out.”
Everyone fell silent and, for some reason, simultaneously turned in the direction
of the homestead mock-up. At the same time, Volodya was heading toward us, walking
with a calm gait. He was carrying Nastenka. She was hugging him around the neck and
pressing her cheek to his. Volodya stopped a few steps away from us and set Nastenka
down on the ground. He bowed to us all and began to speak:
“Mama. Don’t worry, Mama. I know that if I become a messiah, then people will
direct their thought to me, with hope. And that means that they will not be directing
their thought fully to creating.”
“What have you decided to do, Volodya?” Anastasia asked our son.
“I need to go. I will dissolve, insignificant, in the human crowd.”
After these words, Volodya looked each of us, in turn, in the eye. The thought
flashed in my mind that he was intending to leave forever. And as he was looking at
me, I said:
“Thank you, dear son, for your extraordinary, marvelous family homestead
design. This will be the very best gift for my sixtieth birthday. And, really, the very best
gift I’ve received in the sixty years I’ve lived.”
“Papa, this design is a gift not just for you. I give it to all the readers of your
books. Let them take from it all that they wish to take.”
“Let it be for all of them. That means, it’s for me, too.”
“I want to give you a separate gift. Papa.”
At these words, Volodya slipped his hand beneath his shirt, took something out
and held his hand out to me. I watched as he slowly and carefully opened his fingers,
uncovering the gift that lay in his hand. But when Volodya had fully opened his
fingers, there was nothing on his palm. I looked at Grandfather, then at Anastasia,
trying, with their help, to understand what my son’s gesture meant, and how I was
supposed to respond to it, but they said nothing.
“Papa, go ahead and take my gift to you,” Volodya repeated.
I kept standing there, not understanding how you can take what you can’t see.
Suddenly Nastenka walked up to me, took me by the hand and led me over to Volodya.
When I came up to my son, I stretched my hand out toward his hand. He carefully
placed something invisible into my palm.
It, this something invisible, was pulsating and slightly wanning my hand. I
closed my fingers and placed the gift beneath my shirt, in the same spot Volodya had
kept it. A tender and extraordinary warmth enveloped my whole body.
“It will live in your home, Papa, and when you’ve built the homestead perimeter,
ask it to fill the space.”
Volodya bowed deeply to everyone, then turned around and began moving away
from us, his steps confident. Then he suddenly vanished beyond the bushes, or
dissolved in the space. And we all stood there, as if spellbound, and both when he
looked each of us in the eye and when he was walking off, all we all did was to silently
follow him with our eyes. And then I said:
“Anastasia, I got the impression our son has left us forever.”
Hearing no reply, I turned toward Anastasia. She was looking in the direction in
which Volodya had headed off. Her body was shaking. A thin stream of scarlet blood
was flowing from her lower lip. She had bitten her lip, so as to not cry out. I
understood. This meant the anti-rationality would hunt our son, and Anastasia and me,
as well. I saw Anastasia’s hands clenching into fists. The taiga froze. Some unknown
sound resembling the rumbling of something huge was filling the space. I got the
impression that the huge space was compressing and, when it opened back up, it might
wipe everything from the face of the earth.
I had already witnessed this kind of phenomenon before, when I’d lost
consciousness while trying to possess Anastasia against her will, and also when I’d
tried to strike her with the stick because she wouldn’t agree to give our son to me to
raise. Each time it started, Anastasia would raise her hands upward, as if waving to
someone in greeting, and everything would calm down, before any sound even
appeared. But now the sound was growing louder and louder, and Anastasia was not
raising her hand upward. And I didn’t want her to raise it. On the contrary. I wanted
this invisible and mighty thing to thunder and wipe from the earth all the filth that had
accumulated on it.
But Anastasia raised her hand. The space began to calm down.
Before leaving the taiga glade, I went once more to the shore of the lake. I stood
there alone and looked at the homestead mock-up our son had created, and I imagined
it actually existing on my hectare that for now was overgrown only with tall weeds.
Here I am, driving up in my car. I see the two white walls with little windows from my
happy childhood. The gates swing open automatically, revealing a living picture of the
finery inside, and I drive toward the entrance to the home. Stop! What the heck am I
doing? I’m driving through all this magnificence in a roaring car! Through my own
home! Go back!
I leave my car at the entrance. The gates swing open, and I wipe my shoes, trying
to wipe the filth of another world from my soles. Then I remove my shoes and leave
them by the entrance and walk barefoot through my beautiful world to the pond, where
there are swans swimming. My cat and dog are run alongside me. In the distance, a
rooster crows in greeting from one comer, and in another, a little goat bleats. And by
the pond, on the sand, my grandsons and granddaughters are constructing mock-ups of
their own family homesteads. And the woman I love, her beauty never fading, comes
out of the garden, smiles at me and waves her hand in greeting.
When it gets darker and the stars begin appearing in the sky, all the windows of
the oval space will light up with a joyful light. Lamps will come on in the greenhouse
and show the stars the living magnificence growing inside it. The stars will think,
“There, on Earth, a very small point is glowing with an extraordinary luminosity. It is
no bigger than one hectare, but its light caresses us.” The stars are not yet aware that
there will soon be more and more points like that on the earth. And the whole earth will
start shining with a blessed light and will caress the expanses of the Universe with it.
I made a firm decision to make the homestead mock-up my son had created a
reality. And perhaps it was a good tiling that I’d gotten a hectare with unproductive
soil, where the water takes a long time to mn off in the spring. But I will take it and
make its soil fertile, make it into the kind of soil trees will bloom on in the garden, and
flowers. I will perfect the dwelling land in that spot.
A LETTER TO MY SON
Hello, Volodya.
I don’t know where you are now, and so I decided to write you a letter through
my book. I sometimes write you letters, but I have no idea where to send them. But
something I publish in a book - I think you’ll read that. A book makes its way into
many countries. It’s like a living thing. It can find various people all on its own, and
perhaps it will find you, too.
In September of 2009 I set about creating my family homestead according to
your design. I don’t know who will live on it. Maybe you’ll want to, or Nastenka, when
she gets older. There should come a time soon, when the representatives of
anti-rationality will not hinder people like you. Maybe my grandchildren will want to
live here, or my great-grandchildren. The moment has come, when I feel an urgent
need to bring what you designed to life.
I ploughed my hectare with a tractor and sowed winter rye on it. I sowed the seed
by hand myself, and my neighbors helped me. I used an excavator to make the earthen
mound all along the perimeter, a meter high and a meter and a half wide. I didn’t have
time to make the little clay walls this year - the rains and the cold weather set in. I’ll
start building them in the spring. But my hectare has been transformed even just from
what I’ve done this year. It’s the only one framed with an earthen mound, and the rye
has grown up in place of the former weeds. It even seems to me that it’s showing off a
little bit before the neighboring hectares.
I also managed to dig the pond this year - about thirty meters in diameter, and it
will fill with water in the spring.
I also bought up various fruit tree saplings. For now I’ve put them in on the
grounds of my country home. I’m planning to move them to the homestead next fall.
During the winter I’m going to have to decide how to make your fiery bird. I
don’t think molding it out of clay should pose any particular problems, but how do I
fire it then, so the rains don’t wash it away? And besides, too, it’s about three meters
high, and in addition then you have the wingspan, which works out to about twelve
meters. Then the thought came to me that I need to mold it out of clay, then saw it into
sections and fire it at a factory. And after that I can reassemble the fiery bird on my
homestead, on the bank of the pond.
I’ve shown your creation to my friends - 1 just drew them a clay capsule with a
fire inside and explained how you can warm and heal yourself inside it, or just sit
outside in front of the fire with your friends the way you’d do with an inside fireplace.
And they decided they want to build something like that at their places, too. Can you
imagine how delighted they’ll be when they find out it’s not just a capsule you can
warm your body and heal yourself in, but a beautiful bird, too, with a burning heart
inside?
How in the world were you able to create such a miraculous thing?
Anastasia surmises that the people of the first earthly civilization are helping
you. If that’s the case, then why shouldn’t they help everyone who’s set about building
their family homesteads? However, on the other hand, since you’ve given your design
to all the readers, then they really have helped everyone.
Oh, and Volodya, your mama also said that your family homestead design is a
great and beautiful missive to mankind from some civilization that’s unknown to
contemporary people. Whether it’s on a different planet or in a different dimension -
that’s not important. It’s entered into communication with contemporary people, and in
the language of matter, too. And the contemporary society of people stands on the
threshold of great and beautiful transformations.
When your mama said this, I didn’t yet fully sense the significance of her words.
But later on, when I was reflecting about them, I became convinced that she is totally
correct. You know, Volodya, there’s a lot of talk in society about UFOs, about visitors
from other planets, and we have no small number of treatises, of all possible kinds,
supposedly written by great teachers, but what concrete results do we have from them?
Nothing changes. People have been moving along their path, heading toward a
sad end, and that’s just the path they keep on following. A picture even came to me.
People are walking along a road and there’s someone dressed very oddly
standing on the side of the road. And, as if to underscore his strangeness, he’s yelling:
“I’m a visitor from afar. I’m a visitor from afar, a representative of great
powers.”
“Well, so what?” people say to him. “What will you bestow on us? If you’re a
representative of great powers, then take drug addiction from the earth, and prostitution
and wars, and take the various illnesses away, too.”
“You don’t understand. I’m a visitor from afar. . . ”
But he couldn’t pique people’s interest. Only one person came up to him
“If you’re some great visitor from afar, then you probably won’t have any
trouble giving me a hundred rubles for a bottle of vodka.”
And he got this answer:
“F m a great visitor from afar. You need to listen to me, give me shelter and food,
even make a great fuss over me.”
That’s more or less the back story with all the “great visitors from afar” who
have come to earth.
But things are totally different in the case of your design, Volodya.
Without saying who he was, without asking for a thing, he simply offered: “Take
a look, people, and if you like it, take it and be happy.”
And when you left, Volodya, Mama spent a long time looking over your
homestead mock-up with great attention.
She said it’s extraordinary, lovely and multi-functional, but that it’s not a simple
homestead. The details of its separate parts are closely interconnected, and all of them
together are actually an interplanetary biological apparatus that is capable of moving a
person - along with his dwelling land - to any planet, all in the space of one instant.
This apparatus’ ultrastrong biological membrane extends along the homestead’s
perimeter. The fiery bird is programmed to cleanse one of viruses. The internal
arrangement and selection of plants suggest an eternal life-support system for those
living inside this apparatus. The object with the mirrored water is, pure and simple, a
launch button that initiates the biological program.
The propulsion device of this apparatus is unsurpassed in terms of its generating
capacity. It goes beyond the boundaries of specifications like rate of movement, for
what lies at its core is unmediated human thought.
Anastasia also said that all technocratic inventions have a biological analog - or
the other way around, to be more precise. And this biological analog is more perfected.
Now, we, by using achievements in space exploration and in the sphere of computer
technology as a launch point, can define the significance of those separate details of
yours. I think that readers who happen to be programmers will comprehend more of
what you have done.
But here’s what’s bothering me, Volodya. The perimeter is a membrane. The
fiery bird is a cleansing, anti-viral program. The mirror in the center with the torches is
a launch button. I’ll make all of this, and maybe somebody else will make it, too. But
there aren’t any instructions for how everyone is supposed to use this. All devices
always come with instructions, so people don’t break the devices or hurt themselves.
And here we’ve got significant biological technology, and without instructions. A
person might accidentally do something with the launch button, and his family will
wake up on another planet, without even intending to do so. They’ll want to come back,
but they’ll have no idea how.
I bought an octagonal mirror and torches. Out at my country home, in the
evening, I placed this minor on the ground and lit the torches around it, and it turned
out really beautiful. But, I think it’s not totally safe to do that in your garden in the
autumn. When the mirror poured out water, it felt like the trees were trying to come
back to life. But deep in the autumn, they shouldn’t come back to life.
I’m really sorry I didn’t have a chance to talk a little more with you, Volodya and
ask you to clarify the intended purpose of this apparatus, what it’s for, and how we’re
supposed to use it. Maybe the readers will be able to figure it out, or it will come to me
later on, once I get it in place on my hectare.
Now, I probably won’t be able to build the greenhouse around the perimeter of
the homestead next year. I don’t have the money to do everything all at once. We’re
hardly getting any royalties at all from America.
Basically, I don’t get what’s going on over there - they’re making some kind of
changes to the books without my permission. The domain name “Ringing Cedars” in
English belongs to somebody. And can you imagine - they even have the domain name
“Vladimir Megre” there, and a site with that name, and it’s being passed off as my
official site. But I have no connection to it whatsoever. Polina’s tried to register the
trademark in my name, and they asked her to pay six thousand dollars.
I wouldn’t really care, but I feel bad for the readers. What are they being told on
these sites? What products are being sold using those trademarks and logo? How can I
sort it out? Where can I find the time to sort tilings out?
But I decided that in my new book I’ll give the name of a website where people
can communicate directly with Polina. And to ask Polina to publish the new book in
English, too. But so far I don’t know how to get it published in the English-speaking
countries.
And something else, Volodya - I have a problem. We have to come up with a
comprehensible and concise appeal to those in power in various countries. The goal of
the appeal is to encourage each one of them to take whatever forceful measures they
can to perfect the dwelling land on the earth. I’ve put together various versions of this
message, but it always seems to me I could do it in a simpler, shorter and more
convincing fashion. Here’s the latest version. Maybe it’ll do? What do you think?
An Appeal
Dear Sirs:
I have written a series of books called “The Ringing Cedars of Russia. ’’Many of
these books ’ readers- people of various ages, nationalities, religious faiths and social
statuses - are each acquiring one hectare of land for their families and are
establishing family homesteads on them. Among them number doctoral students and
PhDs, as well as simple workers. Ninety percent of these people have a college
education and profound life experience. Each family on its own and everyone as a
group - they are creating a dwelling land for themselves, their children and future
generations that is more livable in all respects. In Russia and in the coun tries of the
former Soviet Union, these people have already created more than fifteen hundred
settlements made up of family homesteads, without any government support
whatsoever. They include large settlements, with up to three hundred families, and
small ones, formed by ten to fifteen families.
I do not know how many people are taking similar steps - whether united in
small groups, or for the most part on their own - in other countries where my books in
the “Ringing Cedars of Russia ” series are being published. But they do exist, and their
numbers are growing steadily.
Dear Sirs, people have talked a great deal in the world about the need to
improve the ecological situation on the earth. In certain regions, this situation has
already reached a critical stage, and a global disaster looms. For some time, now,
conferences and symposia have been held at the governmental level with many
countries, the UN and all possible NGOs. But, dear Sirs, where have we seen even the
slightest result? The earth ’s ecology continues to worsen.
The only people taking real steps are the people who are founding their own
family homesteads, people focused on improving man ’s dwelling land.
Dear Sirs, lam not asking you to discuss the merits or weaknesses of my books
or me personally.
I am asking you to examine the actual idea, from the position of rational
thought. And if you are unable, by drawing on contemporary science, to propose
anything more effective than this idea, I ask you to recognize its essence and accept it. ”
I don’t know to whom specifically I should address this appeal.
I’d also like to touch on another serious question. 1 often think about it. I try to
find a solution. The thing is, Volodya, that given your approach to life and the way you
understand the meaning of existence, it will be hard for you to find a bride, a girl who
understands you.
You probably already blow that from the time they’re little, many girls dream of
becoming an actress or a model, or of marrying a wealthy man and going to resorts and
having a maid at home. If you suddenly take a liking to that kind of girl, a girl who
hasn’t read the books and hasn’t heard anything about family homesteads - after all,
love is unpredictable - now, don’t go trying to tell her about the homestead right off the
bat. She won’t get it. Now, when I’ve made my homestead according to your design,
then you go ahead and bring this girl there and show her this homestead. When you’re
approaching it, you tell your girl that it’s yours, and go inside the homestead with her.
Go in through the door of the white hut. The key to the door will always be in the spot
where Grandmother used to leave it. And show her everything that’s there.
Anastasia has said that when a woman sees a more perfected dwelling land than
the one she’s previously been in, the desire to bear a child immediately awakens within
her, along with an attraction to the man who’s connected to this land.
Volodya, should you sense this kind of desire in your girl, then you can be
certain that she will most certainly come to love you, and that her past, mindless
inclinations will desert her.
And Volodya, your little sister Nastenka often visits your mock-up and plays in
it, building little flowerbeds inside it. Anastasia says she has fervent thought. Anastasia
has told me about Nastenka’ s past life, the one when her name was Anasta.
That’s all for now. The letter has turned out kind of long, but I haven’t said
everything I wanted to say.
Be careful. Take care of yourself, Volodya.
With all greatest respect for you.
Your papa
AN APPEAL
FROM VLADIMIR MEGRE
TO HIS READERS
Several Internet websites now share ideas that are very similar to those of the
main character, Anastasia, in the “Ringing Cedars of Russia” series.
Many of these websites purport to be official and use the name “Vladimir
Megre.” They even answer letters in my name.
In this regard, I feel it is my duty to info mi you, deal' readers, of my decision to
create an official international website, www.vmegre.com/en/ .
This will be the only official source for correspondence in all languages from my
readers all over the world.
By registering at and subscribing to this website you will be eligible to receive
information on the dates and locations of upcoming reader conferences, as well as
other infomiation.
Our unified website will keep you, dear readers, informed about the Ringing
Cedars of Russia movement throughout the world.
Yours truly,
Vladimir Megre
© Vladimir Megre
Translation by: Susan Downing
For inquiries and suggestions please contact us at:
PO Box 44, 630121 Novosibirsk, Russia.
Phone.: +7 (913) 383 0575
Skype: re. press
k k k
Anasta - the tenth volume, part two of the “Ringing Cedars of Russia” book
series. The series consists of 10 volumes. The author continues working on the next
book.
The author holds readers’ and press conferences in Russia and other countries.
The most active readers of the “Ringing Cedars of Russia” book series unite into
public organizations, one of the aims of which is the creation of Kin’s domains
(homesteads). In 2010 another book Anasta was issued. The author plans to write a
scenario on the basis of his books.
Throughout 1996-2006 nine books were written by Vladimir Megre
(The “Ringing Cedars of Russia” Series: Anastasia, Ringing Cedars of Russia, The
Dimension of Love, Co-Creation, Who Are We?, The Family Book, The Energy of Life,
The New Civilization, The New Civilization II: Rites of Love). More than 1 1 million
copies of the books translated into 20 languages have been sold worldwide. In 1999
Vladimir Megre established the Anastasia Foundation for the cultural support of
Anastasia’s philosophy and launched the site www.Anastasia.ru
The author: Vladimir Megre
Original language: Russian
Volume I Anastasia
Volume II Ringing Cedars of Russia
Volume III The Dimension of Love
Volume IV Co-creation
Volume V Who Are We?
Volume VI The Family Book
Volume VII The Energy of Life
Volume VIII (Part I) The New Civilization
Volume VIII (Part II) The New Civilization II: Rites of Love
Volume IX According to the author’s idea,
the 9th volume is being written by his readers.
Volume X Anasta
These are the Family Books, kin annals: