Читать книгу Nectar for Your Soul - Владимир Дубковский - Страница 6

How ignorance and fallacious conceptions divest humanity of the very potential for achieving happiness. The basic types of worldviews: religious, scientific, philosophical and skeptical. Why are skeptics doomed to be unhappy? What’s more important: faith, knowledge, or faith founded in knowledge? The eight conditions for curing ignorance. Why are many good books about the strength of positive thinking ineffective? Proof of the materiality of thoughts and the strength of the conscious: scientific facts and practical experiments. How knowledge and faith help to fulfill desires. Why the prayers of believers are not fulfilled and how one ought to pray in order to see results. The story of Pope John Paul II’s canonization. Russian academician Georgiy Sytin and his “miracle.” The falseness and hypocrisy of Lourdes.

A man does not suffer nearly as much from the events in his life as from his attitude towards them.

Michel de Montaigne,

French philosopher (1533—1592)

Earlier we mentioned the following observation of Roman Philosopher and Emperor Marcus Aurelius: “Take away your opinion, and there is taken away the complaint, […] Take away the complaint, […] and the harm is taken away.” This same thought was repeated one and a half thousand years later by Michel de Montaigne, whose words are used as the epigraph to this chapter. We could have incorporated dozens more similar sayings from noted thinkers throughout the ages, affirming the preeminence of our conscious over external conditions. This means that happiness, as a distinctive condition of the soul, is fully determined not by that which happens to us and around us, but exclusively by our attitudes towards those events. Thousands of books contain this Truth; though few read such books, as people are more interested in other things. We will here include one small but highly characteristic example of people’s interests today.

In June of 2010, Apple announced the impending release of the new iPhone 4 smartphone, and crowds of people formed huge lines ahead of time in front of stores. The press reported that a Justin Wagoner from Dallas had decided to await the beginning of sales in front of a store for an entire week. He set up a tent in front of the store and brought with him a week’s worth of food and drink as well as a folding chair and sleeping bag, and all this in order to become the first owner of the new smartphone. Earlier, one million units of Apple’s tablet computer the iPad were sold in a total of 22 days.

It’s impossible just to consider that even the wisest of philosophical books had similar success; in the value systems of millions of people a new smartphone and tablet computer rank significantly higher. Because of this millions of people, unsatisfied with their lives, try to struggle with circumstances rather than changing their worldview, despite the fact that it specifically is responsible for all their major problems.

We would do well to touch upon this question, despite the fact that we personally would really like to quickly move on to the presentation of interesting facts and revelation of the methods for obtaining happiness. But we well know that all “solid” facts and precise recipes will inevitably shatter upon one’s system of conceptions if it contains contradictions. For this reason, please exercise a little more patience and try to attentively follow the entire path of our reasoning; that way the facts and recipes can be properly understood and will bring maximum benefit.

And so, everything depends on one’s worldview, which consists of a system of firm views, principles, values and beliefs that define our attitude towards reality as well as our understanding of the world as a whole and of our place within it.

Under identical circumstances, one person will be happy, another not. It’s like in the famous parable about two travelers in the desert, dying of thirst. When they meet a man who offers them each a half glass of water, one cries out with joy, having seen a half-full glass, while the other is greatly upset, having paid attention only to the fact that the glass is half-empty.

Billions of people found themselves in a similar situation in 2008 when they were hit by the world economic crisis. The crisis hurt everyone, but people reacted to it very differently.

On January 6, 2009 in Germany, billionaire Adolf Merckle, one of the richest people in Europe, committed suicide by throwing himself under a train.

“The desperate situation of his companies, caused by the financial crisis, the uncertainties of the last few weeks and his powerlessness to act, broke the passionate family entrepreneur and he took his own life,” stated a press release distributed by the family of the deceased.

In Chicago, on February 23, 2009 another billionaire, Steven Good, CEO of the company Sheldon Good & Company Auctions International, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. His company auctioned off real estate.

These are just two examples from many instances of suicide by people who lost significant parts of their estates during the crisis. Others rejoiced at the fact that they hadn’t lost everything. The difference between the first and second is only in their belief systems regarding the significance of money in a person’s life and, ultimately, the meaning of life itself. If it consists of hoarding billions then of course their losses become serious grounds for suicide. And ignorance about what awaits those who commit suicide after death transforms those grounds into action.

When reality begins to contradict one’s personal belief system, a personality crisis occurs. For this reason it’s important to clarify when, how and by what a person’s belief system is formed.

This process starts with the parents. It is precisely from them that a child receives the first, incredibly important information about him or herself and about the surrounding world. These founding concepts and values take shape through childhood and for many people remain fundamental throughout their lives.

What defines a person’s religious identity? Only a few individuals make a conscious choice during adulthood; everyone else receives religion from their parents. The famous Russian researcher of beliefs and religions Victor Nyukhtilin writes in his book Melchizedek:

“Having examined the believers around us, we unfortunately see that more often than not each person’s faith is nothing more than automatic participation in the club of some faith on the basis of birth, locality or observance of tradition. Christians everywhere don’t know the meaning of their holidays, Muslims don’t know that Allah is that same God who is in one instance Jehovah and in another the Trinity, don’t know one line of the Koran and consider Christ the enemy of Islam, though Christ is considered by Islam to be one of the great prophets of Allah… Once, having asked some Buddhists from Kalmykia, the only Russian republic where the official faith is Buddhism, to explain the difference between the first and second turnings of the Wheel of Dharma, I was met with merry laughter: we didn’t become Buddhists to fill our heads with such nonsense. Well then what for? Adherence to a faith most often is defined from childhood and takes a form based on external characteristics involved in religious patriotism rather than a sense of God within oneself.

For this reason it makes sense for each person to ask him or herself, how well do I understand my faith and how do I live out my connection to God and not the inescapable traditions of my fathers, which I accept as an established part of my life and in my mind, but not in my heart. To what extent is my faith the state of being of my soul and not the national style of my life?

And on the other hand, shouldn’t at least a slight discomfort arise at the thought that if you were born, for example, just five hundred kilometers further south you would be a Muslim and not a Christian? And if faith had carried your parents just a little closer to the equator and a little further to the right, you would be a Buddhist. And if you were an atheist lost in a big city, addled by a nervous disorder, and on a straight path to the Jehovah’s Witnesses…

In practically every one of these situations, a person has no choice! He receives his religion, so to speak, along with his birth certificate… Religious denominations seem to have sort of divided the Earthly sphere into spheres of influence, and those born in one of these spheres immediately acquire a faith not of their choosing during childhood.

And the important thing is that many of those people have religion but don’t have Faith… “Inhereted” religion, unfortunately, doesn’t require Faith, but is limited to observation of rituals” [14].

During a person’s adolescence, the formation process of his or her worldview is influenced by teachers, friends, mass media, books, films… Some information is rejected immediately as it is received, some partially settles in, and a few parts take on the status of worldview. It is only natural that of the ocean of information found in the world a person receives only droplets and remains ignorant about the rest. And when questions arise during life, the answers to which lay beyond the bounds of one’s personal knowledge, a person inevitably makes mistakes.

In many families parents and children are in conflict with one another. Taking this into account, few know that there are many so-called “indigo children” among those born in the last two decades. Indigo children are unique people: their level of immunity is many times higher than normal and their IQs significantly exceed the average. In fact, this is a new race that is set apart from us by their very genetic code. Interacting with them requires special knowledge, the absence of which leads not only to conflict, but to tragedy; in the eyes of these children, wise beyond their years, who have come into the world already understanding many truths, normal adults appear stupid and undeserving of respect. And when these “stupid people” begin to “raise” and even punish their unusual children in an attempt to make them like everyone else, indigo children show aggression; there are marked incidents of these children’s violence against their “uncomprehending” parents.

On the Internet there are already dozens if not hundreds of sites that shed light on these uncommon children, in book stores there has appeared special literature which gives insights that are simply necessary for normal interaction with indigo children. But have many parents and teachers delved into this knowledge? Assuredly no. Our experience, from interaction with hundreds of people at seminars shows that the majority haven’t even heard of indigo children.

We already wrote a little about people’s sexual illiteracy. But the knowledge of sexual cycles, revealed by Dr. John Kappas, does little on its own for family happiness. One also needs a specific worldview regarding the basis of marriage. Many men live in a belief system in which a wife is three things in one: housekeeper, nanny, and sex machine. His role consists only of financial support and giving her presents on major holidays. Such men are then surprised – why did this previously sweet wife suddenly transform into a malicious Gorgon? And how many women act similarly to Mrs. Lincoln, of whom we spoke earlier?

Gloria Taylor Brown, president of the American Women of Wisdom Foundation, affirms:

“The shift in paradigm will require that men and women see each other as we really are. We will both have to step into who we are for the good of all concerned. If I want a positive relationship with a man, then it is necessary for me to see the good in him. We will have to support one another completely, both as individuals and as a couple.

We will have to honor the God and Goddess in one another. It’s what the Hindus are doing when they say, “Namaste” – I bow before the Divine in you. That is the way we must learn to see one another. We will have to learn to see the best in each other, to say, “The God in me honors the God in you.” And this means redefining our concepts of what constitutes a relationship.

There are many kinds of relationships. For many, sex is simply an animalistic urge to reproduce, but we can look beyond the body and simply have a spiritually based relationship” [15].

You’ll agree that this is a distinctive worldview, but it doesn’t simply fall from the sky; it can only be acquired by studying the corresponding books or attending seminars of such people as Gloria Brown.

Scholars define four basic types of worldview: religious, scientific, philosophical and skeptical. They’re probably right; among people you can find representatives of all these types. But we don’t plan to study them in detail; we’re more interested in knowing, what are the proportions between them? We came to the somber opinion that no less than 90% of people are skeptics.

We already showed that practically none of those people who count themselves believers know even the fundamentals of their religion. A scientific worldview is held only by scientists, and philosophical only by philosophers, who together with scientists make up an insignificantly small layer of society. There are so many skeptics that they even form their own societies and take great pride in their skepticism, considering it, to all appearances, a sign of great intelligence. They proclaim – we won’t be deceived or cheated; we aren’t gullible simpletons, easily sucked in by any old drivel.

The basic principle of skeptics’ thinking is doubt, the notion that everything which lies beyond the bounds of one’s personal experience is unreal or fallacious. More often than not, elementary ignorance is hiding behind skepticism, and skeptics, ashamed (or not ashamed), hide this with a proud denial of everything they cannot comprehend due to the limits of their knowledge. And all the skeptic’s knowledge, as we already revealed, flows from his or her personal knowledge, which is often highly insignificant – it’s all just like in one famous parable about twins.

The Parable “The Twins’ Discussion”

“Two twins held a discussion in the womb of a pregnant woman. One of them believed in the combing life, the other was a skeptic.

Second Twin: You believe in life after birth?

First Twin: Yes, of course. Everyone knows that life after birth exists. We’re here so that we can become strong enough and ready for what awaits us later on.

Second Twin: That’s stupid! There can’t be any life after birth! Can you imagine what such a life would look like?

First Twin: I don’t know all the details, but I believe that it will be brighter and that we might walk on our own and eat with our mouths.

Second Twin: What foolishness! It’s impossible to walk on one’s own and eat with your mouth! That’s just ridiculous! We have an umbilical cord that feeds us. You know, I want to tell you: there can’t exist life after birth because our life is our umbilical cord, and it’s far too short.

First Twin: I’m sure that it’s possible. Everything will simply be a little bit different. That’s conceivable.

Second Twin: But nobody’s ever returned from there! Life just ends with birth. And in general life is just one big instance of suffering in darkness.

First Twin: No, no! I don’t know exactly how our life after birth will look, but in any case, we’ll see Mom, and she’ll take care of us.

Second Twin: Mom? You believe in Mom? And where is she?

First Twin: She’s all around us, we reside in her, and thanks to her we move and live; without her, we simply can’t exist.

Second Twin: Complete foolishness! I haven’t ever seen any Mom, and as such it’s clear that she simply doesn’t exist.

First Twin: I just can’t agree with you. Sometimes, when everything quiets down, you can even hear how she sings and feel how she touches our world. I firmly believe that our real life will begin only after birth.”

The discussions in this book are about things that are just as strange for many people as life after birth for one of the twins. For this reason, the question of faith and of its formation, on which is based our specific worldview, which then affects the form of our entire lives, demands detailed examination. We’ll immediately take a moment to make a very positive note: faith and worldview can change, drastically and quickly. So the skeptics and ignorant who are mired in their prejudices do not face a fatal diagnosis. Full emancipation (in other words enlightenment) from these grievous ailments is possible for everyone who really wants it. Those who really want happiness must first cure themselves of ignorance. This is possible under the following set of circumstances:

First: strong dissatisfaction with one’s life.

We emphasize the word strong. Almost everyone experiences simple dissatisfaction, but it’s not enough to start change.

Discontent with one’s current situation must be so sharp that it at least leads to sleeplessness.

Second: admission that one’s personal experience is too insignificant to reveal the path to life change.

Third: understanding of the fact that if there are after all happy people in the world, this means that in principle it is possible to achieve happiness.

Fourth: rejection of fatalism, the feeling of resignation, the opinion that some prewritten fate rules over the will of mankind.

We are sure that the facts presented in this book completely suffice to fulfill this condition.

Fifth: agreement that people are not born happy, but become happy, and that this means there is some sort of concrete recipe (unknown to the majority of people) for achieving this condition.

Remember that there are thousands more well-known “rags to riches stories” than stories about those “born with a silver spoon.”

Sixth: understanding that if recipes for a happy life exist, then they are written down somewhere and this information can be found.

Seventh: preparedness to receive new knowledge; rid yourself of any fear of it.

Eighth: rejection of the concept that everyone around you is a self-interested cheat and put your skepticism to rest at least while reading this book.

Our experience shows that change in worldview proceeds along two paths:

First path: natural, slow change in understanding as the result of gradual reception of portions of new information. When the first portion is grasped and accepted, there comes the second, then the third… and so, step by step, a belief system is born (or transforms). This is how the typical process of education in schools and universities proceeds.

Second path: sudden, sometimes even momentary, when an entire worldview changes under the influence of a strong external factor. Among those factors, clinical death holds first place. Everyone who has survived it returns to this world a completely different person. We affirm this not only because hundreds of such cases are described in the books of world famous doctor Raymond Moody, but also on the basis of personal experience of one of the authors of this book, who has survived clinical death twice.

The other factors are often heavy trauma as in the case of the Bulgarian clairvoyant Baba Vanga, immersion in regressive hypnosis or a lightning strike. At times a book can serve as such a strike of lightning, when “the roof flies off” and opens up a whole new view of the world and oneself. Admittedly, this is an extremely rare occurrence.

Gradual change of conceptions, without lightning and clinical death, can be traced through a simple example. Consider yourself right now to be not just a reader, but a participant in an experiment on transformation of consciousness.

Let’s imagine you heard that a person can live without his or her brain. Would you immediately agree with this assertion?

If you responded “yes,” the next question is “why?” and then you would need to present arguments supporting this point of view. And if you have such arguments, it means that you received them somewhere at an earlier time: heard them, read them, saw them in a pop-science film, etc.

If you never before encountered this question, you would have two more or less likely variations of answer. The first: “I am not aware of the topic, and as such I can neither confirm nor deny this.” The second, skeptical, would sound like this: “What stupidity! That’s just impossible!”

We now propose to step by step acquaint ourselves with the following information:

• In 1336 in Germany under King Ludwig the Bavarian, at the execution of Ditz von Shaunburg, the following incident took place. Ditz, being condemned for revolt, received the king’s word that he would pardon four rank and file soldiers in the mutiny if he (Shaunburg) could (after execution) run, without his head, past these four warriors, who were placed in a row eight steps away. The king was forced to uphold his word, which he gave to the condemned man before everyone, when Ditz von Shaunburg really did run past all four lance knights who were standing eight steps away.

Please, stop for a minute and think about your attitude towards the story described. Once you’ve formed an opinion, read on:

• In the review of Dr. Robinson at the French Academy of Sciences is described an even more unique incident. An elderly man in his sixties was wounded in the Parietal lobe by the sharp end of a skewer. This led to slight bleeding. For the length of a month the wounded man seemed fine. He then began to complain of poor vision, but felt no pain. A short time later the afflicted man unexpectedly died with signs of epilepsy. Autopsy revealed that the deceased had no brain. There was preserved only a thin shell of brain matter containing a putrid decomposed substance. For almost a month the man lived with practically no brain.

Again, pause and reconsider the question: how do you react to this? If you reach the conclusion that these are merely historical anecdotes and do not convince you of anything, then there are other, more modern stories. For example, this one:

• In 1935 at Saint Vincent’s Hospital in New York a child was born lacking a brain (absence of a brain at birth is called anencephaly). Nevertheless, in spite of all medical conceptions, the child lived, ate, and cried like all newborns over the course of 27 days. Furthermore, the child’s behavior was completely normal, as affirmed by eyewitnesses, and nobody even suspected that he had no brain until the autopsy.

Getting “warmer”? Or you still don’t believe like before? Then read on:

• In 1940 Doctor Augustine Iturricha made a sensational announcement to the Anthropological Society in Sucre (Bolivia) and presented his colleagues with a dilemma that even today remains unanswered. He and Doctor Nicholas Ortiz had long studied the illness of a fourteen year old boy who was a patient at Doctor Ortiz’s clinic. The adolescent ended up there because of a diagnosis that he had a tumor in his brain. The youth was fully in command of his reason and retained consciousness until the very end, complaining only of a headache. When pathologists performed the autopsy they were amazed. The entire brain mass had been separated from the internal cavity of the braincase. A large abscess had taken hold of the cerebellum and part of the brain. The question arose, what was this child thinking with? But the riddle that Ortiz and Iturricha came across was not as mind-bending as that which the famous German brain specialist Hufeland became acquainted with. He completely reconsidered all his earlier views after the autopsy of the braincase of a man who was stricken by paralysis. The sick man retained all his mental and physical abilities until the last minute. The results of the trephination were stupefying: in place of a brain the braincase of the deceased contained a little over 300 grams of water.

• In 2002 a little girl from Holland survived an intensive operation in response to a neurological infection (the diagnosis was Rasmussen’s encephalitis). They removed the left hemisphere of her brain, where the speech center is to this day thought to be located. Today this child astounds doctors with the fact that she has mastered two languages and is studying a third. The girl talks with her sister in perfect (for her age) Dutch, and communicates with her mother in Turkish. Doctor Johannes Borgstein, observing the little Dutchwoman, says that he has already advised his students to forget all the neurophysiological theories that they are studying and will study.

If these facts are too little for you, take a look into the authoritative scientific journal Nature; issues 415—420 from 2002 contain many similarly interesting materials.

In the preceding chapter we already mentioned Nobel laureate John Carew Eccles’s statement about the mind. We’ll now add to that the opinion of the great scientist and surgeon Valentin Voyno-Yasenetsky (1877—1961), who is also known as Luka, Archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. In his book Spirit, Soul and Body he asserts that “by its very construction the brain shows that its function is the transformation of outside stimuli into a well chosen reaction… The nervous system and the brain in particular, are not the apparatus of pure conception and cognition, but simply instruments designed for action.”

But even if the brain is absent, outside signals can be received by other organs. We earlier employed the example of how the beheaded Ditz von Shaunburg ran more than 20 meters. In Voyno-Yasenetsky’s book there is another example: “If a beheaded frog’s skin is irritated, it will take appropriate action directed at removing the irritation, and if it is prolonged, the frog will turn to flight and hop just as if it were not beheaded. In the wars of ants, which have no brain, there is clearly revealed premeditation and, accordingly, rationality, which in no way differs from that of a human being”.

Having studied a large collection of materials regarding the brain, we saw that in the last two decades science has definitively admitted the fact that the brain does not think and that mental functions are located beyond its boundaries.

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus (544—483 B.C.) knew this 2,500 years ago; he said “The power of thinking is outside the body.”

Now tell us honestly, has your conception about the functions of the mind changed after reading these past four pages? We’ll honestly say that when we ourselves first encountered such facts we reacted to them with amazement bordering on aversion. Our belief system didn’t allow for the possibility of existence without a brain, even for a short time. But through the accumulation of information (of which only a small part was presented here) our views underwent a gradual change, which led to full acceptance of the fact, which is now a part of our belief system. And if someone were now to try returning us to our previous beliefs, this would prove to be impossible. We don’t simply believe in the possibility of life without a brain, we now know that this is so. Our faith regarding this specific question has received a strong foundation in light of our knowledge.

We are deeply convinced that for the modern person with an open mind only such faith, a faith founded on knowledge, has any meaning.

Only knowledge can serve as the basis of the new worldview that opens the road to a new life and to increase in one’s personal vibrations (remember that they need to be strengthened to the level of vibrations of the planet?). And only for this reason do we not simply state this or that fact which are Truths according to our conceptions, but include many arguments and proofs to support them. We well know that this complicates reading and makes it more demanding, but there is no other way if we want our book to bring readers practical benefit and not just a broadened horizon.

In our book, we will obviously be talking only about the soft, natural change of belief systems, through gradual acceptance of new, true knowledge.

There immediately arises the pointed and fully reasonable question: but where can one find true knowledge about the soul, Universe and meaning of life? And how does one separate the “wheat from the chaff” if we live in an ocean of illusions and fallacious conceptions? (Recall the multivolume Encyclopedia of Delusions that we referenced in the first chapter). How does one avoid falling from one delusion into another, no less harmful? Where is that prophet who can be trusted?

In modern times, the shelves of bookstores are literally breaking under thousands of books claiming to be “textbooks for life.” Among them there really are wise guides for changing one’s conscious, but readers’ skepticism renders them useless. Overcoming this most widespread of worldviews is undoubtedly difficult, and if an author didn’t work to include weighty enough arguments in defense of his or her views, the book will either be met with bayonets or will be indifferently laid aside after the first unsuccessful attempt at implementing it. This failure, of course, is written off by the reader as the author’s fault, not understanding that it is precisely the inadequacy of one’s own faith in the recipes presented that renders them ineffective.

The thing is that lack of faith is also a faith, but with a minus sign. For example, if a person doesn’t believe in his or her abilities, they believe that they don’t possess them. And the strength of the faith with a “plus sign” and faith with a “minus sign” are identical. As such, even the slightest distrust in information is capable of fully neutralizing it.

In 2006—2007 Australian television and radio producer Rhonda Byrne’s documentary film The Secret and her book by the same name, written about the contents of the film, received wide popularity in many countries all over the world. The film, released on DVD, and book not only became popular, they were thunderously successful and underwent millions of printings throughout the world. Time magazine included Rhonda in its 2007 list of most influential people in the world, and soon after this she was included in the Forbes rating of “The 100 Most Famous People.” The essence of The Secret can be briefly laid out:

Our thoughts are concrete and form reality around us in agreement with the Law of Attraction, according to which “like attracts like.” All that remains is to think positively and all aspects of your life – family, finances, love, health, and others – will change in the most magical of ways.

In support of this idea Rhonda Byrne conducted interviews with many dozens of people who she considered “gurus” and “experts”.

Any popular work, be it a book or film, which creates a wide resonance throughout society inevitably divides viewers or readers into two camps: ecstatic supporters and fierce opponents. Since the theme of Rhonda Byrne’s film and book is so closely intertwined with the contents of our book, we will allocate a bit of time to this work.

Before all else, we’ll immediately define our position: we fully share the fundamental idea of The Secret and consider Rhonda Byrne’s film and book absolutely correct and extremely beneficial. But we can simultaneously establish the sad fact that these works turned out to have little effect. This is explicitly proven by the surveys we conducted among thousands of students of our School, among whom The Secret was as popular as it was throughout the world. Among our students there were no opponents of The Secret; all those polled about it gave favorable responses. But to the question how did The Secret influence their lives, an absolute majority responded “no influence whatsoever.” Naturally, we weren’t satisfied with such a response and began to dig for the reason – we were already working on our book at that time and were concerned about its future effectiveness. Here is what we found:

Practically none of the respondents worked with the book The Secret. They read it, approved and placed it on the shelf. People didn’t underline phrases in the book, didn’t write them down on note cards, didn’t reread it a second time; in general, they did nothing to ensure that the ideas laid out in the book penetrated their subconscious and became part of their worldviews. And ideas that haven’t seeped into the subconscious don’t work! Only having reached the subconscious will ideas begin to create, to call up automatic reactions associated with them, as in the surrounding world (by attracting and forming events) so in an individual organism (by healing, change in figure, etc).

The second reason for the low effectiveness of The Secret lies in the fact that the majority of readers (noting that we are speaking here only of our students) didn’t unconditionally believe in the Law of Attraction and the concrete nature of thought. These ideas contradicted their previously formed material worldview and Rhonda Byrne’s proofs didn’t strike them as convincing. One system of views can only take the place of another (particularly a contradictory other) under the influence of extremely strong arguments; the new system needs to dislodge the old, to defeat it through strength of proof. But such proofs were only seldom revealed in Rhonda Byrne’s book. Regarding The Secret’s “gurus” and “experts,” people said: “These are not experts, but simply propagators of positive thinking, like Rhonda Byrne herself, and nothing more.” In reality, among those the author included as experts there were primarily psychologists, motivational and personal development trainers and “experts on achieving success”. They presented correct ideas, but didn’t reinforce them with scientific facts, proofs and experiences. A few short scientific references couldn’t influence the unconvincing situation as a whole. Meanwhile, namely scientific proofs for the materiality of thought and the Law of Attraction already sufficiently exist, and we will turn to them several times in the pages of this book.

The Secret’s weak scientific base gave an avenue for opponents to fall upon it with a hail of criticism, which extended even to rude accusations. “outlandish psychology,” “thoroughly false occult story,” “masterful phrase-mongering,” “closely tied to witchcraft and pagan movements,” “devoid of anything scientific,” “an insatiable vampire, sucking all blood from its victims” – this is far from a full list of the epithets awarded to The Secret and its author by Jean-Charles Condo and Natacha Condo-Dinucci in their book Enquête sur Le Secret. Their critical arguments are very characteristic of all skeptics, and as such we will turn to them time and time again in order to help our readers look into definitively complicated questions. As an example let’s examine just one of the many assertions of Enquête sur Le Secret’s authors:

“All modern scientific thought points to the fact that the Law of Attraction is nothing more than an imagination game. Despite The Secret’s assertions, thoughts are not magnetic waves that permeate the universe, and also, not one scientific experiment worthy of being called such has shown that mental processes can exercise direct influence on the surrounding world or the course of events” [16].

First of all, in terms of “all modern scientific thought,” research in the area of quantum physics refutes the claims of Enquête sur Le Secret’s authors and provides evidence in Rhonda Byrne’s favor. Enquête sur Le Secret itself once again affirms our thesis about the wide spread of ignorance and skeptical worldviews.

We suggest that you acquaint yourself with legitimately scientific concepts, look what conclusions modern science came to regarding the energies of the conscious and psychological strength.

The great Russian scientist and director of the Science Center of Vacuum Physics, academic Gennady Shipov asserts:

“There is currently no doubt in the existence of telepathy, levitation, clairvoyance, retrocognition or of the fact that the energy of the conscious plays a specific role in physical processes” [17].

The next statement comes from a different Russian physicist and scholar, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences A. V. Moskovsky:

“We objectively came to the conclusion that the World has at its base Consciousness as a united world starting point. In light of recent discoveries, the existence of the world, like universal Consciousness, presents itself in a variety of ways as a scientific reality. The field of Consciousness gives rise to everything, and our conscious is part of it” [18].

Telekinesis, the ability to move objects using strength of will, long ago became a subject of scientific investigation. In Russia many experiments affirming the phenomenon of telekinesis have been carried out at the Moscow State Institute of Radio Engineering, Electronics and Automation under the leadership of associate member of the Academy of the Sciences Yury Gulyaev and at the Saint Petersburg State Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics under the leadership of the institute’s rector, Professor Gennady Dulnev. All these experiments were performed according to strict scientific methodology and are the basis for director Viktor Olender’s documentary film Nine Years with Psychics (1989). In this film are established other unique phenomena: interaction with spirits of the dead, the reading of thoughts from a distance, and conversations of modern people in ancient languages. Another of Viktor Olender’s films, The Wars between Black and White Magic (1990) confirms the effect of thoughts on physical processes and received worldwide circulation and took a leading place at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. All this director’s films can be found online at RuTube and are accessible to everyone.

We admit that it would have been difficult for the authors of Enquête sur Le Secret to acquaint themselves with the results of scientific research carried out in Russia. But when they decided to debate psychological processes and the scientific experiments associated with them, they were simply obligated to take an interest in the experiments of Western scientists. Thousands such experiments have been performed in all the developed countries of the world, and thousands of reports about them have been published in the form of whole books and of articles in authoritative scientific journals. From this ocean of scientific facts we will include just a few drops of information, which are sufficient for understanding the decisively scientific viewpoint regarding the power of human thought and the possibility of interaction without contact between biological objects.

Incredibly interesting in this regard are the experiments of the famous American scientist Marcel Vogel, who did research in the field of phosphors (crystals that emit light when heated) at IBM for 27 years. While working with liquid crystals he observed the following: depending on what thoughts he projected onto still unhardened crystals, they changed shape throughout crystallization; if he thought about a tree, the crystal took the form of a tree.

For a person not acquainted with modern science, this sounds strange, but for representatives of quantum physics, it’s natural.

An important position of quantum physics, proven through experimentation, states that even if a person simply looks at something, it changes under the influence of that person’s gaze. It is factually proven that “an act of observation is, at its core, an act of creation, and actions of the conscious have creative power.”

Professor at the University of Oregon Institute for Theoretical Physics (USA) Amit Goswami asserts that “consciousness is the ground of all being, and as a result, the Universe we observe around us.” He dedicated an entire book, titled The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World to proving this point [19].

In 1967, professor of psychiatry Jule Eisenbud wrote the book The World of Ted Serios: “Thoughtographic” Studies of an Extraordinary Mind. This sensational book is about the work of forty year old Ted Serios, who showed American researchers that thought can imprint images on film. Ted formed “thoughtographs” images which consciously or unconsciously appeared on the film of a Polaroid camera. In order to do this Serios looked through a small cardboard cylinder at a field lens, concentrated, slammed his hand down and awaited the result. Sometimes he had to wait for hours. At the beginning only general outlines took shape, which gradually took on features and transformed into some sort of recognizable object: a building, like the Washington Hilton, or an image of an ancient man that exactly corresponded to a copy of a Neanderthal at the Chicago History Museum.

Other’s of Serios’s psychological photographs included things like portraits of friends and prominent figures [20].

The effect of thoughts on various objects was studied by the English scholar and physicist John B. Hasted, who published the results of his scientific work in a book by the name The Metal-Benders. Research on metals, crystals and organic substances showed that psychokinetic phenomena occur as a result of a change, prompted by psychological influence, in the atomic structure of the object being tested. Such changes as change to the form (bending and stretching), hardness and volume of the object can result.

The experiments of American biologist Cleve Backster received widespread fame in the scientific world when in 1966 he discussed the influence of the thoughts and intentions of those performing an experiment on its results. Cleve Backster experimentally established that plants absorb human thoughts and react to them.

In 2003 Cleve Backster’s book Primary Perception. Biocommunication with Plants, Living Foods, and Human Cells was printed in the United States; it is the culminating work of his almost forty years of research in the sphere of biocommunication. In the book are detailed descriptions of the many experiments that Backster performed on plants, animals and people.

To perform his experiments he used an instrument known as the “lie detector.” Connected to a plant and with the help of an automatic recording device, it recorded the plant’s reaction to external circumstances. So if an “evil” person who had broken branches and torn leaves earlier in the experiment entered the room, the plant “cried out,” inciting a turbulent spot on the recording machine. The plant immediately and unmistakably recognized the “evil” person and not only absorbed his or her thoughts, but even identified his or her character and the intention to cause harm! The plant reacted analogously to the appearance of a “good” person who had earlier watered it and spoken soothingly. In such circumstances the recording machine produced completely different oscillations, reflecting the plant’s “happiness” [21].

Undoubtedly, those readers who have plants at home or on the grounds of their homes will pick up on the truth in the results of Cleve Backster’s experiments. They know full well, without any detector, that plants which are lovingly cared for grow better than those that receive the minimal amount of attention necessary.

Once, after having discussed Cleve Backster’s experiments in lessons at our School, a letter came to us from Saint Petersburg from one of our students, Tatiana Ivanovna. Here’s what she told us:

“I have a vivid example of the materiality of thoughts.

Not long ago I bought mandarin oranges on branches with fresh leaves; they were very sweet, aromatic, and unusually tasty. I really wanted to grow a mandarin tree. I placed some wet cotton balls in a glass and placed a seed in that. I held my hand over it and requested that it grow (I had an image of the future tree in my head during this). I then put two more seeds in the cup. After several days, the seed I had willed to grow began to do so. The other two lay lifeless.

I removed the growing seed and planted it in the earth. This is where things got very interesting: I willed the other two seeds to grow (but without the images in my head). They too began to grow. I then added to the cup two new seeds that I didn’t ask anything of.

I planted the growing seeds in the ground (in environments that were in every way identical). I monitored them: the first (most wished for) seed sprouted two leaves in the third day, i.e. really fast growth. The second and third are growing very slowly (a week’s already gone by and still no leaves), and the last two lie unchanged. So there it is.

Simple as can be! It’s genius! All you need is to ask, believe and act.”

Undoubtedly many of you, dear readers, have heard of the old belief that you can determine someone’s opinion of you based on how long the flowers they give you live. If the flowers are given with love, they will live for a long time, if given with a neutral or negative attitude (given just because the situation demanded it), the flowers will quickly whither. In light of Cleve Backster’s experiments, this omen turns out to have a scientific basis: the flowers absorb and remember the thoughts of the person and react in kind. So a gifted bouquet of flowers can work as a real-life lie detector and maybe even better – mechanical instruments can still be fooled, but you can’t deceive flowers.

Backster also established that plants react if animals die nearby. For example, instruments registered a strong wave of emotion from plants if live shrimps were thrown into boiling water nearby. They reacted to the explosion of psychic energy that occurred at the moment of these sea creatures’ death.

Backster’s research was tested many times over by other scientists with the exact same results. In scientific literature there are many descriptions of experiments with snails. In one of these, performed in France, scientists took fifty snails, divided them into pairs and isolated the males from the females. They then sent all the “women” to America and the “men” remained, to be subjected to electric shocks. The result was stunning: at the exact moment that a “Parisian” received a shock, his “other half” in America twitched.

It’s also known that dogs separated from their owners are able to find them even if they are taken hundreds of miles from home. At the time of the experiments, the owners changed places of residence and the dogs returned not to the home but to the owner. This means that they caught onto and identified the waves of the owners’ minds and not the radiations of the residence. In January 1986 the newspaper Sovietskaya Rossiya reported a similar incident in America with a dog abandoned by its owner. He left New York and moved to a small town in California, almost two and a half thousand miles from his previous place of residence. The shepherd followed its owner’s trail and searched him out at the end of an eight month journey.

In Cleve Backster’s book are also described experiments regarding biocommunication between people.

Backster’s laboratory has been located in San Diego on the west coast of the United States since the ‘80s. One woman, who lived on the other coast of the US, came to visit her daughter in San Diego where she donated some white blood cells from a throat swab for experiments in Backster’s laboratory. After that the woman returned home. When Backster’s lab technicians learned that this donor’s daughter was having some slight troubles, they asked her to call her mother and relate these problems to her at the same time that the vial with the mother’s oral samples was connected to special equipment. During the daughter’s conversation with her mother the recording device noted a deviation at the exact moment when the daughter told her mother about her problems, to which the mother reacted in a worried fashion.

Backster performed similar experiments with different people of various ages. As these experiments show, the recording machine registers a deviation from the norm in the instance of mental activity in the donor which is caused by various life situations; distance was not a factor.

Cleve Backster proceeded exactly as demanded by traditional science: he performed experiments, repeating them many times under laboratory conditions, and registered the results of his experiments using mechanical instruments. And how did the scientific community react to this? Did they express admiration at the labor of a talented scientist? Did they bestow an honorary title on him? Nothing of the sort! For many long years, Cleve Backster fiercely and courageously fought with the fools of modern science, who refused to accept the discovery of biocommunication. The academic world en masse met Backster’s experiments with great skepticism and prejudice, while average people expressed their admiration for Backster’s discovery, the popularity of which rang all throughout America. Backster himself made appearances on television and radio programs, in the press, and even once gave a testimony before a commission of the US Congress. Backster everywhere staunchly defended his point of view. In the end the scientific world warmed up to these years of labor to understand biocommunication. And today nobody is surprised by discussion of the fact that in our world there exists a form of exchanging information and energy such as biocommunication.

We have so many of our own examples of biocommunication and the materiality of thoughts that just a description of them would consist of several fat tomes. But we will limit ourselves to just one story, told by one of the authors of this book.

Story of the Dagger

From 1975 to 1982 I served with departments of the naval prosecutor’s office and upon discharge from duty handed in my naval officer’s dagger. I admit that I dearly wanted to keep it in memory of my military service, but the law didn’t allow for this – the dagger was considered a deadly weapon, and average citizens were not allowed to own such things.

This story, fantastical for those who don’t know about psychic power and don’t believe in the Law of Attraction, takes place twenty years later. It begins in Moscow, where I traveled to visit a relative, Pyotr Bondar, also a retired officer, on his birthday. Among the guests were many of his comrades-in-arms, all, of course, with gifts. One of the gifts in particular attracted my attention; it was an officer’s dagger. I have to say that at this time the Soviet Union had already ceased to exist ten years ago and many of the former laws had stopped being observed. In the Moscow markets honorary decorations, medals and various military equipment was freely sold. I immediately remembered with what regret I had parted with my dagger during my youth, already so long ago, and suddenly wanted to find it again. Events were in my favor, my own birthday was in a week, and I requested a specific present – the same sort of dagger. My relative approved; I had taken away the problem of choosing a gift, which is always complex when you want to give something a person will truly appreciate rather than simply to mark an occasion.

“I’ll send it to you in a week,” Pyotr assured me. “I can’t come personally, but the dagger will surely come.”

I arrived home satisfied in Veliky Novgorod the next day, but on my birthday received from Moscow not a dagger but a telephone call with an apology.

“I was at the market yesterday, but there weren’t any sabers there,” reported Pyotr. “But you don’t need to worry, they promised me that they’ll bring one next week, so just be patient a little while.”

I felt upset; as they say, a spoon is dear when lunch is near (things are good when they come on time). Additionally, I had already gotten so used to the fact that my strongest desires were always fulfilled, that I began to think: why didn’t it materialize this time? What wasn’t done properly on my part? Maybe I didn’t desire it strongly enough? Or I allowed myself to doubt that my wish would undoubtedly come true? But I had even pounded a special decorative hook into the wall, on which to hang the dagger! In my thoughts it already hung on the wall, but the day had already given way to evening, and the dagger was not there. And if we employ sound reasoning, then we see that after the call from Moscow, the chances of receiving the desired gift weren’t just reduced, but became practically null. Only a miracle could change this situation. And that’s just what happened.

Day had already given way to evening when there was an unexpected knock at the door. I looked into the monitor of the intercom; on the doorstep stood a whole group of men and women, among whom, to my surprise, I recognized students of our School of Business. I was amazed not by the fact that students had come without invitation to wish their teacher a happy birthday – such surprises are fully acceptable and even welcome – I was struck by the appearance of these particular students in Novgorod. They were all part of the group from the Urals branch of the School! The same Urals branch that was located in Chelyabinsk, almost 1,500 miles from Veliky Novgorod!

I opened the door and let the whole team of seven people inside. They were all employees of one company, a group of managers led by the charming twenty-five year old Natalia Barasheva. She stepped forward, shielding the embarrassed students behind herself.

“Please forgive us our brash intrusion,” she said, holding out to me a small wooden case. “We just wanted to stop by for a minute and wish you a happy birthday, and then we’ll head straight to the hotel.”

I opened the case. From its crimson, velvet holder flashed the gold of a naval dagger. And not just a common officer’s saber, like the one I’d asked after in Moscow, but a real work of art! The gilded scabbard and the blade itself were decorated with fine engravings, and the hilt wrapped in fine gold wire.

“This is a copy of an admiral’s dagger from the time of Empress Catherine the Great,” Natalia hastily began to explain, even more embarrassed as a result of my amazed expression. “We thought for a long time about what to get you, and decided you might like this. They make these in Zlatoust, an old city of bladesmiths near Chelyabinsk. They retain old designs there, according to which masters make souvenir copies…”

Of course, I wouldn’t allow my unexpected guests to stay in any hotel and we sat all night around the fireplace in interesting conversation.

That’s the extent of my unusual story of how I came to possess the dagger, but no less interesting is the second side of the story, told by Natalia herself:

“When we decided to travel to Novgorod, the question of a gift immediately came up. We all racked our brains trying to find an answer to this riddle. Finally, I remembered our famous workshop and that they produce masterfully artistic works. I travelled there and was confounded by their exhibition. There was such an abundance of uncommon beauty for my eyes to run over: various goblets, cups, swords, sabers, knives, and the like. I liked everything so much that I simply couldn’t choose; this was so beautiful, and that as well… And suddenly I heard a voice inside me, which clearly and loudly said: ‘Get this dagger.’ Listening to intuition, I chose it. Did my intuition suggest the right thing?”

I then simply reassured Natalia of the correctness of her choice and began to think myself. Comparing the dates of my trip to Moscow and Natalia’s to Zlatoust, I revealed that the idea to go to the workshop for a gift came to her the day after my visit to my relative. What happened? This was in truth no miracle, but an exchange of informational energy. My thoughtform “I want a dagger for my birthday” had already been hung in the informational field. Natalia’s thoughtform “I want to get a present for my teacher’s birthday” also found its way there. The vibrations of both thoughtforms coincided ideally and attracted one another. And so the idea first came into Natalia’s head to travel to Zlatoust, and once there she distinctively heard the word “dagger.” As a result, my wish materialized on June 4, 2002.

Strong desires are always fulfilled if you wish for them properly. We’ve already revealed one of the secrets of the proper technology for fulfillment of dreams; recall what was written a few lines above: “In my thoughts it already hung on the wall.”

The prayers of the faithful also come true. The strength of prayer is very great, but it also needs to be constructed correctly. When we delved into this question, we revealed without surprise that “ignorance reigns” here as well: none of the believers we’re acquainted with knew how one needs to pray! Psychic processes are very similar to technology; if you don’t follow the specific guidelines, the result will always be failure. In the case of prayer, failure is everywhere the absence of a result.

What did our research about this topic show? People practice two forms of sending up prayers:

The first: they find a special prayer book, choose a prayer to fit the occasion, and sit before an icon and read the text.

The second: gazing at an icon (either in church or at home) they turn to God with some sort of concrete request, formulating it arbitrarily, in their own words. They ask for healing for themselves or a loved one, provision of a desire, or deliverance from something undesirable. Having completed their prayer, they return to their usual routine and wait for God to provide (heal, emancipate, etc). When God doesn’t fulfill anything, they go again to the icon and repeat the ritual. And again they wait. After many unfruitful prayers they begin to think like so: “It means I’m not worthy enough for God to hear my prayers.”

This situation reminds one very much of that which happened to the majority of readers of Rhonda Byrne’s book The Secret. People thought up a wish, imagined something related to this (as Rhonda Byrne advised) and waited. Since nothing came true, they declared it a cheap book and Rhonda Byrne’s advice – not valid.

With God it’s different; you can’t call him a cheat. As such, in the case that prayers aren’t fulfilled, people instead denigrate themselves.

But the essence of the matter is this: both in the case of unfulfilled desires according to Rhonda Byrne’s recipe, and in the case of unfulfilled prayers the technological process was violated because it was completely misunderstood.

Prayers, like desires, come to fruition only under observance of specific conditions. If these conditions are violated, there’s no chance for their fulfillment!

The difference between simple desires and desire expressed in prayer is not great, but it does exist. When a person “simply wants” something, he or she doesn’t turn to someone in person; their request is directed to impersonal space.

In prayer the exact same wish has a concrete address: a saint or the Creator Himself.

The first and most important condition is faith

When we talk about prayer, we’re talking about faith with many faces, each of which is very important. We’ll examine each of them.

The first face is faith in the Creator, in His omnipotence. Believers don’t have a problem with this part, that’s why they’re believers.

The second face is belief in the fact that every person is always within God’s field of vision; that he hears and looks after everything. Difficulties don’t arise here either. God’s status as Omniscient is firmly entrenched in the consciousness of every believer.

The third face is unconditional faith that a prayer will be fulfilled. And this is where everything’s messed up. Of the many dozens of believers that we surveyed in person, not one had that sort of unconditional faith. People believed this in principle; they admitted its possibility, but not 100%. But even 1% of doubt will break a prayer. It’s impossible to be partially pregnant. And as they say, a spoonful of tar spoils a barrel of honey.

We propose that regarding unconditional faith in the power of prayer, things aren’t just in a bad condition among the students we polled. The majority of believers throughout the world don’t possess such faith (since they received their faith along with their birth certificates, as written about earlier). If this wasn’t the case, the world would be different. Hundreds of millions of people are daily praying for the world, health, love and material well-being. And yet no sort of changes take place, whether on the planet as a whole or in the lives of those doing the praying. We need not to prove this. If a prayer finds fruition, it is instantly declared a miracle – a rare phenomenon. A vivid example of this is the story of the canonization of Roman-Catholic Pope John Paul II.

Canonization means being counted among the ranks of the saints, and usually takes place in two phases, the first of which is beatification, which means being held as one of the blessed. One of the necessary conditions for beatification is the occurrence of a certified miracle after the death of a candidate (for beatification) and in response to prayers to the deceased.

The Vatican began this process almost immediately after the death of the pontiff on April 2, 2005. According to the traditions of the Roman-Catholic Church, the question of canonization can be posited no earlier than five years after the person’s death. However, taking into consideration the merits of the deceased and the fact that even on the day of his death millions of believers (according to the testimony of journalists) were chanting “Santo subito” (“immediate sainthood”), the new Pope Benedict XVI decided to break with tradition and on May 13, 2005 announced an early start to the process of John Paul II’s canonization.

It would seem that finding the necessary miracle would present no problem: undoubtedly millions of Catholics throughout the world turned their prayers to the deceased pontiff. But no such thing occurred! With great difficulty and after half a year the Vatican found just one such desired miracle. This was the healing, unexplainable from the point of view of medical doctors, of a nun who had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The healing of this nun, whose name was kept a secret, occurred soon after she prayed for John Paul II directly following his death. In March of 2007 the secret was revealed and the happy nun came forth with the story of her healing in a press conference, becoming a sensation.

However, one miracle is too little for canonization, proof of a second miracle is also necessary. Years of searching lead to the revelation of an incident in which a resident of southern Italy was healed of throat cancer. The healing occurred thanks to the prayers of the sick man’s wife, which were directed to John Paul II. The woman asserts that her husband began to recover immediately after she saw the deceased Pope in a dream, where he promised that the woman’s husband would surely be cured.

At the same time, thousands of famous cases of miraculous healing have occurred throughout the ages and in all countries. What’s more, some of these came about after believers turned to a certain saint or directly to God and others under other circumstances in no way connected to God.

Nobody disputes the numerous healings from appeals to icons or powerful saints, which are known to all, and as such we’re not going to dwell on them. But we need to focus a bit on non-divine healings, as they hold the key to understanding many phenomena of interest to us.

In Russia, and for that matter in many other countries, the methods of healing of Doctor Georgiy Sytin have received wide fame. Sytin is currently an honored academician, a scholar with a name known around the world and the author of dozens of books printed millions of times throughout the world. If the idea got into someone’s head to declare him a saint because of the miracles he has caused, the search would present no problem whatsoever; Sytin has performed miracles (from the point of view of traditional science) daily over the course of several dozens of years. Thanks to him thousands of people have been healed of various illnesses, and grievous ones at that.

On the cover of one of his books (The Thoughts, which Create a Man’s Youth) are included the words of Soviet Pilot and Cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union V. M. Zholobov: “I have been following the achievements of doctor and academician Georgiy Nikolaevich Sytin for many years. It’s clear to me that what he is doing can’t be done by entire institutes, by all of academic science, or by all of world medicine. It’s impossible to award him any sort of scientific degrees or medals, or any sort of awards.

What he’s doing is inconceivable. Medicine can be proud if after even a hundred years it comes close to the results regularly achieved by this genius” [22].

Who is this unique doctor? And what are these inconceivable miracles he performs? As an aside, they are considered miracles only by the ignorant; Doctor Sytin himself gives a completely different explanation. This explanation will be very useful for understanding how, in principle, a person’s wishes are fulfilled, regardless of whether or not they take the form of a prayer.

Doctor Sytin’s is a unique lot in life. At the time of the Second World War, he, a young soldier, received nine wounds, the last of which was especially severe. By the age of twenty he was severely disabled and suffered from memory loss, limited movement…

From 1944 onwards, Georgiy Sytin, having taken an interest in psychology, began to create affirmations for development of volitional quality and self perfection. His first experiments were, fittingly, performed on himself. In 1957, in front of a medical commission, he was pronounced completely fit for military service!

Forty years later, after comprehensive research at the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Sytin received a report that despite a calendar age of 75, his biological age was that of a 35 year old! And all thanks to the affirmations that he actively employed all these years. At 68, he fathered a daughter, and at 70, a son. Doctor Sytin is currently 89 years old, but he’s never drawn a pension and continues to work.

The idea that thoughts influence physical reality, and as such the health of a person, naturally wasn’t understood in the Soviet Union. Furthermore, despite his impressive personal results, Sytin was arrested three times, put in prison and named an enemy of the people for their propaganda. But a half-century of harassment couldn’t break this man, who asserted that constructive thoughts are stronger than fate! They can save one from all troubles, illness and even old age, the most important thing is to correctly and positively think of oneself as a person who is talented, willful, strong and capable of anything.

“There are practically no sick patients that we can’t help,” announces Doctor Sytin, “we’ve learned how, without operations, to cure women of mastopathy, hysteromyoma, polycystic eggs and other malignant tumors; we’ve learned to cure men of prostate adenoma and impotence; we’ve also learned how to effectively cure not only victims of schizophrenia, but even of multiple sclerosis, how to quickly cure cardiac arrhythmia and other cardiovascular irregularities…”

Doctor Sytin worked out dozens of various verbal sayings, consisting of positive affirmations. Repeating them many times over, the patients committed these affirmations to their subconscious, which contains the physiological processes of an organism. And the patients recovered.

Here’s what Doctor Sytin himself has to say about this: “There’s no sort of mysticism, miracle, or charlatanism here. Everything is founded on strict science, on the teachings of Russian academician Ivan Pavlov about speech’s role as a second signaling system and its connections to a person’s subconscious, which directs the physiological processes in an organism. And if such a connection exists, then with the help of words it’s possible to exercise direct influence on the mind and through these processes restore and strengthen the functions of internal organs and activate self-regulation.”

In other words, we’re speaking of psychic energy, the possibilities and power of which Rhonda Byrne’s critiques and millions of other skeptics so fiercely deny.

Doctor Sytin’s affirmations are capable not only of healing the body, but also of strengthening the soul, faith in oneself and in one’s abilities. We’ll include short extracts from two of the affirmations:

“All my face muscles are relaxed, my whole face is smoothed out; I am completely calm; I am completely and absolutely at peace, like the mirror-smooth surface of a lake. I am, to my core, completely and absolutely at peace. All the blood-vessels in my body are completely open; my circulation is absolutely unobstructed. And my young, healthy, energetic blood flows through all the blood-vessels in my body in a quick, free-flowing stream…”

“I am capable of overcoming all difficulties and obstacles that I encounter in the course of fulfilling my work. I firmly know that if great and unforeseen difficulties arise, they will all the same be smashed by my powerful will.

My internal stability in life is ten times stronger, a hundred times stronger than all the difficulties and obstacles I might meet in the process of my work.

With each passing day I become a person who is more and more brave, evermore self-confident. With each passing day my will becomes ever stronger…” [22].

Now let’s take a look, what do the healing of a patient using Doctor Sytin’s affirmations, the recovery of the French nun, and the fulfilled wish for the naval dagger have in common?

Common to all these situations is unconditional faith in the result, plus the factor we wrote about above, that one needs to pray (desire) correctly.

We encourage you to read on but slowly and extremely attentively. In the following lines will be presented the key which opens the door to all prayers and dreams.

It turns out that when people pray or dream about something (which are at their core one and the same thing), they simultaneously and unconsciously throw up a mighty barrier on which their prayers and dreams are broken.

At first the barrier rears up between the praying person and those to whom the prayers are directed. Here I am, and somewhere there, in the sky or somewhere else, is God. That is, spatial separation takes shape.

Then the barrier is strengthened by the creation of a time interval between the current state of affairs and the desired one. Today I’m unhealthy (without money, a loved one, good work), and I pray (wish) that in the future I’ll find that thing. That is, a time separation takes shape.

While this barrier exists, praying and wishing is useless.

The key to destroying this barrier, as you’ve already come to understand, is hidden in our conscious. We specially noted that a person unconsciously constructs this barrier, which means it is possible to consciously destroy it. But this can’t be done with empty hands, we need special instruments. These are already prepared for us; they are a collection of elementary knowledge about the nature of the Universe and man.

We’ll return to the technology of correct prayers in chapter 6, but at the moment we’d like to at least note that rituals, in truth, have no meaning whatsoever for the fulfillment of prayers (or desires).

“How can this be?” you might ask. Why then do millions of believers embark on exhausting pilgrimages to far-off holy lands where miraculous healing takes place? Why do people reverently kiss holy relics, light candles, drop to their knees and engage in so many other rituals during prayer? At least some of them come true! And miraculous healing takes place in holy places time and time again!

We agree that prayers accompanied by rituals sometimes come true, and that miraculous healing does take place at holy places. But the statistics of miracles irrefutably shows the futility of rituals and pilgrimages for fulfillment of prayers (desires). Judge for yourself:

For a century and a half pilgrims from all continents have yearly flocked to the French town of Lourdes seeking miraculous cures. Lourdes became famous after a series of appearances by the Virgin Mary to a village girl named Bernadette in 1858. The Mother of God appeared to Bernadette in the vicinity of the village near a grotto from which gushed a spring. Through the girl, she directed the priests to build a chapel in this place and hold services there.

In no time at all this rundown, provincial village bloomed. Rumors about appearances of the Virgin Mary and a healing spring spread quickly and crowds of suffering people headed for Lourdes. The church authorities, seeing this interest, immediately built three churches with fifteen chapels instead of one and organized the proceedings with open arms.

In 1933 Pope Pious XI sainted Bernadette and the famous Austrian writer Franz Werfel (1890—1945) wrote an entire novel by the name Das Lied von Bernadett (The Song of Bernadette).

In Lourdes itself many hotels were built and a large airport was opened for pilgrims. According to the lowest of estimates, the yearly inflow of pilgrims and tourists to Lourdes exceeds 3.5 million people, according to different estimates, no less than 6 million.

In all the pavilions around the Grotto, from morning till night, mass is performed in various languages of the world: French, English, Spanish, German, Italian, and Dutch. Each evening there are massive, torchlight processions to the Grotto. All the pilgrims carry small candles which are decorated with paper shades. The very process of ablution in the healing spring also takes place in strict accordance with established rules.

And what is the result?

The International Medical Association of Lourdes, which attentively tracks all instances of miraculous healing, has recorded 67 such factual instances in all the history of pilgrimages to the grotto. This is against a backdrop of tens of millions of attempts at healing, undertaken by believers! In mathematical language, 0.0001% success! We’re sure that if Doctor Sytin’s affirmations “worked” with such results, nobody would know his name today.

What’s really happening at Lourdes? Why do the attempts at healing of tens of millions of true believers go without result?

It’s all, of course, in the essence and form of the proceedings in Lourdes.

The strong spirit of falseness and commerciality that reigns in the town and sanctuaries of Our Lady of Lourdes is vividly described by the noted French writer Émile Zola (1840—1902) in his novel Lourdes. Naturally, the grand shows constructed in Lourdes and the entire accompanying industry of merchandise and recreation has nothing in common with the Soul’s process of interaction with God, exclusively through which healing is possible. Those who were healed all the same are those who are able to close themselves off from the atmosphere which reigns in Lourdes and come into contact with God. They were only hindered by all these loud rituals, but deep faith and the proper mood during interaction with God turns out to be stronger than all outside interference.

How and in what one must believe, how to properly conduct oneself and pray, so that everything works out according to our desires is clearly written in ancient manuscripts, found in 1945 in Upper Egypt and from 1947 to 1956 in the caves of Qumran in the Judean Desert. These manuscripts, which have been named the “Nag Hammadi library” and the “Dead Sea Scrolls,” are published in the series “Discoveries in the Judean Desert” (DJD) and currently consist of 40 volumes, published since 1955 by the publishing house Oxford University Press.

If the ancient knowledge of these manuscripts is combined with the achievements of quantum physics, which provide their scientific explanation, it results in an extremely beneficial cocktail, which we encourage you to taste in the following chapters of this book.