Book 5. Who are we? (2001)
2. Take a taste of the Universe
4. Harbingers of a new civilisation
9. Good shall prevail on the Earth
11. Science and pseudo-science
12. Do we have freedom of thought?
13. Equestrienne from the future
16. Open letter to the President
19. Who controls coincidences?
Attempt at deconditioning
Occasionally in the morning I would feel 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. Remembering Anastasia, I tried not to think of bad things, but of the good she had managed to accomplish. I tried to convince 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 trying 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 saying 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 Anastasia 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 carrying on with business any more, eh?”
“That’s right.”
‘And you tried to organise a commonwealth of entrepreneurs with purer thoughts, like she suggested?... So, are you writing your next book?”
“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 earlier, 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 sanatorium2 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 thinking about —”
“Stop! I completely agree with you. Her words are having 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 any more.”
“What makes you think that?”
“It’s simple. You’re an entrepreneur who even back in the early days ofperestroika was able to build up major commercial enterprises from scratch — even without any starting capital. You were the President of the Association of Siberian Entrepreneurs. 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!”
“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 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, all 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 influencing 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.”
“How did she do that?”
“She took a stick and outlined the letters of the alphabet on the ground. 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 ways of arranging them.’”
“So that’s it? All you have to do is arrange those 33 little letters 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 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 technocratic 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. Tou 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 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 talented 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.”
“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.
Pay attention!