34. Anomalies at Gelendzhik

Dear readers, everything I have written in these books I either 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, included 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 Anastasia. 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 Anastasia 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

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 previous 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.”1

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.

I shall now attempt, dear readers, to offer you a true account of what really happened in Gelendzhik, and I would ask you to read it calmly and understanding^

A local non-profit organisation in Gelendzhik was preparing to hold a readers’ conference on the Anastasia books. The relationship of the organisation’s board with the city council was, to put it mildly, tense. And in Book 2 I had already given a rather unflattering portrayal of the old city leadership. 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 behaviour, people now say, was very much like that of Anastasia’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 somewhat 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 Mayor, Galina Nikolaevna, 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 administrative 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 fixup the dolmens in the area, hold an annual inspirational songwriters’ festival, and a lot more besides, which it was unwilling 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 coincidence 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 become, as Anastasia said, “richer than Jerusalem or Rome”. Another rumour has it that the sphere simply struck fear in everyone.

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 office, 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 accused 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 — saying 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 identification 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 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 Anastasia spoke about.

I myself cannot see a single negative consequence. Therefore, the fruits must be judged positive.

Anastasia says about the fiery sphere that it acts completely 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 frightening people.

Besides, if one were to continue along that line, then it is possible to mystify the most mundane situations. Now people 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 printed a long article in which the author states that “an experiment is being

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 chapter “Touching Paradise”7)- And I fell asleep, as though literally 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, saying 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 disappeared altogether.

But after the publication of the articles and the rumours giving a mystic interpretation to my presentation at the conference, 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 confused, 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 responding to the critical articles in the press, to the insults and accusations of bigotry directed at me and my readers in general. 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) 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 journalists’ circles. After all, each publication paid him an honorarium 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 capitalise 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 increase. Seems a lot of people see Anastasia as an obstacle to their own pet plans.

You can bet they’ll expose themselves sooner or later. But one thing that seems pretty clear to me now is that this Siberian 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 question 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 foreign 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 is not

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. 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 I promised and then get back to business. And I never hid my intentions 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 publications 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 entitled The soul of Russia sings in Anastasia’s rayT Again, I didn’t

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 sincere, 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 going 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 critics, but in the meantime I’ll simply say this to them:

“To my critics, I bid you farewell. I’m going off with Anastasia — 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

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’ poems 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. 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 producing a better sound than that of the singing of the human soul ”

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.

Vladimir Megre

To be continued...

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