Nectar for Your Soul

When researching the theme of “suffering” the thought arises that our entire planet is a stronghold of evil and unhappiness, and that in their lives on Earth people are consigned to suffer from the start. Just such a point of view received wide acceptance during the fifth century, when St. Augustine (354—430) put forth the idea of the “original sin,” committed by Adam and Eve in paradise. In the “Epistle from the Patriarchs of the Eastern-Catholic Church on the Orthodox Faith,” (1723) the Christian Patriarchs stated “It is our belief, that the first man created by God fell from grace when, having heeded the treacherous advice of the serpent, he broke God’s commandment, and that from this the original sin flowed out into all man’s descendents, so that not one person, born into flesh, would be free from that burden and all would feel the consequences of the fall in their earthly lives… For their infraction, God’s justice has sentenced mankind to toil, sorrow, infirmity, birth defects, a grievous life on earth, wandering, and ultimately, death” [6].

And so, according to the Christian version, Adam and Eve are responsible for all the troubles of mankind, who’s crime consisted of the fact that they, tempted by the cunning Serpent, ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, a deed strictly forbidden by God. The Creator was swift in His reprisal, and sent the unheeding people out into the Earth, to toil in sorrow by the sweat of their brow. Eve, who was primarily to blame for their exile, was additionally sentenced to the “pain of childbirth” and to forever be under her husband’s control. And finally, God cursed the very Earth into which He was sending the sinners (Gen. 3:16—19).

The holy fathers were consistent in their negative attitude towards knowledge. In the course of many centuries not only progressive scholars were burned on the fires of the Inquisition, but books as well, which contained forbidden knowledge. It is well known that in 1562, Diego de Landa Calderón (1524—1579), a Spanish monk who was sent to the Americas in order to convert the Indians to Christianity, gathered together and burned massive quantities of Mayan manuscripts. For this and other “feats” he was elevated to the order of Bishop, whilst the priceless knowledge of Mayan culture was forever lost to humanity, which is now racking its brains in an attempt to understand the Mayan prophecy about the Great Transition of December 21, 2012.

By announcing that the eating of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge is the reason for all suffering, both for those who ate of the fruit and for all their descendents, Saint Augustine and his followers turned the problem on its head, and they themselves, not God, doomed millions of people to suffering. Under the idea of original sin there is nothing left but to suffer or to hang oneself (shoot oneself, poison oneself, etc). What more can one do who has been sentenced by God (!) to live a life of sorrow on an Earth cursed by God (!)?

In reality, the state of things is exactly the opposite; the reason for all suffering is ignorance, and the accumulation of knowledge is the natural mode of deliverance from these things (ignorance and suffering); the renowned Greek philosopher Socrates (469 – 399 B.C.) spoke of this one thousand years before Saint Augustine was even born. It was precisely ignorance that Socrates viewed as the reason for all the afflictions and suffering of mankind. “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance,” affirmed the great thinker. Socrates, as is known, was recognized by the Oracle at Delphi as the wisest man of his time. Later, millions of people throughout the world would agree with the orcale. And so this wise man left us with a precise diagnosis of the problems (ignorance) and a working recipe for ridding ourselves of them (knowledge). Socrates’ logic is irrefutable, as ignorance is simply the absence of knowledge, a lack of education. There is no reason to find something offensive in this word, ignorance; it is not stupidity, but an unknowing individual, unaware of the answers to certain questions, and nothing more.

The truth of Socrates’ words has been confirmed by history, since there are actually happy people on the Earth! The very fact of their existence decisively proves the fallaciousness of conceptions about original sin and the need for all people to eternally pay for that sin. Happiness, as has been shown, can only be achieved by those people who have managed to comprehend the meaning of life and their destinies (i.e. who have gained knowledge of their destinies), and by those who have the capacity to realize that destiny (who have discovered how to do this). This is attested to by several years of research such as our own and such as that of world renowned American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908—1970) [7], along with many other scholars.

Socrates presented the complete ignorance of his contemporaries in terms of questions about human nature, the soul and the meaning of life; in precisely those questions which open up the road from suffering to happiness.

We’ll now take a look at what changed regarding this in the twenty-five hundred years that have elapsed since Socrates’ death. Has mankind managed to overcome global ignorance? How much more knowledgeable are we, the people of the twenty-first century, than Socrates’ contemporaries? Or are we just as ignorant as our ancestors?

According to scholars, it took from the start of the Common Era until 1750 for the scope of human knowledge to double. Knowledge had doubled again by 1900 and a third time by 1950. In the ‘70s, human knowledge doubled within the span of ten years, in the ‘80s within five, and by the end of the ‘90s human knowledge was being doubled practically once a year.

The amount of information, particularly digital, is growing even quicker. If, at the current rate, the information created by mankind in a year were to be converted to book format, it would comprise twelve stacks of books, each one reaching from the Earth to the Sun (93 million miles).

The growth of knowledge is particularly evident in technological development. The modern cell phone contains a microprocessor which has more processing power than all the processors which were on the Apollo spacecraft during its flight to the Moon in 1969!

Thousands of colleges and universities are dedicated to the training and education of people all around the world. In the U.S. alone, 260 billion dollars are dedicated to education and science each year.

And so, from the scope, i.e. the amount of knowledge alone, it would seem that we have surpassed Socrates’ contemporaries hundreds if not thousands of times.

But the question is this: what is this knowledge about? What, for example, does the owner of a new cell phone know about his own conscious and subconscious? What does a designer of modern, flashy cars know about his soul, about the meaning of life, or even about the sexual cycles of his wife? What, for example, does the president of a bank or a mighty industrial corporation know about his destiny in life? What about the average citizen, with or without a diploma from a renowned university? What do they know, for example, of the Akashic Records and the experiences of the Monroe Institute in researching the World of Souls? What do people know about the achievements of quantum physics in the realm of human consciousness and the material of our thoughts, of the cycles in development of human civilization and about the real reasons for climate change?

We maintain that 90% of all people don’t know the answers to these questions and don’t even think about them. We were brought to this conclusion by the results of our own research, which we have been carrying on now for more than ten years among our pupils, the number of whom at this point exceeds 50,000 people. Where have we found all these students?

In 1999 we, the authors of this book, founded the “School of Business” in Russia for training managers of direct sales companies in successful methods of carrying out their duties. There are more than two hundred such companies in Russia, and the question of professional training for their managers was and is to this day a very pressing issue.

Our great and continually successful experience in this field turned out to be in high demand, and the School soon transformed into an international one, opening branches in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Kazakhstan. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of people regularly gather for seminars at our school, and in almost every class we carry out surveys that include many questions which shed light on the level of people’s knowledge, their needs and their interests.

Our pupils represent a perfect sample of the middle class in each of these countries. Among managers there are people from every age group (from 20 to 60 years of age) the majority of whom possess college diplomas, that is, people we are accustomed to calling educated. But only individuals among them possess knowledge of the questions enumerated above.

Official information, acquired as the result of sociological research in various countries, attests to the majority of people’s low level of education, particularly as regards questions that are common to high school and college programs.

In Russia, for example, 40% of the adult population doesn’t read books at all, and those who do read are generally satisfied with detective novels and harlequin romances.

The English, looking into the education level of their own population, stated with both shock and concern that some children (from the ages of 8 to 15) sincerely think eggs are laid not by chickens, but by cows. English adults are also not distinguished by their knowledge. According to statistics from the British Ministry of Education, around 16 million members of the adult, working population of England “don’t measure up” to grade school education standards (the level of knowledge possessed by an eleven-year-old schoolchild).

In the U.S., 60% of adults questioned responded that Homer is the main character of the TV show The Simpsons and only 20.5% knew that he is in fact an ancient Greek poet, author of The Iliad and The Odyssey.

Scholars at the University of Michigan conducted research and came to the conclusion that only 28% of Americans, 14% of Europeans, and 5% of Japanese can be considered “scientifically literate.” Under their system, in order to fall into the category of “scientifically educated” a person needed to understand, for example, what is a molecule, a neuron, a nanometer, DNA, and other such “complex topics.” According to their research, 70% of people living in the United States are unable to understand even an article published in the “Science” section of The New York Times. Remember that this is not a scientific journal, but a newspaper, intended for the general population, where all materials are prepared with the mindset that they will be read not by scholars, but the simplest of U.S. citizens.

The results of all research clearly point to the fact that the majority of people in the world possess a very low level of general knowledge. The level of knowledge about the soul and the meaning of life is entirely negligible.

We earlier mentioned the sad statistics about divorce, which draw a gloomy picture of family life for the majority of wedded couples. As it turns out, people’s ignorance is primarily to blame for this, an ignorance based in lack of knowledge about elementary issues in the sphere of sexual relations. Dale Carnegie’s abovementioned book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, presents convincing arguments which support this point of view:

“Dr. Paul Popenoe, as head of the Institute of Family Relations in Los Angeles, has reviewed thousands of marriages and he is one of America’s foremost authorities on home life. According to Dr. Popenoe, failure in marriage is usually due to four causes. He lists them in this order:

1. Sexual maladjustment.

2. Difference of opinion as to the way of spending leisure time.

3. Financial difficulties.

4. Mental, physical, or emotional abnormalities.

Notice that sex comes first; and that, strangely enough, money difficulties come only third on the list.

All authorities on divorce agree upon the absolute necessity for sexual compatibility. For example, a few years ago Judge Hoffman of the Domestic Relations Court of Cincinnati – a man who has listened to thousands of domestic tragedies – announced: “Nine out of ten divorces are caused by sexual troubles.

“Sex,” says another specialist, Dr Butterfield, “is but one of the many satisfactions in married life, but unless this relationship is right, nothing else can be right.

“Sentimental reticence must be replaced by an ability to discuss objectively and with detachment attitudes and practices of married life. There is no way in which this ability can be better acquired than through a book of sound learning and good taste.”

One of the authors of this book, Valeria, worked for twelve years (1980—1992) as Head of a Section of the Civil Registry Office in Leningrad (modern day Saint Petersburg). During this period tens of thousands of couples came through her office registering important events in their lives: marriages, births and divorces. Here is Valeria’s personal opinion on the matter:

“The majority of marriages that I registered occurred because of love. Because of this, almost all these young people sincerely believed that this feeling alone was enough to create a strong marital union. If this was combined with good living conditions then perspectives truly seemed bright. But most of these people didn’t have the slightest idea about the rules of family life. Their comprehension of the sexual side of married life came exclusively from practice; they didn’t even suspect the existence of special books on this topic. And very often, as a rule within the third year, they showed up in front of me again to file for divorce. I know with surety that the underlying reason for this sad end was sexual maladjustment, ignorance of their partners in the realm of sexual relations.”

In the meantime, a precise and simple recipe for harmonization of sexual relations was revealed around the middle of the ‘50s. But none of our acquaintances and students had even heard of it. Having learned of this knowledge gap, we immediately included the topic “Methods for the Mastering of Sexual Energy” in our School’s program, along with a detailed study of the aforementioned formula. Just one month after this, we received a message that several dozen married couples (!) had drastically improved their relationships. Some even reported a return to the sort of relationship that was characteristic during their honeymoons! And all they needed to do was attend a three-hour long class! Incidentally, all these sexually-harmonized people’s successes in business also took a sharp turn upward. We promise to return to the formula for harmonious sex in chapter 9, where we will examine many practical recipes for improving one’s life.

And so we see that there are more than enough reasons for human suffering. Great minds have exhausted themselves thinking on this question throughout the history of mankind. And simple people have, in the meantime, always searched out their own, common methods for relieving stress. Sociologists have revealed which “stress medicines” are used by modern people:

– Television – 46%

– Music – 43%

– Alcohol – 19%

– Food – 16%

– Medication – 15%

– Sports – 12%

– Sex – 9%

– Yoga, meditation – 2%

These numbers add up to more than 100%. This means that some of the participants in these surveys chose not one, but two or more answers, for example, drinking generous amounts of alcohol and going to a rock concert. The end result of this sort of “medication” we already know from the World Health Organization’s reports on the turbulent rise of stress, psychological disease and suicide.

But along with ignorance, that is a lack of knowledge, a large part of humanity possesses deep misconceptions regarding many of the processes and phenomena in our lives; they live in a system of false conceptions, i.e. are possessed of false knowledge. Modern society is rife with myths and misconceptions. There are so many of them, that just a short description of them took up five volumes, The Encyclopedia of Delusions, released by the Russian publishing house EKSMO in 2004 [8]. In the West a similar book was written by famous author Steven Fry, titled The Book of General Ignorance.

“Many facts that we consider irrefutable are actually downright fabrications, and much of our knowledge is erroneous. We live in a world of universal ignorance and general misunderstanding, but we’re too ashamed to admit it,” asserts the author of this book, and we could’t agree more [9].

However, we must make an important note: far from all ignorance is dangerous, and not all misconceptions lead to tragedy for people. Could our lack of knowledge about the inventor of rubber boots or the myth that the color red will enrage a bull actually affect our happiness? In truth bulls are colorblind. These things fall within the category of benign misconceptions and harmless ignorance.

But then there are other questions. Ignorance or fallacious conceptions about such questions rules out even the possibility of finding happiness. These questions are precisely those that we have come to regard as the eternal questions of mankind:

• Who are we, a product of evolution or God’s creations?

• Where did we come from when we entered the world, and where do we go after death?

• Do people have souls, and are they eternal?

• Is there a life “beyond the grave”? Does that life include a Heaven and a Hell?

• What is the meaning of life? Does each person have a specific destiny, and if so, how do we find out about it?

• Is there such a thing as Fate, and who decides it? Can a person change his/her fate, or is their entire life predetermined?

• Why is the world made to include so much unhappiness and suffering?

• Are souls reincarnated in a new body after death, or do we only live once?

• Do people have guardian angels and how can one make contact with them?

• What is the meaning of our dreams? Do they have some sort of logic or are they simply the expression of our deep-seated wishes and fears?

• Do each of us have a “soul mate” somewhere in the world, and how do we search them out?

It is ignorance about these questions that bring down sorrow upon a person both here and in the afterlife, regardless of whether or not someone believes in life after death. When people do not know the answer to these questions, or when they possess false conceptions regarding them, it is only possible, at best, for them to find physical pleasure and short-lived happiness during their time on Earth.

We assert that happiness is a state of the soul, which is attained through the implementation of the program for its (the soul’s) fulfillment. Only in such a case will one’s “soul sing for joy.” It is precisely the soul, and not the body, which is able to sing from bliss (which is not the same as true happiness) as a result of this or that earthly achievement or physical pleasure. But is it possible to realize your plan if you do not even suspect its existence? Or if you guess its existence, but cannot imagine what it might contain? Of course not. This is why for ignorant people happiness remains an unachievable dream.

One of the most destructive ideas that stems from ignorance is the opinion that people are created for complete happiness. This theory is the opposite of the “original sin” point of view, but no less dangerous. And it is a theory which has a large number of proponents, among them many respected figures.

There is a widely known saying from Leo Tolstoy’s classic of world literature which says that “man must be happy.”

In Russia there’s another popular saying, also attributable to a former author, Vladimir Korolenko (1853—1921): “Human beings are created for happiness as birds are created for flight.” This author and his works have long been forgotten by the general public, but this phrase took flight and is loved by all.

Konstantin Ushinsky (1824—1871), the founding father of Russian scientific pedagogy, also threw in his ten cents in support of this view of man’s fate: “The right to happiness is an inalienable right of all people.” As the highest authority on pedagogy in all of Russia, Ushinksy’s assertion made its way into all school programs in not only Tsarist but in Soviet Russia as well. And again people saw in this idea what they wanted to see: if a person has a right to happiness, then someone else (but not ourselves) has the responsibility of ensuring that happiness.

This deep misconception with respect to the meaning of life has taken root not only in Russian minds; long ago it spread throughout the entire world. It was developed rapidly during the third century B.C. by the great ancient Greek thinker Epicurus (342—241 B.C.), who not only played a major role in the philosophy of antiquity, but who also exercised significant influence on the worldview of millions of people in the following generations.

Epicurus stated that “for us pleasure is the beginning and end of a happy life.” That satisfaction of material needs will remove suffering and lead to happiness is the core of his philosophy, which quickly and easily took root in the soil of Greece and subsequently succeeded in spreading throughout the world.

The noted French writer and philosopher of the Renaissance Michel de Montaigne (1533—1592) proposed that man exists not to create ethical ideas for himself to strive to attain, but rather to be happy. To be fair, in his book Les Essais he does note that “our good or ill has no other dependence but on ourselves.”

“Man is placed on the earth not to become rich, but to become happy.” So thought the distinguished French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), who has greatly influenced the belief systems of millions of people not only in France but throughout the entire world. This is the same Flaubert, by the way, who wrote in his Memoirs (1853): “Everything seems loathsome to me. I would hang myself with joy, only pride prevents me…” But few are acquainted with this side of his work, and Flaubert’s depression, by the way, had its roots precisely in his false conceptions about the meaning of life and the absence of any concept of harmony in the Universe.

The Indian philosopher Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1914 – 2008) also enabled the wide spread of this illusion about people’s destinies.

In 1957, having undergone training in India, Maharishi created the worldwide Spiritual Regeneration Movement, and in 1958 began missionary work first in America and then in Europe. By the start of the twenty-first century, his Meditation Centers had spread throughout the world and his followers exceeded five million people.

What was the philosophy introduced by Maharishi to the Western World?

“Life is Bliss. Man is born to enjoy the grace of God. Just float in a stream of bliss and nature and this stream will take care of everything else.”

Of course, how could millions of suffering people not like such a philosophy? All that remained was to find this “stream of bliss,” immerse your head in it, and forget all about your troubles and sorrows, along with all your plans and responsibilities. The stream will take care of the rest.

Intentionally or unintentionally, Maharishi’s philosophy engendered the rise of the hippy movement, which took hold of the West during the 1960s. Hippies protested against traditional culture, called for peace and unity with nature, grew out their hair and wore ragged clothes, listened to rock-n-roll, smoked marijuana and engaged in meditation, sex, Zen Buddhism, and Taoism. Of course, they didn’t work anywhere and lived “in the stream of bliss and nature,” exactly as Maharishi suggested. But the word hippy only superficially resembles the word happy, and so the hippy movement, having exhausted itself, had already come to nothing by the 1970s; but the philosophy of bliss remained. And so, today 200 million drug addicts (according to the UN) are searching for the oblivion of “the stream,” which is carrying away not only happiness, but their very lives as well.

Over the loud choir of preachers suggesting the possibility of a Paradise on Earth it is almost impossible to hear the voice of German dramatist and philosopher Gotthold Lessing (1729—1781) coming to us from the depths of the eighteenth century:

“The primary reason for our dissatisfaction with life is the unfounded assumption that we have a right to complete and undisturbed happiness; that we are born for such happiness.”

Please read these words one more time: “…the unfounded assumption…” Where did Tolstoy, Ushinsky, Flaubert and other great minds draw their assumptions from, or, more precisely, assertions? Most likely from a great desire to be happy. Just as every man wishes to be happy, so that it was so easy for the sayings of these authoritative figures to pass on to their children and grandchildren… As a result millions of people in the world are absolutely sure that they are born to be happy. And because of this, they are in truth born bound for a completely different end: a collision of their false belief system with harsh reality, leading to stress, which is soon followed by depression and suffering. This is the source of Flaubert’s depression, of Gogol’s sad thoughts, and of the suffering of millions of people throughout the world.

So much suffering is produced by this one illusion! And so many more harmful misconceptions are firmly entrenched in people’s consciousness!

We are fully united in the conviction that it is not the harsh conditions of life that are themselves the reason for suffering, but our conceptions about what is good and bad for us and about how the world ought to be. This thought was clearly expressed two thousand years ago by the great Roman Emperor and no less great philosopher Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180). As he departed this life, he left to posterity not only a prospering and well-defended Rome, but also an entire collection of wise thoughts, which later formed a book by the title The Meditations. Here is an example taken from among them:

“Take away your opinion, and there is taken away the complaint, […] Take away the complaint, […] and the harm is taken away” [10].

And so, everything depends on our thoughts, on our attitudes towards the people, subjects and phenomena that surround us. It is precisely our thoughts, values and convictions, i.e. our worldview, rather than material conditions, that defines the quality of our life.

Another German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860), was among those who share the sensible beliefs of Gotthold Lessing. He writes:

“There is one misconception at the root of all problems – it is the belief that we are born to be happy.”

But Shopenhauer’s words went unheard; as a rule people only hear what they want to hear.

For this reason the ideas of their countryman Friedrich Nietzsche (1844—1900) received wide acceptance throughout the world. Among his ideas is the concept of suicide as an escape from difficult situations. He claims, that if happiness does not show its smiling face, we can quietly part with life, ridding ourselves of all stress and suffering in a single stroke:

“My death, praise I unto you, the voluntary death, which cometh unto me because I want it.”

The idea of suicide so attracted Nietzsche that he actually poeticized it:

“…Do I go out like a candle, which is not blown out by the wind, but palls, having spent itself; a burnt-out candle? Or in the end, do I blow myself out, so as not to burn low?”

Could even the great Nietzsche write in ignorance? And why not? Who added him to the list of great philosophers? This is unclear, but what is well known is that Nietzsche spent the last twenty years of his life suffering heavily from physical and psychological ailments. It was in precisely this period that he wrote his great philosophical works. What else can we expect from a man sick in both mind and body but hymns to death’s sweet deliverance? That deliverance, by the way, finally came to the philosopher in a psychiatric ward.

We have already noted the results of our own research regarding “spiritual questions” among our students. Their level of knowledge was nothing to scoff at. Now let’s take a look on the world level; what do people believe in and what do they know of the global questions regarding their existence? Let us begin our review in the Unites States, the country with the greatest number of universities scientific institutions and the greatest amount of financial investment in education. However, as it turns out, all these universities and investments are ineffective at enlightening people about the global questions of their existence. An analytical report from Gallup International paints a striking picture of American ignorance regarding what goes on beyond the boundaries of traditional science. The following results were received by Gallup as the result of phone interviews with 1,002 people over the age of 18 during June of 2005:

59% do not believe in extrasensory abilities;

68% do not believe in ghosts;

69% do not believe in telepathy;

74% do not believe it is possible to look into the future or the past;

79% don’t believe it is possible to contact the souls of the dead;

80% do not believe that souls are reborn into new bodies after death (reincarnation).

Only 1% of Americans simultaneously believe in all the above phenomena, and 27% do not even believe in one of them! And this despite the fact that all these phenomena are confirmed and proven by thousands of experiences and experiments and are written about in hundreds of books! But, as it turns out, people prefer comics, detective novels and trashy novels to such books.

Research into such questions in Western Europe and in Russia yielded similar results.