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• 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.