In Search of the Miraculous
“…in relation to organic life the moon is a huge electromagnet. If the action of the electromagnet were suddenly to stop, organic life would crumble to nothing.
“…Man…cannot, in the ordinary conditions of life, tear himself free from the moon. All his…actions are controlled by the moon. If he kills another man, the moon does it; if he sacrifices himself for others, the moon does that also. All evil deeds, all crimes, all self-sacrificing actions, all heroic exploits, as well as all the actions of ordinary everyday life, are controlled by the moon. —Chapter 5
All and Everything
“Saint Venoma formulated…(The Law of Falling) as follows:
“‘Everything existing in the world “falls to the bottom.” The “bottom” for any part of the Universe is its nearest “stability,” and…is the point toward which all the lines of force from all directions converge.
“‘The centers of all the suns and planets of our Universe are precisely such points of stability. They are the lowest points…toward which forces from all directions of the given part of the Universe inexorably tend, and where they concentrate. Each of these points is also a center of gravity that enables suns and planets to maintain their proper places.’
“Saint Venoma stated further that when an object…is dropped into space, it tends to fall on one or another sun or planet… being for the given region the stability, or bottom.
“Starting from this, Saint Venoma…reasoned… ‘If this is so, could not this cosmic property be utilized for the locomotion we need between the spaces in the Universe?’ And from then on he worked along that line.
“His further saintly labors showed that…the law of falling alone could not be employed fully to achieve this purpose, for the simple reason that the atmospheres surrounding most of the cosmic concentrations would hinder the direct falling of the object dropped in space.
“Having established this, Saint Venoma turned his whole attention to finding some means of overcoming the atmospheric resistance to ships constructed on the principle of falling…
“It cannot be gainsaid that the ships constructed on this principle were ideal in atmosphereless spaces… yet when they approached some sun or planet it became real torture for the beings directing them, as much complicated maneuvering was necessary because of this same law of falling.
“For as soon as a ship came into the atmospheric medium of some sun or planet that it had to pass…great care and considerable knowledge were needed to keep the ship from falling off its course.
“The ships of this system of Saint Venoma had been in existence for twenty-three years when it was first rumored…the Great Angel Hariton had invented a new type of ship for intersystem and interplanetary communication.” —Chapter 4
“…The new system was unanimously acknowledged to be the best, and…gradually (superseded) all previous systems.
“…It is not very complicated.
“The whole of this great invention consists of a single ‘cylinder’…
“…in spaces where there is no resistance…ships like ours simply fall toward the nearest stability, but where there are…cosmic substances that offer resistance, it is these… no matter what their density, that are acted upon by the cylinder, and enable the ship to move in any desired direction.
“It is interesting to note that the denser the substance in any given part of the Universe, the better the charging and discharging of the cylinder-barrel proceed, and…of course, the rate of movement…is accelerated… —Chapter 5
View From the Real World
…From the most ancient times people knew how to use and control these laws of Nature. This directing of mechanical laws by man is magic, and includes not only transformation of substances in the desired direction, but also resistance or opposition to certain mechanical influences based on the same laws. —Essentuki, 1918
In Search of the Miraculous
“Man lives in life…under two kinds of influences…governed by accident.
“The first kind are influences created in life itself, or by life itself. Influences of race, nation, country, climate, family, education, society, profession, manners and customs, wealth, poverty, current ideas, and so on. The second kind are influences created outside this life, influences… created under different laws, although also on the earth. These influences… created consciously by conscious men for a definite purpose… are usually embodied in the form of religious systems and teachings, philosophical doctrines, works of art, and so on…
“The results of the influences whose source lies outside life collect together within him, he remembers them together, feels them together. They begin to form within him a certain whole… (A)fter a certain time they form within him a kind of magnetic center, which begins to attract to itself kindred influences, and in this manner it grows. If the magnetic center receives sufficient nourishment, and if there is no strong resistance on the part of the other sides of a man’s personality… the magnetic center begins to influence a man’s orientation, obliging him…even to move in a certain direction… —Chapter 10
The Reality of Being
Our attention has no center of gravity. It is not magnetized by a force that has some authority, some power over it, and continues to run wherever it is called… I am unable to be more collected in myself, more inside, and at the same time to be more outside… The inner reality is the source of my life, but I have also an absolute need to project myself outside. If I can see this inner reality as acting like a magnet, I will see the outside as an opposing attraction, another magnet. Then maybe I will understand what attention means. It is an energy that connects me both with the source and with the outside world, and permits me to receive knowledge, that is, to know. —45. To “know myself”