Nectar for Your Soul

“Unplanned” or “unlucky” marriages don’t exist, and in the pages of this book it will be revealed how any marriage can be transformed into a happy or, at the very least, peaceful and comfortable marriage. But don’t rush to thumb through the pages in search of this information; our recipes work only if you study the contents of each chapter attentively and in their proper order.

Familial disarray is not the only reason for suffering. People suffer from injustice and the knowledge of their inability to combat that injustice, from fear of impending old age and from poverty, from pain after the loss of loved ones, from creative failure, and from loneliness and disease…

While researching the boundless theme of “Human Suffering,” we found deeply unhappy people in all historical eras and in all circles of society. Torturous suffering affects not only average people, but also kings, presidents of countries and corporations, top models, and the stars of Hollywood and show business.

The dream of many young women to be a supermodel seems appealing on the glossy covers of magazines. But the famous German beauty Claudia Schiffer revealed what goes on “behind the covers” in her interview for the magazine Fivetonine: “Top-models are going extinct like mammoths, their lives are completely thrown into disarray, they turn to alcohol, debauchery and narcotics” [4].

It also turns out that almost all famous artists and wealthy people are unhappy.

Nikolai Gogol (1809—1852), the famous Russian prose writer and dramatist, wrote in a letter to his friend: “Hanging or drowning appear to me as medicine or relief.”

Lev Tolstoy (1828—1910), the great Russian writer, author of novels known around the world such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina, admitted in a letter in 1878:

“I am hiding the rope in order to stop me from hanging myself from the rafters in my room at night when I’m alone. I don’t go hunting anymore, so as to avoid the temptation to shoot myself. It seems to me that my life has been a stupid farce.”

Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), a French writer, complained in his journal: “Everything seems loathsome to me. I would hang myself with joy, but only pride prevents me…” [5].

Flaubert kept himself from suicide, but many of his famed peers were unable to do the same.

In the eyes of many readers the great American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899—1961) resembled the hero of his well-known story “The Old Man and the Sea,” whose slogan was “Do not surrender under any circumstances!” He was a Nobel laureate, succesful fisherman, first-class hunter, frequenter of pubs – in general, a real man: smart, strong and warmhearted. But this was all merely a mask, behind which hid a deeply suffering soul.

Hemingway repeatedly attempted to kill himself. Even on the way to the clinic, where he planned to get help for his depression, Hemingway tried to throw himself from an airplane, and then on the ground, after landing he tried to kill himself on the blades of a spinning propeller. Having returned home after treatment, Hemingway all the same went through with what he had earlier attempted and ended up shooting himself with his favorite rifle on July 2, 1961.

The writer’s granddaughter, the beautiful Margaux, was at one time the highest paid model in America and then a successful actress; but she too could not escape depression, fell into alcoholism and marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of her grandfather’s death in a most peculiar way, by ending her own life.

The tragic story of Hemingway immediately calls to mind the tragedy of another great American author, Jack London (1876—1916), who killed himself as the result of prolonged depression, exacerbated by alcoholism.

London also extolled the will to live; the heroes of his novels and stories, who were able to overcome any difficulty, became images of strength and masculinity for generations of readers around the world. At first the author himself resembled his heroes, enduring many hardships and blows of fate. On the surface he always appeared as a cheerful, energetic, strong-willed man and displayed unbelievable work ethic; in the course of fifteen years, he wrote so much that the full collection of his works constituted forty volumes!

But he too lived behind a mask his entire life, even suffering from depression in his youth.

Since childhood Jack had been subject to bouts of depression, but none of his many friends and comrades knew of this. He was always filled with barely contained energy and life, smiling and supporting others even in the most difficult moments of his life. At the age of 37, London became the highest paid author in the world and owner of an enormous tract of land, on which were planted 140,000 eucalyptus trees.

The great author was well acquainted with the many sides of life, but that which he saw during his time on earth stirred up in him first ennui, then deep depression. London began to drink, which was the beginning of the end. At first he became disillusioned with the people around him, then with his beloved eucalyptus trees and then with literature itself. Having driven himself into a corner Jack London ended his life by drinking a fatal dose of poison on November 22, 1916.

Noted Japanese writers, too, are not set apart by their optimism.

Mishima Yukio (1925—1970), the most famous Japanese writer of the twentieth century, killed himself by committing seppuku.

Kawabata Yasunari (1899—1972), Nobel laureate, killed himself by releasing poisonous gas into his study.

This list could go on much further. Just a roster of famous people who have commited suicide would take up dozens of pages.

There are those who claim that great and wealthy people simply “act out of boredom,” that if they needed to think more about their immediate needs they wouldn’t have time to fall into such deep suffering. However, further down the social ladder one finds that ordinary people do not suffer any less than kings, top models and creative geniuses. The only difference between the first and the second is that the tragedies of each star comprise a story in and of themselves, sufficient for a novel or loud headlines in the media, whereas the suffering of billions of average people is simply a statistic for sociologists.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), stress and depression have become an epidemic which affects all of humanity. The world has seen sharp increases in suicide rates: according to the WHO, around a million people commit suicide each year (that is, one suicide every forty seconds). The number of people who commit suicide surpasses the number who are killed by war or crime. In China alone the number of suicides yearly exceeds 250,000 people.

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.