On the Other Side of the Material World/Visit 1

Visit 1

The First Meeting

On the way to his city, I tried, with varying success, to calm my chaotic mind and relax. However, the importance of the upcoming meeting did not put my mind at ease. What occupied my thoughts most of all, was not to ruin everything, not to do something silly! I feared that Vladimir would be disappointed, because I could be different from what he had been able to perceive of me during the time of our correspondence!

My tensions and my nervousness created an inconvenient situation: the police pointed out that the photo of my passport did not resemble me. This aroused their suspicions, and they made me repeat several times my own signature and made me show some other documents. They even called for backup. But in the end — I was released.

Therefore, I headed up to the railway station where I had to find Anna; one of Vladimir's few colleagues and assistants. (We had previously exchanged our photos as well as the description of our clothes — to help us recognize ourselves).

I was the first one to see Anna and headed to her. She met me with a broad smile, and at that moment, I understood that I had arrived!

We embraced. My fear gradually disappeared, making room for joy. Anna said that she had some difficulty in recognizing me. My appearance had changed a lot, compared with the photograph that I had sent to her.

We calmly talked on the way to the house where I was to live.

Anna told me that she had an almost grown-up son. A few sad intonations in her voice compelled me to ask:

“Doesn’t your son share your convictions?”

“No, not at this time,” — Anna then fell into her own thoughts, smiling gently. — “When he was small, he accepted everything with joy… But after he grew up, he decided that this Path was not for him.”

“Why?” — I was surprised. — “How is it possible?”

“He simply is not suficiently developed in his personal evolution. The material world is much more attractive to him at this moment. And he is not the only one of our children, who having matured could not accept the ‘adult’ concept intellectually. In such cases, there is a ‘roll back’…”

… We had a late dinner with potatoes and mushrooms, and then took tea. I did not dare ask Anna about the condition of my chakras and my energy state in general. However, I would soon find out. Therefore, I decided to change the subject and asked for information about the other personal disciples of Vladimir:

“Was there anyone else whom Vladimir invited here in recent years? Who were they, and where did they come from?” — I asked attentively.

Anna did not answer quickly:

“For the past ten years or perhaps even more, there was no serious candidate able to complete the full program, here at these places. The problem consists in the fact that the students had to be able to hold the intellectual knowledge, which is not feasible for everyone. So God recommended to us to show the Path, for all those concerned, with the aid of books and movies. In such situations each person can choose the theoretical and practical knowledge corresponding to his or her level. By doing so, intellectual surcharges do not happen. You are the first person that Vladimir invited here in all these years. As a result, you are very lucky!”

We laughed. It sounded, of course, very cool! But I decided to close the subject: after all, Vladimir had not seen me yet, and this meant that his last “verdict” was not pronounced. Anna did not say anything more to me, she only looked at me and smiled.