In Search of the Miraculous

strictly established, even if all the considerations leading up to them as to the density of matter in the universe be accepted.

In any case, if we take the average figure indicated relating to the supposed circumference of the universe, then, by dividing 9.1028 by 108, we obtain a twenty-figure number, which will show how many times a ray of light will go round the universe

during the life of the "Protocosmos."

The next thing that interested me in the "table of time in different cosmoses," as I called it, was the relation of cosmoses and of the time of different cosmoses to the

centers of the human body.

G. spoke many times about the enormous difference in the speed of the different

centers. The reasoning which I have cited above in regard to the speed of the inner

work of the organism led me to the thought that this speed belongs to the instinctive center. With this as a basis I tried to proceed from the thinking center, taking as the unit of its work, for example, the time necessary for one full apperception, that is, for the reception of an outside impression, the classification and definition of this

impression—and for the responding reaction. Then if the centers actually stand to one

another in the relation of cosmoses, in exactly the same amount of time through the

instinctive center there could pass 30, 000 apperceptions, through the higher

emotional and in the sex centers 30, 0002 apperceptions and through the higher

thinking 30, 0003 apperceptions.

At the same time according to the law, pointed out by G., of the correlation of

cosmoses, the instinctive center in relation to the head or thinking center should

embrace two cosmoses, that is, the second Microcosmos and the Tritocosmos.

Further, the higher emotional and the sex centers taken separately, should embrace the

third Microcosmos and the Mesocosmos. And finally the higher thinking center

should embrace the fourth Microcosmos and the Deuterocosmos.

But the latter refers to higher development, to that development of man which

cannot be obtained accidentally or in a natural way. In man's normal state, an

enormous advantage, in the sense of speed, over all the other centers should be

possessed by the sex center, working 30, 000 times faster than the instinctive or the

moving and 30, 0002 times faster than the intellectual.

In the relation of centers to cosmoses in general very many possibilities of study,

from my point of view, had been opened up.

The next thing that caught my attention was the fact that my table coincided with

some of the ideas and even the figures "of cosmic calculations of time," if it can be so expressed, which existed with the Gnostics and in India.

A day of light is a thousand years of the world, and thirty-six myriads of years and

a half-myriad of years of the world (365, 000) are a single year of Light.1

Here the figures do not coincide, but in Indian writings in some cases the

correspondence was quite unquestionable. They speak of the "breath of Brahma,"

"days and nights of Brahma," "an age of Brahma."

If we take the figures for the years given in the Indian writings, then the

Mahamanvantara, that is, the "age of Brahma," or 311, 040, 000, 000, 000

1Pistis Sophia, p. 203, English translation, 1921.

years (fifteen-figure number), almost coincides with the period of the existence of the

sun (sixteen-figure number), and the "day and night of Brahma," 8, 640, 000, 000

(ten-figure number), almost coincides with the "day and night of the sun" (elevenfigure number).

If we take Indian ideas of cosmic time without relation to figures, other interesting

correspondences appear. Thus, if we take Brahma as the Protocosmos, then the

expression "Brahma breathes in and breathes out the universe" coincides with the table, because the breath of Brahma (or the Protocosmos—a twenty-figure number)

coincides with the life of the Macrocosmos, that is, our visible universe or the starry

world.

I spoke a great deal with Z. about the "table of time" and it interested us very much as to what G. would say about it when we saw him.

Meanwhile time was passing. At last—it was already early in June—I received a

telegram from Alexandropol: "If you want to rest come here to me."—That was G.!

In two days I left Petersburg. Russia with "no authorities" presented a very curious spectacle. It felt as though everything was existing and holding together simply by

momentum. But the trains still ran regularly and at the stations the sentries turned a

deeply indignant crowd of ticketless travelers out of the carriages. I was traveling for

five days to Tiflis instead of the normal three.

The train arrived at Tiflis at night. It was not possible to walk about the town. I was

obliged to await the morning in the station buffet. The whole station was crammed

with soldiers who had returned from the Caucasian front on their own account. Many

of them were drunk. "Meetings" were held throughout the night on the platform