In Search of the Miraculous

planets, and the moon. I do not remember how this talk began. But I remember that G.

drew a small diagram and tried to explain what he called the "correlation of forces in different worlds." This was in connection with the previous talk, that is, in connection with the influences acting on humanity. The idea was roughly this: humanity, or more

correctly, organic life on earth, is acted upon simultaneously by influences proceeding from various sources and different worlds: influences from the planets, influences

from the moon, influences from the sun, influences from the stars. All these influences

act simultaneously; one

influence predominates at one moment and another influence at another moment. And

for man there is a certain possibility of making a choice of influences; in other words, of passing from one influence to another.

"To explain how, would need a very long talk," said G. "So we will talk about this some other time. At this moment I want you to understand one thing: it is impossible

to become free from one influence without becoming subject to another. The whole

thing, all work on oneself, consists in choosing the influence to which you wish to

subject yourself, and actually falling under this influence. And for this it is necessary to know beforehand which influence is the more profitable."

What interested me in this talk was that G. spoke of the planets and the moon as

living beings, having definite ages, a definite period of life and possibilities of development and transition to other planes of being. From what he said it appeared

that the moon was not a "dead planet," as is usually accepted, but, on the contrary, a

"planet in birth"; a planet at the very initial stages of its development which had not yet reached "the degree of intelligence possessed by the earth," as he expressed it.

"But the moon is growing and developing," said G., "and some time, it will, possibly, attain the same level as the earth. Then, near it, a new moon will appear and

the earth will become their sun. At one time the sun was like the earth and the earth

like the moon. And earlier still the sun was like the moon."

This attracted my attention at once. Nothing had ever seemed to me more artificial,

unreliable, and dogmatic than all the usual theories of the origin of planets and solar

systems, beginning with the Kant-Laplace theory down to the very latest, with all

their additions and variations. The "general public" considers these theories, or at any rate the last one known to it, to be scientific and proven. But in actual fact there is of course nothing less scientific and less proven than these theories. Therefore the fact

that G.'s system accepted an altogether different theory, an organic theory having its origin in entirely new principles and showing a different universal order, appeared to

me very interesting and important.

"In what relation does the intelligence of the earth stand to the intelligence of the sun?" I asked.

"The intelligence of the sun is divine," said G. "But the earth can become the same; only, of course, it is not guaranteed and the earth may die having attained nothing."

"Upon what does this depend?" I asked.

G.'s answer was very vague.

"There is a definite period," he said, "for a certain thing to be done. If, by a certain time, what ought to be done has not been done, the earth may perish without having

attained what it could have attained."

"Is this period known?" I asked.

"It is known," said G. "But it would be no advantage whatever for people to know it.

It would even be worse. Some would believe it, others would not believe it, yet others

would demand proofs. Afterwards they would begin to break one another's heads.

Everything ends this way with people."

In Moscow, at the same time, we also had several interesting talks about art. These

were connected with the story which was read on the first evening that I saw G.

"At the moment it is not yet clear to you," G. once said, "that people living on the earth can belong to very different levels, although in appearance they look exactly the

same. Just as there are very different levels of men, so there are different levels of art.

Only you do not realize at present that the difference between these levels is far

greater than you might suppose. You take different things on one level, far too near

one another, and you think these different levels are accessible to you.

"I do not call art all that you call art, which is simply mechanical reproduction,

imitation of nature or other people, or simply fantasy, or an attempt to be original.

Real art is something quite different. Among works of art, especially works of ancient

art, you meet with many things you cannot explain and which contain a certain

something you do not feel in modern works of art. But as you do not realize what this

difference is you very soon forget it and continue to take everything as one kind of