I opened the case. From its crimson, velvet holder flashed the gold of a naval dagger. And not just a common officer’s saber, like the one I’d asked after in Moscow, but a real work of art! The gilded scabbard and the blade itself were decorated with fine engravings, and the hilt wrapped in fine gold wire.
“This is a copy of an admiral’s dagger from the time of Empress Catherine the Great,” Natalia hastily began to explain, even more embarrassed as a result of my amazed expression. “We thought for a long time about what to get you, and decided you might like this. They make these in Zlatoust, an old city of bladesmiths near Chelyabinsk. They retain old designs there, according to which masters make souvenir copies…”
Of course, I wouldn’t allow my unexpected guests to stay in any hotel and we sat all night around the fireplace in interesting conversation.
That’s the extent of my unusual story of how I came to possess the dagger, but no less interesting is the second side of the story, told by Natalia herself:
“When we decided to travel to Novgorod, the question of a gift immediately came up. We all racked our brains trying to find an answer to this riddle. Finally, I remembered our famous workshop and that they produce masterfully artistic works. I travelled there and was confounded by their exhibition. There was such an abundance of uncommon beauty for my eyes to run over: various goblets, cups, swords, sabers, knives, and the like. I liked everything so much that I simply couldn’t choose; this was so beautiful, and that as well… And suddenly I heard a voice inside me, which clearly and loudly said: ‘Get this dagger.’ Listening to intuition, I chose it. Did my intuition suggest the right thing?”
I then simply reassured Natalia of the correctness of her choice and began to think myself. Comparing the dates of my trip to Moscow and Natalia’s to Zlatoust, I revealed that the idea to go to the workshop for a gift came to her the day after my visit to my relative. What happened? This was in truth no miracle, but an exchange of informational energy. My thoughtform “I want a dagger for my birthday” had already been hung in the informational field. Natalia’s thoughtform “I want to get a present for my teacher’s birthday” also found its way there. The vibrations of both thoughtforms coincided ideally and attracted one another. And so the idea first came into Natalia’s head to travel to Zlatoust, and once there she distinctively heard the word “dagger.” As a result, my wish materialized on June 4, 2002.
Strong desires are always fulfilled if you wish for them properly. We’ve already revealed one of the secrets of the proper technology for fulfillment of dreams; recall what was written a few lines above: “In my thoughts it already hung on the wall.”
The prayers of the faithful also come true. The strength of prayer is very great, but it also needs to be constructed correctly. When we delved into this question, we revealed without surprise that “ignorance reigns” here as well: none of the believers we’re acquainted with knew how one needs to pray! Psychic processes are very similar to technology; if you don’t follow the specific guidelines, the result will always be failure. In the case of prayer, failure is everywhere the absence of a result.
What did our research about this topic show? People practice two forms of sending up prayers:
The first: they find a special prayer book, choose a prayer to fit the occasion, and sit before an icon and read the text.
The second: gazing at an icon (either in church or at home) they turn to God with some sort of concrete request, formulating it arbitrarily, in their own words. They ask for healing for themselves or a loved one, provision of a desire, or deliverance from something undesirable. Having completed their prayer, they return to their usual routine and wait for God to provide (heal, emancipate, etc). When God doesn’t fulfill anything, they go again to the icon and repeat the ritual. And again they wait. After many unfruitful prayers they begin to think like so: “It means I’m not worthy enough for God to hear my prayers.”
This situation reminds one very much of that which happened to the majority of readers of Rhonda Byrne’s book The Secret. People thought up a wish, imagined something related to this (as Rhonda Byrne advised) and waited. Since nothing came true, they declared it a cheap book and Rhonda Byrne’s advice – not valid.
With God it’s different; you can’t call him a cheat. As such, in the case that prayers aren’t fulfilled, people instead denigrate themselves.
But the essence of the matter is this: both in the case of unfulfilled desires according to Rhonda Byrne’s recipe, and in the case of unfulfilled prayers the technological process was violated because it was completely misunderstood.
Prayers, like desires, come to fruition only under observance of specific conditions. If these conditions are violated, there’s no chance for their fulfillment!
The difference between simple desires and desire expressed in prayer is not great, but it does exist. When a person “simply wants” something, he or she doesn’t turn to someone in person; their request is directed to impersonal space.
In prayer the exact same wish has a concrete address: a saint or the Creator Himself.
The first and most important condition is faith
When we talk about prayer, we’re talking about faith with many faces, each of which is very important. We’ll examine each of them.
The first face is faith in the Creator, in His omnipotence. Believers don’t have a problem with this part, that’s why they’re believers.
The second face is belief in the fact that every person is always within God’s field of vision; that he hears and looks after everything. Difficulties don’t arise here either. God’s status as Omniscient is firmly entrenched in the consciousness of every believer.
The third face is unconditional faith that a prayer will be fulfilled. And this is where everything’s messed up. Of the many dozens of believers that we surveyed in person, not one had that sort of unconditional faith. People believed this in principle; they admitted its possibility, but not 100%. But even 1% of doubt will break a prayer. It’s impossible to be partially pregnant. And as they say, a spoonful of tar spoils a barrel of honey.
We propose that regarding unconditional faith in the power of prayer, things aren’t just in a bad condition among the students we polled. The majority of believers throughout the world don’t possess such faith (since they received their faith along with their birth certificates, as written about earlier). If this wasn’t the case, the world would be different. Hundreds of millions of people are daily praying for the world, health, love and material well-being. And yet no sort of changes take place, whether on the planet as a whole or in the lives of those doing the praying. We need not to prove this. If a prayer finds fruition, it is instantly declared a miracle – a rare phenomenon. A vivid example of this is the story of the canonization of Roman-Catholic Pope John Paul II.
Canonization means being counted among the ranks of the saints, and usually takes place in two phases, the first of which is beatification, which means being held as one of the blessed. One of the necessary conditions for beatification is the occurrence of a certified miracle after the death of a candidate (for beatification) and in response to prayers to the deceased.
The Vatican began this process almost immediately after the death of the pontiff on April 2, 2005. According to the traditions of the Roman-Catholic Church, the question of canonization can be posited no earlier than five years after the person’s death. However, taking into consideration