Hey I just saw this message. Thanks for your kindness in sending me this. I appreciate the heads-up!
I'm aware that it's impossible to verify Anastasia's existence in the flesh, and therefore I consider the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" books a work of fiction. So does the author. He calls the books a fiction series twice in the actual text of the books, notably in the opening paragraph of the sample letter to parliamentarians, found in the eighth volume, "The New Civilisation".
Part of the story tells the author's impressions of writing and publishing the series. But mostly, it consists of discussions and descriptions of a possible future for the planet Earth and all of us who live here. I put it firmly in a category with the Permaculture Design Manual, the Venus Project, the Thrive movement, scholarship in the academic field of Sustainable Development, ecological architecture, and the great range of smaller bodies of knowledge that aim to suggest improvements to our lives and the design of our communities. But it also goes along with the greatest love stories, adventure stories and ethnographic literature that I read in my childhood and at university.
The vignettes in the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" series depict a possible reality where everyone has what they need, where the people live peacefully and cooperatively together, where everyone radiates with health according to their inner virtue and spiritual tenacity. Love flourishes between people and ever increases by the practical action of jointly creating nice things with one's partner. Most magnificent of all these creations, a highly productive garden, the best possible birth place for one's descendants.
In this possible future, everyone is wealthy and has equal access to the comforts, enjoyments and securities of life. Of all the possible futures I've encountered, this one supersedes the others by a million, and therefore it is a focus of my energies. As soon as there is a more robust, complete and effective idea available, of my own creation or someone else's (or a collaboration), I will obviously focus my energies there. I'm not biased to this or that idea. Instead, I rationally calculate and sometimes also irrationally intuit the relative value of different movements and texts based on proven, factual evidence, avoiding baseless defamation and propaganda, thereby establishing trustworthy sources of information that we can rely on.
Currently, the ideas of the character Anastasia in Vladimir Megre's fantasy series, the "Ringing Cedars of Russia", are the most practical, rational and useful suggestions I have encountered to support ethical economic policy, effective international relations, equitable sustainable development, and setting the conditions where I and others can find their perfect partners and develop lasting, loving relationships over many generations.
From a young age I felt an intuitive interest in Russia, the great, cold, forested land with very beautiful people, and a highly exotic language. At high school, I studied exceptionally hard at the first foreign language to which I was introduced - French. My fondest memories of childhood are the many hours spent poring over French literature and political commentary with my huge bilingual dictionary, listening to music at the desk in my bedroom.
I left Australia at age 17 with the help of my father's barrister earnings, accepting a job as an assistant English teacher at a high school in Paris. During that year I spent many hours alone, listening to music, wandering through small streets, perfecting my French, memorising all the dates, names and events at my favourite museums, and trying to work out why the girl I loved wouldn't accept me (also an Australian in Paris). By the end of my time there, it sometimes happened that I would talk with people for half an hour before they realised I wasn't French. Once or twice, I was taken for an Alsatian or a Swiss, but not an English speaker. The girl didn't change her mind. Years later, she was still assuring me she never would. It was too painful and fruitless to continue, so eventually I gave up.
Nevertheless not having found what I was looking for in Paris, I plotted my next moves and decided to apply for university in the United States. Knowing nothing about it, I booked an SAT at the American School in Paris, looked up the Ivy League schools on Wikipedia, and wrote application essays stating my life purpose - broadly to use my situation, opportunity and privilege to improve life for people and the environment of planet Earth.
Four months later, back in Australia and three weeks into an uninspiring course at the University of Sydney, I was accepted to Harvard and Yale, and wait-listed for Columbia. My dad was really pleased and said that if I wanted to go, then he could pay for it. My dad's life mission is "to improve things". I accepted his help and took on the responsibility of upholding his dreams.
Most attracted by the prospect of New York City, I wrote Columbia a letter saying that I'd just read "The Alchemist", by Paolo Coelho, and had had a vision that told me with total certainty that going to Columbia was part of my personal destiny. Therefore, would they please accept me? They wrote back with a hand-written note that said, nice application, along with a letter of acceptance.
New York was partly awesome, and partly awful. It is another chapter of this story that I can't tell in full here and now. It ended ingloriously with me taking a leave of absence from Columbia (a deferment of up to five years), planning a move to Russia with my beloved girlfriend, and then the excruciating capitulation to my family's demands that I abandon those plans and return to Australia and then finish my degree immediately. My courage buckled in the face of the full arsenal of coaxing, psychological manipulation and disciplinary authority.
The consequences of that decision affected me deeply. It pushed me to the edge of suicide - very near death, complete loss of any hope in the planet or its people. I smoked tobacco and cannabis every day, had no ambition or desire, and had completely given up on life. Though I searched, nothing in Australia interested me or gave me any inspiration or hope.
My Sydney Grammar high school friends were on the path to a career and a mortgage, with little consideration of its environmental or social effects, and they drank a lot of alcohol compared to what I was used to. Not many, if any, shared my aspiration to use our position to improve society. The activities mostly concerned their own monetary enrichment first and foremost, so I found little ground for collaboration or mutual interest between our life goals.
I had been planning to go to Russia with my beloved girlfriend, investigate the countryside and learn the language. I stupidly left her and came back to Australia, expecting my family to have prepared some interesting project for me. Fresh-faced and enthusiastic, I arrived with the attitude, "I'm here! So what are we doing?" My family had no suggestions. They'd torn me from my chosen path, and had nothing to offer as an alternative. I was devastated, and felt heinously betrayed. Leaving her was the worst thing I've ever done.
In Australia, I bought a cheap second hand car with 21st birthday money from my mum's parents, and drove around festivals and communities looking for something interesting. I slept in the car, ate food from supermarket dumpsters, and spent all my money on petrol, to literally the last dollar. Then I used my dad's credit card. I'm not proud.
During that time I encountered environmental protesting, permaculture, agroecology, Regrarians, ecovillages and aboriginal communities. These were more interesting than what was happening in Sydney, and the rhetoric was sometimes vaguely rousing. I sensed we were getting closer to something useful.
Yet there was nothing of substance - nothing that inspired me or gave me hope that Australia would flourish in the future. The level of intellect and thought was far poorer than the communities at Occupy Wall Street or the Rainbow Gathering where I'd been in America. There were plenty of half-measures, with no aspiration to actually help the majority of people. Most disturbing was the recurrent desire among privileged people to depopulate the planet through eugenics or some man-made natural catastrophe.
It felt ominously like I was wasting my time, but had no idea what to do. I wanted to return to my girl, but I was a total wreck, physically and psychologically crippled. Really, there isn't much to nourish a starving soul in Australia. Raw minerals, strip mining, forestry, mechanical monoculture, gigantic irrigation, slaughterhouses and live export. I couldn't find anybody in Australia with a plan to avoid this death march towards a third world economy. Honestly, I still can't.
Countries are meant to develop from crude, polluting and inefficient mega scale raw minerals extraction, upward to medium scale manufacturing, then upward to highly decentralised self-sufficient nodes which freely trade their large surpluses. Another way of seeing it, they're meant to develop from violent barbarism to peaceful, abundant civilisation, or from materialistic ego-centrism to enlightenment.
There is a purpose to development, to make life more enjoyable for everyone. If someone has a concern or a worry, there needs to be a forum to hear that and fix it. It's more fun for everyone when everyone is having fun. Yet Australia seems to be doing the opposite, with increasing intensity.
The media reports the go-ahead for the largest open cut coal mine we've ever had. Where are the people developing economic models that are more profitable than coal? It's not difficult. We only have the example of… oh… every other country on the planet to follow.
Land allotments provide infinite profit for the people who implement them. Introduce a basic income so that everyone has food and housing assured for them and their families. Then open wide-scale public conferences and discussions about the development of the country, with special care taken to properly hear aborigines' advice on where and how to settle the continent, in an open and equitable environment where each person has equal authority.
The same day, Permaculture News ran an article about a computer tool to calculate the optimal distance between swales. I think we need to move beyond that circle of thought and expand our vision a little. Let's fill in the details together… What kind of world do we want? What do we need to achieve that? What should we do right now to begin?
I read the first three books in the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" series in one day each, borrowed from my friend in Melbourne, a PDC graduate as it happens. The language was pretty new age, but anyone with even the most basic reading comprehension skills is able to deduce the main ideas of the books.
Stop polluting the environment. Start thinking more about conceiving, giving birth and raising children. Maintain and improve your habitat, generation by generation. Create a native self-sufficient home land for yourself and your family. Make this possible for everyone. All people are native to the Earth and are equal. Organise society so everyone has equal political authority. Do this everywhere. Then enjoy the bounty of the Earth and start dreaming about the next great adventure. It's very simple.
Unfortunately when the books first came out there were some degraded groups of people who tried to fight them. Until not long ago, such groups still existed. In our very recent history, they struggled to maintain their comparative advantage by keeping others poor, unhealthy and stupid. Their remnants remain, but I assure you these people have lost their driving impetus, and are losing influence by the day. I can explain more later. For now, here are some examples of their commonly observable activities.
First, there used to be an advertisement on a phone box near my Columbia dorm which showed a highly sugared, artificially flavoured and coloured drink in a plastic bottle with the caption, "A healthy start to your day". Someone actually wrote that line, created a bright, colourful graphic to display it, then organised its installation outside the university preschool.
I mean, that was a straight up lie. Observe the executives. The CEO of that company for sure did not give his children that drink, ever.
Then there are the CEOs of banks who oversaw aggressive marketing of home loans that put families in multi generational debt, providing no stability or happiness, to the extreme deficit of society. I'm concerned that these executives might still be doing something similar to that. This has to stop as soon as possible. Of course, the executive owns several investment properties freehold and would never do anything so stupid as take on a loan he can't afford. Or maybe his wife owns them. Or maybe they own them jointly in a Panamanian shell company with all their friends' other financial holdings.
Thirdly, the politicians with offshore bank accounts and international business interests who constructed public school curriculums to omit any useful knowhow, while they and their schoolfriends' children attended elite institutions that transmitted the techniques of financial success only to the select few. Oh wait, that's our current head of state.
When the Anastasia books first came out, there was a well-funded smear campaign launched at them, emanating from similar elite groups in Russia and outside of it, probably Europe. By an independent investigation commissioned by the author, the source of this campaign was traced as far as the corrupt parts of the Russian government, the Russian business elite, and the Orthodox Christian hierarchy, which by the way are made up of similar people.
The public defamation of the author, the main character, the series and its readers included categorisation of Anastasia groups as cults or sects, and warned people to treat its followers as victims of a scam, in need of sympathetic reintegration back into "this" society. I mean that degraded society of corruption, hypocrisy and deliberate sabotage of each other that I just described above. Several articles appeared in different news sources, sometimes with similar wording under different pen names.
For their part, the English translations of the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" omitted and distorted bits of the Russian text to alter the meaning and give the series an air of fantasy anathema to practical-minded thought. This let people quickly dismiss readers as irrational spiritualists or similar.
Considering this situation, I investigated for myself and found that the top Google hits for the keywords Anastasia and Ringing Cedars of Russia led to pages talking about "cult victims", a few genuinely creepy blogs by people maintaining such claims as "governments don't exist", and a Youtube video of an ugly American man holding the false English translation, cursing Anastasia and prophesising a great collapse and mass-depopulation of the Earth.
After reading the books and visiting a settlement of its readers, I determined that this was curiously inaccurate portrayal of the series, and it supported the author's idea that there had been a dedicated smear campaign against it, emanating from a hidden source, acting through people who believed themselves to be independent, but who in fact were unknowingly carrying out orders from "higher up".
I made that hurried video because I wanted to provide a more reliable account of what is actually happening in Russia. Looking back at it, it's not very good. I made a few factual errors and it was a bit disorganised. Nevertheless, it is still a more reliable and accurate description of the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" series and the readers' settlements than any other English-language information I've found on the internet.
If I'm missing something, please let me know. My email address is listed publicly on my Facebook profile, which is also public, and easily found by searching my name. My site, which also has contact information, now appears in some searches with Ringing Cedars keywords, too. I'm not trying to make something second-rate. I aim to provide the best, highest-quality, most accurate reporting and information on this Earth movement that is available in English.
I stay focused on the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" books because otherwise I will die. After reading them, I found inside myself the energy to keep living. Unlike anything else, the books gave me hope that the Earth will be again. I mean the whole Earth, and I mean really great - beautiful, kind, happy, strong, intelligent, gentle, caring, loving, tender, smart, and responsible… Add what other things you want. Then we'll talk about what they mean, and if we agree, we can discuss the best way to create it.
During the last two years back in Australia, I kept trying to go to Russia and find my girl again. I did an English-teaching certificate and applied for jobs in Moscow. I got accepted, then my dad would get angry and I would reject the offer. It happened three times.
I was so sad and confused. I did the best I could to be happy and useful, but I'm afraid it was totally messed up. I made a huge mistake, and I really want to apologise to everyone I met and interacted with during that time. I was such a depressed, pointless heap of a person.
I'm sorry I didn't have the courage or intelligence to care for my own family - my future wife and children - more than my parents. Most of all, I'm sorry to her. What can I do? It was a huge mistake, and I suffered terribly for it. I still suffer. My girl won't take me back. She's in Moscow now. I am doing my very, very, very best to improve myself and put myself in a position to provide everything she dreams of. Each rebuff is so excruciatingly painful. But when you face the brink of destruction and turn back, you just have to keep looking straight ahead and never think twice. There's no going back for me. This is what I'm doing now.
Now, I share my experience. There's something very, very important here. I hope others will understand, so that my descendants can grow up among clever, healthy and attractive people, and can find beautiful partners of clean, pure souls with whom to continue our civilisation.
Families have to look forward, prioritising young ones, their descendants, not sabotaging the future for the comfort of old and dying people.
Parents in "this" society have been influenced by images in advertising, media and literature to treat their children badly, to write them out of inheritances, criticise their every move, and force them to do things they don't want, as if that's what a loving parent does.
Meanwhile, of course, the media executives who oversee the broadcast of these images pass all their wealth, and complete control of their multinational business empires directly to their children, building up their confidence with elite psychotherapy techniques (à la Swiss mountain clinics) and initiations into exclusive conference groups.
The image of cool, strict, disinterested parents is a complete sham. It is designed to increase the comparative advantage of wealthy people. It degrades feelings of love in the ordinary person, breeds resentment and pain of terrible proportions. Following that path, the Earth will explode. The people are clear. The dam must empty. Open the gates. This needs to stop.
Love increases with gentleness, encouragement, support, understanding, wisdom, help, and joining together in our activities to create beautiful things. Let's devote our efforts for the benefit of the descendants, the future people of the Earth. That way we can create all those beautiful things of which we fondly dream. And the love will be restored between parents and children. The chain of energy will be restored that links us all together through time, back to the very beginning of everything. I absolutely must make sure my descendants grow up with this wisdom intact and maintained, and I will.
I wish someone in Australia could have told me these things before I made the mistake. Alas, they didn't. I had to meet a Russian, read books from Russia, and come to Russia finally to realise exactly what I had done… the mistake we have all been making.
I finally got here. It's not without it challenges, but the wisdom flowing through the people and land in Russia is the deepest, most profound I have ever felt. They all laugh at me because they think they're lazy, disorganised and foolish. And their roads are terrible! But the humility is all part of it. They've maintained the simplest and most powerful knowledge of Earthly existence, with none of the melodramatic fanfare.
Corroborees, ayahuasca, temazcal and all those shamanic rituals have this confusing hierarchy about them, and there's some invisible rule book that must be deciphered to properly participate. I was pretty good at figuring it out, and I got pretty deep into all those things. But they fade away, genuinely boring in comparison with the simple, wholesome knowledge I feel here.
I am planning to make a much better series of short films about the "Ringing Cedars of Russia" books and their consequences. The intention is to provide simple depictions, descriptions and firsthand evidence documenting exactly what is actually happening here. You must be aware that news from Russia is affected by political bias in Western media. My view is that this bias is outdated and unnecessary, and my aim is to provide accurate information. It is a response to repeated requests and encouragement from my friends, as well as my own sense of purpose here on Earth.
To me there is no other choice. There is no other viable idea which can maintain social and environmental prosperity in our country, or anywhere on our planet. If there is another better one, then tell me now and I will support that.
I was looking for an idea that supports the completion of our whole planet, a civilisation where everyone has what they need, and the place to create even more. A place with more love, where parents and children live happily together. This is the most important thing. And now I've found it.
I wish to create a beautiful family, with a devoted wife, a native home land where all my people belong, and a community of friends where my descendants can live totally happy, fully provided for, among equals, magnificent people who also profit from the great abundance and natural beauty of the Earth.
I already lost everything. There's nothing more to lose. So now I am going to risk it all, and create my most magnificent dream. My cordial regards to all the friends out there who are doing the same thing! We are together! I love you immensely! Keep going! I so look forward to living in this new Earth with you! We are getting closer!!!
And finally, please excuse me for all this self-centred autobiography. It's my personal therapy, to remember my life trajectory and refocus on what I'm aiming to do here. I post it here, unobtrusively in case it's interesting to any of you out there. Please enjoy!!