Principles of Scientific Religion.

A scientific religion is one in which the traditional religious terms “god” and “reincarnation” are considered from a strictly scientific point of view, so it becomes possible to prove the existence of both.

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Contents

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Can there be a scientific religion?

Scientific research begins with objective observations available anytime, anywhere. If someone does not like the law of universal gravitation, this has nothing to do with science: the ball will fall from a certain height in a very certain time, whether someone likes it or not. Arguments in scientific discussion and the subject of research can only be phenomena and events that are confidently reproducible. Science fiction is fundamentally different from fairy tales. Any incredible scientific hypothesis has the right to exist if it is clearly formulated and consistent: nothing forbids it to be strictly proved or refuted. Fantasy can become a reality: the device described in the “Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin” by Aleksey Tolstoy has turned into a scientific modern laser.

Science and religion cannot live in peace and harmony due to different approaches to the subjects of consideration. Most Western religions imply the existence of some “god”, but to this day there is no rigorous proof of his existence, and even an unambiguous definition of this term. This article uses the word “god” in small letters and in quotation marks, because the term here has nothing to do with its traditional meaning. Most Eastern religions include the concept of reincarnation, although there are no strictly scientific methods to prove the transmigration of souls.

In the “science of religion” the subject of study is a certain religion as a collective social phenomenon. The “scientific religion” referred to in this article is a science that includes only scientific methods for studying the concepts that are part of traditional religions, regardless of any particular religion.

A stable belief in miracles exists for quite understandable reasons. All living beings are mortal: they are born, live and die. Parting with loved ones and waiting for your own end psychologically requires intellectual compensation. Hamlet in Shakespeare’s monologue “To be or not to be?” argues:

Who would agree
Groaning, trudge under the burden of life,
Whenever the unknown after death,
Fear of the country from which no one returned,
Did not bend the will —
It’s better to put up with the familiar evil,
How to flee to the unfamiliar to strive! ..
So the thought turns us all into cowards,
And withers like a flower, our determination
In the barrenness of a mental impasse

In Hinduism and Buddhism, the concept of death is practically absent, since the fact of the end of life exists only in a frame of reference associated with observers. For the deceased himself, the moment of death instantly passes into a new birth, even if many hundreds of years have passed. The existence of “heavenly realms”, “heaven” and “hell” is not required, although perhaps the details of a previous life may influence the features of the next. The only practical question remains the problem of getting out of the circle of rebirths: what exactly needs to be developed in order to pass at a qualitatively new level?

In Abrahamic religions, a return to a new life is not expected, and incorporeal souls are ordered to either enjoy in the Gardens of Eden or, conversely, endure eternal hellish torment, depending on the decision of “god’s court”. This point of view is illustrated by Dante in his “Divine Comedy”. In ancient Slavic writing, the apocryphal “Walking of the Virgin through torments” was popular, describing the torments of sinners in hell. This literary artifact was very popular among the Old Believers and is mentioned in Dostoevsky’s book “The Brothers Karamazov”. It is not clear, however, what exactly should suffer if a person’s body, that is, the object of suffering, does not exist. In the Bible, the torment of sinners and the bliss of the righteous in the “Kingdom of Heaven“ are not detailed and the strict criminal procedure and moral codes of “god’s judgment” are not presented. There is no strict “law of karma” in Eastern religions.

In order to answer the questions of the existence of “god” and “immortality” from a scientific point of view, instead of using ambiguous and difficult to define and represent term “god”, one can consider a simpler concept of extraterrestrial intelligence that has gone far in its development, existing in the image and likeness a person who has come out of the circle of rebirths to a new level. The meeting with such extraterrestrial intelligence is described in many science fiction works and this does not contradict with modern science in the least.

Superintelligence could well be the creator of our Universe, if we imagine it as a large mathematical model: many modern models of our world are pure mathematics. A visual model of “god” and “immortality” can be considered on the basis of modern massively multiplayer computer games over the network. No one will doubt that every game has a creator who initially established the necessary rules to make it interesting to play and, if necessary, is able to interfere in the gameplay. “God” might well be called “extraterrestrial intelligence” in the same way that the creators of a computer game might be called out-of-game characters. The goal in computer games is often development in the cycle of rebirth — a kind of analogue of reincarnation.

The explanation of the evolution of living beings by the theory of natural selection is greatly complicated by the fact that the minimum building block is a gene, a complete mini program. Mutations usually lead only to the occurrence of genetic diseases, and not to improvement. DNA analysis shows that development does not occur gradually, but in leaps, reminiscent of the development of operating systems in computers. Although the opinion of the user environment is important, each subsequent version of the operating system is the result of the careful work of a team of programmers, and not “natural selection” of the program code.

It turns out that in a living organism, at the cellular level, there are processes that are completely inexplicable by the basic laws of physics. Molecular transport, DNA translation and protein synthesis seem to be unaware of the laws of inertia. It is these processes that distinguish the “living” from the “non-living” and immediately end when the living “dies”. The movement of an insect seems natural, but the movement of a simple molecule in a cell to take its place in a protein is already a miracle. A modern computer for an ancient philosopher would also be a miracle. It is possible that when observing living organisms, we only look at the system monitor. Details of the work of internal elements: the motherboard, processor, expansion modules are hidden and real complexity of one living cell exceeds the complexity of the entire Universe. So instead of creation of civilization in another star system, it is easier to plan several new Universes.

An analysis of the DNA of fossil humans shows that the transition from Homo erectus, Homo habilis, Homo neanderthalensis and other human-like species to modern humans occurred in leaps, and the DNA of Homo Sapiens did not change at all over the past 40 thousand years from the moment of occurrence. It has been proven that acquired skills cannot be inherited. Does this mean that Homo Sapiens did not evolve after they appeared and that the Neolithic inhabitant has the same level of development as modern man? The development of civilizations on the largest scale suggests the opposite: people develop and, therefore, the carrier of this development cannot have anything to do with DNA. The change in people’s consciousness over millennia of history may be the first scientific proof of the law of reincarnation. Studying the rate of development of civilization shows the exponential law, which indicates the existence of positive feedback, explained only by the possibility of transferring part of one’s experience from one life to another.

If during sleep a person rests only psychologically, then after death and a new birth, he completely changes his material shell, starting almost from scratch. This “almost” is the whole secret of development. If the “soul”, by definition, is not related to the mathematical model of our material world and exists in addition to it, then it turns out that the closest “extraterrestrial intelligence” to a person is his own mind. They say that there is a “spark of God” in a person. Explosive development in youth passes into slow stagnation in old age. The benefit of youth is noted even in the Bible: unless you “be like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven”¹. And if people cannot be children all the time, the finiteness of life makes it possible to correct this problem and experience not only childhood, but all stages of development many times. A clear example of super intelligence can be Solaris from the science fiction novel by Stanislav Lem, which, as the novel suggests, has elements of the psychology of a child.

If «god» or superintelligence really exists, then what is it in reality, can it be described? If a person is created in the image and likeness of “god”, then “god” can probably be considered in the image and likeness of a person, but how does he look like — a merciful sultan, a wandering Jewish miracle worker, or something indefinite like a bush burning with a cold flame? Perhaps a good illustration for this question would be the commentary on Onegin’s return in the eighth chapter of “Eugene Onegin”: any traditional image of “god” is only his mask.

Say, in what guise has he returned?
What will he stage for us meanwhile?
As what will he appear now? As a Melmoth?
a cosmopolitan? a patriot?
a Harold? a Quaker? a bigot?
Or will he sport some other mask?
Or else be simply a good fellow
like you and me, like the whole world?
At least here’s my advice:
to drop an antiquated fashion.
Sufficiently he’s gulled the world…
— You know him? — Yes and no.²

In an ancient Indian parable, a group of blind people or people in the dark touch an elephant to understand what it is. Each of them touches only one part of the elephant’s body, such as the side, trunk or tusk. After that, they describe their impressions and start an argument. Obviously none of the descriptions are correct. This approach can be compared with an attempt to describe an object in four-dimensional space, being in three-dimensional space. A four-dimensional object has an infinite number of three-dimensional projections, and only by gathering all of them together, you can get an idea about the object as a whole. If “god” is considered in the image and likeness of a person, then probably it should be quite a lot of different people. Transitions from one three-dimensional projection to another in a four-dimensional object must have the property of continuity. In the article “Unity and self-connectedness of Dostoevsky’s creativity.”³ shows how the theme of one book is smoothly goes into another topic, looping all the writer’s work in one ring.

Science implies complete objectivity. Pointing your finger at the text and declaring that this “word of God” is by no means enough. The idea of reincarnation has existed in Eastern religions for thousands of years, but is it possible to prove the cyclical development of the soul strictly scientifically? If someone suddenly remembers the details of his past life, many will regard this as a scam and such evidence cannot be called objective. Another thing is if famous people are involved, whose life and character are very well studied: for example, writers and poets. A personal interview, proof of the truth of the revelations, and even the opinion of the writer himself are not required. The person himself is not able to choose where and at what time and for what purpose he should be born: pairs of well-known creative people with the same souls could only be created by the supermind. This would be further proof of his existence, showing some super powers.

If pairs of writers with the same “soul” and who worked at different times can be found, this would be completely unique material proving the possibility of soul transmigration and answering many questions about the mechanisms of development. Thanks to the work of such writers, the nature of the supermind, its consciousness and psychology can be studied directly and scientifically without the need to involve “faith” and other additional miracles.

To prove its own existence, extraterrestrial intelligence should create material, say literary works, for which authenticity could be proved. Adequate authentication of the creativity of the supermind can be a method of “large scale”: the existence of logic or correlation of meanings, covering significant periods of time, obviously not available to people. On the Nazca plateau in Peru in the middle of the 20th century, drawings were discovered that are visible only from a very high altitude. An example of such a drawing is shown in Fig 3. A detailed study of these drawings shows that for their creation were used technologies unknown to mankind. I don’t want to repeat all the arguments and details, but this is absolute proof of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

Every year in corn or wheat fields, geometric patterns of an indefinite theme appear. They appear overnight and the technology for creating these drawings is unknown to science. Something or someone in some way affects the stems of plants by crushing or breaking them so that as a result a pattern appears on the field. There are a lot of observations of drawings, their appearance is strictly documented — no falsehood or deceit. Fig 4 shows the most recent picture found in the UK in 2022. But if you can artistically crush cereals, then what is it worth dictating a book or a verse to the writer, as during a hypnosis session. The existence of global parallels in the work of writers can only be explained by the fact that the real author of a large-scale picture has nothing to do with human society, that is, it has an extraterrestrial nature.

The Grand Inquisitor from “The Brothers Karamazov” book by Dostoevsky, noted that Jesus had no right to add anything to what he had said earlier, since in this case a new word would appear as a miracle and could destroy the faith that had been created and strengthened for thousands years. The revelation of extraterrestrial intelligence formally has nothing to do with the existing gods and fully satisfies the desire of old cardinal not to touch his faith. It is interesting that the amazing phenomenon of crop drawings did not deserve much public attention and does not break anyone’s faith. There are enough “earthly” explanations about the drawings on the Nazca plateau to neutralize the need to involve non-human intelligence. The search for traditional “extraterrestrial civilizations” on the radio waves of atomic hydrogen is focused only on the most familiar kind of intelligence that scientists are able to understand and accept. Who will accept an extraterrestrial intelligence communicating on the waves of wheat ears?

In the article “The immune upgrade virus HIV++. Hypothesis of existence.”⁴, I suggested fantastic hypothesis that the pictures that appeared in 2000-2002 in UK present a new virus given to humanity by superintellegence to cure many incurable today diseases.

The study of the writer’s works often begins with an analysis of the socio-economic conditions that influenced the choice of topics, life events reflected in the work, historical characters or personal friends of the writer, taken as a prototype for the characters. If we compare this approach with the study of crop drawings, it turns out that in order to understand the nature and essence of these artifacts, it is necessary to describe in detail what varieties of cereals were used on the field, how technically and in what terms the planting was carried out, how the people who planted these cereals live and what type of flour can be obtained as a result. It is clear that all this information has nothing to do with the creator of the drawings, who used the process of growing cereals only as a palette for his creativity.

The psychology of the “writer-prophet” is a kind of “transfer function” for the presentation of information. If you inspire the same thought to two different people and give them the opportunity to create, then obviously, you will get two different texts. In the Bible, the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah are considered one “word of God,” but stylistic analysis will easily distinguish the text of one prophet from another.

The New Testament consists of four parts that independently deal with the same subject — the life of Jesus. Nothing is known about the creators of the Gospels except short pseudonyms — there are no independent documentary reports. Comparing different Gospels, one can try to understand what the people who wrote them down were and what time they lived, although the details of the real history in the “holy writings” are almost of no importance. Scientific history is another matter — uncovered clay shards, household items or documented gossip of contemporaries about writers’ mistresses are the real world. The anonymous prophets “Mark” and “Matthew” are not studied in detail Horace or Ovid.

Research begins with the advent of specific material. Fig 1 and Fig 2 show the parallels that served as the basis for writing this article. It can be shown that each chapter of A.S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin” corresponds to one specific book by F.M. Dostoevsky or Leo Tolstoy. For example, the second chapter of “Eugene Onegin” like the “second commandment” is related to idols, miracles and images. It is connected with Dostoevsky’s book “The Idiot”. The ideological features of Dostoevsky’s books are discussed in the articles “Unity and self-connectedness of Dostoevsky’s creativity.”⁵ and “A.S.Pushkin’s “The Little Tragedies”, as a blueprint of F.M.Dostoevsky’s main novels.”⁶.

It can also be shown that each theme of specific book of Dostoevsky or Tolstoy is revealed by a certain writer of Russian classics. So the idea of images and idols raised in the second chapter of “Eugene Onegin” and Dostoevsky’s book “The Idiot” is considered in the work of Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov. This idea is described in the article “Homology in Russian classical literature.”⁷. Moreover, it can be shown that each such Russian classic can be paired with a creative person from the Renaissance. Such a wide range of creativity already goes far beyond the limits of Russian culture and covers many languages and traditions of the world.

Ivan Goncharov in the picture corresponds to the Spaniard Miguel Cervantes. Don Quixote performs feats in the name of his dream Dulcinea. Oblomov does not need to perform any feats. His dreams completely replace real life. If in the case of Don Quixote the image can find some kind of positive argumentation, in the case of Oblomov, dreams lead to laziness and complete inactivity. But, in both cases, the same topic is considered — the role of idols and fantasies in people’s lives. The real author will still remain anonymous, along with the full historicity and reality of the one whose name is on the cover, if the writer himself never assumed about his prophetic appointment.

Parallels in the works of Russian classics are related only to the correlation of ideas. The parallels between Russian and Renaissance writers may further illustrate the idea of reincarnation. If two creative people reveal in their activities the same topic related to the theme of project, then it is natural to assume that these people could have the same “soul” and this would be objective evidence that people live many times. It is obvious that only the superintelligence could create such an alignment, having access to the deepest mechanisms of our world functioning, which is proof of its existence and a demonstration of what it is capable of.

Miguel Montaigne became the ancestor of the “essay”. This word translated from French means “Experience”. In the essay, the subject of presentation is the writer’s personal attitude to ideas and events. If the superintelligence chooses itself as the main subject of its project, raising only topics that are of personal interest to it and showing its own attitude to the theme, this should not cause any enmity. “Imbued with vanity” author shows this way only his superiority, perhaps imaginary… And if someone doesn’t like something, then it’s none of their business, no one is going to amuse the haughty world.

In Fig 1, you can see representatives of various languages and cultures. French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, English, Persian and Old Russian languages are involved. Here you can find Spanish and Italian Catholics, as well as a dissident monk burned by Catholics. There is a Japanese Zen Buddhist poet, painter, calligrapher, founder of many traditions, who wrote in Chinese, English secular poet and playwright, French philosopher and devout Muslim. There is a Russian storyteller and poet, whose real life has not been fully studied, known only by one work that accidentally came down to us, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, but perhaps revered in Russia, one of the main Russian saints. The project is international and does not depend on any particular religion or culture. Each writer-prophet performs his assigned part of the work and as a result, one large-scale project is created in which each literary work finds its specific place.

The project can be compared to a large-scale painting that can only be seen from a great height, such as with a helicopter or a quad-copter. The thematic mood of the project is set by the novel by A.S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”. The epigraph to the whole novel will be a characteristic of the author, how, perhaps, “the haughty world” should treat his work: in other words, “and this is all about him.” The dedication is addressed to the reader, who most likely does not belong to “the haughty world”. Rising higher, we will see the entire novel “Eugene Onegin”. Even higher, we will see above the chapters of Pushkin’s novel the books of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, located above the corresponding chapters of the novel. Even higher — and almost all of Russian classical literature will open before us, expanding further to the literature of the Renaissance. Further, the project can be projected over the entire history of mankind over thousands of years, but this is a more difficult task and requires much more thought and research.

The project can be compared to a tsunami, a single large wave resulting from some unusual event, such as an earthquake. The height of such a wave is not very large, but its length can reach hundreds of kilometers. It is impossible to notice a tsunami being on the surface of the ocean against the background of ordinary waves and even during complete calm. One can try to find a tsunami from space using laser interferometry, filtering out signals from waves caused by ordinary wind and other noise. “Eternal truths” cannot depend on any specific local tradition, religion or philosophy — to see the general idea for Cervantes and Goncharov, one must abstract from all the features of Spanish and Russian culture.

Tsunamis are sometimes born here
And destroy everything in the soul and in the head⁸

The result of the article “Homology in Russian classical literature.”⁹ is depicted in Fig 2. Current article “Principles of Scientific Religion” extends these parallels to the Renaissance. I tried to find among the creative people of world history those who would be so similar to the Russian classics that it would be possible to raise the question of the identity of their “souls”. They should also reveal the same ideas. This is only a brief, abstract presentation of the main idea, which obviously requires more detailed and broad discussion. Here I just want to look very briefly, as this is possible, at the whole picture. This is my subjective opinion, a hypothesis that I am trying to prove. If someone else solves a similar problem, the result may well be completely different.

Miguel Cervantes → Ivan Goncharov

Both writers analyze the role of fantasies, dreams, images and idols in people’s lives. The hero of the Spaniard Cervantes, the comic knight-errant “Don Quixote”, fights with windmills in the name of the lady of the heart, Dulcinea of Toboso, who never appears in the book. The action takes place in 16th century Spain. Goncharov’s novels are set in 19th-century Russia. Oblomov is so absorbed in his dreams and fantasies that for the whole novel he cannot move one sofa.

Cervantes did not disdain such work as being a servant (“camarero”) to Cardinal Acquaviva, although he became better known, in addition to writing, as a naval sailor. Cervantes is just as difficult to imagine as a servant of the cardinal, as well as Goncharov in the position of state censor, who received loud and sometimes unflattering fame. At the same time, Goncharov was the only Russian writer of the 19th century who traveled around the world and wrote a book about it. He really wanted to breathe the fresh sea air and see distant countries. Reflections of paintings from “Frigate “Pallada” ” are found in both “Oblomov” and “Cliff”. I have no doubt that Cervantes and Goncharov are quite kindred “souls”.

Michel Montaigne → A.P. Chekhov

Montaigne is a French writer and philosopher, the author of the book “Essais”, is considered the founder of the “Essay” genre. The very word “essay” (from French Essais — “experiments, attempts”) in its modern meaning owes its origin to Montaigne. In the preface to the book, he writes:

If I were writing this book to ingratiate myself with the world, I would dress up and show myself in full dress. But I want to be seen in my simple, natural and ordinary form, unconstrained and artless, for I do not draw anyone, but myself. My shortcomings will appear here as alive, and my whole appearance as it really is, as far as, of course, this is compatible with my respect for the public.

This is very consonant with the dedication to “Eugene Onegin”: “Not thinking to amuse the haughty world…” Montaigne’s philosophy can be called “skepticism”, but this is a very special skepticism. The same cold and calm view of the world in Russian classics can only be found in Chekhov. Anton Pavlovich also tended to write short stories or plays; he was not a supporter of big novels. If you try to find among the Renaissance writers who would most resemble Chekhov in character, it should be Michel Montaigne.

Giordano Bruno → Maxim Gorky

Despite the fact that Gorky is considered the “singer of the revolution” and the founder of “socialist realism”, he had not quite simple relationship with the revolution and Marxism. One cannot call a strict atheist a person with whom the term “god-building” is invariably associated. Gorky loved to travel. For recreation and creativity, Italy turned out to be a more convenient country for him than Russia. Gorky’s enormous erudition allowed him to write a huge number of novels, short stories, as well as huge deep and philosophical work “The Life of Klim Samgin”, where realism in the description of people and society reaches its culmination. Although, this has nothing to do with “socialist realism”.

Giordano Bruno was born in Italy, near Naples. From there, Vesuvius can be seen as well as from the island of Capri, Gorky’s favorite island. From the Villa “Massa” in Sorrento, where Gorky lived in recent years and created Klim Samgin, Vesuvius is visible from the same angle as from Capri.

Throughout his life, Giordano Bruno tried to preach his vision of the world while traveling all over Europe. Due to the complexity of his character, intransigence and obstinacy, despite his great erudition and knowledge, Bruno could not find a home for himself anywhere. The hospitality of another country ended with something like “Who are you to teach us?”. Bruno’s character, like Gorky’s, was difficult,“stony”. This is reminiscent of the epithet that Peter received in the Gospel: “Kepha”, which means “Stone”. Peter became famous for being the best friend of Jesus, afraid of incurring persecution, after Jesus’ arrest, he disowned him. “Was there a boy? — There was no any boy.”

If we assume that Giordano Bruno in a past life was St. Peter, crucified upside down during the persecution of Christians under Nero, then a very interesting analogy is obtained. Christians of the 15th century burned at the stake St. Peter, telling them his fantasies about the structure of the world, about the heliocentric system of Copernicus, the plurality of worlds and reincarnation. This was exactly the case when Saint Peter propagated Christianity to the Roman pagans. “They only know how to love the dead.”

The real inner world of a person is often very different from the idea that he formally or ostentatiously serves. The book “The Life of Klim Samgin” is dedicated to debunking a lot of popular “ideas”. The fictitiousness of opinions and sentiments is considered here in an innumerable number of examples. So, for example, one of Klim’s women, Nekhaeva, talking lofty topics about life and death, pretending to be dying and unhappy, really just wants to attract a man and eventually marries a rich foreigner. The destruction of dissidents by the Christian Inquisition because of the danger to their power and the maintenance of absolute authority, that is, serving the bread, the miracle and the sword of Caesar is the real content of medieval Christianity. Here, obviously, there was no any “love for one’s neighbor” and so on.

For Maxim Gorky, only Giordano Bruno can be the best kindred spirit, and for Bruno, from a logical point of view, St. Peter from the Christian Gospels.

Ikkyu Sojun → Ivan Turgenev

If you look at films based on the works of Turgenev, you can feel a certain shade that is not quite characteristic of the rest of Russian literature. Turgenev is generally a very peculiar writer. There are incomparably fewer discussions of his last largest novel, “Virgin Soil”, than of any short story by Dostoevsky. This novel was forgotten and underestimated. Critics noted that the writer, who lived abroad, could not adequately portray the life of his compatriots, and his revolutionaries seemed to live in some country that the author had never been to. But the theme of this novel is by no means a realistic description of the development of revolutionary activity in Russia in the second half of the 19th century.

To understand the subject of the novel “Virgin Soil”, and behind it all the work of Turgenev, you need to pay attention to the theme of the fourth chapter of Eugene Onegin, the small tragedy “The Miserly Knight” and Dostoevsky’s book “Adolescence”. It can be about the power of money and the attitude towards the world of material goods. Behind all this, like a big epigraph, is the theme of the “little man” originating from Pushkin’s “The Copper Horseman” and Gogol’s “The Overcoat”.

The religion of Buddhism was born in India. It is possible that the first fertile environment for its distribution and the main audience of Prince Siddhartha Gautama was the “untouchable” caste. Untouchables are the lowest caste. In 2018, it included more than 200 million people. This is more than the entire population of Russia. Touching the untouchable defiles representatives of other varnas, especially brahmins. These people should be engaged in “dirty” activities — garbage collection, yards and streets, sewage work. There is no way to leave the caste, belonging to the caste is inherited. Untouchables are forbidden to enter Hindu temples, participate in Hindu rituals, in connection with which they have their own gods, their own priests and rituals. That is why such a caste is the most fruitful environment for the emergence of a new religion that denies all Hindu sacred texts, the caste division of society and calls for a complete departure from the attachments of this world. It is not surprising that Buddhism did not take root in India itself and is even considered hostile. There are no prophets in their own country.

In Japan and China, Buddhism found quite a favorable environment for spreading. It makes no difference to the Japanese and Chinese that he does not recognize Hindu sacred texts. Most importantly, it does not intersect with traditional Japanese Shintoism and Chinese national religions — Confucianism and Taoism, but successfully complements them. Buddhism came to Japan from China, incorporating elements of traditional Chinese Taoism. Thus, Zen was born. The most famous Zen monk of the Middle Ages was Ikkyu Sojun, the founder of many Japanese national traditions. Ikkyu was a poet, painter, calligrapher, master of the tea ceremony and noh theater. Ikkyu wrote in Chinese.

In the fourth chapter of “Eugene Onegin”, Eugene reads a sermon to Tatyana, in which he explains that he lives outside the usual “home circle”. He lives outside of suffering, since he has already suffered everything, attachments are hostile to him, in general, according to the terminology of Buddhism, he has fully achieved “enlightenment”. And what “enlightened” will marry? Prince Siddhartha Gautama left his wife and two children for the freedom of life.

The protagonist of the novel “Adolescence” is a young man who seeks to “go into the idea”, to achieve such a state as to rise above the world, above all its fuss, “thousands of women with their beauties” and so on. He considers the key to liberation from worldly suffering to be liberation from the power of money, which is “despotic power, but at the same time the highest equality.” Arkady believes that he can only free himself by becoming “rich like Rothschild”. At the same time, he will live like Mr. Prokharchin from the story of the same name by Dostoevsky, spitting on all the blessings of the earth. Why not a great candidate for Zen monks? It only remains for him to completely abandon society and worldly life, as the last temptation, and finally “go into the idea”.

Revolutionary activity in Russia was primarily caused by acute social contradictions — a huge material and cultural gap between the nobility and the common people. Dostoevsky wrote his first stories under serfdom. One way or another, the revolutionaries considered material inequality to be the main evil, and the answer was the rejection of reality as it is, for example, nihilism.

Analogues of Arkady and Katerina Nikolaevna from “Adolescence” arise among the heroes of Turgenev and are further developed. Katerina Nikolaevna could well be called a “Turgenev woman”. Turgenev spent most of his life abroad, although the action of all his works takes place in Russia. It was better for him to write about Russia somewhere abroad. Why not the Zen approach? Ikkyu Sojun became known as a great lover of women, to whom he devoted many tender poems. This is unusual for a monk. Ikkyu developed the teachings of the Red Thread, a non-trivial Buddhist approach to sexuality. How Turgenev looked at women is quite worthy of the teachings of the Red Thread.

I believe that the best candidate for a soul mate in the Renaissance for Ivan Turgenev should be the Japanese Zen monk Ikkyu Sojun.

Shakespeare → Pushkin → Vysotsky

The fifth theme has to do with the denial of laws for the sake of freedom from them, characteristic only of living organisms. If a Zen monk leaves the world, then the hero of the fifth law produce an active action that breaks the familiar world. The entire work of Vladimir Vysotsky was devoted to the disclosure of this topic, starting with the literary features of his language and the foundations of versification. Violating the generally accepted canons of versification, and sometimes simply mocking them, he achieved a special force and brightness of influence on the audience.

Violation of the laws of versification gave many contemporaries to deny him the right to be called a “poet”, but it is precisely this free attitude to verse that is his main law of denial. Most of Vysotsky’s songs cannot be torn off from his voice; sung by someone else, they immediately lose all their strength and charm, which can be compared with the translation of poetry into another language. The heroes of his songs, one way or another, want to break the rules the restraining fetters and laws, to do what is not “prescribed”, in order to become free. A kind of epigraph to his work can be the song “Hunting for wolves”, when an animal driven by hunters jumps over flags because “the thirst for life is stronger”.

The very life of Vladimir Vysotsky, however sad it may be, is a kind of illustration of the “fifth law”. In order to rise above the bustle of the world and get an additional impulse to personal energy, he began to use psychotropic substances that are addictive and quickly destroy the body. Drugs alter the natural chemical processes responsible for the normal functioning of receptors in the nervous system. As a result, the poet’s creative activity ended early, sadly and tragically. A terrible death that you would not wish on anyone.

In this regard, one should to recall Vysotsky’s song “Two Fates”. According to some researchers, it is related to alcoholism and drug addiction. However, why exactly TWO fates? Based on the characteristics of his personal life and attitude towards creativity, the most likely candidate for Vysotsky’s “soul mate” should be A.S. Pushkin. They are not at all obliged to write in one size, but continuing the life of Pushkin in the 20th century, there is simply no other candidate. It is enough to compare their personal lives. However, Pushkin did not suffer from alcoholism, let alone drug addiction. Who could be Pushkin’s “soulmate” in the Renaissance? I have no other candidate than William Shakespeare. A detailed comparison of these three people should take considerable time, but remember the mysterious death of Shakespeare, about which there are many versions. Before his death, the playwright completely retired, which was a rarity at that time, and shut himself up in his home in Stratford. All of Shakespeare’s last signatures are in very poor handwriting, it is believed that he was very ill. The main version is syphilis, in the latest drawings the poet is always depicted as bald, but one must make the assumption that it was drug addiction.

The founder of pharmacology, Paracelsus, discovered in the 16th century that opium alkaloids are better soluble in alcohol than in water. The resulting tincture was named by Paracelsus laudanum (from Latin laudare “praise”). The main purpose of the tincture was to reduce pain. Paracelsus is considered one of the founders of modern science, he is credited with the phrase “Medicine is poison, but poison is medicine. A single dose will turn medicine into poison, and poison into medicine…” In Shakespeare’s time, landaum was freely circulating. Only in the 20th century were deadly opioids completely banned from medical use.

It is possible that Shakespeare became addicted to landaum during his life in London, playing on the stage and composing his works, and his death was as terrible as that of Vladimir Vysotsky. I wonder if he would write poetry or use drugs if he was born again?

Saadi Shirazi → M.Yu. Lermontov

In Pushkin’s poems, the Persian poet Saadi is mentioned several times. The epigraph to the “The Fountain of Bakhchisaray” is the phrase “Many, like me, visited this fountain; but others no longer exist, others wander far away.” It is repeated in the eighth chapter of “Eugene Onegin”: “ “Some are no more, others are distant,” as erstwhiles Sadi said.” This phrase was not found in the works of Saadi, where did Pushkin get it from? For the rhyme, Pushkin used the name “Sadi”, not “Saadi”. If you replace “Sadi” with “Goethe”, the rhyme is not broken and it becomes possible to find the source of this quote. As an epigraph to “The Twelve Sleeping Virgins”, Zhukovsky took a poetic translation of Goethe’s dedication to the poem “Faust”. Pushkin’s poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” is filled with parody motifs to “Sleeping Virgins” and Pushkin was probably familiar with Goethe’s “Faust”.

You rushed the images of merry years —
And many lovely shadows rise;
And what life so once captivated,
That Rock, having taken away, does not give back,
Then again my soul knew everything;
Sorrow woke up, and Complaint calls
Companions who have gone off the path before
And here in vain they believed in hope.

The sounds of the last song will not reach them;
The circle where I sang the first is scattered;
Hands stretched out to them will not meet them;
The beautiful dream of their lives has flown away.
Others were swept away by the mighty Spirit of separation;
The happy land that knew them was empty;
Scattered on all the roads of the world —
It is not for them that the thoughtful lyre sings.

In Zhukovsky’s poem, the main character Gromoboy enters into a contract with the devil and, as a result, he needs to sacrifice not only himself, but also his daughters. Goethe’s entertainment of Faust leads to the death of the young girl Gretchen, that is, Marguerite. Lermontov wrote and rewrote the poem “Demon” all his life. A young girl who has lost her fiancé agrees to follow the Demon, a variant of Satan, and dies as a result.

The subject of the sixth chapter of “Eugene Onegin” is the death of the poet Lensky from a cold and indifferent society and its traditions. On the sixth day of creation, God created man and the sixth commandment of the Bible says “Thou shalt not kill.” Dissonance to the material of the sixth chapter of “Eugene Onegin” is its epigraph not about death, but about the birth of a tribe that is not afraid to die.

Leo Tolstoy’s book “Resurrection” (or may be “Sunday”) tells the story of a girl’s catastrophe, beginning on Sunday service and ending in exile to Siberia along with a revolutionary who bears a Jewish surname. She does not die, but actually begins a new life.

By nature, Lermontov was quick-tempered in the best traditions of the Caucasian peoples. His early death was caused by the fact that in a critical situation he behaved like Azamat or Kazbich, and not like Pecherin from “A Hero of Our Time”. Lermontov was not loved for his sharpness and categoricalness. He denounces authorities in “The Death of a Poet” and the principles of Christian monasticism in “Mtsyri”. “A wonderful world of worries and battles, where rocks hide in clouds, where people are free, like eagles” the boy will never exchange for a monastery and will fight for it even at the cost of his life. The action of “The Demon”, “Mtsyri”, the masterpiece “Three Palms” and many other works of Lermontov takes place in the south, among the Caucasian and Muslim peoples. Countries where people are proud as eagles, and mountains are higher than the sky, are closer to him than foggy, slick, business-like Petersburg.

The best candidate for Lermontov’s soul mate in the Renaissance, I see the poet Saadi, who in “Bustan” and “Gulistan” did nothing but denounce and instruct society and rulers, towering over them.

Dante Alighieri → N.V. Gogol→Mikhail Bulgakov

These writers are united by the analysis of the concepts of “Paradise” and “Hell”, which, in the case of soul transmigration existence are not defined. Gogol’s dead souls live on earth, and the Gardens of Eden and “peace” prescribed by Woland in Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita can become much worse than “Hell”.

Gogol could create most productively only in Dante’s Italy. Here he wrote “Dead Souls” and “The Overcoat”. Rome became his second home. Gogol studied there antiquities, art galleries, visited the workshops of artists, admired the life of the people and loved to “treat” visiting Russian friends with Rome. Describing the gloomy knight that Koroviev turned into in the sky, Woland remarks:

The pun he made while talking about light and dark wasn’t exactly good. And the knight had to ask after that a little more and longer than he expected.

If this refers to the “Divine Comedy” — a pun written by Dante, then this knight proshloil two more times — creating works like Gogol, and then like Bulgakov.

In the seventh chapter of “Eugene Onegin” Tatyana leaves her youthful dreams of pure love and marries strictly because “it is necessary” and as a result creates for herself a strong family and position in society. At the same time, she remained the same as she was before:

My fashionable house and evenings,
What do I care for them?… At once I’d gladly
Give all the frippery of this masquerade,
All this glitter, and noise, and fumes,
For a shelfful of books, for a wild garden,
for our poor dwelling,

Tatyana still loves Onegin “I love you (why lie?)”, but she neglects her feelings in favor of stability.

Modern civilization was built on the Christian concepts of “heaven”, “hell”, “kingdom of heaven”, which are the basis of the stability of the European world. The Grand Inquisitor explained that only the one who seduces and calms their conscience will seize the freedom of people: they will throw their bread and follow him. Why live if neither “heaven” nor “hell” nor “the kingdom of heaven” exists, and worldly entertainment is so perishable?

Without a firm idea of what he should live for, a person will not agree to live and will sooner destroy himself than remain on earth, even if all around him were bread.

The concept of the stability of society, as a single organism, is a big topic, taking its foundations in Chinese philosophy. This refers to the “Tao Te Ching” attributed to the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu and, of course, the teachings of Confucius. There is no biographical information about Lao Tzu. If Dostoevsky’s work is compared with mechanics, which studies the movement of individual bodies and the interaction between them, then Leo Tolstoy is statistical physics — a science that describes the characteristics of systems with a very large number of degrees of freedom, such as liquids or gases. If Dostoevsky is the science of man, then Leo Tolstoy is the science of society.

The book “War and Peace” explains the principles of the stability of social systems no worse than Chinese philosophy. In the center of the story is an analysis of the Patriotic War of 1812, when the Russian army destroyed the great army of Napoleon without winning a single battle. For illustrating the principles of the Tao as applied to society, “War and Peace” is the best book, and Leo Tolstoy is the best soul mate for Lao Tzu.

Author of “The Word” → Sergey Yesenin

The “Resurrection” (or “Sunday”) of Leo Tolstoy describes the birth of a new one, just as the embryo of a plant arises from a cutting. Maslova was rejected by society and as a result she began a completely new life in exile. Interestingly, the Talmud was created in the diaspora after Jews lost their state, and was oriented specifically for life in the diaspora.

In the eighth chapter of “Eugene Onegin”, when Eugene tried to seduce the married Tatyana, she very sharply rejected him: “But I am given to another; I will be faithful to him forever.” If she had violated the seventh commandment and thus enabled Yevgeny to violate the eighth, the story described by Leo Tolstoy in the book “Anna Karenina” could have turned out. This book illustrates the principles of instability in social systems and the reasons that can lead to their self-destruction.

From a formal point of view, Anna’s family life is quite satisfactory. She has a husband whom she really doesn’t love or respect, she has a position in society, a child. However, such a life for a young woman is tantamount to a slow death — she wants to love and feel. After the handsome Vronsky appears before her, she is ready to neglect everything for the sake of her feelings. As they would say today, it only needs a “drive”. True, if not for Vronsky, it could have been anyone else. If Tatyana had not had the experience of communicating with Onegin and his books in the countryside, she might well have done the same as Anna Karenina.

An analysis of Yesenin’s biography shows that the fatal and tragic events in his life began only after meeting the wealthy American dancer Isadora Duncan, who actually opened all the charms of foreign countries for him. Before meeting her, he did not drink. Money and “drive” appeared in his life, which ended in alcoholism and insanity, depriving him of the desire to live on. If he had not met Duncan, or if she had passed by, Yesenin’s life could have been completely different. It’s hard not to crash on a slippery highway when the brakes fail. Isadora played in his life the same role that Vronsky played in the life of Anna Karenina and possibly Marina Vlady in the life of Vysotsky.

I was looking for happiness in this woman,
And accidentally found death.
I did not know that love is an infection,
I didn’t know love was a plague,
That approached with a narrowed eye
And drove the bully crazy.¹⁰

It can be assumed that the desire to “break away” and take a walk to your heart’s content was programmed in Yesenin’s soul by his “karma”. Obviously, if a person or even nation deprives himself of something for a long time or is limited in some way, then subconsciously he will strive to fulfill the infringed desires. A monk who is a bully at heart, born again, will not continue to mortify the flesh, but on the contrary will come off to the fullest. Much in the character and life of Yesenin can be explained if in a past life he was a monk who lived in the XIV century. Russian people during serfdom also lived like a monk. Revolutions quite legally permitted these people to reveal their true qualities.

One of the mysteries of history to this day is the authorship of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”. It is proved that this work was created in antiquity, but it is not possible to find the author in the XIII century. At the same time, not a single word remained from Sergius of Radonezh, who blessed Dmitry Donskoy for the Battle of Kulikovo and undoubtedly gained wide popularity and love. It can be assumed that one word still remained from him and this is “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (“The Word”). This poem was written in imitation of the Kievan chronicles on the basis of real historical material and aimed, in addition to figurative language, to inspire the Russians to war against the Mongol-Tatar yoke. The language of “The Tale about Igor’s Campaign” fully reflects the Old Russian texts on which lad Bartholomew studied in Rostov the Great.

The poem of Sergius is the Renaissance in Rus’, forgotten for centuries. Perhaps the creation of Russian folk tales belongs to the same period, the real author of which could also be Sergius of Radonezh and his “Pegasus Stall” at the Makovets tract. Russian society reacted to the wide popularity of a talented writer exclusively utilitarian — in Rus’ there is no use for poems and fairy tales. The creation of its own Moscow holy wonderworker, who spends his life in prayer, and who is visited by the Mother of God herself, is, on the contrary, what is needed. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” has come down to us because it was accidentally lost among the Byzantine chronicles, and fairy tales were retold for centuries at bedtime for children.

To demonstrate that the official biography of Sergius of Radonezh is completely worthless, we can recall that the real surname of the youth Bartholomew has not come down to us. For what purpose his surname need to be hidden from his biography? Maybe Bartholomew’s father, taken to responsible service by Ivan Kalita from Rostov the Great as head of the Radonezh fortress located in a key position between Moscow and Pereslavl Zalessky, was a baptized Tatar? Only thanks to the strong Tatar community of Rostov, the punitive army of Akhmylov in 1322, among which was Ivan Kalita, spared this city. At the same time, Yaroslavl was burned.

The Mongol-Tatar yoke was not only a “yoke”, but also a mutually beneficial alliance between the Golden Horde and the Moscow princes, who, using the military power of the Horde were able to unite the small Russian principalities into one strong state. Even the Orthodox leaders of the Moscow state were friends with the Horde, supporting this alliance. Alexander Nevsky, who was the adopted son of Batu Khan, was canonized by the Orthodox Church in the guise of holy miracle workers. Creativity of Sergius of Radonezh on the example of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” was for the union of Moscow and the Horde something like Vronsky for Anna and Alexei Karenin and became one of the main reasons for the significant rise in the national self-consciousness of the Russians and the further destruction of the Moscow-Tatar “union”, that is, the national “yoke”. How Anna should call her union with husband — an alliance or a yoke?

The artistic value of “The Tale of Igor” seems much lower than that of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” or Cervantes’ “Don Quixote”, but one must take into account how and under what conditions the “The Tale” (or “The Word”) was created. Neither Dante nor Cervantes could write a single line there. Suffice it to recall how contemporaries and descendants reacted to the only literary masterpiece of the entire medieval history of Rus’. This was the Monument in the Desert! Pushkin wrote:

Europe was flooded with an incredible multitude of poems, legends, satires, romances, mysteries, and so on, but our ancient archives and vivliophics, apart from chronicles, offer almost no food to the curiosity of prospectors. Several fairy tales and songs, constantly updated by oral tradition, have preserved the half-erased features of the people, and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” rises as a solitary monument in the desert of our ancient literature.¹¹

The reasons for the fall of the Western Roman Empire at the very peak of its development are not entirely clear to this day. There is an opinion that the fall of the state historically associated with the pagan religion was predetermined by the development of Christianity. Rome was looking for happiness in Christianity, but found only death. In the Gospels, Rome is not designated as an enemy, but it was the Roman Empire, with the consent of the Jewish high priests, who executed Jesus. As a result during development of Christianity on the territory of the Roman Empire almost not a single monument to the Roman emperors remained. The bronze Marcus Aurelius survived only due to the fact that in the Middle Ages it was believed that this is a monument to Constantine the Great, who allowed Christianity to be practiced. This version of Rome downfall is well demonstrated by the downfall of USSR. The great and mighty Union fell apart almost immediately after private enterprise was allowed there and the communist ideology was devalued. The surviving monuments to Lenin can be counted today with fingers.

The hypothesis that the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” was Sergius of Radonezh, who thus raised the national consciousness of Russians, I examined in the book “Do not make an idol”¹². In the same place, I analyze the kinship of Sergei Yesenin and Sergius of Radonezh souls.