HAVE you ever read a book that you liked so much it prompted you to translate it yourself into another language and hawk it around the shops and kiosks so that as many people as possible could get its message?
Probably not, but that’s what retired Greek Cypriot lawyer and pensioner George Psychis has done. Psychis dropped an English version of the translated book off at the Cyprus Mail’s offices some time before Christmas. It’s rather unsophisticated appearance meant it got buried under heaps of more newsworthy stuff for a couple of weeks, and was almost forgotten.
On rediscovery, the words “mind and spirit-expanding” on the back cover caught my eye and I thought perhaps I should read it, being a believer in coincidences and the more legal forms of mind expansion.
The book is called Anastasia and the Ringing Cedars of Siberia, written by a Russian author named Vladimir Megre, and first published ten years ago. A bit of research on the Internet revealed that Megre, a former businessman, had written seven books in the Anastasia series and that millions of copies had been sold in Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as in Germany.
Dozens of Anastasia book clubs abound in all these countries, and also apparently in Israel and in Canada, where the Anastasia philosophy is discussed, and trips are even organised to Siberia.
Psychis said he had read the English version of the first book – the only one translated into English so far (it’s free to download from the internet) – after it was recommended to him by the Russian wife of a friend in Cyprus. He liked it so much he decided to translate it himself into Greek. Although the book has been translated into 13 languages, Greek was not one of them.
Psychis has at his own expense printed 2,000 copies of the Greek version, as well as 1,000 in English. He has found it impossible to contact Megre, but he has opened a bank account in Cyprus for the Russian author. “I just wanted the message to be read by many people,” said Psychis, himself a long-time meditator, philosophy student and health writer.
As for the story… Well it’s easy to tell that Megre is no writer but that is not at issue and he freely admits it.
It begins with the author himself running boat expeditions in Siberia and stopping off at small settlements to trade with villagers. He meets two old men at one stage and they talk to him about the health-giving properties of the Siberian cedar trees. One of the men claims to be 119 years old and says the other man is his father.
Megre pays little attention as he is in a hurry, but he investigates their claims about the cedars when he returns home, and realises there is some truth to the claims. A year later, he returns to the same spot but does not find the old men, only a young girl, Anastasia.
She claims to live alone in the woods and lives off nature, although she has no house and no obvious means of support, except the occasional visit from two old men whom she claims are her grandfather and great grandfather.
Anastasia seems to be able to communicate with the animals, and the squirrels bring her the occasional snack. She is able to speak any number of foreign languages, even though she has visited the city only three times in her life and seems immune to the weather as well, running around half dressed in the Siberian forest.
Megre spends three days with Anastasia and she answers his questions about nature, healthy living, UFOs, people’s perceptions, pollution and other issues, and she tells him he will write nine books about her and her message to mankind, which is the importance of being more in tune with nature, as God designed man to be.
She explicitly tells Megre how plants should be grown to ensure their healing qualities. “There is only one main doctor and that is your own organism,” she tells him. “From the very beginning it has been given to man to know exactly what kind of herb to use and when. Anyone is able to do it subconsciously. God has given this ability to you and I am telling you a way to bring it back.”
OK, the theory seems a bit bizarre, as do many of the philosophies in the book, but Psychis decided to test the healing plants idea himself and was offered – by coincidence he says – a piece of land as a gift, where he has followed Anastasia’s instructions for the planting of seeds.
“I got a call from a girl in a village whose father is a shepherd. He showed me a piece of land outside the village and then offered it to me. After a week I went there and there was another man there with the shepherd and he told him that the piece of land he had given me was not good, and then that man offered me another plot. He even ploughed it for me. I planted some broad beans like it said in the book,” Psychis said. He is waiting for them to sprout.
He believes Anastasia exists and really lives in the Siberian forest. Megre is said to spend six months of every year with her. However, many others believe that she is a character dreamed up by Megre to express his philosophies. Yet others say it doesn’t matter if she exists or not, only the truths imparted through the books matter. Anastasia herself says: “I exist for those for whom I exist”.
The book is a little like Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet, in that it aims to answer some philosophical questions, but it’s simpler and less cryptic. The story about Anastasia herself will sound extremely far fetched from a worldly perspective, although it has been described by some reviewers, and people like George Psychis, as a “life-changing” experience they want to share with as many people as they can.
The English version of the first book can be read at www.spaceoflove.com or can be bought at bookshops and kiosks on the island, as can the Greek version, for £8.
