What happens to one's Soul during Anabiosis? Vladimir's Experience of Anabiosis

But here’s what’s interesting. If a person – who is a thinking being – falls into a deep sleep in the winter, then what happens to his Soul during this period? I haven’t come across any hypotheses at all about this in scientific writings. But it is an extremely interesting question.

  One day I, too, had occasion to partially experience the unusual state of anabiosis for myself. This happened when I was in the taiga in late fall. Where Anastasia lives, the days at that time of year are very short. When it began to get dark, Anastasia suggested I take a rest. I immediately agreed. The accumulated fatigue of city life and my taxing journey through the taiga were already driving me toward sleep.

  This time the dug-out was full of more hay than usual. Since I knew you don’t get cold sleeping in hay even when it’s below zero, I stripped down to my underwear and lay down, putting my jacket beneath my head.

  “It’s already time for you to be waking up, Vladimir,” Anastasia said, waking me.

  I felt her massaging my right hand, and I looked toward the entrance of the dug-out. Its opening was barely visible. That meant the sun hadn’t yet come up.

  “Why do I need to wake up? The dawn is just breaking.”

  “It’s the third dawn since you went to sleep that’s breaking, Vladimir.Should you not wake up, your sleep might continue for several months and even years. Your Soul, since it won’t need to worry about keeping your body safe, will want to have a rest and wander around other worlds in the Universe. No one would be able to bring it back until it decides on its own that it wants to come back.”

  “So that means it wasn’t with me while I was sleeping?”

  “It *was* with you Vladimir, right alongside you. It was waiting for your sleep to become more even, and deeper, and then it would have been able to take its leave. But I decided to wake you.”

  **“But why doesn’t your Soul leave when you fall into a deep sleep?”**

  “My Soul leaves, too, but it always comes back right on time. After all, I don’t torment it.”

  “What do you mean? You mean I torment my soul?”

  “Vladimir, every person who falls prey to harmful habits and thought patterns, and who consumes harmful food, brings torment first and foremost to his Soul.”

  “What importance does food have for the Soul? What, does it also consume the food a person eats?”

  “The Soul doesn’t feed on material food, Vladimir, but it is able to see, hear and actualize itself only through your body. If the body is unhealthy, if, for example, a person is drunk and his body is helpless, then the Soul, as if it were bound, has no way of manifesting and actualizing itself. It can only feel, only weep over the helpless body that has been destroyed by the harmful drink. It can only attempt to warm damaged organs of the body, and it will expend a colossal amount of energy as it does so. When the Soul’s energy is exhausted, it becomes powerless and leaves the human body. The body dies.”

  “Yes, Anastasia. What you’ve said about the Soul is interesting and, it seems, accurate. Because there’s a folk saying: when a person dies, they say that he ‘gave up his Soul to God.’ What we get in your interpretation is ‘the Soul ran out of strength.’ Hmm, I wonder – does my Soul still have strength left?”

  “Since it came back, that means your Soul still has strength, Vladimir. But please, try not to torment it.”

  “I will try. But wait, doesn’t a person’s Soul get a rest when he’s sleeping?”

**“The Soul is energy, Vladimir. A living energetic complex. Energy doesn’t need rest.”**

  “But what do you think, Anastasia, where does the Soul go off to during sleep?”

  “It can go off to other dimensions, soar among the planets of the Universe. And if the person wishes it to do so, it can gather information he needs. For example, if the person wants to learn something about the past or future, he can ask his Soul as he falls asleep to visit the time and place that interests him, and the Soul will fulfill his wish. But if the person sleeps an ordinary sleep that isn’t sufficiently peaceful, and if the environment is not ideal, then the Soul can’t go off anywhere. It has to guard his body.”

  **“From whom?”**

  “From all manner of hostile influences. You sleep in your apartment, Vladimir, and its walls are filled to bursting with electrical wires, and the wires give off radiation that adversely affects people. Sounds of the artificial world force their way in through the glass. The air in the apartment is not entirely healthy to breathe. Your Soul cannot leave you alone. It has to be able to wake you in the case of a critical situation.”

  “I get it, Anastasia. This dug-out I slept in is actually a great deal more comfortable than the most elegant bedrooms in today’s hotels and apartments. It’s like some kind of hypobaric chamber. The air here is ideal, and there are no harmful rays and noise, and the temperature is stable. And so I sleep much better in it than I do in my apartment. I understand that, and I’ve experienced it for myself. But I don’t get why it is, when you fall asleep for a long time, that it doesn’t bother your Soul that your body is resting in adug-out where the entrance isn’t even shut up. And if there’s some danger – say there are some intruders – there won’t be anybody to wake it up.”

  “Vladimir, any time anyone makes the slightest attempt to approach the glade we’re in, no matter what their intentions, the entire space within a radius of three kilometers is put on its guard. The animals, birds and plants begin sounding the alarm. Those who are approaching will be gripped by terror, and if they succeed in overcoming it and aren’t thrown off course, then the space – by means of the animals – will wake the body and call theSoul back.”

  “What about in the winter, when everything’s asleep?”

  “Not everything is asleep in the winter. Besides, in the winter, it is easier for those who are awake to keep watch over what goes on.”

  I don’t understand everything Anastasia said about the Soul during her winter sleep period, but I have had occasion to see for myself the way the wild animals and birds bring Anastasia troubling or happy news.

  Now that I’m familiar with the way Anastasia thinks of sleep, I can draw the following conclusion:

  **Modern man and mankind as a whole don’t have any opportunity to get enough good sleep**. Besides the fact that modern bedrooms can’t measure up to the natural one, we have to add one more factor that’s also of some importance: modern man is continually caught up in a whirlwind of everyday worldly concerns, and he often keeps on thinking about them as he falls asleep. And if that’s the case, then the question arises of how man is using the energy of his Soul – his Soul, which is capable of learning about other worlds when a person is sleeping and bringing him information about them when he wakes. Perhaps we need to construct our bedrooms so that no random sounds will penetrate it and so there are no wires and telephones in it. It’s possible for us to achieve this. It’s more complicated to manage the necessary air quality.