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[Alexandr Korol]

I even wrote many books about this — why, for example, one schoolboy ends up in a bar with his friends, and someone offers him a cigarette, and although he knows he shouldn’t, he agrees, while another boy refuses and says, “No, I’m against it.” That choice doesn’t just happen randomly. There’s a kind of scale, like an equalizer. If that boy who agreed to smoke had prayed before that meeting, then it’s as if his faith, his conscience, would have been stronger, and by contrast, he would better distinguish light from darkness and see that this was dark. And he would say, “No.” He would feel it as “ugh.” But if that boy had already been doing all kinds of little bad things at home that day, thinking they weren’t connected, but actually darkening his soul, then when someone offers him that cigarette, he no longer sees it as something terrible. He thinks, “Why not?” And why does he see it that way now? Because he didn’t pray, because he doesn’t look at a blessed icon, and he didn’t set up a red corner with icons at home. But now it’s also such a time — I’m afraid to set up a red corner at home because I’m afraid people will judge me and tear me apart. That’s just the time we live in. So I keep all of it in a box and take it out when needed. But that was before. I’m talking about earlier times, when I could still see people, someone might come visit and get scared. But now I don’t see anyone, so I don’t have to hide it. Still, yes, people somehow don’t like this, but that’s a sign. A pure person wouldn’t react that way. So yes, this whole story with the card led me to start collecting everything that radiates energy, as a source of life, as if it’s a connection to that source. That’s why when relics of a saint are brought somewhere, people stand in line day and night just to touch them. I don’t mock that like some people do, thinking it’s nonsense. It’s not nonsense. Because the person who stood there and finally touched it — they cleansed themselves through that and became stronger against all temptations. And now is especially a time of temptation. That’s how it is. And I think that ultimately the higher powers, life, fate gave me all those signs about these stones and artifacts probably just so I could protect myself somehow with their help. And as for me — everything that happens to me, that’s what I write about. That’s it. And of course, it’s your choice. Someone got inspired and went and bought an icon, and someone laughed at it, and someone judged it. That’s your choice.