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[Alexandr Korol]

with it — how it will turn out. That is, it’s like I already see it in the future — how it functions, even what it looks like. And if someone proposes something to me and I don’t see it in the future, I simply say “no,” because it just doesn’t exist there, it won’t work out, it won’t happen. Everyone was always dissatisfied, everyone argued with me. But nothing ever worked out for anyone in the cases where I said it wouldn’t. So I’m very clear on that — you can’t even imagine how many people constantly tried to use me or lure me into their projects just because of this way of thinking. Because, you see, I calculate these risks, everything is clear. But you see, I didn’t come to Earth to make money — I came to write books. That’s the mission. If the mission had been to make money, I’d be making money. Or if the mission had been to write books about money — well, I’d be writing that. But as you can see, my mission is completely different. Different. I can’t do everything at once. I can’t be a chef and show you unique new salads I invented and write books at the same time. So let others handle the salads, and that’s actually great — just imagine how much there is out there where each of you can express your own strengths and potential.

Question: A question about faith. In the book, you write: “Maybe it’s an illusion meant to awaken faith in me, the same faith I awaken in you, so that it becomes a stimulus, a meaning of life, since people are losing that more and more.” Please tell me, there were moments when the higher power left you — how did you maintain your faith during those times without falling into paradoxes? What were your thoughts? Did you see it as a test or as punishment for something? You continued to live a righteous life, but the silence went on and there were no signs — was there despair in such moments?

The question is, of course, a bit awkwardly phrased, because at the beginning you quote a passage from the book. That part was about how this whole story might be just an illusion, but one that doesn’t let me get lost in this world, in our current time, right now. That this illusion gives faith to me and to the readers, and maybe in reality nothing exists, and it’s just a fairy tale — but one that keeps me afloat. Because it’s true, if not for this fairy tale, if not for this book, where would I be? Who would I be? What would I be doing now? I don’t know. Maybe I would have hit rock bottom, like many people. I don’t know. And just like them, I might not have even realized I was at the bottom.