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[Alexandr Korol]

that crazy one — remember the portrait on the wall, the one you’re afraid of because it looks alive? Well, he wrote these books and was obsessed with the idea that there was something hidden there — you know, at the dacha? Remember the dacha?” And some great-great-great-grandchild will find this book and start digging and drilling there. Wonderful. It’s wonderful to be a writer. I love putting on Russian films sometimes, especially when something was shot in Petersburg. Doesn’t matter what film — because when you watch it, it’s like you can visit some places in your own city. That’s such a joy. And it’s great when you can watch a film and then go to the exact place where Batman stood in Gotham. Right? And it’s the same with a book — it’s amazing that all the places in it are real, that people can actually walk around Petersburg, that they can really open a map and trace the matrix. It’s such a beautiful thing when you can go sit on the very bench I describe in some volume, when I write about sitting on that bench — and you, reading the book, can go there and sit on it too, because that’s where the character from the book sat. That’s incredible, it immerses you so deeply. So, about the question. It could be that the Mystic-Old-Man is in the Spirit or not in the Spirit, and that’s why the answers differ. Maybe it’s not about the question itself, but what else you’re thinking about, how focused you are. If you imagine a slightly different person or place, he may already interpret the question differently and answer differently. It also depends on your intentions. You see, all this time he never once told me that there was a tunnel where the mountain is. Not inside the mountain. And what’s interesting next? So he never mentioned this tunnel or saw it, but professionals from Moscow with equipment found it. Of course, I could ask the Mystic-Old-Man if there’s a tunnel there, and maybe now he’d say “yes,” whereas before he wasn’t allowed to say it — I don’t know. But I always keep in mind that everything is controlled by the system. If the system needs me to find something out now, I will. If it needs to be hidden, even the Mystic-Old-Man will tell me false information. And it’s not the Mystic-Old-Man’s fault — it just means it’s not time yet. That’s why you can always ask again. Imagine, I could ask the Mystic-Old-Man right now whether I should move to another country or city — and he’ll say “no.” But if I ask him again in six months, he might say “yes.” Because right now it’s not allowed, but in six months it is. And maybe he’ll say one city doesn’t fit, and another does — but in two or four years, he’ll say the opposite. We are living beings after all, and we change. Everything changes.