Alexandr Korol

And the conclusion I noted down for the book is this: let’s say you feel like eating a whole tub of ice cream even though you’ve got a sore throat. The mind will say, “That’s stupid. People don’t do that. If your throat hurts, you absolutely can’t eat ice cream at three in the morning.” But if you’re truly in the world of heaven, and you know it, and you trust those feelings — you go and buy the ice cream at three a.m., eat it — and your throat might actually heal. That’s the paradox. It feels scary to trust your feelings, even when you’re certain you’re in the world of heaven, because those desires can seem so strange. But that’s the very point I wanted to capture.

And also from something curious that I wrote down, imagine, yesterday I wake up, I have a dream within a dream, a man, a Muslim, somewhere on the street some vendor gives me some food, and the Muslim says: “This, I hope, is not pork?” I answer: “No-no-no.” He says: “Be careful, pork is forbidden.” I answer: “Of course.” And I think: “Yes, that’s it, I will not eat pork anymore.” I wake up, and then, imagine, two more signs during the day about the fact that pork must not be eaten, this is a paradox. Why it must not be eaten, I do not know, in my case. Maybe it concerns me personally. Maybe there is some sacred meaning in it. But I was told directly, pork must not be eaten anymore. I think, okay, understood. From all sides it was said, I will not eat pork anymore. But in principle I probably do not eat it anyway, I think now. Of course, maybe in some sausage it could be there. But no, it must not be. Must not. I do not know whom this concerns, all people or only me. But the conclusion is this — enough eating piglets, enough.