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1993 – "Cosmic Evolution of Mankind in the Light of the Living Ethics Energetic World Outlook” (October 8–10)
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Public and scientific conference on the subject "Cosmic Evolution of Mankind in the Light of the Living Ethics Energetic World Outlook” was held in Moscow from October 8 to 9, 1993. The conference organizer was the International Center of the Roerichs supported by the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Philosophy, the Russian Academy of Arts, the Institute of Youth – Center for Youth Training “Democracy and Development”, the Russian Cultural Foundation, the International Association of World Foundations. More than 800 representatives from Russia, CIS and other countries participated in the conference. The conference showed a high scientific level, for the first time it brought together such a considerable number of specialists and representatives of organizations and institutions studying the Living Ethics Teaching. The speakers included such major worldly known scientists as Academicians A. Yanshin and V. Struminsky, Professor G. Lebedev, Director of the International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics A. Akimov, Candidate of Philosophy L. Krashkina, Candidate of Physics and Mathematics L. Bakunin, Candidate of Technical Sciences A. Laptev, and others.
Extracts from reports
А. Yanshin
Academician, Chairman of the RAS Commission for Development of V. Vernadsky Scientific Heritage
(Moscow)
The Roerich family creative work, first of all that of Nicholas Roerich, to a great extent – of Helena Roerich, and of their two sons, both artistic and philosophic, is a major phenomenon in the world culture history. This is obvious due to even one fact that societies and circles for studying the Roerichs’ heritage exist not only in their Motherland, in this country, but in many other countries as well. To understand this creative work significance, it is necessary to leave behind routine problems and try to analyze at which stage of development is now the mankind populating this planet. <…>
It is necessary to understand and recognize that the humanity as a whole is drawn into a new stage of its existence. They speak about a new world, a cosmic stage of the mankind development… It is not so much of a dispute, not so much of a confusion, but it is just natural for an initial stage diversity of suggested terms. Me and my wife, same as other scholars of V. Vernadsky’s creative work, believe it is more correct to call the starting new stage noospheric. This term was suggested by French philosopher and mathematician Edouard Leroy after Vernadsky had delivered his lectures in Paris.
Vladimir Vernadsky himself accepted and elaborated this term in his studies starting from the middle of the 30s. It is necessary to understand its meaning. Noos is a Greek work which is usually translated as reason and often as mind. Therefore, great differences of opinion in determination of the noosphere starting point appeared. <…>
Noos is reason in terms of harmonious attitude of man towards the surrounding him world. V. Vernadsky wrote that we are just entering the epoch of noosphere, that we are just approaching it, and that the biosphere of the Earth will be inevitably transformed by the mankind’s intellect, by its collective labor, into a flourishing sphere of reason in which all the mankind’s material and spiritual needs will be satisfied. This is Vernadsky’s noosphere. It is the same as the Roerichs’ new world, same as Buddhists’ Shambala.
The new world does not come in a second, does not come simultaneously in different parts of the world, in different countries. On the Philippine Islands and in New Guinea, there are until today primitive tribes living in the stone age conditions. But still, a new movement has started in the man’s attitude towards surrounding him nature.
<…> many things harmful for the surrounding us world are still being done, but nevertheless, favorable conditions of man and nature harmonious coexistence for which the Roerichs called have started being recognized important for the whole mankind in the whole world. At that, one should always remember that the Roerichs’ creative work was first of all oriented at the moral, ethical aspect which is necessary for the humanity renaissance and future prosperity.
I will not dwell on the Roerichs’ creative work details, but I can say that it elevates the souls, calls us to more tolerant, friendly, gentle attitude towards any man, any living being on the Earth. So I feel happy to see in front of me, in this remote corner of Moscow, such a big audience which has in spite of all come together during such difficult for Russia days for a conference dedicated to problems of cosmic evolution of mankind. I express hope that next year, the year of Nicholas Roerich’s 120th anniversary, the situation in the country will be, probably, more peaceful than after the recent events, and probably, the government will recover from experienced calamities and show more attention to the Roerichs Center. I believe that we shall be able to celebrate such a significant for the mankind jubilee date with an even bigger audience. <...>
L. Shaposhnikova
the N. Roerich Museum General Director,
the ICR First Vice-President
(Moscow)
Culture and Civilization
<...> What is Culture and what is civilization – this problem should be only treated from the point of view of spirit and matter interaction, for Culture is a phenomenon of spirit acting in accordance with the laws of its energetics. It is from this point of view that the main notions and the main processes are considered in the Living Ethics.
Nicholas Roerich, great Russian painter and scientist, was one of the few in the XX century who understood the essence of true Culture and its cosmic role in human evolution. He comprehended its philosophic meaning and tried to show it to others in his creative work.
“The notions of Culture and civilization have to be repeated meaningfully, N. Roerich wrote. – Surprisingly, we can often notice that these notions, which seem so precisely determined by their roots, are already subject to reinterpretation and distortion. For example, until now, many people believe it is quite possible to substitute the word civilization for Culture. At that, it is absolutely overlooked that the root Cult itself has a very profound spiritual meaning, while civilization has in its root civil, public structure of life”.
Culture is a phenomenon of human creative activity spirit. Civilization, or simply organization of human life, in all its material, civil aspects is this activity matter. Both these types of activities, seemingly so closely interrelated, have different sources of origination and contain different essence and meaning. Identification of civilization and Culture results in confusion of the main notions, underestimation of the spiritual factor in the history of mankind. Substitution of one notion by the other is not innocent, it results in reveries of “thousand year kingdoms”, “eternally alive teachings”, “proletarian” and “bourgeois” cultures. This is what we have already passed and start to critically reconsider. <…>
We can refer to the sphere of Culture first of all those manifestations of the human spirit which as if on their own poured out of the secret depths of man himself and were natural to him. They had natural character, without them man would not have been able to remain human. Unlike the matter of civilization created by human hands and mind, the spirit of Culture seemed to be formed on its own, creating amazing and wonderful patterns of great creative work. We can refer to Culture those mysterious movements of our soul and heart which seem to naturally come out of us, are not creations of human mind. Let us consider religious feelings. Culture is always religious. Religious feeling is a natural quality of man, human mentality, human soul, human heart. <...> And when this religious feeling starts to be repressed by force and alienated by force from man, this brings devastating results, and we know quite well from the history of our latest decades what such violence over religious feeling brought to peoples.
Culture, unlike civilization, is a self-organizing system of spirit. In other words, self-organization of spirit is a form of existence of Culture. A new science, called synergy and born in the XX century, provides certain directions for finding out the laws of this ability for self-organization. <…>
Such high energetic manifestations of the human spirit as cordiality and love make integral part of Culture. Without these qualities, Roerich justly asserted, there is no cultural man. <…> Culture cannot exist without links to the Higher. <…>
When we say that the mankind is at a dead end, having flooded the planet with machines, having subdued man to these machines, having caused irreparable damage to the nature of the Earth, and, correspondingly, to man himself, we must understand that the reason for all this is the divergence of Culture and civilization, belittlement of Culture and extolment of material civilization. It resulted in everything going the wrong way. Not the way of evolution regulated by the Great Laws of Cosmos, but along a potholed road leading to a dead end and threatening with energetic catastrophes.
That is why both the great Teachers and Nicholas Roerich pay so much attention to Culture as a phenomenon promoting the evolution <…>.
<...> The new Teaching given by the cosmic hierarchs to our planet is called the Living Ethics. The Living Ethics realizes itself not through mythological images, not through religion, but through science, or that point of Synthesis which is related to the main trends of evolution. However, the science which was formed in the period of material civilization, science separated from Culture and moral problems, cannot become the point of creating Synthesis. It must go through a period of serious transformation. At the modern stage, science cannot be called science if it does not study new energies, and first of all, the psychic energy, or the worlds of other states of matter. Science, in particular with its knowledge and experience, must lead the mankind into the Infinity. Science of the future can play a most important evolutionary role in the future fundamental Synthesis of Culture and civilization. <...>
V. Strumninsky
Academician, Lenin and State Awards Winner
(Moscow)
Progress of Science and Art – New World Outlook
<...> Many shortcomings in society are due to the fact that science and art are actually separated from each other. Roerich’s thesis of their unification is very important. It should be developed in all ways. <...>
<...> live matter is radically different from all that environment in which we exist. And if such structures had appeared by chance, they would have been immediately destroyed by chaotic movement of that dead matter directed towards chaos and thermal death. That is live matter structures cannot be conceived on their own. But since <...> such complicated regulatory structures do exist on the Earth, they could only appear as a counterbalance to dead matter, with the help of powers having not material, but spiritual nature. <...>
It turned out that in the whole <...> Universe, beside the material constituent, there is also a spiritual constituent. It exists not only on the Earth, but on the other planets as well. <...>
Darwin himself (and he studied the structure of the human body complicated elements) used to say at the end of his life: “I am shivering with cold sweat… How can it be?! Such life cannot appear on its own. There must be the Almighty!” <...>
The humanity of the end of the XX century already relies on a new philosophy – dualist – which is supported by experimental and theoretical data and which recognizes existence of two sources in the Universe: the material and the spiritual. <...>
<...> the main destination of man is creation, first of all, in the human society, of regular organized spiritualized structures necessary for survival of civilization.
А. Akimov
Director of the International Institute of
Theoretical and Applied Physics
(Moscow)
World Physical Models
<...> Formulated concepts of modern theoretical experimental physics not only eliminate the abyss of alienation between the Living Ethics and orthodox science, but also erase borders between vulgar materialism and idealism. From the point of view of modern scientific understanding, what is called psychic energy in the Living Ethics is identical in its manifestations and coincides with torsion fields manifestations. Specialist in natural science sphere can now understand what psychic energy is using traditional for him categories, and supporter of the Living Ethics cosmic paradigm can understand what psychic energy is at the level of processes studied in physics. <…>
A few thousands years ago, the mankind lost harmony with itself, lost harmony with the nature, harmony with the Cosmos. The Living Ethics Teaching shows the way back to harmony. And if we comprehend the primary character of moral and spiritual elements in our civilization development in the third millennium, if we can reject the misleading concept of conquering the nature, we shall be able to return to the cosmic community, to life in accordance with the great laws of Cosmos.
G. Shipov
Chief of Laboratory of the International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics, Academician of the Academy of New Mentality, President of the Scientific Company for Venture and Non-Traditional Technologies
(Moscow)
Subtle Worlds in the Theory of Physical Vacuum
<…> It is usually considered that matter born from vacuum can exist in four phase states: solid, liquid, gaseous, and plasmic. It is these states of substance that are studied at schools and make subjects for scientific research in many institutes and universities. On the basis of obtained knowledge, our world outlook is formed, in particular, the philosophic thesis of materialism: matter is primary, mind is secondary. This thesis suggests perception of man as matter consisting of solid, liquid, and gaseous media which, in their turn, are formed by molecules, atoms, and elementary particles. Human mind, his psychics, emotional and mental possibilities in such picture of the world are derivatives from matter forming his physical body.
An absolutely different correlation between mind and matter follows from the theory of physical vacuum. It hosts subtle worlds related to human consciousness.
This kind of ideas first occurred to Eastern philosophers about five thousand years ago. They asserted in their treatises that the source of all is the Great Emptiness. Moreover, the ancient sources contain references to existence of subtle material worlds the laws of which are different from the laws of usual substance.
Religious books and ancient philosophic treatises contain information that, beside physical body, man possesses astral and mental bodies, that they are formed by subtle types of matter and are capable of preserving information about the man even after his physical body death.
Modern science only starts subtle worlds research. Interesting in this respect are the studies of the VII All-Union Conference “Theoretical and Experimental Problems of Relativity and Gravitation” published in Yerevan in 1988. Scientific confirmation of subtle worlds and subtle matter existence is delivered in my recently released study. Relying on the theory of vacuum which is based on the universal principle of relativity, it was possible to show that, beside the well-known four levels of reality (rigid body, liquid, gas, elementary particles), there is the fifth state in nature – vacuum, the sixth – primary torsion fields, and the seventh – Absolute Nothing; it makes seven levels of reality. <…>
Until now, orthodox physics did not recognize psychophysical phenomena. There was just no mathematical mechanism for their study. Presently, I am speaking cautiously, such mechanism has probably appeared. <…>
