L.V. Shaposhnikova

HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS
OF THE NEW COSMIC MENTALITY

Regeneration of mentality must be affirmed as the basis of a better Epoch. Mentality is a pledge of success, a pledge of new construction, a pledge of a mighty future. The transformation of life is indeed affirmed by transmutation of mentality. In each process one can trace how mentality evolves or regresses. Besides inspired mentality, there acts the impulse of kindling the thought. Therefore the law of striving produces that conformity which brings the Worlds closer through a saturation with creative fire. To ponder over the trend of mentality already helps to shift the consciousness.

To understand scientifically means to place the phenomenon within the framework of scientific reality of Cosmos.

The best minds turn to the factors of interaction of Cosmic Forces with the fates of earthly nations.

Science and Meta-science

Knowledge and cognition are the basic constituents of the vast field of human culture.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, two principal trends of cognition were formed and brought to their relatively complete state: scientific and extra- scientific. Speaking about the scientific one, we primarily mean empiric materialistic science with its experimental method of cognition. The so- called extra-scientific trend combines a very wide range of different ways of cognition having, however, common principal characteristics. Extra- scientific method of cognition has been formed for many millenniums and developed through man, through his inner world. In other words, it has existed in the spiritual space the borders of which are much broader than those of the empiric science operating within the three-dimensional sphere of dense matter. The nature of spiritual space has determined characteristics of this way of cognition, the main method of which was speculation, or conceptual operation. While the scientific method of cognition is invariably limited by the conditions of an experiment as such. And though both methods had the same source of origin and seemed to supplement each other, empiric science did not take into account the extra-scientific method; at times the science arrogantly turned away from it and forgot that they were both fledgelings that had flown out from the same nest. And, having recourse to such a comparison, it should be said that the abovementioned «bird of cognition» was divided in two in the course of time, and it turned out that each of those two birds only had one wing. That is why both of them sometimes deviated from the right way, and their one-wing flight was dramatic and agonizing.

Up to now, the extra-scientific way of cognition is marked in our learned and educated world by such definitions as esoterics, occultism, mysticism, etc. None of them gives a clear idea of the knowledge itself and the ways it is procured; they rather contributes to all kinds of myths and misunderstanding. If we discard these archaic terms and take the notion of science as the basic one, this system of cognition might be called super- science, or meta-science. The meta-scientific way of cognition is entirely permeated with cosmism. The history of mankind testifies to the fact that the mythological consciousnesses as well as religious one were bound up with the Highest, with the Cosmos. The words can be very different, but their cosmic contents remain the same. Scientific mentality that came up to succeed mythological and religious mentality types was devoid of this kind of link, and, consequently, was devoid of corresponding methodological principles.

Coming from remote ages, the meta-scientific system of cognition preserved its accumulations mainly in the East, the most ancient part of our planet, and then took root in the West as well. It beared no relation to experiment as such, but used an evidence, or an information coming through inner world of a man from another sphere of Existence, or, in other words, from the space of matter of different states and dimensions. This information had one important quality — it was much ahead of the knowledge gained in the result of experiment, and, in many cases, it had a prophetic character. On this basis, a philosophy was created in which the method of bearing witness had a conceptual significance and carried within itself a form-building element. Such phenomena as dreams, visions, informative images coming from Cosmos, were referred to a witness, because, despite the subjective channel of interaction, they were quite objective and could be even utilized in practice. This kind of knowledge was denied not only by science, but by the Church too, despite the fact that the latter knew very well about the visions and prophecies of saints. Art should be also referred to the witness of the Higher World. Being the most mysterious of all spheres of human creativity, art, more than the other ones, is bound up with other domains of Existence from where are coming to man impulses of beauty and images of gnosiological information.

The consciousness levels of witnesses and their creations were different, but it would be good to mention among those the works of German philosopher Jacob Boehme (1575–1624). Being an example of daring dialectics (the world was considered there as a movement and combination of opposites), his book «Aurora, or Morning Redness in the Rising of the Sun» was an exceptionally valuable contribution to realizing of real Cosmos, and was used afterwards by representatives of German classic philosophy Hegel and Feuerbach. F. Engels called Boehme «a herald of philosophers to come.»[1]

In spite of this, Boehme’s works were forbidden in Russia in the Soviet period; and while the philosopher was still alive, his «Aurora» was anathematized by the Church.

Boehme’s witness of the Universe structure left far behind not only the science of that time, but even present-day science. It followed from that which he perceived with his spiritual eyes that man was identical to Cosmos, and the human heart was the centre of the World. Neither science, nor theology affirmed anything like that at that time. And one can only be amazed at insight of F. Engels who, without any doubt, included Boehme’s speculative knowledge in the philosophy to come the approach of which he must have intuitively sensed. Boehme gave unique evidence of the most important character of the place of Man in the Universe. As a witness of Cosmos, Boehme was much higher than his contemporaries who, pro- bably, did not even suspect that this kind of evidence might exist.

Division of cognition systems into scientific and extra-scientific, or meta-scientific, was as fruitless as separation of spirit from matter, even if it were only by convention. Even if such divisions had not completely blocked the science progress by the 20th century, then, in any case, they had blocked the way to the proper comprehension of discovered phenomena.

Three Cultural and Historical Types of Mentality

It is commonly recognized that humanity has passed three stage, or types of mentality, or consciousness, in its history. Or it has rather passed the first two stage, and is at the end of the third one now. In terms of time, it turned out to be the shortest. The forth one is approaching. Which one — this is what we are to find out. Each of these three types of mentality — mythological, religious, scientific, had its own peculiarities, developed its own culture, formed its own epoch. Each type was formed in the depths of the previous one. And only mythological consciousness did not have a «support», or precedent systematic mentality, in the depths of which it could have been conceived. There lies one of its secrets. Everything in it seems to be a mystery: its integrity, imagery, as well as a wise profoundness of this imagery, and mysterious language of symbols used by man while acting and creating in the space of mythological mentality. And something else: mythology itself comprises a number of specific features which are difficult to explain. The knowledge contained in myths originate, as a rule, from cosmogonic concepts. And secondly: mythological knowledge has proved to be common for far distanced from each other peoples. This common character made such an impression upon oneself as if someone unknown and ubiquitous threw on the Earth a handful of magic seeds and they sprouted as wise myths which contained everything, and from which all our knowledge and skills sprung up. Mexican scholar F.D. Infante writes: «Religions, philosophic systems, art, social forms of primitive and contemporary man’s existence, the first scientific and technical discoveries, even poignant dreams — all this flows out of a single mythological source.»[2]

An interesting cultural and historical paradox took place in the space of mythological mentality. On the one hand, mythological mentality had no precedent in the Earth history, or, at least, we do not know about it. On the other hand, it turned out to be the most universal in comparison with the two subsequent ones. Cultural and historical logic is broken in this paradox to such an extent, that we cannot give an explanation to it within the limits of earthly information. Everything in mythology is amazing and improbable. Its characters act in the circumstances where time and space are different from those of our ordinary world; the characters themselves have qualities which are not typical of an earthly man. Texts of meta- scientific knowledge suggest an idea that the source of earthly mythology was Cosmos where there are the worlds with a subtler state of matter and higher dimensions than those of our physical world. In other words, the initial mythological information is cosmic by origin; it came to the Earth from another sphere of Existence, and thus laid our fundamental knowledge and the main types of mentality which afterwards developed from that same mythology. It is least of all possible to believe that mythology could have been the fruit of human imagination. But there is no doubt about the fact that mythology initiated human imagination as a method of cognition.

It is Cosmos and processes taking place in it that are the subject, or regulating element in mythology. While man is but an object of Personified Cosmos’ acts. The problem of subject—object which we are considering in the space of mythological mentality can be only set by convention. The fact is that so-called divisional, or analytical, approach is alien to mythology as an integral phenomenon. And that is why the subject and the object are not divided, but are so closely interconnected that it is extremely difficult to separate one from the other. The regulating element and the subordinate one make a single whole both in space and time, and they supplement each other. And it is only religious mentality followed mythological mentality that separates one from the other, what results in the quality change of both. This circumstance greatly influenced the forming of scientific mentality which arose in the depths of religious mentality.

In this respect, an extremely negative role was played by the Inquisition which did not only personify the struggle of the Church for faith and its purity, but also waged a real war against everything new, and, first of all, against new ideas. The Inquisition ruthlessly haunted all those who carried new knowledge. Many outstanding scientists of the Middle Ages went through torture cells, were burned alive, closed their days in confinement. Absolute power of the Church and feudal oppression which set in in secular society caused to increase the liberal tendencies. Freedom and scientific mentality developed side by side. Liberal spirit of the French Encyclopaedists, their anti-church stand, and, later, the Great French Revolution, marked the beginning of scientific mentality liberation from the heavy Medieval fetters, and, first of all, from the Church supervision over thought. Clerical fanaticism resulted in distortions in the spiritual space of European mentality; and it is created a number of negative features in the initial stratum of scientific mentality which came out of the religious Middle Ages as mechanistic and materialistic, atheistic, and empiric. The Church itself rendered godless the new mentality, having cut off its link with the Highest. The new science put a liberally mentality man in place of the God, having turned him into the subject and regulating element. As to the God himself, he was abolished in science. When, for example, outstanding astronomer Laplace was explaining principles of celestial mechanics to Napoleon who showed interest for this subject, and when the latter asked about the place of the God in all that, Laplace answered him: «Sir, I do not need such a hypothesis.» Undisguised atheism, mechanical materialism, the lack of a cosmic conception in the theory of cognition formed the specific features of the European scientific mentality, which were far from being the best.

New Cosmic Mentality Conception and Establishment

At the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century, Spiritual Revolution in Russia began, which resulted in the so-called Silver Age phenomenon in Russian culture and philosophic thought. The Silver Age brought dazzling flashes of art and philosophy flourishing as well as conception of new scientific mentality. Unfortunately, in the works on the history of Russia and its culture, the Spiritual Revolution which gave so much to Russia in general, was not favoured with mentioning. The reasons for that are various historical circumstances which had been formed in Russia by the beginning of the 20th century. The main of them lies in the fact that the Spiritual Revolution coincided to a certain extent with a social revolution which took place in 1917 and got the name of the October Revolution. And then, that great opposition of the two revolutions began which resulted first in slowing down, and finally—in the attenuation of the Spiritual Revolution. However, the latter, being based on the energetics of human spirit and culture, could not completely disappear from the country’s historical arena, for it carried within itself a potential for subsequent development. Being guided by intransient values which were related to human creativity, the Spiritual Revolution was programmed for a long time, and there was no way to stop its progress completely. Unlike the social revolution, the Spiritual one was linked up with the spiritual and energetic processes going on within man himself. While the social revolution was only preoccupied with the outer side of human existence and set forth as primary the problems of class struggle, oppressed classes’ economic well-being, and transfer of power from ruling classes to the oppressed ones.

The world outlook platform of the Russian social revolution was the 19th-century sociological world perception which was based on prominent German scientist Carl Marx’ social and economic doctrine. And this doctrine served as the foundation of the Russian social revolution ideology. While the social revolution activities range was limited by an earthly country historical borders, the Spiritual Revolution spread its wings into Cosmos and acted in the space of the energetic corridors of cosmic evolution uniting the earthly and the heavenly into a single whole. It laid the basis for cosmic re-orientation of the most important forms of cognition, such as philosophy, science, art, and religious experience.

Spiritual Revolution of the 20th century in the space of which new cosmic world perception mentality was being formed, carried within itself a tendency for synthesis of scientific and extra-scientific methods of cognition. This tendency was most expressed in the works of the Silver Age philosophers closely linked up with the problems of cultural and spiritual evolution of man.

Among those philosophers, there were such high minds as Vladimir Solovyev, Pavel Florensky, Sergei Bulgakov, Nikolai Berdayev, Ivan Ilyin, and others. The Silver Age philosophers’ creations, such as «Chteniya o bogochelovechestve» («Readings on God-Made-Man»), «Opravdaniye dobra. Nravstvennaya filosofiya» («The Vindication of Good. A Moral Philosophy») by V.S. Solovyev; «Filosofiya svobody» («Philosophy of Freedom»), «Smysl tvorchestva» («The Meaning of the Creative Act»), «Sud’ba Rossii» («The Fate of Russia»), «Tvorchestvo i ob’ectivizatsia» («Creativity and Objectivization»), «Tsarstvo dukha i tsarstvo kesarya» («The Realm of Spirit and the Realm of Caesar») by N.A. Berdayev; «Stolp i utverzhdeniye istiny» («The Pillar and Affirmation of the Truth»), «Mnimosty v geometrii» («The Imaginary Quantities in Geometry»), «Obratnaya perspectiva» («The Reverse Perspective»), «Obshchechelovecheskiye korni idealizma» («Common Human Roots of Idealism») by P.A. Florensky; «Svet neve- chernyi» («Undying Light»), «Dva grada» («Two Cities») by S.N. Bulgakov; «Put’ k ochevidnosti» («Path to Obviousness») by I.A. Ilyin, etc., were original, they did not contain traditional imitations of Western schools’ writers. Moving aside from small political issues, from routine being matters, the Russian philosophers placed in the middle of their researches a man; they investigated his spirit characteristics, his evolutionary fate, and the role of the Highest in all that. Sociological mentality with its traditional one-sided approaches could not answer many questions set forth before Russia and the world at large by the events of cosmic scale. The Russian thinkers intuitively sensed those energetic changes which evolution of Cosmos and man of the 20th century carried within itself. They, those thinkers, passed, according to N.A.Berdayev, into «a different conceptual dimension», anticipated the energetic integrity of the Universe and its inseparable link with the being of man.

The scientific explosion of the 1920s to a great extent favoured the development of this process. Natural sciences, first of all physics, methodologically found themselves in a critical situation. Under preset experimental conditions, matter began behaving in an unpredictable way. The indivisible became divisible; vigorous energetic activity was found in invisible spaces; «pure» experiments in atomics began being affected by the subtle energetics of an experimenter himself; some «non-material» structures and particles appeared in matter. The new mentality being formed in the space of the Spiritual Revolution, set forth new tasks before scientific thought, and the most distinguished scientists attacked them. The accumulations of «extra-scientific» spheres of human knowledge were in demand again. Discoveries of great scientists, such as V.I.Vernadsky, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, A.L. Chizhevsky, P. Teilhard de Chardin, Nilse Bohr, Albert Einstein, combined science and meta-science. An integral approach towards manifestations of nature and human society was being formed in their studies.

Scientists turned their attention to forgotten ideas of ancient sages concerning close interaction between man, the planet, Cosmos, and fundamental oneness of Macrocosm and microcosm. Those ideas were proved by scientific discoveries. It was especially speculative philosophy of the East that gave so much for comprehension of the new discoveries. New cosmic world perception introduced the category of spirit into science, brought scientists closer to studying different states of matter, and made them look for an experimental corroboration of an existence of such matter.

Clearly outlined borders between scientific and meta-scientific methods became kind of blurred; scientific thought current turned to synthesis realizing within the limits of various manifestations of cosmic and planetary nature. V.I. Vernadsky’s teaching about biosphere and noosphere developed in his unique study «Nauchnaya mysl kak planetnoye yavleniye» («Scientific Thought as a Planetary Phenomenon») was one of the first scientific results of the new cosmic mentality at the «evolution which has become aware of itself» (P.Teilhard de Chardin) level.

V.I. Vernadsky stated that noosphere, or sphere of reazon, the next, higher stage in the Earth biosphere development, is the result of conscious mental activity of man. He was convinced of the necessity of an appearance of new science which will be «more up-to-date than the modern science, more tolerant to new ideas and new achievements of human genius.»[3]

In quiet provincial Kaluga, man of genius K.E. Tsiolkovsky wrote and spoke about spiritualized Cosmos, about rational forces in it, about unconquerable will of the Universe, and the hierarchy of highly developed beings. «The will of man,» he asserted, «and of any other creatures, both superior and inferior, is only manifestation of the will of the Universe. The voice of man, his thoughts, discoveries, concepts, truths, and delusions, are but the voice of the Universe.»[4]

Outstanding scientist of the 20th century A.L. Chizhevsky experimentally found a certain dependence the functions of the human organism and human society on the solar activity, and, in particular, on the sun-spots rhythm. Proceeding from the conception of man and Cosmos oneness, interaction between man and the Sun, he established cycles and rhythms of the Sun influence on health, social activity of man, and earthly historical process as a whole. These investigations broke all borders between natural and humanitarian sciences reserving causal priority for the natural ones. In his studies, the scientist wrote about great electric and magnetic life of the Universe and laid the first bricks in the foundation of the energetic world outlook of the 20th century. Summing up his inordinary researches results, Chizhevsky kept advancing in his cosmic search. «Proceeding from the aforesaid, one should conclude that there is some extra-terrestrial force affecting the course of events in human societies from outside. Simultaneousness of solar and human activities fluctuations serves as the best indication of this force existence.»[5]

Many scientific discoveries of the 20th century directly related to «extra-scientific» information concerning primarily problems of space in which the main mysteries of the Universe were contained. The first steps in this line were made in the 19th century by Russian scientist N.I. Lobachevsky who developed a theory of non-Euclidean geometry; it overthrew our ideas of the very nature of space which turned out to be not so flat and unequivocal as according to Euclid. Beyond the limits of mechanistic and material world, something unseen with our physical eyes, yet really existing and yielding to research by scientific thought was discovered. Invisible space carried within itself new dimensions the information on which came from meta-scientific sphere.

Following Lobachevsky, in 1907–1908, German scientist Germann Minkovsky commenced discoursing not on space as such, but on space- time as an integral phenomenon. In the result, Minkovsky came to the conclusion that there exist a certain fourth space-and-time co-ordinate. That which appeared in spiritual illuminations of meta-science has turned out to be reality of present-day science. In Albert Einstein’s Relativity this co-ordinate was established as the fourth dimension.

Taking into account that light velocity of 300,000 km/sec has material limits, Einstein came close to hypothesis of superlight space existence.

Real conception of spirit and anticipation of revolutionary changes in science, together with ideas of invisible spaces and worlds of different matter states, were gradually entering science and its paradigm. Cosmic evolution called for those thinkers and scientists who had the straight- knowledge and were possessed of an ability for synthesis. P.A. Florensky was such a man; he was a great scientist, priest and theologian, unique philosopher who perfectly appreciated art as the most important way of cognition, and broadly used other worlds’ evidences.

«In geometry», he wrote in his «Mnimosti v geometrii» («The Imaginary Quantities in Geometry»), «we study space—not lines, points, and surfaces as such, but just the properties of space which manifest themselves in these particular spatial formations.»[6] He set himself the task «to broaden the sphere of two-dimensional images of geometry in such a way, so that imaginary forms be included in the system of spatial notions. In short, it is necessary to find place in space for imaginary forms without taking anything from the real forms which have already found their places.»[6] The scientist fulfilled this task and perceived the properties of space, making use of not only geometry, but that which seemed quite an unexpected source for science, namely, «Divine Comedy» by Dante. Dante was not only a great poet, but a great esoteric; he possessed secret knowledge and belonged to so-called «witness» line of meta-scientific knowledge. Dante’s descriptions of the Universe structure in «Divine Comedy» were so real that served as the basis for Florensky to make his analysis of «the imaginary quantities in geometry». In Dante’s cosmology, the scientist has found «anticipation of non-Euclidean geometry.»[6]

In conclusion of his study, Florensky infered: «The area of imaginary forms is real, perceivable, and, in terms of Dante, it is called Empyrean. We can imagine the whole space as double, being made of real co-ordinate surfaces and coinciding with them Gauss imaginary ones; transfer from a real surface to an imaginary surface is only possible through a breakage of space and by way of turning the body inside out. For the time being, we can only imagine increase of velocity, maybe, velocity of some particles of the body, beyond the limit velocity of light, as the means for this process; but we have no proof that some other means would not be possible.»[6] The Florensky’s idea, that directly linked the Universe structure with the inner space of man himself, was so audacious and paradoxical that could be apprehended neither by ideologists nor by scientists. Being ahead of his time, what is characteristic of other world existence witnesses possessing spiritual eyes, cost Florensky his life.

Florensky confirmed that there are no purely scientific (as we understand it) methods of research in traditional science. It is always so- called meta-scientific information, not based on traditional experiment, yet yielding important results, that intrudes into it. Because, in the final analysis, it is a man who deals with science, and his energetic structure is much richer than traditional science, full of prejudice and self-limitations, can imagine. It is the wealth of the inner world and energetics of the man carrying out scientific researches that in many cases determine deviation from mechanistic and material experimenting towards meta-scientific methods and information.

Famous modern philosopher K.A. Kedrov writes that, having combined Einstein’s discoveries with Dante’s experience, «Frorensky created his unique image of the Universe. Here, spirit is the reason of light, and thought flies throughout the Universe faster than any speed. While the borders of our earthly world are outlined by the radial movement of a light ray completing its way in one second <…> The result is that we are physically here, within the limits of the light velocity, but mentally penetrate to all dimensions of the Universe; our earthly time has coiled into a ball containing the past, future, and present. This is the real eternity.»[7]

Both Florensky’s «Obratnaya perspectiva» («The Reverse Perspective») and «Iconostas» («Iconostasis») contain scientific proof of existence of the worlds of other matter states and other dimensions. Florensky derived this conviction from studying space of art where religious experience of cognition of other sphere of Being was reflected. It concerns icons representing subjects related to the Higher worlds. Florensky considered an icon to be a window, or even a door into another world from where, depending on the state of praying people spirit, could come dawn upon them even the visions of saints. Those saints, in accordance with whose evidence the icons were painted. Icons study made it possibile for Florensky to perform a scientific analysis of the world of a higher dimension, what was done by him in his «Obratnaya perspectiva».

V.I. Vernadsky also resorted to the meta-scientific method of cognition to prove scientific principles of his noosphere theory. «Artistic endeavour reveals to us Cosmos penetrating consciousness of a living being,»[7] the scientist wrote. Studying the history of science and scientific world outlook in a most serious way, Vernadsky as if sensed within himself the current of evolution leading not only to creation of a cosmic world perception, but also to a new system of cognition which was so needed by science vigorously developing at the beginning of the 20th century. He was one of the first to realize discrepancy between the old system of scientific cognition and the contemporary process of science development, and, in his philosophic studies, he set forth a problem of other approaches towards scientific cognition theory. As if he removed antagonism existing in the relationship «science—non-science», and granted equal rights to science and other ways of cognition, understanding well that, if this were not done, it would first of all tell on a most fatal way on science itself. «Scientific world outlook,» he wrote in 1902, «is developing in close communication and broad interaction with other aspects of spiritual life of humanity. Separation of the scientific world outlook and science from simultaneous or previous human activities in the sphere of religion, philosophy, social life, or art, is impossible. All these human life manifestations are closely interwoven, and can only be separated in imagination.»[8] And more: «When studying history, one can easily get proof that the sources of the most important aspects of scientific world outlook appeared beyond scientific mentality sphere; they penetrated into it from outside, like the all-embracing image of the world harmony, the striving for number, has entered the science from outside. Thus, so common, and more particular, concrete characteristics of our scientific mentality, such as atoms, individual phenomena’s influence, matter, heredity, energy, ether, elements, inertia, infinity of the world, etc., came to the world outlook (scientific. — L. Sh.) from other spheres of human spirit; they were born and developed under the influence of ideas and notions alien to the scientific thought.»[8]

Vernadsky believed, and it was absolutely justified, that, in modern scientific world outlook, it was impossible to separate that which came into it from purely empiric science, and that which came from meta-science. And if, contrary to the common sense, this did come up, there would only be fragments left from scientific world outlook.

The scientific revolution of the 20th century itself was an integral part of the Spiritual Revolution in which its components were closely interwoven: philosophy of cosmic world perception, scientific achievements, religious and Gnostic thought’s findings, illuminations of poetry and art. A new system of cognition imbued with ideas of cosmism, but of a higher level in comparison with the initial cosmism of the ancient thought, was to appear in the active synthesis of the enumerated phenomena like Aphrodite from the sea foam.

«Vivid, audacious young spirit», Vernadsky wrote in 1920s, «has invaded scientific mentality. Under its influence, the modern scientific world outlook is bending and shaking, collapsing and changing. Ahead, on distant heights, unexpected horizons are opening. It is towards them that the great impulse of human creativity is striving at present. This historical turning point is to be passed by the audacious and free thought. We must discard far off old «truths» which are rapidly turning into old prejudice right before our very eyes. We must clear the ground from accumulated from the past, unnecessary now supports and constructions.»[8]

The «historical turning point» in scientific thought was sensed not only by Vernadsky, but also by those Russian scientists who turned their attention to Cosmos, to processes taking place in it; they not only brought all that into correlation to the main trends of development of science itself, but to the knowledge gained from meta-scientific space imbued with cosmic ideas.

Anticipating crucial events in the sphere of scientific world outlook, Vernadsky noted: «So, modern scientific world outlook—and any dominating scientific world outlook of a certain period of time altogether — is not the maximum of this epoch’s truth revelation. Individual thinkers, sometimes groups of scholars, achieve more correct cognition of it, but it is not their opinions that determine the epoch’s scientific thought development. They are alien to it. Dominating scientific world outlook struggles against their scientific views, same as it struggles against some religious and philosophic ideas. And this struggle is cruel, violent, and hard.»[8]

The struggle really proved to be «violent and hard», for it was a struggle of the old with the new, of the old mentality with the new one. But the process of the new mentality establishment, despite any obstacles through which its followers went sacrificing their freedom and lives, continued developing and drew increasingly new supporters into the fighters’ files. «…The age-old foundations of scientific mentality are collapsing; shrouds which we took for complete creations are torn off; and, under old names, new, unexpected contents are revealed before astonished eyes of the contemporaries.»[8] It was Vernadsky’s cite again.

Prevision the new cosmic mentality, a new system of cognition, was notable not only for Vernadsky, but also for Chizhevsky, Tsiolkovsky, Florensky. Those scientists who left behind their epoch and took the whole weight of contradictions between contemporaries’ consciousness level and the advanced scientific mentality development upon themselves.

The new mentality which began developing in the 20th century in the space of the Spiritual Revolution in Russia, has been a more serious and deep process than we can imagine. One type of mentality is superseded by another. This process undoubtedly has an evolutionary character. We became witnesses of cosmic scale events, of whole their grandiosity and fatal collisions, the essence of which has not yet been completely realized by us.

Great Russian poet F. Tiutchev wrote:

Блажен, кто посетил сей мир
В его минуты роковые.
Его призвали всеблагие
Как собеседника на пир.
(Blessed is the one who visited this world
To see its fatal minutes twist.
Just like an equal, to the holy feast
By the almighty he was called.)

Not all the «equal to the almighty» could stand this feast. Not all who visited this world in «its fatal minutes» were capable of realizing the whole significance of time where they found themselves.

Unfortunately, up to now, we still consider cosmic mentality as one of the modern thought trends and forget about the fact that each type of mentality was formed in the depths of the previous one, and then was established as the dominating trend. The 20th-century cosmism is not merely some particular trend; it is the beginning (and, maybe, not any more a beginning) of the general process of superseding of one type of global mentality by another one. The opinion of cosmism being only a part of scientific mentality is wrong in its very essence. Cosmism, or cosmic mentality, is much broader by its conception than the modern scientific mentality. We still are to realize that the latter is but a part of the already forming new mentality, the best cognition elements of which will pass into the future. To think that the new, cosmic mentality will be established today or tomorrow, means to fail in orientation in terms of time of the process. The final period of the new mentality forming may take at least two centu- ries, if not more. A duration of the process of cosmic mentality establishment depends on man himself. The higher is the level of human consciousness, the less time it will take and the more fruitful results will be.

Each type of mentality had its own space and time. Each of them was preceded by revolutionary changes in the spiritual and cultural sphere, or, in short, by the Spiritual Revolutions.

The first, the most ancient type of mentality, as it is known, was mythological mentality. It is utterly difficult now to determine the time when it appeared; it must have been a few thousand years B.C.

Religious type of mentality was foregone by the Spiritual Revolution which gave the world the teaching of Christ. While the mentality itself, as such, appeared in the European space in the first centuries A.D.

The scientific type of mentality was given development in Europe too. A revolution of spirit also preceded conception of this mentality, and manifested itself most strikingly in the Encyclopaedists’ ideas, and, later, in the Great French Revolution of 1789. I believe that the 17th and 18th centuries were the period when the scientific mentality and its main support—empiric science, were formed.

And finally, the fourth type of mentality which appeared in Russia as the result of the Spiritual Revolution at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century, has an absolute right to be called cosmic mentality. The character of historical circumstances formed in this space and time enables one to consider the new type of mentality as a purely Russian phenomenon, yet having a tendency for globalization. Our great scientists took a most active part in the new mentality forming. The Russian philosophers of the Silver Age, representatives of art and men of religion did not stand aside either.

As a result, already at the beginning of the 20th century, the principal ideas were formed in the sphere of cosmic mentality:

1. The new cosmic mentality requires a different system of cognition and different basic methodological principles in comparison with those contained in the «old» theories of cognition. Trying to find the purport of the new system, its formation is an urgent necessity for further cosmic mentality development.

2. In the new mentality, Cosmos is considered not only as an astrono- mical notion but in all its energetic wealth and diversity of matter states.

3. An integral approach to studying the Universe is necessary for its proper comprehension.

4. Interdependence between cosmic processes and the being of man must be taken into account when studying man and Cosmos.

5. A higher state matter influence on man and earthly processes has a causal character.

6. The oneness of Macrocosm and microcosm is one of the most important characteristics of the Universe.

7. Man is a part of Cosmos, he carries within himitself this Cosmos.

8. Spirit is one of the most important phenomena which link the inner world of man with deep Cosmos.

9. Man is the subject and co-worker of cosmic forces; this fact was brilliantly manifested in V.S. Solovyev’s theory of theurgy and his conception of God-made-man, and also in N.A. Berdayev’s views (the so- called «eighth day of creation»).

10. Cosmic mentality is not only a scientific conception, but practical transformation of human consciousness and life.

11. A new system of cognition being the synthesis of the main methods of cognition, scientific and meta-scientific, which will result in restoration of the link with the Highest at a higher level, corresponds to the new mentality.

12. Such a system of cognition will be most closely linked up with moral and ethical issues.

13. Cosmic mentality contains a new approach to the study of problems of man as a cosmic structure, in which the manifestation of the consciousness is the most important evolutionary point.

The Living Ethics Inevitability

At the beginning of the 1920s, an event of important evolutionary significance fell out — a system of knowledge most closely associated with those processes of cosmization of mentality which took place in Russia, was conveyed from the spiritual space in Russian language.

The system was put into shape of books by Helena and Nicholas Roerichs who lived in India at that time and were directly connected with those who stand at the source of such knowledge.

The books had not quite ordinary titles — «The Call», «Illumination», «Community», «Aum», «Infinity», «Heart», «Agni Yoga», «Fiery World», «Brotherhood». Equally unusual was the style of presentation that resembled a spiral along which the reader’s consciousness seemed to be ascending. The books had a common title — Living Ethics. They narrated about cosmic evolution of humanity, its peculiarities, its reasons, and the human role in its most complicated processes. The books first readers were inordinarily impressed by their audacity and new approaches towards the problems which seemed to be once and forever interpreted and canonized by science. Some people thought that they were reading science fiction that began to appear in the world book market in great numbers in those years. It was hard to believe that the Universe was a grandiose energetic system in which intensive energetic and informational exchange was going on between its comprising structures of matter of different states and dimensions. Man himself proved to be such a structure. The Living Ethics imparted to us the Great Laws of Cosmos unknown to science. And it was not many people, or rather only some individuals who, having got acquainted with the Living Ethics books, realized that they were dealing with an exposition of a new cosmic mentality; that mentioned by the Living Ethics anonymous authors Great Cosmic Laws were making a gnosiological framework of that amazing philosophy in which Cosmic Reality was reflected…

The Living Ethics gave that necessary evolutionary impulse to which Cosmic Beings standing at an evolutionary stage much higher than humanity had resorted more than once. If we shall investigate the human thought history, we shall witness a good few of such moments.

In the Living Ethics, we find a certain consonance with the ideas of Russian scientists, philosophers, artists, musicians, and poets who were creating in the space of the Russian Spiritual Revolution where an evolutionary process of an establishment of a new cosmic mentality system was under way.

Helena Roerich who carried out titanic work with texts imparted to her, and Nicholas Roerich who embodied the Living Ethics evolutionary and cosmic ideas into beautiful paintings and scientific and literary essays, made a great contribution into forming of the new planetary mentality and new consciousness of modern humanity.

«What is evolution — a theory, system, hypothesis?» major French scientist and thinker Teilhard de Chardin wrote. «No, it is something much more than all that: it is the main condition to which all theories, hypotheses, systems must henceforth be subject and which they must answer, if they want to be reasonable and true. The light illuminating all facts, the curve in which all lines are to close up — this is what evolution is.»[9] It is to those laws of cosmic evolution in which «all lines» of human existence close up that the Living Ethics is dedicated. The Living Ethics ideas are not abstract. Having been formed in tune with the natural cosmic current; having absorbed the most valuable from the past and present of mankind; having united the thought of the East and the West and the meta-scientific knowledge, they carry a great energetic charge of effectiveness, which is to be served as an impetus to direct humanity towards the future, towards spiritual perfection and evolutionary progress. Covering a widest range of cosmic processes, the Living Ethics makes for such an understanding of events which, according to N. Roerich, would «reflect the essence and the basis of the whole Universe.» Interpreting the place of man in the system of cosmic evolution, the Living Ethics authors assert that «man is a source of knowledge and is the most powerful transformer of cosmic forces,»[10] that he is «part of cosmic energy, part of the elements, part of Cosmic Reason, part of consciousness of the higher matter.»[11]

Man in his being may not be separated, isolated from the energetic structure of Cosmos. He carries it within himself, and therefore his life is obeyed to the same laws as Cosmos. The reciprocity of the Universe energetic structures in the process of energetic exchange with man is the main motive force of his cosmic evolution. Being vast and complicated, this process itself is hardly studied by the modern science. However, it is this process that results in those flashes of energy which promote the progress of humanity. Man enters energetic exchange with his kind, with objects on the planet surface, with the planet itself, with various cosmic bodies, first of all with the Sun, with the Solar system planets, the Zodiacal constellation, the Orion constellation, and, finally, with the worlds of other dimensions and states of matter. As a result of such an exchange the change of energetic potential of man and cosmic bodies takes place which creates conditions for their evolutionary progress. Energetics itself is the initial cause of all processes going on in Cosmos. It also plays the main role in a transition of human consciousness from the state of evolution object to its subject. The distance separating evolution object from its subject is the way of spiritual and cultural perfection of man; it results in man passing from passive and unconscious participation in evolution to active and conscious. Observing the Great Laws of Cosmos, man acquires knowledge and a power to influence the course and quality of evolution. Those who have become conscious subjects of evolution constitute the Hierarchy of spiritualized Cosmos represented on the Earth by Great Teachers, including the Living Ethics authors. Evolutionary processes of Cosmos develop in accordance with its objective laws. Those same laws determine general and specific goals of evolution and testify to the priority of spirit which is considered by the Living Ethics authors as a natural force and energetic manifestation. A spark of such spirit is in every man, and it dwells and acts within him according to the Great Laws of Cosmos, on the one hand, and to his, the man’s free will, on the other.

The main goal of evolution is the spiritualization of matter, the increasing its energetics, and its further changing and refining. This can be achieved by means of such force as spirit. In the process of the spiritualization and refining of matter, the synthesis trend is the main highway. While Culture, with appearing in its space Love and Beauty, which carry subtle high-vibration energetics within themselves, and, finally, human psychic energy itself — are the foundations of evolution and determine its quality. The lack of some of those foundations interrupts the path of cosmic evolution and involves the process into the vortex of involution.

Every earthly phenomenon is considered in the Living Ethics from the standpoint of interaction of spirit and matter, and the energetics of the interaction. Such an approach enables one to reveal the real meaning of phenomenon and also to establish its causal relationships and its energetic interactions. In the Teaching of Living Ethics, the problem of Culture as the means of the planet salvation from forthcoming disastrous cataclysms is set forth in a most comprehensive way. The Teaching authors have showed with proper argumentation and in a most convincing way that mankind’s regular violation of Great Cosmic Laws has already brought it to a dead- end fraught with the disastrous energetic explosions.

Before going on to the details of the Living Ethics general methodo- logy, it is necessary to dwell upon the duality phenomenon—an important, or rather the most important peculiarity of this methodology. Without understanding the meaning of duality, many things in the Living Ethics methodology will not be clear. Being a Great Cosmic Law to which all processes in Cosmos are subject, this phenomenon has a universal character.

With the idea of duality, the images of mythology, various philosophic systems of the East and the most ancient beliefs are permeated.

The idea of duality, or spirit-matter, enables one to determine specific features of sensible, or empiric reality, on the one hand, and supersensible, or extra-empiric reality, on the other. The latter most convincingly testifies to the existence of the worlds of other, higher states of matter, with which man contacts through his inner structure. Thus, the fact of duality (spirit- matter) contained in man, brings to the conclusion of existence of not only external Universe, but also internal Universe, cognized by us not empirically, but intuitively, super-sensitively.

Rejecting the inner Universe based on spirit, we take ourselves out of the field most definitely affecting our external and internal life, and lose a source of various information helping us to cognize not only ourselves, but also the processes of cosmic evolution in which we permanently participate (to a great extent unconsciously). It is the man who got aware of himself that is capable of understanding his duality which does not only include spirit and matter, but also the heavenly and the earthly, the physical and the subtle world, the Higher and the lower world. In this case it is him, the man, who is the main instrument of evolution; without man, the spiritualization of matter, its transition into a higher state, getting into contact with the worlds of different dimensions, would not have been possible. In order to understand all this, one should realize relativity of energetic interaction within the framework of «spirit-matter» phenomenon in the endless chain of cosmic evolution. It is the Living Ethics that makes it possible to comprehend this process. Both that which we call spirit, and that which we determine as matter are but different states of matter. From this point of view, the Living Ethics is the most materialistic philosophic system. According to it, there is no «non-material element». Spirit, as it is said in the Living Ethics, is energy. And energy which is the main component in the Universe structure cannot exist without matter. The state of matter is in the final analysis determined by the vibrative level of energy associated with this kind of matter. Both spirit and matter make a single whole which the Living Ethics calls spirit-matter.

In this one in two manifestation—spirit-matter, there must be per- manently a difference of potentials, similar to that existing in a battery producing electric energy. If this difference is for some reasons not there, the energy will disappear, and the evolution chain will come apart what will result, in its turn, in catastrophic consequences. And it is the spirit, as an energy of causal character, that leads the matter evolutionary changes. The spirit makes the matter spiritual, as it is a special type of subtle matter having high-vibration energetics. And, as any matter, it is capable of evolving; it creates the relativity phenomenon on the basis of duality, and owing to this fact Cosmos is filled with infinite number of various states of matter. And, at the same time, being a highly-energetic type of matter opposed to dense matter yielding to empiric research, the spirit has a number of specific features; and it is impossible not to take them into account in the process of any phenomenon cognition, or any kind of creative work. Neglecting the spirit peculiarities interpreted in the Living Ethics system of cognition may lead the modern science up a blind alley and make a mess of things in the common spiritual and cultural space.

The bridge of human communication with other matter state worlds and parallel universes is built from spirit on the energy of which all cosmic bodies exist.

Our inner world is the world of an energetics in various combinations of energy qualities – from the subtle to the coarse. When trying to find a place of one or another phenomenon in our differentiated world, one should remember that, according to the Living Ethics cognition system, the place of contact with other worlds from where we get not only the energetics, but also cognitive information, is in our hearts. It is the heart that is the centre of our human consciousness and the bearer of duality. It was as early as ancient days that the heart was identified with the Sun. The heart is the crossroads where the spirit and the matter, other spheres of Existence and our world, the heavenly and the earthly meet. It follows from this that our consciousness is formed in the process of interaction of the supermundane and the earthly. There is a special volume amongst the books of the Living Ethics dedicated to the heart. Even its title is «Heart,» and that part of cognition system which refers to the spiritual and energetic role of the heart is presented there in the whole wealth of the ancient and modern experience and knowledge.

Duality is a most important methodological principle of the Living Ethics new system of cognition. And, in the course of penetrating into the depths of cosmic law of duality, we begin to realize that no system of cognition can exist without it. This principle convinces us that there are two sources of knowledge — the earthly one which deals with dense matter, and the supermundane, subtle-material, having high energetics of other spheres of Existence. The first source is closely bound up with experimental science and materialistic philosophy which came into being on the basis of this science. The second one is linked up with a meta-scientific ways of cognition based on intuition, ability to perceive the invisible, and to draw information from the worlds of other matter states and its higher dimensions. Since ancient days, the meta-scientific way of cognition played a greater role in the history of mankind than the scientific, or experimental one. Materialistic philosophy and experimental science removed the meta-scientific method from the cognition system for a long time, having limited cognition by only external, material part of human existence, having lost sight of the inner world of man and the subtle-material, high-energetic source of cognition.

New mentality which was based on cosmic world perception needs a new system of cognition presented today by the Living Ethics, philosophy of Cosmic Reality, in which the dominating role is played by the duality paradigm. «I strongly advise you to assimilate,» Helena Roerich wrote, «the primary foundations of the Eastern philosophy — the existence of the One, Absolute, Transcendental Reality, its dual Aspect in conditioned Universe, and the illusion, or relativity, of whatever is manifested.

«Only through comparison of this duality, or pairs of opposites, are the sparks of knowledge struck, and perfectment, or evolution, becomes possible.»[12]

The following Living Ethics methodological principles give us an possibility to understand the new issues which it introduced into philosophic thought of the 20th century, as well as those approaches to cosmic evolution of man that become an integral part of the new mentality concept.

1. The Universe is an integral energetic system consisting of various energetic structures, including man, which interact in the process of a grandiose energetic and informational exchange. The latter is considered as one of cosmic evolution motive forces. «The Cosmos exists,» Helena Roerich writes, «only through the interpenetration and reciprocal action of the energies of space which emanate from the countless billions of focuses or Centres which fill it and are perpetually formed in it.» [12]

Such centres are the spatial magnets, the energetics of which governs all creative processes going on in Cosmos.

2. «The interpenetration and reciprocal action of the energies of space» determine existence and development of various states of matter with different dimensions which make the multiplicity of worlds in Cosmos.

3. Spirit is subtle-material and high-vibration energetics, it holds dominating position in the Universe serving as the basis for cosmic creativeness itself. Spirit, as subtle-material energy, in the process of evolution, makes matter spiritualized and creates its higher forms.

4. Man, as an energetic structure, is not only a part of Cosmos, but carries this Cosmos in his inner world. The latter circumstance allows the man to influence the evolutionary creativeness work of Cosmos through energetics of spirit contained in him.

Accounting for this Living Ethics methodological principle, Helena Roerich writes: «…each creation requires the participation of the energies of man, since man is the bearer of the highest principles of Cosmos. It is said in the Sacred Teaching, «The worlds not populated by men could not develop, and therefore they perished». Thus, the dependence of the worlds, or of the planet upon man and his spiritual and moral level becomes clear.»[12]

5. Man, in his turn, also depends on the worlds of a subtler state of matter and its higher dimensions.

«And whatever humanity possesses,» it is said in the Living Ethics, «it draws from the treasury of Cosmos.»[11] In other words, information received by man in the result of energetic exchange with the higher worlds, is by its evolutionary significance more important than the information gained by means of empiric science. Without the energy-information current coming to a man from the Higher worlds, the creativeness of cosmic evolution cannot exist, and the man would not be able to advance upwards along its spiral, perfecting his own spirit and making his matter subtler.

In evolution, as the Living Ethics authors treat it, only the Higher can advance the lower. This is one of the main methodological principles of the Living Ethics philosophy.

That is why the Higher worlds and an interaction with them are so important for a man both in his life and his evolution. A world of a higher matter state will invariably be a causal phenomenon for a lower one. «…Do not separate the invisible world from life. The invisible power should be understood as the main impetus behind spirit-creativeness.»[11] The worlds of other matter state play in our life a more significant role than many people suppose.

6. The necessity of broadening of consciousness of man is the main condition for assimilation the new model of the Universe which we find in the Living Ethics system of cognition.

Broadening of consciousness leads to new scientific paradigms, to revelation and settlement of contradictions at certain stages of cognition. For example, energetic world outlook gives us a possibility to understand, as well as to see, subtle-material processes developing in the dense strata of matter. One of the major English philosophers Francis Bacon wrote that «the Universe cannot be reduced to the level of human understanding, but the human understanding should be expanded and developed in order to perceive the image of the Universe in the course of it being revealed.»[7] Scientific discoveries and findings of speculative thought—all this is the result of the expansion of consciousness. That which man fails to see and to perceive today, will become visible and cognizable to him tomorrow, if the process of broadening of consciousness takes place. The history of science is not only the history of human genius, intellect, efforts and labor, but is also a reflection of the process of expansion of consciousness which develops in the course of energy-information exchange at all levels of Cosmos. «…There is only the one path of regeneration of mentality», it is said in the Living Ethics. «Precisely it is important to awaken the consciousness. Indeed, when the spirit can look back and know that yesterday’s mentality has already passed, than takes place the transmutation bringing discernment.»[13]

No recent materialistic philosophic system has pointed out in its methodology the necessity of, when researching, taking into account broadening of consciousness as the most important condition in the system of cognition. Not the intellect by itself, but expanded consciousness is the reason of scientific discoveries. Every scientific achievement is the result of synthesis of the intellect and the heart which is the container of the consciousness. The problem of broadening of human consciousness is the most important and the main problem in the system of cognition.

7. Broadening of consciousness also determines the evolutionary process going on the «object—subject» energetic distance of evolution. The path from evolution object to subject is the path of perfection of a man; it includes man in the chain of cosmic Hierarchy, without spiritual creativeness of which evolution of neither Cosmos nor mankind would be possible. Science and meta-science, the natural and the supernatural, reality and mysticism — all this are revealed in the space of consciousness broadening process. Every stage of such a process changes the man’s standpoint of reality around, makes clear today that which was not clear yesterday. The whole history of science, of its achievements and discoveries, proceeds by consciousness broadening landmarks. And, as a rule, every such stage, or landmark is accompanied by opposition of narrow, undeveloped consciousness, and there proved to be much more of this undeveloped consciousness than expanded consciousness, especially at first.

8. With the process of expansion of consciousness and the problem «object—subject,» one of the most important principles of the Living Ethics cognition system — «Teacher—disciple» is closely bound up. This cosmic evolution fundamental principle is far from being new. It arose in culture and philosophy of the East from time immemorial. In the Living Ethics methodology, it is expanded to a universal scale as a cosmic principle of instruction and cognition in the process of evolution, without which no humanity progress is possible. While in ancient times, it was a mythological cultural hero who acted as a Teacher, in the modern theory of cognition, he is presented as a cosmic Hierarch influencing evolutionary processes. The Hierarchy chain «Teacher—disciple» consists of numerous links going away into Infinity, but it has its earthly part too—its earthly Teachers and disciples. Thus, the earthly and the supermundane close up in this chain following the law of duality according to which any manifestation in Cosmos presupposes existence of an earthly and a supermundane part, or a dense-matter and a subtle-matter part.

The whole Living Ethics methodology is closely linked up with the operation of the laws of Cosmos, without them taken into consideration as a decisive factor, no cognition system may exist in the present-day world. Because these systems only operate within the framework of such laws.

Influence of cosmic laws, both Great and special, concerns not only Cosmos, but also the earthly plane, and the human society development. Their power to penetrate is universal. Cosmic laws, Helena Roerich points out, unite «the physical world with the subtle one (or the “hereafter”).»[12] A man acting in accordance with cosmic laws becomes a creator, gradually achieving the level of the evolution subject. If he consciously or unconsciously neglects these laws, he follows the path of destruction and disasters. Nowadays, we have such examples on a mass scale.

Some of these laws have already been discovered by science, but their interpretation was not so wide as in the Living Ethics where they were spread to all levels of cosmic Being. These laws also operate in the moral space, they concern the behavioural standards of man too. «When We insist on usefulness of moral life», it is said in the Living Ethics, «We, first of all, guard the basic laws of the Universe.»[14]

As it was already mentioned, it is the law of duality that holds the first place amongst the Great Laws of Cosmos.

It is followed by: the law of energy-information exchange in Cosmos, the law of shifting of the energies, the law of conservation and transformation of energies, the law of Cosmic Magnet, the law of Cosmic Hierarchy, the law of the Highest Will, the law of oneness of Cosmos, the law of correspondence of the worlds, the law of cosmic cooperation, the law of cyclic development of Cosmos, the law of causal-and-effectual relationships, the law of opposition of the non-manifested to the manifested, the law of free will, the law of unrepeatedness, the law of broadening of consciousness, the law of Spiritual transfiguration through Beauty, the law of unity of Macrocosm and microcosm, the law of teaching, and many other.

All the aforesaid enables one to assert that the Living Ethics as a philosophy of Cosmic Reality contains a new cosmic mentality system of cognition. It combines in synthesis ancient and modern knowledge, the thought of the East and the West, empiric science and meta-science findings, methods of cognition of various fields of creativeness, such as science, philosophy, religious experience, art. The Living Ethics manifestation reaffirms the Great Law of Cosmos—the Higher advances the lower, the high consciousness contributes to the development of expanded consciousness at lower levels. Cosmic mentality combines the supermundane and earthly thought. We see the same synthesis in the Living Ethics. Up to now, we have not had anything like the Living Ethics. This Teaching allows us to perceive the real Cosmos, its complicated processes, its diverse matter, and the eternal movement which makes new combinations and new forms of Being.

It seems significant that the Living Ethics appeared at a turning point of our cosmic evolution when changing one type of mentality to another took place. And this other one is cosmic mentality, not merely cosmism as a part of the empiric scientific thought, but cosmic mentality which comprises scientific mentality as its part. The basic principles of the Living Ethics as a system of cognition are aimed at reinforcement and improvement of spiritual foundations of our Existence which are getting now over a space of crises: of science, culture, morality, etc.

Now it is just a little left–to realize in the whole fullness the spiritual and cultural significance of the Cosmic Reality philosophy called the Living Ethics. It is easy to say «a little,» but it is hard to do. Throughout the human history, each type of new mentality was established in consciousness of people in the conditions of struggle and resistance. It was so both in case of religious mentality in the first centuries of Christianity and of scientific mentality arose in the depths of the Middle Ages. And now the same is happening to the growing and developing cosmic mentality. The enemies of the new are not changed from one millennium to another. These are ignorance, low level of consciousness, totalitarian claim for a possession of truth and peremptory striving for subduing the free thought of man.

The struggle of the light with the darkness, the good with the evil, the new with the old, is perpetual. But their supporters are ageless too. And the problem of which side we take is permanent. And it is only the strength of our spirit, a clear mind, and a sufficient level of our consciousness that dictate to us the right choice on this cosmic road at the dark hour before dawn in our history and our evolution.