Professor Yefremov's KGB Files (Part III)
Yefremov knew and respected writings of ancient Jewish philosophers, and possessed knowledge of Kabbalah.
Yefremov also knew well a very curious book (unavailable in the USSR), "Le Matin des Magiciens (The Morning of the Magicians), really, the progenitor for most of the "New Age" literature. Yefremov predicted discovery of the Yakutia (Sakha) diamonds years before anyone would suspect they would be found (in his story Diamond Funnel, 1944). The man possessed unusual insight into essence of things, interconnectedness of forces of nature and human history. He called it “scientist’s intuition” in his 1972 letters that served as a preface to the English-language edition of Andromeda.
He recalled in his preface to an early collection of stories, that when he was torn between remaining a sailor and becoming a scientist, he happened to be in a motor-boat on the Caspian Sea on his way to Baku. Yefremov was gazing into the sunlit depths of the sea. In some places the bottom was quite visible…and he realized what he was seeing down below. It was an inaccessible, submerged town, with walls and towers. Yefremov began to discern elusive outlines of streets and houses…but then the wind blew across the surface of the sea, and the vision was gone. When he came ashore, the sailor found waiting for him a telegram from Academician Sushkin, a paleontologist who influenced his life before, offering him a minor position in the Academy of Science . Young Russian sailor decided to pursue the life of a scientist, to explore the unknown…
Yefremov mentioned something there else that was of interest to the author of this article. During his travels (in Gobi Desert, etc.) he got into habit of day-dreaming where visions would arise before his eyes that were not so much mirages as scenes from the play of his imagination, weird and unusual scenes, but quite real at the same time…
He possessed incredible knowledge of hypnosis; his “experimental” book the Razor’s Blade (1963) includes four parts and is notable for a huge amount of the scientific facts and dynamism (hypnotism, genetic memory, human psyche, Alexander the Great and his mysterious crown found at the bottom of the ocean, ancient India, nonstop adventures…) was always the bestseller of the Soviet black markets, and is reprinted year after year.
Allan Yefremov had revealed in 1997, during the First International Yefremov Symposium, that his father was quite familiar with Buddhist Hinayana and Mahayana systems, Pythagorean and Gnostic teachings, learned five stages of Yoga, and was interested in Nestorianism and Manicheanism.
It would be wrong to make him an adherent of occult sciences. Yefremov was an atheist and believed in his version of Communism. He was not a mystic, but neither was he dogmatic. Allan Yefremov revealed that his father was greatly interested in Hinduism, religion of the world soul. His novels about ancient Egypt are full of very curious details. At the same time, he possessed a great talent: he could accurately diagnose diseases, surprising doctors. He told his son that nothing pointed to Nicholas Roerich’s speedy demise...
There is something else that is quite extraordinary about Yefremov, and had to be known by those who kept him under their watchful, spying eyes. According to P. Chudinov, PhD of Biological sciences, and Professor Yefremov’s student and assistant, the man had possessed a fantastic sense of being one with Nature. It seemed to people around him, on occasions, that he had visited the areas where his expeditions arrived in, although they knew for certain he had never been there before…This is important to keep in mind when we look at his Mongolian “dinosaur expeditions”. As a geologist, Ivan Yefremov discovered unique deposits of oil, copper, lead gold…As a paleontologist he discovered unique fossils of prehistoric animals and solved many complex riddles of the origin of the long-ago vanished life forms…
Professor Yefremov had a special fascination with the Minoan civilization. Ancient Crete and its mysterious, vanished inhabitants held a special interest for the Russian writer. Again, he seemed to know much more than was revealed in his novels…
Towards the end of his life, Yefremov was interested in everything (except political science, according to Allan; his extent of knowledge was immeasurable. The KGB might have been interested in the source of all his knowledge and vast talents.
To be continued
Paul Stonehill
Author of the Soviet UFO Files (1998), and co-author of Mysterious Sky: Soviet UFO Phenomenon (published: 2006 in English, 2007 in German, and 2009 in Portuguese)
