FACES OF THE PHENOMENALBY LILYA STAREVA, Ph.D.

The present-day Bulgarian healers and clairvoyants – a contemporary, alluring, intriguing, juicy, and, inevitably, an exciting topic. What sort of people are they, what are they capable of? In their ranks we encounter names, renowned and respected not only in Bulgaria, but also in numerous other countries throughout the world. Names like those of the prophetess Vanga, the healers Slava Sevryukova, Vera Kochovska, etc.

These are some of the personages in Lilya Stareva’s “Faces of the Phenomenal”. This book is the result of a three years’ research on the topic, meetings, conversations, and inquiries, carried out with over a hundred of Bulgaria’s recognized prodigies.

A special place in the book is dedicated to Vera Kochovska, Ilko Kazandzhiev, and other scientifically examined prodigies. This study will present the reader with the exceptional results they achieved in the Extraordinary Phenomena Laboratory at the Shumen University “K. Preslavski”, under the attendance of thirty-three competent scientists and doctors. The laboratory’s archives make a fascinating read, containing information for the scientific approach and its results, as well as records of the participants’ fantastic gifts and revelations.

The dozens of examined prodigies are brought together by various premises. They share common views concerning topics of their surroundings and community. They entertain their own standpoints on matters humanity has been debating for millennia. Since they have been influenced by the same esoteric schools and studies, their philosophies are more or less uniform, but undoubtedly strange and fascinating. The world, perceived with their more fully developed senses, seen from the interior and up close through “eyes”, knowing no boundaries, is enticingly curious.

The book contains their testimonies. It reveals their mission on this earth. Where do they come from, do they have their analogues in history, mythology, religion, and Bulgarian culture and can they name them? How did life on Earth come into being and who is its creator? What is the meaning of human life? What is the essence of the sun, the moon, stars, day and night, darkness and light, heavens and earth, saints and demons? Do parallel worlds really exist? How can they justify the “indigo” children, UFOs, rebirths, karma? How does one enter that cosmic computer of universal knowledge to which the famous ancient Akashic records are compared and what secrets dwell in it?

What is the nature of illnesses and how can these people help us deal with a great number of them? What is their relationship with contemporary medicine; is it obstructive or helpful to their supersensitivity? Haw do colors, music, various geometric symbols and figures, and numbers influence our physical condition? What message is hidden in flowers, stones, crystals, sugar, and salt?

Is it possible for us to use their gift, in order to deal with the extremely serious challenges presented to contemporary society and also with the problems of the individual? Could they inspire awe in criminals and solve personal matters having to do with love, happiness, advancement, and business? Could they aid scientific studies, serving as a key to the lost and still unobtainable knowledge? How can we peer inside ourselves, reach out to our past, anticipate our future and react the right way? What governs human behavior and how could present-day civilization be characterized? Which are the good and the bad aspects of our time? What to expect in the near five, ten, fifty years?

This book’s significant value rests on its being the first collection of the most important of human questions and their answers, provided by Bulgaria’s most acknowledged prodigies.

The typology of the motley Bulgarian phenomenality is devised by the author herself. The distinction between its characteristic faces – demure and introvert, insistently thrusting, faces of desperate marginals, of scholars and researchers, of businessmen and creators, of unique and exceptional prodigies. They are a part not only of the Bulgarian, but also of the whole world’s phenomenality. The supersensitives of the world are much alike. They have common ancient predecessors and share the same gift.

When presenting her personages, Dr. Lilya Stareva follows their advice: “Trust your heart.” Her protagonists speak for themselves, introduce themselves; their tales sound as convincingly and sincerely as confessions. At the same time they possess the qualities of documentary records of the most extraordinary wonders that do /not/ occur every day.

The types which delineate the faces of the phenomenal are:Ideologists – scientists and researchers, possessing supersensory

capabilities.Silents – the largest group. They do not blow their own trumpet. They

do not appear on television shows. They see themselves as “mere conductors”. The power they wield is not theirs and they deserve no credit for it. It is apt to leave them any given moment, if they grow arrogant and start seeing themselves as chosen ones. They do not perceive themselves to be

omnipotent. What they do, they do well. The illnesses they have control over are far from mild. Some of them are able to heal from a distance.

Legates (The Chosen Ones) – the exact antithesis of the Silents. Most of them overstep the boundary of normal extolment of their own gift and modesty. They perceive themselves to be messiahs.

Vangalists – relation to Vanga plays the role of litmus paper for testing Bulgarian prodigies. It has two sides: on the one we find the people actually blessed by the prophetess, and on the other – the ones who invented stories of meeting Vanga and trumpeted them all around.

Marginals – people on the margin. People who had not found their place, whose gift had not been acknowledged and appreciated. Individuals who had not yet figured themselves out.

Mercantilists – these types are go-getters, they possess a spirit comfortable with change and a disposition for trying out new possibilities. They have harnessed the power of their gift in order to achieve success, try and develop it in whatever way possible, read on the topic, refine their abilities. They know that modern business depends on advertising and media coverage. They take up various activities: establish schools, take part in competitions, public disputes, maintain sites and Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Composers – they are inventive when it comes to providing information. They possess acute senses and genuine qualities and are capable of helping. But it does not mean they can cope with every problem.

Superbs (Mr. and Mrs. 100%) – these ones like to guarantee they are a hundred per cent sure to succeed. But nothing in life comes with 100% guarantee. We figure that out too late, deceived by our own wonder-seeking cast of mind.

Realist Magicians – magicians and sorcerers roam the earth since the dawn of mankind.

Scientists – they use science as a basis for their researches.Approbators – they resolutely test their inexplicable senses. These

people often take part in the researches of scientific panels, assist in unraveling the enigma and finding a reasonable explanation for its existence. The search for answers turns them into scientific workers, contributing with their own findings.

Universumi – this group is the smallest. It is constituted by merely 5% of the author’s interviewees. These people are really unique. Their names are legendary. They simply cannot conceal their extraordinary gift. It is their mission to aid the development of universal ideas. They are not unlike generals of a multitudinous army. An army in which no commands are issued;

the only imperative is morale. They are endowed not solely with a universal and far-reaching gift, but also with the wisdom and spirit, required for bearing it – wisdom and spirit which enable them to advance their gift and use it for good deeds.

Through numerous meetings and a considerable personal experience, the author aims at establishing criteria for spotting the place which prodigies occupy in relation to the notional borderline – do they reside in the bright or the dark side of their knowledge and power. They present a challenge for the scientific thought of all epochs. Will such phenomena enable contemporary science to make a leap forward?

“Faces of the Phenomenal” is not merely a documentary record of present-day Bulgarian healers and clairvoyants, of their capabilities, authentic or invented, their philosophy and uniqueness. This book is an exciting read, a search for the truth in visible and invisible life, for the path of findings, everyone can make for themselves if they turn their eyes inward, to the undiscovered labyrinths of their own subconscious; the findings he needs to make, in order to choose the right direction in life. The book provides food for a new kind of thinking patterns, a new view of the world and our place in it. Lilya Stareva claims it is not important what awaits us at the end of that path; it is walking it that counts. Her narrative is unostentatious, non-didactic, as surprisingly curious as life itself. In places the documentary subject-matter develops into a plot, the intensity of which keeps you glued to the book.

Stoyan MarkovHe is often called “the human X-ray”, “a scanner”, “an echograph”, “a

computer”, “an electrocardiograph”. Prof. Vrabka Orbetsova is positive “he is one of the best”. Writer Hristo Karastoyanov from Yambol, the editor of a book on Stoyan’s gift, asserts that in the Yambol and Sliven region he has become the stuff of local legendry. “Some say he glows and his body radiates a mystical blue light… While in Russia during the period of 1996-1997, he causes great excitement in Petersburg and Moscow, befriends the then minister of interior affairs General A. Kulikov, and predicts he will occupy the vice-premier post in the Chernomidrin administration; he also becomes friends with the head of Petersburg’s Military Medical Academy Yury Shevchenko – one of the luminaries of Russian cardiac surgery. He “scanned” him over the phone – spoke of the condition of Shevchenko’s heart, made a blood count and all…”

Stoyan is appointed consultant in the cardiologic sector of the Soviet Union’s Academy of Sciences. In 1997 he participates in an official consultation on Anatoly Sobchak’s condition alongside the renowned stars of

Russia’s, Sweden’s, and Israel’s medical field. “The scientists gauge with their appliances, use the most stunning of technology, a whole battery of the personnel fidget about him, while our Stoyan doesn’t even have to look at the said mister Sobchak, he simply gives them the full list – diagnosis, indices, digits”, Karastoyanov tells me.

Later on Stoyan confirmed the above story. I start for the meeting with Stoyan Markov feeling great respect for the

man. But also with my curiosity piqued. I find myself in front of an ordinary apartment building in one of Sliven’s residential districts a bit before six p.m. when the séance was scheduled. I have no trouble finding the entrance, since a dozen people hang about. Their number gradually rises. At some point they all stream into the entrance, which tells me Stoyan Markov’s office has opened. The little corridor is full of waiting people. I surmise the living room is up ahead, since panel buildings resemble one another. This is where people who already visited the healer’s room go. Just when I start wondering what my next step should be, Stoyan walks in and announces, “The bathroom is over there.” This is the last thing I expect him to say. I am later told he uses this stock phrase in order to relieve people of their tension. Then he asks me to wait and I wait. The silence in the corridor is a peculiar thing – so many people bunched together and not a word passes between them. My turn comes. I step in Stoyan’s office. And what kind of a person is he? Just the usual young man with a white doctor’s overall and curly auburn hair. His presence seems to fill the whole room, decorated with various icons, pictures, toys, souvenirs… I am used to this sight. That is how the dwellings of people with extrasensory gifts usually look like. Healers receive many such small tokens, teddy bears, stuffed doggies, all kinds of fluffy animals, fake flowers, wall decorations… I know that Vanga used to love dolls. Maybe the tradition originates with her, or maybe most of them are simply grown-up children, who knows? Stoyan is sitting behind an enormous desk, writing something; sheets of paper and a notebook lay in front of him. I hand him my book “Bulgarian Magic and Divination”. “So very interesting, I will read it by all means.” I do not even imagine we will be discussing it the very next day. He informs me about the order all are required to observe. I will soon discover no one is allowed to break the routine and every visitor follows its course unquestioningly. First they enroll. Then they share their problems. They show pictures of their relatives. I notice a box, signed “Donations”.

“It is for people to decide how much they put in, I have no fixed fare. Some give two levs.”

His white coat is sparkly clean.

“I won’t be able to answer your questions just now. Perhaps after the séance. Characterizing Bulgarian prodigies seems like an arduous and vague undertaking to me.”

I thank him for his responsiveness and close the door behind me. The corridor is full of people waiting to ask him questions, and not ones prompted by writer’s curiosity. It is now time to describe the other room – the actual venue of the séances. A typical panel building living room, not too big, all in all as seen in the mental picture of every second Bulgarian. Around thirty chairs arranged in rows, two of which are put separately in the front. A table stands between the lonely chairs and the rows; it is meant for pictures, but people have also brought food, boiled wheat, fruit, turning the room into a veritable shrine. I put a photo of my husband on the table. Not without hesitation, though. Later on I will learn that for each photo he knows where to concentrate his attention, where to direct his healing energy. Probably he wondered at that unannounced presence. Near the table I see a tiny decorative fountain, which, nevertheless, works. You can hear the water gurgling. And also mild music – resurrection chants, “Ave Maria”, Andrea Bocelli. God only knows how a shrine appeared in a panel apartment building in an endmost quarter of a small Bulgarian town. It is amazing how many strange worlds exist around us without our knowing. The walls are covered with icons. Most of them are representations of the Holy Virgin Mary, but I also see ones of St. Menas, St. George, St. Petka, St. Pantaleon… It seems all saints with healing powers are here. Every visitor steps in and signs their name in a notebook. An icon-light is burning on the table. People take their places, some cluster in groups and murmur to each other. An obscure festive mood pervades the atmosphere. The bulk of the visitors are young, well-dressed, good-looking. It seems unthinkable they might be struggling with problems, grave worries and illnesses. People here are different from those I met in the sitting-room of Momera in Stara Zagora. Those ones where definitely showing far more palpably their sorrows

“Have you come here before?” I ask a young boy. “Yes.”“How many times?”“Many.”“Why do you come? For reasons of health maybe?” “I used to suffer from an alcohol addiction. Not anymore. My life is

much better now.”The healer is coming! No one says a word, but it is felt in the air – a

sudden hush, everyone returns to their places, a kind of silent excitement, anxiety, expectation. He blocks the whole doorframe. I see a tall, well-built,

awe-inspiring man. He carries two of his books. The one he hands me, the other – a youngster of no more than twenty.

“I always give the book to the newcomers. And to nobody else. She’s a journalist. She will write about us. Not that it is possible to find words, describing what happens here, but I hope she will succeed. Maybe this is all it takes. Trying to find the truth. It is the twentieth of May. I had my graduation ball nineteen years ago. But I still feel young. I still haven’t learned sense.”

“Christos voskrese!*”* A traditional Easter paschal greeting among Eastern Orthodox

Christians, meaning “Christ has risen!” (Translator’s note)It really is Easter week. I have utterly forgotten, but the rest expect

exactly this kind of greeting.“Christos voskrese!”It is only now that I make sense of the Bocelli chants.“As far as hypnosis and suggestion are concerned, I possess these

skills, but I do not apply them as techniques. I do what I’m good at. I diffuse tension.”

The séance has begun. It is more of a sermon, really. In intervals of two-three minutes, different people go in front and sit on the two separate chairs. While talking, Stoyan’s hands hover about them, around their faces, their shoulders. He envelops them in a strange warm orb of energy. I will soon find out for myself how warm this orb is when his eyes give me a sign it is my turn to sit on the chair.

“Let us cleanse our souls, let us renew their life through faith. Today is Tuesday. Tuesday is love. Love is comprised of the red rays of light, Danov* teaches us. Everything must stream from within you. The light, the beauty, the life. I can wipe your tears away. Today. Tomorrow you will have to do it yourself. Tomorrow is Wednesday. Wednesday is wisdom. Tomorrow we will be wise… What is my influence on you? With my hands I take away part of your problems. With my gaze I clear the obscenities of life. With my words I aim to soothe you.”

* Petar Danov, also known among his followers as The Teacher and Beinsà Dunò, is a Bulgarian, the founder of a religious and philosophical doctrine, described by its adherents as “esoteric Christianity” and “occultism”. Registered in Bulgaria’s Department of Ecclesiastical Matters as a separate denomination, called “Danovism”.

Then a song by Lili Ivanova* begins. “Love is starlit silence. I don’t recall where and when I first met you. Love, love will be, immortal for centuries, centuries… But we are given only one life…” The visitors change places.

* A famous Bulgarian pop-singer.

“I am searching for my place, so I can rejuvenate your souls. I want to help your souls. But you must want it too. The forces help me, I help you. But you must help yourselves too… You’re sitting by the door, on the edge of the room, as if you’re not entirely in. You feel you don’t belong yet, you yourself picked you place. Each of you chose your place for yourself and your choice tells me a lot. Tomorrow you will sit in the middle. You will be one of us, you’ll see. Come and be one of us.”

I am grateful for the hospitality. Certainly I will sit in the middle tomorrow.

“The ones who have come here before know how it is. I invite you in and let you stay in humanity’s temple. Do you feel good, are your thoughts serene? How are you today? Did you feel the relief, the peace? Is the pain gone? The pain is in your minds. Cleanse your mind… Gatherings mustn’t be more than nine days apart. I need to give advice to peaceful and sensible people, so they can apply it. After the tenth gathering you are all my dearest friends, I care about you. My thoughts are with you. Most people never raise their spirit. They carry the street clamor in their souls. Let us banish the clamor. Let us paint the silence. Let us hear the music. This is what I call art… With prayer on this here stage I try to solicit your welfare. Come to me at least once a month, so we can pray together… How do you feel, Vyara (“Faith”)? Our faith must be strong. And our love also…”

Now he addresses me, now somebody else. Different music fills the room.

“Danov’s music is descended from the heavens.” Stoyan looks at me. “It is my mission to drive stagnancy and obtrusiveness away. You must all be left alone with your own thoughts, so you can comprehend the fact that every single moment of life must be lived to the full. I wonder will you be able to write that down correctly? Will your readers understand it correctly? I stand before the needy. And I need you too. I wait for your calls with the impatience of a little child. I will never grow up… How is your hand, Valya, is it better? Hands heal easily. Souls are the challenge… Yesterday I wasn’t dressed in white, because my group wasn’t harmonious. Today I wear white. You wear white. It’s an atmosphere of peace, love, and harmony.

My body fills with warmth and I become a part of this sea of tenderness. You can really feel it. I sit on one of the chairs in the front. He starts moving his hands near my face. No, it is not just warmth. It is actually a wave. The wave called Stoyan Markov. In order to understand it, you must experience it. It is a hot and peculiarly tender wave. And he truly glows. He radiates a bluish-white light with every centimeter of his body: his fingers, hands, eyes, face, his hair and its thousands of shiny hairs. I never want to get up from this

chair. His energy drifts around me like the trembling air around the kitchen oven’s hot-plate.

“People don’t understand what doing good deeds means. They understand driving expensive SUVs, relaxing in seaside hotels, trimming themselves with gold and jewels. Our lifestyle is a step back towards the lives of beasts. When their belies are full, they don’t attack. Human voracity knows no boundaries. How should we drive pain away then, it becomes a difficult job. Remove gold and vanity from your thoughts. Stay in my shrine, be my guests. I will try and heal you with my soul’s force and the physical and spiritual fields it creates… I have none of your worries, clangor, vanity, cars. I don’t own a car. I don’t use a computer. The universe is my computer… How do I see through you? This is my gift… it’s like the Internet… I dial a code and I read you like an open book. But I read between the lines… Whose is this photo, you must take the child to the doctor’s. He will be fine, but he must undergo a surgery. Don’t worry, just have faith. Your faith is weak. All I can do is give you one initial push, but the rest is up to you.”

“… You visit me for the fourth time, right? The swelling is gone. Are you at peace, do you feel calm? That’s the way it should be…”

“… You come to me with your aches. You ask me questions, you get angry. Is our world a good place? If God created it, then it is a good place. We cannot change the world. It is ourselves we must change. We must cleanse our souls. Why is it I ask you to visit me regularly? So I can keep you clean. Because you think of me when you dirty yourselves with the problems at work and home. You all want me to “bathe” you, to purify you.”

“… Lyuba, how are the kids? There is warmth in your home. Warmth needs to be preserved. We must be aware of other people’s feelings, we must understand them. Your souls bruise so easily. They shiver in this cold world. They need warmth.”

“… I cannot promise anything to anyone. I’m not Santa Claus. I bear no gifts. Each one of you writes their destiny singlehandedly. You want not to make mistakes? Don’t throw your soul in the garbage! I will clean you today. And what about tomorrow?”

“… I call them on the phone. I summon them. Just one call and they can’t wait. They come to my school. My God, what a school I am! A school of Love. After the tenth gathering we know a little more about Love. I envelop you with love. I purify you with Love.”

“… You must not forget to nourish your love. Otherwise it will starve to death.”

“… Ivan, why are you so absent-minded, where are your thoughts drifting to? Humble yourself. Become a child again. Then and only then will

you feel my energy. I’m just a child… I’m thirty-six, but I feel a hundred. Even when you’re a hundred years old you can remain a child. It saddens me to see you so few here.”

“… Do you feel my hands? Touch them. They’re cold. But you think they’re burning, don’t you? Well, no, they’re freezing. I give you some of my warmth and take away your coldness.”

“… Why are you so languid, Dessislava? Get a grip on yourself. I will strengthen your spirit now, but you also must nourish it. Feed it positive thoughts. Stoyan shouldn’t only come to mind when push comes to shove. Think of me more often.”

“Irina, how are things at work?”“Just like you said, uncle Stoyan.”“Well, that’s good. I’m not a market-place and no one should think they

can buy tomatoes from me. This here is a different place, not a bazaar. Visitors are not allowed to be late, they must show respect. The gathering lasts 45-50 minutes. But when people look at me with such honest faces, I lose track of time. Didn’t you get tired of writing?”

“No.” I cannot say for sure, but I think he smiles faintly.“How are things going, General? It’s nice on the summit, but it’s also

windy and tough. You should try and sustain your happiness. The summit of happiness is not the same thing as the summit of professional achievements and wealth. The latter one is something transient. They might sing my praises today, but tomorrow they won’t.”

“If only you knew what an obligation you put me under with these eyes of yours, with the hope they hold. How you all bind me! I want to teach you to be gleeful, to be yourselves. Then and only then will I be joyous too. But you are always being sent on arduous errands. It is hard for me to cleanse my mind from all your memories. Every day I marry and divorce.”

“… I do not care for presents, give me flowers.”“That’s all from me. God will give you more if He deems your souls

deserving. The next episode of Markov is tomorrow. The volunteering cleaners may start the job! Dafinka, Ivan, Elena. Was it your turn today?”

A few excerpts from my conversation with StoyanThe living room gradually vacates. I am left with Stoyan and the

volunteers. To Ivan, Stoyan Markov is a Teacher, a Guru, a master, everything. The young man manages to order his life so as to be at the healer’s disposal at all times, serving as his driver, secretary, confidant, friend, and courier. Dafina and Elena, both in their fifties, are also always on duty. Just so they can sit on the chairs and be close to Stoyan. All three work

like busy bees – they take out buckets, water, mops, and watering-pots. They open the windows and the big cleaning is on. Meanwhile I sit opposite Stoyan in the corner. I try to see through people’s legends, his words on my notepad, but I am aware that when I read them they will sound nothing like the way they sounded in his so-called drawing-room. I want him to dispose of his white coat, his hallo, his stage self, which is there to teach, love, heal, and be real. And Stoyan is actually out of his coat. He is now wearing a red t-shirt and faded jeans. Just an ordinary young man. Thirty-six years of age, well-built, somewhat uncomfortable in his own skin. He even seems uneasy.

“Now let us have a chat. Put that away (my dictaphone), you won’t be recording this. We are just talking. Is that OK with you?”

“Sure.”I put away the dictaphone, I fold all my writing papers, and close the

notepad. We will be having an eye-to-eye conversation.“Could we stay?” The volunteers have charred the whole place to

perfection in no time at all and want to stay during our conversation. “Isn’t it getting late?”“No, please let us stay! Could we?”So they stay. And they will stay till the end, regardless of the midnight

hour. They will gaze into his eyes, from time to time they will smile at me benevolently, but their very beings will be unconditionally devoted to Stoyan.

“I wanted to become a circus director. But it didn’t happen. Vanga assured me that if I earned a medical degree, I would be appointed head of an institute. I was barely five when she told me: “There will come time, my boy, when you will be able to heal too! But you are much like me, nobody will manage to indulge you. Be safe, read the Bible, and fast!”… I live alone. I treasure my peace and tranquility. What do I do until six p.m.? Well, I clean the apartment for several hours. It must be immaculate. Dust settles directly on the soul. I cook my usual meals. I don’t eat meat and fish, but I have a soft spot for sweets. Here, you can tell, my clothes are getting rather tightish. Then I prepare for the Stoyan Markov wave. I carefully consider each word I am to say, I visualize my appearance, I think of the impression our discussion will make.”

Is this vanity?“I do not seek fame. I am not in the habit of draining my whole energy

for an audience of one or two people. I prefer to set meetings farther apart. I want them to miss me.”

“I read about your first encounter with extraterrestrials. Do they exist? Did you really meet them?”

“They do exist. And they communicate with different people. They have always been present on this planet. It’s just that we don’t see them. We function at a different level. When you stoop over an anthill, the ants don’t see you.”

“When did they contact you?”“My first encounter with the cosmic delegates took place on 6 January

1990, Saturday, in my home village of Topolchene. One evening I was standing in the yard, I looked up at the sky, and it was clear and starred. Suddenly, I spotted a huge orange ball. At first I thought it was some kind of a star. But then it began to pulsate, to contract and expand, to radiate other colors of light – red and blue rays… Convinced it was an UFO, I ran in to call my mother. She saw it too then went back into the house. But something made me reach out towards that celestial body. I felt I was emitting some kind of impulses and then I began receiving its impulses through my hands. On the next evening I saw the orb again. From then on I started seeing it every night in the East, when the sky is clear enough. If I don’t go out, something seems to grab me by the hand and takes me outside. I see the radiation streaming from my fingers and directly towards my star (that’s how I took to calling it provisionally). I receive my energy from it.

“On 16 March 1990, I came home to my lodgings – a ground room with low windows, which let no sunlight through during that time of year. I noticed two rays were resting on one of the picture postcards arranged on the sideboard – one showing a vista of Sliven’s new theatre with the mountains in the back. I would have neglected the fact if I hadn’t realized that these can’t be sunrays, as I first thought. The rays disappeared, but the picture was stained with two peculiar spots, similar to those oil leaves on wet asphalt. I felt a tangible presence in the room with me and a telepathic suggestion that I should go to Karandila* to charge my body, because 19 March would be a special day for me. Then everything went back to normal… You can still see the spots on the picture postcard.” (“Iskra” newspaper, 27th edition of 11 July 1990)

* A Bulgarian resort located 33 km. North of Sliven; part of nature park Sinite Kamani (Blue Stones) (Translator’s note)

On 19 May, Stoyan “opens his eyes”. “… On that day I started “seeing” the organs in the human body – at

first in black and white, later in color. A started “seeing” the radiation my hands are streaming. Interestingly, these beams are not straight, but refracted. My eyes also radiate light in the form of two rays. People are see-through to me. I even see their cells. My eyes register even the emanation of surgically removed organs. Probably because their bio-fields are preserved. I

see all the way to the marrow. It is extremely fascinating observing the cerebrum. Millions, maybe billions of tiny lights twinkle there…”

“Who was the first one to recognize your phenomenal gift?” “The horse doctors, my teachers, were the first ones. (Stoyan has a diploma from a veterinarian school.) Then Momera, too. Her, Vanga, and Danov are my role models. The same year of 1990, Momera told me: “You are able to influence people suffering from neurological disorders, and those whose names end in “-it”.” I was nineteen then. Later on, I realized I can relieve many other symptoms, too: ulcers, eye problems, mastopathy, etc.”

“What is your way of diagnosing?”“I perform examinations one of three ways: the first one is by seeing

the organs, the second is using my hands and receiving impulses from the patients, which causes my respective organ to hurt (but since this method ails me, I avoid exercising it), and the third one is by hearing an interior voice dictating to me and I repeat its words. Actually, what I impart to the patient aren’t my own thoughts – I simply pass on the information I’ve heard with my inner ear. Nationality, language, time, and space are of no consequence whatsoever. Bio-energy knows no boundaries. I can’t explain it, but it’s so… I’m a conductor of the Divine world.”

I see no sense in asking him if such a world exists. Obviously, to him it does. A Divine world and Divine people, some of whom have been chosen to serve as conductors to our world. Most prodigies consider this an elementary truth. They do not doubt and do not search for an explanation. That’s just the way the world works.

“You’re one of the few who have been tested in a scientific lab.”“True, I was tested a second time the same year, 1990, on the advice of

Stella Dimitrova, one of the founders of the Plovdiv laboratory. She helped me go there. She helped me all the way. The experiment lasted nearly three weeks – from 27 August to 14 September. You are familiar with the kind of documents they issue, I suppose.”

“Certificate of Possession of Healing Capacity?”“Exactly. The document is signed by Assoc. Prof. Tocheva. It’s dated 14

September.”I am familiar not only with the text of such documents, but also with

what they stand for. Days of demanding tests and researches, scholars from various fields, who do not simply give away certificates, but harness all methods known to science in an attempt to find out if there is truth behind this, is it possible and to what extent.

“I’m told you were first taken in and given an office in the army. Isn’t that a bit strange?”

“Todor Zhivkov* wasn’t as stupid as they thought him to be. He has had telepathic conversations with extraterrestrial intelligence. Right now we cannot even carry out a conversation with our own selves. I don’t feel like discussing that topic. Currently I’m not a healer. A consultant. A psychologist maybe. I don’t know what I am exactly. But people have their needs. They look me in the eye. They expect me to help them. And I can’t. I could’ve stayed in Russia, I could’ve kept my position as a consultant in a big clinic. Don’t ask me why I didn’t do it, why I came back to Sliven, my own town. I guess I was hoping for the recognition and respect of local councilors. But I wasn’t so lucky. I don’t want to talk about this!”

* Todor Zhivkov (7 September 1911 – 5 August 1998) was the communist head of state of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from 4 March 1954 until 10 November 1989. (Translator’s note)

Momera is perhaps the only prodigy who is somewhat recognized by the Stara Zagora administration. In reality, people like Stoyan are not allowed to practice what they do best. At least not officially. Unofficially everybody does what they see fit. Stoyan has no desire to stay in the dark. He does not wish to suffer from guilty conscience and perceive himself as an offender or a criminal. Why is his office crowded with young and not-so-young people? Before the séance, each one of them goes individually in his room and shares their worries, their story, and their grief. Then it is up to Stoyan to decide what is to be done. Should he hint at a diagnosis, should he warn them about a forthcoming danger? In most cases, the séance itself, the effect of his hands and eyes, of the vast and dazzling energy wave, which seizes you vehemently, warms you up, irradiates you with its strange sereneness and warmth, are more than enough. In this wave’s embrace his words are not simply a sermon on goodness; they become a cleansing and salutary ecstasy. The power of Stoyan’s words is great.

“So you see in the past, present, and future?”“It’s all the same. Life flows simultaneously in all temporal planes. When

I find myself in another dimension, when a soul appears to me, people from various epochs wearing different clothes walk around it. Grace, splendor, ravishing beauty. All in one place. They walk enveloped in light, never touching the ground, their feet dangling 50-60 centimeters above it.”

“How do you get there?”“Just like that. The air seems to grow thicker, the visible world around

me begins to fade; trees, animals, and people dematerialize, and other dimensions appear in their place. It’s strange for me too. It happens all of a sudden, with no effort on my part whatsoever, with no thought of it even.

Time doesn’t exist anymore and I find myself in the stream of ages, light, and spirits.”

“How do you receive your information?”“It’s like God’s gift to me. A great force pervades me. There are no

secrets for the clairvoyant.”“Your book contains prognoses for the future. A very popular topic

today is the end of the world in 2012.”“It’s all in my book. The world won’t end, not in that way at least.

Different parts of our planet Earth will be subjected to various cataclysms: wars, violence, elemental perils, starvation, maladies, devastating earthquakes and floods, death… In the not-so-distant future people will fall dead like autumn leaves.”

“It doesn’t sound very rosy, that future.”“And is the present all that rosy? What you see now, you will see in the

future. What we call past is actually today, and the present is the future. It’s all the same, and you can’t expect today’s world of wars, violence, and neglect of the soul to transform into a happy world of flowers, gaiety, and bliss. That’s impossible. And whoever claims it will turn out so is a liar. Things will change for the worse if foul and soulless people don’t change for the better. People killing one another for land and money… They always dig for buried treasure. I tell them: “Stop digging! Hidden treasure is inevitably cursed. You will pay dearly for it.” I don’t want to discuss this topic anymore! I advise church-going people to light two candles for Vasil Levski*, the Apostle of Freedom, on 19 February*. One for the dead, and one for a saint.”

* Vasil Levski (18 July 1837 – 18 February 1873) was a Bulgarian revolutionary and a national hero of Bulgaria. Levski strategized a revolutionary movement to liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. (Translator’s note)

* 19 February – the traditional date for honoring the anniversary of Levski’s death. (Translator’s note)

“What should we do?”“Most importantly, we must be humble, we must fear God. How does

that sound to you: bookish moral admonitions from a bizarre fellow, to put it mildly, voices from the hereafter; does it sound odd and incomprehensible to you? Well, it does to most people. To all people, actually.”

“Is that enough? Could we, people, do something? Considering our individual and collective fates have already been sealed, I mean? And we are being controlled from another place? In an interview with Vesselina Sedlarska you said about Gorbachov, “He has been marked and now voices tell him how to govern.”

“Life on Earth is under constant observation. That’s why we won’t destroy ourselves. Everything is being operated by an extraterrestrial intelligence, a universal mind. Each one of us has their small, but meaningful role to play: of producing love or hate, good or evil. These roles determine our place in the whole picture, and our term of existence also… People often ask me, “What is fate?” I tell them, “Each one of us has their foreordained destiny, descended from above. I soak your problems, they burden me, they tire and torment me, but that’s my lot…” That’s fate – submitting to God’s will, and God’s will is only fulfilled through Love. Outside Love is fate’s domain, inside Love dwells God’s will! Our Teacher Petar Danov tells us so. “Fate is like a bottle, and we are ants corked inside. We crawl, and we crawl, but we cannot escape…””

“Will your friends, the aliens, help us? Or just the opposite?”“Aliens provide great help, but not to anybody. They assist the creation

of complex systems – the Internet, computerization, world computers, advances in medicine and science. They help directly, individually, but also by telepathic means. A lot of the achievements of present-day scientists are the work of an invisible and much more advanced civilization, but the Divine world doesn’t allow direct intervention in human doings… There comes a time, though, when contact will be established: the world will experience it through technology, as it did the first steps on the Moon. But this world – the world of the earthlings – will pay dearly for the irreversibly lost…”

“You said there are no secrets for the clairvoyant. Does that mean we, humans, are an open book for you, you can read us, in whatever dimension you find yourself, you can leaf through its pages, you can see the last one even, go back to the beginning, to the prologue maybe, to the moment before it was written even?”

“You speak metaphorically. All else is energetics. If a person wants it, and I want it too, of course, I can enter his or hers energetics and “read”, “see”, and “hear”. Energetics is revealed through a photo, a voice, a name, from distance, through blood relations, an object the person touched. It’s coded in and around the human being and it can be decoded. I can see in it everything he can’t. Everything he doesn’t know. Things he can’t even imagine. I have many such cases. I say, “Take the child to a church, baptize him, and he will stop wetting his bed at night.” I even knew a soldier who came to me from the barracks with such a problem. I advised him to go baptize himself and he will forget his worries. So he did. I told another visitor who had a heart condition, “The surgery is too risky, your heart won’t bear it.” He didn’t listen to my advice. I warned him. I gave him a choice. And he did choose. I knew it from the start – he would undergo the surgery, because he

had a strong desire to live, but his life was already ended. The operation would be performed by a very skilled team, but his heart is weak and it wouldn’t survive. He would not wake up…”

“How do you heal, when does it work, when does it not?”“You saw for yourself. I try to make them think. To search for the

goodness in their souls. To find their souls and take care of them. I ask them to be kind and forthcoming. To try and counteract each negative thought and feeling with positive ones, thus neutralizing and disarming them. To bear beautiful images in their minds, to not linger on the ugly, to aim at the positive, to repay good and love for evil. Thoughts and behavior determine human destiny. Health is restored trough human thought – the positive one! – and is sustained through our emotions. If a person’s thoughts and emotions are the correct ones – so will be his actions. The relationships with our fellow men condition God’s attitude towards us. Christ pronounced this law with these words: “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you”. All illnesses have a spiritual origin.”

Here is still another thing we inevitably hear time and time again. All our healers and clairvoyants are positive that diseases are a part of the unworthy, imperfect, and unbalanced soul.

“If your soul is in turmoil, if you’re afraid, if you live in constant anxiety – you get cancer. You’re unable to bear a child, because once you procured an abortion, you’re greedy, your desire for money, power, and temptations makes you restless. How do you expect to be in good health? These people cannot even imagine how sick they actually are… I can diagnose the disease, I can point out the cause, but I’m not the one who writes people’s fates. I interfere only where I’m allowed to.”

“I am allowed to”, “I am not allowed to”, “I receive information”, “I don’t receive information” – still more of the recurrent dependencies in the inexplicable “prodigy-other world” channel. If you are not gifted enough, you could easily use them as an excuse. But the ones who are truly standing at the mouth of the invisible channel usually comply implicitly with the whispers coming from the hereafter. Whatever they may be. Benevolent or bringers of doom. As a matter of fact, prodigies consider good and evil as two parts of a sensible necessity, even when it is one that looks cruel at first sight.

“Are you talking about karmic diseases?”“Them too. Expiation. It can’t be evaded forever. Everything is

predestined. Nobody can change the invisible world’s plan. Sometimes, I’m simply not allowed to interfere. And I comply. I tell the person, “You’re not suitable for my healing.” Everything in this world must be repaid. If you’ve worked in one of your previous lives, if you’ve advanced your energy and your

gift, you’ll be gifted in this life too, you will prosper. If you’re gifted, than you’ve been given a gift, which means you’d earned it. If you’ve ruined your soul, if you’ve inflicted pain, you are sure to suffer your punishment. That’s the essence of diseases.”

Stoyan is quoting the teacher Danov. He is his Teacher.“Rebirth is not a principle of the material world. Rebirth is a spiritual

principle. When a man dies and is born again, his resurrection occurs in the physical world: it is called rebirth… Rebirth is a condition for karma’s liquidation… Karma is a law obliging men to repay, to settle the accounts, so to speak. Karma carries time from the past. It holds men responsible for their deeds of four or five generations past. Karma haunts its subject, until he pays all his debts. Every evil deed has its consequences for the following four generations, and every good deed will be rewarded for thousands of generations to come… If a person wishes to alleviate their fate and avert the law of karma, they should give Love voluntarily, not forcibly.”

“Do ghosts exist?”“I can’t get any sleep. The ghosts of people who left this world come

and visit me all the time. They beseech me, they beg… They’re all around us, only in a different dimension. Death is but a door to another world. They’re not as free as we are. They visit us in our waking or in our sleep.”

He is also visited by many people suffering over the departed souls of their loved ones. He invariably advises them not to cry for them, not to tie them to our world with tears, but to free them and let them walk their new paths, let them ascend.

“Everything is predetermined. Nobody can make corrections in the invisible world’s scheme… Ghosts appear with no regard to borders, nationality, and distances. Earthly notions of space mean nothing to them…”

It is midnight. I feel ill at ease for keeping all these people so late. Ivan will drive me to the hotel. He invites me to sit in the front seat. It is covered with a towel, which he quickly pulls away.

“He insists on only touching clean things.”That extreme hygienic sensitivity makes him shrink from physical

contact with strangers and friends alike. I mark it off as a peculiarity. A maniacal insistence on cleanliness. Stoyan Markov is a maniac – clean hands, clean clothes, clean home, clean thoughts, clean soul. We should all keep our souls clean, that was his most fervent appeal for the day.