LITMIR.BIZ

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our conversations, I became interested in his science myself. He even brought me books on amusing astronomy.”

      Sensei grinned and asked in jest, “I haven’t quite understood who was the patient out of you two?”

      “Well, sometimes such cases may take place in medicine,” the psychotherapist supported his humor with laughter. “You know, at times some doctors say: “Sometimes you come across such a “talented” loony who can bring you into his own condition without you batting an eyelid”.”

      The group burst out laughing again.

      “Yet, can you imagine what I’ve read in those books?!” Nikolai Andreevich continued, enthusiastically sharing his impressions. “It appears that in complex star systems consisting of a hundred, two hundred, a thousand stars the situation with their interaction is completely different from that in simple accumulations. A star cannot feel each of its neighbors anymore. Instead, it feels the overall field, and so it moves evenly enough. It looks as if the influence of the neighbors is smoothed out.”

      “Such stable groups may often be found in galaxies,” Sensei remarked as if it went without saying.

      “Exactly! I’ve noticed this, too. Everything is like in human society. Mass psychology on stream! A mass grades a person’s individuality, i.e. it equalizes completely different people in many respects and imparts new qualities to people belonging to it. Let’s take Le Bon’s concept, for instance. What are the main distinctive features of an individual inside a mass? Firstly, it’s anonymity, disappearance of the conscious personality. Secondly, it’s predominance of the unconscious personality, deterioration of intellect and rationalism. Thirdly, it’s orientation of the mass’s thoughts and feelings into one and the same direction. And the main thing is formation of an aim in individuals to immediately implement the ideas they’re being inspired with. We may say, it’s almost like in star systems.

      “However, there are also other amazing facts. I became interested to discover specific figures, i.e. the number of stars in such complex accumulations, for in the human society, and even in the animal world we view something similar. Biologists conducted quite interesting studies on mass psychology with comparative analysis of animal behavior. Processing various data, scientists discovered an optimal size of a human group – not more than one hundred fifty people. Moreover, this number may be applied to various communities, starting from a tribe of hunters or collectors, right up to church, military, corporate groups. And it all began with biologists’ observation of baboons and chimpanzees behavior, when they determined a positive correlation between the size of a cortex, namely of its frontal and temporal parts, and the size of an animal pack…”

      “What is correlation?” Victor interested, not really understanding Nikolai Andreevich’s professional language.

      “Well, it’s interrelation, interdependency… So, they were observing apes during those experiments. The apes were living in groups consisting of about fifty specimens each. All pack members knew each other. Furthermore, they were even involved in various types of relationships: they were friends or at odds with one another, they entered into diverse alliances. Based on the observations, the scientists made corresponding calculations taking into account the size of a homo sapiens brain and came to the optimal size of a human group – not more than one hundred fifty people! As they also determined, if a community grows larger, people start feeling themselves aloof inside it. Hence, they simply lose capability to follow everything happening inside the group. As a result, the group loses its individuality and then splits into separate groupings. And the main thing is that it becomes almost impossible to rule over such group. What does is mean? It means that assistants become necessary. Consequently, a management system originates… So, stars and humans have much in common.”

      “Naturally,” Sensei ascertained evenly. “It is the world of the matter. And its laws apply to both microcosm and macrocosm. The matter is characterized by a certain reasonable organization, by certain laws of survival and limited time of existence. The matter is starting and ending. Hence, it’s no wonder stars and humans are so similar.”

      Sensei took some brushwood and added it to the fire.

      “And it relates not only to humans, but to the rest of the animated world as well. Let’s take ants as an example at least. Do you know how organized their life and their infrastructure are? They set up new colonies where each member fulfills a strictly defined function: some ants gather food, others defend the colony, still others are occupied with ventilation or establish new shafts, and some others fight. In the colony, there are pilferers, parasites, hangers-on, and there are “slave-holders” as well. In other words, they have the same hierarchy, the same organization… A similar situation is on the level of galaxies, if we enlarge the scale. They snatch matter and planets out of one another, they “eat up” each other, they collide, they scatter. Well, humanity behaves just like this, too… Even in a small group someone aspires to become a leader. Two leaders cannot get along together, so there is always a conflict.”

      “That’s true,” the psychotherapist agreed.

      “So, the matter is the matter. Nevertheless, despite such, say, isolation, all the matter is closely interconnected.”

      “How come?” Andrew didn’t understand. “Does it mean I’m connected to some star or some microbe living in a distant galaxy?”

      “Yes,” Sensei answered simply, putting another portion of branches into the fire.

      Andrew raised his eyebrows with astonishment.

      “Are you familiar with such concept as gravitational fields?” Sensei asked Andrew.

      “Well...”

      “Properties of these fields are far from being thoroughly studied by the modern humanity. Yet, gravitational fields are characterized by tremendous velocities. If we compare their velocity with the velocity of light, it would be same as comparing a speed of the most up-to-date sky-rocket with a speed of an old, feeble tortoise. For gravitation fields, no concept of distance actually exist, instead there is a concept of instantaneous transference. And, owing exactly to the general gravitational field the basic element of which is the Po particle, each atom on the tip of your nose is connected with each atom of the sun, of other planets and stars, and even, as you’ve said, with each atom of a microbe living in some distant galaxy… You see, the matter as such is a gigantic organism which is permanently altering because of its energies transformation…”

      “It’s so difficult to imagine such tremendous infinity with hundreds of milliards of stars as a single organism,” Volodya said in bass voice, looking at the night sky.

      “Nevertheless, it is exactly as I’ve described,” Sensei uttered. “For instance, in our head there are also milliards of nerve cells which virtually form their own galaxies flaring up from the birth moment. There are about one hundred thousand chemical reactions taking place in one’s cerebrum each second. And, should we look at this from the position of a micro-creature, say, some quark “inhabiting” one of those cells, for this tiny creature the cerebrum would also seem to be an unexplainable, unknowable infinity. It’s normal... Our mind is very limited. Moreover, we are never left in peace by the animal nature with its egoism, with its self-assurance that it’s the “hub” of the global evolution, and its “irresistible” corporal appearance. Whereas, what are we in fact for such a tremendous organism? Only dust of the long ago extinct stars.”

      “In what sense?” Svat didn’t get it.

      “In direct sense,” Sensei responded. “Have you ever thought of what is your organism in reality?”

      “Well, it’s clear. Muscles, bones, blood...”

      “You should scrutinize it deeper,” Sensei advised in a friendly way. “In reality, it’s a certain set of chemical elements which consists on average of 65% of oxygen, 18% of carbon, 10% of hydrogen, 3% of nitrogen, and of 1% of everything else.”

      “But what about bones?”

      “Bones are also a sheer chemistry, an original “depot” of mineral salts. They are made of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and about thirty other microelements. Well, and there is water, of

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