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ISBN: 0980181208

Description

Anastasia, the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series, tells the story of entrepreneur Vladimir Megre's trade trip to the Siberian taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena connected with sacred 'ringing cedar' trees. He spent three days with a woman named Anastasia who shared with him her unique outlook on subjects as diverse as gardening, child-rearing, healing, Nature, sexuality, religion and more. This wilderness experience transformed Vladimir so deeply that he abandoned his commercial plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to fulfil Anastasia's request and write a book about the spiritual insights she so generously shared with him. True to her promise this life-changing book, once written, has become an international bestseller and has touched hearts of millions of people world-wide.

The Ringing Cedars Series
You must read Anastasia!

"Basically, these books make all the books that I've read to date look like a complete waste of paper! ... I think that going through life without this knowledge is a waste of time, and not passing it on to children is a crime. I can say with confidence that nothing like these books exists in the world today."
-- Rafal F., Australia (from an unsolicited letter to NEXUS magazine Feb - March 2006)

"After reading this series I have recommended that [my daughters] give away all their other reading materials."
-- John, Melbourne, Australia

"There has been a very significant change taking place within me since reading the Series. It has been a casting off of the selfish elements within me and walking into a vast chasm of blessings. What is possible I do not yet know, only that an awareness and a consciousness is possible in this life. My life is hopeful now."
-- Allan, Wisconsin, USA

"At last! Truth that has not been distorted by dogma or someone's ego! I might explode from emotion if I read any more! I had a hard time getting myself to just stand still."
-- Ana, Portugal

"What a blast that Anastasia is! I couldn't sleep after reading it. I have been dreaming about this for years!"
-- Bruce, Sydney, Australia

In 1994 a Siberian elder told the entrepreneur Vladimir Megre a fascinating story about the "ringing cedars" - trees respected from Biblical times for their curative powers and the capacity to re-connect human beings with the Divine. The elder told him where such a ringing cedar was growing in the Siberian backwoods. Vladimir Megre set out on an expedition to find the tree. But his encounter with the elder's granddaughter Anastasia transformed him so deeply that he abandoned his commercial plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to write a book about the spiritual insights she shared with him. What happened next thrilled and inspired millions!

With no advertisement other than word of mouth the Ringing Cedars Series has become an international bestseller. Having sold over 10 million copies in Russian alone and translated into 20 languages, it has made Vladimir Megre into one of Russia's most widely read authors.

The books, which read like a fascinating novel, have an authenticity of a documentary account and present spiritual insights of incredible depth, are believed to be a most significant masterpiece of Russian literature and one of the most important revelations in the history of humanity.

These highly unusual books provide extraordinary insights into dozens of subjects - from natural child rearing to the production of high-energy, healing foods, from the meaning of human life to the amazing potential that awaits every one of us, from ancient megalithic science to the vital importance of breast-feeding, and from sacred sexuality to the hidden history of world religions.

Megre presents Anastasia's deep understanding of Mankind's innate spiritual connection to Nature and provides practical solutions to the problems currently facing humanity. He reveals her brilliant vision for the future of this planet, one full of hope and possibility. Her words of wisdom inspire and uplift in a way that has an immediate and profound impact on the reader.

"I cannot even begin to describe the depth of the effect Anastasia has had on me and I have only read Book 1. For the first time in my life I feel affirmed on a very deep level and feel free to be me. I am so excited to have discovered these books and am fully committed to doing what I can to help spread their message."
-- Mary Dwen, New Zealand

Ringing Cedars Press makes these books available to the English reader in a superb translation that preserves all the energy of the original.

The first book of the series, Anastasia, was released in February 2005.
Book 2, The Ringing Cedars of Russia, was released in June 2005.
Book 3, The Space of Love, was released in September 2005.
Book 4, Co-creation, was released in April 2006.
Book 5, Who are We?, was released in November 2006.
Book 6, The Book of Kin, was released in April 2007.
Book 7, The Energy of Life, is currently being translated.

NOTE: These Books are NOT yet available in mainstream bookshops!

The Ringing Cedars Series are changing the lives of millions of people, and they can change yours, too!

"If you read one book in your life, read Anastasia."
-- Duncan Roads, Publisher Editor NEXUS magazine
 

VLADIMIR NIKOLAEVICH MEGRE

Author of the series The Ringing Cedars of Russia

Little is known about Vladimir Megre's early background, apart from a few experiences he himself describes in the context of his writings. One of these occurred in the 1960s when over the course of a year the teen-aged Megre made periodic visits (as inconspicuously as possible) to a monk named Father Feodorit at the Trinity-Sergiev Monastery in the town of Sergiev Posad (then known as Zagorsk), just east of Moscow. These meetings (described in Chapter 24 of Book 2, The Ringing Cedars of Russia (pp. 119-31) left a lasting impression on the young Vladimir's consciousness, and can perhaps be taken as a prelude to his later spiritual transformation during his meetings, as he describes them, with Anastasia in the Siberian taiga.

We know that by the mid-1980s Megre was married with a daughter and living in Novosibirsk, where, like many other budding Russian capitalists, he took advantage of perestroika and the subsequent collapse of the communist system to launch into an entrepreneurial career. Even before perestroika he had shown his business acumen in finding ways to significantly increase the profits of a photographic collective. He went on to form a number of commercial co-operatives and by the late 1980s had leased a fleet of river steamers which plied the waters of the Ob River north of Novosibirsk. (see Chapter 1 of Book 1, Anastasia).

On one of these trips north in 1994, he encountered two elderly gentlemen who told him of a cedar tree (kedr in Russian, more commonly known as the Siberian pine in English) deep in the taiga forest that was making a 'ringing' or humming sound, which meant it was near the end of its centuries-old life and was ripe for cutting up and giving out pieces to those interested in its remarkable healing properties. He decided to return to the area the following year (1995) on his own to investigate. In place of the two elderly gentlemen he discovered a young woman in her twenties who said they were her grandfather and great-grandfather, and offered to take him to the cedar they had described. She turned out to be a recluse who lived all alone in the taiga, with no other company or facilities (including housing and food supply) than those provided by Nature.

But that was just the beginning. During the three days Megre spent with her in the taiga, she revealed to him not only the secrets of the ringing cedar, but many mysteries of Nature and the Universe - especially their role in the Divine order of things - that had been known to people in so-called ancient times but subsequently lost to mankind. Much of the earlier knowledge had been deliberately consigned to oblivion by so-called 'wise men' who felt their own sophisticated world-view threatened by the simple wisdom of their forebears.

At his new acquaintance's insistence he reluctantly abandoned his business career and set about writing a book about his taiga experiences (but only after he became penniless trying to set up a league of ethical entrepreneurs and only after his marriage failed, although he received help from a number of Moscow university students as well as his grown daughter Polina). The book, entitled Anastasia, was published in 1996 - largely thanks to the generosity of the manager of a print shop Megre had shown it to - and sold by the author himself in Moscow subway stations.

Then an incredible turn of events suddenly took place. A great number of those who purchased the book returned right after they finished reading it (or even before) to buy copies for their friends and neighbors, and the first print-run of 2,000 copies sold out in a very short time. A generous donor financed the next printing, before a recognized publisher caught wind of its success and launched it into mass production. (The Russian editions of the Ringing Cedars Series are now published by Dilya Publishers in Moscow & St-Petersburg.) And one copy of the first printing even ended up in the United States Library of Congress collection.

The success of Book 1 prompted the author to write a second volume, The Ringing Cedars of Russia, which offers, among other things, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the story of how Anastasia came to be published, as well as a deeper exploration of the concepts revealed in the first book. Subsequent visits to Anastasia in the taiga - including conversations with the son she had conceived together with the author - engendered even more books, which now number eight in the original (the last one running into two volumes). By 1999, only three years after the first book appeared, Vladimir Megre had become modern Russia's most widely read author, with his writings selling in the millions.

At the end of Book 3, The Space of Love, may be found a thumbnail sketch of the "Series at a glance", as well as a brief description of the background to the series and profiles of the author, translator and editor.

It is interesting to note the change in the author's style over the course of the books. According to his own admission, before his taiga adventure this hard-nosed businessman had never written a word of prose or poetry before in his life, but he reluctantly launched into writing a book at the insistence of Anastasia. He admits his initial prose did not sound professional, which only aggravated his difficulty in getting his first book to press. This prose may well be described as 'choppy' and simplistic, but over the first few books - under the influence, he says, of Anastasia - his writing gradually developed into a style more and more polished and professional. By the latter part of Book 3, entitled The Space of Love, and throughout a good part of Book 4, Co-creation, his dialogues with the Siberian recluse take on the quality of poetic prose, including elements of met re and even rhyme. These features have been preserved as much as possible in the English translation.

John Woodsworth, Slavic Research Group, University of Ottawa

Books to date:

Anastasia (book 1)
The Ringing Cedars of Russia (book 2)
The Space of Love (book 3)
Co-creation (book 4)
Who are we? (book 5)
The Book of Kin (book 6)
The Energy of Life (book 7)
The New Civilisation (book 8, part I)
The Rites of Love (book 8, part II)