Can man turn to stone? Pagan legends and biblical tales show that this is quite real and happened more than once in ancient times. Remember the stories about Medusa Gorgon or naughty Lot's wife. Modern scientists do not exclude that such a transformation is possible in reality. The question is, by whose will and how does it happen?
This amazing story happened several years ago in Samara... “The groom came to Zoya for the Nativity Fast. Zoe's devout mother begged her daughter not to throw a party on the day of fasting, but she could not be convinced. The mother goes to church, and Zoya meets her friends with young people, a total of fourteen. Nikolai, the groom, should appear fifteenth, but he is not there. They wait for about an hour, and then they start having fun. They dance. Zoya has no one to dance with. And so she declares: “I have another Nikolai!” - and removes the icon of St. Nicholas from the wall.
A girl dances holding an icon in her hands. The friends persuade: “Put the icon back in its place!” Zoya exclaims in response: “If there is a God, he will punish me!”
Still from the film "Miracle" (2009) about the case of the petrified Zoya
A few moments - and the incredible happened. The roar and noise completely drowned out the music. A blinding light flashed - as if lightning had flashed, and as if a tornado had passed through the room. Zoya froze with the icon in a dazzling column of light. The others had not yet understood what had happened; everything seemed to be returning to its place. Someone smiled tightly. And then it got even worse. Everyone saw something for which it was impossible to find words.
Zoya stood like a marble statue. They approached her and were convinced of the impossible: her body had become stone! The guests were blown away by the wind - they left to spread the news of what had happened throughout the city. Zoe's mother collapsed when she returned from church and was sent to the hospital for several days. So the girl stood in the room for 128 days and nights. Under the stone her heart beat, its beats could be heard. The doctors tried to give injections, but the syringe needles broke: with the same success one could try to give injections to a marble column.
Many curious people flocked to Zoya’s house, some even entered her room. Soon the police appeared and stopped this “pilgrimage.” Policemen kept watch day and night, changing three times during the day. Zoya did not eat, although there were attempts to feed her.
She simply could not eat. It’s hard to imagine what her mother went through, praying all night long. The youngest of the policemen could not stand it: this was considered a particularly difficult duty, and the difficult nights left many of them with early gray hair as a memory, because at night the girl screamed. During the day there is deathly silence, at night there are heartbreaking screams. Gradually, the content of the girl’s requests and cries became clearer and gained stability: “Pray, pray for our sins! The world is perishing in sin! The earth is burning in lawlessness!”
This happened for many nights in a row.
“He who punishes will have mercy!” - the highest church official allegedly responded when he was approached with a request to take part in Zoya’s fate.
The influence of unearthly forces on events was obvious. And neither the mother, nor compassionate people, nor priests - no one could return the icon of St. Nicholas to its place: the girl’s petrified hands did not give it to anyone. Only on the feast of the Nativity of Christ, Father Seraphim was able to free the image of St. Nicholas and return it to its place. Before doing this, he blessed the entire room.
Moscow Metropolitan Nikolai came, served a prayer service and consoled: “We must wait for the great feast of the Resurrection of Christ.” Another significant visit: an old man came to the girl. Nobody knew and still doesn’t know where he came from. He asked her: “Are you tired of standing?”
The police twice refused the elder and did not allow him into the apartment. Only the third time, on the eve of the Feast of the Annunciation, he was admitted and uttered these three words. No one heard what Zoya answered, usually silent during the day. But even if she answered him, it would be exactly what he expected to hear... The police entered the room to escort him to the exit, but found no one. The old man disappeared.
On Easter, Zoya returned to her normal state. Her body freed itself from the stone shackles and became elastic and soft. She was put to bed.
“Who fed you?” - they asked the girl.
“The pigeons fed me,” Zoya answered.
On the third day of Easter she died..."
“It would be possible to come up with something more believable,” I thought after reading it and forgot about this story. But it continued. In the spring of 1997, the III International Conference was held in Moscow “Special states of human consciousness. Experimental and theoretical research in parapsychology".
During the break, I discussed with one of the participants - let's call him Yakov Ivanovich - the report I had just listened to. And Yakov Ivanovich said that in his youth he witnessed a real “miracle” with a negative sign. With the Komsomol propaganda team, he traveled to remote villages of the Northern Urals, conducting anti-religious propaganda.
This was the time when, on the instructions of the then General Secretary Khrushchev, churches were closed everywhere. They, Komsomol members, had to explain to the “ignorant” that there is no God, and therefore His temples are not needed.
In one of the villages, their leader Mikhail learned that before the church was closed, the villagers took the icons from it home and that the main one, the “prayed one,” was taken in by an old woman named Alevtina. And now, if someone in the family is seriously ill, everyone goes to her to pray. Moreover, this supposedly helps better than any medicine.
Naturally, Mikhail could not ignore such “blatant obscurantism.” The Komsomol members went in a crowd to the old woman, where he imperiously demanded that he hand over the “painted board” that was confusing people. Alevtina spent a long time trying to persuade him not to touch the icon, but the Komsomol “leader” was adamant.
In the end, she gave the “prayer”, tearfully begging not to desecrate it so that no trouble would happen, but to transfer it to the local history museum. The old lady turned out to be literate. To reassure her, Mikhail promised to fulfill the request.
However, when they lit the stove in the evening, and the Komsomol members spent the night in one of the classrooms of the small school there, their leader brought an icon and declared that he would personally send it into the fire, so as not to bother with old junk.
Mikhail opened the oven door, took the icon in both hands and was already making a move to throw it, when he suddenly froze, Yakov Ivanovich said. At first we didn't understand anything. Someone said: “Give it up, what are you waiting for?” But he didn’t answer, continuing to stand in a strange position, as if in a children’s game when given the command: “Freeze!”
They closed the oven door and began to bother Mikhail. And something incomprehensible was happening to him: his eyes were bulging, a half-smile, half-grimace was frozen on his face. And most importantly, he could not move his arm or leg, neither bend nor straighten. All our efforts came to nothing. Someone suggested taking Mikhail to a freshly heated bathhouse and thoroughly steaming him.
They carried me away and somehow undressed me, although they couldn’t take off my shirt and T-shirt because of the icon. So they put it on the shelves along with the icon. They splashed a couple of ladles of water into the heater and began to groom Mikhail with brooms, massage him, and knead his muscles. There's no point. But the icon slipped out of his hands. But no one paid attention to this. So as not to get in the way, they pushed her under the bench.
No one slept that night. And just before dawn they wrapped our Mikhail in a sheepskin coat, loaded him into a semi-truck and took him to the regional hospital. I don’t know what happened to him afterwards. The winter holidays are short and I went to the city. Later, I heard from someone that after a few months Mikhail was sent to some medical institute, since local doctors were powerless to help him.
According to my interlocutor, this was a typical case of remote energy-informational influence. Today it has allegedly been experimentally established that psychics are capable of mentally influencing a person’s state. The effects of such therapeutic interventions are recorded and studied. It is logical to assume that, in principle, a negative impact is possible. What has been called “sending damage” since ancient times.
Unfortunately, orthodox science does not consider this to be real and does not study such cases. Therefore, there is no reliable data. And those who can “send damage”, of course, keep their gift secret and do not offer to take part in experiments.
Apparently, old lady Alevtina was a strong psychic and put Mikhail into a trance when she felt that her icon was going to be burned. We have seen hypnotists do this more than once: a person’s body becomes as hard as a log. It is placed with its neck and ankles on the backs of chairs, and it is held in this position for quite a long time.
It was then that I remembered the Samara story. But there was no one there who could play the role of a psychic. This means that the remote energy-informational influence was exerted from somewhere outside, from another dimension.
- Do you want to say that God himself acted? But then why didn’t he come to the fore every time when icons, including miraculous ones, were destroyed? - Yakov Ivanovich doubted. - After all, there are countless such cases during the existence of Christianity. Whatever you want, I believe that we are talking specifically about remote extrasensory influence.
And yet, the more I later thought about this phenomenon, the more clearly I realized that the matter was not so simple.
Let's start with mythology. It contains such heroines as the sisters Stheno, Euryale and Medusa, known by the nickname Gorgon. Winged, with a body covered with scales, and snakes instead of hair on the head. The youngest, Medusa, died at the hands of Perseus. Moreover, since the gaze of any of the sisters turned all living things into stone, the brave Perseus beheaded Medusa, without looking at her, but using his copper shield as a mirror.
The Bible tells the story of Lot's disobedient wife, who violated the prohibition - not to look back at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed by heavenly fire - and turned into a pillar of salt.
In later legends and traditions of different peoples, there are often references to people whom the gods turned into stones and rocks as punishment for specific offenses. Such “attractions” are found in many countries. Moreover, these stones and rocks do not always resemble people in outline and especially in size.
Apparently, they were given the names of the victims of the observed cases of “petrification” for the edification of descendants. Something else is important here: now we are increasingly convinced that no matter how fantastic myths, legends, stories may seem, they are based on real facts, only fancifully processed into an artistic form.
Is it even possible to turn a person into stone?
In the full sense of the word - no, if we mean such rocks as, for example, granite. But there are other minerals, the same limestone or silicon, which are contained in the body. It's all about their concentration. If it turns out to be extremely high, then the person will really seem like stone.
On the other hand, countless biochemical reactions occur in our body every second, during which some substances are constantly transformed into others. Many people know this from their own sad experience, when salt deposition begins and the joints bend with difficulty, that is, in fact, they petrify. If this happens to skin and muscle cells, a person will turn into a pillar of salt, like Lot’s wife.
Of course, in life, the deposition of salts occurs slowly and is the result of problems with metabolism, elimination of toxins and other malfunctions in the functioning of various body systems. However, immediate noticeable consequences of biochemical reactions are also possible.
Perhaps the most common case is when a person suddenly turns gray after severe stress. But a change in hair pigmentation is, in principle, the same biochemical process of replacing some substances with others! Meanwhile, medicine also knows cases of the instantaneous appearance of cataracts - the transformation of liquid protein in the lens of the eye into solid, although the reasons for this are not clear.
So, let's summarize. The body is capable of instant tissue restructuring. The command for this can be given using an energy information signal from the outside. Although no such examples have been recorded with psychics, it cannot be argued that there cannot be a subject in the Universe who is capable of this.
Who he is - God or the Supreme Mind, we do not know. But the fact that it is present in our world is undeniable. As Academician Sakharov once noted, “there is something outside of matter and its laws.” And the anger of this supreme being can be terrible.
Pavel Gross
One of the main controversial issues
between creationists and
evolutionists - how they were formed
fossils: gradually, over
millions of years, or as a result of catastrophes
on a planetary scale?
Fossils that scientists
found in different parts of the globe,
represented by a wide variety
forms of life. These are whole organisms
frozen in ice, and bones or teeth,
hardened as a result
mineralization, and insects,
found themselves in the thickness of amber, and prints
leaves or other plant parts, bones
and animal tracks, etc. More often
parts of the skeleton are preserved, but sometimes in
fossils turn and more
soft fabrics.
The fossilization process appears to be
mysterious scientists. After all, no one
managed to reproduce it under conditions
laboratories. Evolutionists start from
assumptions that the remains of plants and
animal remains ended up in various
layers of the Earth as a result of long-term
processes. Geology textbooks usually
The following explanation is given. Process
mineralization occurs as
gradual accumulation of salts in tissues.
Molecules of organic substances,
washed out, they are replaced by silicon salts.
Examples usually given are
imprints of plant leaves and bird feathers,
formed by pressing
objects into soft silt, which then,
hardening, turning into stone.
It is obvious that animals whose corpses
found completely preserved in
blocks of ice, died suddenly.
For a more complete understanding
fossil formation process
Let's look at examples. It is known that everything
living beings who have died today
decompose. A sleeping fish floats to the surface
surface of the water and begins gradually
succumb to decomposition processes. Corpses
dead animals on land or
eaten by predators, or quickly
decompose. Dead plants also
destroyed in a relatively short time
periods of time.
How did the process take place in the past?
formation of fossils? Most
the logical explanation is according to
to which living beings find themselves
quickly buried as a result
tidal activity, massive
land shifts, as well as eruptions
volcanoes on a global scale.
Important factors in subsequent
fossilization processes were very high
temperature and pressure. Sedimentary layers
were thus not formed
gradually, over millions of years, and
could be the result of a cataclysm.
The fossil record is full of examples
confirming this assumption. How
already mentioned above, clusters
fossils in different areas of the planet
indicate that living organisms
once suddenly died. Developing this
thought, let's look at examples.
Fossilized fish remains
Well-preserved clusters
fish of a wide variety of species
discovered by scientists in many parts
planets. How did the fish end up in those
areas where there is currently no water,
for example, high in the mountains? Geologists
proposed a theory according to which
over millions of years huge masses
the land gradually sank below the level
seas, resulting in these areas
found themselves flooded with water. Then
the land rose again. It would seem
confirmed by finds on land of traces
sea life. Evolutionary geologists
claim that such “burials”
formed in sedimentary rocks in
as a result of the processes that took place in
Earth for millions of years.
This explanation leaves without
answer a series of questions. Nakhodki
paleontologists say that the death
flora and fauna occurred suddenly.
Indeed, research
countless fossilized remains of fish
confirms that their death has occurred
instantly. There was similar evidence
found in the Red Sandstone area
(Great Britain). This region is described as
a huge cemetery of aquatic organisms,
at the same time, the same thing was found everywhere
same picture of destruction. Deposition
red sandstone covering
area of approximately 25,000 sq. km,
more than 45 m thick, amazing in size
disasters. Moreover, poses in which
once dead fish froze
(for example, tensely extended
spines), they say that fish
died in convulsions.
An identical picture is observed in
northern Italy. And here the facts speak about
sudden mass death of fish. In layers
calcareous shale were discovered
thousands of fossilized skeletons, and
these skeletons turned out well
preserved and lying close
to each other. Even the prints were preserved
remains of scales, which suggests that
the fish were buried before they were
soft tissues began to decompose.
Rapid burial of bivalves
shellfish
Another example of quick death
marine organisms - bivalves
shellfish Their "cemeteries" are also
found in different regions of the Earth.
Moreover, they were found petrified, with
closed doors. When these clams
die, then after a few hours both
the shell halves begin
open up. That the bivalve
the mollusks were closed
valves, indicates that they
were buried alive. An example is this
finds - fossilized mollusks,
found near Holkirk (province
Alberta, Canada). On many of these
traces of shellfish have been preserved
molten rock.
There are other examples that
creatures that once lived in the sea
preserved in molten lava,
poured out to the bottom of the ocean. Bible
explains why this happened: when
the “sources of the great abyss” opened,
all over the Earth's surface occurred
volcanic eruptions that engulfed
both land and ocean.
Fossilized remains of sharks
The last example of instant
death of marine animals - petrified
shark remains found in Ohio
(USA). In rocky layers with a thickness of
remains were found tens of meters away
sharks of various sizes. It's obvious that
death overtook them in a natural way
swimming position - belly down. Weight
the silt flattened them to a thickness of 6 mm and
less. How could sharks end up in the layer?
sludge as a result of gradual homogeneous
processes that took place during
million years? Only an event like
The Flood, about which
The Bible tells, can explain
give us the facts below.
Petrified wood and
leaf prints
Pieces of wood that have turned
from organic material to stone,
called petrified wood. This
one of the most common
fossils. Moreover, in some
In some cases, the wood is so well preserved that
that even annual rings can be distinguished,
and on the leaf prints - the location
veins and individual cells.
The area where they were found
numerous fossils,
preserving soft tissues of plants and
animals, is Drumheller,
(Alberta, Canada). Strongly
Drumheller rough surface
formed by layers of volcanic ash and
silt, which are interspersed with small
layers of coal. Evolutionists
It is believed that these layers represent
sediment deposited over millions of years
years. Drumheller is world famous for
that fossils were discovered here
dinosaur remains.
Found in Drumheller
fossilized remains of marine organisms
- bivalves and oysters, and
also pieces of petrified wood. IN
lumps of magnetic iron ore almost always
some forms can be found
petrified life.
Usually the formation of magnetic
iron ore is explained by the action
gradual process of molecular
migration. However, studying this
material allows you to detect
excellent leaf prints,
preserved pieces of wood, as well as
other plant tissues. Yes, on one
from the fragments we examined
iron ore found in Drumheller,
there was a clear imprint of a dragonfly's wing.
This means that the process that ensured
preservation of these smallest structural
parts could not leak within
for a long time like this
uniformitarian geology suggests.
Analysis of magnetic iron ore showed that
these rocks were formed as a result
exposure to high temperatures rather than
process of molecular migration.
The biblical model suggests
more logical explanation
what happened. During the World
Flood, when layers of volcanic ash and
silts were deposited by tidal action
waves, pieces of molten liquid fell from the sky
sulfur (“the windows of heaven were opened,” Gen.
7:11). As a result, plants and animals
whose remains are being found today by scientists,
found themselves captured by this mass and
buried in it.
Petrified trees
There are places where they were discovered
clusters of petrified trees.
The famous Stone Forest in the south
eastern Arizona (USA) is known for
that the largest were found here
petrified trees. The length of their trunks
sometimes reaches more than 60 m. These trees
were discovered tens of meters from
products besieged by floods
volcanic activity. Trunks
pressed tightly together, as it happens
in the rubble.
What happened to these trees?
According to the usual explanation,
millions of years ago this zone represented
a swampy area,
crossed by streams and rivers. As
how river water deposited sediments from
sand, silt and volcanic ash, thousands
logs, animal bones, as well as parts
plants found themselves under them and with
petrified by time.
This theory does not provide a convincing
explanations. Rivers and streams depositing
deposits these days do not provide
nor the conditions necessary for the process
formation of fossils, nor
large-scale
destruction like that
happened in the past. Huge masses
volcanic ash deposited in
Stone Forest during floods,
are apparently the result
active volcanic activity,
much more powerful and large-scale than
Nowadays. Probably the reasons
causing mass death of giant
trees should be searched in global
catastrophes, which is what the Bible talks about.
Clusters of giant fossils
trees were also found in
Yellowstone National Park
(USA). These trees were covered
eruptive breccia - cemented
clastic rock - and petrified
under this layer. There are none here today
big trees, what they were
fossil ancestors. It is obvious that here too
the vegetation died suddenly.
Layered fossils
Another evidence that
the death of trees was rapid, are
trunks found submerged more
than in one layer. These are the so-called
multilayered fossils.
An example of such a fossil is
tree found in coal
reservoir in Tennessee (USA). About it
the discovery was described in the article “It will become
Is coal tomorrow's black gold?
published in the August issue
National Geographic magazine in 1975.
The photograph shows the trunk of a large
tree, immersed in a narrow
coal seam The tree passes
vertically through a four-meter layer
sandstone Evolutionary geologists
would explain the formation of coal
formation and layer of sandstone by the action
homogeneous processes, as a result
which these deposits were formed during
millions of years. However, the fact that this
the tree is placed in layers, indicating
that the deposition of these layers occurred
relatively quickly - within this time
the wood did not have time to rot.
Death of the Dinosaurs
There are other examples
proving that the cause of death
flora and fauna were a disaster.
For example, dinosaur remains are often
are found in positions that allow
assume that the animals were overtaken
sudden violent death.
Some of them were found in
flood deposits, their necks and tails
were broken, but the bodies were
located along the flow of water.
Duck-billed dinosaur corpses
found buried in layers
volcanic ash and silt, and the position
their bodies tended to float
animals.
Evolutionists developed
complex theories to explain
why animals that did not live in water
died a violent death there.
There are too many similar examples to
this phenomenon could be attributed to
local disasters. Dinosaurs
were found not only in the besieged
flood layers, but also in blocks of magnetic
iron ore, which apparently fell from
sky.
In the article “Dinosaur Bones from
rock", published in
to the Saskatoon Star, August 26, 1981,
talks about a dinosaur found near
Huxley (Alberta, Canada) in the 80s
a ton piece of magnetic iron ore. In this
the article says:
“In addition to fossilized bones, scientists
fossilized skin prints found
dinosaur, allowing them to judge
appearance of the animal. They, moreover,
discovered and extracted a number of fossilized
footprints - traces of the last steps
this carnivore, made by him before
death."
How could uniformitarian theory
explain the presence of skin and prints
feet in rock? Logically it's
can only be explained by the sudden
death of the animal and subsequent
petrification of his remains. Scientists-
evolutionists have proposed
numerous hypotheses for causes
extinction of dinosaurs, explaining them
death by the action of some stretched out
process time. Some of them
considered the cause of extinction
gradual change in climate
conditions, others believe that the reason
It was illness and lack of food.
Theory proposed by Louis
Alvarez, suggests that dinosaurs
like other life forms, died in
as a result of an asteroid collision or
comets with Earth. Since geologists
evolutionists believe that dinosaurs
disappeared 65 million years ago, Alvarez
believes that this cataclysm occurred
at the same time. Alvarez in his evidence
relied on the fact that in the remains
dinosaur scientists discovered rubidium,
which in significant concentrations
present in cosmic bodies.
New extinction theory
dinosaurs opened the way to reconsider ideas
uniformitarianism. Many scientists
showing readiness for revision
some of their ideas and evaluating
facts based on an unbiased approach,
come to the conclusion that the Earth has undergone
general devastation as a result
enormous destruction under the influence
cosmic forces. This is in full
agree with what the Bible says about
events of the past.
Frozen fossils
In the 1940s in the Fairbanks area
(Alaska, USA) during development
gold deposits in the frozen
the swamp was excavated up to
one mile. It turned out that the blocks
ice contains a huge amount
Plants and Animals, McGowan, author
books "Primitive Man in the New
Light", on p. 151 comments like this
huge accumulations of dead animals:
“Their number is amazing. They
lie in a frozen intertwined mass,
strewn with uprooted
trees. It seems that they
died, were mutilated during
catastrophic circumstances.
Skin, ligaments, wool, soft
fabrics."
In the Northern permafrost zone
Remains are often found in Siberia and Alaska
mammoths In some places of bones
there are so many mammoths that they lie thick
layer. In some places mammoths were frozen into the ice,
in other places - into sedimentary layers.
Studying the remains of these large
mammals shows that they
turned out to be frozen very quickly: in
their stomachs remained undigested
food. Herbs were found in the mouth
(bells, buttercups). Many corpses
were found torn,
dismembered, frozen into ice.
In addition to mammoths, in Siberia and on
Alaska also saw people frozen in ice
remains of camels, sheep, rhinoceroses,
bison, horses and lions. This
confirms the picture of the death that befell
millions of animals as a result
disasters.
Happening nowhere in the world now
events similar to those about
mentioned above. But today the earth's layers
More and more millions of remains are being discovered
animals and plants, and often they
gathered together and form huge
"cemeteries". Evolutionists are not
able to explain this phenomenon, since
the theory of evolution is based on the concept
uniformitarianism. The above facts
confirm the biblical premise
disasters on a global scale.
From the book "Evidence of Creation"
world" Author: J.
S. McLean et al.
A girl from Kuibyshev (now Samara) got angry with her groom and started dancing with the icon. After which... it froze like a block of ice in place and stood there for 128 days. Stories about this divine retribution have been passed on from mouth to mouth for forty years.
LEGEND
On January 14, 1956, Old New Year’s Day, a young factory worker Zoya decided to throw a party. The youth divided into pairs and began to dance. And Zoya herself sat in sad solitude, waiting for her groom Nikolai. Then her gaze fell on the goddess, and she, out of frustration, grabbed the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and shouted to her friends: “Since my Nicholas did not come, I’ll take this Nicholas.”
To her friends’ admonitions not to commit a sin, she replied: “If there is a God, let him punish me.” And she began to dance with the icon in her hands. Suddenly there was an unimaginable noise in the room, a whirlwind, lightning flashed... Everyone rushed out in horror. And when they came to their senses, they saw Zoya frozen in the middle of the room - cold, like marble, petrified.
The arriving doctors tried to give her an injection for tetanus, but the needles could not pierce the skin - they bent and broke. Zoya herself, however, was alive: her heart was beating, her pulse was palpable. Zoya’s mother, who returned, lost consciousness from what she saw and almost lost her mind. Having learned about what had happened, crowds of people began to gather near the ill-fated house, so that the authorities set up a police cordon at the door.
Often in stories about Zoya, Hieromonk Seraphim from the Glinsk Hermitage appears, who, having arrived at Christmas, served a prayer service near the girl and consecrated the room. After which he was able to take the icon from her hands and predicted the day when she would be granted forgiveness.
Popular rumor claims that after standing for 128 days, Zoya woke up, her muscles softened, and she was put to bed. After which she repented, called everyone to repentance and peacefully departed to the Lord.
PANIC IN THE REGIONAL COMMITTEE
From the transcript of the 13th Kuibyshev Regional Conference of January 20, 1956. The First Secretary of the Kuibyshev Regional Committee of the CPSU, Comrade Efremov, answers the questions of the delegates:
“There were about twenty notes about this. Yes, such a miracle happened, a shameful phenomenon for us communists. Some old woman walked and said: young people were dancing in this house, and one woman began to dance with the icon and turned to stone. People began to gather because the leaders of the police authorities acted ineptly. Apparently, someone else had a hand in this. A police checkpoint was immediately set up. And where the police are, there are eyes. There were not enough police... mounted police were deployed. And the people - if that’s the case, everyone’s there...
Some even went so far as to propose sending priests there to eliminate this shameful phenomenon. The bureau of the regional committee recommended that the bureau of the city committee strictly punish the perpetrators, and comrade Strakhov (editor of the regional party newspaper “Volzhskaya Kommuna.” - Ed.) to give explanatory material to the newspaper in the form of a feuilleton.”
There was plenty of room for a scandal in the regional committee to break out. Everything that happened so amazed the residents of Kuibyshev and the region that crowds of people flocked to the church. To perform the baptismal ceremony, the priests did not have enough crosses...
NEIGHBORS: NIKOLAI BECAME A RECIDIVIST
As it turned out, in the house on Chkalovskaya, 84 in 1956, it was not Zoya and her mother who lived, but her fiancé Nikolai and his mother Klavdiya Petrovna Bolonkina. After those events, as Klavdia Petrovna’s acquaintances say, she became withdrawn. A few years later she moved to Zhigulevsk, where she died 20 years ago.
Young Nikolai started drinking heavily and went down a slippery slope. He was in prison several times, once he escaped, and the police ambushed him in that very house. In the end, Nikolai, as an incorrigible alcoholic and repeat offender, was sent to the countryside, where he soon died.
KGB: IT WAS A RUMOR
With the help of the press center of the regional FSB department, we managed to find an eyewitness to those events from the KGB. Mikhail Egorovich Bakanov says:
“At that time I was a senior commissioner of the KGB. The authorities sent me to look into that very house on Chkalovskaya. There I saw cunning men who, for a chervonet, promised to take those who wanted to the house and show them the petrified maiden. Yes, no one stopped them from entering. I myself led several groups of curious people into the house, who confirmed that they had not seen anything. But people did not leave. And this outrage continued for a week. I don’t remember whether I talked to Zoya herself or not. So many years have passed."
Another eyewitness, an employee of the Samara Labor Inspectorate Valery Borisovich Kotlyarov, considers all this an invention of the “churchmen”: “I was a boy then. We boys were not allowed into the house. And the police brought in 10 adults. When they came out, they said: “There is no one there.” But the people did not leave... I saw a truck with pipes driving down the street and, when turning around, injuring several people with its load. And the pilgrims gossiped: “This is God’s punishment...”
CHURCH: THE PRIEST WAS NOT ALLOWED TO SEE ZOE
The elder of the Ascension Cathedral, Andrei Andreevich Savin, shares his memories:
“At that time I was the secretary of the diocesan administration. The Commissioner for Religious Affairs Alekseev calls our Bishop Jerohim and says: “We need to announce to the people in the church from the pulpit that nothing happened on Chkalovskaya.” In response, the bishop asked to let the rector of the Intercession Cathedral into the house so that he could see for himself. The representative said: “I’ll call you back in two hours.” And he called only two days later and said that he did not need our services. So none of the clergy were allowed there. The talk that Zoya was visited by Hieromonk Seraphim is not true...
And the crowd was shown a small empty room and said: “You see, there is no one there.” People asked to see a large room. “They have things piled up there, there’s nothing to see,” the authorities assured. These days, teams of Komsomol members worked on city trams, convincing people that they were in the house and did not see any frozen girl.”
PARTIES: THE POLICEMAN GOES GRAY FROM FEAR
Many believers in Samara know pensioner A.I. Fedotova.
“In those days, I was near Zoya’s house twice,” says Anna Ivanovna, “I came from afar. But the house was surrounded by police. And then I decided to ask some policeman from the security about everything. Soon one of them - a very young one - came out of the gate. I followed him and stopped him: “Tell me, is it true that Zoya is standing?” He replied: “You ask exactly like my wife. But I won’t say anything, it’s better to see for yourself...” He took off his cap from his head and showed his completely gray hair: “See?! This is truer than words... After all, we gave a subscription, we are forbidden to talk about it... But if you only knew how scary it was for me to look at this frozen girl!
DOCTORS: “NEEDLES WERE BROKEN”
A person was also found who told something new about the Samara miracle. He turned out to be the revered rector of the Sofia Church, priest Vitaly Kalashnikov:
“Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova, my mother’s aunt, worked in Kuibyshev as an ambulance doctor in 1956.” That day in the morning she came to our house and said: “You are sleeping here, but the city has been on its feet for a long time!” And she told about the petrified girl. She also admitted (although she gave a subscription) that she was now in that house on call. I saw Zoya frozen. I saw the icon of St. Nicholas in her hands. I tried to give the unfortunate woman an injection, but the needles bent and broke, and therefore it was not possible to give an injection.
Everyone was shocked by her story... Anna Pavlovna Kalashnikova worked at the ambulance as a doctor for many more years. She died in 1996. I managed to offer unction to her shortly before her death. Now many of those to whom she told about what happened on that very first winter day are still alive.”
RELATIVES: “IS ZOYA ALIVE?”
In 1989, the Volzhsky Komsomolets newspaper published an article by journalist Anton Zhogolev entitled “The Miracle of Zoya.” Soon an elderly man came to Anton, claiming that in the late 50s he worked in a mirror workshop located opposite the house on Chkalovskaya. And his workmates were the first to come running to the youth’s cries for help, even before the police arrived. According to their stories, the face of the frozen young woman, pale as a candle, seemed creepy...
And then Zhogolev received a call from... a relative of the petrified Zoya and said that... Zoya was still alive. She spent many years in a mental hospital. Then her relatives took her to Kinel, where she lives under their supervision. He is very afraid to remember those terrible days. And her relatives don’t allow anyone near her, so as not to worry her.
“I immediately went to Kinel,” says Zhogolev. “But my relatives greeted me with hostility. They confirmed that their ward ended up in a mental hospital in 1956, but they denied any involvement in the Samara miracle and kicked me out the door.
So I still don’t know whether this is the same Zoya and how true the story itself is...” Anton Evgenievich concluded in bewilderment.
Well, we will put an ellipsis in the story of the Samara miracle. After all, any miracle is based more on faith than on evidence.
In the town of Falun, there is an old mine. She is more than a thousand years old. The roofs of half of Europe are covered with copper, and during the time of Charles XII, cannons were cast from this copper. There are many stories and legends associated with this mine, which has been under UNESCO protection for several years. I will tell you about one of them. (Unfortunately, little has been written about this on the Internet; all this is told by guides in the mine).
One day, in 1719, a dead miner was discovered in one of the adits. The body was brought to the surface and many onlookers gathered to look at it. Death was not something unique in the mine, but this time it was a little different. The problem was that no one could identify the miner. The matter was complicated by the fact that no one had been reported missing in recent days. A few hours later, an old woman joined the gathering and it was then that she said with bitterness in her voice that the deceased miner was none other than her fiancé, who had disappeared 42 years ago. His name was Mats Israelsson, or Fat Mats, and he worked in the mine in 1677. The miner's body was so well preserved in water saturated with mineral salts that he looked exactly the same as the day he disappeared. Even the tobacco in his pocket looked fresh.
The event was amazing, and when a few days later the body turned to stone due to exposure to fresh air, no one knew what to do next. The main question was: was Mats a mineral that should have been thrown into a dump or a person who should have been buried according to all the rules. 
The mine manager wrote a letter to Stockholm and asked for advice. “Perhaps you need him in the mineral cabinet? You can’t bury such an absurdity...” The answer was not long in coming; the PR pioneers advised putting Mats on display to the public. This is how Mats became known as the “Petrified Man” and stood as an exhibit for 30 years.
After some time, the body began to collapse. They tried to repair it with the help of threads, fabric and wire, but soon its appearance became completely unpresentable. In 1749, with pomp and ceremony, it was buried in a local church. For various reasons, the coffin was moved many times and eventually it ended up in the attic. In 1900 it became a tourist attraction again, housed in a red wooden box with a glass lid. Many schoolchildren came to see the wonder, and they say that people who saw Fat Mats, who died in 1677, with their own eyes are still alive. Only in 1930 was he truly buried in the church cemetery. His gravestone is made in the form of a copper sign.
Mats is the world's most famous resident of Falun. A sort of local "Lenin".
a mental state caused by a person’s anxiety about his autonomy, individuality and characterized by a specific form of defense and self-preservation.
The term “petrification” was introduced into the scientific literature by R. Laing (1927–1994) to describe the mental state of a person experiencing anxiety due to his ontological uncertainty - a feeling of being unreal, inanimate, out of touch with the outside world.
The concept of “petrification” has several meanings, which were summarized by R. Laing in his work “The Shattered Self” (1960) to the following: a special form of horror leading to the petrification of a person, turning him into stone; fear of the possibility of transforming or being transformed from a living person into a dead object or thing devoid of subjectivity, into a kind of robot or automaton that does not have personal autonomy of action; a "magical" act by which one can resort to attempting to turn another person into stone.
Petrification is associated with the depersonalization of a person in an ambivalent way. On the one hand, in an attempt to preserve oneself (preserve autonomy and individuality) from possible suppression by other people, a person, as it were, turns into stone, thereby protecting himself from external pressure. On the other hand, he begins to treat the people around him not as individuals, but as things that do not have free will, denies their autonomy and ignores their feelings. In both cases, depersonalization occurs. A person is afraid of being depersonalized by other people and in turn depersonalizes them, which leads to a state of petrification.
Petrification does not mean a person loses contact with reality and withdraws into himself. However, as R. Laing noted, with such a mental state, the elements of the world acquire a different hierarchy of significance for a person than for a healthy person. The world of his own experiences does not disappear, but becomes one that he cannot share with other people.
Thus, the patient can enter into seemingly live communication with the analyst. He reacts to his interpretation of dreams and the designs he proposes. Enters into an argument with the analyst or, on the contrary, agrees with him in everything. Expresses such judgments that seem to indicate his autonomy, independence, and mental alertness. However, the ability to behave in an analytical situation as an autonomous person may actually hide the fact that the patient perceives the analyst not as a living person, but as a kind of computer device that receives information from him, processes it according to a pre-entered program and produces a certain result in verbal form. Treating the analyst as a computer device, the patient secretly observes the soulless automaton and, unlike him, considers himself a living person, although in reality he turns out to be extremely constrained, closed, and petrified. Such a patient cannot maintain an analytic relationship in which two people communicate as individuals. His own experiences do not manifest themselves as personal relationships with the analyst, but appear in the form of impersonal automatic reactions to the silence or questioning of the analyst, perceived as a computer device.
