Our Story Page 1

Living a Dream is a history of Science of Mind in Russia as I experienced it from 1993. I regret not keeping a journal over the years of the many people that has touched my life, unfortunately I have forgotten many of their last names.

The basis for this history occurred in the summer of 1992. Just before entering my 3rd year at Ernest Holmes College, I was attending the Asilomar conference hosted each year by the Science of Mind organization. With the invitation of Rev. Marlene Oaks, 5 Russian women were invited to this conference. And I was impressed by the stories they told from the stage, and how Science of Mind has changed people's lives in Russia.

I was still undecided as to where I wanted to begin my ministry after graduation in 1993. Ventura California, where I had lived for the past 30 years did not appeal to my adventurous spirit. Just before entering my 3rd year at Ernest Holmes College, I was interviewed by 3 ministers on my senior panel. One of those ministers was Rev. Peggy Bailey, She asked me. "Where do you see yourself after graduation" I told her and the rest of the group, "I wanted to be some place different and unique". Little did I know that I had already set the Law of the universe in motion.

While I was interning and working with S.A.N.T.I. at the Fullerton Church in California, I met Terry Christensen a practitioner from Northern California. She was living and working in Moscow as a S.A.N.T.I representative. She told me that she was planning to return to Moscow in September. We agreed to meet at O'Hare airport in Chicago September 21st.

As arranged, Terry and I met in Chicago, and I was very, very excited because finally my dream was about to come true. We boarded the plane for that long flight to Moscow. I could not sleep because of all the excitement and anticipation.

I got off the plane with 2 sea bags and an old blue suitcase.

We were met by the Red Guard. Actually we were met by Volodia, Terry's fiancé, and Alexander Romanov.

Alexander had made arrangements in an apartment complex for us to stay. Terry's flat was 2 floors above me, and I was renting from a retired grandmother. My hostess would leave every morning, but before she did she made my breakfast; oatmeal and 2 eggs. The granny I was renting from knew as much English as I knew Russian. I knew 2 words, yes and no.

We stayed in our flat for about 3 weeks until we could find a place of our own. We found a 2 rooms flat for $100 a month. At that time I thought it was very reasonable now days the same flat would rent for about $800 or more.

October of 1993 there was an attempted revolution and the top floors of the White House were set afire. One of our friends Alexander Kolovenko took us to the war zone. We witnessed first hand the tanks with their guns trained at the White House. This was a very freighting time. The short lived revolution ended and people went back to their daily routine .

With the help of Angelina, one of the study group leaders in Moscow, made arrangement in a poly clinic so that I could lecture each Saturday afternoon, as there lecture progressed, people would come to me and ask if I would lecture for their group and I agreed.

Meanwhile, Evelina Zadonavona one of the women I met in America was making arrangements for a seminar in Perm and Izhevsk. She asked if I would join her team, there would be 4 Russians and myself, and of course I agreed. Our team left Moscow September 30th. It is a 20 hour train ride from Moscow to Izhevsk. Izhevsk and Perm are located about 1000 miles North East of Moscow, near the Ural Mountains.

Finally, after long tiring twenty hours train ride we arrived in Izhevsk The following morning we boarded a bus and were taken to the seminar site. The site is owned by the automobile manufacture IZH. The site is for the employees children for their summer vacation. I was provided with a room of my own and it was very cold because they had just turned on the heat in our building.

It was at lunch that I was introduced to several people that were at the conference that summer. There was Nadia, Galina Emelianova, Sergi Macrusian, Larissa Yelsova my interpreter. I was also introduced to another interpreter Alexander Bolotin whom we remained friends to this day.

Nadia and Galina were very excited about all the information they received at the Moscow conference. Upon their arrival to Izhevsk they started their own Science of Mind group. This Science of Mind group met once a week, and the only material they had to teach from was from was the Science of Mind book and the first course, and what they could remember from the conference. They were very enthusiastic. After sharing this information with me they asked me if they could have a Science of Mind center in Izhevsk; "I said why not". Then they said, "We would like to have a Center and you as our leader". I had to think about because I was not prepared to make my home in Izhevsk especially after being greeted by all that snow and cold on our arrival. However, as the conference progress each day I gave it more thought, so I thought to myself, "Why not I have no other place to go". By the end of the conference I agreed to come back.

After a week in Izhevsk we were off again on an overnight train to Perm. We were booked into a common wagon. Common wagons are not very comfortable or warm. For some reason I developed bronchitis, and I began to cough.

We were in Perm for another conference which lasted four days. Before leaving Perm I had a talk with Evelina and told her, I do not want to go back by coupe or common wagon. "Please, I said, I want to go back first class".

I began making arrangement to return to Izhevsk upon my return in Moscow. With the help of Alexander Boliton's son we left Moscow December 1st. 1993. We arrived in Izhevsk December 2nd 1993, and this is where I made my home until December 2nd 2001.

On our arrival to Izhevsk I was feeling poorly. We were met by Alexander Boliton, and I was not thinking clearly and I left one of bags on the train. Alexander went back to the train, located the conductor and found rny bag. He came walking through the door with my sea bag over his shoulder singing a Beatle's song "life goes on" because he is a big fan.

My hostess, Svetlana, took care of me the best she knew how, and at week's end she called a doctor friend because I was getting worse. The doctor arrived, as well as my interpreter, and after examining me said, "Ron you need to be in the hospital now". Svetlana called a taxi and the four of us went to hospital.

MY ROOM

HEAD NURSE

Let me tell you, I was frightened. I didn't know what to expect at all. Here I am with no language skills, in a Russian hospital, and I didn't know if I was going to live or die before starting my work. The hospital staff took care of me, and after 3 weeks stay I was discharged.

When I was in the hospital I had a conversation with Galina Emi and my hostess we talked about having the first Peace meditation in Izhevsk. They made the all the arrangements for this event. Then on December 31 we met at the Udmurtian Theater for our first peace meditation. We had over 125 people in attendance. What a success!

In 1994 I formed a seven person board for the purpose of charting a church. At that time there were restrictions regarding registrations of foreign churches in Russia, thus we were unable to register a church. To find a way around this, we registered as a non commercial organization. In the meantime, I requested and received all the paperwork from Home Office in Los Angeles for charting a church. We filled out all the required forms and sent them back for approval. We were granted our request. Then on February 15th 1995, we were charted as the first church in the CIS: The Center Church of Spiritual Science

In those early days, United Church of Religious Science had a policy to grant $6000 to a newly charted church, and of course we were granted that amount. We used the entire amount for printing.

I began teaching a foundation course with the material available. All my classes in those early days had about 60-70 people enrolled. We were fast exhausting the supply of material from Alexander Kolovenko in Moscow. He was in charge of all the printed material and he would ship whatever I needed whenever I requested it. My interpreter pointing out to me that there were many inconsistencies in the translations. At that point I made a decision to reedit and reformat the Science of Mind, the Foundation, and Treatment and Mediation course.

As you can see from these examples the Science of Mind, the original came in two separate sections, and the courses were divided into seperate weeks. The Science of Mind book had to be reedit because of all the inconsistencies. We also reformatted the courses into book form. Naturally, all of material was read, reread, proofed, and finally printed. New students now had 3 excellent translations.

Books

In the treatment and meditation course there is a book which is requied reading called; Can WeTalk to God by Ernest Holmes. which was was our very first book to be translated and printed.