The officially atheistic government of Russia tried its best to cover up such embarrassing transgressions against the State. They wanted no attachments to these throwbacks to what they saw as primitive paganism. Rumors of executions and forced exile in Siberia kept interest to a minimum, yet accounts of devil worship and involvement with other Black Arts did not subside, in fact, they persisted and often gre in importance.

There was proof that the now unorthodox, bur formerly "traditional", schools of religion and occultism had been preserved and their prescriptions and "superstious" practices, having endured through the centuries, where being handed down from generation to generation, through typically there was a great deal of secrecy associated with them.
The Sourcerers were thought of as monstly being older people who possessed the secret science of curing men and animals of disesases, of appeasing demons whenever they waxed into a great fury, of staunching blood, freeing insect-infested dwellings of vermin, de-haunting houses, tracking horse thieves, invoking the souls of the dead, foretelling the future and discovering hidden underground treasures.

Wizards, witches, healers, shamans and hangs were performing what seemed like "miracles" and so a noted Polish-born political scientist, activist and explorer, who had gained a reputation as a believer in reincarnation and cloistered underground cities like Agharta, went on a quest through Mother Russia to ascertain the truth about all matters involving the occult. Ferdinand Ossendowski's findings make for a most controversial assessment of the situation, on that has long been squelched by a very unsympathetic government devoid of any spiritual concerns. This book contains the full text of the very readble 1923 edition of Ossendowski's "The Shadow of the Gloomy East" as well as an update on official and unofficially sanctioned PSI activities in the former Eastern Bloc.

 176 Pages