Ekim Bey
To this unexpected and high-sounding request of Ekim Bey, this venerable man, the Persian dervish, replied with precision and in great detail.
I will not record here, in this second series of my writings, what he then explained, considering it premature for serious readers and, as regards the correct sequential perception of all my writings, even harmful to the aim of genuine understanding. I have therefore decided, with a clear conscience, to expound the quintessence of these explanations only later, in a corresponding chapter of the third series of my writings, entitled The physical body of man, its needs according to law, and possibilities of manifestation’.
Early in the morning following this last visit to the dervish, we resumed our journey. Instead of going, as previously mapped out, in the direction of the Persian Gulf, we went west towards Bagdad, since two of our company, Karpenko and Prince Nijeradze, had fallen sick with fever and were becoming worse from day to day.
We reached Bagdad, and after staying there about a month we separated and went off in different directions. Prince Lubovedsky, Yelov and Ekim Bey left for Constantinople; Karpenko, Nijeradze and Pogossian decided to follow the Euphrates upstream as far as its source, then to go over the mountains and cross the Russian frontier. But Dr. Sari-Ogli and I, with the others, agreed to turn back and go in the direction of Khorasan, and only when there to decide on the final stage of our journey.
In setting down my memories of Dr. Ekim Bey, I must not fail to mention his ardent interest in hypnotism and everything relating to it. He was particularly interested in those phenomena which in their totality are called the ‘power of human thought’ and the study of which is a distinct branch of the contemporary science of hypnotism.
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