51 THE AUTHENTICITY OF EXPERIENCE

'Can two people on the psychic dimension have identical experiences that can be confirmed by each other? Can they see the same things?' Stelios asked again.

'They may see the same things differently. Suppose I take ten people to gaze at a landscape and then bring them back and ask them to describe what they saw. Do you think they will describe that landscape in the same way? Or will they observe and notice whatever attracts their interest? They will see the landscape. But they will not describe it the same way unless they have identical interests. When two Researchers of Truth with the same concerns find themselves within a psychic subplane they see and observe with the greatest detail the same landscape. In this way we confirm the authenticity of our psychic experiences that cannot be validated through the five senses.' Daskalos then turned towards Zoe and began to narrate another psychic experience he had had.

'Four miles away from Strovolos there is a farm owned by a friend of mine. He once invited me to spend the weekend with his family and volunteered to give me a lift with his car. I preferred to walk to his house. The following day just before I was about to wake up I spread myself and surveyed the territory between my house and my friend's farm. I noticed that on the road just before his farm there were two snakes fighting one another. I saw the big snake chasing the small one. It grabbed its tail, bit it and slowly swallowed it. Then it tried to cross the street but at that moment a car coming from the direction of Tseri ran over it and crushed its neck. I saw the snake squirming convulsively and with spasmodic movements it crawled into the ditch.

'In the meantime I woke up, put on my clothes and started walking towards the farm. It took me about an hour until I reached the spot where I had seen the fight between the two snakes. As I was approaching, a car stopped and four persons stepped out. I laughed. I said to myself they must have seen the dead snake. "Are you looking at the black snake?" I asked them as I came closer. One of them turned towards me with amazement. "How do you know there is a black snake?" he asked. "In fact," I said, laughing, "there is a yellow snake inside the black one." "What did you say?" the fellow responded with suspicion. "There is another snake inside this

one?" You see,' Daskalos continued, 'I was naive at that time and talked openly about my experiences. I admit it was a mistake. i described to them in detail what happened and how a car passed over the snake, crushing its neck, how it crawled into the ditch and so on. That man suddenly took out a pocket knife, stepped over the head of the snake with his foot, and sliced its belly in two. He found there the yellow snake. He looked at me in horror. "Are you Spyros Sathi?" he muttered. "Yes," I nodded. "Get away from here. You are the Devil," and he pointed his finger at me. "Why, mister, do you think I am the Devil?" I protested. "How did you know there was a yellow snake inside the black snake?" he asked with a trembling voice.

'Could I explain to him how I knew?' Daskalos said with an air of despair in his voice. 'Do you think he could have understood? I just said, "It seemed to me that way." "It didn't seem to you," he said, "you are the Devil," and he started crossing himself. I discovered later that he went to the priests and announced to them that he had encountered Satan and narrated the episode with the snakes.

'One has to be very careful about these matters. At the same time these are the very experiences that offer me unshakable convictions on the reality of my world. Now do you understand? I have continuous experiences like these which prove to me that the world I live in is neither a hallucination nor an illusion.

'Some time ago,' he went on, 'a stupid fool borrowed my binoculars and lost them on a trip up on the Troodos mountains. He hung them on a pine tree, forgot which tree he had hung them on, and left them there. He got into his car, came down to Nicosia, and with the greatest audacity he announced, "You know, Daskale, those binoculars of yours are gone, they flew away." "What do you mean they flew away?" I said angrily. "I just don't know where I put them." "What do you mean, you don't know?" I responded with exasperation. "Those are powerful and expensive binoculars that I cannot find today." "But what can I do, Daskale? I just lost them." "You must go and find them," I ordered him. "How am I going to do that?" "Just wait a minute," I said to him. "Let me find out where they are and then you go and fetch them. Where did