Reality & fantasy

The longer I am in the Altai, the more stories about mystical experiences I hear. Most stories are the result of a rich imagination in combination with a big ego. Real mystics do not advertise their experiences. Fake mystics, however, cannot stop talking about the mysterious things that happen to them.

Yesterday I met a very nice university professor in a tiny village. She’s not from the Altai but was raised here as a child, and the Altai is her second home. For some reason it is always women who talk to me about visionary dreams and their meetings with shamans. This lady was no exception. When I mentioned Olga Khariditi, a Russian psychiatrist and author of a bestseller about shamanistic experiences in the Altai, the nice lady stopped being nice.

"She’s a total fake, and her book is pure fantasy!"

When I asked how she could distinguish fake from genuine the professor answered curtly that Olga Kharitidi had only been here briefly, unlike herself.

Now I am left with the question why I should believe the professor, who also met shamans in the Altai, had mystic experiences and wrote a book about it. Only her manuscript hasn’t been published yet, which may explain the anger.