Photo Fr. Seraphim's bookshelf

I recognize the first book top shelf on left:  Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain.  I read this book in the early 70's.  I remember it being a hardcopy, borrowed from my sister.  Even then I remember being somewhat amazed that the Russians took seriously the super-natural.  Unlike America that denied the supernatural, saying there is a logical or scientific explanation for everything.

But the Russians accepted the supernatural as valid part of science.  I later learned more after the ROCOR-MP union.  It explains why so many of our most committed people, from all ranks, did "flip-flops" especially after visiting Russia.  Then this book came back to my memory.  

There was one case, circa 1950, where a Russian KGB agent man was watching a spoon-bender.  After the show, he went up to the spoon-bender, and asked, "Can you do that to a man's heart?"  

Later, another case, sometime soon after 1980, a KGB-defector visited the Etna convent to tell them his conversion story which went like this:

I was given an assignment to go to [B______] (some country that started with a B: Bolivia? Brazil? Bulgaria?) to do a series of experiments using evil spirits to control mens' minds.  Well, I did not believe in evil spirits, but in doing the experiments, I found out they are real.  I figured that if there is such a thing as evil spirits, then there must be such a thing as good spirits, too.  And that was what put me on the road to finding the Orthodox Church. . . .

There is more to this story.  The KGB punished him for defecting by killing his wife and children.  He remarried and had more children, and his new family was also killed.  Then he himself just disappeared.  This story was told to me by one of the nuns at St. Elizabeth's, shortly after the ROCOR-MP union.  Maybe 2008, or 2009.  It might have been Mother Justina — one of the nuns who had been there from the earliest days of the convent being there.  I was glad to hear this story, because I felt certain that witchcraft had been used to bring about the ROCOR-MP union (in addition to blackmail, bribery, torture, threat, manipulation, etc.).  Everyone thought I was nuts.  I was (still am) pretty much alone in this realization.  I needed confirmation that this was not just some wild idea.  Today I'm more confident than ever. 

source for photo:

https://img.ifunny.co/images/de53064bcdd2b0298f7e39f3744ac0ce644e42d3c5aee428e7604326379deaa4_1.jpg

https://ifunny.co/picture/fr-seraphim-rose-s-bookshelf-in-his-cell-XrFY29OjA?s=cl