Bronnikov: Teaching Blind Children to ''See''

In two previous articles, I have discussed the work of Viacheslav Bronnikov, a man from Feodosia, Ukraine, who teaches blind children to ''see.''[1] In this article, I will present to you the work of two other Russians — Nikolay Nikolayevich ''Nik-Nik'' Denisov, and Boris Zolotov — who are doing the same kind of work. Both of these men are quite different from Bronnikov and from each other — not only in their methods, but in their philosophical emphasis and their personal motivations.

First, before going on to discuss Denisov and Zolotov, I would like to say that — despite Bronnikov's great results, as reported in my previous articles — there are some limitations worth considering when we evaluate the man and his methods.

First of all, Bronnikov has been criticized by some for his disinterest in spirituality — his ''mechanical'' approach. (This criticism is much less applicable to Denisov, and not at all to Zolotov, for whom spirituality is a key aspect of his work.)

Secondly, Bronnikov's ''biocomputer'' model apparently can become so obsessive that a person needs to turn this imaginary device off for the night, and must not forget to turn it back on in the morning. This seems like an unnecessary limitation, since of course there is no real ''biocomputer'' in our heads — only formerly ignored neurons that, when activated, reflect the world around us in new ways.

Thirdly, it is said that the Bronnikov Method for the most part only reaches children. Even Bronnikov's instructors, although they can teach alternative vision, reportedly do not possess this faculty themselves. Both Denisov's and Zolotov's teachers possess alternative perception abilities.

Finally, on the medical side it is claimed by some that in the human sight center there is only so much energy, and that in using the Bronnikov Method of alternative vision, one's normal eyesight will worsen. Alternative vision, critics say, is thus a good option for blind people but not for the normally sighted. (Denisov has also found difficulties with this ''energy barrier.'' Zolotov, as you will see, neither believes in nor encounters an energy barrier in the use of superpsychic abilities.)

Denisov: A Trainer

In my view, Nikolay Nikolayevich ''Nik-Nik'' Denisov has gone farther than Bronnikov. Denisov's students learn to do the same things that Bronnikov students do — alternative vision, and so on — but Denisov's reason for learning and teaching it are very different. If Bronnikov seems interested in using ''superhuman'' skills to perform better in society, Denisov wants to use them in order to free himself and others from society's limitations.

Before devoting full time to study and teach alternative perception, Nikolay Denisov studied at the Moscow Energy Institute and the all-USSR Foreign Trade Academy. In 1972 he began researching human evolutionary development and won recognition for his work in the area of information access technologies.

Today, his priority is to teach as many people as possible to use alternative data-access channels, both in their private lives and in their jobs. He believes that the use of these abilities will heighten human adaptability to our changing lifestyles, and also will initiate or enhance people's artistic and spiritual development. In this connection, he developed the ''Golden Ray'' program, a method that allows people to broaden their perceptual limits by a factor of several hundred. More than 10,000 people from a few score Russian and ex-USSR cities have taken the Golden Ray program, and it has received wide coverage in both newspapers and TV.

Predicting the Future

Although he is striving for 100 percent accuracy, Denisov has already achieved results that seem remarkable. He can predict the future with 70 to 80 percent probability. And that's enough for one of his students, psychologist Dr. Boris Boyar, whose Academy of Game Technologies teaches students to win at gambling casinos by ''seeing'' dealers' cards and influencing the roulette ball. Also, casino personnel can learn to psychically prevent players from winning, and businesspeople are taught how to influence others and arrive at optimum decisions.

Scientific confirmation

Moscow Psychiatry Institute researched the work being done by Denisov and his students — specifically brain activity when a person is using alternative vision or during telepathic communication. The scientists found specific areas of the brain that were apparently responsible for the processing of extrasensory information. Denisov says that he is using the research results to make the learning in his school ''more conscious, more directed, more accurate, and faster — and not for children only but also for adults.''

''All the instructors in my school,'' Denisov asserts, ''can read blindfolded. This is why they can provide the students with both theoretical and practical help.''

Economic work in the USSR

Nikolay Denisov is a very practical person. He used to work as a negotiator for Soviet foreign trade institution Vneshtorg, and enjoyed the privilege — very rare in the USSR — of traveling abroad once every two months to negotiate building contracts.

''Others considered me a man that had everything one can dream of,'' he writes. ''But I was bored!'' He saw that his position made him part of a social machine, and decided to get out of this predictable routine and look for something new, unusual, and unknown.

Denisov met Boris Zolotov early on, during his university student years. ''Boris and I are friends back from the Institute,'' he says. ''He was the first to show me that a man possesses many abilities unknown to science. It's because of him that I began my learning of this vast and interesting world of extrasensory perception. Now I am doing my own research. I have a school of my own — my own methods and personal approach to the world. But our friendship is something very big. It's a mutual understanding and respect between two men that transcends the usual.''

In his own research, being as I have said a very practical person, Denisov takes nothing for granted. He believes in nothing that cannot be proved. For this reason he is skeptical of channeling and of otherworldly ''Teachers,'' claiming that sources of this nature do not serve his needs. Instead, Denisov develops his techniques from working closely with people who actually possess the unusual abilities he seeks to learn. In this way, he acquires understanding of the phenomena and develops methods of teaching this to others.

Denisov's Seminars

Denisov first used 14-day seminars, but decided to make them shorter because his students wanted faster results. Now, he aims for his students to have their first results in only five days.

His seminars usually take place at night in a big hall, where students go through a series of exercises and one-to-one interactions. Night time is chosen, not only because some of the students work during the day, but also because the techniques seem easier to perform at night.

The alternative-vision seminars last for two hours, and take place in a typical classroom environment, with desks and chairs. Denisov — a trainer, as he calls himself — teaches his students a specific ''meditation'' that allows them to achieve the desired results. But it is not verbal teaching. Instead, Denisov himself enters the meditative state and ''broadcasts'' it. By tuning in, his students are quickly able to have experiences proving that what they have come there to learn is possible. They go on from there to develop the abilities themselves through exercises.

Here is where Denisov's work differs most markedly from that of Zolotov, for he feels that ''lazy'' people cannot learn to do what he teaches, and that seems to be what happens. In one seminar, for example, my friend Alina was able, with closed eyes, to read a newspaper. But she couldn't do this at home because she did not pursue the exercises. (Even so, her overall ESP level became very much heightened after the Denisov seminar.)

Energy: It's Not Free?

So, in line with the above-mentioned exercise requirement, Denisov differs from Zolotov in his belief that achieving results requires energy — not only the energy of practicing and not being ''lazy,'' but a kind of psychic energy. The impression I get is that he and his students feel that energy is not free: You have to work hard to get these extraordinary results.

Also, Denisov feels that remote viewing (e.g. reading a text that was in the room yesterday, or one that is in another room today), requires a ''high density'' of the energy body that most students cannot achieve. Denisov and his students have been working with lucid dreaming, as taught by Castaneda and others, in an attempt to solve the dilemma of this ''energy barrier.''

Freedom in an Unfree World

What perhaps attracts me most about Denisov is his view of personal freedom.

In an email interview, I wrote to Denisov saying: ''Jim Schnabel[2] claims that the U.S. used psychic spies against the USSR, but later dropped this practice because of the 'weirdness factor' and because one can't be 100 percent sure of data that's gathered in such a way.'' And I asked Denisov whether the Russian military and intelligence people were cooperating with him, or whether instead they perhaps interfered with him, or tried to limit what he was allowed to teach.

Here is Denisov's answer:

Same thing here. They [the government] say: ''We will give you help, financing, students, a laboratory — if and when you have developed data-gathering techniques that we can use.'' They don't understand that when I can access any information at will, I will need help from nobody. I will simply disappear from society, it will no longer hold any interest for me. What are they talking about financing me to do, if I can already predict tomorrow's market quotes, or next week's sports results and lottery numbers?

I don't possess big ambition, and I am not looking for popularity. So as soon as I achieve success in my research, nobody will hear from me [any more]. As for now, they neither impede nor help me.

So Denisov's vision is one of personal freedom, for himself and others.

Trainings in the United States

Denisov has conducted alternative vision seminars in the United States, in the Russian language, for about 40 immigrants from the former Soviet Union. There were articles about this in Russian newspapers, and a program on Russian radio. ''Everybody was reportedly satisfied with the results,'' Denisov says, and adds that he would be willing to do this again for an English-speaking audience.

Boris Zolotov: A Teacher

For half a year I have been starting and stopping the process of writing about Boris Zolotov.

It was easy to write about Bronnikov. He explains all that he does. And it was not difficult to write about Denisov. He uses normal logic when communicating with his students.

It's totally different with Zolotov. For although he talks a lot, he doesn't really teach with words. Instead, he teaches by creating transformative experiences for his students, using Sufi-like teaching stories and other similar methods.

So although I have strong feelings about Zolotov's work, I couldn't seem to make an article from them. It seemed that Zolotov was giving just enough left-brain ''food'' to his students so that they would return to class each day (Zolotov's courses usually last from ten days to two weeks, but students may come and go as they please) — and no more.

The solution I came up with was to tell some of his stories, and to describe, not theories, but ''what happens'' to people when they take a Zolotov seminar.

For example, it's pretty common to hear from Zolotov's students, especially novices, that his lectures reveal knowledge of what they are thinking. It seems to many that he is tuning into their unspoken thoughts, and giving them answers to unspoken questions. These experiences convince them, in a left brain way, to continue with the work.

Another way that Zolotov talks to attendees' left brains is by telling stories from his own life. Half legendary, half ordinary, these tales excite something in the listener — perhaps the inner child who has always known how easy miracles are to do.

One ''miracle'' story Zolotov's tells concerns a time during his student years when he was in charge of bringing the ''booze'' to a New Year's party at a dacha outside Moscow. But he had forgotten to get the address of this dacha, and there was no one left in Moscow for him to ask. So what did Boris do? He simply hailed a taxi, got into it, and told the driver: "To dacha!" The driver did not even think to ask for further directions. He simply drove, while they two men made small talk about hunting. And after some time, they arrived in a village where Boris's friends were gathered waiting for him in the street.

Another story Zolotov likes to tell gives some insight into the man himself, rather than miracles or superpsychic abilities. It concerns a time when he was working on dolphin research at Russia's Far East Institute. One evening he went with a group of girls — young scientists — to a border outpost to give a lecture for the guards. There, the master sergeant (Starshina in Russian) invited them all to a dinner of roast suckling pig. This invitation had a catch, however. Literally, the guests were supposed to ''catch'' the meal. It turned out that the border guards grew their own pigs for food, and watching city girls in their short skirts trying to collar these baby pigs was one of their favorite and more hilarious forms of entertainment. As for actually rounding up the pig in this way, the guards had given their guests an impossible task.

Impossible, that is, until Zolotov came along. He simply thought about the problem for a moment, then removed a single plank from the pen and chased the pigs toward the too-small hole in the fence, where one of them, in trying to escape, got stuck.

In telling this and other stories, Zolotov is engaging our left brains, but he is really talking to our right brains. Some of his critics even claim that he uses NLP to ''program'' his listeners.

Usually, when asked questions, Zolotov does not answer in plain language, but gives half-cryptic explanations. When asked once why he does this, he explained — half cryptically, of course — ''I say this not for your mind to understand, but in order to let your mind change in such a way that it would be possible for you to understand me.''

Love and Learning

In the summer of 1999, at a time when I was feeling very full of love from experiencing Klaus Joehle's work,[3] I felt I really just knew everything about love-as-energy! But Zolotov showed me something new: the connection between love and learning. In a seminar I attended, he gave the following hypothetical example:

Let us say that a husband is a member of an expedition to the North Pole, and his wife is a surgeon back home. There is an emergency in the expedition — somebody needs urgent surgery. If those two people are really in love, then the husband can connect with everything his wife knows, and do the surgery as she would do it.

Zolotov's work takes account of this love energy. And as a result, in his seminars people fall in love, go through jealousy and suffering — everything that happens around being in love in everyday life. So if you dare to love in one of Zolotov's seminars, then you learn a lot — and quickly.

For example, my friend Irina fell in love in a Zolotov seminar, and all three individuals — she, the man she fell in love with, and her husband(!) — learned a lot about freedom, love, and jealousy.

Seminar Format

Zolotov seminars usually take place in out-of-city sanatoriums throughout Russia, Bulgaria, and Hungary. The part of the hall where the seminar attendees sit is called matrasnik — referring to the Russian word for ''mattress'' — because during lectures it is covered with mattresses for people to sit or lie down on.

A large rectangular area in the center is called the ploschadka, or ''the work,'' and the word also refers to what goes on. It is where the one-to-one processes take place. This area is free of mattresses. It looks like a dance floor or an improv theater stage.

EOI: Expert-Operator Interaction

What happens during ploschadka is what Zolotov calls ''expert-operator interaction,'' or EOI.

As an expert, you learn to feel with your body — to feel your body moving, to express your feelings through your body. You learn to feel your partner, or anything else. This experience starts with an ''operator'' — a person who is conducting the work and who is broadcasting his feelings to those working on ploschadka.

As an operator, you learn to send different signals. You can, for example, make deep contact with an object, and after that contact is established — after you become ''one with'' the object — you can make changes to the object by changing something in yourself. The easiest example that is regularly shown in seminars is making clouds appear and disappear. (After my first Zolotov seminar I was able to disperse tiny clouds myself, but for some reason this ability left me later.)

Using EOI

Using EOI, you can cure a person from cancer. ''Ten years ago,'' Zolotov says, ''we were researching curing cancer, and we cured everyone who came to us at that time. But we have learned it, and it's no longer interesting for us. Now we are doing other things.'' (You will note in the picure below-left that there are spots of white light in the photo; these were not visible when the photo was taken.)

Now — and this is where the crazy stuff begins — Zolotov's team uses EOI to ''cure'' things like submarines. After all, both a person with cancer and a malfunctioning submarine are simply outside objects, and you work with them using the same methods. In fact, it is said that Zolotov's EOI team helps take care of the Russian Pacific submarine fleet. While the subs are still at the base, the team tells commanders which parts might malfunction during the next underwater cruise. His team doesn't fix the problems, Zolotov said, leaving that part to the Russian sailors. But I know, from my own personal knowledge, that the tragedy to the Russian submarine Kursk happened exactly after, and apparently because, Pilulka — one of Zolotov's most important EOI team members — left his organization.

If this all seems unreal, other examples of EOI results are equally so: radiation-resistant human skin. . . the prevention of earthquakes. . . releasing Souls that descended into Hell to find and free their loved ones, then got stuck there.

Zolotov's tales, although provocative, used to seem far-fetched to me, unreal. But I began to take him seriously when I met live people who had been cured in his seminars. Here are some examples:

• Tania, from Kiev, had had her spleen surgically removed at the age of 15. Recently, both she and her doctor were surprised to find on a CAT scan that Tania's spleen had regenerated. Tania is sure that this was due to her work on Zolotov's team.



• Larisa, from Moscow, told Zolotov in a seminar that she had been diagnosed with a type of incurable cancer. Zolotov worked with her personally. His method was to take her into his arms and to lie with her, side by side, for two hours, while a seminar was going on all around them. Subsequent tests showed that Larisa no longer had cancer.



• Vita's parents insisted that she attend a Zolotov seminar, despite the time shortage — it was only days before she was to defend her graduation diploma. But doctors had found a benign tumor in her breast, and so her father was being insistent. Vita came to a seminar and was shocked to receive, from a Zolotov team member, a breast massage, right in the middle of matrasnik. While this was going on, the EOI team member explained to the audience what he was doing and how. And the result was there — the tumor dissolved.

If You Meet the Buddha on the Road. . .

I was present in a seminar near Moscow when Pilulka, mentioned before in connection with the Kursk submarine, was leaving Zolotov's team. It appeared to me then that Zolotov was taking this very hard, as she had been his closest friend. But I have since come to a different understanding. For it appears that Zolotov — in the way of all truly important Teachers — intentionally creates situations where his most promising students will leave him. It is the only way that they can continue to progress.

Here again, Zolotov uses what seems to be a Sufi-like method. He doesn't send his students away, explaining why they must go. Instead, he makes it happen in a natural way, where the former student begins to feel that he or she must begin to rely on the Self alone.

Sergey Romasenko is a 22-year-old from the small Ukrainian industrial town of Alchevsk who left the Zolotov team to conduct his own seminars. At first, he tried to mimic Zolotov, and this didn't work well. Since then, Sergey has begun to do more things that are natural to him, things which happen to be about love and feelings. In doing this, he is attracting students away from Denisov, whose focus is more on superhuman abilities. People seem to be ''voting with their feet'' for love.

Sasha Klein, of Moscow, is another example of a leader who realized himself because Zolotov ''sent him away'' at the right time. He has expanded his website to include a great print-version magazine, conducts seminars, and conducts a "Second Logic" school on the internet. His teaching method involves the use of koans.

Zolotov and Alternative Vision

As with curing cancer, there was a time when Zolotov also was interested in alternative vision. He no longer works with this in his seminars, but doesn't let an opportunity pass to demonstrate what he and his teams have achieved in the past. In Moscow seminars, for example, you can usually meet Denis Savkin, a teenager who can play computer games with a blindfold on. Denis also enjoys rollerblading blindfolded on the streets of Moscow.

Null Transportation and Borders

Null transportation means instantaneous travel at any distance. I like this that Zolotov said about it: ''When you learn null transportation, this will be the end of states as you know them. No longer will there be any borders. There would be no sense in maintaining them.'' I cannot help wondering if the ''Invisible Government's'' apparent resistance to letting us know about UFOs might have something to do with these kinds of eventualities.

Laziness: The MiniMax Principle

If Nikolay Denisov says that his students must not be lazy in order to learn from him, Zolotov goes in the other direction. ''The best student,'' he claims, ''is the laziest student.'' He also likes to say, ''The universe is the place where everybody practices being lazy.'' (In Russian, this is an amusing pun, because the Russian word ''universe'' (vselennaya) sounds like ''everybody lazy'' (vse leniatsia).

And I guess this is what I like best about Zolotov's work, and why I am more attracted to it than to the other work that is being done in teaching superpsychic powers. Because for me, laziness about doing something is my body's way of protesting that what I am thinking about is not in harmony with my universe.

Closely related to Zolotov's ideas about laziness is his MiniMax Principle: ''Maximal Result with Minimal Cost, and the Result Is Guaranteed." He likes to tell his students: "Why bother? Why work hard? Instead, make it so that you do nothing, and everything happens by itself — and happens in just the way you need it.''

It seems that because of the MiniMax approach, there is no ''energy barrier'' in front of Zolotov. The only barrier is how far and how deeply his students can follow him.

Three Men of Power: In Conclusion

Bronnikov: I can say that I felt great excitement when I first learned of Bronnikov's work, and I certainly support what he accomplishes in teaching blind children to see. But for myself, when I had a chance to join the Bronnikov Method group in my city I declined. What do I need radar vision for? I don't even use 100 percent of the senses that are already available to me! That was my thinking. Somehow, it felt that learning the Bronnikov system did not take me where I wanted to go.

Denisov: Denisov's work resonates well with my left brain, and his motive — personal freedom — resonates with my own interest in freeing myself from society's limitations. But. . . I don't want to work hard! I prefer to allow myself to be lazy. And, again, I am not that interested in the results themselves (although my left brain is). Denisov is truly conscious about who he is and who he's not: ''I am only a trainer,'' he says. ''I am not a Teacher.''

Zolotov: Above and beyond the intrigue of developing superpsychic powers, I am basically interested in living a life of joy and love. Love and joy seem to be the method of walking the path, and the compass in our journey. And so this takes me back — and forward — to Boris Zolotov. I see in him a real life person who radiates the Light of a Teacher.