GB No. 12, winter 1994
A booklet entitled Through the windows of time (Przez
okna czasu) by Stanisław Hadyna (journalist, writer, and founder of the folkdance
group Ol1sk) recalls two famous people of the 1930's who can justifiably be considered to
have been the Polish precursors of a phenomenon called the New Age. The New Age, or the
Age of Aquarius, is classified by social scientists as a parareligious movement. This
"movement" actually consists of several movements that differ from each other
considerably, though all of them are inspired by esoteric and Eastern sources. I will not
go into the details here, but it is worth learning a few things about the New Age
movements' Polish precursors, because these movements influence numerous environmental
movements and organizations, including the Polish ones. While talking about Hadyna's book
I shall stress its ecological aspects.
The people discussed in the book are Agnieszka Pilchowa, a clairvoyant
and biotherapist from the town of Wis3a in Ol1sk Cieszynski, and the author's uncle Jan
Hadyna, a famous expert and propagator (as a journalist and editor) of the problem of
paranatural phenomena. From 1934 to 1939 Jan Hadyna edited a Kraków monthly newsletter
entitled Lotos, which dealt with parapsychology, the occult, astrology,
clairvoyance, hermetic medicine, and other issues. Apart from Lotos, his publishing
house also edited books on these topics. Jan Hadyna died in 1971, but during Communist
times it was not possible for him to continue his work, so he worked as the secretary of
the Polish-Indian Society founded in the 1960's.
Lotos contained many innovative ideas about a healthy life and
diet (vegeterianism, phytotherapy, the destructiveness of excessive interference of
technology in food production and processing as well as in hygiene and life style). These
bibliographical rarities contain unusually sound remarks and information, dozens of years
ahead of their time.
Agnieszka Pilchowa died in the Ravensbruck concentration camp at the
end of the Second World War. The main subject of Hadyna's book is the proof of her powers
of precognition (thus the title "Through the windows of time"). Pilchowa's
ability to see events before they happened was observed in many different places and under
many different circumstances (some of them were described in Lotos and other
magazines before the war). The majority of her prophecies dealt with a kind of
"ecological apocalypse" that threatens all mankind.
Pilchowa's most interesting vision of the Apocalypse is contained in
the prophecy which Stanis3aw Hadyna has reconstructed on the basis of documents left to
him by his uncle (some of Pilchowa's prophecies were published before the Second World
War, but the subjects they dealt with were mostly political events). Through the
windows of time contains large excerpts from these preserved notes (pages 101-107).
The excerpts are preceded by references to well-known works on the ecological crisis (such
as the U-thant Report, or The Closing Circle by B. Commoner). The main
factor contributing to the ecological crisis is the increase in the birth-rate, which
leads to a dehumanizing and pathological urbanisation and industrialisation, as well as to
pollution and destruction of the natural environment. What is especially stressed here are
pathological phenomena in society and its culture (crime and violence and their
glorification, drug addiction, the increase in the rate of morbidity and decrease in
medical care, the alienation of science from society). While commenting on these
prophecies the author mentions not only the work of researchers and analysts of the
problems of the contemporary world, but also the words of Gandhi, who was very critical of
industrial civilization (pages 113-120). Gandhi, who was killed in 1948 (that is, before
societies whose primary aim is consumption were formed), seems to have been a critic of
urbanisation in the context of these quoted words: "you cannot
fully satisfy your desires. The more you give in to them, the more they demand, and they
can never be fulfilled" (page 114).
When we talk about these early ideas of the New Age in Poland, it is
also worth mentioning some of their contemporary Polish critics. Jan Maria Jackowski, a
journalist who displays a definitely native, Catholic orientation (that of the so called
"True Poles"), made quite a lot of critical remarks about the New Age in his
book Bitwa o Polske ("The Battle of Poland," Warsaw, 1992). Chapter XV is
entitled "The Age of Aquarius." I am not going to deal with the critical and
polemical discussion of the New Age itself, but I just want to mention Jackowski's attacks
on some of the ideas propagated by environmental and animal rights movements of the New
Age. He mocks efforts to promote the legal protection of animals (it would mean
"Pushing the Ten Commandments Out Of Life," page 110), and he calls the movement
for the rights of animals "a part of the strategy to degrade humanity"(!),
because it is aimed at making people and animals equal (page 112). Sodemoliberalism is
savagely attacked. He says it is hostile to Religion (the only true religion), Nation, and
Family, and it pollutes society with ideas of consumerism. He also seems to hold it
responsible for the ecological threats which are present in almost half of the area of the
country and which destroy Polish families (page 166) -- though it is commonly known that
the current state of the environment is a legacy of the Communist regime, which can be
reversed only by a quick and consistent transformation of the country's economy, and
especially by restructuring the country's industry. Still, it is the impact of this
transformation on society that the author grieves most, laying the blame on the satanic
sodemoliberal powers that act upon the concept of Sachs-Balcerowicz (page 156). It is a
true muddle, which results from a complete ignorance of economic and social phenomena --
or maybe just from an unwillingness to learn anything about them.
Pismo młodzieży katolickiej i patriotycznej: BASTION ("STRONGHOLD;
a Magazine for Patriotic Catholic Youth"), a magazine with an orientation similar to
that of J.M.Jackowski, is also ill-disposed towards environmentalists. The cover of issue
number 12 (it is a bi-monthly) bears the inscription "The Green Are the Unripe
Red," illustrated by a picture of a tree with green leaves and red roots concealed
under the ground. In the book you can find malicious remarks about empathy with beings
other than human (especially about vegeterian ideas, ant-fur protests, protests against
experimenting on animals), supported by the opinion of a famous Catholic intellectual,
Father Inncenty Bochenski of the Dominican order. His views, presented in the book Sto
zabobonów ("One Hundred Superstitions"), advocate the idea of the
subordination of one species to another, according to which one class satisfies the needs
of other classes. The above-mentioned bi-monthly mocks deep ecology, the recent conference
in Rio, and portions of the "Green Lungs of Poland" program.
Andrzej Delorme
translation from Zielone Brygady 7/93
GB No. 12, winter 1994 | Contents