Russians in need of an energy adjustment turn to the pyramid
DISPATCH FROM KOZENKI
Life is hard these days in Moscow. And a 12-story-high pyramid outside the capital is reputed to have mysterious powers: Russians flock to it looking for peace of mind, strength, health, insight.
KOZENKI, RUSSIA — You can see it for miles, looming over the birch forests and wildflower fields and construction sites crammed with future dachas for Russia's rich and ruthless. Stabbing up toward heaven from its hilltop perch, the pyramid gleams white under the blast of northern sun. Twelve stories high, 55 tons of fiberglass, swarming with Russians desperate to rearrange their energy fields and cure their karma.
Everybody, it seems, has heard some miracle tale about the pyramid: The sterile woman miraculously impregnated after a visit. The prisoners pacified with drafts of saltwater charged by the energies of the pyramid. The pillar of mysterious force allegedly emanating from the peak, healing the ozone layer over Russia.
"You can't expect to build a pyramid and see everything change overnight. It happens gradually," says Alexander Golod, a Ukrainian defense contractor who has spent millions of dollars building pyramids around the former Soviet Union and beyond. "The possibility of any emergency decreases, including hurricanes and typhoons. It seriously changes physical and psychological conditions."
It is a thick summer afternoon here outside Moscow, and Golod sits in a yard of bright grass and vibrant poppy beds. His wife chases their grandson through the fruit trees. Between the rooftops, the pyramid blocks the horizon -- he and his family live well within reach of the pyramid's energy, he says.
Asked what drives his obsession with pyramids, he takes a long time to answer. He blinks his blue eyes. Finally, he says: "The pyramid changes the structure of space."
Olympic athletes visit the pyramid to boost their strength, he says, and Russian cosmonauts are so fond of the pyramid that they have taken keepsakes from within the structure into space. (An official at Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center could not confirm this claim, and said he doubted its truth.)
Rumors of the pyramid's mysterious powers have spread through the suburbs and into the city. People come looking for peace of mind, strength, health, insight. Life is hard these days in Moscow. The city is a place of blank expressions and cold shoulders. Prices climb high and then higher still.
But the pyramid is quiet and cool, a sort of New Age monastery. There's no sign, no gate and no admission tickets. Visitors park in the dust, wander inside and stay as long as they like. Swallows wheel in circles up in the roof. Summer sun filters thinly though the fiberglass, casting an amber glow. Three massive globes -- one each for geography, topography and astronomy -- swell in the center of the floor, surrounded by benches.
