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The Travelling Enlightener. Lectures. Scientific Lectures


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The Travelling Enlightener

As a student in Svishtov Dunov admired John Wesley and often imagined himself walking the dusty roads of his country and preaching today's Christ, Christ of the 20th century. In the Travelling Preacher, he saw a man who had denied all his personal aspirations and had entirely devoted his life in service to the One God. Fate, however, had in stock for him a much more glorious mission than John Wesley's.

In 1901-1906 Peter Dunov made several trips around Bulgaria. He traveled thousands of miles, on horseback, by ship and train, or on foot. He gave talks, met new people, and sowed the seeds of the new philosophy. He kept a diary. He always sought to visit places where he had not been before. On the road, Dunov was often alone. He liked observing life. Sometimes he told interesting stories about his travels. "Years ago I was traveling the country, doing my research on a variety of human characters. One day I was passing by an industrious farmer working in the fields. He was ploughing with a couple of oxen, driving them with a goad. When he noticed me, he said:

'Good for you, walking around in the fields, having nothing to do, and see how we toil all day!'

'I can see everything; I know you are hard-working but merciful you are not.'

'How do you know?'

'Your oxen. They are goaded all over."

There was hardly a town or a village that was not visited by the Bulgarian John Wesley. His travels had 'visible' objectives: he gave lectures on phrenology and the fashionable occult sciences, but they also had a deeper meaning. Peter Dunov realized that everywhere there were poor, sick and careworn people. Alive in him was the missionary spirit of America. He was unable to ignore sufferers. Everywhere he prayed for his brethren and his fervent prayer somehow filled people with courage and strength. This is when his work with the Bulgarian people started: in the silent hours when he built a spiritual connection with them through prayer. Later Dunov said: "Some people look for Christ in me. No, they will find Christ in His teaching. Do you want to know who I am? I am a brother of the smallest in the Kingdom of God."


Lectures

At the beginning of the century, Peter Deunov chose the lecture as the most appropriate means, in line with the time’s enthusiasm for science. “We need to illuminate people’s minds”, he pointed out. His first lecture was delivered in Novi Pazar. He spoke of the coming new age, of the free human mind that ought to unravel the secrets of nature, to understand it and get to know it. The lecture introduced the audience to the science of man and to man’s hidden potential. It marked the beginning of Peter Deunov’s public activity.

A long period of travelling followed. He visited towns and villages, giving one or more lectures depending on the interest. After a lecture in Veliko Tarnovo in the summer of 1903 Elena Ilarionova wrote in her diary: “The hall was full. He (Deunov) was presenting a series of images illustrating the thesis that man was the master of his body, and had many undeveloped abilities; that his thoughts, his feelings and his aspirations formed his body and could make it beautiful. Thus, he said, a person’s appearance revealed his life and character. The audience was listening, enthralled.

He explained that there was no incurable illness.

When a man understood and became one with the great laws of nature, he would be cured.”

Peter Deunov’s lectures helped people shed the old models of thinking. He sought to stimulate their minds, for only when one “understands the laws that rule his life, he will be freed of the delusions that stand in his way”.

 

Scientific Lectures


PETER DEUNOV BEGAN FOCUSING his efforts on his teaching mission in 1904. Although a theologian by education, he evidently preferred the scientific lecture as a newer and more progressive form. It helped him establish contacts with Bulgarians with intellectual interests. He made several trips round the country, giving lectures and revealing truths about “the world we live in” which is “full of mysteries”. Those “mysteries”, he said, were “governed by definite laws and produced by familiar natural forces.” As a lecturer, Deunov popularised the latest achievements of sciences that were little known in Bulgaria at that time: phrenology, chiromancy and psychology. Deunov’s observant mind soon realised that scientific thinking was not typical of the majority of his listeners. Even intelligent Bulgarians found it hard to break with their religious notions of the world and needed to tune in to scientific thought. This is why Deunov changed the teaching form: the scientific lecture gave way to the sermon. Science seemed to lose ground to education. This, however, was not the case: science and education always went hand in hand in Deunov’s work and he relied on both methods to the end of his days.

 
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