Sunday Lectures

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Sunday Lectures

Gradually, the circle of visitors expanded, and so did the subject matter of the lectures - with practical methods and profound interpretation of complex psychological issues. The lectures were perfused with vigorous optimism. The silent communication during these lectures was full of internal meaning. All sorts of questions were asked openly or Dunov read them in the thoughts of those present and answered them in the course of his lecture. An exchange between souls was taking place.

Sometimes Dunov's lectures created the impression of fragmentariness and lack of logical consistency. What they did not fall in with, however, was the human notion of logic. In the lectures where the soul asks questions and the Spirit answers, different laws are at work. Their purpose is the renewal of the souls. "My lectures dress my listeners' wounds," Dunov said and added: "What I am saying to you, I can present in a strictly scientific form, in scientific formulae, but they will be even harder to grasp. In all that has been said there are general questions, equally understandable and useful to all."

One thing is certain: everyone who attended the Sunday lectures could feel the power of the Word, charging the audience with a special positive, creative energy.

In their structure, Peter Dunov's Sunday lectures resembled Evangelical sermons. Interpreting an excerpt from the Bible, he gave answers to topical problems. His argumentation was always based on contemporary scientific thought. Thus, he gradually displaced religious notions with scientific ones.

From 1911 on, the Sunday lectures became open to the public. They began at 10 a.m. and continued about an hour. The room at 66 Opalchenska St. became too small for the audience so it gathered in the yard. There the listeners sat on benches and chairs: the older in front, the younger behind them. Later, Boris Nikolov said of the lectures in Opalchenska St.: "There I heard some of the best lectures the Master ever gave. We were enthralled and filled with admiration. His words were a revelation for us younger people." Peter Dunov spoke from the room, sitting at a small table by the window. The audience was never disturbed by this unusual arrangement. These conditions were also a factor of spiritual growth. If one was unprepared to bear the unfavourable weather conditions, he would not be able to handle difficulties in life. In winter, in the snow-covered yard, listeners would often spend more than an hour in the freezing cold. It was what they learned that mattered. That was why they were there. Each of them took home what he had needed most, a solution to his particular problem.