"They don't want humanity to blossom and to release its fragrance to the winds, to the sun, to the moon. They want you just to produce more money for them, more power for them, more slaves for them, more population for them.

"Hence your concern about my health is not just an ordinary concern. Physically, I have been put into every possible situation so that an indirect death can happen, because down the ages the politicians and the priests have learned one thing: that crucifying is not helpful.

"If they had not crucified Jesus there would have been no Christianity. Poisoning Socrates has not been helpful; it is because of the poisoning that Socrates remains and will always remain in the memories of humanity as a genius, a man who has helped the evolution of man's intelligence immensely. Without his poisoning perhaps we would have forgotten him. They have learned one thing: that if you want to kill Jesus again then it has not to be a crucifixion, it has to be indirect – as if it is an accident, as if it is a natural death.

"That's what they did with me in America. Ronald Reagan and his government tried in different ways to kill me, but never directly. I was surprised, because as I was arrested…the arrest was illegal, there was no arrest warrant because there was no reason to issue an arrest warrant. The people who arrested me could not even show any cause. I said, 'Even verbally it will do – why am I arrested?' The answer was twelve loaded guns pointed at me.

"I was not allowed to inform my attorney, because they were worried: if the attorney comes then immediately the first question is bound to be, 'Where is the arrest warrant?'

"And I heard the US marshal whispering in the ear of the driver who was to take me to the jail, 'Remember, do whatever you want to do but don't do it directly. The man is known worldwide, and the whole news media is watching. If anything happens to him it will be a condemnation of American democracy.'

"In twelve days I was changed from one jail to another jail…and each time I was transferred from one jailer to another jailer the same message was whispered – 'Do everything, but be careful; it has to be indirect.' I was wondering what they wanted to do – and what they wanted to do so indirectly that the world should not know – but it was not long before I came to understand what they meant by 'doing it indirectly.'

"The first night in jail I was given a steel bench, without any mattress."