Wolf Messing: where he is buried, biography and predictions. Wolf Messing: who saw through time

MESSING WOLF GRIGORIEVICH

(b. 1899 – d. 1974)

Outstanding parapsychologist, telepath, medium, hypnotist. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1971). Author of notes “About myself.”

“I have never told a lie in my life. Everything I do on stage and in the hall is open from all sides. I don’t have any sophisticated equipment, like Kio and other illusionists, or super-developed finger dexterity, like, say, the famous manipulators Dick Chitashvili or Ashot Akopyan... I don’t resort to ventriloquism and encrypted signaling with secret assistants. I'm not a magician, not even an artist, although I perform on stage. I demonstrate psychological experiments. And nothing more." These words belong to the famous parapsychologist, whose phenomenon has not yet been solved. Scientists of the former Soviet Union spoke unequivocally about Messing: a genius. But no one knew how to fully use his abilities. Maybe that’s why the man who was called a saint, a hero, a legend, despite his enormous popularity, often repeated: “Don’t be jealous!”

Wolf Messing, who was born on September 10, 1899, does not have many memories of the first years of his life. All his relatives and friends died in Majdanek. His homeland is the tiny Jewish town of Gora Kalewaria near Warsaw (at that time the territory Russian Empire), a small house in the middle of a rented garden, thanks to which the whole family existed with grief in half - father, mother and five brothers... His father, nicknamed Gershka the tramp, was known as an embittered loser. Wolf and his brothers worked in the garden from childhood, caring for apple and plum trees, and as a reward from their father they received only scolding and slaps on the head. The mother's caresses did not console the children for long - Hana Messing died early, she suffered from consumption. Only from the words of his parents did Wolf know that as a child he suffered from sleepwalking, but his father quickly “cured” him from walking at night: on a full moon he placed a trough with cold water. Whether you like it or not, you will wake up. At the age of six, the boy was sent to cheder (synagogue school). Thanks to his phenomenal memory, he knew the main subject - the Talmud - by heart. The father decided to make Wolf a rabbi - a sure piece of bread for his son, and at the same time for him. The model student was even introduced famous writer Sholom Aleichem. But the boy, having attended a performance at a visiting circus, firmly decided to become a magician. The beatings did not yield anything, and the head of the family decided to use a trick - he hired a man who, in the guise of a “heavenly messenger,” predicted that he would “serve God.” One evening, Wolf saw a giant bearded figure in a white robe at the porch of their house. “My son! – the stranger solemnly said, “go to the yeshiva and serve the Lord!” The shocked boy fainted.

So, against his will, Messing ended up in a yeshibot that trained spiritual ministers, but stayed there for only two years. Perhaps the world would have received the extraordinary Rabbi Messing, but two years later a huge bearded man came to their house on business. And Wolf immediately recognized him as a scary stranger. Chance allowed him to uncover the deception of the “messenger of heaven,” and, at one moment, having lost faith in the existence of God, he stole eighteen pennies, which amounted to nine kopecks, and set off towards the unknown! In the carriage of the train that carried him to Berlin, Wolf first discovered his talent as a telepath. He was so afraid of the ticket collector that he managed to convince him that the pathetic piece of newspaper in his trembling hand was the real ticket. Several painful moments passed, and the controller’s face softened: “Why are you sitting under the bench with a ticket? Get out, you fool!

But, having arrived in Berlin, the boy did not use his amazing ability, but in order to somehow survive, he got a job as a messenger in a house for visitors. Messing recalled these days as the most difficult in his life. No matter how much effort he made, no matter how hard he tried, he earned little and was always hungry. After five months of hard work and constant malnutrition, Wolf fainted from exhaustion right in the middle of the pavement. There was no pulse, no breathing. The cold body of the child was taken to the morgue. He was saved from the fate of being buried alive in a common grave by a zealous student who noticed that the unfortunate man’s heart was still beating.

Wolf regained consciousness three days later thanks to Professor Abel, a famous neurologist in those years. In a weak voice Wolf asked him:

“Please don’t call the police or send me to an orphanage.”

The professor asked in surprise:

- Did I really say that?

“I don’t know,” Wolf answered, “but that’s what you thought.”

A talented psychiatrist realized that the boy clearly had the abilities of a medium. He observed Wolff for a time, but the reports of the experiments he carried out on the boy were burned in his office during the war. Later, this happened more than once - as if some force was persistently and imperiously hiding everything connected with Messing’s unusual gift. Professor Abel told Wolf in which direction to develop his abilities, and found a job in... the Berlin Panopticon. There, at that time, living people were exhibited as exhibits. In the panopticon there were Siamese twins, a woman with a long beard, an armless man who deftly shuffled a deck of cards with his feet, and a miracle boy who, every week for three days, had to lie in a crystal coffin, plunging into a cataleptic state. This miracle boy was Messing. And then Wolf came to life to the surprise of visitors to the Berlin panopticon. IN free time he learned to “listen” to other people’s thoughts, to turn off his painful sensations by willpower. Two years later, Messing performed in a variety show as a fakir, whose chest and neck were pierced with needles (no blood came out of the wounds). As a “detective”, he easily found various objects among the spectators. The performances of the miracle boy were very popular. Impresarios profited from it and resold it, but at the age of 15, Wolf realized that he needed to not only earn money, but also study. While performing in the Bush Circus, he began visiting private teachers, and later long time worked at Vilna University at the Department of Psychology, trying to understand his own abilities. Now on the streets he tried to “eavesdrop” on the thoughts of passers-by. Testing himself, he approached the milkmaid and said something like: “Don’t worry, your daughter will not forget to milk the goat.” And he reassured the seller in the store: “The debt will be returned to you soon.” The amazed exclamations of the “test subjects” indicated that the boy really managed to read their thoughts.

In 1915, on his first tour in Vienna, Wolf “passed the exam” to A. Einstein and Z. Freud, clearly fulfilling their mental orders. Subsequently, he recalled with gratitude his two-year “education” under the guidance of the father of psychoanalysis. Since then, he met with Freud more than once, although these meetings did not leave any trace in any of the works of the Viennese scientist, who was never able to explain Messing’s gift. But it was thanks to him that Wolf parted with the circus, deciding: no more cheap tricks - only psychological experiments in which he surpassed all his competitors.

In 1917–1921, Wolf made his first world tour. Everywhere he was accompanied by constant success. But upon returning to Warsaw, the famous medium did not avoid being drafted into the army. Even the services rendered to the “chief of the Polish state” J. Pilsudski did not save him from service. The Marshal consulted with Wolf more than once on a variety of issues. For example, I wanted to know about the outcome of my romance with the beautiful Evgenia Levitskaya. Messing did not hide the fact that the young woman’s life was in danger. And so it happened: soon Levitskaya, having lost hope of uniting with her loved one (Pilsudski was married), committed suicide.

Then Messing again went on tour in Europe, South America, Australia, Asia. Visited Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Australia. He performed in almost all European capitals - Paris, London, Rome, Stockholm, Geneva, Warsaw. In 1927 in India, he met with Mahatma Gandhi and was shocked by the art of yogis, although his own achievements were no less impressive. More and more often, people turned to him privately for help in finding missing people or treasures. Wolf rarely accepted remuneration. One day, Count Czartoryski lost a diamond brooch that was worth a fortune. He called Messing to him. He asked to bring all the inhabitants of the castle before him and quickly found the culprit - the weak-minded son of a servant. The boy acted like a crow: he carried shiny things and hid stuffed bears in his mouth in the living room. Messing refused the reward of 250 thousand zlotys, asking the count instead to help in repealing the law that infringed on the rights of Jews in Poland.

Such stories increased Messing's fame, but incidents also happened. One day a woman showed him a letter from her son, who had gone to America, and the seer determined from a piece of paper that he was dead. And during Messing’s next visit, the town greeted him with shouts of “Fraud! Scoundrel! It turned out that the supposed dead man had recently returned home. Messing thought only for a second. “Did you write the letter yourself?” – he asked the guy. “No, my literacy is not good,” he said, embarrassed. – I dictated, and my friend wrote. Poor guy, he was soon crushed under a log.” The authority of the seer was restored.

The Second has begun world war. The Fuhrer called Messing “enemy No. 1.” Back in 1937, at one of his speeches, Messing carelessly answered a question and predicted defeat for Hitler if he “turned east,” and now 200 thousand marks were promised for the seer’s head.

Since the beginning of the occupation of Poland, Wolf Grigorievich hid in his native town, turned into a ghetto by the Nazis. But his portraits hung on every corner, and one day he did not have time to “turn his eyes away” from a German patrol and was arrested, beaten and locked in the police station. Having gathered his strength, Messing “invited” all the police to his cell, left it and pushed the bolt. But there were also guards at the exit from the building, and there was no strength left... Then Messing jumped from the second floor, injuring his legs in the process (this injury did not go unnoticed), and disappeared. They took him out of Warsaw on a cart, covered him with hay, took him in a roundabout way to the east, and on a dark November night in 1939 helped him cross the Western Bug into the USSR.

Then in the Union any fugitive from abroad would have faced long checks, an almost inevitable accusation of espionage, and then execution or camps. And Messing was immediately allowed to travel freely around the country and perform his experiments. He himself explained rather unconvincingly that he had instilled in some rank the idea of his usefulness to the authorities, one of whose tasks was to inculcate materialism. “In the Soviet Union, fighting against superstitions in people’s minds, they did not favor fortune tellers, wizards, or palmists... We had to convince them, demonstrate their abilities a thousand times,” Messing later stated his version. And yet, it is more likely that the seer’s fate in the USSR turned out so well only because certain high-ranking and very competent people knew about him for a long time.

And outwardly it looked strange and inexplicable: without connections and knowledge of the language, Wolf Grigorievich managed to get a job in a concert crew that was touring Belarus at that time. But from one concert in Kholm (in Belarus), in front of the public, he was taken from the stage by two men in civilian clothes. “We are very sorry, but the show is over,” the audience heard. In those days, there was nothing to be surprised about... The performance was interrupted, the leading actor was put into a car and taken away in an unknown direction. It was 1940, then many people disappeared in this way, without any explanation. “What about my suitcases? And who will pay at the hotel? – Messing protested. “There will be no need for suitcases, the bill has already been paid,” he heard the answer... “I had no idea where they took me,” Messing recalled many years later. “They took me into some room that resembled a hotel room. A minute later, a short man with a mustache entered the room.” It was Stalin. His questions primarily concerned Poland; he wanted to get information about Messing’s influential acquaintances who were in the West at that time. The test of his parapsychological abilities should have happened later... For Stalin, Wolf Messing was neither a provincial pop hypnotist nor a medium for “converts to spiritualism.” He was famous all over the world; it has been “tested” and tested by people like Einstein, Freud and Gandhi. At home he was closely acquainted with many politicians, knew Marshal Pilsudski, which means he himself was aware of a lot of things.

Whether by force of suggestion (Messing himself denied this) or simply by managing to win the sympathy of the leader, who suspected everyone and everything, the parapsychologist avoided trouble. Stalin allocated him an apartment, allowed him to tour the Union, and stopped Beria’s desire to have the telepath at his disposal. True, the security officers did not remove the “cap” from the seer until the last days of his life. Stalin gave Messing several serious checks. Once he forced me to leave the Kremlin without a pass and return. But for Messing it was tantamount to riding as a “hare” on a train. Then the Generalissimo invited him to receive 100 thousand rubles from the savings bank without any documents. The “robbery” was successful, but the cashier who woke up ended up in the hospital with a heart attack.

Soviet scientists who personally knew Messing spoke about another experiment organized by Stalin. The famous hypnotist had to go to the leader’s dacha in Kuntsevo without permission, moreover, without a pass. The area was under special protection. The staff also consisted of KGB officers. And everyone shot without warning. A couple of days later, when Stalin, busy with documents, was working at his dacha, a short, black-haired man entered the gate. The guards saluted and the employees made way. He walked through several checkpoints and stopped at the door of the dining room where Stalin worked. The leader looked up from his papers and could not hide his confusion: it was Wolf Messing. How did he do it? Messing replied that he telepathically suggested to everyone present at the dacha that Beria was coming. At the same time, he didn’t even put on his pince-nez, without which no one had ever seen the KGB chief! Senior leaders learned about Stalin's experiments. Some of them believed that Messing was dangerous man. Fortunately for Messing, Stalin did not share this opinion.

P. Abraham wrote: “I was always surprised how this wonderful artist survived during that bloody time. Perhaps one of the bosses of that time needed him, it is possible that there were some plans for him, or maybe his fate was predetermined higher powers“It’s not for nothing that, driven by a premonition, Wolf Grigorievich came to the East.”

It has not been established whether Wolf Grigorievich provided private services to Stalin. In “close to the Kremlin” circles they whispered that Messing was almost Stalin’s personal predictor and adviser. In fact, they only met a few times. It’s unlikely that the “Kremlin highlander” would like the fact that someone is even okay psychological experience read his thoughts... But it is known for certain that after one of the closed sessions, even before the start of the Great Patriotic War the leader forbade “broadcasting about the vision” of Soviet tanks on the streets of Berlin and ordered diplomats to quell the conflict with the German embassy. Private sessions were also banned. But the latter was almost impossible to track, and Messing repeatedly helped friends and complete strangers with his predictions, especially during the war years.

One of the episodes of the prediction was recorded by ten journalists who did not believe in “these tricks.” Slightly excited after the just completed session of psychological experiments, Messing asked everyone present to write down that “between June 20 and 25, you, Ivanov (last name has been changed in the book), will receive a very large promotion in the ranks. New appointment... I have a request to everyone: when this happens, call me... Have you written everything down? Well, in a few weeks you will find out whether I was right or wrong.” On the 22nd, four phone calls were heard in Messing’s apartment, confirming that Ivanov had been appointed editor-in-chief of one of the largest newspapers... “No need to ask how I managed it. I’ll tell you honestly and frankly: I don’t know myself. Just like I don’t know the mechanism of telepathy. I can say this: usually, when I am asked a specific question about the fate of this or that person, about whether this or that event will happen or not, I have to think stubbornly, ask myself: will it happen or not?.. And after a while it arises conviction: yes, it will happen... or: no, it won’t happen..."

Tatyana Lungina, who worked at the Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery of the USSR Academy of Sciences named after. Bakuleva was friends with Messing for many years. In her article dedicated to the memory of the telepath and predictor, there are the lines: “I am writing about this because the “spirit of Messing” hovered within the walls of the institute. Invisibly, he was involved in the correct diagnosis and outcome of several high-ranking patients.

Arriving at work one day, I learned that a seriously ill patient had been admitted to the institute at night, for whose sake all the medical luminaries had gathered for a consultation. At the main entrance there were black limousines accompanying the ambulance in which our patient arrived. It turned out to be Colonel General Zhukovsky, commander air force Belarusian Military District, an old friend of Messing. He was diagnosed with a massive heart attack with holes in the heart septum. A surgical cure for such a disease has never been achieved before.

Only the director of the institute, Professor Burakovsky, had the right to operate on such an important patient. He suggested that the operation would only hasten the end. But doing nothing was a fatal waste of time. Only after an order “from above” was Burakovsky able to make a final decision.

And then Messing called:

“Taibele (only Messing called me that), tell your boss to immediately begin the operation.” This is my friend, and I advise you not to waste time - not a second!

I talk about Burakovsky’s hesitations, but Messing interrupts me:

“Everything will end well, it will heal like a dog.” And your boss will be nominated for a reward. Tell him so.

Seeing no other solution, Burakovsky agreed to the operation, counting only on a miracle.

The first ones passed critical days, and now Zhukovsky is being transferred to the clinic named after. Burdenko for further treatment - the danger has passed. And Burakovsky was awarded the title of corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences and was awarded an order for a successfully performed operation.

When I later asked Wolf Grigorievich whether he was taking a risk with General Zhukovsky by advising an immediate operation, Messing replied: “I didn’t even think about it. A chain just arose in my mind: “operation – Zhukovsky – life...” and that’s all.”

After Stalin's checks, Wolf Grigorievich began working for the Philharmonic. He was listed as a “pop artist,” but did not consider himself one: “An artist is preparing for a performance. He gets into the role and studies it. He knows exactly what he will do and say. I don’t do anything until I meet the audience. I have no idea what topics will be discussed, what tasks the audience will set for me, and therefore I cannot prepare to carry them out. I just have to tune in to the right psychic wave, rushing at the speed of light.”

Messing's fame continued to grow. The poet Robert Rozhdestvensky dedicated the following lines to him:

Wolf Messing is coming,

Radiant with calmness,

Mining underground,

Subtle Thoughts

It will start like seeds,

Click now.

Messing's psychological experiments attracted huge audiences throughout the Union. Wolf Grigorievich demonstrated his phenomenal memory, carrying out complex calculations in his mind: extracting square and cube roots from seven-digit numbers, listing all the numbers appearing in the experiment; I could read and memorize entire pages in a matter of seconds. But most often he carried out tasks that the audience gave him mentally. For example, remove glasses from the nose of a lady sitting in the sixth place of the thirteenth row, take them to the stage and put them in a glass with the right glass down. Messing successfully completed such tasks without using leading questions or tips from assistants.

This telepathic phenomenon has been repeatedly tested by specialists. As a rule, Wolf Grigorievich asked a spectator to concentrate his thoughts on the task that he must complete. The instructions were written down and given in a sealed envelope to a proxy selected in advance by a panel of physicians. Then, without touching the doctor, who concentrated his thoughts on instructions for the telepath, Messing descended into the auditorium, as if guided by an internal radar. He claimed that he perceived other people's thoughts in the form of images - he saw the place and actions that he was supposed to perform. He always emphasized that there is nothing supernatural in reading other people's thoughts. “Telepathy is just the use of the laws of nature. First, I enter a state of relaxation, which makes me feel more energetic and more receptive. Then everything is simple. I can accept any thoughts. If I touch a person who is sending a thought-order, it is easier for me to concentrate on the transmission and isolate it from all the other noise that I hear. However, direct contact is not at all necessary.” According to Messing, the clarity of the transmission depends on the ability of the person sending the thought to concentrate. He argued that it is easiest to read the thoughts of deaf and dumb people, perhaps because they think more figuratively than other people.

Wolf Grigorievich was especially famous for his demonstration of a cataleptic trance, during which he “turned to stone” and was laid like a board between the backs of two chairs. Even a heavy weight placed on the chest could not bend the body. The telepathic messenger “read” the public’s mental tasks and carried them out clearly. Often taking the hand of a sufferer, he could predict his future, and from a photograph determine whether the person was alive and where he was now.

After the Stalinist ban, Messing demonstrated his phenomenon as a predictor only in a private circle. And only in 1943, in the very middle of the war, he dared to speak publicly in Novosibirsk with a prediction that the war would end during the first week of May 1945 (according to other sources - May 8 without specifying the year). In May 1945, Stalin sent him a government telegram thanking him for accurately naming the day the war ended.

Messing explained his clairvoyant abilities as follows: “Next to the logical, scientific method of obtaining knowledge, there is also advanced cognition, or direct knowledge. It is difficult to explain this concept due to our vague understanding of the essence of time and its relationship with space, past, present and future. I am deeply convinced that the character and shape of the future is influenced by both the past and the present. The relationships between these three elements are ensured by some constant principles.” Messing claimed that the future appears to him in the form of an image. “The action of the mechanism of direct knowledge allows me to bypass normal, logical reasoning based on a cause-and-effect chain. As a result, the last link that appears in the future opens before me.” One of Messing’s predictions regarding paranormal phenomena is also inspiring: “The time will come when a person will embrace them all with his consciousness. There are no things that are unclear. There are only things that are not obvious to us at the moment.”

Messing also took part in spiritualistic séances. Already in the USSR, he stated that he did not believe in invoking the spirit, that “this is a deception.” But most likely, he was forced to say this because he lived in a country of militant atheism - and he lived quite well.

In addition, he could well practice as a psychic healer, but he did this extremely rarely, because he believed that, for example, relieving a headache was not a problem, but treating it was the job of doctors. Nevertheless, more than once Wolf Grigorievich helped patients with all kinds of manias, treated people for alcoholism, because all these diseases belonged to the field of the psyche, and not to therapy or surgery. Messing could control the human psyche without much strain, using hypnosis. He often thought about his abilities, but was never able to reveal the nature of his gift. Sometimes he “saw”, sometimes he “heard” or simply “accepted” a thought, an image, a picture, but the process itself remained a mystery. The only thing that experts were convinced of was that he had a phenomenal gift that had nothing to do with clever tricks or quackery, but scientists could not give a theoretical justification, because parapsychology was not officially recognized as a science in those years.

Even during the Great Patriotic War, his psychological experiments remained in demand. Messing was evacuated to Novosibirsk, and he continued his concert activities. With the money he earned, Wolf Grigorievich built two fighter planes and helped an orphanage. By the way, the famous ace Konstantin Kovalev, Hero of the Soviet Union, who became Messing’s friend after the war, flew on one of the fighters.

After one of his speeches in 1944, a young, slightly overweight woman approached him and suggested changing the uninteresting “introductory words” that the presenter was reading. This is how Aida Mikhailovna entered Messing’s life. On stage she seemed tough and serious, but in the family she was an attentive, caring, sensitive and surprisingly insightful wife. For many years they were happy under the same roof, on the road and on stage. In the house, Wolf Grigorievich followed a strict daily routine. I got up at eight o'clock in the morning, did exercises, then sat down to breakfast, always the same - coffee with milk, black bread, a soft-boiled egg. I took long walks with my two dogs. I read a lot, especially science fiction and books on psychology. Before work, he usually slept for about thirty minutes (he said that sleep charged him with energy). They say that he was a coward, afraid of lightning, cars and people in uniform, and obeyed his wife in everything. Only sometimes, when it came to issues of principle, he stood up menacingly and said in a voice that was not typical for him, sharp and creaky: “It’s not Wolffochka telling you this, but Messing!” He spoke in the same authoritative voice on stage.

But foresight is a difficult gift. Wolf Grigorievich knew that no treatment would save his wife from cancer. After her death in 1960, he fell into depression, and it even seemed that the miraculous gift had left him. Only nine months later did he return to his normal life.

Over the years, Messing began to perform less frequently, fearing that the overwhelming burden of other people's thoughts would destroy his brain. However, the disease crept up from the other side - the vessels on the once crippled legs failed. He had long been tormented by terrible pain: chronic arthritis and blockage of the arteries threatened amputation of the lower extremities. Since 1969, under pressure from his doctor friends, he regularly underwent courses of treatment. He was strictly forbidden to smoke, but to rid himself of bad habit he didn’t want to, and why deprive himself of small joys if you know exactly the date of your departure from life? Psychic abilities brought him money, fame, made him one of the most mysterious characters of the bygone century, but could not save him from mental pain. Supernatural abilities more than once saved life - his life, and foreshadowed death - someone else's death, leaving no room for either fear or hope... Leaving for the hospital, he looked at his photo on the wall and said: “That’s it, Wolf, you don’t come here anymore.” you'll come back." Later, his presenter, Valentina Iosifovna, told an unfortunate detail. When she escorted Wolf Grigorievich by the hand to the car to go to the clinic, he stopped halfway, looked sadly back at his house and said with anguish: “I won’t see him again.”

In November 1974, Wolf Grigorievich agreed to complex operation on the femoral and iliac arteries. This time he behaved nervously in the hospital, without his usual submission to fate. What is this? A bad feeling? Perhaps he was also saddened by the fact that no one in the highest authorities took the trouble to intercede and, at his request, call from the United States the medical team of the world-famous Dr. Michael Debecki, who in 1972 at our institute successfully operated on the President for the same reason Academy of Sciences of the USSR M. Keldysh. But Messing’s operation was surprisingly successful, and the doctors calmed down. No one still can understand why a few days later a pulmonary collapse occurred (this was also overcome), and then the healthy kidneys failed. At the same time, the pulse was smooth and the sleep was calm. On November 8, 1974, Wolf Messing died.

During the autopsy, it turned out that the brain of the famous parapsychologist, for which American scientists offered a million dollars, was “standard.” The authorities also treated the deceased “standardly”: in connection with November holidays the obituary was published in the newspapers only on November 14, funeral procession half consisted of representatives of the police, a talisman ring with a three-carat diamond, jewelry, numerous gifts from all over the world disappeared without a trace, savings books with deposits of over a million rubles and cash were confiscated in favor of the state... Despite the efforts of famous Soviet citizens, funds for the monument not allocated. It was installed only in 1990 with donations from foreign friends.

From the book How Idols Left. Last days and watches of people's favorites author Razzakov Fedor

MESSING WOLF MESSING WOLF (hypnotist; died on November 8, 1974 at the age of 76). Messing was considered a great clairvoyant, which was not an exaggeration: there were many cases when he actually predicted certain events. He also knew about the date of his death. Although I didn't know

From the book by Wolf Messing. The fate of the prophet author Strongin Varlen Lvovich

What Wolf Messing Didn’t Know Instead of a Preface I first saw Wolf Messing at the end of 1947 on the stage of the State Jewish Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, which I directed People's Artist USSR Solomon Mikhailovich Mikhoels. The evening took place on Monday, a day off for

author Chudakov Alexander Pavlovich

Nazi No. 1, Ganusen and Wolf Messing Two talented telepaths chose different paths in life. Messing is the path of learning and perfecting one’s abilities, Ganusen is using them for selfish purposes, for the sake of gaining power, influencing Hitler himself, Nazi No. 1. They met

From the book Darkness Falls on the Old Steps author Chudakov Alexander Pavlovich

What Wolf Messing dreamed of Instead of an afterword, on November 20, 1995, the legendary modern ballerina Maya Plisetskaya was invited to participate in the television program “Hero of the Day.” On this day in Bolshoi Theater her anniversary was celebrated. After the story about the obstacles put in her way

From the book by Wolf Messing author Sokolov Boris Nikolaevich

Wolf Messing, gr. Sheremetyev, Baron Ungern and others. Father was a grateful man and often remembered his benefactors: Ivan Porfiryich Okhlystyshev, who taught him plumbing, the director of the Semipalatinsk secondary school Ekaterina Fedorovna Salova, who took him to

From the book The Shining of Everlasting Stars author Razzakov Fedor

From the book The Light of Faded Stars. People who are always with us author Razzakov Fedor

Boris Sokolov Wolf Messing

From the book The Secret Russian Calendar. Main dates author Bykov Dmitry Lvovich

MESSING Wolf MESSING Wolf (hypnotist; died on November 8, 1974 at the age of 76). Messing was considered a great clairvoyant, which was not an exaggeration: there were many cases when he actually predicted certain events. He also knew about the date of his death. Although I didn't know

From the book They say that they have been here... Celebrities in Chelyabinsk author God Ekaterina Vladimirovna

November 8 – Wolf MESSING When the great hypnotist died in Moscow in November 1974, people refused to believe this news. For many decades, while fame followed on the heels of this unique man, it seemed to everyone that he was quite capable of prolonging his life if

From the book of 100 stories great love author Kostina-Cassanelli Natalia Nikolaevna

September 10. Wolf Messing was born (1899) Missing Messing Today's Russia is experiencing a new hobby - it turns out that the world is no longer ruled by mysterious monks, who terribly tired everyone after The Da Vinci Code and its countless clones, but by completely different people. These are parapsychologists. They

From the book Roles that brought misfortune to their creators. Coincidences, predictions, mysticism?! author Kazakov Alexey Viktorovich

Wolf Messing Wolf Messing

From the author's book

Wolf Messing and Aida Rappoport Messing could do what mere mortals cannot. He saw through walls, predicted the future, and could force people to carry out any orders. However, even he was unable to cancel the very future he saw. His gift made him happy and

From the author's book

“Wolf Messing: who saw through time” Another title: “Messing” Directors: Vladimir Krasnopolsky, Valery Uskov Screenwriter: Eduard Volodarsky Operator: Temerlan (Timur) Zelma Composer: Evgeny Shiryaev Artists: Ivan Rogoten, Vladislav Travinsky Producers.

Wolf Grigorievich Messing - famous telepath, hypnotist and Honored Artist of the RSFSR, was born on September 10, 1899 in Poland. It is considered one of the most mysterious figures last century, many controversial points were discovered in his biography. To this day, scientists are debating about some facts from the life of a psychic. It is known for certain that Wolf died on November 8, 1974 in Moscow.

Childhood and studies

Messing was born into a poor family. Besides him, his parents had three more sons, so they all had to work from a young age. Pious and embittered by the whole world, the father rented a small kindergarten where the boys had to work. They took care of fruit trees all day long, receiving only curses and slaps in response. The support of his mother, whose name was Hannah, was a small consolation. But she died early from consumption.

When Wolf was four years old, his parents discovered he had somnambulism. Every night the boy got out of bed and began to walk around the apartment. He was treated with methods traditional medicine- A bucket of ice water was placed near the bed. Getting up at night, the child stepped there, as a result of which he woke up from the cold. Gradually this helped me forget about sleepwalking.

IN at a young age The boy’s ability to memorize material also opened up. He was able to reproduce entire pages of the Talmud. This is what prompted the father to decide to make his son a rabbi. Despite the fact that Wolf initially did not approve of this idea, the cunning helped the elder Messing achieve what he wanted. He made an agreement with a tramp, who played the messenger of God, dressed all in white. From surprise, young Wolf fainted. When he woke up, he considered this event his first vision, after which the guy went to yeshibot.

Unexpected talent

Two years after the start of his studies, Messing stumbles upon a tall tramp, in whom he recognizes the “messenger”. The guy realizes that his father deceived him, so he decides to leave his uninteresting studies and go towards his dream. That day he runs away from home, having previously taken his family savings with him.

The young man commits another offense by traveling on a train without a travel pass. Amazingly, it was this misdemeanor that helped reveal his talent. At the sight of the usher, Wolf cringes all over, picks up the first piece of paper he comes across and dreams that everything will work out. Incredibly, the controller believed that there was a real ticket in front of him.

The guy got to Berlin by train. There he had to work as hard as he could to earn at least enough food for himself. The young man got a job as a messenger, while at the same time he cleaned other people's shoes and delivered food and drinks. The busy schedule led him to serious overwork, and Wolf fainted from hunger. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. The boy's body was cold, no pulse was detected, and no breathing was detected.

Messing's body was sent to the morgue, but at the last moment one of the trainees noticed that his heart was beating. After this, the young man was examined by the famous Professor Abel. He studied the features of Wolf's body, coming to the conclusion that his body behaved very unusually. Lack of sleep, little food and constant physical activity led the boy to a state of lethargic sleep. When he restored the body, the doctor asked for joint experiments.

After the incident, Messing and Professor Abel began working together. Basic things were required from the guy - he had to lie down in a crystal coffin, and then bring himself to a state of catalepsy. At this time, the young man’s body could not be distinguished from a corpse. For this kind of work, Wolf received five marks a day. Subsequently, he speaks of this period as the easiest stage of his biography. It is noteworthy that all records of these experiments burned during the war.

In parallel with his part-time job, the psychic was developing his abilities. Some time after the collaboration began, he was able to distinguish between the professors' mental commands. Such skills should not have been wasted, so the impresario helped him get a job in the circus. There the young man performed the most complex tricks with people's minds, read thoughts, looked for objects, and sometimes he was even pierced with needles. In his free time, the telepath was engaged in his own education; he showed particular interest in psychology.

Influential connections

While working in the circus, Messing often experimented with his own abilities. He approached market traders and ordinary passers-by with unexpected statements. At this moment, Wolf looked into their eyes, telling them something important information, which people were thinking about at that moment. More often than not, he was able to read his mind.

In 1915, the artist toured in Vienna, where he was able to meet the greatest minds of the 20th century - Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. Documentary evidence of their connection has also not been preserved in history, but it is known that it was the author of the theory of psychoanalysis who convinced the young man to quit the circus. Wolf paid more attention to his abilities, as a result of which he went on tour abroad. Among the countries visited by the telepath are Argentina, Japan, India and Brazil. He managed to earn good money during the tour.

After the tour, in 1921, the gifted guy came to Poland, where he was drafted into the army. But he did not have to suffer for long because of this, since rumors spread quickly, and after some time the head of state showed a desire to meet the psychic. Yuzev Pilsudski invited Messing to an event where the guests were the most influential personalities of that time. They were all delighted with the talented guy, which is why he did not have to overwork himself in the army. He worked in the kitchen, and in his free time he helped the marshal with advice.

In 1939, World War II began. Since all of Wolf's immediate relatives were Jews, they were quickly arrested and then shot. The telepath had to escape, he stopped on the territory of the Soviet Union. It is known that before his escape, Messing was also arrested, but he managed to jump from the second floor of the prison. According to other sources, it is known that the telepath was able to hypnotize the policemen, directing them to the cell.

Career in Russia

In 1940, having moved to the USSR through the Western Bug, the psychic joined the artistic team. With them he successfully toured around Belarus. After some time, Wolf was taken from the stage right during the concert, citing the fact that Stalin wanted to meet him. According to eyewitnesses, the men found a common language with each other. Joseph doubted his friend's abilities, so he tested him several times. One day he had to get a huge amount from a bank by presenting a blank sheet to the cashier. The employee almost died when he saw his mistake, but he was saved in time.

Messing predicted the exact time of the end of the war, for which the leader thanked him personally. In addition, he made his contribution by donating money for the construction of two military aircraft. In 1965, Wolf’s book entitled “Memoirs” was published. Scientists are still arguing about whether everything written in it is true. In 1971, the telepath received the title of Honored Artist.

Family and personal life

It is known that the psychic enjoyed having affairs while on tour. He talked to different girls and was popular with them. Even before the war, he married a fellow artist and they had children. Their further fate unknown, because the artist fled to the territory of the USSR without his family.

Other sources state that the telepath lived in Moscow with his wife Aida Mikhailovna. They met during the war, after which the woman became for Wolf best friend, assistant and ally. Sometimes a psychic was able to cure people using hypnosis. But then his beloved woman fell ill, and Wolf was unable to cure her. Aida died of cancer in 1960. This led the widower into a state of severe depression.

Among Messing's personal qualities, it is worth highlighting his love of reading and reasoning; he also always followed a daily routine. At the same time, the psychic was afraid of many things, he was flexible, and agreed with his wife in many respects. Only on rare occasions did the telepath reveal his commanding voice, which made a lasting impression during his performances. The man never considered his abilities to be supernatural; in his opinion, they all had scientific explanation. That is why the artist’s main interest was psychology.

IN recent years Throughout his life, Wolf was constantly ill. The telepath was worried about his psychological state, but suddenly he began to have problems with the blood vessels in his legs. The operation was successful, but after it the psychic’s lungs and kidneys failed. He predicted that he would not return home after the hospital, and that’s exactly what happened. The talented artist died on November 8, 1974. Fifteen years after this, his close people spent own funds for the installation of a monument.

Wolf Messing and Aida Rappoport

Messing could do something that mere mortals cannot do. He saw through walls, predicted the future, and could force people to carry out any orders. However, even he was unable to cancel the very future he saw. His gift made him happy and at the same time the most unhappy person in the world.

The one who will be called a wizard, telepath, and clairvoyant all his life, was born in 1899 into a poor Jewish family near Warsaw. His gift manifested itself early. As a teenager, Wolf ran away from home, from his father, who dreamed of making his son a priest and forced him to sit all day long reading religious books.

The boy ran to the station and boarded the train heading to Berlin. Young Messing had no money for a ticket, and German control railways was very strict. Noticing a suitable inspector, Wolf climbed under the bench, but it was too late, he was noticed. "Your ticket!" Picking up a piece of newspaper from the floor, he handed it to the carriage Cerberus, mentally praying: “This is my ticket, this is my ticket!” The controller smiled: “The ticket is in perfect order! Why did such a nice young man crawl under the bench?”

Since his early youth, Messing has been performing in circuses and on the stage, traveling with traveling troupes throughout Germany. The Second World War takes away all of Wolf's relatives - his brothers, sisters and all other relatives died within the walls of the Warsaw ghetto. He was the only one who survived, and Hitler valued his head at 200,000 marks for predicting “death if he turns to the East”! However, at this time Messing was already far away - back in 1939 he moved to the Soviet Union.

There were many legends and rumors about his gift: allegedly he managed to get 10,000 rubles from Sberbank using a blank sheet of paper, and then, having unhypnotized the cashier, showed him an order where nothing was written. This trick helped him prove what his mind was capable of. He performed on the stage with concerts and went to the front as part of propaganda teams. Messing donated the money he earned for the construction of two fighter jets. One plane was a target - it was intended for the ace pilot Kovalev, and on its side there was an inscription: “A gift from the Soviet patriot V. G. Messing to the Hero of the Soviet Union, Baltic pilot K. F. Kovalev.”

Wolf and Aida met in 1944 in Novosibirsk. After the concert, there was a knock on his dressing room. Usually he rested, having lost a lot of energy, and did not receive anyone, but then his hand reached out to open the door. A woman stood on the threshold. She politely greeted him and said that... his assistant was not suitable for him. And she, Aida Rappoport, has all the necessary qualities.

The woman was overweight, and she could not be called beautiful - an open, pleasant face, nothing more. However, the stranger insisted: “Your concerts should be conducted differently! And then - her dress is not suitable at all. The outfit must be strict!” Messing reacted to these words instantly, as if knowing in advance that she was right: “Okay! Do you have a concert dress? Tomorrow I’m waiting for you there!” So she appeared in his life - love, wife, assistant, nanny... She, without whom he would soon not imagine himself.

Wolf Messing adored his wife. She replaced his family, which he lost so early. Apart from Aida, Messing did not have a single serious hobby in his life. Women in his presence felt awkward and said stupid things - from tension, awkwardness and the knowledge that the stranger was reading their thoughts. With Aida, everything was completely different. She behaved naturally, and such warmth emanated from her that he, exhausted from performances, warmed up his soul near his wife.

Soon after his marriage, Messing felt that he and his wife formed a single whole. And in fact, if the phone rang and he didn’t have the strength to pick it up, his wife would say exactly what he would say himself: make appointments, agree or refuse proposals. In addition, Aida immediately took charge of the household, and his bachelor’s home acquired the coziness that it had always lacked. For four years, she and Aida lived in a hotel in Moscow, and then, by order of Stalin, they were given a separate apartment.

Aida took over the entire household: cleaning, cooking, concert costumes... Wolf could behave like a capricious child: he refused to call a taxi himself or did not want to stir sugar in a glass - but his wife accepted this without complaint. She seemed oblivious to his whims. Aida herself cut his meat on a plate, stirred sugar in his tea, and he looked at her and was happy.

They sometimes asked her: “How can you live with him? He knows everything you think!” Aida, laughing, answered that she never has bad thoughts. In fact, Messing’s wife had her own special gift - she was a medium, that is, a conductor between her husband and the rest of the world. Often, during her husband’s performances, it was she who mentally conveyed to him the requests and orders that people from the audience wrote in notes. Messing fulfilled them, and there was no case that he misunderstood his wife’s thoughts!

They listened to him, they took him into account... What was it worth, for example, just one episode with Stalin’s son Vasily, who was fond of sports! One day, Messing literally made his way to a reception with Stalin and from the doorway told the leader: “Your son is going to fly to Sverdlovsk with a team of athletes. Don't let him do this. Let him go by train." Needless to say, the plane crashed, and from then on Stalin always unconditionally followed the advice of the clairvoyant.

Their happiness lasted fifteen years. Then Aida got breast cancer. The woman did not want to undergo surgery, and then, when she had already agreed to surgery, it was too late. Neither radiation nor chemotherapy helped. But Aida persistently traveled with her husband around the country, participating in performances. She weakened before our eyes and sometimes could no longer stand on her feet for the entire two-hour performance. She didn’t show it, although after the curtain fell, her husband picked her up in his arms and carried her to the dressing room himself...

When Aida became very ill and she could no longer get out of bed, several medical luminaries came to the Messings. They examined his wife, and then, wanting to console the owner of the house, they said that even in such severe patients there are cases of unexpected improvement and even complete recovery! Messing listened gloomily to these words, and then said: “You can say all this to anyone, but not to me. I know for sure that Aida will die on August 2, 1960 at seven o’clock in the evening.”

He sat for hours at his wife's bedside. What was he thinking? Did you regret that he and Aida did not have children? Or, on the contrary, he was glad that they had no one to whom he could pass on his strange and terrible gift: to know everything in advance, to see the death of the only one whom you love more than anything in the world... She died exactly on the day and hour that he predicted husband. A few relatives and a nurse gathered at her bedside, giving injections by the hour. Only Wolf could not see the face of his leaving wife, he smoked and cried in the kitchen...

After Aida's death he for a long time couldn't communicate with anyone. Words did not come out of his mouth, and all day long he simply sat motionless, aimlessly looking at one point. The sister of his late wife, Iraida, took care of the house. She was next to her son-in-law, and together they went daily to the Vostryakovskoye cemetery, where Aida was buried. Six months later, Iraida, who silently watched him burn from the inside, could not stand it: “Wolf, this cannot continue! You need to pull yourself together! We need to work!” - “I can’t work! I don't feel anything! Without her, I’m empty inside!”

Only a year later he resumed performing. The constant care of his late wife's sister and the persuasion of his friends did their job - he returned to work. Valentina Ivanovskaya became his assistant, but apart from their common work, nothing connected them with Messing. After the performances, he said goodbye dryly and left somewhere, but not home, where everything reminded him of his loss. His domineering sister-in-law often reproached him for going anywhere but to the cemetery. She said that you need to visit Aida’s grave every day, but he couldn’t go there...

Wolf Messing and his date own death knew in advance and spoke about it more than once with irony. Friends both believed him and did not believe him, but everything happened exactly as he predicted. Leaving for the hospital, he said goodbye to everyone, knowing that he would never return from there. But what did he have to fear, the one who outlived his love by fourteen years?

He never married again, but he couldn’t go to his wife’s grave often. Simply because her soul was not there. Who else would know this if not him, who saw everything about everyone and knew in advance...

From the book About Myself by Messing Wolf

Wolf Messing ABOUT YOURSELF

From the book I am a telepath by Messing Wolf

WOLF MESSING I am a telepath

From the book Wolf Messing - a man of mystery author Lungina Tatyana

Tatiana Lungina WOLF MESSING - A MAN OF MYSTERY PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR Perhaps two decades ago, the general plan of this book matured in me about a telepathic man, about a man not only of an extraordinary destiny, but also of a mysterious soul, with mystical outbursts still shrouded

From the book How Idols Left. The last days and hours of people's favorites author Razzakov Fedor

From the book by Wolf Messing. The fate of the prophet author Strongin Varlen Lvovich

What Wolf Messing Didn’t Know Instead of a Preface I first saw Wolf Messing at the end of 1947 on the stage of the State Jewish Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, which was directed by People’s Artist of the USSR Solomon Mikhailovich Mikhoels. The evening took place on Monday, a day off for

author Chudakov Alexander Pavlovich

From the book Darkness Falls on the Old Steps author Chudakov Alexander Pavlovich

What Wolf Messing dreamed of Instead of an afterword, on November 20, 1995, the legendary modern ballerina Maya Plisetskaya was invited to participate in the television program “Hero of the Day.” On this day, her anniversary was celebrated at the Bolshoi Theater. After a story about the obstacles posed by her

From the book by Wolf Messing author Sokolov Boris Nikolaevich

From the book The Shining of Everlasting Stars author Razzakov Fedor

From the book The Light of Faded Stars. People who are always with us author Razzakov Fedor

Boris Sokolov Wolf Messing

From the book The Secret Russian Calendar. Main dates author Bykov Dmitry Lvovich

From the book 50 famous soothsayers and clairvoyants author Sklyarenko Valentina Markovna

From the book They say that they have been here... Celebrities in Chelyabinsk author God Ekaterina Vladimirovna

From the book Roles that brought misfortune to their creators. Coincidences, predictions, mysticism?! author Kazakov Alexey Viktorovich

MESSING WOLF GRIGORIEVICH (born in 1899 - died in 1974) An outstanding parapsychologist, telepath, medium, hypnotist. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1971). Author of notes “About myself.” “I have never told a lie in my life. Everything I do on stage and in the hall is open from all sides. I have

From the author's book

Wolf Messing Wolf Messing

From the author's book

At the end of 1939, a person from Poland crossed the Soviet border. He told the border guards that he was an artist and had fled from the Nazis. He was brought to the culture department of the Brest City Executive Committee to comrade Abrasimov, who, looking at the overgrown and thin man, asked: “What an artist, we understand, but in what field of art do you work?”

Then the man took a sewing needle from the table and offered to stick the needle into any of the flowers standing in a bouquet on the table, he went out the door, after a while he returned and asked the official to give him his hand. Pyotr Abrasimov said: “He took me by the hand, walked around the table, led me to the bouquet and pulled an invisible needle out of the flower.”

Messing Wolf is a telepath, hypnotist, clairvoyant, student of Freud and the famous Dr. Abel. He knew how not only to subjugate people to his will, to unravel complex crimes, but also to predict the future, including greatest events history. It was he who predicted Hitler's death if he moved troops to the East. Wolf Messing is truly a man of mystery. To say he is a hypnotist is to say nothing. He could, with the touch of his hands, cure a disease against which medicine was powerless. He changed the fate of many people, including Stalin’s son, whom he saved from death.

If Wolf Messing was lucky with something, it was with his date of birth. 1899, the eve of the 20th century, when belief in miracles throughout the world was revived with unprecedented force. But the place of birth was a misfire - impoverished Gura Kalwaria near Warsaw. The town was inhabited by the Jewish poor, to which the family of the future sorcerer belonged. His father, an embittered loser nicknamed Gershka the tramp, lived by renting a tiny kindergarten. Wolf and his three brothers worked in this garden from childhood, caring for apple and plum trees, and as a reward they received only their father's scolding and slaps on the head. The mother's caresses did not console the children for long - Hana Messing died early from consumption.

Wolf was a strange boy. When he was four years old, his mother noticed that he was sleepwalking. Smart people They advised to place a basin of cold water by his bed—stepping into it, the boy would wake up. He was eventually cured of his sleepwalking. Around the same time, it was discovered that nature had endowed Wolf with a phenomenal memory. He easily memorized entire pages from the Talmud.

The father decided to make Wolf a rabbi - a sure piece of bread for his son, and at the same time for him. But the boy, having attended a performance at a visiting circus, firmly decided to become a magician. The beatings did not achieve anything, and the head of the family decided to use a trick. One evening, Wolf saw a giant bearded figure in a white robe at the porch of their house. “My son! - the stranger exclaimed, - go to the yeshiva and serve the Lord! The shocked boy fainted.

Having woken up, he obediently trudged to the yeshiva - theological school. Perhaps the world would have one day received the extraordinary Rabbi Messing, but two years later a huge bearded man came to their house on business. And Wolf immediately recognized him as a scary stranger. His father deceived him!
On that day, eleven-year-old Wolf committed three serious offenses at once. Secretly left his parents' house, stole money from a donation mug hanging in front of the synagogue (there were only nine kopecks), and boarded the first train he came across.

Crouching under the bench, he looked in horror at the controller heading towards him.
"Hey guy, show me your ticket!" - this voice will ring in Messing’s ears for more for many years. Grabbing a dirty piece of newspaper from the floor, he thrust it to the inspector, passionately, with all his soul, wanting everything to work out somehow. Several painful moments passed, and the controller’s face softened: “Why are you sitting under the bench with a ticket? Get out, you fool!"

This is how the boy first realized that he had some kind of incomprehensible power. Later, some Messing biographers told this story differently. As if on his silent order, the controller jumped out of the train and fell to his death. Any event in Messing’s life was surrounded by legends that are almost impossible to understand today.

His memoirs “About Myself,” published in the mid-1960s in several Soviet magazines at once, did not help biographers either. The science fiction writer Mikhail Vasiliev, who wrote them down, also worked hard, decorating the biography of his hero with incredible details. Was it worth the work? The life of Wolf Messing looks amazing even without any embellishments.

The train brought him to Berlin, a huge city where no one was waiting for the little Jewish tramp. Wolf carried things, washed dishes, polished shoes - and was constantly desperately hungry. In the end, he collapsed in the street unconscious. He was almost sent to the morgue - a faint heartbeat was heard only at the last moment. A unique patient, who lay in a deep faint for three days, was admitted to the clinic of the famous psychiatrist Abel. Opening his eyes, the boy said: “You don’t need to hand me over to the shelter!” The doctor was amazed - he was just thinking about this...

Having discovered the boy’s extraordinary gift, Abel was the first to try to study his abilities. And even develop them. But the reports on the experiments burned in his office during the war. And this happened more than once - as if some force was persistently and imperiously hiding everything connected with Messing.

The impresario Zellmeister became interested in the “miracle child”. He got Wolf into the circus. Now the boy spent three days a week in a crystal coffin, plunging himself into a state of catalepsy for the amusement of the public - something like fainting, accompanied by complete numbness of the body. He also performed with other numbers - he pierced his neck with a steel needle, looked for things hidden by the audience. Wolf devoted the rest of his time to his education - he talked about psychology with the best specialists of the time, and read a lot.

Now on the streets he tried to “eavesdrop” on the thoughts of passers-by. Testing himself, he approached the milkmaid and said something like: “Don’t worry, your daughter will not forget to milk the goat.” And he reassured the seller in the store: “The debt will be returned to you soon.” The amazed exclamations of the “test subjects” indicated that the boy really managed to read other people’s thoughts.

In 1915, the young telepath came on tour to Vienna. Here two giants of science of the 20th century became interested in him - the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, and the brilliant physicist Albert Einstein. During a demonstration session, while carrying out Freud's mental task, Messing approached Einstein and pulled out three hairs from his luxurious mustache with tweezers. Since then, he met with Freud more than once. Alas, these meetings did not leave a mark in any of the works of the Viennese psychoanalyst. Perhaps Freud simply retreated in the face of a phenomenon that he could not explain. But it was thanks to Freud that Wolf parted with the circus, deciding: no more cheap tricks - only “psychological experiments” in which he surpassed all competitors.

Messing spent several years on foreign tours: Japan, Brazil, Argentina. And then he returned to Poland. Here he was first drafted into the army. The frail private, unable to shoot or march, was assigned to the kitchen. He was taken straight from the kitchen to the palace of the “chief of Poland” - Marshal Pilsudski, intrigued by the amazing “tricks” that his subordinates told him about. Later, the marshal consulted with Wolf more than once on a variety of issues. For example, about the outcome of his romance with the beautiful Evgenia Levitskaya. Messing did not hide the fact that the young woman’s life was in danger. And so it happened: soon Levitskaya, having lost hope of uniting with her loved one (Pilsudski was married), committed suicide.

Messing continued to travel a lot - he even visited India, where he visited the spiritual leader of the Hindus, Mahatma Gandhi, and learned a lot from yogis. He not only performed on stage, but also solved complicated criminal mysteries. One day, Count Czartoryski lost a diamond brooch that was worth a fortune. He called Messing to him. He asked to bring all the inhabitants of the castle before him and quickly found the culprit - the weak-minded son of a maid. The boy stole the shiny thing and hid it in the mouth of the stuffed bear in the living room. Messing refused the award, asking the count instead to help repeal the law that infringed on the rights of Jews. Czartoryski pulled the right levers in the Sejm, and the law was repealed.

Such stories increased the fame of the sorcerer, but incidents also happened. In one town, Messing was shown a letter from a guy who had gone to America, from whom there had been no news for a long time. The mother wanted the “seer” to determine what was wrong with her son using a piece of paper. After reading the letter, he frowned: “Mrs., I don’t want to upset you, but the one who wrote this letter is dead...”

The ladies were barely pumped out... And on their next visit to the town, Messing was greeted with shouts of “Fraud! Scoundrel! It turned out that the supposed dead man had recently returned home. Messing thought about it. “Did you write the letter yourself?” - he asked the guy. “No, my literacy is not good,” he said, embarrassed. “I dictated, and my friend wrote.” Poor guy, he was soon crushed under a log.” The sorcerer's authority was restored.

Touring paths more than once brought Wolf Messing to Berlin, where another visionary, Erik Jan Hanussen, basked in the glory. Also a Jew, he renounced his people and went into the service of the Nazis, becoming Hitler’s personal astrologer. Messing recognized his talent, but believed that Ganussen often used cheap effects, influencing the audience through hypnosis. Hanussen hated his competitor and instilled in the Fuhrer a superstitious fear of Messing. However, Hitler was also afraid of Hanussen himself, who read his secret thoughts: after coming to power in 1933, he ordered the astrologer to be “removed.”

In Poland itself, Messing also had many ill-wishers. One of them sent a beautiful lady to the sorcerer, who began to openly seduce him. Wolf, who figured out her plan, quietly called the police. When the stranger jumped out onto the stairs shouting “Help, they’re raping!”, law enforcement officers with handcuffs were already waiting for her.

At the same time, Messing was not a misogynist. During his tours, he had affairs more than once, then married an artist and had children. Their further fate is unknown - they, like Messing’s youth, remained in that half of his life that was cut off by the war.

In September 1939, armadas of fascist tanks crashed into Poland like a wedge. The massacre of Jews began immediately. They were herded into ghettos, and from there they were sent to death camps. The entire Gura-Kalvaria, including Messing’s father and brothers, went through this mournful path. They died in the gas chambers of Majdanek. Admirers of his talent hid the fortuneteller himself in Warsaw, in the basement of a butcher shop. Two years earlier, Messing, at one speech, predicted Hitler's death if he sent troops to the east. Now the Gestapo was looking for the “enemy of the Reich”. A reward of two hundred thousand Reichsmarks was promised for his head. Like many sensitive people, Messing suffered from a fear of confined spaces. After being locked up for several days, he went out into the street - and was immediately captured by a patrol. Wolf tried to convince the soldiers that he was an artist (long hair, clothes stained with chalk), but was hit in the face with a rifle butt and woke up in prison. “Well, hello, Jewish magician! - The warden grinned. “Berlin is already waiting for you.”

Messing foresaw how it would all end. He will be forced to make predictions, and then they will remove him, like Hanussen. Gathering all his will into a fist, he hypnotized the guards and locked them in his cell. But the exit is also guarded, and there is no strength left... Messing jumped from the second floor (permanently damaging his legs) and, limping, wandered to the outskirts. There he persuaded a passing peasant to hide him in a cart under some hay. Then other people helped him - some for money, some out of respect for his talent. On a dark November night in 1939, a fishing boat transported him across the Bug to the Soviet Union. A country where he had never been before was now to become his home.

And strange things began again. Any fugitive from abroad then faced long checks, an almost inevitable accusation of espionage, and then execution or camps. And Messing was immediately allowed to travel freely around the country and perform his experiments. He himself explained rather unconvincingly that he had instilled in some rank the idea of his usefulness to the authorities, one of whose tasks was to inculcate materialism.

“In the Soviet Union, fighting against superstitions in the minds of people, they did not favor fortune-tellers, wizards, or palmists... We had to convince them, demonstrate their abilities a thousand times,” Messing later stated his version. And yet it is more likely that The sorcerer’s fate in the USSR turned out so well only because certain high-ranking and very competent people knew about him for a long time.

This was confirmed six months later, when people in uniform took Messing straight from the stage, put him on a plane and took him to Moscow. There he was allegedly met by a short, mustachioed man, familiar to the entire population of the USSR from countless portraits.

“Hello, Comrade Stalin,” said Messing. “And I carried you in my arms.” “How is it in my arms?” - the leader was surprised. - “On the first of May, at a demonstration.” After talking with Messing, Stalin said: “What a cunning one you are!” To which the sorcerer allegedly replied: “What are you talking about! You are truly a cunning one!”

Oddly enough, the recent emigrant got away with such unthinkable familiarity. But Stalin still gave him checks - he ordered him to receive one hundred thousand rubles from the savings bank on a blank piece of paper. Messing succeeded brilliantly (and the cashier later suffered a heart attack).

Another time, the “father of nations” invited Wolf Grigorievich (as Messing began to be called in the USSR) to go to his carefully guarded dacha in Kuntsevo. The sorcerer acted simply and logically in a Soviet way: he convinced the guards that he was the all-powerful head of the NKVD, Beria. And he was allowed through all the cordons.

What is true here, what is not? But such stories, which were whispered about in the “near-Kremlin” families of Moscow, gave rise to the legend that Wolf Messing was almost Stalin’s personal predictor and adviser. In fact, they only met a few times. It is unlikely that the “Kremlin highlander” would like the fact that someone, even as a psychological experiment, could read his thoughts...

Having proven his abilities, Messing received the right to continue speaking, however, without observing political caution, he often found himself in dangerous situations. So, after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, everything soviet people they had to believe in the unbreakable friendship of the two socialist states: Nazi Germany and Bolshevik Russia, and the entire Soviet press praised the wisdom of Stalin, who prevented the war. It was in this forcedly optimistic atmosphere that Wolf, speaking at the NKVD club, received a note with the question “What do you think about the Soviet-German Pact?” He replied, “I see tanks with red stars on the streets of Berlin.”

His words had the effect of a bomb exploding: “What, to doubt the wisdom of Stalin?” For anything less they were shot without trial or investigation. But the dictator decided to check the prediction and ordered to wait. For the time being, Messing's performances were stopped, posters with his name disappeared on June 22, 1941, and Messing's prophecy, although partially, was fulfilled: the pact was violated, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Wolf Grigorievich was “forgiven”, returned to the stage, and often went to the front with concert teams. With the money he earned, he built and presented to the pilots two combat aircraft: the first in 1942, the second in 1944.

In Novosibirsk, answering the question when the war will end, he said. “On the eighth of May,” but he didn’t say the year. Stalin closely followed Messing's prophecies and, when the act of surrender of Germany was signed, sent him a telegram, noting the accuracy of the date. Throughout the post-war years, Wolf Grigorievich spoke to people, but according to the approved program, everything that did not fit into materialist dialectics was removed. The Honored Artist of the RSFSR himself explained his capabilities simply: “My subconscious was connected with “something” or “someone.” That’s how it all happened...”

Messing's life after the war looks, by contrast, quiet and uneventful. The authorities gave him a one-room apartment in Moscow, on Novopeschanaya Street, where the fortuneteller settled with his wife Aida Mikhailovna. They met in Novosibirsk during the war, and Aida became everything for Messing - a friend, secretary, assistant. With her, the eternal wanderer for the first time found his home, where he could throw off his mask and become himself. But only a few friends saw him like this, as if they were selected, extraordinary people.

Messing explained to one of them, Mikhail Mikhalkov (brother of Sergei Mikhalkov): “Every person has, say, 20 percent of intuition, that is, a sense of self-preservation. You, a man who fought, have developed 100 percent intuition, some have 300 percent, and I have a thousand percent!”

Messing strictly followed his daily routine. I got up at eight o'clock, did exercises, then sat down to breakfast, always the same - coffee with milk, black bread, a soft-boiled egg. I took long walks with my two dogs. I read a lot, especially science fiction and books on psychology. Before work, he usually slept for about thirty minutes (he said that sleep charged him with energy). He was a coward, afraid of lightning, cars and people in uniform.

He obeyed his wife in everything and only sometimes, when it came to matters of principle, would he straighten up menacingly and say in a different voice, sharp and creaky: “It’s not Wolfchka who’s telling you this, but Messing!”

Having lived in the Soviet Union for many years, he never mastered the Russian language perfectly, which more than once led to funny situations. Once, when some lady at a performance refused to give him her thing for experiment, Messing was indignant: “Why don’t you give it? Women always gave it to me!” And he couldn’t understand why the hall burst into laughter. And when they told him: “You’re doing a great job!” - answered with dignity: “Yes, I’m healthy, I’m not sick!”

Not only was he not sick, but he also knew how to treat others using hypnosis. However, he could not help his wife. She died of cancer in 1960. Having lost Aida Mikhailovna, Messing did not go on stage for six months, but then returned to work. He traveled all over the country, from the Carpathians to Uzbek villages and temporary shelters for Bratsk builders. He always performed similar acts: he asked the audience to hide all sorts of objects in the hall and found them, instantly counted the matches scattered on the floor, answered questions tricky questions. But most often he carried out tasks that the audience gave him mentally. For example, this: remove the glasses from the nose of the lady sitting in the sixth place of the thirteenth row, take them to the stage and put them in a glass with the right glass down.

Messing successfully completed such tasks without using leading cues or tips from assistants. Official science could not explain this then, and did not try very hard. In the 1970s, a real boom in parapsychology began; enthusiasts began to study all “telepaths,” but for some reason no one involved Messing in such experiments. Is it because they didn’t see any particular mystery in his experiments—only a perfected sensitivity to the so-called ideomotor skills? The fact is that, when conceiving a task and entering into a mental dialogue with another person, we, imperceptibly for ourselves, with subtle movements of our hands, torso, and eyes, “guide” him, “suggest” what needs to be done. Most likely, this is exactly how any today’s psychology student will explain Messing’s experiments. But there is another explanation: all these years the sorcerer remained under the invisible “cap” of the special services. It is no coincidence that after his death, all his papers disappeared along with the large diamond ring - the talisman that he wore during performances. Messing hinted to his friends about some tasks of “important persons” that he performed. Alas, nothing specific is known about this. If documents remain, they are buried in closed archives.

In recent years, Messing was seriously ill. He stopped performing, fearing that the overwhelming burden of other people's thoughts would destroy his brain. However, the disease crept up from the other side - the blood vessels on the once crippled legs failed. He could not hide either fear or despair. He tried to hope - not in God, but in doctors. He begged the Soviet government to allow him to call the already famous DeBakey at his own expense (which, of course, was refused). Leaving for the hospital, he looked at his photo on the wall and said: “That’s it, Wolf, you won’t come back here again.” And so it happened: the operation was successful, but suddenly the kidneys and then the lungs failed. November 8, 1974 Wolf Messing died.

Wolf Grigorievich is buried next to his wife at the Vostryakovskoye cemetery in Moscow.
The state was never generous with the monument to the sorcerer of the Land of Soviets, and fifteen years later Messing’s friends installed it at their own expense.

“...None of my abilities provide any special advantages. Unless, of course, their owner is an honest person and does not intend to use his skill for personal gain, deception, or crimes. But even in this case, he will not achieve success, because he will eventually be discovered and, simply put, punished... Definitely! So don't be jealous! "

Even Freud, who immortalized his name by studying the human psyche, could not explain the Messing phenomenon. Although Messing himself has repeatedly emphasized that there is nothing supernatural in his phenomenon. He didn’t even read thoughts - he saw them: “It’s very difficult to be a mystery to yourself. People are only moving towards telepathy. The fact is that everyone has such abilities, only in varying degrees, and they need to be developed. It's the same as musical talent. Many people can play various instruments, but only a few are virtuosos."

Messing had no patrons or teachers. He once jokingly said: I have no choice but to sacredly believe in my talisman - a diamond ring. One day the ring was stolen. Messing was very upset. Friends consoled: there will be, with your abilities. He replied that that was not the point, he knew who stole it. But there is no proof. Literally a week later, in 1975, Messing died.

When Messing died, Soviet doctors, said academician L. Badalyan, carefully studied his brain, trying to uncover the secret of the great predictor. They were disappointed - nothing special was discovered. Brain is like a brain. Wolf Messing took the secrets of this amazing phenomenon, unsolved to this day, to his grave.

Biography and episodes of life Wolf Messing. When born and died Wolf Messing, memorable places and dates important events his life. Quotes from a medium and telepath, photos and videos.

Years of life of Wolf Messing:

born September 10, 1899, died November 8, 1974

Epitaph

“And now there are still prophets,
Although the altars have fallen,
Their eyes are clear and deep
By the coming flame of dawn."
From the poem “Prophets” by N. Gumilyov

“Your rare gift has entered the history of mankind.”
Inscription on Wolf Messing's gravestone

Biography

The biography of Wolf Messing is a story in which truth and fiction are intertwined so closely that it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. Telepath and psychic nightmare Hitler and Stalin’s advisor, a miracle of nature and a talented pop artist... Which of this is truth and which is fantasy is still difficult to understand.

The only fairly complete source of information about Messing remains his autobiography. From it we learn about how a Jewish boy, born in Poland, unexpectedly discovered the gift of instilling thoughts in strangers and reading their own. How he participated in Dr. Abel’s experiments and began giving performances during which he fell into a cataleptic sleep. How he finally predicted the collapse of Hitler, was arrested, escaped from prison by hypnotizing the guards, and moved to the USSR.

It’s amazing how many sonorous names are woven into Messing’s biography. For example, Einstein and Freud, whom he said he met in Vienna. Or, what is absolutely amazing, Stalin. If you believe the words of Messing himself, the leader subjected the medium to various tests, which he passed with honor.

Messing has said more than once that his “magic” is based on science, but on those facets of it that are not yet accessible to human consciousness. So, for example, the psychic actually explained reading thoughts as reading body language, the smallest signs and vegetative reactions of the body to a stimulus. As for the insight into the future and prophecies... Messing himself could not explain this, hoping only that in the future such phenomena would find a scientific basis.

Who really was Wolf Messing? During special research dedicated to him, it turned out that many of the alleged facts that he describes in his own biography could not possibly have taken place in reality. But it’s not for nothing that Messing called it “A Book of Questionable Reliability.” Characters like him were often called charlatans and deceivers. But if people crave a miracle, is giving it to them a deception?

Messing died at the age of 75 from kidney failure after surgery. But this one is still talented person don't forget. Already in the 21st century. his name again became famous thanks to several documentaries and feature films, including the film “I am Wolf Messing” in 2009, the serial film “Wolf Messing: Seen Through Time” of the same year and the film “Son of the Father of Nations” in 2013. In The last two roles of Messing were played by Evgeny Knyazev.

Life line

September 10, 1899 Date of birth of Wolf Grigorievich (Gershkovich) Messing.
1910 Escape from home, arrival in Berlin.
1915 Moving to Vienna.
1939 Arrest and escape to the Soviet Union after the outbreak of World War II.
1942 Meeting his future wife, Aida.
1960 Death of Messing's wife.
1965 Publication of Messing’s memoirs “A Book of Questionable Reliability” in the journal “Science and Religion”.
1971 Receiving the title “Honored Artist of the RSFSR.”
November 8, 1974 Date of death of Wolf Messing.

Memorable places

1. Gura-Kalvaria, where Messing was born.
2. Berlin, where Messing moved at the age of 11.
3. Vienna, where Messing was on tour in 1915.
4. Tashkent, where Messing was evacuated during the war.
5. Novopeschanaya street in Moscow, where Messing lived after the war.
6. Vostryakovskoe cemetery in Moscow, where Messing is buried (site No. 38).

Episodes of life

The information about Messing's meeting with Einstein in his Vienna apartment was refuted by a simple study of the facts: Einstein did not have an apartment in Vienna at that time. The same applies to the story of putting a bank teller into a state of hypnosis so that he would give Messing a check for 100,000 rubles: the issuing procedure for such amounts in a Soviet bank was much more complicated than that described by Messing.

In 1944, during the war, two aircraft were built at Messing's expense. Hero of the Soviet Union K. Kovalev flew on one of them, who subsequently communicated with Messing.

They claim that Messing accurately predicted the date and time of death of both his wife and himself.

Testaments

"Hypnosis - dangerous weapon. Just like the energy of the atom, it should be used wisely."

“Yes, foresight of the future, not scientific foresight, but intuitive foresight exists. Inexplicable? Yes, with our unclear understanding of the essence of time, its connection with space, the interrelations of the past, present and future, it is still inexplicable.”

Program “Predictions of Wolf Messing” on the TV channel “Top Secret”

Condolences

“Wolf Grigorievich was committed to fair play, did not use any tricks and condemned those who passed off all kinds of tricks as telepathy.”
Yuri Gorny, professor and academician