Television charlatans in the USSR: Operations without anesthesia, resurrection on camera and other miracles on the air

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the 1980s, folk healers were very popular among the citizens of the USSR. They achieved incredible success, the programs with their participation were watched by whole families. Today it may seem ridiculous, but in those years such personalities as Alan Chumak, Anatoly Kashpirovsky and others were on everyone's lips. How did they attract people? Why were they considered creatures with superpowers? Read how the journalist Chumak became a healer, how Kashpirovsky became famous all over the world and about the resurrection of the dead by the master of white magic Longo.

Alan Chumak: a journalist with special energy, who exposed charlatans and became a healer himself

At the end of the eighties, Alan Chumak was very popular. He was a professional journalist and worked in television for many years. A career as a healer began in the late 70s, when Chumak was commissioned to prepare a series of programs to expose charlatan magicians. He did it, but in the process he felt that he himself could be a psychic. As a result, Chumak left his main job as a journalist and even began to cooperate with the Research Institute of General Psychology.

In 1989, Chumak returned to television in order to conduct healing sessions. Its "trick" was the remote charging of water, creams and ointments. He argued that he could transmit a special energy that was able to move to any part of the planet, as long as there were watching TV programs with his participation. People believed that the water of Chumak would help against any disease. They put cans of liquid in front of the screens and waited with bated breath for the magician to charge the water.

Chumak made programs on various topics, from various physical diseases to improving one's life. It is interesting that Chumak's sessions were held in silence: he did not speak, but made strange passes with his hands and moved his lips. Encouraged by the success, the healer went further - he began to release charged water and cream. Even those who did not have a TV could buy them. Programs with Chumak went on the air until 1995, before the Ministry of Health banned non-traditional methods of treatment. Then the healer began to write books.

Anatoly Kashpirovsky: from a psychiatric hospital to the screen

Anatoly Kashpirovsky served for 25 years in a psychiatric hospital in Vinitsa. Then he received the position of a psychotherapist for the national weightlifting team of the Soviet Union, and later as the head of the Republican Center for Psychotherapy. In 1988, Kashpirovsky was invited to the well-known youth program "Look". An unprecedented action was carried out - psychological pain relief during breast surgery. The patient was in Kiev, and Kashpirovsky was in Moscow. Communication was carried out via a teleconference, while the psychotherapist instilled in the patient that there was no pain. Everything went so well that in a few days the woman went home. True, after many years it turned out that anesthesia was still used, and the patient was in pain, but she endured because she was lying under the cameras.

However, Kashpirovsky became a famous healer. It was truly world-famous. They wrote about the Soviet magician in different countries. He held teleconferences, spoke in Ostankino, made programs "Health Sessions", which were aired on weekends. Kashpirovsky knew how to communicate with the audience, listened attentively to people, answered questions. And the public loved Kashpirovsky, he was respected and tried to get to him for a session. they said that mass hypnosis was used, but Kashpirovsky denied it. The army of fans was very large. There were also those who did not believe in the power of Kashpirovsky. Time passed, the psychotherapist began to gradually disappear from the screens, and then there were rumors that he emigrated.

Juna: Vysotsky, Rozhdestvensky, Gamzatov and Raikin came to her

A girl named Evgenia Davitashvili began to show healing abilities in early childhood. She was able to relieve a headache record, heal a wound, or heal a hernia. Her great-grandmother was a famous healer, and many believed that the girl inherited this gift from her. When Evgenia grew up, she decided that her purpose was to help people and entered the medical school. She worked as a nurse, and also gave her patients the so-called distance massage.

In the mid-eighties, Juna (as they began to call Eugene) worked in Moscow, in a district hospital. Her talent was noticed and Davitashvili was invited to a specially organized laboratory at the famous clinic of the USSR State Planning Committee. There she successfully treated both employees and their relatives. Famous personalities came to Juna's reception. Among them we saw Robert Rozhdestvensky, Arkady Raikin, Vladimir Vysotsky, Rasul Gamzatov. According to many, Juna possessed phenomenal abilities. There were also those who did not believe in the strength of her hands. Professor Nikolai Vereshchagin devoted a lot of effort to researching the healing powers of Juna. He concluded that a woman does not have any special effect. However, her popularity remained at the same level, people believed and came to see her. In 1991, Juna became the head of the International Academy of Alternative Sciences.

Yuri Longo: Master of White Practical Magic, Who Resurrected the Dead

Soviet TV viewers have long remembered a man who amazed with his ability to resurrect the dead. It was Yuri Longo, who called himself nothing less than the Master of White Practical Magic. He tried to look in accordance with the chosen title - he put on strange robes, wrapped himself in chains, made incomprehensible movements with his hands. If you study the biography of Yuri, you can see that before his appearance on television, he was associated with the circus, studied hypnosis. Longo traveled around the USSR, showed his tricks.

During perestroika, he was invited to television and began to practice healing sessions. Not knowing how to impress the audience, he presented them with the resurrection of the deceased, held in the morgue. A few years later, it was revealed that an unknown actor played the role of the dead man. However, even the exposure did not become an obstacle to the opening of schools of sorcerers both in Russia and abroad. They all bore the name of the great master Longo.

But most often messiahs, magicians and other miracle workers ended up in special hospitals. And along with them, people simply undesirable to the system.