by Vladimir Reznichenko (Novosti)
“Had I become a rabbi, I certainly would have been a miracle-worker”, says Wolf Messing, well-known Soviet actor-psychologist.
This man, who was born several months before the beginning of the present century, in a small town near Warsaw, was, according to the plans of his father, a gardener, to have served the cause of religion, but he ran away from the religious school in order to live a striking and unusual life.
And so, Wolf Messing did not become a rabbi.
Did he become a miracle worker?
The account given below tells about destiny of this rare parapsychological phenomenon.
200,000 MARKS FOR HIS HEAD
Berlin Kunstkammer
for the first time in the world —
real Siamese twins
the only woman of her kind, with a beard
The Hit of the Programme — a Living Corpse
WOLF MESSING
in a crystal coffin
Hurry to see him. Entrance fee only 1 mark
That is approximately what the first announcement of Wolf Messing looked like when, still a boy, without a copper in his pocket, he arrived in Berlin and found work in the city Kunstkammer where, in order to entertain the public, he put himself into a state of catalepsy and for four days was exposed to the view of all as he lay in that ‘crystal’ sarcophagus.
The birth of this parapsychological phenomenon took place several months earlier, in a coach of a Warsaw-Berlin express train. The young runaway, Wolf, who was riding as a stowaway, by means of his unfathomable psychic faculties, compelled the ticket-collector to believe that the candy wrapper he offered the man was actually a real railway ticket. It was thus that Messing, for the first time, became aware of his own abilities and believed in his own unique talent.
The career of this Warsaw infant-prodigy developed slowly but surely. The experiments in the Kunstkammer were followed by incidents in which found hidden treasures, read people’s thoughts, foretold their destinies. Wolf Messing cured several sick people, and shed light on a number of involved criminal cases. This ‘bewitched boy’, who had received five marks for his seance in catalepsy, became a brilliant magician, accustomed to fabulous royalties.
Once he made a forecast that was almost fatal for him in the presence of a huge crowd. He forecast the early and inevitable end of the Fuhrer himself. Gestapo announced a substantial reward - 200,000 marks - for his capture. Beaten up and thrown into prison, Wolf Messing saved himself in the most miraculous way: exerting superhuman efforts, he assembled in his cell all the fascists who were guarding him, hypnotized them, and then, without anything to hinder him’, left the prison. Messing described this case in his memoirs.
Secretly, and surmounting incredible difficulties, this ‘fakir’ made his way to Soviet Russia, where he has remained ever since.
Three Hairs from the Moustache of the Creator of the Theory of Relativity
“The joy of seeing and understanding is nature's most wonderful gift”, said Albert Einstein.
It was this very desire to “see and understand” that once impelled the great physicist of the present era, together with the psychologist Sigmund Freud, to conduct a number of experiments with the young Messina in Berlin.
“Excuse me, Professor, but I must extract three hairs from your moustache,” the embarrassed youth said as he approached Einstein. The professor was forced to agree. For that was the assignment which the inductor, Freud, had mentally dictated to the percipient, Wolf.
The actor-psychologist, Wolf Messing, (that is what he calls himself) still performs with a similar act to this very day. He appears on the stage without any magic accessories and dressed in a somewhat old-fashioned way.
A jury that enjoys the trust of all is selected from among the impatient audience. The jury sees to it that the rules agreed upon in advance are adhered to and it selects for the experimenter the most interesting assignments. Notes are passed to the judges and the ‘inductor’ is called to the stage. Messing takes the ‘inductor’ by the hand, leads and.... And then he finds a fountain pen which had been hidden, in advance, in the fluffy hairdo of a woman sitting in the 19th row. Or, with his eyes either open or blindfolded, he goes with his companion to the refreshment room which is located a floor below, buys some candies there, those indicated in the note, and then goes over to the lady’s husband, extracts from the man’s purse which is in his left pocket the necessary amount of money to pay for the candy, and, for some reason or other, two lottery tickets as well. Or he goes over to the piano and plays the scale. To put it briefly, he does everything indicated in the note lying in front of the impartial judges, which note is read aloud only at the end of the number, to the accompaniment of the shouts of bewildered spectators.
The inductor and one or another person seated in the auditorium do their best to confuse the maestro. “But”, says Wolf Messing, “I can instill a feeling of honesty into even the most conscienceless people, although — it is true — for not more than three minutes”.
Several years ago in Moscow, Wolf Messing, in the presence of competent doctors and foreign journalists, repeated an experiment which had first been performed at a waxworks exhibition in Berlin. He put himself into a state of catalepsy during which a person loses all sensitivity, does not react to any external stimuli. The doctors examined the experimenter: they could hardly feel his pulse, his muscles had become numb, and his heart contracted extremely rarely. But then a piece of cardboard was placed on the chest of the dead man, add a pencil was placed in his numb hand. Slowly, inducing a weird feeling in the audience, the hand with the pencil began to rise while all the other parts of the body continued to remain immobile, petrified. The hand calmly wrote several sentences in Russian, then fell, and again became as lifeless as before.
“That’s a very difficult experiment”, says Wolf Messing, “and in order to perform it I must lie in a trance from early morning.”
Natural or Supernatural?
Telepathy, the “illegitimate” daughter of 20th century science, has still found no shelter in the laboratories of the scientists. As regards Wolf Messing, he considers the existence of telepathy an indisputable thing, something that is self-evident.
“Even mothers who see their sons off to war feel a certain closeness to them. Clairvoyance is quite another thing,” he said, as he mixed his broken Russian speech with German, Hebrew and Latin words. “Few people possess that gift”.
Yet Messing frequently stresses the fact that everything he demonstrates achieved by the effort of the human mind, without the use of any “supernatural” forces, or forces from another world. During our conversation he often used the words “fluids” and “intuition”.
“I don’t perform any miracles and don’t want my work to be considered as miracles,” says this man, who does not conceal his atheistic views.
“But you can foretell the future, can’t you?”
“Yes, but that’s not such a difficult thing. It is much more difficult to guess a person’s past.”
“Maestro, there are some scientists who do not believe in your gift.”
“There are many things that the scientists still do not understand.”
The Friends and Patients of this Good Magician
Today 68 year old Wolf Messing lives in a modest apartment on one of Moscow’s quiet, green streets. This person of average height, who limps slightly, and who has a vivid, keen look in his eyes, can be seen on the boulevard walking with two fascinating French Bolognese dogs named ‘Pushkina’ and ‘Mashenka’!
Wolf Messing is a widower and is quite alone. Almost all his relatives were killed by the fascists in the ghetto, and his wife died several years ago. Iraida, the sister of his deceased wife, keeps house for him. True, there is almost no housekeeping to attend to. Iraida says, joking, that her brother-in-law is at home only “on tour”.
In spite of his age, Wolf Messing still continues his performances. “When I appear on the stage I feel I am still young”, he says.
Of course, Wolf Messing is not an omnipotent miracle- worker, and even less can he be called a universal sorcerer. You cannot cure a person of rheumatism or pneumonia by means of psychic influences. Furthermore, as he did not receive a medical education, Messing does not have the formal right to treat people. However, he sometimes yields to especially persistent requests. The method by which he cured certain people of stuttering and alcoholism is rather simple. But at times what is important for the patient is not how he is being treated, but who is treating him. And if it is Wolf Messing himself who has undertaken something, it means that the results will soon make themselves felt.
Schoolchildren who know no peace before the coming final examinations, young ballerinas on the eve of their ‘fatal’ debuts call on this good magician for his advice and sympathy, and after receiving from him the necessary words, they surmount the formidable ordeal without fear.
Wolf Messing is glad when people come to him. “I want people to like me and to respect me as a person, and not as a magician”, he admits.