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The name of Wolf Messing is surrounded by an aura of mystery and has given rise to so many legends that you can find among them true facts extremely difficult. It was not even Messing himself who contributed to the creation of the myth, but journalists who willingly retell the fables invented by their colleagues. And the blame for everything is the autobiography of the great soothsayer and telepath published in 1965 in the journal Science and Religion, which went through such a “literary processing” that there was almost no real messing behind the spectacular episodes.

Many attempts were made to “expose” the pop telepath, but the version of N. Kitaev looks the most reasonable. The author subjected to a thorough check all the moments of Messing's biography and came to the conclusion that most of them are fiction.

Telepath and predictor Wolf Messing during a speech |

Wolf Messing

The legend of how 11-year-old Messing rode a train to Berlin without a ticket is widely known. Allegedly, he managed to hypnotize the controller, and he took the paper handed to him for a ticket. This story is doubtful, if only because similar stories are present in the biographies of many other psychics and telepaths. Also in the memoirs it is reported that during a tour in Vienna in 1915, the predictor met with Einstein in his apartment. Einstein's biographers claim that he did not have an apartment in Vienna, and in the period from 1913 to 1925. he did not come to this city at all.

Telepath and predictor Wolf Messing during a speech

The first chapter of Messing's autobiography tells that in 1937 he predicted the death of Hitler during a speech in one of the theaters in Warsaw. After that, 200 thousand marks were promised for his head, and in 1939 the fortune teller was arrested and imprisoned. According to the memoirs, the telepath mentally forced all the policemen of the station to gather in his cell, then hypnotized them, locked them in the cell and fled. But neither in the German nor in the Polish archives is there any mention that Hitler knew about its existence. In addition, documentary evidence that such an artist performed in pre-war Poland, and that he was persecuted, also did not survive.

Wolf Messing during a speech

Having fled from Poland from the Nazis to the USSR, Messing allegedly repeatedly met with Stalin, and he arranged for him to check. So, once he was offered, with the help of hypnosis, to receive one hundred thousand rubles from the State Bank on a blank form, which he did. State Bank specialists argue that the memoirs incorrectly describe the very process of receiving money: one cashier could not issue such an amount, this procedure involved the participation of an accountant and auditors. Therefore, most likely, this scene is nothing more than fiction. And the very fact of meetings with Stalin also remains in question. Neither the Central Archives of the FSB of Russia nor the archives of the Central Committee of the CPSU have preserved information about Messing's contacts with Stalin.

It is only known that during the Second World War, a telegram was published in the newspaper on behalf of Stalin with gratitude for the personal savings donated to the defense fund, on which two fighters were built. Messing really had money - in the 1940-1960s. he actively spoke throughout the Union with "psychological experiments on reading minds." He received the title of artist of the State Concert and surprised the audience with the ability to find hidden objects and carry out the mental commands of the audience. The telepath's performances were a success, and he made good money. According to one version, his "voluntary" donation large sum was a strong recommendation of the NKVD.

E. Knyazev as Wolf Messing, 2009

Shot from the series *Wolf Messing: who saw through time*, 2009

The biggest controversy is Messing's ability to read minds from a distance. Scientists tried to explain this by “ideomotor acts”, or “rudimentary movements”: when a person clearly imagines something, his muscles unconsciously make micro-movements, by which, just like facial expressions, one can read the intentions of a person. Whether it is possible to achieve such a level of perfection in this to convince the audience of their psychic abilities is an open question. But it makes no sense to challenge Messing's talent.

A person in whose biography it is difficult to separate the truth from fiction

Where did so many inconsistencies come from in Messing's autobiography? The fact is that its author was not a telepath himself, but journalist Mikhail Khvastunov - with the help of fiction, he stirred up readers' interest in science. After a personal conversation with Messing, he subjected the text to such literary processing that almost nothing is left of the original.

Wolf Messing

Messing is credited with prophecies about the end of World War II and the death of Stalin, however, the Cassandra syndrome worked here: predictions that no one believed.

MESSING WOLF GRIGORYEVICH

(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 that I do on stage and in the hall is open from all sides. I don't have sophisticated equipment, like Kio and other illusionists, or super-developed finger dexterity, like, say, the famous manipulators Dick Chitashvili or Ashot Hakobyan... I don't resort to ventriloquism and encrypted signaling with secret assistants either. I am not a magician, not even an artist, although I perform on the stage. I demonstrate psychological experiments. And nothing else". These words belong to the famous parapsychologist, whose phenomenon has not been solved so far. Scientists of the former Soviet Union spoke about Messing unambiguously: a genius. Only now, 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 immense popularity, often repeated: "Do not envy!".

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 a tiny Jewish town of Gora-Kalevaria 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 a loser embittered at life. Wolf and his brothers worked in the garden from childhood, caring for apple trees and plums, and as a reward from their father they received only scolding and slaps on the back of the head. The caresses of the mother did not console the children for long - Hana Messing died early, she was ill with consumption. Only from the words of his parents, Wolf knew that in childhood he suffered from sleepwalking, but his father quickly “cured” him of walking at night: on a full moon he put a trough with cold water. Like it or not, you wake up. At the age of six, the boy was sent to a cheder (a school attached to the synagogue). Thanks to his phenomenal memory, the main subject - the Talmud - he knew 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. A model student was even introduced famous writer Sholom Aleichem. But the boy, having visited the performance of a visiting circus, firmly decided to become a magician. The beatings did not give anything, and the head of the family decided to go for a trick - he hired a man who, in the form of a "heavenly messenger", predicted to him "service to God." One evening, Wolf saw a giant bearded figure in a white robe at the porch of their house. "My son! the stranger said solemnly, “go to the yeshiva and serve the Lord!” The shocked boy fainted.

So, against his will, Messing ended up in a yeshiva, who trained spiritual servants, but stayed there for only two years. Maybe the world would have received an outstanding Rabbi Messing, but two years later a hefty bearded man stopped by on business. And Wolf immediately recognized him as a terrible stranger. The case allowed him to reveal the deceit 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 train car that was taking him to Berlin, Wolf first discovered his talent as a telepath. He was so afraid of the controller that he managed to convince him that the miserable piece of newspaper in his trembling hand was the real ticket. Several painful moments passed, and the face of the controller softened: “Why are you sitting under the bench with a ticket? Get out, 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 hard he tried, 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 heart was still beating.

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

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

The professor asked in surprise:

– Did I say that?

“I don’t know,” Wolf answered, “but you thought so.

A talented psychiatrist realized that the boy clearly has the ability of a medium. For some time he watched Wolff, but the reports of the experiments he did with the boy were burned in his office during the war. Later, this happened more than once - as if some kind of force persistently and powerfully hid everything related to Messing's unusual gift. Professor Abel prompted Wolf in which direction to develop his abilities, and found a job in ... a Berlin freak show. There, at that time, living people were paraded as exhibits. There were Siamese twins in the panopticon, a woman with 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 the visitors of the Berlin panopticon. IN free time he learned to "listen" to other people's thoughts, to turn off his pain sensations by force of will. Two years later, Messing performed in a variety show as a fakir, who was pierced with needles in the chest and neck (while the blood did not come out of the wounds). As a "detective" he easily looked for various items among the audience. The boy wonder performances were very popular. The impresario profited from it, it was resold, but at the age of 15, Wolf realized that it was necessary not only to earn money, but also to study. While performing at 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. Checking himself, he approached the thrush and said something like: "Don't worry, your daughter won't forget to milk the goat." And the seller in the store reassured: "The debt will be returned to you soon." The astonished exclamations of the "subjects" said 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 3. Freud, clearly fulfilling their mental orders. Subsequently, he recalled with gratitude a 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 could not explain the gift of Messing. But it was thanks to him that Wolf broke up 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 escape the draft 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 the most various issues. For example, I wanted to know about the denouement of my romance with the beautiful Evgenia Levitskaya. Messing did not hide the fact that the life of a young woman is in danger. And so it happened: soon Levitskaya, having lost hope of uniting with her beloved (Pilsudski was married), committed suicide.

Then Messing again went on tour in Europe, South America, Australia, Asia. Traveled to Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Australia. He performed in almost all the capitals of Europe - Paris, London, Rome, Stockholm, Geneva, Warsaw. In 1927, in India, he met Mahatma Gandhi and was shocked by the art of yogis, although his own achievements were no less impressive. More and more often, he was privately approached for help in finding missing people or treasure. Wolf rarely took the reward. One day, Count Czartoryski lost his diamond brooch, which was worth a fortune. He called Messing to him. He asked to see all the inhabitants of the castle before him and quickly found the culprit - the feeble-minded son of a servant. The boy acted like a crow: he dragged 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 the abolition of the law that infringed on the rights of Jews in Poland.

Such stories multiplied the glory of Messing, but there were also incidents. Once 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 the next visit of Messing, the town met him with cries of “Swindler! Scoundrel! It turned out that the imaginary dead man had recently returned home. Messing only thought for a second. "Did you write the letter yourself?" he asked the guy. “No, my literacy is not good enough,” he was embarrassed. I dictated and my friend wrote. Poor fellow, he was soon crushed by a log. The authority of the seer has been restored.

The Second World War. Fuhrer called Messing "enemy number 1". Back in 1937, at one of his speeches, Messing inadvertently answered a question and predicted Hitler's defeat if he "turned to the east", and now 200 thousand marks were promised for the seer's head.

From the beginning of the occupation of Poland, Wolf Grigoryevich was hiding in his native town, which was turned into a ghetto by the Nazis. But his portraits hung on every corner, and once he did not have time to "turn his eyes" to the German patrol, he was arrested, beaten and locked in the police station. Gathering his strength, Messing "invited" all the police to his cell, left it and pulled the bolt. But there were also guards at the exit of the building, and there was no strength left ... Then Messing jumped from the second floor, injuring his legs (this injury did not go unnoticed), and disappeared. From Warsaw he was taken out on a cart, covered with hay, taken by roundabout ways to the east, and on a dark November night in 1939 he was helped to cross the Western Bug to the USSR.

Then, in the Union, any fugitive from abroad would have been subject to long checks, an almost inevitable charge of espionage, and then execution or camps. And Messing was immediately allowed to freely travel around the country and speak with his experiments. He himself rather unconvincingly explained that he inspired some rank with the idea of ​​his usefulness for the government, one of whose tasks was to spread materialism. “In the Soviet Union, fighting against superstitions in the minds of people, they did not favor fortune-tellers, wizards, or palmists ... I had to convince them, demonstrate their abilities a thousand times,” Messing later stated his version. And yet, it is more likely that the fate of the seer developed so well in the USSR only because some 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 Grigoryevich managed to get a job in a concert brigade touring at that time in Belarus. But from one concert in Kholm (in Belarus), he was taken off the stage in front of the audience by two people in civilian clothes. “We are very sorry, but the show is over,” the audience heard. In those days, there was no reason to be surprised at anything ... The performance was interrupted, the leading actor was put into a car and taken away in an unknown direction. It was 1940, when many people disappeared in this way, without any explanation. “And my suitcases? And who will pay at the hotel?” Messing protested. “The suitcases will not be needed, the bill has already been paid,” he heard the answer ... “I had no idea where they brought me,” Messing recalled many years later. “They took me into a room that looked like 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 at that time in the West. The test of his parapsychological abilities was to take place later ... Wolf Messing for Stalin was neither a provincial pop hypnotist, nor a medium for "new converts to spiritualism." He was known 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 that he himself was aware of a lot.

Whether by the power 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 gave him an apartment, allowed tours of the Union, stopped Beria's desire to get a telepath at his disposal. True, the Chekists 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, this was tantamount to riding a “hare” on a train. Then the generalissimo suggested that he receive 100 thousand rubles from the savings bank without any documents. The "robbery" was successful, only now the cashier who woke up was 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 get 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 fired 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 servants made way. He passed through several posts and stopped at the door of the dining room where Stalin worked. The leader tore his eyes away from the papers and could not hide his confusion: it was Wolf Messing. How did he do it? Messing replied that he telepathically inspired everyone present at the dacha that Beria was entering. At the same time, he did not even put on pince-nez, without which no one had ever seen the KGB chief! Top leaders learned about Stalin's experiments. Some of them believed that Messing - a dangerous person. Fortunately for Messing, Stalin did not share this opinion.

P. Abraham wrote: “I was always surprised how this wonderful artist survived in that bloody time. Perhaps one of the then bosses needed him, it is possible that there were some views on him, or maybe his fate was predetermined higher powers: not in vain, led by a premonition, Wolf Grigorievich came to the East.

It has not been established whether Volf Grigoryevich provided private services to Stalin. In the "near-Kremlin" circles, it was whispered that Messing was almost a personal predictor and adviser to Stalin. In fact, they met only a few times. It is unlikely that the “Kremlin highlander” would have liked that someone, even in the order of 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 the diplomats to extinguish the conflict with the German embassy. Private sessions are also banned. But the latter was almost impossible to trace, and Messing repeatedly helped his friends with his predictions and absolutely strangers especially during the war years.

One of the episodes of the prediction was recorded immediately by ten journalists who did not believe in "these tricks". Slightly excited after a session of psychological experiments that had just ended, Messing asked everyone present to write down that “between June 20 and 25, you, Ivanov (the last name has been changed in the book), will receive a very large promotion. New appointment… I have a request to everyone: when this happens, call me… Has everything been recorded? Well, in a few weeks you will find out whether I was right or not. On the 22nd in Messing's apartment there were four phone calls, who confirmed that Ivanov was appointed editor-in-chief of one of the largest newspapers ... “You don’t have to ask how I did it. I'll be honest and frank: I don't know myself. In the same way as I do not 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 must stubbornly think, ask myself: will it happen or not? .. And after a while there is conviction: yes, it will happen ... or: no, it will not happen ... "

Tatyana Lungina, who worked at the Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Bakuleva, was friends with Messing for many years. In her article, dedicated to memory telepath and predictor, there are 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 the diseases of several high-ranking patients.

When I came to work one day, I found out that at night a seriously ill patient entered the institute, for the sake of which all medical luminaries gathered at the council. Black limousines stood at the main entrance, escorting the ambulance in which our patient arrived. It turned out to be Colonel General Zhukovsky, commander of the air force of the Belarusian Military District, an old friend of Messing. He was diagnosed with a massive heart attack with holes in the heart septum. The treatment of such an ailment in an operative way has never been carried out 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 the order "from above" Burakovsky was able to make a final decision.

And then Messing called:

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

I talk about Burakovsky's hesitation, but Messing interrupts me:

- Everything will end well, it will heal like a dog. And your boss will be presented with an award. So tell him.

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

Passed the first critical days, and now Zhukovsky is being transferred to the clinic. Burdenko for aftercare - the danger has passed. And Burakovsky was awarded the title of Corresponding Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR and awarded the order for a successful operation.

When I later asked Volf Grigorievich if he took risks with General Zhukovsky, advising an immediate operation, Messing replied: “I didn’t even think about it. It’s just that a chain arose in my mind: “operation - Zhukovsky - life ...” and that’s it.

After Stalin's inspections, Wolf Grigorievich began working from the Philharmonic. He was listed as a “variety artist”, but he did not consider himself as such: “After all, an artist is preparing for a performance. He delves into the role, 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 for their implementation. 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 serenity,

Mining underground,

Underlying thoughts

It will start like seeds

Click now.

Messing's psychological experiments gathered huge audiences throughout the Union. Wolf Grigorievich demonstrated his phenomenal memory, carrying out complex calculations in his mind: he extracted square and cube roots from seven-digit numbers, listed all the numbers appearing in the experience; read and memorize entire pages in a matter of seconds. But most often he performed tasks that the audience gave him mentally. For example, take off 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 experts. As a rule, Volf Grigoryevich asked any spectator to concentrate his thoughts on the task that he had to complete. The instructions were written down, and they were given in a sealed envelope to a trusted person, previously selected by a commission of doctors. Then, without touching the doctor, who concentrated his thoughts on instructions for the telepath, Messing descended into auditorium, as if guided by an internal radar. He claimed that he perceives other people's thoughts in the form of images - he sees the place and actions that he had to perform. He always emphasized that there is nothing supernatural in reading other people's thoughts. “Telepathy is just using the laws of nature. At first, I enter a state of relaxation, due to which I feel a surge of energy and increased receptivity. Then everything is simple. I can accept any thoughts. If I touch a person who sends a thought-order, it is easier for me to concentrate on the transmission and separate it from all the other noises that I hear. However, direct contact is not required at all. 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 minds of deaf-mutes, perhaps because they think more figuratively than other people.

Volf 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 large weight placed on the chest could not bend the body. The messing telepath "read" the mental tasks of the public and clearly executed them. Often taking the hand of the afflicted, he could predict his future, and from a photograph determine whether the person is alive and where he is 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, did he dare 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 indicating 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 way of obtaining knowledge, there is also anticipatory knowledge, or direct knowledge. It is difficult to explain this concept because of our vague understanding of the essence of time and its relationship with space, past, present and future. I am deeply convinced that both the past and the present influence the character, the form of the future. The interrelationships between these three elements are provided by some constant principles. Messing claimed that the future is presented to him in the form of an image. “The operation of the mechanism of direct knowledge allows me to bypass the normal, logical reasoning based on a causal chain. As a result, the last link that appears in the future opens up before me. Inspires vigor and one of Messing's predictions regarding paranormal activity: “The time will come when a person will cover them all with his consciousness. There are no incomprehensible things. There are only things that are not for us in currently obvious."

Messing also participated in seances. Already in the USSR, he declared that he did not believe in the invocation of 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 lived quite well.

In addition, he could well practice as a psychic healer, but he did this extremely rarely, since he believed that, for example, to remove headache- not a problem, but to treat is the business 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 therapy or surgery. Messing could control the human psyche without much stress, with the help of hypnosis. He often thought about his abilities, but was never able to reveal the nature of his gift. Sometimes he "saw", sometimes "heard" or simply "received" a thought, an image, a picture, but the process itself remained a mystery. The only thing the 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 concert activity. With the money earned, Wolf Grigoryevich built two fighter planes and helped the orphanage. By the way, the famous ace Konstantin Kovalev, Hero of the Soviet Union, who became a friend of Messing after the war, flew on one of the fighters.

After one of his speeches in 1944, a young, slightly plump woman approached him and offered to change uninteresting " opening remarks", which were read out by the presenter. So Aida Mikhailovna entered the life of Messing. On stage, she seemed tough and serious, and 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 observed an iron daily routine. I got up at eight o'clock in the morning, did exercises, then sat down for breakfast, always the same - coffee with milk, black bread, 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 energizes him). 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 matters of principle, he straightened up menacingly and spoke in a voice that was not characteristic of him, sharp and creaky: “This is not Volfochka telling you, but Messing!” He spoke on the stage in the same authoritative voice.

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

Over the years, Messing began to perform less frequently, fearing that the unbearable burden of other people's thoughts would destroy his brain. However, the disease crept up on 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 with amputation of the lower extremities. Since 1969, under the pressure of his doctor friends, he regularly took courses of treatment. He was strictly forbidden to smoke, but to rid himself of bad habit he didn’t want to, and why deprive yourself 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 past century, but could not get rid of the heartache. Supernatural abilities more than once they saved a life - his life, and foreshadowed death - someone else's death, leaving no room for fear or hope ... 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” . Later, his host, Valentina Iosifovna, told a regrettable detail. When she escorted Volf Grigoryevich by the arm to the car to go to the clinic, he stopped halfway, looked sadly at his house and said with anguish: "I ... will not see him again."

In November 1974, Wolf Grigorievich agreed to complex operation on the femoral and iliac arteries. This time he behaved in the hospital nervously, without his usual resignation to fate. What is this? Heavy foreboding? Perhaps he was also saddened by the fact that no one in the highest authorities took the trouble to petition and, at his request, call from the United States a medical team of the world-famous Dr. 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 (it was also overcome), and then healthy kidneys failed. At the same time, the pulse was even, and sleep was calm. November 8, 1974 Wolf Messing died.

At 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 in a “standard” way: in connection with November holidays the obituary in the newspapers was placed 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 a contribution of more than a million rubles and cash were confiscated in favor of the state ... Despite the efforts of famous Soviet citizens, funds for the monument not singled out. It was installed only in 1990 with donations from foreign friends.

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 really predicted some events. He also knew the date of his death. Although I didn't know