They charged water and treated them on TV: how did folk healers attract Soviet citizens

In the 1980s, traditional healers were extremely popular among citizens of the USSR. They achieved incredible success; entire families watched programs with their participation. Today this may seem funny, 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 beings with superpowers? How journalist Chumak became a healer, how Kashpirovsky became famous throughout the world, and also about the resurrection of the dead by the master of white magic Longo - tells "Cultural Studies".

Anatoly Kashpirovsky in 2021. Photo: video frame YouTube / Anatoly Kashpirovskiy

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

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 claimed that he could transmit a special energy that was able to move to any part of the planet, as long as they watched 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 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 the city of Vinnitsa. Then he received the post of psychotherapist of the Soviet Union national weightlifting team, and later 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 anesthesia during breast surgery. The patient was in Kiev, and Kashpirovsky was in Moscow. Communication was carried out via teleconference, while the psychotherapist inspired 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 suffered because she was lying under the cameras.

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

The main "TV healer" of the USSR, "Vinnytsia hypnotist" and psychotherapist Anatoly Kashpirovsky, who is still known throughout the post-Soviet space, now spends a lot of time in New York and "treats" Americans. In August 2020, he turned 81. Now the "telehealer" conducts many sessions in New York and treats people from tooth decay and obesity in the conference rooms of the megalopolis hotels. He also regularly visits the countries of the former USSR with "healing tours". For a session, Kashpirovsky takes from $ 35.

In the United States, a specialist usually meets with clients in one of the hotels in Brighton Beach, where many immigrants from the USSR live. According to Kashpirovsky's assistant, in the United States he has no end of clients. For $ 35, clients are promised to help them lose weight, cure tooth decay and get rid of allergies. Sometimes the sessions are accompanied by romances performed by Kashpirovsky himself. The healer also conducts "remote three minutes". They cover a variety of topics such as snoring and nose correction.

For more information about how Kashpirovsky lives and what he does, read material ForumDaily New York.

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York

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 headaches, 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 mission 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 people 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.

On the subject: Declassified files: how trained CIA pigeons and dolphins spied on the USSR

Yuri Longo: Master of White Practical Magic who raised 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, and 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 amaze 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. 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.

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