Wolf Messing

Wolf Grigoryevich (Gershkovich) Messing (Russian: Во́льф Григо́рьевич (Ге́ршикович) Ме́ссинг, Polish: Wolf Grigoriewicz Messing, Hebrew: וולף מסינג‎‎) (10 September 1899 – 8 November 1974) claimed to be a psychic and telepathist.

Wolf Messing Во́льф Ме́ссинг (in Russian) Wolf Messing (in Polish) וולף מסינג‎ (in Hebrew)
Born	Wolf Grigoryevich Messing (1899-09-10)10 September 1899 Góra Kalwaria, Warsaw Governorate, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died	8 November 1974(1974-11-08) (aged 75) Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, USSR
Nationality	Polish and Soviet
Occupation	Clairovoyant, Telepathist, Hypnotist

Biography

Messing was born in the village of Góra Kalwaria, 25 km southeast of Warsaw, at a time when Poland was a territory of the Russian Empire. He claimed that his psychic abilities developed in his early life.[1] By the time he was a teenager he was performing for the public.[1] According to Messing, he was able to broadcast mental suggestions in order to alter people's perceptions. In the interview to the P. Oreshkin, Messing said:

... It's not mind-reading, it's, like the "reading of muscles" ... When human thinks hard about something, the brain cells transmit impulses to all muscles of the body. Their movements, invisible to the eye, I can easily feel. ... Often I'm performing mental tasks without direct contact with the inductor. The pointer to me here is the breathing frequency of inductor, the beating of his heart, voice timbre, his walking nature etc.[2]

He died in hospital, on 8 November 1974. He had successful surgery on the femoral and iliac arteries, but for some unknown reason death occurred in a couple of days, after kidney failure and pulmonary edema. He was buried at the "Vostryakovskoe" Jewish cemetery in Moscow.

Appearances in fiction

Wolf Messing is a major character in Steve Englehart's series of Max August novels, beginning with The Point Man in 1980, and continuing through The Long Man and The Plain Man.

In the hit video strategy game, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 as well as its expansion, Yuri's Revenge, the main character of Yuri was heavily influenced in the likeness of Wolf Messing.

Further reading

• Topsy Küppers: Wolf Messing – Hellseher und Magier. Langen/Müller, München 2002. ISBN 3-7844-2880-0 (in German)
• Nagel, Alexandra: Een mysterieuze ontmoeting...: Sai Baba en mentalist Wolf Messing/A mysterious meeting...: Sai Baba and mentalist Wolf Messing, published in Tijdschrift voor Parapsychologie/Journal for parapsychology 368, vol. 72 nr 4, Dec. 2005, pp. 14–17 (in Dutch)
  • English language article by the same author with more or less the same contents Wolf Messing, an enigmatic ‘psychic entertainer’ whom Sathya Sai Baba claims to have encountered

References

1. "Messing, Wolf Gregorievich [1899-1974]". The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World. 1. Harper Collins. 2006. p. 448.
2. Oreshkin P. «Reading the muscles», not the thoughts. // Technics of Youth. — Moscow, 1961. — № 1. — p. 32.