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'{{Short description|Russian telepathist, hypnotist, occultist (1899–1974)}} {{multiple issues| {{Disputed|date=October 2013}} {{Fanpov|date=October 2013}} {{Expand Russian|Мессинг, Вольф Григорьевич|date=September 2021}} }} {{Infobox person | name = Wolf Messing<small><br />{{lang|ru|Во́льф Ме́ссинг}} {{in lang|ru}}<br />{{Lang|pl|Wolf Messing}} {{in lang|pl}}<br />{{Script/Hebrew|וולף מסינג}} {{in lang|he}}</small> | image = WolfMessing123.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Wolf Grigoryevich Messing | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1899|09|10}} | birth_place = [[Góra Kalwaria]], [[Warsaw Governorate]], [[Congress Poland]], [[Russian Empire]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1974|11|08|1899|09|10}} | death_place = [[Moscow]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]], [[USSR]] | nationality = [[Congress Poland|Polish]] and [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] | other_names = | known_for = Supernatural experiments | occupation = [[Clairvoyance|Clairvoyant]]{{citation needed|date=October 2013}}, [[Telepathy|Telepathist]]{{citation needed|date=October 2013}}, [[Hypnotist]] }} '''Wolf Grigoryevich (Gershkovich) Messing''' ({{lang-ru|Во́льф Григо́рьевич (Ге́ршикович) Ме́ссинг}}, {{lang-pl|Wolf Grigoriewicz Messing}}, {{lang-he|וולף מסינג}}{{ltr}}) (10 September 1899 – 8 November 1974) was a self-proclaimed [[psychic]], [[Telepathy|telepath]] and stage [[Hypnotism|hypnotist]]. ==Early life== Messing was born in the village of [[Góra Kalwaria]], 25&nbsp;km southeast of [[Warsaw]], at a time when [[Congress Poland|Poland]] was a territory of the [[Russian Empire]]. He claimed that his psychic abilities developed in his early life.<ref name="Harper">{{cite encyclopedia | title = Messing, Wolf Gregorievich [1899-1974] | encyclopedia = The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World | volume = 1 | pages = 448 | publisher = Harper Collins | year = 2006 }}</ref> ==Career== By the time he was a teenager, he was performing for the public as a psychic entertainer.<ref name="Harper"/> Wolf Messing would become widely popular when he started displaying his abilities in a circus in Berlin. One day in Vienna while he was on a tour two great scientists met with him Later it was Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud who wanted to test his abilities. Messing said to Freud: “Make a wish, and your wish is my command.” Then he came to Einstein and pulled three hairs out of his moustache. “Is this what you wished for?” he asked, turning to Freud. “Yes,” Freud replied. Messing would travel a lot and his fame attracted many people who wanted to visit him such as Gandhi, Marilyn Monroe, and Polish President Piłsudski. When the Weimar Republic got replaced by the new Nazi government with Adolf Hitler in charge Messing made his famous prophecy “If Hitler goes to war against the East, his death awaits him.” When the Fuhrer learned of Messing’s prophecy, he became enraged and announced a 200,000 Reichsmarks bounty on Messing’s head. When the nazis captured Warsaw Messing was arrested by the Gestapo, Messing was able to escape the Gestapo by using his psychic abilities by making the guards lock themselves up in a cell, afterwards he escaped nazi occupied Poland to the Soviet Union. There he would meet Stalin who was also curious about his abilities. According to Messing, he was able to broadcast mental suggestions in order to alter people's perceptions. In the interview with P. Oreshkin, Messing said:{{quotation|... 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.<ref name="Oreshkin">''Oreshkin P.'' «Reading the muscles», not the thoughts. // [[Technics of Youth]]. — Moscow, 1961. — № 1. — p. 32.</ref>}} ==Death== Messing died in a hospital, on 8 November 1974, two months after his 75th birthday. He had successfully undergone surgery on the Femoral and External Iliac arteries, but afterward, for some unknown reason, developed kidney failure and pulmonary edema. He was buried at the Vostryakovskoje Jewish cemetery in Moscow. His life story depicts [[Wolf Messing: Who Saw through Time]] TV Mini Series (2009). ==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 lang|de}} * [[Alexandra Nagel|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.&nbsp;14–17 {{in lang|nl}} **English language article by the same author with more or less the same contents ''[http://77.170.120.22/ex-baba/engels/articles/paperwolfmessing.html Wolf Messing, an enigmatic ‘psychic entertainer’ whom Sathya Sai Baba claims to have encountered]'' ==References== {{Reflist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Messing, Wolf}} [[Category:1899 births]] [[Category:1974 deaths]] [[Category:People from Góra Kalwaria]] [[Category:19th-century Polish Jews]] [[Category:20th-century Russian people]] [[Category:Telepaths]] [[Category:Clairvoyants]] [[Category:Polish male stage actors]] [[Category:Refugees from Nazi Germany in the Soviet Union]] [[Category:Polish psychics]] [[Category:Polish emigrants to the Soviet Union]] ==See also== *[[List of occultists]]'