Wolf Grigorievich (Gershkovich) Messing (1899-1974) - Soviet pop artist (mentalist), performing with psychological performances "reading the minds" of the audience, hypnotist, illusionist and Honored Artist of the RSFSR. Considered one of the most mysterious personalities in his field.
There are many interesting facts in the biography of Wolf Messing, which we will talk about in this article.
So, before you is a short biography of Wolf Messing.
Biography of Wolf Messing
Wolf Messing was born on September 10, 1899 in the village of Gura-Kalwaria, which at that time was part of the Russian Empire. He grew up and was brought up in a simple family.
The father of the future artist, Gershek Messing, was a believer and a very strict person. In addition to Wolf, three more sons were born in the Messing family.
Childhood and youth
From an early age, Wolf suffered from sleepwalking. He often wandered in his sleep, after which he experienced severe migraines.
The boy was cured with the help of a simple folk remedy - a basin of cold water, which his parents put near his bed.
When Messing began to get out of bed, his feet immediately found themselves in cold water, from which he immediately woke up. As a result, it helped him get rid of sleepwalking forever.
At the age of 6, Wolf Messing began going to a Jewish school, where they thoroughly studied the Talmud and taught the prayers from this book. An interesting fact is that the boy had an excellent memory.
Seeing Wolf's abilities, the rabbi made sure that the teenager was assigned to Yeshibot, where clergy were trained.
Studying at Yeshibot did not give Messing any pleasure. After several years of training, he decided to flee to Berlin in search of a better life.
Wolf Messing got into a train car without a ticket. It was at that moment in his biography that he first showed unusual abilities.
When the inspector approached the young man and asked to show the ticket, Wolf looked carefully into his eyes and presented him with an ordinary piece of paper.
After a short pause, the conductor punched the piece of paper as if it were a real train ticket.
Arriving in Berlin, Messing worked as a messenger for some time, but the money he earned was not even enough for food. Once he was so exhausted that he fainted in a hungry swoon right on the street.
The doctors believed that Wolf died, as a result of which they sent him to the morgue. After lying in the morgue for three days, he suddenly regained consciousness for everyone.
When the German psychiatrist Abel learned that Messing was inclined to fall into a short lethargic sleep, he wanted to get to know him. As a result, the psychiatrist began to teach the teenager to control his body, as well as conduct experiments in the field of telepathy.
Career in Europe
Over time, Abel introduced Wolf to the famous impresario Zelmeister, who helped him find himself in the local museum of unusual exhibits.
Messing faced the following task: to lie down in a transparent coffin and fall into a breathless sleep. This number was perplexing to the audience, causing surprise and delight in them.
At the same time, Wolf demonstrated phenomenal abilities in the field of contact telepathy. Somehow he managed to recognize the thoughts of people, especially when he touched a person with his hand.
The artist also knew how to enter a state in which he did not feel physical pain.
Later, Messing began performing in various circuses, including the famous Bush Circus. The following number was especially popular: the artists initiated a robbery, after which they hid the stolen things in different parts of the hall.
After that, Wolf Messing entered the stage, unmistakably finding all the objects. This number brought him great fame and public recognition.
At the age of 16, the young man visited various European cities, surprising the audience with his abilities. After 5 years, he returned to Poland, already a famous and wealthy artist.
At the very beginning of World War II (1939-1945), Messing's father, brothers and other close relatives of Jewish origin were sentenced to death in Majdanek. Wolf himself managed to escape to the USSR.
It is worth noting that his mother, Hana, had died a few years earlier from heart failure.
Career in Russia
In Russia, Wolf Messing continued to perform successfully with his psychological numbers.
For some time, the man was a member of campaign teams. Later he was awarded the title of artist of the State Concert, which gave him a number of advantages.
An interesting fact is that during that period of his biography Messing built the Yak-7 fighter for his own savings, which he presented to the pilot Konstantin Kovalev. The pilot successfully flew on this plane until the end of the war.
Such a patriotic act brought Wolf even greater glory and respect from Soviet citizens.
It is reliably known that the telepath was familiar with Stalin, who was distrustful of his abilities. However, when Messing predicted the crash of the Li-2 plane, on which his son Vasily was going to fly, the Leader of the Nations reconsidered his views.
By the way, this plane, on which the Soviet hockey team of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District flew, crashed near Koltsovo airport, in the vicinity of Sverdlovsk. All hockey players, with the exception of Vsevolod Bobrov, who was late for the flight, died.
After Stalin's death, Nikita Khrushchev became the next head of the USSR. Messing had a rather tense relationship with the new secretary general.
This was due to the fact that the telepath refused to speak at the CPSU congress with a speech that had been prepared for him. The fact is that he made any predictions only when he was sure of them.
However, Nikita Sergeevich's demand to "predict" the need to remove Stalin's body from the mausoleum, according to Messing, was a simple settling of scores.
As a result, Wolf Grigorievich faced various problems associated with his touring activities. He was allowed to perform only in small towns and villages, and later he was completely banned from touring.
For this reason, Messing fell into depression and stopped appearing in public places.
Predictions
The biography of Wolf Messing is shrouded in many rumors and fictions. The same applies to his predictions.
Messing's "memoirs", published in 1965 in the journal "Science and Life", made a lot of noise. As it turns out later, the author of the "memoirs" was actually the famous journalist of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" Mikhail Khvastunov.
In his book, he admitted many distorted facts, giving free rein to his imagination. Nevertheless, his work made many people talk about Wolf Grigorievich again.
In fact, Messing always viewed his abilities from a scientific point of view, and never spoke of them as miracles.
The artist worked closely with scientists from the "Brain Institute", doctors and psychologists, trying to find out the scientific reason for his unusual talents.
For example, "mind reading" Wolf Messing explained how - reading the movement of facial muscles. With the help of contact telepathy, he was able to sense the microscopic movement of a person when he walked in the wrong direction while searching for an object, and so on.
However, Messing still had many predictions, which he uttered in the presence of many witnesses. So, he accurately determined the date of the end of World War II, however, according to the European time zone - May 8, 1945.
An interesting fact is that later Wolf received personal gratitude from Stalin for this prediction.
Also, when the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed between the USSR and Germany, Messing said that he "sees tanks with a red star on the streets of Berlin."
Personal life
In 1944, Wolf Messing met Aida Rapoport. Later she became not only his wife, but also an assistant at the performances.
The couple lived together until mid-1960, when Aida died of cancer. Friends said that Messing also knew the date of her death in advance.
After the death of his wife, Wolf Messing withdrew into himself and until the end of his days lived with Aida Mikhailovna's sister, who looked after him.
The only joy for the artist was 2 lapdogs, whom he loved very much.
Death
In the last years of his life, Messing suffered from persecution mania.
Even during the war, the telepath's legs were injured, which in old age began to bother him more and more often. He was repeatedly treated in the hospital until doctors persuaded him to go to the operating table.
The operation was successful, but for some unknown reason, two days later, after kidney failure and pulmonary edema, death occurred. Wolf Grigorievich Messing died on November 8, 1974 at the age of 75.
