Wolf Messing (1899–1974) was a self-proclaimed psychic, telepath and stage hypnotist. Born to a Jewish family in Góra Kalwaria, near Warsaw, he claimed psychic abilities that appeared early in his life. By his teenage years he was performing publicly as a psychic entertainer. He died in Moscow in 1974, and his life was later dramatised in a Russian television miniseries.
Early life
Messing was born in the village of Góra Kalwaria, about 25 kilometres southeast of Warsaw, into a Jewish family. He claimed that his psychic abilities developed during his early life, although such claims were not independently verified. His background in this small Polish village forms the starting point of his later career as a public performer.
Career and methods
By the time he was a teenager, Messing was performing before audiences as a psychic entertainer. In an interview with P. Oreshkin, he described his technique not as mind-reading but as a kind of reading of muscles. He said that when a person thinks intensely, the brain sends impulses to the body's muscles, and he could feel these movements. He also cited breathing rate, heartbeat, voice timbre and manner of walking as cues he used.
Death and legacy
Messing died in a hospital in 1974, two months after his 75th birthday. He had undergone successful surgery on major arteries of the leg, but later developed kidney failure and pulmonary edema for reasons that remained unknown. He was buried at the Vostryakovskoje Jewish cemetery in Moscow. His life story is depicted in the Russian television miniseries Wolf Messing: Who Saw through Time (2009), and he appears as a character in Steve Englehart's Max August novels and inspired a character in the video game Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2.