Wolf Grigoryevich (Gershkovich) Messing (, , ) (10 September 1899 – 8 November 1974) was a self-proclaimed psychic, telepath and stage hypnotist.

Early life

Messing was born to a Jewish family in the village of Góra Kalwaria, 25km southeast of Warsaw. He claimed that his psychic abilities developed in his early life.

Career

By the time he was a teenager, he was performing for the public as a psychic entertainer.

In the interview with P. Oreshkin, Messing said:

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 is depicted in the Russian television miniseries Wolf Messing: Who Saw through Time (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.

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

• English language article by the same author with more or less the same contents

References

See also

• List of occultists