Wolf Messing

Wolf Grigoryevich (Gershkovich) Messing (Во́льф Григо́рьевич (Ге́ршикович) Ме́ссинг, Wolf Grigoriewicz Messing, וולף מסינג) (10 September 1899 – 8 November 1974) was a self-proclaimed psychic, telepath and stage hypnotist.

Early life
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.

Career
By the time he was a teenager, he was performing for the public as a psychic entertainer. 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:"... It's not mind-reading, it's like the 'reading of muscles'... When a 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."

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.