Mikhail Fadkin claims he can cure a long list of disorders — pancreatitis, bronchitis, digestive problems, even infertility — by using his hands to manipulate what he describes as a person’s “bio-energy field.”
Many laugh at such ideas and might call him a quack. But the 63-year-old healer, who practices out of an office in a Moscow suburb, holds a license from the Russian government.
For the past two years, the Federal Health Service has been issuing licenses to practitioners of what it calls “traditional medicine,” meaning anything from the use of herbal treatments to the manipulation of “auras.”
His claims buttressed by officialdom, Fadkin charges patients 3,500 rubles (US$150) per session. And he says business is very good.
“Every day I learn something new,” the smiling Muscovite says, gesturing to what he says is an invisible aura surrounding him — “because all the information I need is out there, in the vast energy field surrounding us.”
So far, 130 healers, including Fadkin, have passed the service’s voluntary testing program, which promoters in the government say can determine whether someone has the inherent ability to cure.
The program is limited to Moscow, but a Russian lawmaker is pushing to extend it nationwide and make it mandatory.
Skeptics scoff at the notion that such testing is meaningful and criticize the government for lending credibility to people who claim paranormal powers.
“I think that this entire system is a result of ignorance and corruption,” says Eduard Kruglyakov, a laser physicist, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
“Science has certain rules that must be followed, and this system of certification hasn’t passed any serious scientific tests,” he said.
Kruglyakov deplores the whole notion of legitimizing folk healing through licensing.
“This kind of healing has nothing to do with science or medicine,” he said.
The program includes a background check, a scan of electrical activity in the brain and a committee review of the results. The agency charges applicants 10,000 rubles for the tests.
Andrei Karpeev, director of the Federal Scientific Clinical Center for Traditional Methods of Diagnostics and Healing, which administers the tests, insists that folk medicine, including psychic healing, is backed by scientific studies. While he acknowledges some of the criteria for determining who has healing powers are subjective, he claims the tests are able to wean out “charlatans.”
Karpeev said there are perhaps 100,000 people in Russia offering to use magic, psychic or other extra-sensory methods to cure illnesses, read minds or cast spells.
Faith in magic and the occult lingered for centuries in Russia, long after the Renaissance, with its emphasis on rationalism and empiricism, weakened similar beliefs in Western Europe.
Russia is among a small number of nations where traditional healers are licensed at any level. In Indonesia, local governments certify those claiming to use magical charms or psychic powers for healing. The Indian government licenses healers who use yoga and homeopathy, although not people who claim extra-sensory powers.
Albina Domolazova, 70, paid 3,600 rubles to an unlicensed clairvoyant to cure her son of drug addiction. When the woman recommended Domolazova toss chunks of beef to black dogs and then light a candle in seven churches, she obeyed. But after completing the ritual, which included burying the last chunk of meat in a graveyard, Domolazova’s son was still addicted.
The healer refused to refund the fee — which was half of Domolazova’s monthly pension. While Domolazova is now more wary, her faith that some people have healing powers has not been shaken.
Every year, thousands of Russians claim to have been defrauded by people calling themselves clairvoyants, occultists, and self-styled witches, who advertise their services in Russian media.
In July a Moscow court handed an 11-year prison sentence to Grigory Grabovoi, a cult leader who allegedly promised to resurrect children killed in the Beslan school siege in 2004. He reportedly charged grieving relatives some 40,000 rubles.
Legislators in the Duma have proposed a law banning traditional healers from advertising.
But Lyudmila Stebenkova, a deputy in the Moscow city legislature, said the answer is to weed out the false healers from the true ones. She wants to expand Moscow’s testing and licensing system to the rest of the country and make it mandatory, creating a licensing system similar to the one for physicians.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS