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To the chagrin of Soviet scientists, the thought bacteria are everywhere. Following the evening news on TV, hypnotist Anatoli Kashpirovsky holds seances to heal broken limbs, scars and blindness. Kashpirovsky claims to have helped hundreds of people through surgery without anesthesia and to have mesmerized others into losing up to 60 lbs. The Ukrainian has thousands of fans, apparently even among the bureaucracy. Last week, under official auspices, Kashpirovsky held a briefing at the Foreign Ministry Press Center. "People sometimes see me and idolize me," he said, adding that he could treat AIDS. "Give me 500 or 600 patients in a hall. I am sure that several months later some will be cured."
Another superstar is Alan Chumak, psychic-in-residence of 120 Minutes, the Soviet equivalent of the Today show. Chumak can transmit his curative powers to heal the sick not only through live TV but even on videotape. Viewers can place glasses of water or jars of cold cream next to their sets to absorb his telepathic healing charges. Chumak has promised to solve the country's chronic food problems by energizing seeds, compelling them to produce larger crops. When Chumak was yanked off the air by skeptical superiors, a popular outcry brought him back. A Siberian fan in Bratsk wrote to a newspaper, "Here we can't buy medicine and we have no hope left for the Soviet health system. Don't criticize those who are trying to relieve our sufferings."
For many Soviets, however, the fascination with the magical and the extrasensory is a distasteful reminder of the final years of the Russian empire -- with its demagogic holy men and a royal family under the sway of Rasputin. "It's deplorable that the state-run media would contribute to this hysteria," said Dr. Yakov Rudakov, a leading psychotherapist with the Institute for Physical-Technical Problems. Even the obsession with UFOs may be a projection of Soviet anxieties, a pseudoscientific distraction from the increasing economic and political burdens of daily life. Enraged that TASS publishes such reports, one Muscovite said, "It's a reflection of a country falling apart."
A disillusioned party member views state sponsorship of psychic and UFO studies as a new sort of official opiate. Says he: "They've been feeding us rubbish about the dream of Communism for years, and we now see they were lying. At least this gives us something new to dream about." So the next time aliens approach and ask for directions, point them toward Moscow. The Soviets need them more than ever.