European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 07, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Dances for Sergei extrasensory healer from Kiev its Suun Horii Ujj by David Remnick Washington Post Early every morning across the soviet Union thousands of people rub the sleep from the Reyes and sit in front of the television wailing to be healed. About 7 15 am., Allan Chumak appears on 120 minutes the soviet equivalent of the today show. Sitting behind a desk the owlish Middle aged Man with a mane of White hair stares at the camera and flings his hands about As if he were pelting an irritable cat. Five minutes of silent thrashing and he is done. Chumak s followers and there Are hundreds of thousands of them according to the telegrams letters and bouquets of Flowers he gets every Day say they feel his Healing Energy even via videotape. They put bottles of water and open lubes of cold Cream in front of his televised image worshipping this Good Samaritan version of the czarist Mystic Rasputin. Later in the Day they drink Chumak charged water and rub the charged Cream on themselves for further Healing. What i provide has never been offered in this country Chumak says at his apartment in North Moscow. I am in touch with another world a kind of downstairs dozens of people Many of them invalids from Distant cities and villages wait in the Hope that the healer will descend in the elevator and get in touch with them. Sometimes Chumak goes on dreamily i imagine the whole plane is watching me on television. I m not a Panacea for everything but i can help them live better lives without recently the government newspaper Izvestia reported that practically every City now has its own popular extrasensory but Chumak s Only popular rival in the extra medical profession in the soviet Union is the ukrainian hypnotist Anatoly Kas Pirovsky. On television recently Kas Pirovsky showed How he had helped a woman lose More than 200 pounds through the Power of suggestion. Using a video Hookup Between his Home in Kiev and an operating theater in Moscow Kas Pirovsky also guided through open abdominal surgery a woman who could not use Normal anaesthesia. Just close your eyes and sing the Poplar tree Kas Pirovsky said. And so she did. Moscow talks of Little else. At the end of his program Kas Pirovsky told his viewers now All of you who watched me can go to the dentist and get a tooth pulled. There will be no pain at All. I assure until recently healers like Chumak and Kas Pirovsky would have been guided in gently by their local police to the nearest jail or psychiatric Hospital. Glasnost miserable medical care and a certain naive belief in extrasensory Powers have led to their remarkable Success in the soviet Union. Chumak especially has become a Star the subject of countless interviews and profiles in the soviet press. Although his neighbors Don t like it much Chumak holds an occasional seance outside his apartment building. These Are unannounced events and people from All Over the country manage to attend. Upstairs in his apartment Chumak is surrounded by family and admirers. The living room and Kitchen Are crammed with Slacks of telegrams and letters hundreds of thousands of them. One woman writes from Astrakhan in Central Asia that she has lost 240 pounds in three weeks on a diet of Chumak s Tele charged water. Others write that they have been cured of diabetes tutors backaches detached Retinas partial paralysis depression allergies kidney disease. Chumak pulls out one Telegram at random sincerely grateful Stop had chronic tachycardia and gastritis Stop doctors cure me Stop now thanks to you i live without Medicine Stop thanks Sergei of novo Cherkassky people even come to me from abroad Chumak says. From Romania Argentina West eleven years ago Chumak set out As a journalist for the soviet press Agency no Vosti to unmask a Faith healer. But while researching his article he discovered that his own Aura his own magnetic Field was a he began curing people. The people around him his Mother included thought he had gone but after a while he says they came to understand and believe me. I have a gift the Way someone like Pushkin or Dostoevski had a gift. I have to use Chumak quit journalism and now he works full time As a Saver of body and soul. He says he does not accept Money from people except when they Transfer it to my Bank account with no return address or slip it under the door. What can i do he also conducts paid seances at factories. That s More than enough to keep my family going he says. At first the state producers who run 120 minutes took Chumak off the air. But after the mail poured in protesting the decision he returned to his usual time Slot after rhythmic gymnastics and the morning headlines. Researchers at the soviet Academy of sciences have set up a collective called image to investigate the auras of healers. Physicist Yuri Gulyaev says his team is interested in the dynamic mapping of the physical Fields and emanations that people make and says such research has colossal strange but the Heater Chain smokes and he does t seem to pay much mind to his weight of yeah it s True. I smoke and i like to eat he says. But you know what Jesus Christ said it s the dirt in your soul not in your body that does you the most Chumak for his part will not be Content to heal the world. He also wants to change the weather if need be and help feed the soviet Union. He claims to have scattered Clouds in the lithuanian City of Kaunas and is thinking about helping the country out of its miserable food situation. Vast amounts of our farm produce just rots before it can get to the stores he says. Now we re doing an Experiment to see if i can radiate the Energy that will be a preservative and help store fruits and a nation of empty shelves is waiting to find out. I got a request in the mail the other Day that asked me to define Success. I did t even have to think about it. Success has got to be going on the tonight show in a pair of jeans that you be worn before and leaving it sounds simple but it in t just an act of Defiance flying in the face of conformity. It s a plateau that you be reached which says i Don t care what anyone thinks. I m going to be me there s a Middle class propriety in me that is inbred passed from generation to generation. You Don t show up at the breakfast table until you be combed your hair. You Don t Cross your legs at the head table when there is no Tablecloth to hide your Knees. You never Wear the same Blouse to work twice in one week. I be appeared on scores of television talk shows and i will never forget being on the Mike Douglas show Back in the 60s. I was watching Mike singing a duet with Connie Stevens and her feet were entwined around a Stool. I could t believe what i saw. The soles of tier shoes were worn i did t know anyone wore old shoes on to. From the underwear out everything on my body had been purchased the week before. In the ensuing years i have seen Rock stars slouched in chairs picking their nails like they re killing time. I have viewed authors in Stone washed jeans that cry for a Day of cleaning out the garage. I be watched guests waving and taking their leave on the Carson show because they have someplace else to go. What s jumping at 5 in the afternoon when the show is taped if i left at that hour people would think i was going to bed. There Are probably Only a handful of people who have attained this status. Cher has to be a Success. Who else walks around with her tattoos exposed cybill Shepherd is one. Who else has the courage to Wear Reebok with a formal dress to an awards gala there s no doubt Bob Hope has arrived. A show starts when he gets there and ends when he leaves. I be heard stars and starlets talk about Success. They describe it As having the Freedom of creative the More materialistic ones equate it with Limos a perpetual Page at the Polo lounge an agent who answers their phone Calls and a Center table ats Pago s. But who Are we kidding Here i saw a Guy in Church last sunday wearing cutoff jeans and sandals. He left Early. He s on his Way c i989 Erma Bombeck Page 16 the stars and stripes saturday october 7,1989
