Russian Hypnotist Kashpirovsky

Back in the Soviet union we used to have this popular TV program by Anatoly Kashpirovsky where he was hypnotizing the whole country through TV. You could see people falling into trance, sleepwalking, raising their hands when Kashpirowski told them to...

Kashpirovsky had this heavy gaze and used to count slowly and tell people that "everything is good", "your headache is gone", "you feel light and happy"... Imagine all this was happening at the end of 80s, when the Soviet union was collapsing and some people didn't have much to eat. The best of escapist TV ever!






Basically, he started each session counting from 1 to 33 and then telling the audience how they are feeling. Something like "the head is light", "your mood is great", "you started to sleep well", "you stopped stuttering", etc.

Staring into the screen with quite an austere look in his eyes, he was using pretty harsh intonation, almost like a mix of a father and an army general. He would normally employ simple cause effect connections "as you're hearing my voice, you will start feeling..." or "as I'm finishing counting, you will have a desire to meet me again..." and so on...

Brainwashing at its best it is reminiscent of the Soviet TV propaganda with a benevolent flair to it.



Wikipedia mentions that Kashpirovsky is originally from Ukraine, worked as a psychotherapist for 25 years, and became famous in 1989 when he was shown to remove pain from two patients, who have just undergone a surgery. He then had his own TV show and gained notoriety before becoming a Duma (parlament) deputy in 1993 and moving to the USA in 1995. Kashpirowski is also a champion in weight-lifting and his grand-daughter (who lives in the USA now) used to be a champion in karate.