UPDATED::Why do so many Russians turn to psychics? - BBC News

UPDATED:: to add  The world of psychic Alexander Sheps

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Large numbers of Russians are consulting mystics and psychics - up to a fifth of the population has done so at least once, according to one polling organisation. And there are signs that this tendency is increasing amid economic crisis and conflict in Ukraine.

I have never visited a psychic. So as I stand in the huge metal lift of a multi-storey building in a Moscow suburb, I am filled with curiosity, scepticism and some trepidation. My appointment is with Alexander Sheps, a celebrity psychic.

I grew up in St Petersburg, the city once home to Russia's most famous psychic, Rasputin.

But Sheps looks nothing like the bearded beady-eyed priest. Young and tall, he is rather as I would have imagined Count Dracula in his youth, but more softly spoken. His black T-shirt sports a picture of a ghostly skull.

Sheps is a winner of the The Battle of the Psychics, a reality TV show that attracts more than four million viewers per episode in Russia, even now into its 16th series.

"My main focus is communicating with the dead. I practise the art of magic,

I practise ritual magic, spells. I can search for people who have disappeared," he tells me.
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Psychics and the occult are officially anathema to the Orthodox Church, but deacon Andrei Kuraev, who has spent the last 25 years discrediting psychics, say it's not that surprising that some believers put their faith in charlatans.

"You can be Orthodox and a murderer, you can be Orthodox and a burglar," he says. "No-one can force a person to be logical. That's why completely incompatible ingredients co-exist in people's heads, like ice-cream with mustard."
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She gave him bad news. Sergei's friend was dead.

"The psychic described in detail what wounds, how he died, at what time of day, what was around him," Sergei recounts. But at the same time she said she felt something was not quite right and advised him not to speak to the friend's family.

Two months later news came through that the friend was still alive, but Sergei remains impressed with the psychic's powers. It transpired that another mutual acquaintance had died while wearing Sergei's friend's coat - and this, to Sergei, made some kind of sense.

Why do so many Russians turn to psychics? - BBC News

See also:: Russia's New Mystics

Witches, magicians and healers have built a multi-million dollar industry in Russia. Olga Smirnova investigate why so many Russians believe in the occult while the Russian authorities are trying project the image of Russia as a modern country with the Orthodox Church as the dominant system of belief? 

Olga will step behind the scenes of the TV programme the Battle of the Psychics which has attracted multi-million audiences, and speak to participants who are asked to investigate murders and disappearances, which the Russian police are unable to solve.

She will travel from Moscow to her native St Petersburg, where she grew up surrounded by images of Russia's most famous mystic, Rasputin, to find out how educated, middle-class Russians are turning to the black arts for spiritual guidance and how it highlights Russians’ popular reaction to the economic and social crisis in Russia, providing a new angle on it. What does this says about the efficacy of Putin’s use of the Orthodox Church to unify Russians.

Famed Russian mystic Dzhuna dies at 65 | News | DW.DE | 08.06.2015

I find this interesting in light of this article I posted last month, Black magic on Red Square:

Welcome, then, to the strange and unsettling world that lies behind the façade of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. A country where faith healers and psychics enjoy as much, if not more, respect and trust as doctors and psychoanalysts. A country where a high-profile, Kremlin-linked ideologue is as well-versed in the writings of early 20th century British occultists as he is in modern political theory. A country where belief in magic is still very much alive.

Although she called herself the “Assyrian Princess” and was said to have predicted "the Chernobyl disaster and the end of the Soviet era,"  her popularity did not rise until "the breakup of the Soviet Union."Able to "help" others, in the end she could not help herself.

The self-proclaimed psychic healer, whose real name was Yevgenia Davitashvili, died in Moscow on Monday morning, after slipping into a coma caused by circulation problems.

According to several Russian news outlets, Dzhuna had treated top Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who died in 1992, as well as the famous directors Andrei Tarkovsky and Federico Fellini. Hollywood star Robert de Niro is also reported to be among her clients, according to Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

She also gave consultations to Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, her ex-husband Igor Matviyenko told the AFP news agency. Matviyenko called Davitashvili "the secret healer of the Kremlin," likening her to a "female version of Rasputin in the 1980s."

"Almost all the Politburo came to our wedding in central Moscow," Matviyenko said.

Russian lawmaker Oleg Finko called the astrologist "extraordinary," saying that he, too, used her services,,,

Famed Russian mystic Dzhuna dies at 65 | News | DW.DE | 08.06.2015

India: Man beheaded in ritual sacrifice for a better harvest

The Indian police are investigating the death of a 55-year-old man beheaded in what is thought to be a ritual sacrifice intended to conjure up a better harvest.

The headless corpse of Thepa Kharia was found in his house in a remote village in the state of Jharkhand, eastern India.

Kharia's brother told police that a group of occultists, known as Orkas, decapitated the man after breaking in his house in order to carry out a sacrifice calling for more rain and better crop yields.

The Hindustan Times quoted Khana's brother as saying: "Orkas can be anyone, from farmers to tantriks. They bury the head in the field and expect that the sacrifice will yield good harvest for the community."

Ajay Kumar Thakur, the officer investigating the murder, told news agency AFP: "The family says the occultists killed him for the ritual. His head is still missing."

India: Man beheaded in ritual sacrifice for a better harvest

Black magic on Red Square | New Humanist

A fascinating read,,,

The sorceress’s name was Valeriya Karat, and her slick, professional-looking website claimed she possessed hereditary magical powers. Among the rites she offered to carry out were spells to bring back wayward husbands, remove curses and attract money for her customers. “I can also heal illnesses,” she told me. “But I can’t use my magic to benefit myself.” I’d interviewed many of Russia’s self-proclaimed sorcerers, wizards and psychics as part of my ongoing research into the country’s enthusiasm for the occult and the paranormal, but this was the first time I’d met someone who appeared to practise voodoo. “There is no such thing as black magic,” Karat told me, perhaps sensing my discomfort. “Magic is colourless.” A scrabbling sound came from behind me. In a murky corner of the room, a black rabbit sat in a small cage. “This is part of a magical rite to get a husband to return to his wife,” Karat said, matter-of-factly. “The husband was born in the Chinese year of the rabbit. When he returns, I’ll free the rabbit.”

Karat is far from Russia’s only internet-savvy sorceress. From St Petersburg to Vladivostok, there are thousands of online advertisements for “magical services.” Not all of Russia’s occultists are to be found online, however. In 2010, a psychologist with the Russian Academy of Sciences cited World Health Organisation data that indicated there were more occult/faith healers (800,000) in Russia than professional doctors (640,000). And Russians are putting their money where their faith is. In 2013, the country’s leading cardiologist complained that his fellow citizens spend almost £20 billion every year on magical and paranormal services. This, the astonished surgeon pointed out, is almost twice the amount Russians spend on foreign medical care. Another statistic is perhaps even more revealing: Russia’s Academy of Sciences estimates that 67 per cent of all Russian women have at some time sought help from a “psychic or sorcerer”. The figure for Russian men is one in four.

Welcome, then, to the strange and unsettling world that lies behind the façade of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. A country where faith healers and psychics enjoy as much, if not more, respect and trust as doctors and psychoanalysts. A country where a high-profile, Kremlin-linked ideologue is as well-versed in the writings of early 20th century British occultists as he is in modern political theory. A country where belief in magic is still very much alive.

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Russia’s obsession with the occult has deeper historical roots, too. In his seminal study of Russian folk culture, Ivan the Fool, Soviet-era dissident Andrei Sinyavsky detailed a pervasive Tsarist-era belief in superstition, magic and pagan gods, as well as the widespread popularity of sorcerers and faith healers. “In Old Russia, almost everyone resorted to elementary magic help,” wrote Sinyavsky. “Magic was used on a daily basis.”

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But it wasn’t only the Kremlin’s enemies who attempted to use occult powers in the early years of Soviet rule. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Bolsheviks skilfully adapted the rural occult practices and symbols familiar to newly urbanised peasants. Propaganda posters and slogans referred to “unclean forces” and “purging” ceremonies. Lenin was even more direct, denouncing his adversaries as “vampires”. As author Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal has noted in her pioneering book The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture, the Bolsheviks may not have believed in the world of magic – indeed, they frequently denounced it – but they “incorporated occult and quasi-occult ideas” into the mythologies they constructed around Lenin and Stalin. Superhuman powers of wisdom were attributed to both men, often taking on – particularly in Stalin’s case – a near-mystical quality. Although there is no concrete evidence that Stalin himself believed in the occult, there have been rumours for years that the Soviet dictator employed the services of one Natalya Lvova, “a third-generation witch”. Shake-ups in the Communist Party, which usually meant a trip to the Gulag for the unfortunate official, were whispered to be the result of Stalin and Lvova’s black magic Kremlin sessions.

Black magic on Red Square | New Humanist

Rise in satanic crimes among black youth - Crime & Courts | IOL News | IOL.co.za

Satanic panic not just a US phenomenon and it is not "old news" as many believe. It is recent and always has the potential to repeat itself,,,

Occult-related crimes are on the increase across Gauteng, and now police are warning parents to be on the lookout for the telltale signs that their children are dabbling in the dark arts.

The provincial Harmful Religious Practices (Occult Crimes) Unit of the SAPS said it had 78 occult-related enquiries in the past three months, 48 of which were connected to a crime.

Investigator Lieutenant-Colonel Hennie de Jager said his unit had seen an increase of occult-related crimes in Gauteng, particularly among black youth.

“Occult-related crimes are increasing, especially in black areas where boys and girls are promised fame and riches.”

He said his unit had recently received calls from parents who had told investigators their children were drinking blood.

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The national head of the Harmful Religious Practices Unit, Colonel Attie Lambrecht, said he believed that the increase in occult-related crimes had to do with urbanisation, and greater access to smartphones and computers. He said Hollywood had its influence, too.

Lambrecht said people were turning to witchcraft in the hope of finding quick wealth.

Rise in satanic crimes among black youth - Crime & Courts | IOL News | IOL.co.za

The Occult Roots of Scientology: Exploring the Influence of Aleister Crowley on L.Ron Hubbard | The Vigilant Citizen

A new study published in the academic journal Nova Religio explores the link between the O.T.O and Hubbard’s Dianetics, the doctrine of Scientology. According to the study’s author professor Hugh Urban, L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics was highly influenced by Crowley’s occult teachings – many of its concepts were simply recycled and renamed for the purpose of Scientology. Scientology and Crowley’s Thelema are however far from equivalent but, as the study reveals, Hubbard was a firm believe of Crowley’s occult theories and used them to grant his wishes and to propel his own cult.

The Occult Roots of Scientology: Exploring the Influence of Aleister Crowley on L.Ron Hubbard | The Vigilant Citizen