Editing Wolf Messing

{{Short description|Russian telepathist, hypnotist, occultist (1899–1974)}}
{{multiple issues| 
{{Disputed|date=October 2013}}
{{Fan POV|date=October 2013}}
{{Expand Russian|topic=bio|date=September 2021}}
}}

{{Infobox person
| name               = Wolf Messing<small><br />{{lang|ru|Во́льф Ме́ссинг}} {{in lang|ru}}<br />{{Lang|pl|Wolf Messing}} {{in lang|pl}}<br />{{Script/Hebrew|וולף מסינג}} {{in lang|he}}</small>
| image              = WolfMessing123.jpg
| alt                = 
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = Wolf Grigoryevich Messing
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|df=yes|1899|09|10}}
| birth_place        = [[Góra Kalwaria]], [[Warsaw Governorate]], [[Congress Poland]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1974|11|08|1899|09|10}}
| death_place        = [[Moscow]], [[Russian SFSR]], [[USSR]]
| nationality        = [[Congress Poland|Polish]] and [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]
| other_names        = 
| known_for          = Supernatural experiments
| occupation         = [[Clairvoyance|Clairvoyant]]{{citation needed|date=October 2013}}, [[Telepathy|Telepathist]]{{citation needed|date=October 2013}}, [[Hypnotist]]
}}

'''Wolf Grigoryevich (Gershkovich) Messing''' ({{langx|ru|Во́льф Григо́рьевич (Ге́ршикович) Ме́ссинг}}, {{langx|pl|Wolf Grigoriewicz Messing}}, {{langx|he|וולף מסינג}}{{ltr}}) (10 September 1899 – 8 November 1974) was a self-proclaimed [[psychic]], [[Telepathy|telepath]] and stage [[Hypnotism|hypnotist]].

==Early life==
Messing was born in the village of [[Góra Kalwaria]], 25&nbsp;km southeast of [[Warsaw]]. He claimed that his psychic abilities developed in his early life.<ref name="Harper">{{cite encyclopedia | title = Messing, Wolf Gregorievich [1899-1974] | encyclopedia = The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World | volume = 1 | pages = 448 | publisher = Harper Collins | year = 2006 }}</ref>

==Career==
By the time he was a teenager, he was performing for the public as a psychic entertainer.<ref name="Harper"/>

In the interview with P. Oreshkin, Messing said:{{blockquote|... It's not mind-reading, it's like the "reading of muscles"... When a human thinks hard about something, the brain cells transmit impulses to all muscles of the body. Their movements, invisible to the eye, I can easily feel... Often I'm performing mental tasks without direct contact with the inductor. The pointer to me here is the breathing frequency of inductor, the beating of his heart, voice timbre, his walking nature etc.<ref name="Oreshkin">''Oreshkin P.'' «Reading the muscles», not the thoughts. // [[Technics of Youth]]. — Moscow, 1961. — № 1. — p. 32.</ref>}}

==Death==
Messing died in a hospital, on 8 November 1974, two months after his 75th birthday. He had successfully undergone surgery on the Femoral and External Iliac arteries, but afterward, for some unknown reason, developed kidney failure and pulmonary edema. He was buried at the Vostryakovskoje Jewish cemetery in Moscow.

His life story is depicted in the Russian television miniseries ''[[Wolf Messing: Who Saw through Time]]'' (2009).

==Appearances in fiction==
Wolf Messing is a major character in [[Steve Englehart]]'s series of Max August novels, beginning with ''[[The Point Man]]'' in 1980, and continuing through ''[[The Long Man]]'' and ''[[The Plain Man]]''.

In the hit video strategy game, [[Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2]] as well as its expansion, [[Yuri's Revenge]], the main character of Yuri was heavily influenced in the likeness of Wolf Messing.

==Further reading==
* [[Topsy Küppers]]: ''Wolf Messing – Hellseher und Magier''. [[Langen/Müller]], München 2002. {{ISBN|3-7844-2880-0}} {{in lang|de}}
* [[Alexandra Nagel|Nagel, Alexandra]]: Een mysterieuze ontmoeting...: Sai Baba en mentalist Wolf Messing/A mysterious meeting...: Sai Baba and mentalist Wolf Messing, published in Tijdschrift voor Parapsychologie/Journal for parapsychology 368, vol. 72 nr 4, Dec. 2005, pp.&nbsp;14–17 {{in lang|nl}}
**English language article by the same author with more or less the same contents ''[https://archive.today/20130629100033/http://77.170.120.22/ex-baba/engels/articles/paperwolfmessing.html Wolf Messing, an enigmatic 'psychic entertainer' whom Sathya Sai Baba claims to have encountered]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}

{{Authority control}}

==See also==
*[[List of occultists]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Messing, Wolf}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Góra Kalwaria]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish Jews]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian people]]
[[Category:Telepaths]]
[[Category:Clairvoyants]]
[[Category:Polish male stage actors]]
[[Category:Refugees from Nazi Germany in the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:Polish psychics]]
[[Category:Polish emigrants to the Soviet Union]]