Targets with points of science

Ellochka Shchukina and a savage from the tribe “Mumbo-Yumbo” have a similar vocabulary and love for shiny objects. Clients of healers and savages from the tribe “Mumbo-Yumbo” have one religion. Why do people in the twenty-first century still believe in healers? How can psychics help? Can they do it at all, and how do they do it?

Shaman, healer and Seraphim of Sarov Let us begin from afar: in the beginning was the word. And it belonged to none other than the most famous “pervert” of all times – Sigmund Freud. His book, Totem and Taboo, is one of those who changed the world. In it, the founding father of psychoanalysis proves the origin of all modern world religions from the institution of totemism, the deification of the animal, which flourishes among some savage tribes to this day. But we will not dwell on Freud’s conclusions today: we have already written about where the legs of religions “grow” (article “Why do we need God?”, April 2013). Let us briefly recall the scheme of evolution of any monotheistic religion, which Freud puts forward the main hypothesis of his book.

Our primitive ancestors lived in patriarchal communities under the leadership of a leader. He alone had the right to all the women of his tribe, and only from him could these women bear children. For claims to love any of the women (who could be each other's mothers and sisters), the father punished the rebellious (often his own sons) in two ways: castration or expulsion from the community. Unable to withstand the tyranny, one day the sons killed his father, and then ate – in order to “feed” his power: in the literal, similar to the childish, magical thinking of savages, power can be obtained only by directly absorbing it.

It is worth saying that all this looks wild only for you and me. In a primitive environment, sexual relations between family members and cannibalism are simple and understandable. Of course, this is not a single case of patricide. Such a rebellion likely occurred periodically, over centuries, or thousands of years. After the successful outcome of the struggle for "free love" in the dark hearts of the sons knocked conscience (after all, killed was their father). Since then, in order to silence her incessant voice, the savages invented the Ritual. The symbol of the murdered father was a deified totem animal. Killing and eating him was forbidden on pain of death all days of the year... except for one.

When the savages gathered together (an important point is precisely and only together), they killed the unfortunate totem animal and ate it in order to purify themselves from the contamination and taste its sanctity. Later, the symbol of the totem became the monotheistic “son of God”: Christ, Mohammed, etc. (we will keep silent about the reflections on the symbolism of the sacred sacrament of Easter with eating “the body of Christ” and drinking “his blood”, as well as about Great Lent before this, as well as about the holiday of Kurban Bayram, leaving it to the readers themselves).

But between the totem (and also the spirits of Nature and the murdered totem himself, who later became pagan gods) there must be guides. They became shamans: they healed, predicted, caused damage, bewitched and cleansed. Thousands of years later, some shamans seem to have become healers. Later, the saints. In Russia, they were called “God’s people” and “elders” who healed and performed miracles. Then they disappeared (in Russia, as you know, it happened, as they say, “within the framework of the five-year plan” – violently and accelerated, with the advent of Soviet power), giving way to completely skeptical representatives of health care – doctors.

Probably, therefore, after the collapse of the Union, in the disgraced 1990s, the “tsunami” of not holy elders burst into our country, but the caste of healers that preceded them. 75 years of eradicating Orthodoxy and other religions more developed than paganism have done their job. But the tsunami tends to subside. The hour and a half broadcasts on the central channels of Kashpirovsky and Chumak, which the whole country watched, were replaced by modest, albeit numerous ads in newspapers (and now on the Internet) about healers and healers of all stripes.

But if the nature of the origin and revival of healing in our country is clear, then who visits them, believing in their higher power? Or maybe they really do have it?



Poor savage people-- When a person is in a stressful, depressed state, there is often a regression to infantile states of the psyche, says Lyubov Zaeva, a specialist of the European Confederation of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. For example, an adult can activate protective magical thinking (remember the magical thinking of savages – NS), when anxiety is reduced by some ritual.

Children often come up with games that save them from fears, which are based on ritual actions. “If I jump from this tree to the house on one leg, my mother will never die,” “If I count 50 black cars, I’ll write a good test.” Sorcerers and sorcerers are magicians. The psyche needs rituals, rituals to some extent are able to structure mental processes, and a person finds a space where through ritual actions the psyche receives a resource.

Ideally, a person is a self-regulating system, and the psyche always strives for self-healing. By any means. Sometimes very intricate. For example, if the archetypal (given to us at the gene and neural levels) “file” of the Self-Healer is violated in the psyche, then the compensation mechanism is turned on. Man is looking for a figure to which such a saving function would be delegated. For some, this figure can be a loved one, a friend, a mother. For others (if there are some violations in the deep realm of trust in loved ones), such a compensatory figure should be the stranger – the Other, but able to create an emotional field of acceptance.

The healer will always make it clear that the client is a desirable figure, that he will be understood and accepted. The healer is the receiver of the Other, the stranger, but at the same time the new Near, admitted to the hidden, body and soul. In the perception of the client, the healer is powerful and fearless, which means that fantasy, through communication with him, you can introject, absorb part of his strength, as if he himself became stronger. In fact, patients often come to the healer as if for some kind of permission to be strong (getting “permission” occurs unconsciously, on a nonverbal level – NS). "Can I not get sick?" "You can."

They come to the healer for an exchange, which is impossible in the usual space, when you can leave your fears, your infirmity to someone, and the object (healer – NS) will not be destroyed (will not get sick, will not die, will not be upset, unlike, say, from a loved one – NS), since it has protective magical power.



G. Meat eaters. Healer. 1860

Neurotic and psychotic. Psychoanalysis and healing today are not competitors, so I do not support the “witch hunt” that some colleagues lead, says Dmitry Olshansky, a well-known St. Petersburg psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. Psychoanalysts, as a rule (although there are exceptions), come highly educated, cultured people, often with university education, capable of reflection. People who are unlikely to believe in divination by hand, lifting the crown of celibacy, socionic types, Ayurveda, transurfing reality, Hellinger arrangement and summoning spirits.

I do not think that such fun as Christmas divination, rituals of obsession (here again we are talking about the role of rituals for a certain category of people – NS) or astrological horoscopes can cause any serious harm to the psyche. They do not bring any benefit or harm, but are at the level of entertainment.

On the contrary, they are able to stabilize many neurotics and create digestible delusions for psychotics that help them interact with the world. For example, someone's psyche cannot accept the idea that all people are fundamentally different and each is unique; such thoughts can drive a person to madness. Then some newfangled pseudo-psychological doctrine comes to his aid and says that there are only 14 socionic types, and one can build relations with each one according to a ready-made program. That is, it is not necessary to perceive each person as an individual with his own inner world, he can be treated as one of the 14 types of mechanisms, each of which is accompanied by an instruction. For many psychotics, this makes life easier and protects them from falling into psychosis. Some such teachings come up with rather interesting “reality management programs” from which the psychotic can create his own individual delusions.

If we talk about the real danger, then it can be represented by various esoteric teachings and magical practices in which psychological techniques of influencing consciousness are used. Such practices not only impose a certain magical worldview on people, which is contrary to science, but often also a system of values, “what is good and what is bad”, as well as impose a certain discipline on the body and even impose restrictions on nutrition. All this can harm not only physical but also mental health.



A crystal ball is used to see the future, less often the past.

The magic plate-- In order to understand how healers, healers, magicians and other sorcerers can help a person, it is important to first learn elementary things: for what purpose all the above citizens are engaged in healing; whether they believe in their supernatural abilities; how mentally healthy they are; whether they want to enrich themselves through their activities and so on, says psychoanalyst, Director of the Institute for the Development of Psychoanalysis (Kyiv), President of the Ukrainian League of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Lyudmila Uskova. Depending on this, the process of interaction with the patient will be built. It is no secret that there are many charlatans among the aforementioned contingent. But it is possible that their units have some supernatural energy power, which we have not yet known. However, the advantage in percentage terms, still, rather, on the side of the charlatans. Do not discount the fact that they may have general concepts about anatomy, physiology and medicine, as a result of which it is easy to help with mild diseases.

A separate topic is suffering. Initially, turning to the healer, a person already gives him in his fantasies incredible strength and desire to feel it on himself. All this is supported by enthusiastic stories through third acquaintances who allegedly have examples of healing. In such an interaction, there may be several factors that “help” the patient: suggestion, the gift of persuasion, charisma, faith in healing, the willingness of patients to accept their health (a similar phenomenon was mentioned above – “permission” to be healthy – NS), unwillingness to know the true cause of the disease, and so on.

For the most part, people need a magic pill to save them from suffering, and they don’t want to know the reasons why this suffering occurs. And even more so, they are not ready to work on their problems for a long time to improve their lives. There is an illusion that there are “higher forces” that can solve all their problems at once. Most often this occurs in the absence of a mature position, that is, with infantilization.

Let's take an example. A young person has a violation of autonomic function, which doctors often call vegetative-vascular dystonia in the absence of an accurate diagnosis. It cannot be cured because the problem is not in the body, but in the psyche. Medications can relieve symptoms, but not normalize the condition. The inability to heal causes anxiety and fear in a young person. After a couple of years of visits to the doctors, he is exhausted and ready for any measures. And then he is authoritatively informed that for 550 kilometers, in some wilderness lives a true wizard, magician and sorcerer, who in one or two sessions cures everything! How can I not believe it? Our young man goes a long way to his happiness and... it can’t help but happen! His faith in the coming cure was so great that he accepted it! The other question is how long. The symptom in the form of VSD was extremely necessary for him, since there were some experiences, events, secondary benefits, in the end (“secondary benefit” in psychology is the unconsciously motivated desire to benefit from neurotic symptoms or illness; primary benefit is why the disease occurs, secondary – another unconscious “plus” from the disease – NS). Selecting the symptom, the "magician" exposed the problem areas. In this case, after some time, the symptom will return, or another will appear.

In such situations, healers may not cause much harm. But there are examples when a diagnosis of cancer people seek help from psychics and healers, instead of undergoing chemotherapy. As you know, the outcome here is much sadder.



Nicolo Renieri. A fortune teller. 1626

Violated people-- Recently, we conducted a study to identify the personal characteristics of people who seek help from psychics, says psychologist of psychoanalytic orientation, teacher of the Department of Psychology of the Academy of Civil Service under the President of the Russian Federation Daniel Rakhmatulin. I will tell you only about our conclusions. Our study showed that people who are prone to mystical thinking turn to healers, magicians and similar healers. It was also revealed that people who are prone to seeking help from psychics have such protective mechanisms as denial, regression, projection, substitution. In addition, they also have a broken image-I, they are characterized by wasting emotions, they tend to maximize both positive and negative emotions, which often leads to violations in the field of emotional responsiveness, undermining trust in interpersonal relationships. They are characterized by fantasy, which can be accompanied by sharp changes in attitude to the development of the situation, to the consequences of their actions.

The relationship between the frequency of appeals to psychics and the reproduction of negative experiences is revealed, which indicates the tendency to turn to the supernatural forces of people who retain impressions about the experience for a long time, mainly about negative experiences.

The connection between the frequency of appeals to psychics and such a feature of subjective control as the internality of failures is also found. This means that these people tend to attribute responsibility for unpleasant events to other people or, for example, to “evil fate”, damage or evil eye. As a result, in our study, we concluded that people who seek help from a psychic have traits of the so-called “borderline” personality. This means that these people may be impaired in terms of psychological health.



Albert Anker. A fortune teller. 1880

Rasputin: Life and Death: A thousand years ago, in the X century, Christianity was adopted in Russia, but paganism never left the country. A curious symbol: Christian churches in Russia often have pagan shrines at the base. As it is said in the chronicle: “Put the church of St. Basil on the hill where the idol Perun used to stand...” The pagan gods, from which the princes forced the people to abandon, continued to live invisibly. For example, the god Veles, according to ancient beliefs, “knowing” fertility, amusingly transformed into “the saint of God, St. Vlasius the Wonderworker.” Perun, who thundered with thunderstorms, replaced Ilya the prophet with thunderstorms. Pagan delight in nature, its deification remained in human souls. And the ease with which the people after the revolution agreed, on the orders of the Bolsheviks, to destroy their great temples, was very reminiscent of the ease with which pagan shrines were smashed and burned on the orders of the princes. For a thousand years whole regions lived, combining paganism and Orthodoxy. And the holy healers existed alongside the ancient sorcerers: healers healed, and sorcerers averted (or sent) damage.

So can psychics, healers and healers help? Maybe. Especially if you believe it. Believers are known to see what they want, and often to feel what they want, on a physiological level. Psychological science has long known the fact that the most terrible diseases are cured only by the "psychological" way, as well as by their diseases through the same channel - only through the psyche. It is known, for example, that autistic people often have almost nothing: no colds, no flu. Their psychological world does not let anyone into itself: not even bacteria and viruses. Incredible, but true.

No one has reversed the placebo effect. But most importantly, no one has canceled the deep psychological mechanisms of interaction that occur between the “believer” client and his healer. It’s always a bunch of two people where “something” happens. Someone will take it to a miracle, and someone – to the most ordinary psychotherapy. Although often completely useless, and sometimes harmful, since the vector of "treatment" is directed in the wrong direction.

What about psychic predictions that sometimes come true? Maybe that. Some people are known to have such a strong intuition that they are actually able to predict or see through people. But it's not a miracle either. Phenomenal intuition is probably nothing but a very strong closeness of a person to his unconscious, which is able to read and feel the current situation very accurately and, accordingly, be able to predict its outcome in the future: from political events to the actions of a particular person. All this in the mind of a psychic happens completely unconsciously, so he attributes this ability to a gift from above. But, alas, such closeness to one’s unconscious often seems to indicate a strong disturbance of a person who can often be a potential patient of a mental hospital. Though talented.