Observations placeholder
Messing, Wolf - The meeting with Gandhi
Identifier
023332
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Wolf Messing – the true story of Russia’s greatest psychic – Tatiana Lungin
Mr. Kobak [his manager] and I also travelled to the other continents - to Australia, South America, and several Asian countries.
I cannot help recalling an important meeting in 1927. We were in India at the time, and I managed to become acquainted with India's spiritual leader, Mahatma Gandhi. I had heard much about him as a statesman, and I was also familiar, through hearsay, with his philosophical views, though I never explored their subtleties. But, as an individual, he left an indelible impression on me.
Gandhi, who was interested in my experiments, agreed to be my inductor. The task he gave me was very simple, but coincidentally produced an unexpectedly brilliant effect. I had to take a flute from a table and hand it to a stranger in the hall.
The stranger turned out to be a professional fakir who always carried about a basket with a trained cobra. When I gave him the instrument, one he invariably used in his performances, he could not restrain himself from playing a lovely Eastern melody. The cobra slowly and gracefully rose up through the basket's narrow opening.
Admiration conquered my fear. The cobra performed a dance, no less graceful, precise, and beautiful than any a human being could do.
In India I became acquainted with the life of the legendary tribe of yogis. I admit that I envied their capacity for entering a state of deep catalepsy for long periods of time, sometimes several weeks. My personal record was only three days.