Kyrghiz shaman in the news

[Bekah]

Sounds like a variation on aversion therapy  to me.   Yuk!

Bekah

At 7:09 AM -0700 4/18/05, pynchonoid wrote:
>http://www.antiwar.com/spectator2/spec622.html
>’ÄòI made this revolution’Äô
>Julian Evans
>
>In a white room in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, a tattooed man
>from Georgia is trembling violently. His eyes are
>rolled back to the whites, his spine is arched, his
>arms flail in front of him as if he is being
>electrocuted. Behind him stands another man, Asiatic,
>completely bald, with dark piercing eyes. He shouts,
>almost raps, into the convulsing Georgian’Äôs ears,
>’ÄòDrive out the filth! You are a strong man, charged
>with energy! Help yourself out of this!’Äô He repeats
>this over and over until the Georgian has a spasm and
>collapses in a trance. He is put on to a stretcher,
>carried out of the room and laid in a bed with high
>metal sides.
>
>The man with the dark piercing eyes is Jenishbek
>Nazaraliev, the ’Äòmiracle worker’Äô of Bishkek, who
>claims to have cured more than 15,000 drug addicts
>from all over the world in his medical centre, using
>his unique hypnotic method. He also claims to have
>caused the revolution which last month swept President
>Askar Akayev and his family from power in Kyrgyzstan.
>’ÄòI screwed Akayev, and I made this revolution,’Äô
>the doctor told me proudly in Bishkek, a few days
>after the fall of the government.
>
>Roza Otunbayeva, one of the key strategists of the
>Kyrgyz revolution and the new minister for foreign
>affairs, tells me, ’ÄòNazaraliev made a crucial
>contribution in the last few weeks.’Äô Ex-president
>Askar Akayev also says Nazaraliev played a key role in
>his toppling. In a recent interview with the Russian
>media, Akayev made the unusual claim that some 1,000
>of the protesters who occupied the White House ’Äî the
>government building ’Äî on 24 March were addicts from
>Nazaraliev’Äôs centre, sent out, he seemed to think,
>like some army of zombies to bring him down.
>
>Nazaraliev set up his four-storey medical centre in
>Bishkek in 1991; it is now famous throughout the
>drug-ridden former Soviet Union. It relies on a
>combination of traditional and innovative techniques
>to treat addiction. The patient is given a dose of
>atropine, a drug derived from deadly nightshade that
>speeds up the heart rate and can cause hallucinations.
>The patient is then put through various disorientating
>measures until he begins to tremble and convulse. At
>this point, when the patient is at his most
>suggestive, Nazaraliev himself strides into the room.
>He circles the patient, chanting rhythmically, urging
>the patient to abandon his old bad habits and discover
>his inner strength. The patient falls into a swoon,
>and when he wakes up a few hours later, he feels like
>a new person.
>
>Nazaraliev’Äôs critics, who include former President
>Akayev, say this is pseudo-shamanism masquerading as
>science. Nazaraliev himself is comfortable with the
>shamanic connection. He sees himself as the latest in
>the ancient Kyrgyz tradition of the ’Äòbakshi’Äô or
>shamanic healer. His office seems to play on his
>reputation as a magus. Strange symbols and slogans are
>scrawled over the walls. A large poster of a swami
>with staring eyes hangs next to the desk, which is
>littered with Buddhas, Hindu gods and psychedelic
>paintings.
>
>Nazaraliev stands in the middle of the room, beaming.
>He seems to like giving interviews ’Äî he is probably
>the biggest celebrity in Kyrgyzstan and sees himself
>as something of a national trendsetter. In addition to
>his medical centre, he owns two radio stations, a
>sushi restaurant and an overpriced steak house. He has
>also written a book on the global drugs trade called
>Fatal Poppies. He likes handing out copies of the
>book. I’Äôm given one as soon as I arrive; President
>Putin was presented with no fewer than 500 copies when
>Nazaraliev visited Russia a few years ago.
>
>Nazaraliev is not shy about publicising his powers.
>’ÄòJust my touch is worth one month in a clinic,’Äô he
>says. I ask him if his centre is a personality cult.
>’ÄòYes, it is!’Äô he beams. ’ÄòAll people gather here
>to my name. The main factor in the cure is the
>personality of the teacher.’Äô He pauses and reflects.
>’ÄòI am not like Hitler or Napoleon, who aggressively
>created their own cults. Nazaraliev just seems to be
>quite an interesting person for patients and their
>relatives.’Äô So interesting that patients are
>prepared to pay $4,500 for the 30-day treatment, which
>includes only a few critical minutes in the presence
>of the master himself. ’ÄòThe key to creating a myth
>is inaccessibility,’Äô he tells me.
>
>Many patients and their families are so pleased with
>the success of the treatment that they donate large
>gifts to the master ’Äî a sports car, even a flat in
>Moscow. Others make donations to Nazaraliev’Äôs latest
>project to build four temples on the slope of
>Tashtar-Ata mountain.
>
>The doctor abruptly entered the political arena in
>February, on the week of the country’Äôs parliamentary
>elections, in which President Akayev controversially
>put forward two of his children as parliamentary
>candidates, while disqualifying leading members of the
>opposition from running.
>
>[...]
>
>Nazaraliev describes his political technique as a
>shamanic battle of wills: to banish an evil sorcerer
>who has cast his spell over the community. He says,
>’ÄòThe main idea was to destroy the personality of
>Akayev. The Kyrgyz have an irrational fear of those in
>power. But he is effeminate, he’Äôs a plaything of his
>family. He’Äôs never had an opinion of his own.’Äô
>Through his attacks, he says, he aroused the Kyrgyz
>people from their servile passivity. ’ÄòI made this
>chemistry. The people of Bishkek would never have
>risen without Nazaraliev, because they are all
>comfortable egotists. I broke their complacency, I
>shocked them until they woke up.’Äô [...]
>
>
>http://pynchonoid.org
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>
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