October 16, 2026

A Hypnotist's Final Act


A Hypnotist's Final Act
Famed Russian TV hypnotist Anatoly Kashpirovsky, known for his mass healing shows, died at 87. Russian state media.

Famed 87-year-old Russian psychotherapist Anatoly Kashpirovsky died on October 3 of cardiac arrest. He was best known for his widely popular televised healing sessions in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Kashpirovsky’s funeral took place on October 8, and he was buried at the prestigious Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.

Kashpirovsky burst onto Soviet television screens in 1989, performing “Health Seances” using mass hypnosis. Such programs, including those of rival healer Allan Chumak, became popular, drawing millions of viewers as the USSR began to crumble. Kashpirovsky’s fame spread so widely that he toured the U.S. in front of Russian-speaking audiences.

Kashpirovsky was born in the Ukrainian SSR in 1939 and worked for 25 years at a psychiatric hospital, where he became interested in applying hypnosis and other possible treatments. The master hypnotist was known for sensational demonstrations which were broadcast live. TV viewers, medical patients, and even entire auditoriums would fall into trances at his suggestions. Among other things, he claimed that hypnotism could cure obesity and kidney stones, protect from heart disease, and replace anesthesia during surgeries.

Hypnotism was not Kashpirovsky’s only weapon in his psychotherapist’s arsenal. Attendees at his live events were occasionally required to buy special salts, cassettes, or CDs infused with Kashpirovsky’s healing essence.

However, Kashpirovsky’s methods drew backlash. In 1993, President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree banning mass healing at gatherings and on TV. Still, that same year, Kashpirovsky’s spell remained strong, and he was elected to the State Duma.  

​The Russian Orthodox Church also proved to be a powerful opponent of Kashpirovsky’s techniques, and some of his shows in the 2010s were canceled because of Church interference. Nevertheless, Kashpirovsky never stayed out of the spotlight for long; in 2020, he gave up hypnosis and began vlogging on YouTube, gaining nearly half a million subscribers.

​While the Russian Academy of Sciences may have called his methods absolute nonsense, Anatoly Kashpirovsky’s social influence certainly was not, and his strangely hopeful hypnotism will live on in cultural memory.

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