Nicolai or Nikolai Levashov (; February 8, 1961June 11, 2012) was a Russian occultist and psychic healer who wrote several books on life in the universe, Slavic history, the origin of mankind on Earth and other topics. From 1991 to 2005 he was known in the United States for several causes célèbres involving his patients. One of his books is classified as antisemitic and extreme and banned in Russia. He was a leader of a public organisation "Renaissance. The Golden Age" which is considered a destructive cult by the Russian Orthodox Church.
Biography
Nicolai Levashov was born in 1961 in Kislovodsk. After his graduation from the department of theoretical radiophysics, University of Kharkiv, he spent a couple of years in the Soviet Army.
Toward the end of 1980s Levashov started his public activities. According to his autobiography "The mirror of my soul", by the summer of 1988 he had begun practicing healing. Having married for a second time, to a psychic, Mzia, he assisted in her stage performances of mentalism and hypnosis. With Allan Chumak and other healers, Levashov was trying to establish a state-run Foundation of Alternative Medicine asking the Soviet Ministry of Navy for support.
At the same time Levashov propagated his ideas in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Scott Shane, an American journalist with The Baltimore Sun in Russia, writes that Levashov claimed he could speak with dolphins, clean polluted city air by his mental power, heal by phone, see internal organs through the skin etc. Shane met Levashov at a briefing in the Ministry concerning the Angolan Civil War, although "Nikolai Levashov modestly explained that he knew nothing about international relations". Scott Shane believes that the proliferation of pseudoscientists such as Chumak and Levashov was a negative underside of the relaxation of censorship in the Soviet Union.
In July 1990 Soviet Central Television broadcast a film about the Levashov couple. It was based on assertions by Mzia and Nicolai and on a trial involving four journalists. The trial was carried out in the Institute of Human Brain, a scientific organization, but controversial for its interest in extrasensory perception. Among the four people tested, M. Dekhta was a friend of Levashov, and Ruben Isahakyan was another healer who later founded an alternative medicine company, Altimed.
The story of the Levashovs was published in the magazine Television and Radio as well.
By the time of the broadcast, Nicolai and Mzia were already divorced. In 1990—1991 Levashov performed on tour in Russian cities, practicing faith healing.
In the United States
In 1991 Nicolai Levashov and his third wife Svetlana (née Serëgina or Žymantienė) visited the United States and settled in California for 15 years.
Nicolai started his healing practice in the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which consisted of two employees in three rooms. He made acquaintance with an Armenian family of Soviet descent, the Orbelians. George Orbelian and his wife Marcia Paulsen-Orbelian supported Levashov, spoke about him on the local TV and translated his books from Russian into English. Levashov was also broadcast on Russian Voice Radio (San Francisco).
Levashov is mentioned in books and articles by astrologer Jeanne Avery, "distance healer" Robert Ginsburg, Reichian therapist Richard Blasband and his alternative medicine clinic Center For Functional Research, and "healer" Todd Telford. Barbara Koopman (M.D., Ph.D. in geriatrics), who studies mental healing phenomenon, says that Levashov considers understanding the anisotropy of the universe necessary for creation or dissolution of matter for healing purposes.
Scientific skeptics have written about Levashov and his healing practice. Michael Shermer published an article in Skeptic saying that B. Koopman trusted Levashov because he allegedly cured her friend, actress Susan Strasberg, who had cancer. Nonetheless, in January 1999 Strasberg died of cancer.