>>> pynchonoid <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 4/18/2005 10:09:04 AM >>> http://www.antiwar.com/spectator2/spec622.html �*I made this revolution�* 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�*s ears, �*Drive out the filth! You are a strong man, charged with energy! Help yourself out of this!�* 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 �*miracle worker�* 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. �*I screwed Akayev, and I made this revolution,�* 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, �*Nazaraliev made a crucial contribution in the last few weeks.�* 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 �" the government building �" on 24 March were addicts from Nazaraliev�*s 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�*s 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 �*bakshi�* 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 �" 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�*m 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. �*Just my touch is worth one month in a clinic,�* he says. I ask him if his centre is a personality cult. �*Yes, it is!�* he beams. �*All people gather here to my name. The main factor in the cure is the personality of the teacher.�* He pauses and reflects. �*I 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.�* 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. �*The key to creating a myth is inaccessibility,�* 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 �" a sports car, even a flat in Moscow. Others make donations to Nazaraliev�*s 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�*s 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, �*The main idea was to destroy the personality of Akayev. The Kyrgyz have an irrational fear of those in power. But he is effeminate, he�*s a plaything of his family. He�*s never had an opinion of his own.�* Through his attacks, he says, he aroused the Kyrgyz people from their servile passivity. �*I 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.�* [...] http://pynchonoid.org "everything connects" __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Plan great trips with Yahoo! Travel: Now over 17,000 guides! http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide
