Nikolai Levashov

Yet another case, which drew a wide response, was that of 13-year-old Isabelle Prichard, who in 2007 also had glioblastoma multiforme. After several healing sessions (some of them conducted by phone) Levashov stated he had stopped the cancer, and persuaded Prichard's parents to reject an operation, against the advice of doctors. The Oregon Department of Human Services said that the parents had the right to refuse treatment for religious reasons and blamed by Steven Novella. There was a temporary remission which led Barbara Koopman to write articles praising the "miraculous healing", and CBS broadcast an episode in Unsolved Mysteries The decision of parents was criticized in The Skeptic's Dictionary and in a book of T. Riniolo.

In May 2007 Levashov founded a public organization "Renaissance. The Golden Age" (Russian: Возрождение. Золотой век) which is considered a destructive cult by the Russian Orthodox Church. The organization has headquarters in Moscow, 18 branches in Russia, and four branches abroad, in Kyiv, Chişinău, Minsk, and Kharkiv. It is not registered with the Ministry of Justice.

In 2006, Levashov returned to Russia, where he increased his public activity: he published many books and was invited on TV and radio, including REN TV, Channel One, TV-3, Russia 1 and others. One of his most common claims was that the 2010 Northern Hemisphere summer heat waves were the result of a US "Climate Change Weapon", and he said he saved Russia from that weapon. Levashov was a supporter of the HAARP conspiracy theory. He supported the authenticity of the Book of Veles, the extraterrestrial colonization of Earth, a pseudohistorical theory close to the New Chronology (although Levashov does not mention Anatoly Fomenko), and the existence of the "vanished continent" of Atlantis. Some of his statements are similar to ideas from the Slavic-Arian Vedas (a hoax book of Slavic Neopaganism). He opposed vaccination and genetically modified foods. Levashov was an atheist, and aggressively objected to Christianity, although his views were far from materialism.

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.

In 1991 Nicolai Levashov and his third wife Svetlana (née Serëgina or Žymantienė) visited the United States and settled in California for 15 years.

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.

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.

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.

Nicolai or Nikolai Levashov (Russian: Никола́й Ви́кторович Левашо́в; February 8, 1961 – June 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.

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.