Southwest Airlines Spirit, December 1999
Sending mail to Yefim Shubentsov requires neither his street address nor even his name. Simply scrawl "The Mad Russian, Boston," on an envelope, and it will find its way unerringly to a nondescript brownstone on the main street of the suburban town of Brookline. In much the same way, people make their way to the same Beacon Street office, drawn by word-of-mouth alone to a 59-year-old Soviet ˆ©migrˆ© legendary for curing nicotine cravings, drug addictions, weight problems, and phobias.
Despite the conspicuous lack of a sign, it's easy to spot the brownstone where Shubentsov holds his thrice-weekly clinics. Just look for the anxious smokers lingering on the sidewalk, taking the last puffs on what they both hope and fear will be their final cigarettes. Since 1980, more than 100,000 people have climbed the stairs to chew gum and squirm impatiently in a waiting room decorated with ornately framed and exquisitely detailed seascapes painted by the very man they're waiting to see. The groups of 12 to 20 have contained people from every state and several foreign countries, including celebrities such as Friends actress Courtney Cox Arquette, who praised Shubentsov on The Tonight Show, and Billy Joel, who supplied a quote for the jacket of Shubentsov's book, Cure Your Cravings (Putnam, 1998), in gratitude for help in shaking a 27-year nicotine habit.
"Everyone knows about him," said a woman who had driven two hours from Rhode Island on a recent evening with high hopes of leaving smoke-free. A couple from New Jersey concurred, having flown in to quit together. "We heard about him on the radio," they said, and the three began to tally up the friends and family who have preceded them. The atmosphere in the waiting room is slightly nervous; nobody knows what to expect, and some people have clearly come as much out of curiosity as any desire to break a bad habit.
When the energetic, balding Shubentsov appears in the doorway, nattily dressed in a turtleneck and sports coat, he invites everyone to join him in his office -- first instructing them to throw their cigarettes in a trash can just outside the door -- and seat themselves in a U-shaped line of chairs around his desk. "Relax," he reassures them in a heavy Russian accent. "This is not magic. I don't bite."
He soon explains that there are two components to his treatment. The first is an appeal to common sense, combining advice on behavioral modification ("If you snack instead of smoking, you will be big like elephant. Do not even put finger in your mouth") and health advice ("All nicotine leaves body in 72 hours"), delivered over the course of a two-hour rapid-fire monologue enhanced with energetic arm-waving and punctuated with frequent apologies for his thick accent. For Shubentsov, who left a career as a commercial artist in the former Soviet Union to come to the United States and lost almost everything in the process, breaking a bad habit has as much to do with common sense and willpower as addiction.
"He basically made me feel like I was really stupid for smoking," said Joe Hobaica, 31, who traveled from New York for treatment in 1995.
The second part of Shubentsov's technique -- and what people come thousands of miles to experience -- involves his ability to manipulate clients "bioenergy" to wipe out their desire to smoke. At the start of each clinic, he circulates from chair to chair, asking people where they feel pain and waving a hand or flicking a finger over the trouble spot. To people's visible surprise, their sore necks and strained backs instantly hurt less, or even not at all.
Later, after concluding his lecture, he ushers the group back to the waiting room and invites each person back to his office individually for the moment everyone has been waiting for. He sits facing the individual and asks her to envision, in as much detail as possible, the habit she wants to be free of, be it a fear of flying, bulimia, or a craving for cocaine. Then, with a hand gesture and a "whoosh" sound, he "erases" the thought.
"He told me to picture the perfect moment of smoking, then he blew on my face, and the minute he did that, I literally couldn't remember what I looked like with a cigarette," Hobaica said.
Shubentsov discovered his odd ability at the age of 27 when, he says, he volunteered to participate in a Russian scientific experiment involving "biological fields." The scientist conducting the study had a migraine, and Shubentsov cured it without knowing quite what he was doing. While some may suspect it's no more than the power of suggestion, Shubentsov swears he's manipulating his clients' "bioenergy" to block their cravings. What's more, he says, anyone can do what he does. His book even offers exercises for those who wish to learn.
Does "bioenergy" really work? Of course, there are people for whom it hasn't. Shubentsov's techniques made no impression on famously curmudgeonly writer Fran Lebowitz, for whom smoking is not just a habit but a way of life. And Dr. Victor Herbert of the National Council Against Health Fraud has told ABC's 20/20 that he considers Shubentsov "lying or delusional" and "a con artist extraordinaire." But a number of respected scientists, such as Dr. Douglas Powell, former director of research and behavioral science at Harvard University Health Services, say that the Mad Russian's techniques work, though they aren't sure quite how. And it's clear Shubentsov isn't in it for the money; he charges just $65 and allows people to come back for reinforcement or further treatment as often as they want for no additional charge. Most, he claims, don't need to return.
"Who knows how it worked," said novelist Amy Tan, a Shubentsov devotee since he helped her kick the nicotine habit in 1995. "All I know is that I started smoking when I was 16, and I have not smoked a single cigarette since that day [when she visited Shubentsov]... . More importantly, I did not suffer from withdrawal and I do not have the desire to ever smoke again."
The Mad Russian sees clients Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and books up six to eight weeks in advance. Call (617) 232-3930.
Copyright 1999 by Fawn Fitter.
Not to be reproduced or distributed in any way without the written permission of the author.