A young Russian woman summons us through a hallway into a smaller room. We sit in a circle in plastic chairs. The Russian walks in, closes the door behind him with a thud and steps to the front of the room. Dapper, bespectacled and compactly built, Shubentsov looks more like Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan than a New Age healer. His accent is so thick he sounds like he is speaking into a bowl of oatmeal.
Eyes lock around the room in confusion.
All 25 heads bob. The Russian claims to cure with a method called bio-energy. He says it's a way of marshaling the body's own healing forces. Shubentsov grew up in the Soviet Union, then worked as an artist until his healing gifts were discovered. He rose through the upper echelons of Soviet medicine, eventually becoming the Evil Empire's most respected energy healer.