These aren't the faith healers of old, who lay hands on writhing bodies in private homes and churches. Each year, national grants fund the study of qigong, tai chi, acupuncture, acupressure, meditation and reiki, a palm-healing technique now offered at more than 800 American hospitals. At the time, it was popular to call her the most prayed-for person in the world. The data was later found to be flawed, and in a surreal twist, Targ herself died of a brain tumor under the watch of an army of healers. The biggest so far, a 1999 experiment by psychiatrist Elisabeth Targ, seemed to show that a diffuse team of healers stalled the deaths of AIDS patients. No definitive study on energy healing exists. "But what I experienced can't be explained any other way." "Braco doesn't call himself a healer," Podell told the crowd. It's also a trump card against charges of fraud. The system maximizes the number of people he can "heal" in a day. Since 2008, he hasn't spoken with anyone except those in his inner circle - he refused to be interviewed for this story. "We were so lit up, you could have plugged us in," he crowed, chalking up the night of spot-hopping to "the gift of the gaze," rather than drugs or alcohol.įor most of the crowd, talking to Braco, let alone hanging with him, is the stuff of dreams. In the ballroom, he talked about whisking Braco and a few gazing A-listers, including Martyn, to the backstage of the Beacon Theater for an Allman Brothers concert the night before (the Allmans are Podell's clients from way back). Podell is the type of fan Braco tends to befriend: someone who isn’t a household name, but who knows a few personally. After all," he grinned, "I am an addict." This was day two for most, including Podell.
That day, a band of her clients joined her, among them Podell and Christine Baranski, the Emmy-winning actress from "The Good Wife." ("I felt like a dolphin swimming in beautiful water," Baranski later enthused.) They sat in reserved seats at the front of the packed ballroom. Martyn's website quotes Kate Winslet and Susan Sarandon, both clients, swearing by a facial Martyn delivers with an electric wand.
In the front row sat Tracie Martyn, a self-described "facialist to the stars," and something of a magician-healer herself. Semi-celebrities were in attendance, too. That time, the Croatian ambassador and his wife showed up. employees, converts since 2012, when Braco gazed at them in a church down the street from their Manhattan headquarters. The variety was staggering: Midwesterners in sweatshirts and sensible shoes, pale young Balkan men, Indian couples sporting shawls and turbans, a large contingent of middle-aged black ladies. The cross-section of Braco believers streaming into the New Yorker lobby that weekend could have been mistaken for a United Nations tour group. All he does, to the delight of his followers, is gaze at them. He's said to do it all - everything from shrinking tumors to casting love spells - without saying a word or touching anyone. His cult of personality has no personality. Braco, though, may be the smoothest salesman yet. "I would have saved a lot of money."Įver since the psychic Edgar Cayce birthed the American New Age movement in the early 20th century, there's been no lack of men and women selling miracles to the crystal-pendant set. "Eight bucks - not bad! I wish I'd known about this 30 years ago," he continued, cackling. A leather jacket hung from Podell's skinny frame, and sunglasses shielded his eyes from the light of the chandeliers. "Last night, I was as high as I've ever been," Podell told a crowd gathered in the Crystal Ballroom of the New Yorker Hotel. The supplier, a Croatian man known to followers as Braco (pronounced Brah-tzo, the Croatian word for "little brother"), pushes hope. On a recent brisk spring day in Manhattan, Podell, since reformed, led the charge to sample a drug of a different sort. His career flamed out in the '80s when he became so addicted to cocaine, he hocked all of his platinum record plaques to fund his habit. Johnny Podell, the agent behind Cream, Alice Cooper and other iconic rockers, knows all about getting high.
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