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Ivanova, Barbara (1917-)

Soviet psychic healer and parapsychologist. A former foreign-language college instructor, she was also an educator, lecturer, and author. She became known throughout the USSR for her healing skills and attended many prominent officials. Her techniques included conventional healing through holding her hands close to the patient, but she also experimented with absent healing, using telephone conversations as a contact with the subject. During the conversation Ivanova attempted to visualize the patient and the illness and form a mental healing process. During such conversations she believed she visualized former incarnations of the subject.

Ivanova became the first teacher of psychic healing in the USSR. She both conducted experiments in telepathy and allowed herself to be studied as a subject. She was an honorary member of many parapsychological societies and journals (including the editorial advisory board of Psi Research). She wrote on a broad range of subjects, and her articles on parapsychology, healing, human potential, and the interconnectedness in living nature have appeared in many languages, including English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and Yiddish.