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Hannes Vanaküla, also known as Tokroda, is an Estonian charlatan, self-declared mage, and a cult leader.

Activities

In 2004, Vanaküla claimed to have transported "energy pillars", supposedly mystical structures helpful of magical work, from throughout the world to Estonia, supposedly their original and rightful positions. These claims, as well as the controversy over reality and transportability of those energy pillars, were reported in various media. Reportedly, the procedure involved Vanaküla and 21 followers entering trance for "several days" and "identifying with energy pillars throughout the world". The original locations were reported as Egypt, Tibet, America and Lapland.

In 2008, Vanaküla and two of his followers participated in Selgeltnägijate tuleproov (Template:Lang-et), a TV show formulated as a contest between magicial practicioners. While his score was not noteworthy, he caught attention by various complicated explanations for reasons of his failure, such as blaming Russian sorcerers for conspiring against him. His followers were noted for applying unusual items, such as mace and bucket, for ritual purposes.

Shortly after the TV show series began, Vanaküla and his two followers from the show agreed to take on the skeptik.ee 10 000 challenge in a test of their telepathical powers. The agreed-on protocol involved a "transmitter" being shown various household items randomly drawn from a duffel bag whose content had not been revealed to participants before the experiment, and asking the "recipients" -- the rôle of Vanaküla and his followers -- to guess the items. The results were to be considered positive if any of the three participants would have guessed correctly at least three items out of six "transmissions".

The experiment's results were considered negative, as all three participants guessed correctly zero items out of six "transmissions".

Media exposure

On 28 January 2009, Pealtnägija ran a segment reporting on activities of Vanaküla and his followers, sometimes referred to as tokronauts, spurring media interest in Vanaküla and his followers. Reportedly, most of the followers consider themselves gods and Vanaküla a god of light, explaining in the interview to Pealtnägija that he believes every creative human being is a god. According to cited and interviewed sources, Vanaküla's followers are encouraged to think of outsiders as "people of lower quality" and to withdraw from them; on the other hand, Vanaküla himself is considered a "person of the highest quality", which gives him the power to "repair" women through sex.

Reportedly, the tokronauts have repeatedly attempted to kill various people through "spiritual means". A particular target of such an assassination attempt — admitted by Vanaküla in the interview by Pealtnägija but dismissed as a simple experiment by a single follower — was Condoleezza Rice. When a journalist of delfi.ee asked Harrys Puusepp, the spokesman of Estonia's Northern Police District whether such an admission can lead to criminal investigation into attempted murder or conspiracy to commit murder, Puusepp responded by asking if the journalist was sober, then stated that such an investigation would be contrary to sanity.

The resulting media exposure led to Vanaküla's firing from his long-term position as a leather painter.

Bibliography

In 2007, Vanaküla self-published a book Maagia alustalad. Kakskümmend ülekandeliini (Template:Lang-et) (ISBN 9789949152223). His zany publicity stunts, such as begging in nude for people to buy the book, caused some media interest.

References

1. SL Õhtuleht 4 August 2004: Nõiad läksid energiasammaste pärast tülli by Kadri Paas
2. skeptik.ee 22 September 2008 9:26: Selgeltnägijate tõeline ja päris tuleproov by Martin Vällik
3. skeptik.ee 26 September 2008 9:33: Selgeltnägijate tõeline tuleproov. Katseprotokoll ja pildid. by Martin Vällik
4. skeptik.ee 31 October 2008 9:50: Real Psychic Challenge (+Randi kommentaarid) by Martin Vällik
5. James Randi 27 October 2008: Estonian Psychic Test Results
6. delfi.ee 27 January 2009 15:50: Sekt ja seks “Pealtnägijas”
7. delfi.ee 30 January 2009 17:12: Politsei peab selgeltnägija mõttemõrva jaburaks
8. Õhtuleht 31 January 2009: Soolapuhuja Hannes Vanaküla löödi pärast tema sekti paljastamist töölt minema by Eve Heinla
9. University of Tartu ESTER: bibliographic entry
10. Postimees 17 December 2007 22:30: Nõid Vanaküla: me ei ole vaimselt vabad

Sources

• Pealtnägija 28 January 2009
• SL Õhtueht 28 January 2009 16:56: Maag Hannes Vanaküla koondab ajupestud sekti, edited by Kaspar Käänik

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• Estonian people
• New religious movements