Avak Hakobian

When conventional medicine fails, reservations about alternative healing methods tend to disappear. This led to a young Armenian-Persian faith healer being invited to the United States in 1947. His mission was to heal a paralyzed California millionaire's son.Thus begins the fascinating story of Avak Hakobian.Thousands of people flocked to him in Palm Springs before Tom Kardashian took over his sponsorship, and he held mass healing events in Los Angeles with religious showmaster Clem Davies, accompanying him on a tour of the United States. Brought to Miami Beach by a hotel operator and millionaire, he got involved with the latter's mistress and dragged his sponsor into the longest and most expensive divorce case in Florida's history, along with a corrupt judicial system. To avoid deportation, he immigrated to Havana, where he witnessed the Cuban Revolution firsthand. He returned to the United States by marrying a 16-year-old American girl. There, he accepted an inheritance from one of his temple brides and settled with his community in the venerable Crumwold Hall estate in New York. He was considered the second coming of Jesus Christ, who would guide his followers through the impending end times.Then, as now, charismatic healers, end-time prophets, and alleged reincarnations of Christ or those "anointed" by God benefit from the assumption that they have access to divine powers and transcendent knowledge. Too many people entrust their physical and mental well-being to such supposed leaders due to their ignorance of experiences from past generations. Avak Hakobian: From Fame to Failure is the previously untold story of one such extraordinary person who, for a time, made headline news.