Selling happiness: how one Abkhaz woman promises to make all your dreams come true

Eleonora Giloyan

Sukhum

Digital Psychology in Abkhazia – a simple recipe for happiness

In a wedding hall in one of the districts of Sukhum hundreds of chairs (800 to be exact) are lined up in front of a small stage. People, mostly women are quickly filling up space. From the outside, it may seem that a concert is about to begin here. However, the upcoming event is free for everyone and the poster outside explains exactly what is about to begin here: “Xiutsai Digital Psychology. The science of the realization of the soul and the discipline of the mind”.

A master class on this ‘science is taught by Milana Tarba, a young, beautiful woman from Abkhazia, who has lived most of her life outside of the republic.

digital psychology in Abkhazia — Milana Tarba

Last year Milana got married and this year she became a mother. All this, as well as much more in formation about the master of shutsai Milana Tarba can be found on her Instagram account with numerous live broadcasts and posts.

On her Instagram, Milana talks about ‘digital psychology’, announces her marathons, and explains where and how you can become a master of shutsai. She also talks about which day to make a wish in order for it to come true, how to formulate your wishes, what kind of pen, notebook, cream you need to use, so that ‘the right energy can start flowing, and what kind of picture should hang in the bedroom in order to attract a man into one’s life.

Oe might get the impression that I am closely following Milana’s teachings on Instagram and I will not deny it. In this life, more than anything else, I like to analyze events, their causes, reasons, and predict the consequences. As a child I remember listening to adults talking about Kashpirovsky in the kitchen, trying to decide whether or not to believe him.

I remember very well how my mother and grandmother discussed Wang, Junu [famous healers and fortune-tellers]. My family did not believe it, they had no time for it. They had to survive in a foreign Moscow after wars and blockades, bring me up, treat my grandmother for cancer – and all this in a rented apartment. It seemed to them that it was impossible to do all that with energy-charged water. And I don’t believe that a canvas in the bedroom can introduce a girl to her future husband.

How to be happy

But back to the wedding hall. I’m ready to argue that today there is no politician in Abkhazia who, on an ordinary Friday, without “ordered buses” from the villages, the participation of close friends and numerous relatives, but only with the help of an announcement in social networks, will gather a full hall of people.

What does this mean? I dare to suggest that people in Abkhazia, mostly women, already vaguely believe in round-the-clock light, water, high wages, and pensions. But despite this, they really want to be happy and are looking for ways, keys, secrets to this happiness.

“Until I was 32, I considered myself, on the whole, a happy person – I have a complete family, everyone is healthy, I have many friends, I received higher education, I traveled. It would seem that everything is fine, there is nothing to complain about. But something in my soul did not find rest. I thought to myself, what kind of animal am I? Why can’t I feel this satisfaction? The answer was simple: there was no harmony in my soul”, Milana says at the beginning of her master class.

In general, the structure is built competently – a lot of personal experience, feelings, experiences. All this is diluted with partial teachings from Buddhism, Hinduism. If I was asked to make a list of hashtags of the master class, then here is how it would look like: #ego, #karma, #soul, #energy, #consciousness. The words, by the way, are excellent. As well as the message – to live according to the soul, and not according to the mind. Listen to your heart. Strive for harmony. Personally, I agree with every statement. But there is a nuance.

As an obviously competent and professional salesperson, Milana periodically reminds you that now, of course, I will tell you all the characteristics of your personal numbers, but the topic is extensive, in the marathon we have a whole block dedicated to this. And there are several other blocks – and all at the marathon.

“Xiucai is good because it does not just pass a verdict, but gives the keys and explains what to do. Everything is healed in shutsay”, Milana repeats and refers to her marathon again.

The audience has an excellent interactive experience – she asks questions, people raise their hands, laugh at jokes, clap. There is a complete sense of proper contact with the audience. Separately, the audience bursts into applause when Milana from the stage talks about the Gelendvagen, which her husband gave her and which she dreamed of so much. Naturally, it’s all thanks to her.

What is Xiucai

The number of consciousness, the matrix, the number of the mission – all these numbers are hidden in our date of birth. For each of them, the shutsai masters can give decryption, and also advice – what to do, how to communicate with other numbers, and what to do if, for example, there is no ‘monetary number’ in one’s date of birth. My friends and I were fond of such things at school.

But now they make money out of it and I don’t see a tragedy in this. After all, if you don’t want to spend money on shutsai, don’t. Or do, it’s your money. Can you sell shutsai? Sell it. By the way, after extensive googling and even literature searches, I could not find any fundamentals of ‘digital psychology’, as all materials are dated 2020.

But I’m more interested in the motivation of those participating in this immersive performance. Sukhum is a small city where a theory of two, not six handshakes works. The hall consists of a 95% female audience with many familiar faces of different ages. At first glance, the main audience is 25-35 years olds. At the same time, there are, of course, very young girls and women of Balzac’s age, too.

“I’m just wondering how it works. I have been following Milana on Instagram for only a year, I see all the changes in her life – marriage, a child, a new car. I watch live broadcasts, there are many coincidences. Since there is an opportunity to listen, why not? After all, everyone has dreams”, says one of the girls, a 22-year-old student.

“In fact, I just want to believe in a miracle. I understand with my head that it all sounds strange, but suddenly there is a chance to understand life, myself and finally become happy”, says this is another participant. She is 32 and she admits that she is looking for a bright future in her personal life.

“It seems to me that the numbers really know a lot about us. It’s not just that we are born at a certain time, days, months. Probably, there is some code. It is difficult, of course, to assert that shutsai is the ultimate truth, but why not come and listen?”, Says a mother with many children who came here from another city in the republic.

“I know it works. I make wishes on the right days, I have passed a marathon, started walking a lot, and see how my life is changing”, adds another participant of the master class.

What does this mean? Only that history is repeating itself.

The baton of Kashpirovsky and Chumak [famous ‘healers and psychotherapists’ who appeared on television in the early 90s] were taken over by coaches, numerologists, and digital psychologists.

We took over the baton of skeptics, someone nearby – more optimistic people. No one is better or worse. Everyone just wants to live well or a little better than they do right now. In order to get this, some choose to join an Instagram marathon, while others simply write an article about it.

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