Story

Growing up, Igor had two great interests: magic and martial arts, above all the Chinese ones. The stories that surrounded those arts, tales of qi energy, of spiritual discipline, of old masters said to have gained extraordinary abilities through secret practices, held out the possibility that real magic existed. Exploring that possibility became the thread running through his life.

A handful of videos available at the time seemed to show those abilities, and to him they were confirmation. The dream took shape: to travel to the Far East, find the masters who could do these things, witness it firsthand and, one day, learn. At the first opportunity, he left home.

As a Russian kid growing up in Italy, he never fully identified with either culture. Instead, he identified with his quest. Passion became obsession. Travelling, exploring and connecting with people had always come easily to him.

What followed were years of travel, research and experimentation within the energetic and spiritual traditions: Chinese arts such as qigong and neigong, Indonesian Tenaga Dalam, yoga, shamanism and more. The search took him through China and India, across Southeast Asia, to Siberia and beyond, to remote places and people.

Along the way, he saw and experienced firsthand things that are hard to believe. In time, though, he came to understand that these were only the surface, and that beneath them lay something much deeper. What he shares today is his own understanding of it: his ideas and his personal insight.

The search brought him into the company of extraordinary people, both within that world and far outside it. Among them were some of the greatest explorers of our time, experts in unusual fields, and people with remarkable lives and stories. He spent long stretches with the older ones, listening. After a while there was too much to remember and keep track of, so he began to film them. Those recordings have become an archive of stories.

Some of the places he travelled to, and the people he met there, became the heart of the group journeys he now leads. What he came to understand became his teaching.