Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

Alexandra at Forty
Tbilisi 1918
Alexandra arranged for a small private practice at the hospital, where she continued her
experiments with healing seemingly incurable cases. David was as unbelieving and later
fascinated by her successes as Dahl had been. But Georgian as he was, he shrugged, if her
methods worked, why should he argue? There existed enough traditional cures in medicine for
which nobody had any explanation.
After four years of "forced labor" Alexandra finally could get back to the work she had
wanted to do after her visit with Dahl. She began to test her hypothesis that psychological
factors were the reason for her successes. She carefully selected the cases she treated from
among the hospital patients on the basis of interviews she devised with Dahl in mind, and her
success rate did increase to three out of four. As she had suspected, in all her successful
healings the trauma of a separation from a close mate, parent, or friend played an important
role.
Dato and his staff would only refer patients to her with her agreement. This process also
shielded her from becoming known as a miracle doctor, nobody had direct access to her.
Awed, the doctors at the hospital soon looked up to her, which stood her in good stead
in her position as deputy-director. To Dato’s satisfaction, she discovered her innate gift for
organizing and motivating people. Her relationship with Dato became close and cordial. They
respected each other, and he eventually entrusted her with all personnel decisions.
With her healing successes the other long-standing temptation to try to teach her
method to someone else resurfaced. She needed to find the right person for such an
experiment. Dato suggested a disguise: Alexandra should let it be known that she would
instruct a group in yoga. The response to her notice on the bulletin board was overwhelming. A
score of applicants jostled to gain entrance to the small room Dato had given her for the
purpose. All but two were women.
She decided to improvise. First, she told the crowd, she was not going to discuss or
teach Indian philosophy, secondly she was not interested in yoga as a physical exercise to
improve their figures. She wanted to study the psychological effects of yoga meditation and to
this end she needed volunteers. This announcement reduced the crowd to four.
She looked at her four candidates, an intelligent looking man, she guessed he was
twenty, probably from Central Asia, a blond, bony girl whose gray eyes looked straight through
her. Russian? Finally an older woman who, Alexandra shuddered, appeared to have strong
medial faculties—and to her surprise, Christine Ortaladze.
Barely perceptibly Alexandra shook her head at Christine. When Alexandra explained
that she would give them a psychological test first, the ‘medium’ left. Well, thought Alexandra,
she doesn’t need me and settled down to ask each of her candidates a few personal questions.
All three worked at the hospital. The Central-Asian man’s name was Sagdulla Bakhrami.
He came from an old Uzbek family and his interest in Alexandra’s course derived from his
childhood: one of his uncles had been a poet and healer. The blond girl turned out to be thirdgeneration
German, Bertha Wagenbauer, born in Elisabethtal. She claimed to have had some
spontaneous healing experiences under the tutelage of her grandmother, who was a
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