• Novak Djokovic has never hidden his interest in esotericism and alternative medicine
  • Since the pandemic, this interest has accelerated. It is displayed to pseudo-scientists such as the "archaeologist" Semir Osmanagic or the guru Chervin Jafarieh
  • Bad acquaintances and ideas that have recently spread to the political realm with, as a high point, his message addressed to the Serbs of Kosovo

At Roland-Garros,

It is still unknown if 2023 will be the year of the record in Grand Slam for Novak Djokovic, but we already know that it is that of the rapprochement with Master Gims. The alternative narrative of the rapper, several weeks ago, on the EDF pyramids in Egypt makes a sensational entry in the top 50 of phony theories, category sharp monuments. The Serbian tennis player has appeared there since 2020, and his first pilgrimage to the small town of Visoko, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the reliefs draw green pyramids. "One of the most powerful places on the planet in terms of energy," according to Nole, a great apostle of esotericism.

The place became famous in 2005, when a Bosnian businessman and pseudo-archaeologist, Semir Osmanagic, decreed that the triangular hills were the work of an ancient (15,000-year-old) and superior civilization. Egyptians from Europe who would have been missed like idiots, what. "Yet we know perfectly well the archaeology of these regions, namely that at the time it was hunter-gatherers as in France, before agriculture arrived around -6,000 BC in these regions, sweeps Jean-Paul Demoule, archaeologist for real. There is no place for a civilization that would have left pyramids 15,000 years ago. »



The anti-Covid pyramids

Osmanagic and his barely forced draw of Indiana Jones Marque Repère does not care about the old story, and obtains the right to search the area. Very quickly, sorcerer's apprentices flocked from all over the Balkans, to the great despair of the scientific community: it feared the destruction of already existing medieval historical sites. According to Demoule, co-signatory of a petition against this madness in 2006, "they did come across some mining galleries from the Middle Ages while excavating, but nothing more".

Since pseudoscience needs less evidence than conviction to exist, Osmanagic did not let go of the case. The pyramids have become a national park listed on Trip Advisor (count five euros for the entrance) with comments not always satisfied, like: "if you think you visit a pyramid, think again. [It's] a simple tunnel dug into the mountain. In the midst of the pandemic, Osmanagic lent the place anti-Covid powers: the pyramids would be loaded with negative ions, which would be a real poison for the virus according to god only knows who.

It was enough for Novak Djokovic to arrive, a month after testing positive at the Adria Tour. Since then, the Serbian player goes there alone or with his family to recharge his batteries. He even inaugurated the tennis courts the pyramid of the sun in 2022 and more broadly revived tourism in the region and at the same time the business of his friend charlatan, which he met again just this spring, at the turn of a conference held by the man in the hat.

The Osmanagic case is just one example among many of Novak Djokovic's problem since he fell into the esoteric pot under the impetus of guru Pepe Imaz. The latest curiosity to date, the small patch "Iron Man" stuck to the torso of the Serb since the beginning of the fortnight, supposed to improve Nole's posture under the effect of nanotechnology and light waves.

This patch "contains nanocrystals that convert body heat into light," according to the brand's website. This light would be "sent to specific acupuncture points, which helps your body remember how to communicate naturally with your receptors thus regulating both your posture and movements." Benefits announced by the manufacturer, which also touts its product to people suffering from multiple sclerosis.

The magic patch, his latest find

A product at first sight multicard, but which would rather be classified on the side of mirages. "It seems to be an illusion or a placebo product," Samuel Pinches, an Australian who had been interested in the product, concluded in 2020. He looked at the studies on the site and found them to be too weak or questionable. A new study added since linked on the site does not focus on the product and focuses on effects on yeast colonies, results that are therefore not automatically valid in humans.

This is not the first time Novak Djokovic has put his trust in a device that is placebo at best, especially about how he came to exclude gluten from his diet. An "alternative doctor" had carried out tests on him... by making him hold bread on his chest to assess the strength of his arm.

Igor Cetojevic, the doctor who made the diagnosis on Djokovic at the time, still offers consultations in Cyprus. On his site, he sells anti-5G devices and offers to "swing the chakras" using a computer. In January 2022, he came to the defense of his famous and former client, who was then in delicate with the Australian authorities because he was not vaccinated against Covid-19. Novak Djokovic "is not an anti-vax, as they say in the press," Cetojevic told the Cyprus Mail. "He has the big picture, he's very clear. It is very pure. That's why it's dangerous," he added, "for those little government rats!"

Esoteric (involuntary) proselytism

But this is far from the most questionable idea conveyed by Djoko, without even dwelling any longer on his opposition to the Covid vaccine. During a live performance in full confinement, the player evoked his adherence to the thesis of another guru, Chervin Jafarieh, according to which toxic foods can be transformed into perfectly healthy foods by simple prayer.

"I have seen people and I know people who through energetic transformation, through the power of prayer, through the power of gratitude, manage to transform the most toxic foods and the most polluted water into the most purifying water."

There is evidence that having influential people promoting science can boost adherence to official medical advice and general trust in science, says Iris Zezelj, a social psychology researcher at the University of Belgrade, and author of several works on conspiracy theories during the pandemic. Conversely, and given its broad notoriety, Novak has the potential to spread unsubstantiated claims as well as conspiracy claims. Fortunately, I would say that this part of Novak's public activity is not its main activity and is not perceived as such, even in the Balkans. »

Novak Djokovic never understood the attacks on his beliefs. In an interview with L'Equipe, shortly after the Jafarieh controversy, he defended that these only committed him and were not imposed on anyone. "I'm not asserting anything... But closed-minded people will judge. That someone disagrees with me, no problem. But why attack? Because I am spreading false information? But I'm just asking questions. His beliefs would indeed be harmless if they belonged to him. But in a country where one stops working to watch him play and religiously drinks his every word, every spiritual word becomes proselyte.

"Heavenly people" and "heart of Serbia"

Especially since the frontier of esotericism has been crossed recently. In 2021, during a visit to Bosnia, the Bosnian media Faktor.ba reported on Djokovic's presence alongside extremist figures such as Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and Milan Jolović, "a former commander of one of the most notorious units of the Republika Srpska rebel army, the Wolves of the Drina."

Alexis Troude, specialist of the Balkans contacted by 20 Minutes, wants to believe in the "naivety" of the player. A year earlier, during the first lockdown, Novak Djoković had expressed his attraction to the alternative history told by the revisionist Jovan Ilic Deretic during an Instagram live on the account of his girlfriend. Deretic exacerbated nationalism in his works by reviving an idea spread by the Serbian Orthodox Church about the "heavenly origins" of the people.

An idea shared by another unsavory friend of Djokovic, one more, pulmonologist and allergist Branimir Nestorovic, who praised the resistance of the "Serbian gene" to Covid during the pandemic. Note that, during the famous Insta live, Nole once again tried to get out of it with relativistic rhetoric. "Each of us should have an open mind and do our own research," said the Djoker. If we follow only one side of the information, it can hardly reflect reality. Any resemblance to the speech of your troublesome conspiracy buddy is coincidental.

Alexis Troude wonders about the unprecedented political positions of the Serb, recently materialized by support for the Serbs of Kosovo, and the controversial use of the expression "heart of Serbia" to qualify the independent State.

"Until covid he didn't take any political position. Being ostracized in Australia and supported by the Serbian diaspora must have made him grow wings and he has gone beyond his own area of expertise. Perhaps because it is indisputable in Serbia, and we dare not set any limits or contradict it. »

His last speech on Kosovo at a press conference is along these lines. Novak did not back down, and was barely silent. "I could repeat it, but I won't. A lot of people disagree, but that's what I think. And no one will have their freedom of thought. After Master Gims, Florent Pagny.

  • Sport
  • Roland-Garros 2023
  • Novak Djokovic
  • Tennis
  • Serbia