Israel's richest woman gets messages "from above"

TEL AVIV, June 21 (Reuters) - Shari Arison, Israel's richest woman and the controlling shareholder of the country's second-largest bank, said in a televised interview she receives messages "from above" and sees things before they happen.

"For many years I've received messages, you could call them transmissions or messages. I see many things before they happen," Arison said in an interview with Israel's Channel Two broadcast late on Saturday.

"Apparently I got this gift to see ahead of time, not in order to run and buy and sell to make more money but to lead the world elsewhere."

The Israeli-American Arison, along with her brother, inherited billions from her late father Ted Arison, who founded Carnival Corp (CCL.N), the world's biggest cruise ship operator.

She is the controlling shareholder in Bank Hapoalim (POLI.TA) and also controls Housing and Construction HUCN.TA, Israel's biggest construction company. "There are many people who get messages in this world. With me it works either through a picture, a word or in my sleep, all kinds of ways," she said.

"I receive them directly from above," she added, gesturing with her hands.

Arison, who is also known in Israel for her philanthropy, said that two years ago she got a message that there would be an economic crisis and people would go crazy.

But she said she believes the world is moving towards redemption.

"How long it will take isn't clear. Before the big light the great darkness comes, and I think we are in the period of darkness," she said.

Arison this week is releasing her first book in Israel, entitled "Birth - When the Spiritual and the Material Come Together", which details her journey both spiritually and in business.

She begins the book with her premise that the world is "collapsing" because of broad-based greed. (Reporting by Tova Cohen and Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Rupert Winchester)