Who is this healer known as John of God?

“John of God,” whose birth name is Joao Teixeira de Faria, is a man who goes into a deep trance state and allows certain healing entities to use his body to heal others. There are over 30 entities that use John. Some include: Francesco Xavier (known to Catholics as Saint Francis Xavier.), Doctor Oswaldo, who was a Brazilian doctor at the turn of the twentieth century; he is known all over Brazil for having virtually eradicated yellow fever, King Solomon, Dom Inacio, better known as Saint Ignatius Loyola, Dom Ingrid, Dr. Jose Valdevino, Bezerra de Menezes, Andres Luiz and Dr. Augusto.

John began his life work at the age of fifteen. He had been trained as a tailor and went to find work in Campo Grande, Brazil. While there he decided to take a bath in the river. He went to an area under a bridge and as he entered the water, he met a young woman who spoke with him. She was lovely and he enjoyed seeing her. The next day he decided to go back to the same spot, hoping to see her again. No one was there so he began to bathe. As soon as he reached the middle of the river a bright white light shot from the water and in the light was the woman he had met the day before. She announced herself as Saint Rita. Then she proceeded to tell John that he must go to a place in town. People were waiting for him and he would begin the work he came to do. John left the river and went to the prescribed place. The man who opened the door welcomed him, saying they had been waiting for him. John passed out as he describes it, but he must have gone into a deep trance. When he came to, he was told he had healed over twenty people. From that day forward he would be the healer known as “John of God.”

That was forty years ago. During that time, the entities told him to open a healing center in the little town of Abadiania, because above this town is a healing center on the astral plane and the entities can work most efficiently there. John followed their instructions and that is where our journey took place, at what is now called, the “Casa de Dom Inacio.”

What is it like being at the Casa?

 As you enter the Casa grounds, the entrance is graveled for taxis and people who come in cars. Buses park on the street. Buildings are all painted the same. The bottom four feet are painted medium blue and the rest of the building is white. The concrete is painted burgundy. There are trees and flowering shrubs, bushes…plants of all kinds. It is a very soothing environment. A couple of cats wander about the grounds and sometimes you might even see a dog. The entrance on the street side, of the Casa grounds is fenced with chain link of about 12 feet in height. The grounds adjoin a fizenda—a Portuguese cattle ranch. On that side there is a six-foot chain link. The back side of the grounds is barbed wire fencing. The buildings consist of: a bookstore, a snack bar, the herb window, an open room filled with wheel chairs, crutches and other paralytic equipment that have been left behind, the main building with an open stage entry where the lines form, the Current room, the Entity room, the Recovery room as well as the infirmary. Then there are a few little offices; the kitchen where soup is served, and attached to it is a covered outdoor seating area with picnic tables for eating the soup. Finally there are separate buildings for restrooms and the room for crystal bed therapy that is attached to the groundskeeper’s residence.

  Once inside the grounds, you notice the people. Most of them wear white clothing, the favored choice of John of God. I met people from Ireland, Wales, England, Australia, France, Portugal, Canada, The United States, Italy, Germany, Argentina, South Africa and Brazil. The U.S. citizens I met came from Vermont, New York, Florida, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and California. We were the only contingency from Nevada.  People come from all over the world and for more reasons than you can imagine. There were many in wheel chairs, some due to car accidents, MS, aids, scoliosis, polio and degenerated disks. Some of the people I spoke with were asking to be healed of hernias, cancers, tumors, cataracts, heart conditions, clogged arteries, skin rashes and bad teeth. Even more unique were the ones who came to increase their psychic abilities, deepen their trance abilities, and increase their own healing abilities. The locals came to ask guidance of the entities who use John of God. They ask very personal questions such as; “should I buy this piece of property, marry this person or have a baby?” The people who have either been personally healed by the entities at the Casa or who have witnessed the healing of a family member, believe that God works through this man. They believe they are asking a spiritual being with 360-degree vision for guidance. The people I interviewed said continually that the guidance they receive is accurate and they live their lives by it.

How do you go before the entity?

As a first time visitor, you get a first time ticket and then you stand in line. There is no charge for the ticket; it is free. John stated, when interviewed, there can be no charge for healings from the spiritual entities. This is an act of love and the human being who is the host for the beings will be cared for. They must trust in this. John also said that it takes at least 600 years to train a human being to become a healing host for the entities.

While waiting in line for an hour or so, there are prayers, songs and lectures led by volunteers at the Casa. Unfortunately for foreigners, they are nearly all in Portuguese. Once the line starts moving, you will enter the first room known as the Current room. Here there are as many as two hundred people meditating in silent prayer. The energy is high and clear. While people are in line walking through this room, their auras are being cleansed and negativity is washed away. Slowly the line moves through a hallway into what is known as the Entity’s room. Here there are another 150 people meditating and John of God is sitting in a chair in the far left corner from the door through which you will pass. To his right is a very big quartz crystal lit from beneath. Flowers line the walls to his right and on his left is a table with water. He has a pad of paper under his right hand. He is holding a pen. His left hand is free. Each person goes up to him. Some kneel before him. Some bow before him. Some kiss his hand. Some just stand and talk. Those who are foreigners stand before him with a translator. When a person has met with John, they are directed to go into the next room or stay in his room and meditate. The next room is called the Recovery or Healing room. There may be 50 people meditating in this room. Then you exit the building. The entire experience can take as long as two hours.

How often are sessions at the Casa?

John of God holds morning and afternoon sessions at the Casa on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Morning sessions start at 8 a.m., which means you can go to the Current room and begin meditating at 8 a.m. But expect Brazilian time to prevail. Most people show up at 9 a.m. The session ends around 11 a.m., with a wonderful healing soup served free to anyone who wants it. Afternoon sessions begin at 2 p.m. and end around 4 p.m.

Did you see any miraculous healings?

John of God carefully instructs everyone that he does not perform miracles, but that each individual will heal according to his own state of consciousness. With that note aside, I will relate the most interesting experiences of the many that I saw and the many people I interviewed at the Casa.

Just two days before leaving, I had been saying to the spiritual beings, “Why have I not seen any of the surgeries that I heard about?” They of course replied that I hated the sight of blood, so they had spared me. However, they decided I needed to witness some surgeries in order to write my articles and be a witness to John and the Casa. So back I went with my camera.

Waiting, camera in hand, I was invited into the Entity room to photograph surgeries. As I entered, the entity Francesco Xavier was making a four-inch incision with a scalpel on the left side of a man’s waist. I was within five feet of the entity. I watched him place his fingers inside this man and take a tumor out. Then, he threw it into a stainless steel bowl just three feet to my left. There was no question as to what I saw.

I realized the man to my right was a medical doctor from Kansas that I had interviewed earlier. I had the advantage of asking him questions as the surgeries and healings continued.

Two people came to the entity for a hernia. The first was a woman. Ron, a gynecologist from Kansas, was asked by the entity to examine the woman. He verified that the woman had a hernia. The entity then put his hands on the woman and after a few minutes, he asked Ron to re-examine the woman. Ron swore to me that, as of now, there was no indication of a hernia.

A short while later, the entity did the same with a man named Enrico from Australia who I interviewed extensively before and after the surgery. Ron once again verified the hernia had disappeared. What’s more, when I interviewed Enrico later, he said the pain was gone and he could walk comfortably again.

Later that afternoon, I interviewed a 64-year-old real estate man named Belduino from Rio Grande del Sol in southern Brazil. He told me he had been coming to the Casa for four years. He has had seven invisible surgeries (which we Americans call psychic surgeries) and two visible ones. In the past, the entity had removed several tumors.

On this day he was healed of a cardiac infarction, a blockage of blood in some area of the heart. His doctors had told him he needed open-heart surgery, but he preferred to come to the entity.

The entity took a very dramatic approach with this man. First he took a scalpel and said this is what they would do to you in a hospital. He cut Belduino vertically in the center of his chest and two more times horizontally. Then he said, “These are just for demonstration, the scars will heal in eight days. Now I will remove the infarction with energy. I will pull it up and the blood will shoot out the left side of your neck. I will make no incision there at all.” According to Belduino, his daughter and even the translator I had with me, the entity did exactly that. They all saw it happen and Belduino was certainly energetic when he spoke with me about it just a few hours later. I also asked Belduino if he had scars from his past operations and he said no. He said the entity always tells the patient how long it will be for the scars to disappear and the information is always accurate.

What was truly remarkable about these healings is that each person felt no significant pain. Each had their surgery standing or sitting up. And each just walked out afterwards and went to the recovery room where they were asked to rest and thank God with prayers. I spoke with numerous people and all indicated that when the entity told them something would happen in so many days, it did.

Probably one of the most amazing stories is that of a woman who went to the Casa a year ago at the age of 71 to ask the entities for a new coccyx. Her tailbone had been destroyed in a car accident when she was eleven years old. The loss of it had caused all kinds of problems in her life and now she wanted to correct it. No medical doctor could offer any help in this area. Within one year, Nicole has grown a coccyx…and she has x-rays to prove it!

Another incredible story, much too long to tell in its entirety, is that of Beth. The incredible Brazilian woman who owns the pousada at which we spent more than two weeks. Beth came to Abadiania freshly out of a coma. She had brain cancer and the doctors did not give her more than a one percent chance of surviving the surgery they said she would need if she was to live.

Beth told me that while she was in the coma, she could hear everyone but could not speak or move, so no one knew she could hear. While people were coming into her hospital room to give their last goodbyes, someone mentioned the Casa to her husband. At that moment she decided she was going to the Casa. There can be no doubt that she connected with the spiritual beings at that moment, because shortly afterwards she was made well enough to tell her husband that she wanted to go to the Casa.

She had no idea where she was going, how far it was, or how hard it would be. But she was driven by a strong desire and an indomitable will to go. She wanted to get well. She had three children that she wanted to see grow up. Her husband could not leave home to take her to the Casa so he put her on a bus. The bus ride took two days and the people who were sick helped each other through the ordeal.

When Beth got to Abadiania in 1990, she said it was like a war zone. There was one pousada and it had no running water, no bathroom facilities, and holes in the walls. The women slept on one side of the building and the men on the other with only a curtain separating them. Beth said that the place was so awful and the people so ill.

At any rate her story is too long for this article, but she did get well. After much stubbornness and going back and forth to her home in the South, she finally realized that the entity was right and she needed to stay in Abadiania, to help at the Casa.

With only three reals (Brazilian dollars equal to about $1.50) in her pocket, the entity told her to buy the pousada she now owns. As with all high spiritual beings they know what others will do and we need to learn to trust their guidance without question. Beth did this and approached the woman who owned the pousada in question. The woman  went to the entity and asked if she should rent it to Beth for the three reals and the entity told her yes. The woman did so and just a year later, Beth and her husband Luis, with the aid of John of God, purchased the pousada.

If you meet Beth, you will be amazed at her vitality, her beauty, her intelligence and the remarkable recovery of a woman who just ten years ago was considered, by her doctors to be dead.

Why are there so many healing entities in Brazil?

Brazil is a culture filled with spiritualism and miracles. The country, by international standard, is considered Catholic, but the people have integrated a variety of spiritual practices from voodoo to Santa Damai. Because so many Brazilians follow more than one religious practice, it is said at least once a year the Pope considers excommunicating Brazil.

Due to this religious mix, Brazil has more spiritual healers than anywhere else on Earth. According to one entity, Dr. Fritz, (entities are spiritual beings who use a physical host. Usually the physical host goes into a deep trance when the entity takes them over and the host remembers nothing of what is done while the entity is in control.) Brazil is the country of choice because people so strongly believe in miracles there are very few barriers to overcome. Additionally, it is a poor country, so Brazilians are glad to let God heal them; while Americans usually disbelieve and want proof before giving God a chance.

what was the journey like?

This is probably the most difficult question to answer. I admit openly to being a spoiled American, accustomed to Sheridans and Ramadas, and Abadiania was like going to camp. The trip there took 36 hours because we missed a connection in Sao Paolo. The accommodations, though I am certain we had it as good as it gets in Abadiania, certainly did not resemble home. There were no screens and most of the pousadas did not even have sealed rooms. The rafters just lay on top of the wall completely open to the outdoors. (Don’t ask about how I discovered this or you will get me into the a dissertation on my Brazilian bug wars.) We did move into sealed rooms within three days of our being there.

The rain is harder than any I am used to. I took a walk equipped with my umbrella. It was not raining when I left but when I returned I was soaked through and my shoes didn’t dry for two weeks! Prices on Nikes and other such running or jogging shoes are outrageous in Brazil. They are so expensive that Brazilians buy them in six or more monthly payments.

Then there’s the food in Abadiania. It is simple, good, and very plain. They use margarine, not butter. They use salt and garlic and rarely will you find any other herb or spice used. Three weeks of that fare can be very boring to an American. Forget McDonald’s or any other fast food or ethnic food. Abadiania is a little town with no luxuries. When you want an outing, you rent a cab and go to another town for the day.

The best place we visited was Pirenopolis, a historic town—part of what Brazil calls their SPHAN project. There was a variety of food and lots of neat arts and crafts. I bought two lovely silver and gemstone rings for about 12 American dollars. Avanti’s big spend in Brazil!

Finally if you decide to go to Abadiania, here’s what I recommend. Take six yards of netting for mosquitoes and other pests. Also take repellant, at least two pairs of walking shoes plus sandals for the Casa; and your own computer, cd player or other entertainment equipment with international plugs. Take your favorite seasonings. Umbrellas are cheap—buy one there. Bring playing cards, crosswords or other entertainment. Plan to visit some historical towns and go to Fizenda Babalonia for breakfast if you are heading to Pirenopolis. They had the best breakfast in Brazil, bar none! Take your camera and plan on many relaxing nights. Scented candles, massage oil and your own masseuse would also be good to take. And if you go through Sao Paolo, visit the restaurant on the top floor of the airport. It has a good buffet, excellent pasta and the best chocolate mousse. You’ll wish you could take it to Abadiania. §