Our Visit with Psychic Surgeon John Of God In Abadiania, Brasil. The Miracle Man at Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola

So, we are on our way to Rio, waiting for our flight… Brazil was on my (and, as I later found out, on Jan’s) “places to visit” list for quite a while. We were seduced by its world famous Carnival and lively traditions of music, dance and food.
This year the amazing country persuaded us end our delay and come for a few months of working vacation, for another reason – to meet The Miracle Man, as he is called by Robert Pellegrino-Estrich in his book, João de Deus, (“John of God”), a medium and psychic surgeon João Teixeira de Faria, based in a small town near Brasilia – Abadiania.

I am rarely attracted by media coverages of one healer or another, as these days every dog calls himself a healer and many publicize the heck out of their work. But my discovery of John of God started from an account shared by one of my best friends Carlis, and that was enough to make me plan the trip for us.

As a transformational coach involved in both physical and psycho-spiritual healing with our clients, I hoped for an opportunity to deepen my practice so I could pass it to my clients and students – other healers and coaches. In my coaching practice and PhysioEmoDynamics modality I don’t use “woo-woo” methods. All of my transformational work is based on experientially derived, and mainly scientific approaches. While energy shifting is part of every transformation, I mainly rely on practices that are “evidential” in nature. We collaborate with each client to achieve the outcome they are looking for… Yet, I intuited that a visit to meet the Brazilian Miracle Man is not optional – I must see his work with my own eyes and experience it.

Many have researched his work. Even Oprah traveled to Brazil to meet and talk with de Faria in 2013 to see his unexplicable miracles firsthand, and in Oprah’s Next Chapter, Season 2, Episode 116 aired a televised show entitled “John of God”.

Wayne Dyer shared that his experience of ‘awakening’ is partially attributed to the visit to Abadiania and the spiritual surgery John of God performed on him.

But for me it’s the experience of my friend Carlis that caused Abadiania to become a must see destination for this year’s working vacation Carlis and a friend visited the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola, the spiritual healing center run by John of God, years ago. His friend had late stage of cancer and Carlis was there to treat a relatively minor health condition…  He described his experience as nothing short of miraculous. John of God performed physical surgeries on both of them. There is no “clean room” in the center, heavily equipped and sterilized as you might see in “Grey’s Anatomy” (the entertaining medical soap opera Jan and I are watching while here in Brazil)  :-). All surgeries in the center are performed on a simple stage with no anesthesia. As Carlis shared, he and his friend both felt absolutely no pain and hardly had any bleeding during their surgeries, had no complications afterwards, and moreover – the surgery left no scars. And that’s considering that each surgery was performed by a single individual in a minute or two.

I was puzzled, intrigued, and… impatient to come to Brazil. It has become a lifestyle habit for us (Jan, my husband, and I) to take 2-3 month working vacations twice a year and visit a new places, experience a new culture, while continuing to serve our clients via videoconferencing. Last year we spent winter in the tropics as well, 2 weeks in Hawaii and more than 3 months in Panama. This time, Brazil, baby!  Right in time for Carnival and Jan’s 66^th birthday. I am contemplating the Middle East for the end of the year, but we will see about that.

So, here we were, winter, 2015 – in Abadiania (with a long break partying in Rio de Janeiro with hundreds of thousands of others seduced by Carnival, tourists from all over the world).  Abadiania is a small, quiet town, but hosts thousands of visitors every week from all over the world who come to attend ceremonies in the healing center and be “touched” by “the entities of the Casa” working through De Faria (John of God).

What is quite intriguing is the fact that De Faria has no medical training. He describes himself as a “simple farmer”. He completed two years of education and spent a number of years traveling from village to village (chased in some cases) in the states of Goias and Minas Gerais.

De Faria says he was told by his spirit guides that he must expand his work to reach more people and spiritist medium Chico Xavier told him he should go to the small Goiás town of Abadiânia to fulfill his healing mission. Around 1978, when João first performed healings there, he just sat outdoors in a chair near the main road where people began to arrive seeking cures for their various illnesses and conditions. Gradually the numbers increased to thousands per day and he developed his center, The Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola has since been visited by millions of people seeking healing.

De Faria, who says he acts only as a vehicle for God’s healing, performs his surgeries and ceremonies in trance and has absolutely no recollection of anything that happens during the procedures. He states:

“I do not cure anybody. God heals, and in his infinite goodness permits the Entities to heal and console my brothers. I am merely an instrument in God’s divine hands”.

Millions of people have consulted with de Faria since 1965. Up to 3,000 people per day stand and wait in line to have a moment with him.

3 times a week during the 2 months of our stay in Abadiania we attended various rituals and exchanged a quick word with John of God when time permitted (which was rare considering the long lines).

De Faria encourages research into his healing abilities in the hope that medical science can make use of his success in the treatment of humankind. At the Casa de Dom Inácio, where treatments take place, De Faria invites medical doctors to come onto the stage to observe his work. De Faria also regularly prescribes taking herbs and crystal baths, drinking blessed water, sitting for hours in silent meditation, breaking the habits that cause one’s illnesses and taking walks to a nearby waterfall as part of treatments.

When called for a “spiritual surgery” by De Faria, patients are offered the choice of “visible” or “invisible” operations. If they select an “invisible” operation (or are younger than 18 or older than 52) they are directed to sit in a room and meditate. De Faria and Entities of the Casa (spiritual physicians) also perform surgery on the actual patient via a surrogate when the actual patient is unable to make the trip.

A very small percentage of people choose a “visible” operation where De Faria operates without traditional anesthetic. Instead he says he uses “spiritual anesthetic” involving energized mineral water and the spiritual energies present, the latter which are provided by groups of volunteers who meditate in a separate room called the “current room”.

De Faria tells people not to stop taking any medicines or treatments prescribed by doctors and says not everyone he serves will be cured. Often the treatment includes capsules containing pure passion flower that are claimed to carry special blessed spiritual energy to support the individual’s healing process.

Whether herbs have any special power or not, I came with intention to suspend all disbeliefs and to give into the rituals and all processes established in the retreat. So, I happily took herbs…

Many consider the Entities of John of God advanced benevolent spirits, far above earthly laws and not subject to human regulations.

De Faria has undergone trials and scrutiny of his work. He has been arrested several times for practicing medicine without a license and has been jailed once.

John of God has travelled to other countries to perform healing ceremonies called Live Events. A Live Event is arranged similar to the Casa in Brazil so that the people can experience the same healing energy in other parts of the world. It has been stated that the entities that incorporate in Brazil are the same ones at Live Events.

I’ve noticed in recent months that all “invisible surgeries” are now called “Spiritual Interventions” (probably for legal reasons).

In Brazil if you receive a spiritual intervention you must rest in your room afterward for 24 hrs. At the live event you are only required to go to your room and rest for the remainder of the day but can return the next morning (if you have registered and paid for the next day.) The Entities know if you need to leave right after your surgery and do not have time to rest. In this case you will be given the spiritual protection to fly or drive home, but you must go straight home to rest.

Well, after mine I did my best to rest in my hammock. But you know Jan, how one can one rest when he is around?!  

I understand that many read this with skepticism. I don’t blame you.

Practices such as inserting scissors or forceps deep into a nose or scraping the surface of an eye without an anesthetic or antiseptics have been scrutinized by medical authorities and skeptical investigators for years. But, in the end, even if all the miraculous recoveries are the result of a placebo effect, I say, more power to the healing rituals if they do heal.

I probably should also mention the following to give a more holistic picture about the center.

Financial side of affairs in Abadiania:

Meeting John [de] Faria is free, but he prescribes visits to crystal beds, at $8 a session, drinking blessed water at $1 a bottle, and taking blessed herbs, at $30+ a bottle. Some reports suggest that the center generates more than $10 million a year through these prescriptions and some donations.

What you make of it – is up to you… I did see that Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola makes Abadiania “downtown” exist in its clean and tourist-ready shape and form because of financial support from the center… and being in the energy of friendly visitors, always dressed all in white, is a very healing experience that quiets the mind and nurtures the soul…

I will do my best to describe in more detail my personal experience at the casa and outcome of John of God’s surgeries on me…

Meanwhile, now on the way to Rio, after bathing in the energies of the Casa, I am contemplating and observing the changes in my physical and psychic body…